In the summer months, two-hour tours of one of the world's busiest international waterways, the Detroit River, leave twice a day from docks in two locations: The Upper Detroit River Tour departs from Detroit's downtown Rivard Plaza. The Lower Detroit River Tour departs from Bishop Park in Wyandotte. The ships Diamond Jack and Diamond Queen have sailed the Great Lakes for many years and are Coast Guard approved. The Detroit tour passes by modern downtown Detroit and along the Canadian shore passing under the famous Ambassador Bridge. Boats operate from mid June to early September on Thursdays through Sundays. It's a great way to get a different perspective of the Motor City.

Admission is free to this interactive exhibit showcasing the products and services of the world's largest automaker. The 50,000-square-foot showroom displays a rotating roster of 26 vehicles, including many never seen in North America. It's like an auto show for GM products only. Videos and audio players triggered by sensors help present product information. The exhibit has four sections: Touring and Luxury, Family and Neighborhood, Outdoors and Sports Enthusiasts.

This impressive landmark spans the Detroit River west of the twin downtowns of Detroit and Windsor. Ambassador Bridge rises 150 feet above the river, allowing even the tallest ships to pass easily underneath. The view from the bridge is panoramic, on a clear day encompassing both cities, the river, and St. Clair and Erie Lakes. Its length of 9200 feet made it the longest suspension bridge in the world when it opened in 1929. It is the busiest border crossing in North America, with more than 10 million vehicles annually. Many of those are trucks, and 27 percent of all merchandise traded between the United States and Canada passes over the bridge. It can be easily reached from I-96 or I-75 and connects via Huron Church Road in Windsor to Highway 401, which leads to Toronto. Expanded customs plazas at both ends of the bridge have eased the congestion, but expect delays of a half-hour or more at peak crossing times.

This mile-long tunnel, constructed in 1930 under the Detroit River, is the first vehicular tunnel ever built linking two nations. Heavily used by commuters and travelers, it is one of the busiest border crossings between the United States and Canada, handling nine million vehicles a year, 95 percent of them cars. Its US entrance is right next to the Renaissance Center, and its Canadian outlet is in the middle of Windsor's downtown. Jointly owned by the cities of Windsor and Detroit, it has an elaborate ventilation system that keeps the air clean. It was renovated in the mid-1990s. On the Canadian side, a Duty Free Shoppe offers tax-free purchases.

Dating to the 1840s, Mariners Church was modeled after seamen's chapels on the US East Coast. The Gothic structure has services on Sunday morning and at noon on Thursdays. It is often the site of funerals of Detroit civic notables. The church's mission is to serve Great Lakes sailors and their families, and nautical images festoon the interior. Bells toll whenever a life is lost on the lakes. They most famously rang 29 times in November 1975 with the sinking of an ore ship in Lake Superior, an event immortalized in the popular Gordon Lightfoot song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." The church was moved 900 feet after World War II to make way for Detroit's Civic Center buildings. Come by to offer your prayers or to be simply enchanted by this mystic place.

This gigantic concrete expanse at the foot of Woodward Avenue stretches from Jefferson Avenue to the Detroit River. Designed in the 1960s as a civic space by Isamu Noguchi, it includes his unusual twisted spire and fountain. The plaza has a stage and amphitheater and is used for riverfront festivals on summer weekends, the Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival in September, and ice skating in winter. Hart Plaza provides access to a riverfront walkway; it's a favorite spot for fishing and it has an unusual view of Canada across the river.

Replacing the beloved old Olympia Stadium in 1974, Joe Louis Arena did not inspire immediate affection. Views are good even from the most distant of its 19,275 seats, but the architecture is uninspiring. Deck parking is available nearby, but the arena itself is jammed between the river and a freeway, and its exterior is confusing and indistinct. Named after the Detroit-born boxer of the 1930s, it's the home of the National Hockey League's Detroit Red Wings but is also used for collegiate hockey, concerts of every variety, wrestling, circus and even Disney on Ice shows. The People Mover stops at its door, so you can park elsewhere downtown and get here quickly.

On Belle Isle, two cannons from the Battle of Lake Erie mark the entrance to this marine branch of the Detroit Historical Museums. A visit affords a fascinating short course in Detroit's maritime history. Ship models on display range from 19th-century sailing vessels to modern hydroplane racing boats. A 40-ton working pilothouse from the ore freighter William Clay Ford overlooks the Detroit River, where you might see a contemporary freighter gliding past. Another exhibit has yachts owned by automobile magnates in the 1920s and 1930s.

The National Football League's Detroit Lions played outside the city at the Pontiac Silverdome since abandoning Detroit's Tiger Stadium at the end of the 1974 season. In 2002, The Lions moved back to the city and into their new digs at Ford Field, a massive 65,000-seat stadium of steel and glass in the city's downtown entertainment district. Besides sporting events, the facility holds concerts, banquets, corporate events and other special events as well.

The Detroit Tigers, charter members of Major League Baseball's American League, abandoned historic Tiger Stadium at the close of the 1999 season. Their new home is now in the downtown Theater District. Named after a bank whose funds made its creation possible, Comerica Park has something of a circus-like atmosphere with enormous sculptures of tigers, bats and balls, as well as a carousel and Ferris wheel. Fancy food and pricey amenities abound and baseball almost seems to take second place to entertainment. Almost. Sight lines are clear but upper-deck seats are distant.