Things To Do in Wixom

Garnering accolades from numerous athletic associations and websites, Life Time Fitness’s area locations offer various multi-use sports arenas, fitness centers, family recreation areas, and spas for gym-goers of all sorts. Basketball courts, volleyball nets, and racquetball matrices provide tangible barriers to determine out-of-bounds abuses, while audible battle cries on the indoor climbing wall and poolside water slide release workday tension. Calorie burning and muscle building options abound with Life Time Fitness’s impressive array of cardio machines, free weights, and resistance training equipment. Night owls and sleep-swimmers alike will appreciate Life Time Fitness’s 24/7 open door policy. Complimentary lockers and towels sweeten the experience with storage space for your keys and a new patch for your perspiration quilt. Post-work out, relax in the sauna or get pampered at the LifeSpa & Salon.

Dipson Theatres celebrates a reputation as a regional movie institution with a network of 12 locations lighting 57 silver screens across Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania. Though the company now spreads across the northeast United States, it began in the small city of Batavia, NY, in 1939—a time when movies were called “picture shows,” Roosevelt was in the White House, and everybody could only see in black and white. Today that tradition underlies the cinematic experience as patrons chomp popcorn and sip sodas, marveling at modern 3-D visual adventures, summer action movies, family-friendly features, or even indie art flicks and footage from world-renowned opera performances.

One empty school bus, twenty-seven abandoned cars, and a desolate two-story house are the only refuges for combatants roving an expansive urban field. Fourteen additional playfields set the stage for games, surrounding players in open fields and dense forests. It's at Futureball Paintball's 115-acre facility that friendly paintball and Airsoft battles unfold each day and have unfolded for more than 20 years. While vehicle carcasses characterize the urban landscapes, two airfields exhibit red inflatables that mimic the ruins of ancient bounce castles. Between games, a 5-acre picnic area serves as neutral ground to strategize and nibble snacks.

To ensure fair play, Futureball Paintball's staff leads brief orientations and monitors all action. They can also repair and upgrade guns.

Voted No. 4 in the Top 10 Birthday Chains for Kid Birthday Parties in 2010 by Parents magazine, Pump It Up pulses with inflatable play sets and actually encourages kids to bounce off the walls. Within the indoor playground, a stalwart staff oversees the neighborhood of bounce houses and air-filled playthings, such as a classic bounce castle and slick inflatable slide that cushions children's heartfelt reenactments of Cool Runnings. Throughout the week, families can pop in for open play, or tote along their own mini entourage for birthday-party packages complete with private rooms and complimentary invites. Parties come as straightforward packages or as themed events that place the birthday child in structured story adventures where they take on the role of a mighty and clever superhero or pirate captain that drank too much saltwater.

Lori Murphy sums up her exercise philosophy in the simple maxim, “Don’t use a machine, be the machine.” Besides encouraging students to replace their hands with cybernetic free weights, it reminds them that a strong workout regimen can travel outside of the gym. As owner and head trainer of My Stronger Self Fitness Studio, she brings her 18 years of experience leading exercise classes to teach time-honored, as well as new-fangled, moves during kickboxing classes, outdoor boot camps, and intense personal-training sessions.

As the sun sets over Lake St. Clair, the Splash Summer Series Summer Kickoff raucously welcomes in the season. Revelers head to the Tinfish Jefferson Beach Marina to take in a dazzling light and sound show on the tiki bar deck, or marvel as flying cirque performers manipulate flames in defiance of gravity and the laws of thermodynamics. DJs including Matt Aubrey & Holevar, Shawn Michaels and DJ Marky G set the soundtrack to the night, and a late-night food menu keeps partiers fueled until 4 a.m.

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 riverfront 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 locations along the Huron River.