Comerica is a pretty park, with all of the amenities of the modern parks, with things like a Ferris wheel, kids playground area, video games, etc. At Fenway they have one thing - a field. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's just plain and simple. We got into the visitor's clubhouse and dugout, but not onto the field. I don't think they ever let you on the field, but it didn't matter since they were re-sodding the field while the Tigers were away because of damage done to the field from recent concerts (Paul McCartney and Kid Rock).
We finished the tour around 11:30, then headed to the Tigers store for some more stuff (kept it minimal this time - baseball, mini-bat and a key chain). After the store we were getting a little hungry (the free breakfast at the Hampton is fair at best, and Debbie didn't even eat), so Debbie looked at the Food Book to see what was in the area. She had read the other day about some hot dog place and it turned out that the place was basically around the corner from the park. So, we headed over there around noon (the time is important, as you will read later), found a spot right across the street and went in. The book had highlighted one hot dog place that served "Coney Island Hot Dogs" - with chili, mustard and onions, but also mentioned that there was a competing restaurant that was nearly as good right next door. And when they said next door, they meant it - they shared a wall. They were so close that when people walked by on the sidewalk in front of the restaurants, cooks from both places would bang on their windows at the same time to try and entice the potential customers to come in. Since the one place, Lafayette Coney Island, was the one that got the official write-up, we went there.
This place was similar to the ribs place we ate at in Memphis - no real decor, just a bunch of picnic tables and benches that customers shared. We found 5 seats and sat down to study the in depth menu.
We settled on the basic Coney Island hot dog, but with a few variations - Ethan went all-in, Debbie and I passed on the onions, Brian went with just chili and Amanda went for the simple plain hot dog (possibly her first hot dog ever - not sure). We also decided to spice up the meal with an order of chili-cheese fries to share. After we gave the waiter the order, he had to use a very sophisticated system to place the order with the kitchen. He just turned away from us and shouted out the order, seemingly to no one. Leisurely dining this place wasn't, as I believe it took about 52 seconds for the waiter to come back with our meals. The place lived up to its hype as the hot dogs were delicious - the outside had a little "crunch" to it, and the chili went well with the dog.
Before we even finished, we decided that we needed to do a taste test and go next door when we were done and order the same thing and compare! We finished at Lafayette and I settled the bill (all of $20, with tax and tip) as the others went next door. Next door (American Coney Island) was like the Four Seasons inside as compared with Lafayette. They had decorations inside and the waiters had outfits that might even be called uniforms. The menu was way more diverse, with maybe 3 more things on there than the first place. Plus, the boys got a kick ouf of the beer they served at this place.
We all had the exact same thing, other than Amanda who wasn't thrilled with the hot dog and just ordered fries. The service here was so much slower. They took a little over 2 minutes to bring the meal. Once we had devoured our second meal in about 15 minutes (again, $20 total), it was hard to decide which place was better. If we had more time we would have had to do it all over again to do a second comparison.
When we came outside at around 12:45, we noticed that we had a ticket on the window. When we parked the car around noon Debbie went over to one of those pay machines and put in her credit card for one hour of parking. The ticket was time stamped at 12:39. The cost of the ticket is $20, but if we pay within 10 days it is only $10. Still, we have already hired Gloria Allred to defend us on this travesty of justice.
Right around the time that we were finishing our second lunch, there was evidently a pretty large earthquake on the East Coast, that could be felt as far west as Detroit (we heard people on the radio in Detroit describing the shaking). I am not sure if we felt the earthquake, since after two meals of chili dogs there was enough seismic activity in our car that we may have actually had something to do with the quake.
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, we had decided to check out an auto factory tour after the stadium tour, so we headed to Dearborn to do just that. However, it turns out that the tour was at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, which is connected to this massive complex of other things to see. When we inquired about the tour, we were told that even though it was a self-guided tour it could take 3 hours for the tour. Not since the USS Minnow went out to sea with Gilligan and the gang had a 3 hour tour seemed less appealing to the troops, so we passed on it.
So instead we headed back to Ann Arbor to check out the University of Michigan. Before we left, I got a list of things to do in Ann Arbor from Matt, and I have to say that we almost did all of them. We checked out the Michigan Union (a place for students to hang out, study, eat, etc.), the kids spun the big cube thingy, we drove by the Big House (we tried to get in but could not), we walked along State Street and bought the kids Michigan t-shirts (took 3 stores to get 3 t-shirts - one kid for each store), we walked into the Diag (I assume this is short for Diagonal) and looked for the "M" in the center (found it, but a preacher was standing on it so we couldn't take a picture there) and we walked into the Law Quad (very nice).
I have to say, as my back-up school :) the University of Michigan's campus and area was kid of nice and I am sure I would have been quite happy at Michigan. I know my closet would have been much more maize and blue than it is now. But, for obvious reasons, I am very glad it worked out the way it did.
After touring the campus, we headed back to the hotel at around 5:30 for a little R&R before dinner. Debbie napped (not sure she made it into the room before falling asleep), the kids read their books and I caught up on orders that needed to be invoiced (thankfully I picked up some coffee in the lobby before heading to the room). I woke Debbie (for the final time) at around 7:00 and we headed back to Zingerman's for dinner. We all switched it up a little this time, and once again it was very good. Debbie and I shared two sandwiches, one with corned beef, Swiss and cole slaw and the other with pastrami, Swiss and cole slaw. We both decided that we liked the corned beef better, you know, for the record.
We headed back to the hotel after dinner and did some laundry. It was not as easy at it should have been since the washing machine broke after Debbie loaded the second load with detergent. So, she and Amanda decided to hand wash the items in the bathtub and Debbie would dry them in the dryer later. Fun times.
The kids finally went to sleep around 10:45, which is not good since the plan is to get up early and head to Cleveland to catch the 12:05 Indians game (I need to finish this and go on Stubhub to get tickets). Since we have already been to Cleveland, we will need to find some other things to do after the game. I have a few ideas, but it might be a play it by ear kind of afternoon.
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