Wheeling Through Motown

Wheeling Through Motown

The latest stop on our journey to visit every NHL arena was a trip to Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit, MI. It was an exciting one because it was also Trixie’s first time on a plane and traveling for a game. Read on to hear how it went and what we got into.

Our day begins early with an 8:55 AM flight to Detroit.

We boarded on time and Trixie immediately started making friends on the plane, smiling at all the people around us.

Trixie did great on her first flight without any real crying at all!

We grabbed our rental car and headed to downtown Detroit, which is only about 20-25 minutes drive away.

We stayed at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit. We picked this hotel because it’s where the Flyers players stay when they play the Red Wings and it’s convenient to Little Caesar’s Arena.

The first order of business was meeting up with our baby gear rental provider. This was our first time trying it out and it was so helpful and easy! Already love that service. We got a crib, tub, camera, bouncer, bead maze, white noise machine, and a slumber pod (that wacky tent thing that fits over the crib). At first I wondered if getting all of this stuff was a bit over the top, but by the end of the trip it definitely felt like the right move. It made the hotel room feel a lot more like home and I think Trixie really benefited from the extra comfort.

Once we got the room set up, it was time to go get some eats. Coney Island Dogs are a staple food in Detroit so we walked around the corner to get some from two different legendary Coney joints, right next door to each other.

A Lafayette Coney & an American Coney

Lafayette Coney Island was where we went first, lots of Red Wings stuff on the walls

The edge goes to Lafayette, in my book. The chili just seemed better and they gave you more of it, plus American felt a bit cheesy in terms of decor while Lafayette felt like a really classic “lunch counter” place that hadn’t changed in 100 years.

After we ate, we went back to our room to rest a little before going to pick up some groceries. Meijer is Michigan’s grocery store of choice so we specifically sought one out to see how it was. The one we found was in northern Detroit, just south of the infamous 8 mile road.

We went back to the hotel to drop off our groceries and then took a walk to get some Detroit-style pizza from Buddy’s, another regional favorite.

Trixie girl was getting sleepy by this point so we came back to the room, ate, and settled her down for the night. She slept like an angel in the hotel room and didn’t make a peep all night!

After a good nights sleep, it was time to wake up and go get breakfast. It’s the day of the Red Wings game!

We grabbed breakfast sandwiches at Iggy’s Eggies, and coffee from Cannelle, both across the street from each other.

The baked goods and coffee at Cannelle were actually unbelievable, we ended up going back here every morning of the trip.

After breakfast, we headed out to check out the Motown Museum, only to find out that it was closed. Oops. Unfortunately we wouldn’t get another chance to go, so we missed out on it, but I did get a few pictures from the outside at least.

I also spotted this mural on the way there, which I had to stop and get a picture of. Doesn’t get any more Detroit than this.

We had a few more hours to kill before the afternoon Red Wings game, so we decided we would go across the border into Windsor, Ontario for Trixie’s first trip to Canada.

Turns out there’s not really all that much to do in Windsor when you have no plans and no idea what’s around, so we decided to check out the Canadian snack options at Real Canadian Superstore.

No Canada trip is complete without some Tim’s too, of course

Snacks in tow, it was time to return back to the good old U.S. of A. to get ready for the hockey game.

With puck drop time fast approaching, we set out for Little Caesar’s Arena to watch the Buffalo Sabres take on the Red Wings. The arena was a 20 or so minute walk from our hotel room. The utility boxes in the downtown area are decorated to celebrate the sports legends of Detroit, which I thought was a kind of cool touch.

We arrived at the arena with time to spare so we could get inside and explore. It opened in 2017 so it feels very modern compared to some of the others we’ve been to.

There’s a mini hall-of-fame in the arena with some pretty cool artifacts and history in it.

We don't talk about '97

The Red Wings scored 3 in the first period, so we had to pop those baby earmuffs on her rather quickly.

Overall, we had an excellent time at the game (Wings won 3-1). The fanbase was awesome and I think Little Caesar’s Arena is the best NHL arena we have been to yet.

