Thur 31st

Last breakfast, then Goodbyes to Jenny and the Maddisons, who were staying on another day. A long and tedious drive back to Detroit via Kalamazoo, with only a brief toilet stop near Kalamazoo. We called Rick en route and arranged to stop off and say hello to him at work, as my Mum wanted to see where it was and meet some of his colleagues. We arrived much later than expected because of the traffic, and had to wait until he finished a class he was taking, then we all went out to dinner at a local Greek restaurant with Rick and his boss Bruno and workmates Ed and Lisa and their lovely little girl Serena, who calls Rick “Fiji”. A nice end to a travelling day. Back to the Farmington Hills Marriott, which felt like “home.”

Fri 1st August

Kris called and suggested a visit to the baby store Carters, to buy presents for Ivy and Elsie. We met her there, and Kathy was with her, an added bonus. We all purchased lots of cute stuff, except the men who wandered off and looked at a good art supplies shop instead! We then drove into Detroit and walked along the waterfront with its views across to the nearby Windsor, Ontario, in Canada. We saw the Slave Railroad memorial and walked to and had a bite to eat and a look round at the Guardian Building, an apricot coloured Art Deco skyscraper, with astonishing tile work inside. We walked down to the Renaissance Centre and the general Motors car showcase, via an African festival in Hart Square, where we enjoyed seeing the Workers’ Rights Monument.

We picked up the cars and drove back to Waterford, stopping briefly to see the derelict Grand Central Station. Spent a great evening at Kathy and Paul’s – Ed rode on a jetski, and Dad did too – we were extremely impressed!

Then we had a final tour on the pontoon boat, before reluctantly saying our final and hardest goodbyes to Kathy and Paul and our very dear children.

Sat 2nd

After breakfast we checked out and went to the Ford Museum, arriving not long after it opened. We spent the morning looking at the amazing car collection, then had the poorest lunch of the trip in their café. We had another couple of hours looking at the other sections of the museum – furniture, agricultural machinery, trains, etc, before all too son it was time to leave for the airport. Final hiccup with Tom-Tom nearly had us at the wrong airport, but we spotted it in time and weren’t late for check in. Unfortunately, North Western had scattered us around the plane separately, but we all had pleasant enough journeys with our different companions on the overnight flight. Our taxi was there to meet us at Heathrow and we got home at 8am Sunday morning – and went promptly to bed.