Ann Arbor

Travelers' Takes

Rates and Deals

A-Squared

A travel journal to Ann Arbor by goingy

College kids in Ann Arbor think it's the center of the universe. Spend a few days there, and you'll see how it's surprisingly easy to have that delusion. It's a small mecca of culture and ideas, packing quite a lot into just a few square miles.

  • 8 reviews

A-SquaredBest of IgoUgo

Overview

#1. The Wave Field on the North Campus of the University of Michigan. Designed by Maya Lin, of Vietnam Memorial fame, it crosses a field of grass with sand dunes and is a good place to act like you're 4 again.
#2. The cemetery. Nice old graves, and no-one seems to object to joggers.
#3. The green market, weekends in cobblestoned Kerrytown.
#4. Hill Auditorium. It'll be closing for renovations, but really amazing acoustics. Not to mention great performers, who often stop there before or after their New York City gigs.

Quick Tips:

If college kids make you cringe, avoid A2 September though May. Or visit during a home football game -- for 4 hours, the streets are empty. (After the game, though, you can't get a dinner reservation.) If you want to have the stadium experience -- a LOT of people in one place -- but you don't want to pay scalpers' prices for a football ticket, you can usually get into the stadium for free in the 4th quarter.

Best Way To Get Around:

Walk! Bike! I never understood the students who called for cabs. It's not that big of a town.

The EarleBest of IgoUgo

Restaurant

A treat for a special occasion. It's in the basement, you feel like you're eating in the wine cellar. Candles, jazz, romantic, that type of thing. French/Italian fare. A bit pricy, but nice for memories.
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by goingy on February 19, 2002

The Earle
121 W. Washington Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
(734) 994-0211

Jerusalem GardenBest of IgoUgo

Restaurant

Middle Eastern food when you need some good, cheap and fast. No frills falafel. The ambiance is as small as the check but I'll take it.
  • Member Rating 3 out of 5 by goingy on February 19, 2002

Jerusalem Garden
307 S 5th Avenue Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
(734) 995-5060

Ann Arbor Hands-On MuseumBest of IgoUgo

Attraction | "More museums than you have time for"

The U-M Museum of Art is not the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it's a fantastic little museum with pieces you naturally can't see anywhere else. It has displays from Japan, Africa -- but also an interesting modern collection and sometimes offbeat special exhibits. Check out the painting by Whistler called "Sea and Rain". Have you ever seen anything more lovely? The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is just steps from the art museum, and it's very small -- so if you're short on time, just stick your head in. The museum is housed in a pretty, old stone dormitory. It has beautiful wood floors and, upstairs, a beautiful stained glass window. It is, in short, a very nice place to quietly contemplate ancient greek and egyptian art. Some of the exhibits at the natural history museum on geddes street look like they're from the 1950s, and they probably are. But, hey, it's got dinosaur bones and a stuffed wolverine! If you don't know much about Michigan, it's kind of nice to learn something about its geology and ecology and all that. If you don't like taxidermy, though, watch out. A perpetual favorite is the ann arbor hands on museum -- a kids museum. It's not the best I've been to, by any means. But it's fun, great to catch up on basic basic scientific stuff and pick a fight with elementary schoolers.
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by goingy on February 19, 2002

Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum
220 East Ann Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
(734) 995-5439

PeoplewatchingBest of IgoUgo

Attraction

Some of the more interesting spots:

Fleetwood Diner at 300 S. Ashley. It's famous for being always open and for its hippie hash - which is hashbrowns with a twist. (Hash Bash, a marijuana celebration, is an annual Ann Arbor event.) In the middle of the night, Fleetwood attracts some of Ann Arbor's more interesting characters.

The Ann Arbor bus depot, the Greyhound station, is a time warp seemingly unforgotten by the last 50 years.

The Diag in the center of campus attracts preachers, protestors and loafers.

  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by goingy on March 22, 2002

Peoplewatching
Throughout town Ann Arbor, Michigan

The ArbBest of IgoUgo

Attraction

Nichols Arboretum is 123 acres of urban park. It's Ann Arbor's Central Park equivalent, but on the banks of the Huron River. It's good for frisbee, hackeysack, reading, jogging, cross country skiing, even dance concerts (I've seen them). It's an inviting place to spread a blanket and stay for 4 or 5 hours at a time - if you've got the time. There's also a path that leads from the Arb to the city's Gallup Park, where you can canoe or amble through wildflowers across a system of boardwalks/bridges that, in season, look suspiciously like something from a Monet painting.
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by goingy on March 21, 2002

The Arb
1610 Washinton Heights Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
(734) 998-9540

Music / ConcertsBest of IgoUgo

Attraction | "Music/Concerts"

Music lovers unite here! Ann Arbor is a magnet for musicians, and more are bred in dorm rooms, coffee houses and the school's renowned school of music. On any given night, you may have to choose between the Chicago Orchestra, a gamelan ensemble and some guy's friend's well-reviewed band. If you're looking for live performances, they're not hard to find:

The University Musical Society brings top acts to Hill Auditorium, Rackham Auditorium and the Power Center. School of Music students and professors play often - and for free - in these venues, or at the school itself on north campus. The same goes for shows of musical theatre, straight theatre, and dance.

There are other performance spaces around town with more (dare we say) popular music. They include the Ark, Bird of Paradise, the Performance Network, Blind Pig, Necarine and the Kerrytown Concert House.

  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by goingy on March 21, 2002

Music / Concerts
Ann Arbor, Michigan

KerrytownBest of IgoUgo

Attraction

Kerrytown is a small collection of shops and restaurants, some in houses some in an inoffensive mallish structure, on cobblestoned streets. The very good Indian restaurant has become a very good Ethiopian restaurant, and a hip-looking bar. Kerrytown has a nice space for small concerts, the Kerrytown Concert House, and, best of all, it has a weekend greenmarket where farmers gather from all around.
  • Member Rating 4 out of 5 by goingy on March 21, 2002

Kerrytown
303 Detroit Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
(734) 662-5008

About the Writer

goingy
goingy
Brooklyn, New York

Get the Word Out

Share this travel journal beyond IgoUgo with your favorite sharing tools.