I was disappointed to find that there weren't very many lights up this year...I'd love to say it was because people decided to go "green" this year, but I'm fairly certain it had more to do with Michigan's cruddy economy.

However, I was impressed by this house's collection of inflatables...



Every time I'm home I like to spend at least one day trotting around Detroit with my mom. I know it's a city that gets a lot of flack, but I'm really attached to it and my mom is a good resource for learning about how things used to be.

Our first stop was in Greektown for lunch. MMMmm, souvlaki.





Then we walked over to Campus Martius to check out the ice rink.





I realized I have no memory of ever being on Belle Isle (though I know we used to go to the zoo and whatnot), so that was our next stop. There's a lovely view of the skyline from the island.



We found the conservatory open so we popped in for a look-see.





The original conservatory was built in 1904 and apparently at Christmas the tradition is to have a giant poinsettia display. They had all sorts of neat varieties.







They also had HUGE date palms. Very impressive.





Just as we were leaving it started to snow. Not a bad day I should say.