Hamtramck

Last Saturday was one of those days where I woke up with no idea what was in store. Little did I know I was going on a cultural expedition. We were heading out to New Baltimore, a suburb of Detroit, to a birthday party for Natasha's cousin's daughter. On the way there we were to make a stop in Hamtramck.

So we left early so that we could make a pit stop at a store in Hamtramck. Natasha and her relatives have this...I would call it an obsession with Polish Pottery. In the midst of Hamtramck there is a Polish Pottery store. I know wooohooo! The drive was pretty uneventful until we were almost there and we hit a dead stop of traffic. We sat and inched and sat for almost an hour. The highway was closed because of an accident and we were detoured off the highway. Natasha grabbed a map and took us a different way than all the other traffic. She is pretty amazing and got us back onto the highway at the next on-ramp. We made it to the Polish Pottery store. This is pretty much where it got interesting.

The owner of the store is interesting...that would be the best way to put it. After looking at all the pottery in 5 minutes I realized Natasha, her sister, and cousins were going to take a bit longer. That would be the first thing I didn't wake up planning on doing...being in a polish pottery stores with 5 woman who are polish pottery addicts...it was scary. Luckily the store had a book section on Polish history. Then the second thing...the store owner decided that I really needed to try some of her pickled garlic...yeah, I had no idea when I woke up I would be eating pickled garlic before 11 am. It actually wasn't to bad...tasted like a pickle, not garlic. After looking at everything in the store for my 5th time I was excited to see the checkout process was about to begin. Then the third thing...for one of Natasha's cousins it was her first time purchasing polish pottery and Natasha's sister made a comment about taking a moment to celebrate the occasion. Well that is not something you say in front of this store owner...I think it was more of a challenge for her. It started out with taking a picture of the occasion then we had to take a picture at the wall of pottery...not just any picture...we had to hold glasses as if we were saying cheers...no that wasn't good enough...I got a polish man's hat with a feather in on my head a scarf around my neck and everyone else was given some sort of polish outfit from the owner to wear for the photo. On the way out she gave us all some chocolate candy...it turned out to be some sort of alcohol encased in chocolate.

I did not wake up expecting to be eating garlic, dressing up for a picture, and having a candy shot all before lunch. As much as I joked and complained I had a great time...its fun to have days when you can look back and say, I had no idea when I woke up that I would be...

It was fun to be at Gwen's first birthday party. It was great to see a hungry kid with her own cake and no rules.