I’d googled places along the way to Saginaw, including Paper Source, a favourite shop to visit when we are on this side of the Atlantic.

My Hero had googled “breakfast” and come up with Toast, described as an upscale diner in the same location; Birmingham.

So, fortified with one of their specialities, Key Lime French Toast (yum!) we headed over to Paper Source to take a look around.

Via Woolly & Co, a glorious knitting shop right opposite.  How could we walk right past without looking inside?

Colour.  Texture.  Pattern.  Put that together with a warm welcome from ‘Fiber Fairy’ Gigi and Mary and I were quite happy to stay for a while

But we didn’t have all day to stay and play, so we took a short walk around this delightful small town, popping into Anthropologie (to take photos of their visual merchandising concepts) along the way.  I might add that both Woolly & Co and Anthropologie had comfortable sofas for those not interested in knitting or display concepts…

On then, driving through the leafy suburbs of Northern Detroit towards Saginaw, our destination for tonight.

Next place on our list was Meadow Brook Hall, where the garage door provided a place for a useful reminder.

Meadow Brook Hall had been the home of Matilda Dodge Wilson, widow of John Dodge, the car manufacturer, who’d died of the ‘flu when she was just 37.  Now one of the wealthiest women in the country, she met and later married Alfred Wilson, a lumber trader and together they built the hall in Tudor Revival style.

We really enjoyed our visit, which took us around all of the public rooms of the house including this lovely garden room.

The proportions of each room made the house feel very liveable and not at all the stately home we’d expected.

But our enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide delivered her commentary in the most peculiar style which became rather distracting.  Instead of simply telling us, “Here is the Games Table” , we heard “We’re going to be having the Games Table in here”.  Of course, the three of us think on similar lines and as soon as we caught each other’s eye…well!

Still, we enjoyed our visit to the hall and it proved to be a good stop along the way.

Because we had a little more shopping in mind a bit further along.

Having all made purchases of some kind, we were ready for the last stretch, past Flint and on towards the base of the thumb.

So, here we are in Saginaw-esome!