As the sign above indicates, this excursion took place in Gibralter, Michigan, a quaint, waterfront community located along the Detroit River. I had not been to Gibralter since I was a teenager when our family visited my father’s coworker who lived right on one of the canals.

What is most unique about Gibralter is that it is built on and around a network of five miles of canals, so, for this reason, it is known as “Little Venice”.

I wish I could tell you that I had a gondola ride or did something exciting like I might do if I were in Venice, but truthfully, while this four-mile-wide city, with about 5,000 residents, has lots to see, you can only see most of it doing a ride-by in your vehicle. I had to park in the only residential area I could find without “private property” signs so that I could walk around and see some of the sights.

The reason I came to visit Gibralter was that it was still another of the 34 locations where the Detroit Institute of Arts had a 2026 art installation. There were only five paintings here, some which you’ve seen in other installations I’ve visited. This is the last of the DIA exhibits I’ve visited in 2026.

More on those paintings later – first, I want to give you a flavor for the City of Gibralter, Michigan, so I’m going to do this walk in reverse and tell you about the sights, then the paintings last.

Canal living – would it be for you?

I found the canal areas to be very picturesque as you’ll see in the following photos. Plus, I managed to get a little wildlife in this post, so that you’re not too bored with still more paintings.

I stood on a few of the street bridges to get the canal shots. This was the view from the first canal I walked over.

Do you see the wooden dock in the foreground? Apparently, the homeowner likes ducks (or perhaps the ducks just like hanging out here). If you look closely, you can see several ducks scattered about the deck and …

… one Mallard perched on the edge, ready to take the plunge, which he did and paddled fast and furiously away.

We’ll revisit this dock later.

I noticed many of the homes had nautical themes in their front yards, like lighthouses or boat planters.

These are a few more views of the canals.

Then, I crossed the bridge again, returning to this view of the home where I saw the Mallard duck earlier, but I was viewing it from the other side of the walkway.

While I was standing taking the photo of this house, a Mama duck and her two ducklings paddled from underneath the wooden steps, over to the dock and waddled onto it.

The first thing I noticed was Mama Duck’s coloring and her white chest. When I got online later and looked at my photos, I learned this was a Black Swedish duck, also called a “tuxedo duck” due to its white bib. This was a first sighting for me.

Moments after stepping out of the water, Mama and her two ducklings all stopped to preen their feathers, a task that took forever, while I waited patiently, hoping for a few more photo ops. Finally, after endless preening, I snapped this photo …

… and another one.

I smiled at Mama Duck looking down at her baby … but wait, where was the other duckling?

He or she had toddled off to the end of the deck mumbling “bye-bye, gotta fly!” 🙂

How ’bout a bit of culture with your canal story?

I had a hand-drawn map and started by parking at the Dairy Queen. The painting was in the middle of an empty lot, so not too exciting to get a shot of what was around the installation. I remembered this painting, “Seascape-Sunset” by Martin Johnson Heade from last year’s paintings at Grosse Ile – it was right along the Detroit River.

The second painting, “Cotopaxi” by Frederic Edwin Church, was on one side of the Cooke Community Center, a rather nondescript building, so I only took photos of the painting.

There was a little more activity and it was a tad more interesting at the Gibralter Community Center …

… as the painting was on the wall near an entrance – you couldn’t miss it. I remembered this painting as well from my trip to see the DIA installations at the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. It is called “The Lily Pond” by Charles Harry Eaton.

Unlike the previous venue, this building was bustling with activity as it was August 4th, primary election voting day in Michigan and there was a steady stream of people going in and out.

I had parked over near the gazebo …

… and soon was on my way – just two more paintings to go!

The fourth painting was at still another City building …

… and it had a nautical theme going on, not only with its logo, but this boat anchor out front.

The painting, entitled “Solitude” by Jean-Léon Gérôme was a little different than the other DIA offerings I’ve seen around the last few years since I’ve been visiting and photographing their Inside/Out displays.

Using my trusty, hand-drawn map, I set out to find the fifth and final painting, but this time I hit a snag. I had to cross the 101-year-old Horse Island Concrete Bridge, a 20-foot wide structure, so narrow that only one vehicle was able to go across the bridge at a time. It was steep and I wouldn’t want to drive over it in snow and ice in the Wintertime.

Island Drive was reminiscent of my trips to Estral Beach and Grosse Ile where there are so few public places to park that I am discouraged from returning. To my left were large homes, along the shoreline of the Detroit River – their front yards looked out on the canal. On the other side of the canal you can see a neighborhood with smaller homes, but there was no parking allowed there either.

The painting was installed near the bridge, at Island Drive Park, which necessitated driving all along narrow Island Drive on Horse Island, then turning the car around so I could face the painting. No way was I going to park anywhere as all the primo waterfront property had “private property” signs, so I stopped, rolled down the window and snapped a few quick shots.

Well, here we go again, another painting seen recently at the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, “Bank of the Oise at Auvers” by Vincent Van Gogh.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour of Gibralter, Michigan.

When I finished up here, I drove down Jefferson Avenue, just a few miles to Lake Erie Metropark, where I embarked on that delightful trek I wrote about last week. You can click here in case you missed it.

Terri’s Sunday Stills Challenge this week is “Ephemeral” so I am participating in The Flower Hour instead. I’m also participating in Pepper’s One Step at a Time.