Detroit, Ann Arbor, Buffalo, and Niagara Falls (Canada side)

Grafitti can be beautiful as long as it is done in an acceptable place!
We found a lot of this amazing art around Detroit.

Our first stop once we landed in Detroit was actually "Greek Town."

We ordered a greek omelette which had all the usual but an addition of gyro (lamb)!

For lunch we went to Slow's BBQ located on Michigan Ave.
This, even after traveling to Texas, I gotta say is the best BBQ
meal I've ever had.

This was Slow's special in-house brewed peach tea sweetened with brown sugar.
I loved this! It was even better than the "sweet" tea I tried in the South.

This was #17 (if I remember correctly). 
A combo plate that included the most AMAZING
corn bread battered cat fish, brisket, and jambalaya.  With a SIDE of
gruyere mac'n'cheese and coleslaw.

Must have an up close view of the mac with perfectly crusted cheese on top.

This was called the "Triple Threat."
A sandwich with ham, bacon, and pulled pork.

We managed to make our way up to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
to watch the SDSU vs. Michigan football game.
Now this is what I call tail gating!
They apparently charged (and completely filled up) $80 or more
to park in this lot.  We parked about a mile away in someone's yard
and paid $15.  Basically everyone had their lawn open to make a profit.

There was so much spirit in the stadium!
(See the guy's arm in front of us moving along with the school song.)
We learned that this very stadium we were sitting was the largest in the nation,
seating over 110 thousand that day.

We made the 3-4 hour trip from Detroit to Canada to see Niagara Falls.
The road was not too exciting, lots of farm land, but it was quite
pretty and serene.  Now I really know what it means when people say
you don't get to see how trees really change colors in California.

Once we made it to Niagara Falls we crossed over the Canadian border
to go to Buffalo, New York and eat at The Silo.
The was actually in a quaint little town called Lewiston.

We ordered the "Haystack."  As you can see it is basically a foot long.
It has rib eye steak, cheese, and crunch potato sticks.

We split in half and finished the whole thing.

Niagara Falls view from the "Maid of the Mist" boat.
The blue in the bottom left is the much needed poncho that they provide you.

Hot Dog's are big in Detroit.
I mean they have rivalry restaurants like these two.

We tried the food from both restaurants.
They looked pretty similar, but a slight difference in taste led us to favor...
dun, dun, dun... The American Coney Island hot dog.
Apparently they both have their devotees, its like a cult thing.

We had a lot of fun exploring Detroit and the surrounding areas.
It is very obvious once you are there though the city really does need
some TLC.  It is pretty sad seeing how many places had been abandoned,
a direct result of the sliding economy.

Yet the city still lives on and maintains it's uniqueness and positive outlook.
This was a community garden, literally in the middle of the city, that grew
many fruits and vegetables that would be fed to people in need.

I love that the garden only used rain water collected in these tubes!

A must-visit-place in Detroit is the Heidelberg Project in Heidelberg.
To keep this town from being demolished, a town member began turning the town into a canvas.
The project grew and grew to the point where the whole town (a few square blocks)
has been decorated like seen in this picture.

A house decorated with stuffed animals.

The art was an amazing site.

People consistently asked "Why Detroit?"  Well here's why...when you go there you can really make the best out of what little the city have to offer.  Or you can miss the many unique sites it has to offer.
(Cheesy, I know.)

San Diego Outings, e.g. Eats

Last Saturday, before our beach day, we made our way over to BABs or B-spot in Kearny Mesa.  Their menu basically consists of sandwiches and burgers that are HUGE and have a lot of different toppings and variations with interesting names.  This place opened a few months ago and it is owned by a husband and wife who decided to open their own restaurant after all of their travels.

This is the B-B-Beauty
Chicken, Turkey, Ham, cole slaw, french fries, tomato...
They also have the B-B-Beast which has more dark meats
like roast beef.  Loved it, especially the cole slaw.

First Bite...
Barely made a dent, didn't know where to start.
I managed to eat about 3/4 of the whole sandwich

This was called the Pastrami Burger
The sauce is called Tiger sauce and it has wasabi. 

LA trip for my b-day

For my birthday we went to where I was born and raised.... LA.
And of course, we made it a trip of checking out new places to eat, besides spending one of the days with my mom and fam :)

Absolutely the best fish and chips we've ever had.
This is from The King's Head in Santa Monica,
it is a pretty "famous" place since it is one of very few
authentic English pubs.
As you can see they serve a good portion
of fish.  It was perfect and flaky.
  Definitely got to have it English style with the vinegar.
We ate outside on their patio.
which was REALLY nice because the restaurant
is only a couple blocks from the beach and it's a great place to do
your people watching.

