Things to Do in Monroe

Since May 2008, Wheelhouse Detroit has been offering its customers a healthy and highly efficient new way to see Motown, with guided bike tours traversing the terrains and trails of Detroit. More than 80 bicycle tours are scheduled for the upcoming months, with new tours regularly added. On the Belle Isle tour on Saturday, May 21, pedaling explorers will cruise around Detroit's famed architectural archipelago, surveying sights such as the aquarium and Livingstone Memorial Lighthouse. Guides will discuss the history behind the area's famous statues, such as Alpheus Starkey Williams, who served as a Union general in the Civil War before tragically being turned to stone.

The year was 1975, and Wayne State University's David Mackenzie House was facing imminent destruction to make way for a new sewer line. Two university students rallied their peers to halt the demolition, simultaneously planting the seed that bloomed, like a flower bulb planted in radioactive dirt, into Preservation Detroit. Over the past three decades, the architectural preservation organization has become a leading advocate for the protection and rehabilitation of Detroit's historic abodes, skyscrapers, and culturally rich sites. Preservation Detroit's staff, composed primarily of volunteers, continues to nurture their community's passion for historical treasures through lectures, seasonal newsletters, and tours.

From May to September, tour guides usher pedestrians through the bustling streets of Detroit, weaving narrative tapestries about the century-old cultural center and, on the Auto Heritage tour, Henry Ford's flagship factory, birthplace of the Model T and the concept that assembly lines are useful for more than just completing the Sunday crossword. During a special yearly boat tour, guides unravel the Detroit River's seedy past as a conduit for Prohibition-era bootlegging while passengers dig into dinner.

Fueled by the passion of winemaker and obsessive-compulsive grape-stomper Lisa Berry, Vintner's Cellar offers several wines fermented in Royal Oak. During your tasting, you'll get to sample five different wines from a diverse range of red, white, fruit, and specialty libations. You'll also get to snack on cheese, crackers, grapes, and crackery grapecheese creations while soaking in the lively décor of intermingling dark and vivid tones like a sponge tuxedo. The wine tasting is good for two people, so buddy up or carefully wheel a frenemy's bed to the cellar before he or she wakes up.

The sage-like city prowlers of Inside Detroit lead groups of tourists and natives through Detroit's history-rich hubs, charming watering holes, and evolving cultural centers. Walking tours bring urban nomads through the major landmarks of Detroit's downtown, such as the underground railroad's Second Baptist Church and the 40-story Guardian Building, an Aztec-inspired architectural masterpiece built during the 1920s, when it was thought to guard the city from hay fever.

Pottery Creations allows children and grownups to bring out their creative sides through the art of painting on three-dimensional ceramic canvases. You can use the Groupon for the studio's firing fee ($5 for kids, $8 for adults) and put the rest toward one of more than 100 clay canvases, with items ranging from cups and picture frames to piggy banks and bowls shaped like bunnies ($6 to $40 each). An assortment of tools allows you to daub a pot with a sponge, stencil your surname on a serving tray, or trace your vestigial tail onto an ornament. Parents appreciate Pottery Creations' patient, easygoing staff, who permit food and drink and rarely cry over spilt pigments. Upon your masterwork's completion, they'll fire the piece, let it cool, and dust away its exoskeleton before making the handiwork available for pick-up about a week later.

After buying their first canoe in 1942, Chester and Stella Heavner were hooked. So were their friends. After constantly loaning out their red-canvas Old Town canoe, the pair invested in two more and started charging a nominal rental fee. In 1953, they made it official with a patch of lakefront property, eight canoes, and a trailer.

Today, Heavner Canoe & Kayak Rental is run by Chester and Stella’s eldest son, Alan. He and his staff manage an inventory of more than 200 canoes and kayaks, which they rent at three lakes along the Huron River. In addition to hourly rentals, they teach beginning kayak lessons led by instructors certified by the American Canoe Association and the American Red Cross. The sessions cover water safety, stroke techniques, and how to play dead when being attacked by a bigger kayak.