This trip is actually a business trip with the weekend at the end used by us so we can visit the area where we went to University a while back. The flight from Arizona is uneventful with some nice views of the desert landscape and after renting a car in Detroit airport we drive the half hour to Ann Arbor where we will spend the business part of the trip.
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| Arizona view from plane | Really muddy river |
The hotel has good reviews however it is a bit outside the main area of the town and there are no restaurants/grocery shops that you can reach on foot outside of the hotel - you need a car for that. The room is good however nothing out of the ordinary as the reviews let us believe.
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| Weber's Hotel Ann Arbor | Hotel Room |
One place that we go during one of our breaks is close to the hotel, probably 5 minutes by car, the Dolph Nature Area. While it is close it takes a bit to find an entrance as they are hidden and overgrown. Walking the trails it feels like we are in a jungle with the mosquitoes being also quite numerous and aggressive.
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| Dolph Nature Area trail entrance | Trail through the forest |
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| Bridge over troubled water | View of lake from a distance |
We see a few squirrels along the way and some wildflowers but the major sight is the lake - it is quite beautiful and it is also a place where we have a break before having to return back to the hotel for work.
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| Wildflower along the trail.. | ...and wildlife |
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| Going out to the lake | Lake view |
On another lunch break we go a bit further to Lillie Park for a half hour walk through this large park after a short pack lunch. The walk is nice however again we are hounded by mosquitoes so we cannot stop as we are instantly covered by them which makes it less enjoyable.
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| Lillie Park entrance | View of lake from the trail |
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| Cornfield near trail | Flowers by the trail |
After the end of the conference it is a two hour drive to Kalamazoo where we will spend the next day rediscovering the town where we spent a few years of our life. This time we are staying a bit outside of the city at the new Towneplace Suites. It has good suites with a large kitchen however unfortunately it is used for long term stays with loud people in front of our windows especially on Saturday night.
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| Towneplace Suites Room | Kitchen - quite full featured |
Two chains that we are missing in Arizona are Meijer for groceries and Fazoli for fast food so we had to visit them both - our memories of them were probably better than the reality but still it was interesting to view with different eyes the same place we lived in years ago.
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| Meijer - major grocery chain | Fazoli - missing in Arizona |
Next we go to a park that we visited a lot when we lived in the area, Milham Park. It is a smallish park however for us the attraction always was the abundant birdlife especially ducks and geese. Today we walk the paths trying to find them and being surprised by the number of visitors before remembering it is Saturday.
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| Milham Park - one of the entrances | Maintained area in the park |
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| Road through park | We like the paths more |
What we don't remember is the abundance of flowers and green - it is so much different from Arizona. Of course the fact that water is flowing everywhere creating small ponds is also a treat for us and we walk along the creeks looking for the ducks and geese.
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| Soooo many flowers | Flowers near roadway |
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| A river flows through it | Another view of river |
Finally in an area that we remember we find a group of ducks and some Canadian geese. There seem to be fewer than we remember maybe because it is summer and they flew to a different region but more likely because they were discouraged to stay in the area.
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| Ducks on river | Canadian geese enjoying the water |
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| On land with red winged blackbird | Squirrel on tree |
Next on our to do list is Western Michigan University (WMU) where we studied for a few years. Finding a place to park is an adventure without a permit so we have to circle the university until we find a good place.
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| Western Michigan University entrance | Where is the university? |
The first buildings we see are unchanged externally but there are internal changes - shops and fast food joints are completely different as you would expect.
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| WMU - Bernhard Center | WMU - Oaklands building |
The centerpiece of the university is the Waldo Library with the small pond next to it and it is the place where we rest a bit before continuing on the exploration.
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| WMU - Waldo library | Artificial small pond in front of library |
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| The other side of the library | Haenicke building |
One thing we enjoyed during our time here were the squirrels so we are happy to see one even though the feeling is not reciprocated.
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| Fake bird | Real squirrel |
We spent a lot of our time in Friedmann Hall and the surrounding buildings so we have to stop and take a closer look at them...they haven't aged well but they weren't that beautiful to start with.
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| Friedmann Hall - Economics building | Other side of Friedmann buildng |
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| Bridges between Friedmann and Dunbar | Sprau Tower |
While Friedmann Hall and the area around it is not renovated the whole campus seems a construction zone with quite a few new buildings since the last time we visited. The major ones are the New Sangren Hall and the Richmond Center while the Auditorium is still the same old.
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| New Sangren Hall | New landscaped area in front of New Sangren |
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| Miller Auditorium | Richmond Center |
There is also a new geology museum which is closed on Saturdays however there is an external exhibit of copper ore which is interesting. The sculptures however throughout the campus seem to be still the old ones that we remember. We notice that we are getting tired and look at the clock and it is getting late already even though we still have a lot to see and do so we say our goodbyes to the campus and drive to the downtown area.
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| New mining display - copper sample | One of the many sculptures on the campus |
Before visiting the downtown area we need a quick bite so we stop at the Taste of Kalamazoo festival which fortuitously is held today. It is unexpectedly hot and clammy today which makes walking near the hot food stands uncomfortable but we persist and find some good food, a gyro and a crepe.
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| Taste of Kalamazoo central area | Food trucks are off to the side |
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| Good gyro | And a crepe |
In order to cool ourselves down we decide to enter the free museum nearby, Kalamazoo Valley Museum, for a look at the exhibits. It is very busy but the exhibits are interesting with a focus on the history of Kalamazoo and the surrounding area.
