Finding art, action and a little magic in Ann Arbor

Walking along the street in Ann Arbor, Mich., on a recent getaway, I glanced down about shin-level to see a small, tidy front door in the side of a building -- very small, say 6 inches high. There was a tiny basket on the stoop.

"Oh, that's a fairy door," said my friend and local, Nick, with a straight face, as if every city has them. We walked on, and not far away we came to a gaily painted fire hydrant that looked as if it might step into the street to join a parade at any moment. Two shops we stopped at had doggy "doormen" who greeted patrons with a wag of the tail, and later we found a museum where we were invited to step into a giant bubble.

You might have heard that old wives' tale about Midwestern towns being dull -- not Ann Arbor.

As a university town -- home of the University of Michigan -- and a hotbed of research and tech start-ups, it's a place focused on the future, but it's also a town whose face is graced by the past. The restored red-brick facades of the downtown streetscape house unique shops that give it a sense of place.

Wondering how many activities could be stuffed into a long weekend, I invited my younger sister, who lives nearby, to help me find out. Ann Arbor offers everything from the funky to the refined. We decided to try some of each.

Friday night began downtown with dinner at Logan restaurant on West Washington, where I reversed a lifelong aversion to gnocchi with a single bite. Its potato gnocchi with tarragon-infused cream sauce and toasted pine nuts were little bundles of creamy joy. As the friendly waiter brought my Moroccan Cornish hen for an entree, its powerful spices announced the dish to the nose before it even hit the table.

I was still thinking about those delicious gnocchi the next morning when I pushed back the hotel curtains to find it raining steadily. Undeterred, we drove to Delhi Park and eased our kayaks into the Huron River. We glided through cattails at the river's edge and floated slowly downstream as white swans honked and preened.

The river is wide and flat here, peaceful and serene, making it hard to believe that downtown Ann Arbor is just over five miles away. We came to an old, low railroad bridge, ducked our heads and easily slipped under it. Blue herons stood on the other side like statues in the shallow water.

After a few miles, we paddled around a curve and on the bank high above us saw a palatial stone mansion in the Tudor style, complete with its stone boathouse, a testament to the money made in nearby Detroit early in the 20th century.

The two-hour paddle took us to a landing at Barton's Pond where we scrambled out, eager to get warm and dry and change into clothes hip enough to wear while browsing in Ann Arbor's rich selection of art galleries.

Downtown on Ann Arbor's Detroit Street, in a former gas station transformed into an open, light-filled art gallery, we met Patrick Thompson and his wife, Kay Pentzien, both artists. Several large 10-by-10-foot paintings by Patrick were on display, including a dream-like green and blue painting "Singularity," which gave the impression of being underwater.

Over on Fourth Avenue near Main, we discovered the Gallery Project, a space that offers exhibits nine times a year, centered on a theme. Nearby, on West Liberty, at the Ann Arbor Art Center, we saw the annual All-Media Exhibit of 70 works by local artists. The center has been open since 1909. We liked the items for sale in the center's Gallery Shop, all made by 250 local and regional artists.

At the elegant Selo/Shevel Gallery on Main Street, I almost pounced on a beautiful woven silver wire bracelet, but was also tempted by a Joel Hotchkiss mobile, beautifully balanced and cutting the light like a kaleidoscope; a great value at $300.

Ann Arbor citizens are not only art lovers, they are readers. Wandering further on Fourth Street, we came to Aunt Agatha's New and Used Mystery, Detective and True Crime Bookstore, where volumes are divided into types, such as American/Cozy, British Mysteries and Killer Books. Further on, the West Side Book Shop had the smell of antique paper and was full of collectible books by literary icons such as James Joyce and Joseph Conrad.

All this shopping took energy. My sister Marcia loves cupcakes and is thrilled they are chic again. When we passed a little bakery called Cake Nouveau, she and our friend Nick insisted on trying both the Death by Chocolate and Thrilla Vanilla cupcakes, and declared them divine.

At the Sweetwater Cafe building on the corner of Washington and Ashley, we glanced down to see a small gray door with a white window sash and a minuscule basket on the doorstep: one of Ann Arbor's famous fairy doors. Inside the cafe, we looked down again and there was an interior door that, when opened, revealed a tiny cafe table with a newspaper and a couple of cafe chairs for any fairies who needed a caffeine fix.

These fairy doors appear mysteriously overnight, all over the downtown, and everyone professes to be mystified by how they happen. Children leave drawings and pennies and other gifts for the fairies at the doors. I discovered later that the fairies get a big assist from artist Jonathan Wright, who modestly refers to himself as a "Non-certified Fairyologist."

At a shop called The Red Shoes, a bright red fairy door mimics the store's real door, also red. Inside, I kneeled down to open the inner door, and there was a minuscule boutique, a gift shop for fairies.

When we stopped at another gallery and enthused about its coffee, we were directed to an old warehouse a few blocks away to meet one of Ann Arbor's more interesting citizens, artist and coffee roaster extraordinaire John Roos. As we parked, John stood on the loading dock of the weathered building that harbors his coffee-roasting company, art studio and literary salon. He was roasting coffee in a contraption of his own design that looked like a country mailbox on steroids. Smoke and a divine aroma were pouring out one end.

