A brief index of many neat Ann Arbor things
This is a lightly-edited adaptation of an email I wrote tonight to a friend who recently moved to town. It’s obviously not a complete index of everything that’s fun or cool in Ann Arbor, and it’s heavily oriented around our particular interests, but you wanted me to share. It’s a start.
Nerd Nite
…is great:
City of Ann Arbor info
- Twitter @a2gov
- Twitter @mdot_a2 - posts road closures and useful stuff like that
- Sign up for email news & alerts from The Ride (bus service), canoe liveries, parks & rec, road closures, emergency notifications, or whatever else sounds interesting
- Info on renting canoes and kayaks!
- Twitter @arborWX - my weather blog for when we have severe weather 🙂
- The bus service’s website
Meetups for meeting and networking with tech people
Bicycles
- Tree Town Camp Coffee - Wednesday morning coffee in Bandemer Park
- Ann Arbor Bicycle Club - small group rides, usually 5-10 miles and often late at night
- Ann Arbor Bike Polo - I only started playing a little bike polo late last summer, but it’s fun
- Ann Arbor Cyclists
- WBWC Google Group - low-traffic email list for an organization advocating biking & walking in this county
- Ann Arbor Bicycling Meetup
- Sic Transit seems to be everyone’s favorite bike shop
- Transition Rack - is right downtown, on Fourth Ave. I can’t afford any of the bikes they actually sell there, but they fix my bikes while I’m at work.
- Craigslist - for bikes and related equipment
Ignite Ann Arbor
… is an awesome yearly-ish event:
GDI A2
Music and theatre
(all of these have email lists, twitters, and facebooks you can use to find out about upcoming events)
- The Ark
- UMS brings all sorts of interesting (and classical!) music and theatre and dance to town, and I ❤️ it
- Blind Pig
- The Michigan Theater / State Theater
- A2SO
- Townstage sends out a weekly summary of all the music in town, down to who’s playing at which bar. Useful.
- (on Twitter, @townstage)
Good cocktail bars
- Last Word (also has delicious small plates)
- Bar at 327 Braun Court (also has delicious small plates)
- Raven’s Club (also, delicious appetizers and dinners)
- Ann Arbor Distilling - just opened a few months ago and I still haven’t been! (FB)
The library!
- How to get a library card
- Download of the day blog. Notably, you can download most (all?) of Ghostly’s stuff from the AADL.
- Unusual items you can check out from the AADL (music instruments, home tools, telescopes, art prints, oscilloscopes, etc.)
- theremin!
- Twitter @AADL
- the AADL recently opened a “secret lab” in the basement, with all sorts of interesting tools, and they host classes there. Many of them are kid-oriented, but others are all-ages (last fall, IIRC, they had a class about building amateur radio antennas)
- AADL Secret Lab’s twitter account
- Pulp - the library recently started this blog where they have library staffers and freelancers cover the A2 arts scene.
- various other services
Good beer downtown
- Bill’s Beer Garden - just opened for the season (they’re on FB and Twitter, too, of course)
- Beer Grotto
- Old Town (commonly abbreviated “OT” or “Oscar Tango” among a certain crowd, so if I mention that, it means “Old Town”) is the quintessential townie bar downtown.
- ABC - recently renovated and the new menu is much better than the old one. Their beers are decent; some are definitely better than others, but it’s a good spot.
- German Park - is not downtown, but three times a year they host a really fun party.
Social/Outdoor Meetups
- Ann Arbor Adventure Club
- Ann Arbor 20s Social Group
- SE Michigan Outdoor Adventures Club
- Performance Bicycle Meetup - just found this group over the winter but when it’s nice I might go to some of their meetups
- Ann Arbor Young Professionals
I haven’t been to any of these, but I know Literati hosts events which you may find interesting.
I think that’s what I have for now. There’s obviously much more—especially bars and restaurants—than I have room to mention here. It’s a fun town.
Pretend this says “Ann Arbor” instead:
