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I was born and raised in Michigan (Pontiac area). Moved out to San Diego about 10 years ago. My husband and I are both finishing up our masters, and want to move back.
It's been awhile, and now that I'm older, I am far more open to different neighborhoods in the Detroit area.
What's the deal with Grosse Ile? It looks beautiful. Would it be suitable for a couple of early 30 somethings, without children? Or is it way to mellow and isolated? Maybe I should just stick to the Royal Oak area, lol!
My "Yacht" is a 1957 16' aluminum cadillac runabout. (With fins!) that is in desperate need of further restoration (but it funcntions just fine). However it is full of snow right now and the river has chunks of ice from St. Clair.
Whether you like Grosse Ile as a 30 something dink depends a lot on you.
1. Do you golf?
2. Do you boat?
3. Do you go to church?
4. Do you like to ride a bike, run, walk, row, canoe or fly as a serious pasttime/hobby?
5. Are you comfortable hanging our with families and retirees? We still go out and have a good time, but often have to get home to releive the babysitter.
As far as party fun, there are a couple of little bar/resturaunt type places. I can think of four bars. two are sit and have a drink type places (as far as I know). One is a dive bar with a sign that says "If you fight in here, you will be asked to leave and nto come backl". One has live music from time to time and a small dance floor. The two described as sit and drink places may have music occaisionally, I do not know. I do not often go to those two places.
There are 6-12 places to eat of varying quality and cost (not counting the clubs). The shopping/resturuant district is a single street. Stores include: Art places, a place with neat things for women, a hardware store, a bakery/ice cream parlor, two grocery stores (Kroger and a little independant with a great wine selection), sav-on, craft stores, an equipment rental and lawn mower place, a nursery, a bed & breakfast, and a place with antiques and just neat things. Aside from a half dozen banks, beauty salons, and realty places that is all I can think of. Oh I just rememebreed, there is an urgent care clinic (probably be closed soon, they do not do a very good job) and some professional offices scattered around (dentist, chiropractor, laywer). It is enough to be pleasant to walk through in the summer. Small enough that it is not going to attract anyone from off the islands.
Everyone goes to the High School football games, even though they mostly lose (except this year)
If you live near the toll bridge, Wyandotte is just a hop skip and jump (and $1.50 - $2 each way) away. Wyandotte has a lively downtown that is somewhat akin to Royal Oak only on a much much smaller scale.
What Grosse Ile offers is community and lots and lots of amenties.
The Township owns and operates:
A golf/country club. WIth an ourdoor pool (we usually buy a pool memebership for the social event even thoguh we have our own pool).
A farm/equestrian center
A public viewing dock (does not actually touch the water).
A recently acquired small beach where they intend to build a canoe/kayak launch if they ever get the
money. (I spent a saturday helping them clean trash off of it a while back. Since the community clean, up, they have not done anything with it. They need to raise at least $50K I expect.
A small airport that used to be a navy air station.
A histrical center (really belongs to the Historical society) with several old buidings/museum.
Some really beautiful and decently long bike trails.
680 acreas of open space. (Just woods. One has a nice trail)
A sledding hill and four or more soccer fields.
A playscape built by residents in the 1980s and well maintained.
A small corner lot with a pavillion where they have small concerts and other events on Sundays in the summer.
A marina.
There are lots and lots of community events.
Boards Head Festival (look it up on the internet).
Vaious cancer or other fund raisng running events.
Homecoming, Halloween and Christmas Parades.
Annual Island Clean up.
Easter egg hunt (at the farm).
Island Fest (typical town fair with crummy carnival rides and games as well as some local crafts and lots of cool antique airplanes).
Various classic/antique car shows.
I am missing a bunch of things. Factor of tiredness.
There are several private facilities that are neat too.
Indoor tennis club.
Indoor riding arena at the Township farm (privately run).
Rowing Club.
Three Yacht/boat clubs.
Three golf clubs (including the township owned club). One was designed by some well known
designer in the 1930s and people come from all over to play it.
An Alpaca farm.
An azalea farm. (They do a haunted forest hay ride for halloween and another for Christmas (not haunted).
It is not really secluded, jsut psychologically so. We are about 10 minutes to the crossroads in Woodhaven where there are a ton of big box stores and resturuants. However because no one drives through (or evne near) Grosse Ile nless they live there, it creates a feeling of seclusion. It does take 15 mintues to get on the freeway (I-75).
