Back in Michigan: Day Four

Somebody's gotta be feeding the seagulls in Frankfort, because they're not shy in the least about approaching people... Last night my mom and I took off for a 24 hour jaunt to Saginaw, after fueling up at Frankfort's seafood-centric Coho Cafe:

An hour into our trip we stopped for ice cream, as per tradition, at the Frosty Cup in Cadillac:

Mom had to be in Saginaw to work an election. While she was putting in a grueling 15 hour day collecting ballot stubs at Plainfield Elementary School, I headed over to Midland, 20 miles away. Here's a shot of the murals on the side of the Midland County Courthouse:

These murals were applied by Detroit artist Paul Honore in the early part of the last century, using a then state of the art pigmented magnesite stucco. Unfortunately, the material didn't stand up very well to the intense freeze/thaw cycles of Michigan's wildly variable climate, and over the decades crumbled off. I spent a summer in college interning for the architectual conservation firm that restored the murals using historic photographs. We used a porous stucco developed in Holland that will, theoretically, stay up there. After I took this photo, I walked around the corner to Espresso Milano, which was opened by the same guys responsible for Saginaw's Red Eye Coffeehouse (now the Red Eye Caffé). Turns out they're still using the menu boards I made for them way back in the early years of the Clinton administration:


Back in Saginaw, I of course had to make a stop at the Red Eye:

The Red Eye was the first of the three shops where I've plied the barista trade. I was, in fact, their first official over the table employee. I also designed the logo on their awning (it used to be on t-shirts and mugs as well). This was back in my art student days, right around the time I was working on those murals. At the Red Eye, I caught up with Arlene, one of the current owners, and long-time barista (and a regular customer back in the days when I worked there), Scotty. I also met up with an old friend, Trisha Baker, who posed for this flattering portrait next door at Steamers Pub:

I'd also made it over to the Scottish Inn for a quick pint on the night we got into town. Unfortunately, Cheyenne wasn't tending bar that night. I didn't get a shot of the place, but I did manage to poach this photo from their MySpace page:

The Scottish Inn has plaid carpet on the walls, old school black naugahide booths, and all manner of memorabilia scottish. And they still have Frank Sinatra on the jukebox. For those of you who've never been, I give it a strong recommendation if you should ever find yourself in the 'Naw.