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| Free museum - why not visit it? | Main hall of museum |
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| Eclectic exhibition | More focused exhibit |
Two things catch our attention - first there is a wall stretching over three floors along the interior staircase with lots of interesting exhibits including a beautiful front door and second the mummy exhibit that the museum is very proud of.
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| Whole wall is full of exhibits | Beautiful front door |
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| The major attraction - mummy exhibit | This is the mummy |
From the museum we follow the former pedestrial mall examining the different interesting buildings lining the street. There is also a sidewalk sales festival going on so we have to stop often to look at the wares.
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| Kalamazoo River in the downtown area | Typical downtown building |
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| Downtown Radisson hotel | Former pedestrian mall |
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| Downtown buildings | The Union - well known downtown location |
Some buildings are built in a medieval fortress like style - we never noticed this before but it feels like they were built to protect against invaders. The City Hall is also an imposing building built likely during the heyday of the city's glory.
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| Looks like a fortress | Former masonic temple |
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| Another fortress like apartment building | City Hall |
Another major attraction in the downtown area are the churches - they are also impressive, the Presbyterian Church built in the 1930s and the Episcopal Church built towards the end of the 19th century.
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| Kalamazoo library | St Luke Episcopal Church |
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| Kalamazoo First Presbyterian Church | Church from another direction |
We pass another renovated and expanded building in the downtown area - the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and a few older houses some of which are used as a B&B.
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| Upjohn Institute for Employment Research entrance | and the street side...less impressive |
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| Old maintained house in downtown | Downtown B&B |
On our way back toward the former pedestrian mall we pass the Kalamazoo Institute of Art (which is just closing) and then Bronson Park, the Central Park of Kalamazoo, which is in the process of being beautified with flower animals.
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| Kalamazoo Institute of Arts | Statues nearby |
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| Bronson Park wildlife | Quite interesting |
For dinner we choose to eat at Fandango, a tapas restaurant with good reviews. We order a few plates and all of them are very good but we have to stop as we still have a lot to do and don't want to be too full while hiking.
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| Fandango - tapas place | Rattlesnake and rabbit sausage |
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| Bacon wrapped lamb | Mushrooms in wine sauce |
In the evening we plan to hike a couple of bogs (marshes) that we remember from our stay in the area. The first, the West Lake Nature Preserve, was always a dry bog and we are quite surprised to see water as we start hiking. The attractions are the boardwalks that go out into the bog and the first one is doable and from the overlook we are greeted by a surprising view of basically a lake. It is very different from what we are used - how things change over the years.
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| West Lake Nature Preserve trail | Trail at edge of forest |
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| Boardwalk to overlook point | Never seen that much water here |
The second boardwalk is more troublesome with water encroaching from all directions. As it is a loop we more or less run from one end to the other followed inexorably by the water. We escape with wet shoes as the sign at the beginning was warning for a fun adventure. The last boardwalk goes out to an overlook of the lake. It is really overgrown but no adventures except a long jump at the end over water to reach the overlook platform.
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| Vegetation near trail | Fauna by the trail |
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| Should we believe this? | Yes it seems reasonable |
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| Boardwalk is overgrown in places | Really overgrown |
The second park is close by and it is basically a long boardwalk of about 1/2 km from our memories and when we notice that it starts directly in the water and with the memory of the previous boardwalk still fresh in our mind we decide that prudence is the better part of valor and turn around and return to the hotel for the evening.
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| Another trail through a bog | Easy start - impossible in the bog |
In the morning after checking out of the hotel we have one place we want to visit Al Sabo Preserve, right next to the hotel. It has a large number of trails but we plan to do only a short one as we still have to return to Detroit for our evening flight. The area is full of flowers and waist high grass and the trail snakes initially through it and we almost feel like in an African savanna with lions stalking us from everywhere. However the most "dangerous" thing we see is a spider as we return on larger trail/road back to the trailhead and leave the area south towards Indiana.
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| Al Sabo Preserve Trail - narrow | Al Sabo Preserve Trail - wide |
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| Flowers by the trail | Danger in the forest |
From Kalamazoo we are going straight south to Indiana passing through quaint villages and after entering Indiana turn east towards Detroit. This is a more circuitous route but we wanted to pass through this area that we never visited and see a few sights. The first stop is La Grange, the first larger town in Indiana that we pass that attracts us due to the well maintained downtown area.
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| La Grange City Hall | La Grange downtown |
Next we pass through the Amish area of Indiana and we see our share of carriages and people dressed in traditional clothes. Somehow we have never been here - it is a bit weird to drive in a car past a carriage somehow it feels like you are in two timelines at once.
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| Amish carriage by the road | Loading up a carriage |
On the way we stop at a few old historical cemeteries along the way to marvel at some beautiful headstones and to pay our respects to the pioneers of this part of the country.
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| One of the many historical cemeteries | Another historical cemetery |
We also find a remote nature preserve where we hike a bit and are happy at the diversity of birds that we can see. The trail passes through man-height cornfields which makes think of all the horror movies where things are coming through cornfields (none are appearing here though).
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| Trail through Nature Preserve | Corn field near "trail" |
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| Wild fruit - unfortunately not ripe | Flowers by the trail |
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| Gold finch enjoying the abundant food | Another colorful bird in the distance |
We pass faster through Ohio as our plane departure is approaching and take pictures from the car while passing through the many small cities. Soon we are back in Ann Arbor and then in Detroit from which we fly back to Phoenix. Overall it was a fun visit seeing what has changed in the years that have passed since we were back.
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| Ohio city downtown building | Ohio house by the road |
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