Truth be told, sometimes I miss working in Detroit.  Driving into the city and seeing all the tall buildings and urban neighborhoods.   Of course, I don’t really miss the screaming homeless lady or having to make sure everything in my car was out of sight before I left it in the parking structure every morning.

This past weekend Jenni, Mallory and I took a 3 hour bike tour of Southwest Detroit through the Wheelhouse Detroit.  It was a Groupon we purchased a couple months ago.  It was really interesting to ride bikes through the city with the marketing director for Southwest Detroit.  She knew about the history, the culture and of course, all the authentic restaurants to eat at.

We rode by Grand Central Station, which serves as the gateway between Corktown and Mexicantown; Motz’s for Sliders and through Historic Fort Wayne.

This is the part where I won’t mention that I had to abandon my bike at one point because I lack coordination skills.  I was putting the map back in the basket and all of a sudden lost control of my moving bike.  I jumped off in time before I would have toppled over but it did stop the whole group…this is a time where I wonder how I ever got my blackbelt.

A city that has such a bad reputation still has hidden gems.  I promise you, if you just open your eyes to see past the corruption, the abandoned buildings and people who are less fortunate than yourself, you can find some really interesting and awesome things.

[View with PicLens]

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*Pictures taken by Jenni & Maria - Don't steal, it's not nice.

Let me start off by saying that I honestly don’t want to offend anyone over this because it is just a sport. And maybe if a certain team member for Pittsburgh played for the D I wouldn’t be as hostile.

That said, SHUT UP ABOUT CROSBY, NBC Pierre McGuire! For the love of GOD could you be a more biased commentator? We get you are a Pittsburgh fan. Awesome. Go announce for a Pittsburgh station not for the whole country. Hey I have an idea NBC, why didn’t you take games 3 and 4 in Pittsburgh. We’d be happy to have Versus cover when the games are at the Joe. Look, I know that most people, NHL Bettman included, don’t want to see the Wings win the Stanley Cup 2 years in a row. I would apologize that we have a skilled and talented team but I’M NOT SORRY.

We work hard.

You want some proof that Pierre Maguire is biased?

“Don’t you agree Edzo, that the Penguins aren’t in trouble until they lose on home ice?”

and…

“If Detroit is going to defend its title and stifle the ever-emerging Pittsburgh franchise, they will need to re-write history [referencing Oilers vs Rangers]. If not, this could be the beginning of a new dynasty in the NHL.”

“The making of dynasty requires star caliber players who are locked up to long-term contracts,” explained McGuire. “In the case of Pittsburgh, you have that with Malkin, Crosby, Jordan Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury. So you have a lot of the key components signed. Nothing is guaranteed because injuries and questionable calls come into play, but if you look at it right now, they’re on a path to success for a long time.”
via MLive

(I had a hard time finding the quotes from the game last night. If anyone has any to add please feel free.)

I’m all about having a favorite team, but c’mon, have some professionalism.

I’m also sick and tired of hearing about how the Wings will lose because they are old.

SERIOUSLY?!

What about the players we’ve brought up from Grand Rapids? You know the ones scoring goals. Like Abdelkader, you know the tall guy, scored the THIRD goal in the first two games of the series.

Or Ericsson who missed a game for an appendectomy.

I’m also sick and tired of hearing that we don’t have the goaltending.

WHAT?!

Have you seen Osgood standing on his head? We couldn’t get this far without him. Yes he didn’t have the best season, BUT he’s worked through it and playing at the top of his game now. Did you see he stopped 31 of 32 shots both games?  Those of you said that Fluery was a better goaltender…um really?

I’m not just a Wings fan that’s whining or complaining about the fact we don’t get the respect on national tv we deserve. Did you know that during Game 1 of the series (in game time ONLY) they said Crosby 76 times. That’s not including intermission, pregame or postgame. I know he’s talented (I still hate him), I’ve seen him out on the ice. But I’ve also heard (from Detroit radio stations) that Malkin is a better player than Crosby. It’s just too bad that Bettman has hand picked Crosby to be the face of the NHL.

And that’s just this hockey girl’s rant. It’s all about the Wing’s depth. In Detroit we don’t have much good going on right now, but we have the Wings.

For fun here it the fight at the end of the game between Malkin and Zetterburg.

Go Wings!

Facts & Figures Game 2

(Thanks Keith for the help with images )