For dinner we went to Umami Burger,
which is also in Santa Monica.
It is one of those buzzword/popular type places.
We waited at least 30 minutes to get in, but that was expected.
  It is a little hard to find since
it doesn't really have a sign and it is housed in a little portion of the
Fred Segal boutique building.
This was the Truffle Burger:  House-made truffle cheese
and truffle glaze.  Definitely tasted the truffle.
The burgers are pretty small, but very good, and soft...

Tempura onion rings, cooked just right.  Helped to fill us up too.

Hatch Burger: 4 types of green chilies and house made american cheese.
The spices went perfectly with the meat.

In the morning we wanted to go some place other than
the typical Starbucks for a coffee.
We came across Geo's Organic Coffee and Teas, a tiny hole in
 the wall place in my old neighborhood in Culver City.
I remember seeing this place when I lived nearby, but never
stopped in.  They served some good drinks and pastries,
and seems to be family owned.  It's in a basically all Mexican neighborhood
so there were some yumm Mexican style drinks on the menu.
Or you can do what we did and ask them to put some cinnamon in your mocha. 

On the last day we went with my whole fam to a Hawaiian restaurant
in Torrance called The Loft.
All the servings were pretty large.
I got the Pork Lau Lau & Lomi Lomi,
which is pork rolled into Taro leaves and steamed.
Lomi Lomi is ceviche style salmon, tomatoes and onions with
Hawaiian rock salt.
Love Hawaiian food.

Atlanta, Georgia



Welcome to the Peach state!




First stop, The Vortex, near little 5 points.
Definitely decorated uniquely.




PB and J "Elvis" Burger with fried plantains (left).
Bacon, swiss, mushroom burger (right).
We felt the PB should have been warmed up a little
to make it more runny, plantains were awesome and different... 
Favored the mushroom burger.

A cool bar in Little 5-points, great place to people watch!

There are many bars with great beer selections,

some are even harder to find beers from breweries all over the US.

Next breakfast stop was at the Silver Skillet,
just a short (cooooold) walk from our hotel.

Inside the diner... very old-fashioned,
looked like they hadn't modified it since the first opening.
I liked the "home-y" atmosphere.

mmm mmm the ham hocks and grits breakfast, with biscuits and red eye gravy!!

Gladys Knight's Chicken and Waffles

The fried green tomatos were actually very tasty,
not too greasy, kinda felt like you were eating something
a little bit healthy.

Chicken, waffles, macaroni, corn bread, grits,
collard greens, and black eyed peas... why not?

We walked many miles (about 2 hours across town?)
to Mary Mac's to try their well-known cinnamon rolls.

Yumm! $5, good for the plane ride home too.

Made our way out to the MLK area to Busy Bee Cafe for some real soul food!
(I personally would not go there alone, ha!)

I had the Ox tail, and looooved it,
as well as brocolli cheese casserole and buttered okra.

love, love the sweet tea!
It really does go well with soul food..

We were lucky enough to have Cindy and Ernesto to join on us on many
excursions and also to take us on the 30 minute drive out to
Kennesaw, Georgia to Big Pie in the Sky.

Largest Pizza I've ever seen and attempted to eat.
This pizza was featured on Man V. Food
for the "Carnivore Challenge".



We did a pretty good job. 
I maaaay or may not have eaten the most... ceprese style was my favorite!



Flip Burger Boutique.
Burger with the special "airated" cheese



Yep, this is a beef tar tar burger topped with soft boiled egg.




Shakes:  pistachio + white truffle, krispy kreme, nutella + burnt marshmellow





The houses in Atlanta had so much character.



Chicago, Illinois

Welcome to Chicago! 
Walking on air....103 floors high.
(on the skydeck at Willis Tower)

A view from one side of the tower.
If you stand at a certain side of the tower you can actually see 4 states at once:
Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin!

Chicago Meat Lover's Deep Dish Pizza from Geno's East.

There was writing in EVERY square inch of the restaurant walls.
We left our signature. 
It was funny to see some couples' names 
crossed out and then seeing one of the same names 
written right next to it with a new significant other...

The Bean in Millenium Park. 
It may not be food, but it was pretty awesome.

I thought this guy was selling food or something,
or maybe drinks on a hot day,
but he was actually performing a little puppet show
from the box window.

A group of 106 headless and armless iron sculptures 
at the south end of Grant Park.

Beef dip from Al's Italian Beef. 
We ordered it "Sweet and Spicy, Double Dipped" style which has:
the beef, sweet pepper and hot pepper (giardiniera),
and then it is dipped not once, but twice in the au jus. 
We ate this at least twice on our trip...
I wanted to have it every day.