Outside the arena, there was a trailer that had a traveling museum exhibit about diversity in hockey with some pretty cool artifacts inside. It was a nice little bonus to catch on the way back to the hotel.

'United By Hockey' was the name of the exhibit

Trixie closed her eyes in the hotel for a while before we went to dinner at Green Dot Stables, another classic little Detroit eatery that we lucked into finding. They’re known for sliders and it seemed to be one of the go-to places for postgame eats.

That just about wrapped up our day and we went back to the hotel room to rest and get ready for the next day.

The next morning, we woke up and Trixie hopped in the bouncer and had bananas for breakfast. These little silly moments in the hotel room were really some of my favorite parts of the whole trip- just doing our normal stuff in a different place is a lot of fun.

After breakfast, we decided we would spend the rest of the morning in Canada, because why not! We happened to come across a Toys R Us in Windsor and had to stop and go in.

They had some cool NHL-related toys I'm sure you can't find in the US

We also stopped at Roots, another favorite Canada-only store

How does this look on me?

Trixie fell asleep on the way back so we decided to just drive around to let her sleep in the car a bit. Back in Detroit, we headed up East Jefferson Ave to Hurlbut Memorial gate but she woke up as we got there so I only got a pic from the car.

When we got back to the hotel, we decided to give the pool a try.

It was chilly, we didn't last long in the water

But the girls were still looking good poolside!

We took a walk to go get coffee and then realized holy crap, there’s an eclipse happening in like 10 minutes and we’re in a place where it’s gonna reach about 99% totality. There was an eyeglasses store handing out free protective glasses so we grabbed some and took a look.

After that, Trixie took a nap and then we got some pizza from Buddy’s again and goofed off in the hotel room until bed time.

On Tuesday morning, we once again started our day with some excellent pastries.

After breakfast, we headed to Dearborn, MI for the Ford Rouge Factory Tour.

This whole campus is huge and full of different museums and other things open to the public, as well as the corporate headquarters of Ford. I’m sure that every kid in Michigan takes a school field trip here at some point or another. The Rouge factory is Ford’s main manufacturing location in the U.S. and we took a tour that morning.

Riding the bus over to the factory

A finished truck comes off the assembly line every 53-60 seconds while their shifts are active, and a typical shift yields between 500-600 trucks.

The museum area had some pretty nice classic cars too.

On the way out, we ate lunch at the museum cafe.

We also grabbed our last Tim’s of the trip (this time in Dearborn, never been to one stateside!)

After we got back to the hotel, I decided to walk to the UPS store to send some stuff home that was too large to fit in our carry-ons. Dana was going to try to put Trixie down for a nap, but she really wasn’t having it so they went down to wait for me in the hotel lobby instead. Remember earlier how I said that we picked this hotel because it’s where the Flyers players stay? Well it turns out the Capitals players stay there too, and they were in town to play the Red Wings that night. They just happened to all walk into the lobby as Dana and Trixie were waiting for me to get back.

TJ Oshie & Tom Wilson

I missed all of them…

Anyways.

Before dinner, we decided to take a ride down to the Detroit River Walk park since it was such a nice day out.

For dinner, we decided to take a ride up north out of Detroit to go to a Rainforest Cafe because it seemed silly and family-friendly.

After that we headed home for our last night in the hotel.

Our final day in Michigan was a short one, as our flight was set for a 1:08PM departure. We got up and had one more trip to Cannelle for breakfast.

It really can't be overstated how good this place is

The last spot we hit before heading to the airport was John K. King Used & Rare books, a giant store in a converted factory with a nearly 60 year history.

We packed up our hotel room after this and headed for the airport to go home.

After a rather lengthy delay due to some obscure maintenance issues (2 hours sitting on the tarmac, there is always some kind of issue when Dana gets on a plane), we finally took to the skies and made our way home.

"Bye bye Michigan, we'll be back!"

Another great trip in the books, and Trixie is now officially a traveler!