Things to Do in Northview

At Double R Ranch, hikers, bikers, and horseback riders tromp across its trails, nestled next to a gentle, undulating river. Meanwhile elsewhere on the property, golfers take to a nine-hole course that sprawls alongside the ranch’s campgrounds. Families can spend an afternoon or several days taking in the verdant surroundings, where land activities such as hayrides and volleyball games meet water activities in the form of canoeing, tubing, and fishing. Overnight guests can set up camp in one of more than 100 campsites or stretch out in an A-frame chalet that boasts an electric stove, a coffeemaker, and nature’s alarm clock: a bird singing cheerily as it constructs a new split-level nest.

After slinging itself onto the Michigan art scene in 1996, The Mud Room has since spun into a hub of creativity for artists of all ages and artistic experience. Under the direction of the studio's in-house teachers, small groups learn to wield everything from paintbrushes to pottery wheels during four types of classes, which teach such skills as fusing colored glass tiles into kaleidoscopic works or hand-forming ceramics to recreate ancient casseroles. Customers can also stop in to paint pre-made ceramics themselves. The pieces come in various shapes and sizes, which patrons can adorn with colored glaze before handing their artwork over to the professionals to be fired and finished. The studio also offers group pottery classes for parties including girls' nights out, birthdays, and kids' celebrations. In keeping with its safety-first approach, The Mud Room features only nontoxic, lead-free products, ensuring the finished pieces are safe to use with food.

Inside Moves' sprawling indoor-climbing facility invites mountaineers of all skill levels to scale its many craggy walls, nooks, and ledges. Instructors are always on hand for safety tutorials, as well as lessons in top-rope, lead, and boulder-style climbing. Unharnessed climbers can also pilot the facility's low overhangs, which have variable hand grips to mimic a real rockface and black rubber padding to catch you when the mountain decides to "just be friends."

Sculpted into the landscape a half-century ago, Arrowhead Golf Course enhances the native scenery with dense tree lines that frame every hole and creeks and ponds that bisect lush fairways. The front nine features more straight-on layouts with undulating greens, and the back nine can test any bag of trick sticks with numerous ponds and sweeping doglegs on the final two holes. On the par 4 18th hole, the course’s hardest rated hole, a dogleg left is guarded by an oak tree at the bend that swats shots trying to cut the corner and a fairway-splitting stream that lures thirsty golf balls.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 72 course

• 6,188 yards from the farthest set of tees

• Three tee options

• See details on each hole

Marksmen with CO2-powered guns volley paintballs back and forth at T.C. Paintball’s four Michigan locations. Indoor and outdoor battlefields beckon players with a number of obstacles to duck under, dive between, or readjust for ultimate feng shui. Referees patrol the color-strewn grounds, where guests celebrate birthdays and special events with games of capture the flag and el presidente. The experienced staff at each of T.C. Paintball's well-stocked pro shops offer sharpshooting tips gleaned from years of chromatic combat, and can replenish paintball supplies that run low.

Although officially founded in 1930, the Grand Rapids Symphony's history stretches back to 1917 when an enterprising group of local musicians began practicing together and holding regular concerts. In the years since, the ensemble has retained this self-starter mentality while growing into one of the nation's preeminent regional orchestras. Always asserting its idiosyncratic individuality, the organization earned a 2007 Grammy nomination for its collaboration with flamboyant electric harpist Deborah Henson-Conant and the ire of conductors for its rule that all batons should be able to shoot sparks.