Take flight at Blue Sky Brewery in the Irish Hills

They've got a long list of Michigan-made beers. And wines made from Michigan-grown grapes. And a bar top that isn't level because it's a wing from an airplane that crashed in Colorado. 

There are lots of good things about Chateau Aeronautique Winery & Blue Skies Brewery in Onsted. For one, it's a place to go in the Irish Hills not named Jerry's. But aside from the barrels of wine and patio with live music, the airplane wing-turned-bar has to be the most interesting. It stretches maybe 20 feet, although we didn't pace it off. Neither did Dave. He wasn't there. Regardless, set your drink on it at your own risk.

Preserving graffiti at Michigan Central Station

When Ford sunk millions of dollars into restoring the old Michigan Central Station, they went out of their way to return the building to its original self. If you haven't visited yet (don't feel bad, Dave hasn't either), you should find time to check it out. The work they did is unbelievable, especially if you saw it a decade ago when ceilings were crumbling and hundreds of windows were shattered. Hard to believe it's the same place.

But when you do visit, make sure you don't miss the one section that Ford purposely left unoriginal. Graffiti covered many of the walls throughout the interior after years of abandonment and Ford opted to leave a portion of that street art in place. Possibly a reminder of what the building looked like when they started the project back in 2018.

Old Wyandotte steel mill was a first-of-its-kind

On the shores of the Detroit River, at the southern tip of Bishop Park near downtown Wyandotte, a Michigan Historical Marker remembers a massive steel-making complex that once stood near here. The plant introduced the world to the Bessemer process, a new lower-cost way to mass produce steel.  

It was in the mid-1800s when the Eureka Iron Works introduced the world to the process that was soon adopted by other steel makers. Company headquarters operated out of a building at the corner of Biddle Avenue and Elm Street, where the Wyandotte Savings Bank lived starting in 1871. You can still see the Wyandotte Savings Bank name over the door facing Biddle.

The Eureka Iron Works closed in 1892, way before Dave was born, but by then it had helped the 'Dotte establish its industrial roots.