Ann Arbor's Fairywalk - Sun., Oct. 19, 2014

Our family's campground is a magical, beautiful place. Early in the morning, with frost on the grass and mist rising from the pond, our spirits were lifted staying there.

Bright and early we headed into downtown Ann Arbor to begin our Fairywalk Volksmarch. We had no idea what to expect, except the description mentioned "fairy doors, dragons and trolls of Ann Arbor." I might add that there were other mythical creatures as you will see. At 7:35 a.m., armed with walk directions, we started out in 38 degree weather.

We passed a Farmer's Market (which was being set up for the day), Zingerman's Deli, and lots of information about African-American history in this neighborhood.

Zingerman's Deli poster

There is so much to see in downtown Ann Arbor if you take the time to look closely. At St. Andrews Episcopal Church there were dragons on top of the bell tower.

St. Andrews Episcopal Church dragon gargoyles

On the old Ann Arbor News Building (now University of Michigan Credit Union) are art deco relief panels. Here are photos of my favorite subjects:

Travel

Photography

Art (with Pegasus)

Nickel's Arcade is a historic shopping area built in 1915 with boutiques in a covered alleyway. Some of the businesses have fairy doors inside them. We were too early for the shops to be open.

Nickel's Arcade

Then we entered the University of Michigan's Central Campus at Hill Auditorium. The Auditorium has beautiful brick work to the right and left of the doors. (See photo.)

Hill Auditorium

Close up of brick work

Behind Hill Auditorium, we could see the clock tower.

In front of the League building is this fountain of Father Triton with his sons on a holiday excursion. The piece is titled "Sunday Morning in Deep Waters."

The League building was a home away from home for University women in the early 1900s. At the top of the building are two figures: "Character" and "Friendship."

Bob in front of the League building

"Character"

We walked through the League building and as we were about to go downstairs out into the garden, I looked up to the second floor and saw a gorgeous stained glass window. The stained glass scenes depict "Science," "Inspirations," and "The Arts."

"Science" and "Inspirations"

"The Arts"

In the Eula D. Marcks Garden, we found a "Rampant Unicorn." Looks like it has a fairy or human hanging on for dear life.

"Rampant Unicorn"

The enormity of the University of Michigan boggles my mind along with the size of the buildings! The workmanship that went into the buildings, along with some whimsical creatures, is excellent.

In the following door surround look for a monkey, owl, snake, chameleon, and other birds.

Find the hidden critters.

This puma looks ready to pounce on that student.

Dragons grace quite a number of buildings.

University of Michigan, Mosher-Jordan Halls

Stockwell Hall

Now that's what I'm talking about!

The people who own Insomnia Cookies should be raking in the dough, um, rolling in the dough, maybe just making dough. D'oh. What I wouldn't have given for some of those cookies during late night study or paper-writing sessions when I was in college! We settled for ice cream.

University of Michigan School of Social Work Building

Lawyers Club and Munger Residences

Some of the window surrounds on the Lawyers Club Building have "grotesques" on them. Grotesques differ from gargoyles in that gargoyles drain or divert water from the roof whereas grotesques are for decoration only. The building above is English Medieval architecture.

Grotesques

Three archways lead from the street into the Lawyers Club Quadrangle. Each of the archways have grotesques holding up the "ribs" of the arches. The east archway ribs are held up by "trolls" which represent: four seasons of UM sports, four harvest seasons, and four professions -- engineer, architect, artist and jurist.

Middle archway ribs "supported" by the first six
University of Michigan presidents

Architect troll

Graceful archways inside Law Quadrangle

Troll representing military science

Cherubs on top of Clements Library (library under renovation)

Cook Legal Research Library

Cook Legal Research Library

Michigan Union

Kelsey Museum (Newberry Hall)

Bob spinning the cube

No visit to University of Michigan would be complete without seeing "The Big House" stadium where The Wolverines play.

The Big House

Watch out for the Wolverines!

I teased you with two fairy doors yesterday. Today I have more fairy doors for you, as well as a goblin door...

Look closely in the photo below, the fairy door is up high on the left above the flowers. Fairy doors can be any height because they have wings and can fly out. Close up of this fairy door is second photo below.

Front door with fairy door up to left.

The fairy door.

Another fairy door

Goblin door (taller than fairy door)

One last fairy door (I promise)

Because the fairy doors are so cute, I looked up information about how they got started. In about 1993 Jonathan b. Wright installed the first fairy door in his home. The first fairy door outside his home appeared in 2005 at Sweetwater Coffee and Tea. You can read as much as you want about fairies and fairy doors at u.f.o.: urban faeries operations.

After finishing our walk, we headed back to Chelsea to pick up our 5th wheel at the campground. Did you know Chelsea is headquarters for Jiffy Corn Muffin Mixes? It is.

Chelsea, Michigan - home of Jiffy Mixes

Chelsea, Michigan clock tower

One more tidbit of information from Michigan before we cross the state line. At a Visitor Center in Porcupine Mountains National Natural Landmark in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) was an exhibit about bears. My eyes got huge when I read Michigan is home to 19,000 bears, 17,000 of which live in the U.P. Gulp! That's a lot of bears. Luckily we did not run into any on our hikes.

With that, we drove off to Columbus, Ohio, arriving in time for a spectacular finale to our day.

Columbus, Ohio sunset

Travel Bug out.