It was early. So early in fact, that my youngest child hadn’t even gotten up for school yet. He is normally wide awake and ready for the day at 6:30 a.m. I had hoped to say a quick bye to both of the twins before heading out this morning for a MarketLansing meeting. Unfortunately, as I walked out the door at 7:05, he was still sound asleep in his room. It was still very dark outside and cold. I scraped off the car and turned on the heat. As I drove out of the neighborhood I quickly synchronized my driving patterns with those too familiar with this commute. It helped speed along the trip. It wasn’t long before more cars clustered in around me and we all snaked our way towards the tall buildings at the center of our city. It was about 7:30 a.m. when I made it into downtown Lansing. I couldn’t quickly recall the last time I’d been in town this early*. There were people out but it wasn’t the normal hustle and bustle I’ve seen at other times of the day. Lansing wasn’t quite awake yet. I parked, fed the meter and walked across the street to The Grand Traverse Pie Company on Washington Square. I was greeted in a low key, “glad you made it out of bed”, morning type of way. The menu this early was simple smiles; cups of coffee and warm breakfast foods. It was nice. I watched in fascination as different types of people passed by the window; all had some place to be this early in downtown Lansing. As the night became less and less the car traffic increased more and more. I watched the sun begin to rise, glinting off the tops of the taller buildings. Lansing was waking up and I was there to see it blink its sleepy eyes and say, “Good Morning”.
*As I was typing this I realized the last time I was here this early was when I went into labor with the twins. It was 6:30 a.m. on November 6, 2005.
City Saunter 