I love smashing stereotypes so that's why I chose this rather picture-postcard photo to post today. Yes, my friends, this is Detroit, the city people often identify with auto factories, crime and, lately, with strikes and unemployment. It is a city full of paradox; a city of beauty and ugliness alike. A city I love to the depths of my soul. So after I picked up my friend Dorothy at the airport yesterday, I drove her through downtown Detroit, onto Belle Isle where we got out of the car to take this and other photos, through a Detroit neighborhood filled with huge elegant old homes, through a devastated part of the city marked by boarded-up stores and houses, and finally into the lovely community on the shores of Lake St. Clair where my husband and I have lived for 36 years. Dorothy, whose apartment is in the center of San Francisco, is most taken with all the big old trees that line every street in this part of town. She said this feels like the perfect "nature" vacation. Tonight I'll show her Detroit's exquisite Orchestra Hall where we'll hear the glorious sounds of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Come vacation in Detroit! We might surprise you too...