Life in Birmingham

Salute to America at Greenfield Village

2013-07-03T22:52:00.000-04:00

Tonight we joined our friends from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) at the annual Salute to America concert at Greenfield Village, which concludes with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture featuring the historic cannon of Loomis Battery. The concert is followed by a fireworks display accompanied by some patriotic music performed by the DSO.

Scottie and I didn't know what to expect other than it was on the village lawn and people were bringing finger foods for dinner, so we picked up some hummus, carrots, crackers, and cheese. Plus, we brought our lawn chairs, which came in handy. While we arrived close to concert time, the place was packed. I'm not sure we could have found an open spot if we tried. The grounds were covered with chairs, blankets, and a whole lot of people. Good thing the DSO crew grabbed a prime spot near the stage.

I think this was our first time seeing an official fireworks show, but what made this so much better was the great concert we heard beforehand. Nice work, DSO.

O.A.R. at Meadow Brook Music Festival

2013-06-30T21:43:00.000-04:00

Carrying on a tradition, we headed to the Meadowbrook Festival in Auburn Hills to see O.A.R. Every year, we arrive shortly after doors open, take our walking tour of the festival grounds, grab a very large beer, check out the t-shirts, and make our way to our seats. And every year, we've been upgrading our seats as this year, we almost made it into the single digits!

O.A.R. typically does a good job of bringing some solid openers, and this year was no exception as Andrew McMahon took the stage. The former lead singer for Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin woke the crowd up as he came out banging the keyboard. The man can certainly entertain and he still has the same voice I remember from his previous hits, including Dark Blue and I Woke Up in a Car!

O.A.R. played a robust setlist with 24 songs, including some of our favorites like City on Down, Shattered, Lay Down, Heard the World, and Poker. They also finished with a rendition of Live and Let Die bringing Andrew McMahon back on the stage!

Here are some of our previous show experiences: Summer of 2007 at Freedom Hill, Summer of 2008 at Meadowbrook, Fall of 2009 at Meadowbrook), and Summer of 2010 at Meadowbrook.

Here's the set list (thanks to this great site OARSA.org):

Lay Down
This Town
The Wanderer
Ladanday
About Mr. Brown
Conquering Fools
Heard The World
One Shot
Tragedy In Waiting
Hey Girl
Whatever Happened
About An Hour Ago
Whose Chariot?
Missing Pieces
Black Rock
Shattered (Turn The Car Around)
Ran Away To The Top Of The World Today
That Was A Crazy Game Of Poker
City On Down (First Half Only)
Delicate Few (Second Half Only)
Peace
Program Director
Heaven
Live And Let Die

Clinton River Trail

2013-06-29T00:09:00.000-04:00

After giving my bike a much needed tune-up, I headed out today on a long ride in the beautiful weather. Since Scottie's enjoyed exploring the Clinton River Trail up in Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, I figured I should give this one a shot. Plus it gave me a destination to ride to. I probably should have planned out my route a little more thoroughly as I started up Woodward Avenue thinking I could make it to Opdyke without much trouble. I forgot about the large stretches of road without sidewalks, so I didn't get very far riding-wise as this wasn't like Chicago where drivers are at least aware that bikers might be on their side. Anyway, I ended up cutting over Big Beaver to Kensington to Opdyke. Much safer route!

Once I hit Opdyke Road and just a little north of South Boulevard, I met up with the portion of the Clinton River Trail just before mile 9. Just a little more background on the Clinton River Trail:

The Clinton River Trail [CRT] is a recreational trail following 16 miles of abandoned rail line once known as the Michigan Airline through the heart of Oakland County, including the cities of Sylvan Lake, Pontiac, Auburn Hills, Rochester Hills and Rochester. It connects with the existing West Bloomfield trail to the west and the Macomb Orchard Trail to the east. The CRT is part of an envisioned trail to be called the Great Lake to Lake Trail, that will extend from Port Huron to South Haven when completed. The trail has a variety of surfaces, ranging from crushed limestone to pavement.

The Auburn Hills stretch of land had a sign that mentioned that in the 1870's this used to be a railway line for the Grand Trunk Railway. Freight trains ran consecutively for 118 years until 1998. In 1999, the City of Auburn Hills purchased the 2.1 mile length within the city limits.

Some of the trail ended up being paved, which made for easy riding; however, other portions along the way were covered in crushed limestone. One of the more intriguing parts of the tail was riding across the bridge on I-75 just for pedestrians!

Here's a map of the existing part of the trail. I ended up riding all the way to mile 3 before I turned around and headed back to mile 7 where I ended South on Adams Road. Luckily, Adams had a sidewalk the whole way except for one strange portion. All in it was probably well over a 25-mile ride, including some of the ride down to the bike repair.

Halfway along the trail, I couldn't believe this sign for Mastodon Crossing. How strange until I read in the sign that scientists discovered a prehistoric Mastodon in this area in 2006. More from the signage:

Scientists estimated finding 30% of the animal, which was taking to Cranbrook for further study. It was a young male, around 25 years old that stood approximately 80ft tall. It's estimated death was about 12,360 years ago. This is the 16th Mastodon found in Oakland County.