POSTCARD FROM DETROIT – MONDAY, JUNE 19, 2006

Were pooped! And not like we did a whole lot of activity – not necessarily by choice, but we were hanging loose and did what we could.

First of all, a wonderful breakfast at the Fairfield Inn – deluxe continental and the line for waffles was pretty steady. Unfortunately, the morning was rainy and foggy, and didn’t get any better as we approached the downtown Toronto district that is located right on Lake Ontario. We decided to bag the CN Tower trip and instead headed off to Old Navy and treated the kids to some pretty cool Canada Day souvenirs and yet one more adventure off the beaten path!

From the road I called the Motown Historical Museum to confirm our group could come and tour (I had not gotten a confirmation from my earlier e-mail). Come to find out that they aren’t even open on Mondays. Oh, well, one more attraction we’ll be passing on today. Leaves something for the next Detroit trip for all of us!

Bus ride was then uneventful and we had a really sweet park picnic (no PB&J). The weather was warm and breezy and sunny. About 10 miles down the rain, we had an unbelievable downpour. Dependable Jim got us through that first burst no problem. Into a construction zone area, and another huge rain, then it stopped again. Not raining at this point, but the traffic stopped completely. We did not move for at least 40 minutes – not a foot! Ugh! Glad we had plenty of time to spare. Looked like there had been an accident up ahead of us that was finally cleared out and we sailed on through.

Turned out it was a good thing we had to skip our two tourist stops today since we used up all our time between the rain, nice leisurely picnic and the traffic crossing the border. We didn’t have a terrible line up, only 10 cars ahead of us, but the customs agent did board our bus and checked each and every person’s passport or ID. He complimented us on having things organized and the kids did a good job of smiling for him to compare their pictures and their live faces.

Got to Birmingham First United Methodist Church in pretty good time, and were greeted by their music director. Such a great welcome! Kids got to go right into the Fellowship Hall for a lovely pizza and salad supper. We really felt fortunate to be adopted by them and were so grateful! The church has a very newly renovated Sanctuary that was perfect for our group with an open altar area and steps. The audience was made up of church members as well as people from the community and the kids did themselves proud (as usual!).

It was very sad, though, as the season wraps up with this final concert and even more sad because of the departing seniors and the final concert for kids who may not be returning. Sniff…..sniff……sniff…… and then onto sobs! We are going to miss those people!!

Off to their home stays and we’re not at our hotel kicking back. Whew! What a day! And we’ll need to be rested for all of tomorrow’s activities! Weather is supposed to be clear and not terribly hot. Double Whew!

Til next time,

SUE