Belle Isle

The original plan was to take Thomas and Jimmy (who is visiting from WI) to the various features of Belle Island (a small-very small-blip of land in the middle of the Detroit River, which cuts between the U.S. and Canada. (And we saw no border patrol units anywhere.) However, teenagers being what they are, Jimmy decided he'd rather go to the Farmer's Market (where he was heard to squeal, "Look at all this FOOD!") and Thomas decided he would rather sleep in (since he was up until 5 am doing some computer bullshit last night). So, rather than sit and stare at each other all day, I proposed I take Frederick and then suddenly, there was Simon horning his way into Mommy/Frederick time.[Good thing too - otherwise there'd be no pictures.  The one below, for example, is taken on the bridge between Detroit and Belle Isle.  Belle Isle has a park and used to have a zoo, both of which were closed entirely for a while recently, because of Detroit's bankruptcy, but then after a lot of local wrangling, the state took over Belle Isle and opened the park and some attractions.  But not the zoo - it's long dilapidated.]

The drive is long--just short of being TOO LONG. Since it was a very, very nice day, it didn't seem too bad. In winter, if this was my drive to work every day, I'd get resentful.

Simon took a helluva a lot of pictures. This is the outside of a greenhouse, which will be featured in detail below.

This is the entrance to the aquarium.

It IS old.  The public bathrooms have only one toilet each.

This is inside.  Not sure what the point of the photo is, but you can see the nice ceiling tile.

More ceiling tile.

This looked better live--a greasy eel.

This was a giant python snake (the fat part below is the bulge from his meal).

Now you can see Detroit River and Canada across the way.

Here is the entrance to the green house.

Simon was inordinately interested in all the trees.

Perhaps because it was a long winter and the trees are still bare, and the grass is still brown.

A banana tree!  We tried to grow one in our apartment in L.A.  It didn't work too well.

Palm.

The cactus house which was, not surprisingly, very, very hot.

I don't know what this is as Frederick reached his limit for being roasted pretty quickly.  [It's the Fernery.]

Much better to be outside.

I have no idea what this is.  [I do: it's the abandoned zoo.  A splendid ruin.]

There were only two kinds of swings here: ones for babies and ones that had been taken apart and were no longer usable.  [Unfortunately the three-or-four-story high slide in the background was fenced off.  Maybe it opens later in the year.  Maybe it's closed for good, owing to too many child fatalities.]

So this is the source of it all.

Why this picture?  [To give an impression of the faded colonial atmosphere of the place.  It's very Victorian - statuary and such.]