I got a few questionable looks when I told friends and family we were headed to
Ann Arbor, Michigan for a long weekend. Why? I guess we are the only folks who like pretty little college towns. Truth be told, when I started planning this trip I knew Tyler and I would fit right in in Ann Arbor. We both love to eat, try local craft brews, and any place that is bicycle-friendly. And Ann Arbor has all of those things!
We stayed in the sweetest
AirBNB in the "Old West Side" of town, amongst rows and rows of Victorian homes. There are a few hotels in the area but we wanted an authentic experience, and to feel like locals for the weekend. We were so happy with our stay we plan on going back this fall for a Wolverines football game and will stay in the same spot. If you want a link to our exact AirBNB location, send me a message!
Three days really isn't enough in Ann Arbor, but it's close enough to Toronto we don't mind going back to hit up all the places we didn't have time for this time around. We would also revisit a few really great spots we found this time around, because we loved them so much.
Interested in seeing how you can fill three days in Ann Arbour? Here's how we spent our long weekend there.
Day One
We arrived Friday midday and after checking into our AirBNB went for a walk through downtown to scope out the area. Our AirBNB was about a ten minute walk from the centre of everything. The first spot we stumbled upon was
Graffiti Alley. It's a pretty cool little alley littered with art by local graffiti artists. I spent quite a while checking out all of the different images.
When we left Graffiti Alley, it was time for happy hour. So many places in Ann Arbor have happy hour from Monday to Friday 4pm to 6pm. I had done some research before we arrived and saw that
Aventura, a local tapas restaurant had a pretty great happy hour menu. Here you can find $5 Sangria, Old Fashions, and other cocktails, half priced draft beers and 25% off tapas.
The Sangria Espumosa was delicious, and their red wine sangria had such a great cinnamon kick. For tapas, the lamb meatballs, stuffed peppers with short ribs and three cheese croquettes were amazing. To be honest we thought about going back and ordering everything else on the menu because it was all so good that we felt like we were missing out - but our wedding diets stopped us!
When we left Aventura, I was craving something sweet. That's when we stumbled upon
Le Bon Macaron. I can't even tell you how happy I am that we stumbled upon this little gem. We ended up going there again on Saturday because their macarons were so good. After my first bite I said to Tyler, "these are the best macarons I have ever had," and I meant it. I've had a lot of great macarons before, but oh. my. word. these were AMAZING. Don't miss out on this spot if you're ever in Ann Arbor. The Cake Batter, Mimosa, Champagne, and Blueberry Vanilla were my favourites, but every flavour we tried was good!
Once I satisfied my sweet tooth, we started our weekend of beer tasting (I stuck to cider). Our first stop was
Arbor Brewing Co. Their beers are brewed in Ypsilanti, a short drive east of Ann Arbor, but their Brewpub in Downtown Ann Arbor serves all of of their beers, sours and cider. Their sours are amazing, though pretty pricey - aren't all sours? And their Arbor Heirloom Cider was the best I drank all weekend!
Next up, we stopped in at
Grizzly Peak, a huge bar at the corner of West Washington and South Ashley. Tyler aggressively got a flight of all ten of their beers to try, while I sipped on a local cherry cider. Their menu looked really good, and their brunch is spoken highly of by locals. You can also add a mimosa or bloody mary to any brunch item for just $5 on Sunday's!
After all of the beer we had a hankering for a salty snack. We went for a walk to see which places were busy, and when we saw the line at
Chela's we knew we had to go in. (I snapped a pic of it in daylight the next day; See below) Chela's is a local dive serving up authentic Mexican tacos and Horchata, a rice-based drink that tastes like rice pudding. I had a pork taco and Tyler tried the chorizo and steak. The tacos were pretty good, but one thing I didn't like was their double corn tortillas, it was carb overkill.
Day Two
For Day two, we started light with brunch at
Wilma's, a hip little spot serving up healthy toasts and smoothies. I had the Nova Toast, which is basically smoked salmon with veggie cream cheese and pickled onions on toast. Tyler had a breakfast burrito!