Some parts (e.g. Hickory Island and Elba Island) are pretty secluded and tank another ten minutes to get to, but they are really beautiful places to live.
Access is two bridges. One free one toll. There is really never any traffic (unless one bridge is being repaired). Bother bridges are about equidstant from the freeway.
10,000 people live in Grosse ile.
A large percentage of people who leave after college come back in their 30s (usually after having kids). Lots of multi generation residents.
There are very few condos/apartments.
There are five churches (Pres. Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran and formely Baptist. Someone is trying to start another one. It is Baptistish (sin oriented).
As a whole the community is older. I would guess about 40% retirees, about 40% families and 20% everyone else. It is also generally wealthy, but there are a lot of non-wealthy people mixed in and we all mx in together, it is not class segregated.
It is not a party party party rowdy type of place. The highest speed limit is 35. Speed limits are enforced. Often you have to stop for deer or geese crossing the roads. Most people have water access and boats. Even those who do not own water acces have boats (like us). They either go over to the Elizabeth Park launch in Trenton, or just borrow or trespass on neighbors waterfront or canal access.
There is fabulous fishing in the Trenton Channel.
Swans and Geese and deer are all over. Also eagles, foxes, hawks, herons, egrets, coyotes, racoons, and a wild mink.
There are always people out running and walking and biking. Even in the winter. It is an active place in that regard.
Some people we know are 30 something dinks and love it. Some woudl be bored to death and leave. It depends heavily on your personality. If you still like to act like college kids - you will hate it here.
I foten describe Grosse Ile as akin to living at summer camp year round. Houses are often hidden in trees, roads a slow with people walking, biking ect all over the place. It usually smells like a campfire. Lots and lots and lots of trees and water.
Last edited by Coldjensens; 01-22-2012 at 04:01 PM..
My "Yacht" is a 1957 16' aluminum cadillac runabout. (With fins!) that is in desperate need of further restoration (but it funcntions just fine). However it is full of snow right now and the river has chunks of ice from St. Clair.
Whether you like Grosse Ile as a 30 something dink depends a lot on you.
1. Do you golf?
2. Do you boat?
3. Do you go to church?
4. Do you like to ride a bike, run, walk, row, canoe or fly as a serious pasttime/hobby?
5. Are you comfortable hanging our with families and retirees? We still go out and have a good time, but often have to get home to releive the babysitter.
As far as party fun, there are a couple of little bar/resturaunt type places. I can think of four bars. two are sit and have a drink type places (as far as I know). One is a dive bar with a sign that says "If you fight in here, you will be asked to leave and nto come backl". One has live music from time to time and a small dance floor. The two described as sit and drink places may have music occaisionally, I do not know. I do not often go to those two places.
There are 6-12 places to eat of varying quality and cost (not counting the clubs). The shopping/resturuant district is a single street. Stores include: Art places, a place with neat things for women, a hardware store, a bakery/ice cream parlor, two grocery stores (Kroger and a little independant with a great wine selection), sav-on, craft stores, an equipment rental and lawn mower place, a nursery, a bed & breakfast, and a place with antiques and just neat things. Aside from a half dozen banks, beauty salons, and realty places that is all I can think of. Oh I just rememebreed, there is an urgent care clinic (probably be closed soon, they do not do a very good job) and some professional offices scattered around (dentist, chiropractor, laywer). It is enough to be pleasant to walk through in the summer. Small enough that it is not going to attract anyone from off the islands.
Everyone goes to the High School football games, even though they mostly lose (except this year)
If you live near the toll bridge, Wyandotte is just a hop skip and jump (and $1.50 - $2 each way) away. Wyandotte has a lively downtown that is somewhat akin to Royal Oak only on a much much smaller scale.
What Grosse Ile offers is community and lots and lots of amenties.
The Township owns and operates:
A golf/country club. WIth an ourdoor pool (we usually buy a pool memebership for the social event even thoguh we have our own pool).
A farm/equestrian center
A public viewing dock (does not actually touch the water).
A recently acquired small beach where they intend to build a canoe/kayak launch if they ever get the
money. (I spent a saturday helping them clean trash off of it a while back. Since the community clean, up, they have not done anything with it. They need to raise at least $50K I expect.
A small airport that used to be a navy air station.
A histrical center (really belongs to the Historical society) with several old buidings/museum.
Some really beautiful and decently long bike trails.
