Get "Mo" Out of Motown! - Detour to Downtown Detroit for Fun and Excitement.

Just across from Windsor, Canada, is a city with a bad rap. Are you as smart as a fifth grade geography student? Care to guess the US city?

Hint: Think Big Three.

Yes, the Motor City, Detroit, home to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. While those automakers are struggling to meet the challenge of foreign car makers and contribute to the economy of region, another economic engine has been cranking back to life, and may actually kick into overdrive in the next couple of years.

What's rumbling in Detroit? How about the downtown? How about folks from exotic places, such as Chicago and Grand Rapids and Indianapolis and London and Frankfurt, actually dropping into this oldest city in the Midwest and finding a garage full of new attractions and rebuilt old favorites?

Not long ago I stayed close to downtown Detroit, at the Inn on Ferry Street, and ventured into downtown Detroit, for the first time in over twenty-five years. My friend booked the rooms, and suggested downtown Detroit for dining and entertainment, and I called her crazy.

She was smarter than a fifth grader by far.

By the time I spent a few days in Detroit's heart I was at least that smart.

Exiting I-94 brought us into the city streets, and some of them at first glance looked mean. Broken and leaning old homes, some of them once quite beautiful, reminds one that midtown and downtown Detroit are still a works in progress.

But it is a good place to put smart money.

Arriving a the Inn on Ferry Street was at once like finding a refined oasis and stepping back to the last century. The "Inn" is actually four restored Victorian mansions and carriages houses, all side by side, with forty unique rooms and all the charm and comfort of a country Bed and Breakfast. My room was small but comfortable and had a bed that welcomed you to drift off immediately in golden slumber. Though the Inn on Ferry Street is in the Medical and University District, you are still reminded that revitalization is an active verb here, with similar older Victorians close by either being rehabbed or boarded.

Downtown Detroit is a five minute taxi ride, that was our destination for the evening.

Here is where the fun began.