There's nothing better and more beautiful than spending a day in Detroit on a sunny Saturday afternoon. We went to Mexican town and ate lunch. We drove through downtown and waved at the skaters as they flew down Fort St. We went to Belle Isle and took pictures.

Belle Isle, like the Detroit history books say, is the Jewel of Detroit. It's an oasis from stress and concrete streets and work. The late Orbit magazine deemed it the best place to have sex in a car. I say its the best place to take your dog and run around, fly kites, have a picnic, eat Church's chicken and have a barbecue.

Did you know that Belle Isle was landscaped by the same guy that did Central Park in New York. And I swear to you that Central Park doesn't have anything on this place.

It's an island, in the middle of the Detroit river. It has ancient buildings, a huge playscape, an aquarium, a giant slide, a driving range, a lighthouse, nature center, a water slide and beach, statues, a little lake for model boats, a yacht club, a Great Lakes museum, bridges, ponds, deer, racoons, all sorts of ducks, a zoo, a conservatory, a lagoon for fishing, piers on either side of the island, plants that are indiginous to the island, a police station, stables, a humungous italian marble fountain and lots more.

On one side of the island you can see Canada on the other side Detroit's lower east side. I have pictures that I'll post on the website as soon as I can scan them in. Possibly my favorite place on the island is the Belle Isle Casino. No, it's not one of those casinos, it's a casino as defined in Webster's dictionary, a gathering space for group social events; a house made in Italianate style. I believe it was built around 1910 or 1920. There is a small lake next to it and a beautiful ornate bridge that goes over a creek.

We went to the Anna Scripps conservatory which houses tropical plants, palm trees, cacti and other stuff that I couldn't begin to tell you the names of.

Belle Isle is special to me, it's part of my childhood. When the nurses at my mom's hospital got together for a picnic, they always had them there. I remember running on the rocks that skirted the island with the children of the other nurses. We would see which one of us would be brave enough to go to the very edge of the rocks and touch the water. I remember my father taking my brother and me to play after school before my mother came home. I remember riding in my dad's green Cutlass Supreme, looking out the window at the water, listening to 70's "slow jams"; Roberta Flack, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Staple Singers, Rufus and Chaka Khan... and the other cars were playing the music too.

Belle Isle is magic. Because of the time restraints I have on this computer right now, I could only gave you a half-assed description of this dreamy place. Maybe later, I'll put a permanent essay up in my Mirror Mirror page.

But for now, I'll see you soon, I'm off to my Detroit fantasy land.