A Day in the D: Visit Detroit

Photo: @VisitDetroit

I love random emails that come bearing good news.

Several weeks ago I received such an email, inviting me to spend a "Day in the D" with the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau. It vaguely mentioned a few cool sounding tours and sneak peaks, but left me curious and excited to spend a day in my home town.

A few things made my quick, affirmative reply a no-brainer. Number one, I love Detroit. Number two, I love meeting and networking with fellow local bloggers. Number three, there was a little line toward the end of the email that read:

Transportation, tours, and meals will be covered by the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau.

...and, I love free. Thus, I said, "YES!" before knowing the details, and before fully considering the myriad hoops I'd have to jump through and coordinate in order to attend this event.

My breath caught when I saw the actual itinerary weeks later. Because it was a fabulous itinerary, but also because I realized my Day in the D would begin at 7:45 a.m. and end somewhere in the neighborhood of 9:00 p.m. This meant getting up way early, arranging for someone to drive the kids to school, switching car seats, making sure the kids all had rides home from school, getting someone to babysit while Chris was at work, and making sure Bethany had a ride to and from dance. Several phone calls and texts later, and I had everything figured out, with lots of help from family and friends.

I was good to go. Except that last week Mathilda barely slept. It was a nightmare. The night before the event was the worst, and I only got in a few short hours of sleep, some of it while sitting up on the couch and holding my little munchkin on my lap. So I woke up Thursday morning exhausted, yet determined to have a great day. Determination can go a long way, because the entire day was perfect. I only wish I had been a little more energetic.

What did I do throughout my Day in the D? The original itinerary looked something like this:

1. Meet downtown & load onto a bus
2. Detroit Zoo tour
3. Detroit Historical Museum tour
4. Buddy's Pizza for lunch
5. Segways2U tour of downtown
6. Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix Tour
7. Dinner at Brizola inside Greektown Casino-Hotel
8. Return to vehicle

Sounds amazing, right? The only hiccup was that it started raining and clearly wasn't going to let up, so we had to substitute the Motown Museum and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for the Segway tour. The Segway tour sounded like fun, and hopefully I can do that another time, but both of the museums were exceptional and I'm glad we had the opportunity to visit them.

Each stop was fun, interesting, and thoroughly enjoyable. The bus was comfortable, the food was delicious, and the company was lovely. I'm going to tell you all about my Day in the D, but there's way too much to squeeze into one little post. Over the coming days I'm going to highlight one or two stops at a time and share all the details and some pictures too. I hope I will inspire you to get out and explore the city of Detroit, or even to come and visit us here in the Motor City if you live outside of the Metro Detroit area.

Disclosure: As mentioned above, all my expenses were covered by the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau. All opinions are my own.