Bounty & Booty

I have spent years resisting my brother in laws  suggestion that we spend some quality family time at Detroit's Eastern Market.  It goes something like this: "We can all get  up early....." You see he usually loses me right there because after so many years of sleep deprivation and my current struggle with insomnia, "getting up early" is never something I associate with having fun. He's a truck driver for a local company and starts his day on the road before 4 a.m. so his idea of "not too early" is a bit warped. He also is a wanna be tour director, constantly trying to plan and execute excursions whenever we are somewhere out of town together.I find this endearing. The problem is his propensity to try to control every minute detail of said activity down to timing how long we take for bathroom breaks, when and where we can eat and herding us through attractions in unison according to the timetable that exists only in Jeff's head, and this I find extremely annoying. This usually leads me to put on my "you are NOT the boss of me" attitude and I have that down to a science. Let's face it I have had 27 years of learning from the masters (6 of them to be exact) of that subject.

I am announcing it right now, I was wrong to resist this excursion. We recently negotiated a time that was acceptable and trucked on down to the market last Saturday morning. We all had a great time shopping for locally grown produce and visiting various shops to enjoy an incredible selection of cheeses, spices and fresh bakery products. The flower market portion was breathtaking. The vendors are mostly from Michigan, some from Indiana and Ohio and they come in every imaginable shape and form. From grizzly and grumpy to informative to downright showmen. It was all a sight to behold. I feel like I found a treasure 30 minutes out of my suburban zone. I was fascinated by the sights and the BBQ smell going on. I only gave Jeff a half hearted hesitation to go in and have breakfast at one of the local landmarks, Zeff's Coney Island. Within 2 minutes of squeezing us into the 1950's style booth in the back, we were welcomed to share the newspaper and we all got chatting about the newest misdeeds of Mayor Kwame. Breakfast was awesome, especially the spinach and feta omelette.The greek salad was heavenly with this outrageously creamy feta cheese they use. I could watch the line cooks from my seat and all the food coming off of the line looked fresh and good. Nothing fancy going on at this place just plain good freshly cooked food and a lively crowd all squeezed in to enjoy it.

The last  30 minutes was definitely  dedicated to the people watching opportunities  that surrounded us at every turn. I'm  sure in other venues I may have gotten arrested for stalking this family to get  a good picture of the cutest  bum I saw that day,  but what the hey, we are in Detroit. And I am happy to say we enjoyed the historic finds in the hood that particular day. Wouldn't you know it the strangest find I made was to run smack into my next door neighbor whose brother had drug him down there , only they had breakfast at the also well known  Vivios where they are served bloody mary's as well their meal.  I think we will definitely try out that recommendation next time. I could always use a little liquor fortification when dealing with my overbearing cruise director. Imagine his surprise if I broke out singing  "The Love Boat" theme song instead of giving him hell for his bossy technique.