Tag Archives: family fun

Campus Martius in September

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” Let’s go to the BEACH!” is my B’s number ONE request after school every day. Campus Martius has made a beautiful beach to run, jump and play in. With both sun and shaded seating, a water fountain to wash your feet in plus a HUGE fountain to gaze at, your kids will be happy you came. Bring their sand toys if you really want to knock their socks off!

The Compuware building is just a few feet away with clean public bathrooms and benches to rest for a moment in the air conditioning. The indoor fountain is amazing to watch and will give your kids a giggle. Street parking is readily available and lots of little eateries (mostly well-known national chains) are all within a hundred yards.

The “beach” has a bar and patio geared toward adults too with a full service bar where you can enjoy a beer and stick YOUR toes in the sand. On the flip side of the fountain is a beautiful grassy area with tons of bistro seating and a gelato stand. The stage area has programs listed on the Campus Martius site year round.

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What’s your favorite time of year to visit Campus Martius?

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Detroit Time Machine

Greenfield Village is an authentic time machine that can transport you into Edison’s workshop and the very chair he used while inventing the incandescent light bulb or into the Wright brothers family kitchen. Take a horse and buggy ride, cruise in a model T Ford or chug along on a steam train.

The one hundred year old carousel is magical and the village green is the perfect spot for a family game of “tag”. You can bring your own picnic lunch or enjoy a healthy snack (most likely grown or made in the Village) from one of their shops. With all of that, they’ve gone and topped it!

Introducing (drum roll, please) the new playscape!

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A huge Firestone tire replica spins round and round in one corner and the two-story water tower shines in the weak October sun, highlighting three ways to go up and down! It’s fully fenced in with a staff member at the entrance/exit to guide young explorers. It has something for every age group, even the adults! Our first time there we spent two hours and only explored half of the playscape!

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Of course there’s a Ford flatbed truck! Climb in the drivers seat, turn on the engine and imagine yourself trolling along. Just in front of its bumper is the sandbox, of course it wouldn’t be complete without a life-size excavator, right? Then there is the ten foot high pumping station that spits out real water (even at the end of October) and the swing set that will delight infants and gymnasts alike.

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You can sing “row, row, row your boat” at the top of your lungs!

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Learn about the physics of water flow…

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Place different shaped wood pieces at different intervals to create a damn or a waterfall…

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Regardless of your intent, you won’t be able to stop the mystical time tunnel that is, Greenfield Village.

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Potty details:
Proper restrooms with changing tables, family restrooms with rockers for nursing and real soap and towels to dry are everywhere throughout the village.

Cost:
This place is not cheap. We do get a membership each year with ride passes and at nearly $370.00, it is triple the cost of our zoo or science center memberships, but completely worth it.

Parking:
Easy and free if you are a member. Easy, still, even if you’re not a member, they just add the cost onto your ticket,

As always, these are simply my own opinions and observations. I did not in ANY way get compensated for this review.

Do you have a favorite play area around town? Write it in the replies, or if you’ve already written about it, post your link 🙂

Costume Police!

You might get ticketed by the costume police when you’ve got a matching vehicle as a part of the design. We “spared no expense” as they said on Jurassic Park… Oy! I justify the expense by telling myself, “I only have one child and there are a finite amount of Halloweens…yadda, yadda”, you know the lies we tell ourselves.

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I fell in love with it at first sight! I love the hat, the boots, the badge, I love it all! Not to mention, B seems to like it too.

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A tip ‘o the hat and my heart swooned. No warm blooded mommy could say no to this, right?

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There he goes, having stolen my poor heart!

What costumes are your kiddos wearing this year?

Moo Cluck Moo Review

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Moo Cluck Moo- restaurant review

http://www.moocluckmoo.com/

Cross Streets: Telegraph Rd. & Joy Rd.

Bathroom: NONE (apparently when you are a “carry out only” establishment you are not required to offer any facilities to your customers.)

Food: YUM to the capital Y U and M. We used our groupon for two “all american BBQ” burgers and added regular fries (although they had many options) and a salted caramel chocolate milk shake. An amazing pickled cole slaw topped my BBQ burger that blew my mind, it was SO good!

Seating: A few bar height two tops inside and some rickety two tops outside on the blacktop within feet of cars whizzing by at 60mph. We attempted to dine outside as the inside was jammed but found it too challenging to balance a toddler on one knee and eat. Plus, you could barely hear each other talk with the whooshing of traffic.

Staff: The employees were amazing. I would be happy if any of them were my neighbor or lab partner.

To solve the “family dining” issue we drove a few blocks off Telegraph to a playground attached to a school. It was in a cute brick home lined neighborhood and we attempted to eat “picnic style”. However, as soon as B saw the playscape, he was off and running, big daddy in hot pursuit!

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This is a picture of the school parking lot. There was one other family there that looked like they had the same meal plan we did.

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Overall, I felt good about giving B a “fast food” burger from here. I was just surprised about the “carry out only” scenario. Now that I am prepared, I can go with the right attitude to fully enjoy this great food served up by an uber friendly staff.