We walked off brunch by checking out main campus at the
University of Michigan and I snapped a few photos of the iconic
Michigan Theatre and
State Theatre.
Then we headed to
Kerrytown. To me Kerrytown is comparable to Toronto's Cabbagetown; Very hipster meets hippie, with some amazing vegan spots, a famous deli and an indoor / outdoor market. The
Ann Arbor farmer's market is an outdoor year-round market open every Saturday from 8am to 3pm. It has some amazing vendors selling artisan products, farm-fresh food and cool plants. One thing we noticed though, was the insane price of maple syrup at the market - I was glad to be Canadian when I saw those steep prices!
Zingerman's Deli was on our lunch list, but it started to rain and the line up was out the door and around the corner. It must be amazing because there were easily 100 people in line so we saved that for next time.
Instead, we headed back downtown and went to
Frita Batido's a local Cuban hot spot for some authentic Cuban frita's (burger), fried plantain, cilantro fries... and accidentally ordered a delicious tropical batido (milkshake), instead of a tropical juice. Oops! (It was delicious even though it killed both of our lactose-intolerant stomachs)
After that heavy meal, we took a long walk to
Teaspressa where we ordered fancy lattes and waited out the rain. Teaspressa is a tea shop that takes a coffee-spin on tea, by whipping up cool tea lattes like the Iced Lavender Earl Grey Latte I enjoyed. Tyler had a Cappuccino - with coffee! (He says he isn't into tea...) I wish they had a chai tea latte on their menu because I LOVE chai tea and love to try new chai latte's wherever we go. The London Fog I had was delicious though!
We don't do much shopping on our trips, but I had heard that the Ann Arbor
Shinola boutique was pretty cute, and had a really great cafe in the basement so we stopped in to check out some watches and see the store. Shinola is a brand of watches from Detroit (40 minutes away) so it only makes sense that they have an awesome boutique in Ann Arbor.
By dinnertime, we were still so full from lunch we decided to do a cheese and chocolate tasting at
Blom Meadworks while we tried a flight of all of their meads (fermented honey) and cider. Blom is so special in my eyes because they are so supportive of other local businesses - selling local Michigan chocolates from
Mindo, and doing cheese tastings with cheeses from local dairy farms. I love supporting small and local businesses so I was happy to spend plenty of time at Blom Meadworks. If you go, be sure to try the Pear Ginger Cider and the Raspberry Mead - they were both of our favourites!
Our last stop was a sour beer tasting at
Jolly Pumpkin. Tyler is really into sour beers right now so we tried a lot of sour beers over the weekend. Jolly Pumpkin is known for their sour beers and amazing food; We shared another snack board - is there such thing as too much charcuterie? - and each had a flight before heading home to bed.
Day Three
We checked out of our AirBNB before breakfast and with sad faces headed for breakfast before our 6 hour drive home. We liked
Wilma's so much we went back again on Sunday. This time I had the ABC toast which is brioche bread topped with almond butter, banana, maple syrup, cinnamon and cacao nibs. Yum! Tyler had the Nova Toast.
Before leaving town we had to check out
Michigan Stadium, the largest stadium in the United States. I love football so it was really cool to see such a massive stadium, and I can't wait to head back in the fall to check out a Wolverines game! FYI - If you're in town during the week you can go for tours of the stadium for $25 per person.
Shopping
Looking for places to shop in Ann Arbor? There are so many cute boutiques and thrift stores throughout Downtown, but I especially loved
Arbor Hills, a cute outdoor shopping centre with some of my favourites - like Anthropologie and Lululemon.
We had such a great time in Ann Arbor, just like we do on all of our little trips. Thanks Ty for always being down for an adventure, thanks Mom and Dad for watching Colby, and thank you to our amazing AirBNB hosts for letting us inhabit your sweet little guest suite. Until next time ...
