In “5 Things,” we ask some of our favorite insiders in cities all over the country to share insider travel tips on where to eat, shop, stay, and play in their neighborhoods (plus, what to pack to make the adventure complete). This week, with arctic-level-freezing temperatures setting in around Michigan and the Midwest, we thought it might be nice to get some inspiration for more temperate times in the region. Today, blogger Carrie Budzinski of CarrieD Away shares the hidden gems of Detroit.
Detroit is a big, little city that’s changed a lot in a decade, and in five years, and in 2018. If you haven’t visited Detroit in awhile, I promise you it’s a different place. The city’s history is complicated—as is the present—but it’s a fun place to be.
Last week marked a big milestone: the tenth anniversary of the blog! Aron wrote the first post for Hither & Thither after a freezing walk to work on a bitter January morning in New York, and we used it as an excuse to make travelogues for some earlier trips—like our honeymoon! Since then, there have been over 2000 posts!
I owe a lot to those early days of writing the blog in New York. The city felt so new and exotic to us sometimes, and I think the act of trying to capture it in photos and in words helped me develop a certain curiosity and openness—an attention to what makes the everyday beautiful—that I have been able to (mostly) carry with me since.
It’s one of the many gifts writing this blog has given me. Ever since that first post, the site has managed to surprise me with them: with all the pleasure that it invites, by the friendships it has led me to, and by the community it has introduced me to.
And yet it’s not without its challenges: I still get nervous about sending things out to a reader whom I cannot see; I worry about the balance of content—interesting with informative, but also personal with profitable; and at times I feel uncertain about how to keep growing (and sustaining) a blog at a time when all of our attention is being pulled in so many directions. Ultimately, I feel really fortunate to still be hitting “publish” every week.
This is in no small part thanks to those of you who add your comments to the site and who have reached out to me over the years. It means so much to me! Thank you to everyone for reading along, and for sharing so generously.
At every blog anniversary, I like to do a year-long recap, and you can find that below. Because so much of the content is drawn from our family life, I relish going through each post and appreciating it all! This year, for the 10th one, I thought I’d also start with a few photos showing what has (and hasn’t) changed…
Any fun plans for the weekend? We’re heading back up to Tahoe for some more skiing, and crossing our fingers that we don’t get stuck in multi-hour traffic again. The three-day-weekend ended with a brutal 7-hour drive (usually it’s only 2-3 hours). Also, currently…
Kondo-ing my closet, but trying to figure out how to balance what sparks joy right now against what I might miss later. (Like that jumpsuit in the above photo, which I sort of miss now that I spotted this Topshop denim one.)
Thinking ahead to next weekend when we’re hosting an chef-prepared, all adult-dinner we went in on with friends at an auction, and then quickly switching modes to host a gaggle of preschoolers for Skyler’s birthday party the next morning! (She’s turning 5! Here was her 4th birthday.)
