Lifestyle
Every season brings dramatic change to the Detroit area, where holiday-card settings melt each spring into miles of planted fields and syrup buckets hanging from maple trees. Summer’s lush green farms and cool lakes and rivers are transformed to vivid autumn hues. Whether your interest is horseback riding, hang gliding, hiking, skiing, sailing, or testing your backswing on a championship golf course— the Detroit region offers nature’s finest playground. Local parks and recreation departments provide hours of organized and supervised athletic and recreational opportunities for children and adults.
Sports fans will discover action in every corner of southeastern Michigan, from the thrill of professional sports to the roaring cheers for favored collegiate teams. Ann Arbor’s University of Michigan and Wayne State University in the heart of Detroit ensure a full schedule of popular sporting events. Professional teams for baseball, arena football, hockey, and basketball combine with auto and horse racing thrills to please every screaming fan. June brings the annual Grand Prix Auto Race on Belle Isle, now featuring Indianapolis-style cars. For boat enthusiasts, the hydroplane races on the Detroit River are a sheer delight.
Culturally rich, Metropolitan Detroit maintains permanent companies for all four of the performing arts — symphony, opera, dance, and theatre. The visual arts are also well represented and include important museums, galleries, and public art that ranges from ancient treasures to the finest of contemporary pieces. Every county in southeastern Michigan has developed unique treasures in performing arts venues, fine galleries, and local or regional talent. Regardless of where you settle, you’ll find active arts organizations, art centers, and local performance groups close to home.
Just across the Detroit River, Windsor, Ontario in Canada is a stepping stone to another world of attractions. Highlights include historic Amhurstburg, the world-famous Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary, and the Stratford Shakespearean Festival. An outstanding draw for naturalists in the Detroit area is Point Pelee National Park, a scenic peninsula of marshes, woodlands, and beaches that attracts a flood of migrating birds in the spring and fall.
Just a few miles from Detroit lies Greenfield Village and the adjoining Henry Ford Museum. The village is one of the most elaborate and extensive collections of fully restored historical buildings in the world — many of which have been transported from locations around the nation. Among the jewels are the Wright Brothers’ Cycle Shop and Stephen Foster’s home. Craftsmen demonstrate ancient arts, while weekly events like antique car gatherings, musket shoots, and pottery festivals draw friends, family, and neighbors together around the four seasons.
Shoppers will delight in Detroit’s variety and abundance of upscale boutiques and prestigious department stores. Many regional malls serve as amusement and entertainment centers as well. The quaint shops and cafes tucked away in suburban retail districts provide a more intimate shopping experience, while local markets display the finest in farm-fresh goods.
Metropolitan Detroit is the perfect place to call home. Welcoming neighborhoods nestled among gently rolling hills or along tree-lined city streets offer affordable home choices from well-appointed subdivisions to luxurious high-rise condominiums. You’ll find turn-of-the-century Victorians, elegant estates, countryside mansions, waterfront properties, lakefront townhouses, and cozy neighborhoods with personalities and distinctions that enliven each streetscape. Whatever lifestyle you might envision, southeastern Michigan has every ingredient to bring it into reality.
