Detroit

Nick, Sierra, Steve and Bella made a few wrong turns and took a tiki tour around the back streets of Detroit last night before they found the Red Smoke Barbecue Restaurant, Greektown, en route to a Detroit Tigers baseball game.  They met up with Sierra's Dad, Mike and his friend Tim for a pre-game meal, then headed to Comerica Stadium in downtown Detroit only to see the Tigers go down 7-4. Bella enjoyed singing 'Take me out to the ball game', the popcorn and the tiger mascot but was very tired when she got home to see me.  

Sierra and Bella

Steve, Nick, Bella, Sierra and Mike

With the baseball stadium, Ford Field (where the Detroit Lions NFL team) play, and the Ice hockey stadium all within 10 mins walk, downtown Detroit is actually a pretty cool and happening place. You wouldn't want to wander too far into the suburbs at night though. In the 1950s Detroit (Motorcity) was pumping with close to 6 million residents, but with the decline of the U.S motor industry and the trend for offshore manufacturing, its population has now declined to 900,000. Uncle Nick was explaining that many of the houses and whole communities were abandoned, along with all the schools, shops and services. Now you can buy a big, beautiful, old house for $1 but you might have to drive 30 mins to get groceries. Some streets only have a couple of houses occupied. However, a recent trend is groups of families moving back into Detroit and choosing to buy whole streets of houses for next to nothing and setting up urban communities together.  An interesting idea when property in other places in the world is so expensive.

A beautiful thing

Our accent is just a beautiful thing over here. Bella and Caro laugh out loud when they hear Steve on the phone trying to get something done and he has to put on his 'American accent' to get understood. Someone here thanked Caro last week for having children as they thought they just sounded so cute with the NZ accent! 

There are many miscommunications - Steve asks 'Do you do kiddy cones?' at Dairy Queen and the woman replies 'Yes but not American Express'. Caro was in a shop today and asked 'Do you have socks?' and the woman replies 'We have table salt is that what you are after?' But we don't have to be in the U.S for this to happen as Sari found out on the plane to L.A. A woman was squeezing by her in the plane aisle and said 'Excuse me, Sorry honey' and Sari turned to Caro and said 'Hey that woman knew my name!'

On the hunt for a white squirrel

On Friday we went for a walk in Nichols Arboretum or 'the Arb' as the locals call it. It is a big park, like a botanical gardens, in the middle of Ann Arbor that runs alongside the Huron River. It was a beautiful spring day and we saw geese and three goslings, chipmunks and a black squirrel. Bella and Sari are captivated by squirrels and are always on the look out for a bushy tail as we are walking or riding. We are now on the lookout for a white squirrel as we hear they are very rare. The weather on Friday was about 20 degrees Celsius then it changed remarkably this weekend with the high today being 40 degrees Fahrenheit  - only 4 degrees Celsius! We have gone from wearing singlets to our fleeces, jackets and gloves! It feels like we have had New Zealand summer and winter in one week!

The Arb

And we are off

We have now been in Ann Arbor, Michigan for a week. The trip was long and Bella and Sari caught a tummy bug the day before we left. Caro came down with it on the flight from LA to Detroit. But after 30 hours we arrived and our new home is 1477 Wisteria Drive. (not Lane!) Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

Our 'townhome'

This is the view from our front door

Nick and Sierra have set our house up so well for us including bikes for Bella and Sari. It is only a short ride to the track so we have been to watch Nick and his training partners work out and we can report they are all in really good shape. 

Team Willis (Development squad)

This week we have caught up with old friends from 2008 at Nick and Sierra's church and at home group. We have really enjoyed spending time with Mariah and Tony (Sierra's sister and brother in law) and meeting Silias who is nearly 3 years old. Sari and Silas shared chocolate milk and doughnuts on their first meeting and I think this has sealed their friendship! We met Nick and Sierra's dog Tempo who has more energy than Nick and also reconnected with Andrea (Sierra's Mum) and her 3 dogs. We have also been to the local library and the local diner - 'Bennys Diner' where Bella and Sari would recommend the chocolate pancakes. So with a bit of homeschooling for Bella, play dough making and squirrel spotting for Sari, rolling for Phoebe, trips to the Salvation Army mega store for Caro and coaching for Steve it has been a busy week. We think we are over the jet lag and the tummy bug now so roll on Week 2!

Bella and Sari on the way to the track.

A quick update on Nick.... He will be racing the Payton Jordan Invitational next at Stanford University on April 29th where he will be going for the the Olympic A standard in the 5000m. You can probably catch live footage of the race on www.flotrack.com

Freddy travels again

Hi I'm Freddy! This is my second time to the U.S.A. I was here in 2008 before the Beijing Olympics where Bella's Uncle Nick Willis won silver in the 1500m. This year Nick is attempting to get the Gold for New Zealand at the London Olympics! The Willis family and I will be spending the next few months living in the U.S and the U.K cheering Uncle Nick on in his build-up. I'll be blogging some of our family adventures on the road to the Olympics with stories about Bella (aged 6 years), Sari (3 years), Phoebe (4 months), Steve and Caro and Nick and Sierra. In case you're wondering who I am - I'm Bella's special friend Flat Freddy, a small, brown, soft-toy dog. 

Go Nick!