Things to Do in Saginaw

Total Driving Experience's skilled instructors teach teenagers essential accident-avoidance techniques through simulated real-life driving scenarios. During Day 1 of the Skills Teen Driving School, novice drivers with a valid learner's permit and up spend six hours behind the wheel, practicing challenging maneuvers on a dry obstacle course, skid pad, and rush-hour-themed bouncy castle. Instructors ride with students to offer tips on dealing with tailgaters, handling skidding, and harnessing the stopping power of cars' ABS systems. Each 20- to 30-student session includes a scrumptious lunch and awards participants a certificate of completion that may be used toward discounts with some car-insurance providers or as a makeshift screensaver for a computer monitor.

Since age 3, Dana Bailey has been twirling to her own beat, progressing from childhood cha-chas to appearances in promotions for Pepsi and JC Penney. After studying under instructors in California and New York City, Dana now offers pintsize patrons the same opportunity to get a head start in the performing arts with child and teen dance classes. She enlists working industry pros to wrangle kids as young as 2.5 in tap, ballet, and tumbling classes atop pliable wood and marley floors.

The boys' tap, jazz, and hip-hop classes accommodate a demographic often overlooked by the dance industry and prepare a studio team for local and national performances. Instructors regularly glean pointers from top national choreographers to craft classes such as Teen Hip Hop, which equips students with basic moves and combos that, much like the prom held outside the Grammys, are set to a soundtrack of current hits.

Set to scratch through to a new era as part of the North American Baseball League, the Cats slug and pitch their way into the 2012 season when it opens with an eight-game home stand on May 23. The perennial playoff-contending ball club joins the Southern Division of the NAL after a successful run through the American Association, where they hoisted back-to-back championships in 2006 and 2007. This season, former TCU Horned Frog Shelby Ford dons Cats' colors for the first time. A third-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2006, Ford is expected to anchor the middle of the lineup while scooping up any grounders and tumbleweeds that roll his way at shortstop.

The National Cowgirl Museum honors the tough-as-nails cow-lasses of the American West with a comprehensive collection of more than 6,000 photographs and 5,000 artifacts, as well as both traveling and permanent exhibits. A Hall of Fame gallery shares the stories of 200 honorees, including Annie Oakley, Patsy Cline, and Sandra Day O'Connor, while artifacts such as costumes, boots, saddles, letters, and jackalope lassos span 150 years of cowgirl history. Exhibits are organized to display different aspects of the lives of women in the West. Into the Arena honors women riders with rodeo memorabilia and a life-sized bronco model, allowing mounters to simulate the thrill of the rodeo. Claiming the Spotlight takes a look at the entertainers, actors, and country-western musicians whose tales of rootin' and shootin' injected the American consciousness with nostalgia for the open prairie and dangerously full tobacco spittoons.

Movie Tavern transfixes one's taste buds and imagination by blending all-digital cinema with premium seating and sit-down dining. Moviegoers are encouraged to arrive 45 minutes prior to showtime, so that they can leisurely peruse an extensive menu of chef-inspired American cuisine, from kobe beef sliders to pizza and sandwiches. Nimble and unobtrusive servers slip in during the show to deliver orders, and can be called on for more drinks or dessert with the push of a button. At select locations, guests can opt to sip margaritas or signature cocktails at the bar before heading in to see a show. Audiences get to enjoy first-run films every week, retro cinema every Tuesday and Thursday evening, and breakfast food paired with early morning movies on Saturday and Sunday. While geared toward adults, the family-friendly establishment also serves finger food for kiddies along with film-inspired dishes. Guests can head to the bar or straight to the movie without ordering food, giving them some latitude in shaping their night out.

Additionally, Movie Tavern treats audiences to myriad benefits with their membership program. Anyone can sign up for free online to receive one free movie ticket on the spot and one free ticket every year on their birthday, as well as invites to screenings and other special events.

Summit Climbing Gym sprawls across 10,000 square feet lined with towering structures for boundless bouldering and rope climbing. Manmade walls adorned with brightly colored handholds emerge from the ground, daring aspiring climbers to decode their paths. Fingertips dipped in rock chalk learn to cling to the hardened monoliths with firm grace, keeping on the lookout for the single book spine that triggers access to a revolving door and secret chocolate fountain. Guests can gab with experts about form and new-equipment purchases at the climb shop, or take a breather on a comfy couch to rest, reflect on a new route, or admire their brand-new Popeye forearms.