Kid Friendly "tour" of Detroit

[DinNC]

Hello,

I am coming back home to Detroit for a visit. I am getting my son Baptized at my old Parrish in Detroit and very excited to visit my old neighborhood. The Godparents are friends of our in North Carolina and will be coming with us for their first ever trip to Michigan and Detroit. On Saturday the 28th of April I was planning on taking my family and our friends downtown for a tour. However, we will have a 4, 3 & 1 year old with us. I want to show my friends some of the sights yet I don't want the kids to be so bored out of there minds they drive US crazy.

Here is what I was thinking and looking for any suggestions from you all. If the weather is nice I would like to take them on the river front and Belle Ilse. I know there used to be a lot of cool kid friendly things to do on Belle Ilse but not exactly sure what's open anymore. I also wanted to show them eastern market since it will be a Saturday, but not sure if they have any kid friendly things to do there either. I would love to go to midtown but I don't think the science center is open currently either.

Also, restaurant week is starting that weekend and I'm not sure if the establishments that are participating are doing just dinner or can you get the good deals for lunch too. I figure it would be nice to have lunch at one of our finer places.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated. I hope you all have a good evening.

[Coplin]

Sounds like you have a good plan . The Dossin , Gardens & Nature Zoo are open on Belle Isle & I'd definitely do Eastern market regardless . Give riverwalk a look , they have a merry-go-round & a fountain kids really dig , might be too early in the year for them to be open . In Midtown, Science Center is closed & Children's Museum has some weird hours, but DIA & Historical would be cool. Food with kids, Lafayette or American , anything in southwest [[try Mi Pueblo) or Slows to go on a nice day would all be easy .

[Gistok]

Just went to Belle Isle last Saturday with a 3/4 and 2 1/2 year olds in the group... and there's nothing you're going to be able to show youngsters that's better than the Conservatory.... the kids will NOT be bored in there.

[Király]

I did quite a bit of traveling with my kids when they were that age and found the secret to keeping them happy: Spend one hour a day at a playground, swimming pool, or someplace where they can run around and get exercise. Fancy stuff like zoos and science centres are not needed. Just one hour at a pool or playground and they will be much more willing to tolerate adult-related activities for the rest of the day. We travelled around Europe for a month doing this and our kids [[1 and 2 1/2) were great the whole time.

[Orthophonic]

A few thoughts based on my experience with younger kids...
Good weather outdoor experiences:
Dequindre Cut - lots of running opportunities, and they loved the "Never out of mustard" guy
Heidelberg St. - my kids were fascinated by the scenery and we played among the exhibits and on the sort of grungy playground equipment. I haven't been there recently and they seem to have made a big push for publicity/sponsorship/etc. so they may have improved the playground equipment.

Bad or good weather:
Detroit Historical Museum - great train set
A ride around the People Mover circuit. My kids called it the "food train" as we would take it to get lunch somewhere such as Greektown.

For food it is hard to go wrong by going to a coney [[from a kid point of view.)

[dawn26]

i agree...my kids love heidelberg. same for riding the peoplemover. belle isle conservatory is just plain beautiful. i think the little zoo on belle isle is open on saturdays. definately check out the riverwalk. and make sure to figure in some playground time...if nothing else, it'll keep 'em too tired to complain much

[mwilbert]

If you do go to the Historical Museum, my experience is that kids [[possibly not 1 year olds) like the streets of old Detroit exhibit in the basement.

If you go to Belle Isle, if you have a decent wind many kids find a kite rather interesting. If you don't mind being slightly [[but to my mind, insignificantly) antisocial, you could let them feed some ducks or geese [[or seagulls, but I think that's less fun). I second the recommendation on the Nature Zoo; it is a very modest establishment, but it's good for little kids.

[DinNC]

Hello,

I know people on these threads like to hear about the experiences of out of towners and their inpression of the city, so here you go.

Our friends from North Carolina unfortunately had to make their trip to Detroit shorter because of job reasons, but I can tell you that we still had a great time. They weren't able make it for our trip downtown Saturday afternoon but I still took my family. We drove around a bit to look at a lot of the redevelopment projects that I read about on many threads. Very nice to see things moving in the right direction, but still a lot of work. We went to Rivard park where our riverwalk brick is located and had a nice time. I would have to say the weather was not very nice, but the people who made our coffee and hot chocolate were very nice and even opened up the merry-go-round for my son. We walked to GM and had a nice lunch at Andiamos. We then took a drive on Bell Ilse and saw the preparations for the Grand Prix. You could tell were the track was going to be and my dad pretended we were in a race. My four year old loved that. He didn't want to "leave the track". With limited time we just drove around then went to Eastern Market. We got there kind of late and vendors were packing up, but it was still cool to see and we got some cookies for my boys.

As for my friends and their first trip to Detroit/Michigan, we had a good time. Again the time was shorted and a day was taken up by my son's baptism and luncheon. They arrived late Saturday night and my brother & I took my friends to downtown plymouth for a few drinks. They thought it was very nice there and the people very friendly.

We used to live in Old Redford and had the baptism at Christ the King and so showed them around my old stomping grounds and the areas around. Sunday night is when we took them out, minus the kids. My friend wanted to do something uniquely Detroit, so we took them to The Cadiuex cafe for good Belgium food, beer and feather bowling. I would have to say that this bar is apart of my family's history and this was the first time i've been there. My grandfather used to race pigeons from there and where he used to take my grandmother on dates. We had a great time there and my friends were truly impressed and interested in the history of the neighborhood and the bar. After that we went to Foran's for a drink walked into the Guardian building and up to campus martius. Had a photo op at the spirit of Detroit and started to venture towards the river but decided not a good Idea since all the lights were not on.

So, I asked my friends what they thought of Detroit after we all go back to North Carolina and this is what they had to say. They new about the troubles going into the city and the neighborhoods they could see they were no worse than neighborhoods in other cities they;ve been to. My friend said that he had never been to a city were the roads are ths wide and geared strictly for the automobile and no other mass transit. They thought downtown was nice and clean and everyone friendly. They appreciated us showing them and telling them of the history of places we went. They said they would love to come back another time and see more. Their view of Detroit was very positive and have spread the word to some of our other friends in Raleigh as well.

I wanted to say thanks for taking the time to reply to my original post and reading my drawn out summary of my trip. Have a great weekend!