680 acreas of open space. (Just woods. One has a nice trail)
A sledding hill and four or more soccer fields.
A playscape built by residents in the 1980s and well maintained.
A small corner lot with a pavillion where they have small concerts and other events on Sundays in the summer.
A marina.
There are lots and lots of community events.
Boards Head Festival (look it up on the internet).
Vaious cancer or other fund raisng running events.
Homecoming, Halloween and Christmas Parades.
Annual Island Clean up.
Easter egg hunt (at the farm).
Island Fest (typical town fair with crummy carnival rides and games as well as some local crafts and lots of cool antique airplanes).
Various classic/antique car shows.
I am missing a bunch of things. Factor of tiredness.
There are several private facilities that are neat too.
Indoor tennis club.
Indoor riding arena at the Township farm (privately run).
Rowing Club.
Three Yacht/boat clubs.
Three golf clubs (including the township owned club). One was designed by some well known
designer in the 1930s and people come from all over to play it.
An Alpaca farm.
An azalea farm. (They do a haunted forest hay ride for halloween and another for Christmas (not haunted).
It is not really secluded, jsut psychologically so. We are about 10 minutes to the crossroads in Woodhaven where there are a ton of big box stores and resturuants. However because no one drives through (or evne near) Grosse Ile nless they live there, it creates a feeling of seclusion. It does take 15 mintues to get on the freeway (I-75).
Some parts (e.g. Hickory Island and Elba Island) are pretty secluded and tank another ten minutes to get to, but they are really beautiful places to live.
Access is two bridges. One free one toll. There is really never any traffic (unless one bridge is being repaired). Bother bridges are about equidstant from the freeway.
10,000 people live in Grosse ile.
A large percentage of people who leave after college come back in their 30s (usually after having kids). Lots of multi generation residents.
There are very few condos/apartments.
There are five churches (Pres. Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran and formely Baptist. Someone is trying to start another one. It is Baptistish (sin oriented).
As a whole the community is older. I would guess about 40% retirees, about 40% families and 20% everyone else. It is also generally wealthy, but there are a lot of non-wealthy people mixed in and we all mx in together, it is not class segregated.
It is not a party party party rowdy type of place. The highest speed limit is 35. Speed limits are enforced. Often you have to stop for deer or geese crossing the roads. Most people have water access and boats. Even those who do not own water acces have boats (like us). They either go over to the Elizabeth Park launch in Trenton, or just borrow or trespass on neighbors waterfront or canal access.
There is fabulous fishing in the Trenton Channel.
Swans and Geese and deer are all over. Also eagles, foxes, hawks, herons, egrets, coyotes, racoons, and a wild mink.
There are always people out running and walking and biking. Even in the winter. It is an active place in that regard.
Some people we know are 30 something dinks and love it. Some woudl be bored to death and leave. It depends heavily on your personality. If you still like to act like college kids - you will hate it here.
I foten describe Grosse Ile as akin to living at summer camp year round. Houses are often hidden in trees, roads a slow with people walking, biking ect all over the place. It usually smells like a campfire. Lots and lots and lots of trees and water.
Thank you so much for all the information! It truly sounds like paradise.
Glad to know there's a Bed n Breakfast! We'll stay a night or two this summer, when we come out to visit the family.
We are more into enjoying the outdoors and healthy living than partying. To know there's a few pubs and a handful of restaurants is good enough for me.
As long as I can easily access organic produce and Dave can go fly fishing, we're both pretty happy
Nates has some organic stuff. They buy a lot of their produce at Eastern Market in Detroit. Kroger has an organic section (I assume all of them do).
Some odd items are available at a market called Concessi or somthing like that. It is 10-15 minutes away. They have some stuff that looks organic. Then there is a farmers market type place in Trenton and of course Randazzos in Dearborn/Redford (about 40 minutes drive). You can also get fresh veggies along the roads to the South and west of Trenton.
Send me a note when you come. If I have half an hour I will take you on a little tour.
I have never seen anyone fly fishing on this river. There is a trong current and it is wide and deep. this is a river with ocean going freighters going by on one side. The other side is the Trenton Channel. It is one of the best places anywhere for Walleye and Perch. You can also catch bass and sturgeon (with a special license and a ton of luck). Also Musky (a typeof pike, fun but yucky). I think that there are many other kinds of fish in there, but those are the main ones that people catch.
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Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
