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Friday, April 15, 2011

Go Urban!!!

Happy Friday everyone! Guess who lost 2.5 lbs and crossed over my first 10 lb mark! Yea! I hope if you are embarking on a health journey with me you are having success too.  I would love to hear about it!   I have some goals for the next week and I am excited to share them with you as I work through them along with fun new recipes.  But today I want to talk about going urban! My in-laws live near Detroit and for our big Spring Break outing we went over to visit them.  On Saturday we went to the Eastern Market (If you live nearby and you have never been, go! It is so awesome and huge.  It reminds me of the one in Seattle that I had occasion to visit when my sis and bro-in-law lived there) There are tables of delicious fruits and veges as far as the eye can see, tables and tables of flowers (and it was early yet, I only imagine this will get more expansive for weeks to come), potted plants, herbs, homemade honey, homemade oils and all sorts of cool ethnic treasures.  Then there are the non naturals, the clothes and jewelry, etc.  The sights and sounds are great and make you feel like you are part of the big urban jungle.  Here are a few of my pics:

A glimpse of the masses










My girls got to meet a mounted police officer and his horse Elmo, they were very excited!




After we left there we went to my favorite restaurant in the world Pegasus in Greektown! Here we are! (My husband does excited eyes well doesn't he! We looked at the camera and he said "Do you want to take another one where I am not being a dork?" and I said, "Let's just keep it, it's more true to your nature this way!" He agreed and called me a dork lover. It's true!)


Love those Greeks, lots of good for you food, hummus and tzatziki with some flat bread yum yum, rice and green beans and lamb in tomato sauce, to die for! And then there are some maybe not so good foods for you that you can't pass up -- it's tradition! Flaming cheese called saganaki - Ah-maz-ing! OPA!!!! By the time we left, opa was the girls favorite word they said it over and over all day.  The first time my little one saw the flaming cheese it was right over her shoulder and the look of terror on her face was priceless but as she saw it happening again and again throughout the restaurant she started to love it! Opa! (don't try this at home please!)


From here we boarded the people mover - gotta love the people mover!
(Go Tigers!) (We even saw a musical artist filming a music video on the people mover with a little film crew, you don't get that everyday in suburbia!)

 We rode around twice and got out at the Ren Cen (that's Renaissance Center for those of you not familiar with Motown, it's like Detroit's Sears Tower) and walked around.  If your kids like escalators there is some good free fun for you, the building is a vortex of endless escalators I bet we went up and down 25 escalators and my little one yelled "Again! Again! Do it again!" after every one.  Then we went outside and strolled by the boardwalk by the Detroit River, caught a glimpse of the Canadians (Hello over there!!!), stretched our legs.  Detroit has such a bad rap but there are many hidden treasures like this, people were riding bikes and walking and jogging.  There was classical music being pumped out on loud speakers.  It was very nice.  Then we took our loyal people mover back and went home. 

What I learned from this adventure, I love going urban.  I don't think I am the type of girl who could do it permanently.  For starters I hate the traffic, I am a total stress ball in that mess and the fact that it takes 20 min of planning for anywhere you want to go to determine the best possible route given the time, day, etc. No thank you! But getting out and having these experiences on a regular basis is so fun and important for your family, great for your kids to experience new sights and sounds and cultures.  Also good exercise, we walked a ton!  The other thing I decided is that I want to be better at hitting farmers markets in the summer.  You can't beat the prices, supporting the locally grown organic fruits and veges and it's such a fun experience too! This is where you all can help me, I know we don't have anything as gigantic as Eastern Market around here but what are your favorite fresh markets.  I have been to a few good fruit stands around here but I would like to combine size (which I assume would have better variety) and convenience of being somewhat close.  Looking forward to your suggestions.  I am excited for a summer of hitting farmer's markets and going urban.  So get out there and go urban!

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