11 Things to Check Off the Family Bucket List Before School Starts

Many urban and suburban kids don’t have a strong connection to where their food originates. The Fifth Third Bank Michigan State Fair can rectify that. (Photo via Facebook)

With school starting soon in southeast Michigan, have you checked everything off your bucket list?

The weekends are slipping away before school starts and they’re jam-packed with activities. Here are some suggestions for family fun before summer’s gone.

1. Go see the Butter Cow the Fifth Third Bank Michigan State Fair in Novi, which runs Sept. 4-7. Sculptor Tom Paul Fitzgerald transforms hundreds of pounds of butter into a beautiful work of art. There are real-life animals kids don’t get to see in the ‘burbs, along with plenty of contests, entertainment and a midway. What state fair is complete without a spin on the ferris wheel?

2. Those healthy lunches schools are dishing up won’t offer this, so take the kiddos to a Sanders Candy Factory Tour in Clinton Township. They’ll be able to see how the experts create those luscious treats, and indulge in some of them.

3. This isn’t fun, but it’s important. Take a tour at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills. Some of the exhibits include the eternal flame and memorial wall, a timeline tracing the history of the Jewish people juxtaposed with milestones in world history, the Museum of European Jewish Heritage and others exploring the descent into Nazism, the camp system, the postwar period and portraits that tell the stories of many of Michigan’s survivors of the Holocaust.

4. Go to a museum. If you live in Oakland, Wayne or Macomb counties, entry to the Detroit Institute of Art is free. Or, step back in time and revisit history at the Detroit Historical Museum. For museums that have a charge, go to your local library and get a museum pass.

5. Become a pinball wizard at Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum, listed in the World Almanac as one of the world’s 100 most unusual museums. Every decade is accounted for in what in this treasure trove of well-kept pinball machines. It’s located in Farmington Hills.

6. Visit visual artist Olayami Dabls’ MBAD Museum, which honors the cultures and art of Africa.

7. Experience Detroit’s historic architecture with a self-guided tour that could include strolls past the magnificent Art Deco Fisher Building, towering cathedrals and churches, historic neighborhoods, and storied mansions and estates.

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• What free activities are going on in your town? Help your frazzled parent friends out with some suggestions.

8. Visit the Heidelberg Project, an open-air urban art museum on Detroit’s east side. Founder and artistic director Tyree Guyton uses everyday, discarded objects to create a two block area full of color, symbolism, and intrigue. Now in its 29th year, the Heidelberg Project is recognized around the world as a demonstration of the power of creativity to transform lives.

9. Visit the late folk artist Dmytro Szylak’s Hamtramck Disneyland. If you like the Heidelberg Project, you’ll love this kitschy backyard carnival. This could be your last chance to see it. Dmytro, a Ukrainian immigrant, died on May 1, and it’s unclear what his survivors plan to do with the collection.

10. Go to the Cranbrook Institute of Science, Michigan’s museum of natural history, located in Bloomfield Hills. Admission is free on the first Friday of each month and after 5 p.m.

11. Travel internationally on a whim and take a tour of Windsor, Canada. Remember, you’ll need a passport or a combination of a birth certificate and government-issued photo identification (driver’s license) to enter the country.

Sources: Adapted from Thrillist and websites.