I lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan for 5 1/2 years from 1987 to 1992, where I worked as a reference and instruction librarian at the University of Michigan Undergraduate Library. While there, I made a lot of friends, many of whom I remain in touch with to this day. Last year around this time, I convinced my partner Ruben that it was time for a visit, as it had been years since I’d seen some of my old friends, so we booked a flight to Detroit and off we went. We got there on October 17, and stayed through the 24th, just in time to catch the beautiful Fall scenery.

The following photo essay consists of a mixture of photos. Some I borrowed from the Internet, and others I took myself. Since I wanted to provide a lot of detail, I’ve included more “borrowed” photos than usual.

We left Tucson at around 9am on Thursday, October 17, and caught a connecting flight in Dallas to Detroit. There were no delays, thank goodness. We landed in the early evening at the Detroit Metro Airport, rented a car and headed west from Romulus to Ann Arbor where we arrived in the early evening.

Our hotel, The Hilton Garden Inn, was adjacent to the Briarwood mall, which is at the southern edge of Ann Arbor, but conveniently located near the I-94 freeway. By the time we got checked in and settled, we were really hungry, so we ate at a “Mexican” restaurant close to the hotel. Unfortunately, it really sucked. I was going to add a photo of the place, but no, I don’t think so. I’d rather forget all about it. Mexican food anywhere outside Tucson, in my opinion, can be hit or miss, and the further away, the likelier it is that it gets worse…

The next morning we went in search of a Bob Evans restaurant, a chain breakfast restaurant kind of like Denny’s, and luckily for us, the one that I had been to before when I lived there in the late 80’s that was near Washtenaw and I-23 was still there. We ate breakfast there practically every morning. It was the best. The wait staff were really friendly and the biscuits and gravy were delicious. After eating there so much, I gained a ton of weight as a result. Oh well.

We then took a little drive around the area., making it over to Ypsilanti and back. The Ypsilanti water tower is a must-see local landmark.

We then headed back to Ann Arbor making it to the west side where we drove by the Michigan stadium.

Since the Mall was next door to our hotel, after breakfast and our little drive, we decided to go shopping. We spent a ton of money on sweatshirts and pajamas in a store called the M Den, and we had some delicious freshly made pretzels at a little pretzel shop in the mall.

Later in the day, our good friend Karen Downing came to pick us up at the hotel, and we had a very nice visit. Karen and I have been friends since 1988. I call her KD and she calls me BD. She is married to a swell guy named Stewart and has a son named Ryan who is now in college. We drove to the University of Michigan campus, where she showed us her office at the Graduate Library . We also walked around the campus. It was a beautiful day.

We then ate delicious Vietnamese food for dinner.

On Saturday, Ruben and I took things nice and slow. We repeated what we had done the day before, and again had breakfast at Bob Evans. We even went back to Briarwood for more shopping and pretzels! We rested up the rest of the day, as Karen was having us over for dinner that evening.

Saturday night, Karen hosted a dinner party for us. Ruben got to meet my old friends Barb Kolekamp, Linda TerHaar and her husband Bruce, Darlene Nichols and her husband Brian and Jeanne Chesky, one of Karen’s friends. Karen’s husband Stewart was also there. Karen was a sweetheart to host us. I was so happy to see Barb, Linda and Darlene again. I think it had been like 13 years since I had last seen Linda and Barb. I see Darlene more often as we both still attend ALA and other conferences where our paths often cross.

After dinner, Ruben and I went back to our hotel, but we were still a bit hungry, so a little bit later, we drove to White Castle and had what they call “sliders”, which are very greasy and unhealthy, but tasty bite-sized cheeseburgers. They didn’t sit too well, but we just had to have some all the same.

On Sunday, we hooked up with Karen again. This time she took us antiquing in the area southwest of Ann Arbor, where there are small towns with antique stores scattered here and there. She drove us all over the place.

There were at least a half dozen antique stores that we stopped at, including a couple in Clinton and one in Tecumseh called the Hitching Post that we really enjoyed.

We ended the day by driving to Ypsilanti and having dinner with Karen and her husband Stewart at the Red Rock Barbecue bar and grill in Ypsilanti. The food was delicious, but a bit expensive.

On Monday, we ate breakfast again at Bob Evans, but at a different location this time, and then went shopping at Meijer’s, which is a department/grocery store with various locations in the Ann Arbor area. I used to shop there for groceries all the time when I lived in the area over 30 years ago. It’s a big box store if there ever was one! I think we bought a few t-shirts and snack food there. I don’t really remember!

We then met up with Karen again and this time went shopping in the Ann Arbor area. We hit up Treasure Mart, a second hand store that sometimes has some very nice antiques and which I used to frequent all the time when I lived there, but we didn’t find anything that we really wanted to buy. It seemed so much smaller than I remembered it to be for some reason.

We then went to Kerrytown, a little shopping area close by that has a great open air Farmer’s Market and lots of unique shops and food spots.

We also visited my friend Gene Alloway, my old office mate when I worked at the Undergraduate Library. For many years now, he has been the proud owner of a bookstore in the Kerrytown area called Mott and Bailey Booksellers. Seeing Gene again was truly one of the highlights or our trip. I had not seen him since at least 1992. He is such a cool guy. It was great to see him again and reminisce about old times.

We saw my old friend Gene Alloway. He owns a bookstore in Kerrytown.

Around the corner, we found a record store, and it was great. I found a few albums here, including one by the great gospel artist, Inez Andrews. It was a rare find! This and our visit with Gene made my day!

We then went to one more thrift store, where another friend of ours, Alexandra Rivera met up with us. Alex grew up in Tucson, but I met her when I worked at Michigan over 30 years ago. She now works with Karen at the University of Michigan Library as an outreach librarian.

After we finished shopping, Karen drove us to a nice Thai restaurant on Washtenaw Avenue, near the apartment complex I used to live at. Again, the food was just delicious!

The following day, we changed our plans, and instead of driving northeast to Frankenmuth to experience the Christmas store and the fried chicken dinners, we drove to Detroit via Michigan Avenue. The drive along Michigan Avenue is a much more scenic route than taking the I-94, although it takes almost twice as long. There are a lot of suburbs along the way, including Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.

We drove into downtown and then turned north and drove along Woodward Avenue, eventually making our way up to Royal Oak.

Royal Oak is a fun place to visit. There are lots of shops and places to eat in the area.

We could’ve kept going as suburban Detroit goes on for miles and miles, but we decided to turn back go return to Ann Arbor.

We had a burger at the McDonald’s in Royal Oak, but by the time we got back to Ann Arbor, we were hungry again. We decided to hit up the only decent Mexican restaurant we knew, La Fiesta Mexicana in Ypsilanti. The owner is from Guadalajara and the food is usually very good. Unfortunately, the service isn’t great and you have to wait a while to get your food. We had better experiences there in the past. Oh well. We would’ve been better off avoiding Mexican food altogether on this trip.

The following day, Ruben and I drove into the Irish Hills again, looking for antique stores. We ended up in a little town called Brooklyn, where we we found a decent sized antique mall, and where I found some more gospel albums. This time we didn’t go with Karen, who had actually discouraged us from going. She told us that it was Trump country. Ugh. We were hoping it wasn’t too late to see some of the beautiful Fall colors. It was mid-October, so we were pushing it, but we lucked out. Fall was everywhere.

Once we got back to town, we decided to take it easy and get ready for our trip back home the following day. We left the next morning bright and early, and were back in Tucson by 3pm. It was a memorable trip. We did regret not making it to Frankenmuth, but we’ll go back again one day, we hope! Next time we’ll plan our meals a bit more carefully too. Burrrrpppp…