Ann Arbor to Toledo

Josh and I left Ann Arbor this morning and headed north to Detroit. We both have seen photos of Detroit's "urban decay" and think it is really neat, so we decided to take a little tour of the city and see what we could find. I think it would've been smarter if we looked up the best places to go, since we didn't see that much "decay"... but the best thing was definitely this old train station that was at one time their Grand Central equivalent.

The building is enormous and has really fantastic architectural details that are now seriously falling apart. As we drove around the city, we went through a really sad area by the water... it looked like at one time they had tried to renovate and make a park, putting in benches and lamp posts, but I guess that project fell through. Now there is a half-completed park next to abandoned buildings...

I was surprised by downtown Detroit; it looked really nice and was very busy with pedestrians and cars. I've read that Detroit is becoming more gentrified and I really hope that's true!

We drove back to Toledo in the early afternoon for one last day of apartment hunting.

This time we visited an apartment complex in Perrysburg, a suburb south of Toledo that was ranked one of Ohio's "Best Hometowns" in 2009. There is a historic downtown area of Perrysburg and also a lot of new construction of shops and apartments, and this is where I found my new home! It's a really beautiful new apartment complex, perfectly sized for me, and I'm excited to move in in June. :)

In the evening, Josh and I met up with our host, Kristen, at her apartment. She is a first year medical student at the University of Toledo, and she lives with her boyfriend, Jeff, who is going to school for physical therapy and works as a personal trainer. Kristen took us to a Metro Park, another neat aspect of Toledo: there are a bunch of Metro Parks (which are just large parks) in the city that are well maintained and have miles of paved and unpaved running trails... and deer live in them!!!

We had leftover Indian food for dinner (delicious!!) and the four of us talked for a long time before going to bed.

Our high was finding my apartment! I'm so excited to live in such a neat place, and Josh is happy that I'm happy. :)