I love our summer city breaks to catch a MLB game. It has become one of my favorite things to do with our children and we now have decided we want to attempt to visit all the MLB parks. Last summer, I stumbled across an article somewhere on the internet that talked about Detroit being an up and coming city. We had just seen the Lions play the Red Sox in Boston and I immediately made the decision, much to everyone’s skepticism, to play a trip to see the Lions play in Detroit summer of 2025. 

Detroit is surprisingly easy to get to, a direct 1.5 hour flight from Charlotte, and with it’s history of music and the auto industry, immediately gives you a plethora of activities to do and sites to see. We took Spirit Air out of Charlotte on Friday and had the easiest, no hiccup trip to Detroit. This was needed to buffer the horrible flight home, but I will get to that later. 

We arrived in Detroit early evening and easily caught an uber into town. Our Uber driver was the first, of many people we encountered, that showed an extraordinary amount of pride in this comeback city. He was friendly, gracious, and the better than any tour guide we could have paid for. Good folks like this let you know that a place is going to be great. 

Our hotel was right downtown, near the stadium and within walking distance of places to eat. Nothing super fancy, but it had a pool the kids loved, was very reasonable, and all the places we needed to get to were easily accessible. We fed the kids the first night in the room the first night and Laurence and I took off to a neat bar down the road called Jacoby’s. Goodness it is game changing now that we can leave the girls in charge to babysit!

The next day, the main thing I had on my to do, was visit the Motown Museum. As usual, with my last minute planning, I did not secure tickets ahead of time. When I saw it was sold out, I truly was gutted. I called the museum to find out what could be done, and thank goodness there was a solution! If you do not secure tickets ahead of time, you can still get them the day of. However, you have to act fast as it is first come, first serve. You show up and get in line when they open (but go ahead and get there earlier because the line gets long) and you have to take whatever time slot you can get. This was a little annoying because we were not able to secure an exact plan for the day because it depended when we could get in. We had to wait about 20-30 minutes until we could get to the front of the line and were able to score late afternoon tickets. This wasn’t completely ideal, since we needed an activity up until then, but we had the game that night, so we would still have time to make the baseball game. 

I heard and read great things about the Detroit Museum of Art, so we decided this would be the best way to spend the bulk of the day. The museum was massive and REALLY well done. I would highly recommend adding this to a Detroit itinerary. We spent about two hours then grabbed lunch at a really cool spot called Midtown Social. Since we had a little bit more time to kill before our Motown tour, we hopped on the Q-line (really easy to figure out and free) to head downtown to grab some Lions gear for the game. 

Detroit has done a phenomenal job with all of their stadiums being downtown. We went to the fan shop outside the Lions stadium and the whole area just had a buzzy vibe. We were able to get our gear, run back to the hotel to freshen up, and hopped in an Uber back out to Motown for our ticket time. 

Now, we have all heard and we all love Motown. But I never fully understood the impact on how these folks from this neighborhood in Detroit shaped music, shaped people, and forever connected people no matter age, race religion or whatever. Standing in Barry Gordy’s house and studio where so many of the iconic hits were recorded was surreal. You can’t do Detroit without doing this museum. 

The museum took a little over an hour, which gave us time to head back to the hotel quickly and head on to the Lion’s game! After the game, we still had a little bit of time to do some night swimming, before the pool closed, which the kids loved!

Sunday was our “auto” day and we wanted to see the Ford Museum. We grabbed brunch at a really cool spot named Haus, then grabbed an Uber out to the Ford compound.

I was not sure what to expect with this because when you went to the website, there are different ticket packages and different things to do. After reading some feedback online, we settled on Greenfield Village, a part of the campus of the Ford Museum, and is an outdoor living history museum. I could not have been more impressed! The best description I can find online says this:

“Greenfield Village is an outdoor living history museum in Dearborn, Michigan, founded by Henry Ford, showcasing authentic historic buildings and artifacts from American history, including Thomas Edison’s lab, the Wright Brothers’ shop, and Abraham Lincoln’s courthouse, offering an immersive experience of past American life and innovation. Part of The Henry Ford museum complex, it features historic structures carefully dismantled and rebuilt on-site to represent different eras, complete with working farms, historic transportation, and costumed interpreters.” 

