Detroit Day Trips (Dearborn, Port Huron, Marysville: home, mall, food)

[simlifgal]

Michigan Adventure in Muskeegon is fun. It's owned by the same people that own cedar point, but you get into the waterpark and amusement park for the price of one. also in that area is the Hackley & Hume house. Its sorta cool, especially if your into history.

Cranbrooke has a fun museum for the kids, and a planitarium.

If your able to make the trip to the UP munising has tours of the painted mountains, and is near the shipwreck museum.

as far as canada, Point Pelee is not that far. we used to go camping there when we were kids and it was always fun, even as a day trip. Otherwise, Im more familiar with the Toronto area. If you get up that way, Casa Loma is breathtaking and educational.

this site list all Michigan Museums and info about them too -

http://www.michigan.org/travel/attractions/?swd=1&m=2;9

[usroute10]

If you are going to go to the DIA and Science Center, why not stop at the Museum of African-American History?

For something to eat, maybe go to the touristy part of Mexicantown - Bagley and I-75, or the REAL part of Mexicantown - along Vernor and Springwells. It's relatively safe and vibrant.

[jjm901]

Toledo Zoo or Detroit Zoo.... Cabella's in Dundee is a neat store to see once even if you don't like hunting/fishing.

[Moosemom]

Dundee has an indoor waterpark that I hear is really cool. There are a bunch of indoor waterparks in Michigan and Ohio. Here is a link: http://themeparks.about.com/cs/waterparks/a/usindoorwater.htm]Indoor Water Parks- U.S. and Canada indoor waterparks (broken link)

There is also a really inexpensive indoor playland in Howell called Castway Cafe. The kids can play all day for between $3 and $6 and you do not pay for kids over 13 y/o. Their food menu is pretty decently priced. Castaway Cafe- An Exciting Place to Eat and Play

Pretty soon there will be Ice Sculputure Fairs going on. Here is a link to Plymouth MI - Official Website

Ann Arbor Hands On Museum: Hands-On Science Museum for children of all ages | Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum

The State's link: Travelers Landing Page - Pure Michigan Travel is a great resource for one day trips. If you know a little in advance on the places you will be going, you can contact the Chamber of Commerce. Many Chambers can provide you with coupons for restaurants and such.

Here is a link to the State's Fair and Festivals: Welcome - Michigan Festivals & Events Association! It was the coolest thing to go to the Potato Festival last year.

*** I am new, so I haven't figured out how to get links to work yet ... but cutting and pasting works (thank goodness).

[Coldjensens]

Good suggestions. Thanks.

I took my son to the Dundee water park this weekend for his "Daddy Day" (each of our kids gets a turn doing something alone with Daddy). The water park was neat, but we pretty much wore out the fun after about two hours. For $15 each it was not too bad. More expensive, but a lot more fun than a movie. Funny thing is that they do not have a pool. Great slides though. The place is geared towards younger kids. 16 and older are probably not going to like it as much (although I had a blast and I am substantially over 16). The big outdoor outfitter place next to the water park was as much fun. They have a huge aquarium with giant examples of local game fish and a lot of dead animals to look at. The dead animal thing is a bit sarcastic. The displays are really neat to see. We also found a great Barbque house in Dundee.


I had forgotten about the Plymouth ice carving thing. that is this month sometime I think.

I had lunch in eastern Market in Detroit on Friday. that must be really neat in the summer and fall. I think I will put that on my list.

[stock66]

How about Edsel Ford's house in Grosse Pointe.
The Michigan International Speedway in Jackson.
There is a pretty big Civil War re-enactment at Cascade Park in Jackson during the summer.
A Ford Rouge plant tour.
There is also this place that does Detroit tours. I don't know how good it is. Anyone ever tried them out? Inside Detroit - Custom Walking Tours
Nice thread!

[Coldjensens]

This is a great link. thank you. At first I thought it was nothing but a tour of bars because I clicked on the "outings" link (which is all bar tours). The list of restaurants alone is worth the time to investigate this site. Does anyone know anything about this tour group?

[Moosemom]

The Plymouth link tells you the dates of the Ice Festival ... hopefully the weather will be cold enough that the ice doesn't melt. The last 2 years have finally been cold enough so that the ice doesn't melt during the day, but it something awful all the work that these people do to have it melt.
There are other cities that have ice festivals and I imagine that if you search michigan.org they might have a listing or even the festival website I posted.

Don't forget throughout the year there is the Farmer's Markets, as well as the U-Picks on the berries and apples ~ my kids love the hay mazes.

Yankee Air Museum I believe is re-opened after the fire that they had. That is a really cool thing. I will find my link for the air shows coming up this summer.

You could also take the Amtrak to some city on its route ... hang out there for a while and than take the train back. My Aunt used to do that with us when we were kids, but we would just take the train from Dearborn to Ann Arbor ~ walk around Ann Arbor some and than come back to Dearborn.

BTW ~ what are the ages of your kid(s) ? ! ?

[Coldjensens]

16,16,13,12,&7

[Coldjensens]

We went on a weird name city day trip yesterday. We went to Hell, then to Colon, then to Shipshewana.

Hell was entertaining. Really empty place except a party store and a gift shop. The gift shop is closed on Wednesdays (oops). The party store has funny souvenirs and very good pizza. The party store lady was one of the nicest people I have ever met. (A nice lady living in Hell?) There were some opportunities to take funny pictures making a play on the name of the City. It is a pretty place but empty. A good place to go canoing or camping. Mostly it is just fun to say that you went there. Dexter was on the way to Hell for us. A really cute town worth a stop and walk around. We also went through Chelsea. I do not remember whether Chelsea was on road to Hell, or on the road out of hell. Chelsea is more commercialized than Dexter, but it is also bigger. Again a nice place to walk around. It was nice to visit both cities again.

Colon offers next to nothing unless you are into magic. Abbots magic factory is great. The owner talked with us for about an hour, and demonstrated some tricks for us. They have a huge magic convention with big name performers in August. Colon had a funny welcome to colon sign because it said something about keeping the water clean in Colon. (Ok I found it amusing maybe not everyone would). Colon supposedly got its name when the founder of the city stuck his finger in the dictionary and landed on the word "Colon"
Coldwater on the way to Colon has an incredible cluster of beautiful victorian era houses in almost every architectural style you can imagine. I was told that parts of the city are a little rough, but along west Chicago road and the immediately adjoining streets, the homes are jaw dropping. We did not explore Coldwater much due to time imitations, but it might be worth a longer look. I was very surprised to learn that it is a very small City, it has the character of a good sized city.


Shipshewana was pretty much closed by the time we got there. We did have a long talk with the leather smith and learned a lot about the history of shoes. Shoe history is actually really interesting. No I am not kidding, nor am I a dullard, it is interesting. You can learn a lot about how things were at different times through shoes. IF you go to Shipshewana go early in the day and do not forget to bring cash or you may end up digging coins out from under your seats to pay the toll barons when you get off the freeway.


We skipped Climax. It was my 13 year old daughter's "daddy day" and I did not want to get into an explanation of why this is a weird name for a city. Besides, I was told that there is really nothing there.