<p>My D and I are visiting Northwestern and Michigan over the weekend and first of next week. Spring quarter is still in session at NU and we've got plenty to do there. But the semester recently ended at Michigan, so the students aren't around and there aren't any events going on. D has a tour, admissions meeting, and sample voice lesson at the UMich School of Music, and then an evening and a half-day of free time in Ann Arbor. Any suggestions on what to do and see?</p>
<p>Visit the stadium. It is usually left open during the off-season and you can walk right in. It is dug into a hill, so from the outside you are only seeing the top 20 or so rows. When you walk in you see a huge bowl - very impressive, even if it is not full of 100K++ people. :)</p>
<p>I grew up there. The Arb, (arboretum) park at the top on Geddes, walk down to river and back up. The track team uses this as a workout. They have a timed record for it. The Arb has plants from every county in the world. Main street restaurants area, includes Washington st. and Libery st, I like Arbor Brewing Company, ( <a href="http://www.arborbrewing.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.arborbrewing.com/</a> ) on Washington. Michigan Stadium is open to the public during the day sometimes. Its worth walking the perimeter to find an open gate. Usually someone is working there on something. The stadium is on the corner of Main and Stadium, south of downtown.</p>
<p>Zingerman's Deli</p>
<p>Matthei Botanical Garden is gorgeous. UM Museum of Art. Hill Auditorium just got renovated and is beautiful. For good vegetarian food, go to Seva on Liberty. Hit the Diag. Definitely Zingerman's deli.</p>
<p>Gerald Ford Presidential Library is located at the entrance to the North Campus. It doesn't take long to vsit.</p>
<p>It's not totally dead around here, even though the term is over. I just hope the weather's nice. It's been a grouchy spring.</p>
<p>Breakfast at Angelo's</p>
<p>Thanks guys - good stuff!</p>
<p>I second the Arb, the Stadium, and the Art Museum. The Natural History Museum is great, too, and they do Planetarium shows daily.</p>
<p>There's a great book store on State St. just north of campus, called Shaman Drum.</p>
<p>Go have dinner or lunch at the Gandy Dancer. Not really a student place, but different and the food was always good. </p>
<p>Gadad: I hope you will like Ann Arbor--I went to grad school there and also worked at the university later. I miss Ann Arbor a lot.</p>
<p>I also like the Gandy Dancer (in the old railroad station), Seva, and Zingerman's. You should look around the law school--it has lovely old buildings in the style of Oxford. If you can get in, the old law library is beautiful. (There is a newer law library partially underground.)</p>
<p>Lots of fun shops and restaurants around the main campus area...many call Ann Arbor the ideal college town!</p>
<p>Zingerman's Roadhouse.</p>
<p>I loved Ann Arbor. Look at the dorms on the north(?) campus as well as the old campus. Ride that shuttle bus so you see what kind of traveling your D is likely to be doing. We were told that the housing is tight near the old campus.</p>
<p>Walk through the law quad and the law library if you can follow a student in after he keys the door.</p>
<p>Visit North campus and pray to god that's the last time you ever see it.</p>
<p>M&B - Actually, my daughter will be visiting the School of Music, so she'd be spending the next four years on the North campus. What's the drawback there?</p>
<p>This conversation is making me unbelievably nostalgic. I spent four years in Ann Arbor in the late 60's and although I had mixed feelings about my college experience, Ann Arbor was and remains the quintessential college town. I took my son there when he was looking and he agreed, a whole town full of 30,000 teenagers was just too cool for words!</p>
<p>Back then North Campus was really separate and felt like the North Pole. Now both campuses have sprawled so that they're really contiguous. North Campus is new so it doesn't have the eclectic feel of the mix of old and new architecture or the feel of well worn tradition; however, with both the art and music schools (and engineering I think?) plus nearby dorms it's not at all isolated any more. </p>
<p>What I'd suggest is that you take a seat on the "diag" (the square in the center of campus) and watch the world go by. Ann Arbor is a great town for wandering and people watching.</p>
<p>The North campus is not right in the charming town of Ann Arbor as the main campus is. Not that it is in Outer Siberia, there are regular shuttle buses, but most of the kids love living right outside of the town, understandably so. When we visited the campus, it was pretty clear that MT majors do have to shuttle back and forth, since the theatres are located on the main campus and the music facilities are on North Campus, and most of the kids are housed on North campus. But most people looking at UMich initially tend to spend their time looking at the Main Campus where their kid may well not be living or spending alot of class time. Again, it is not like it is that far, but the kids would have to actively use the shuttle buses.</p>
<p>It's a big cleanup weekend in town--on Saturday you may see people swarming around downtown and in the Arb doing volunteer clean-up, yanking up invasive garlic mustard, etc.</p>
<p>U-M's baseball team plays at home this weekend, against Indiana.</p>
<p>if you don't have plans for Sunday, and are interested in antiques, the big antiques show is in town (well, south of town). One of the nation's best, they say.</p>
<p>I apologize in advance for the weather, which looks to be crappy. Michigan can be nice in the spring! Really! Just not this year, apparently.</p>