Henry Ford bought, moved, and rebuilt important buildings from history such as the Wright Brother’s childhood home and bicycle shop, his childhood home, Robert Frost’s home, and so many more! You truly feel like you have stepped back into an early 1900’s village, with model T Fords driving around (which you can pay to get a ride in) and costumed actors roaming about. There were activities and demonstrations throughout the day. We got here around lunch and stayed until closing…we could have used more time. There was so much to do. There is no way you can do both the indoor and outdoor museum, and I am sad we missed the indoor Ford Museum because things like Rosa Parks’ bus and Lincoln’s limo are housed in there. And since I haven’t experience both, I cannot say for certain which one to do over the other, but Greenfield Village was pretty darn impressive, especially for kids!

We knew we could not leave Detroit without a deep dish pizza, so after we left Greenfield, we had our Uber drop us off at Grandmom Bob’s pizza, which is also next to the Mercury Bar, which is another good spot someone recommended. We had a drink at the Mercury Bar while we had a wait at Grandma Bob’s, which was nice to sit for a moment after a busy day! We we finally got in to Grandma Bob’s, we ordered a few different things to try and of course, the pizza was amazing. and while some may tell you to go with the famous Buddy’s pizza, a lot of people we spoke to said Grandma Bob’s was the way to go! We ended the night again with another night swim, much to the children’s delight!

The next morning we had some time to kill before catching our flight home. Detroit has one of the country’s best Riverwalks and had we been more organized, should have rented bikes or something. However, it was hot as hades, but we felt like we just needed to check the box of seeing the riverwalk. It is pretty cool how you can look across the water and see Canada…I did not realize that Detroit was so close! We grabbed brunch, then took an Uber to the airport, where we had a 9 hour delay, hit horrendous turbulence as we landed in Charlotte, and finally made it home to Spartanburg, exhausted at nearly 3 in the morning. Needless to say, as great as Spirit Air was there, I need to remember to book an airline, that has multiple flights, and takes off in the morning, when I fly in the summer. 

Detroit-What a comeback story! A place that shows us we can fall hard, rise again, and find ourselves even better on the other side. Rebirth. Grace. Unity…this city is truly the hidden American gem I read about in an article last year, that prompted this entire trip. I’d go ahead and add it to your next city break list and if you need a travel buddy, I’m in!

Detroit in a Nutshell:

Friday July 25

-CLt to Detroit

-Arrive and check into hotel.

-Feed kids at hotel, Laurence and I to drinks and dinner at Jacoby’s

Saturday, July 26

-Head to Motown to get in line for day of tickets. (BOOK AHEAD OF TIME TO AVOID THIS!)

-Uber to Detroit Institute of Art from Motown

-Walk to lunch at Midtown Social

-Q-line back into town to fan shop, freshen up at hotel

-Uber back to Motown Museum for tour (about 10-15 minutes)

-Back downtown for Lion’s game. Must get a coney dog to eat either here, or somewhere in Detroit!

Sunday, July 27

-Bruch at Haus

-Uber to Ford Museum- We only had time for the outdoor museum! We should have done an earlier breakfast to have a little more time there! It was massive and so much to do. You need two full days to do the indoor and the outdoor museum. I would love to go back and do the indoor one. 

-Uber back into town. Dinner at Grandma Bob’s pizza. 

Monday, July 28

-Walk along riverfront. It was hotter than hades in July. Neat to see Canada on the other side of the river. 

-We should have had a better idea of where to eat…this is always a debacle when we wing it. Ended up at brunch place, but can’t remember the name. I wanted to eat at Eminem’s restaurant, Mom’s Spaghetti, but it was closed on Mondays. Again, need to plan better next time.

-Uber to airport.