Inside, colorful paintings of women and landscapes covered the walls, and he hand-brewed us all a cup of java. Each bag of coffee on the shelf sported a linoleum block-art printed label he made himself.

At the Ann Arbor Biscuit Company we found popular cookies: dog biscuits. Yvette Stayduhar and her canine greeters, Lucky and Millie, waited for customers. With soulful brown eyes, Lucky lured visitors closer to the cookie jars that held her favorites: "Barkvarian pretzels" and dog biscuits shaped like a chicken.

Over on North Fifth Avenue in Kerrytown, a historic area of red-brick buildings containing shops and eateries on the site of the original village of Ann Arbor, we browsed through many unusual shops on two levels. Exotic smells lured us upstairs, where the Spice Merchants offered sea salts in Chardonnay oak, white cypress or smoked northeast alder flavors, plus 75 kinds of its own spice blends. From there we wandered into Found, a shop that stocks items created by artists from found objects.

Because it was a Saturday, the Farmers Market was in full swing downstairs. At a bustling lunch counter on the first floor, called Kosmo's, the menu included a hot dog called The Seoul Dog that comes complete with kimchee, a kind of Korean sauerkraut.

At "dogma," a pet supply store that stocks Batman and bumble-bee costumes for the discerning pet, we were greeted by another tail-wagging host dog, Isadora. She made a great sales person for healthy treats, such as liver biscotti, chosen by the proprietor and her owner, Alice Liberson, a veterinarian.

Our favorite store was Hollander's, which features thousands of kinds of paper, many handmade. It has rice papers, marbled papers for book binding, metallic papers, "cloud dragon" papers from Japan and even Amate bark paper made from Mexican fig trees.

During lunch at noisy, happening Zingerman's Deli nearby, there was so much action that it was hard to choose from its hundreds of sandwich options. The stalwart No. 1 is made of "corned beef, chopped liver and Russian dressing" and is clearly not for sissies. The store offers 25 kinds of bread daily, from parmesan pepper to chocolate cherry, and hundreds of kinds of condiments and sauces.

Not far away at the Hands On Museum, a science museum aimed at both kids and adults, I stepped into a column of air surrounded by a shimmering ring below, about the size of a hula hoop and full of bubble solution. As the ring was slowly raised, a circular column of bubble surrounded me. I blew on one side to make a bigger bubble and suddenly it burst.

Other interactive exhibits include a noisy demo on how car brakes work, and a display of how e-mail travels in small packets over the Internet before it is reassembled for delivery. One of the most popular displays is a toilet cut in half that shows what happens when the toilet is flushed.

As dusk fell, we headed to dinner at eve-The Restaurant where Eve Aronoff, a graduate of the Cordon Bleu in Paris, likes to use local produce, such as fiddlehead ferns. We had chicken Thai dumplings followed by a salad of mixed organic greens and French cheese, then beef tenderloin and a liquid white chocolate served in little cups to sip for dessert.

After the decadent dessert, we swore not to eat at all the next day, but in the morning, we forgot about that and easily found our way to Cafe Zola (named after writer Emile Zola) on West Washington for breakfast. The name reflects the sophisticated French style of the food.

Afterward, we drove out to Enterprise Drive and Motawi Tileworks where brother Karim Motawi and sister Nawal, the owners, supervised craftsmen pouring, carving and meticulously painting their beautiful artisan tiles. They can be framed as art, assembled into fireplace surrounds, or used on kitchen walls and backsplashes.

"Fifteen years ago we started in our garage and sold the tiles at crafts fairs," said Nawal. Now they are selling their tiles worldwide and their average price is $110 per square foot.

Back in the city, we walked toward the university to tour the restored Michigan Theater, built as a movie house in 1920. There is a film or performance in it 365 days a year. Its Barton organ has keys for a doorbell, Model T horn, chirping birds and castanets. CEO Russell Collins sat down and let us hear a few of them.

It was time for lunch at the popular Gratzi, on Main Street, located in another former theater called the Orpheum. We had a huge Cobb salad and iced tea and emerged onto the street with our feet smarting from so much walking.

Soon we spied the Croc shoes display on the sidewalk in front of the Main Street T-Shirts store and my sister, a lawyer and an ultra-conservative dresser, and I both bought flaming neon Crocs, in orange (for me) and day-glow green (for her). In them, we felt quirky and surprising, just like Ann Arbor.

If you go

Ann Arbor, Mich.

Go: If you love art, unique shopping, great food, anything quirky and surprising

No: If you don't like a liberal atmosphere or don't have a sense of humor

Need to know: Ann Arbor Convention and Visitors Bureau, (800) 888-9487, www.annarbor.org

Getting there: Driving, via I-94, will take around four hours. If you choose to fly, several airlines have nonstops from O'Hare to Detroit Metro Airport, and Northwest and Southwest have nonstops from Midway. It is a 46-mile drive from the airport to downtown Ann Arbor. Amtrak serves Ann Arbor from Chicago's Union Station.

When to go: Spring, summer and fall are all good times to visit, but avoid fall football weekends when U Mich is playing at home.

Lodging: The Bell Tower Hotel has won awards for historic preservation, has elegant interiors and is within the campus of the University of Michigan at 300 S. Thayer St. Rates average $215 per night, (800) 562-3559, www.belltowerhotel.com.

Holiday Inn Express, 600 Briarwood Circle, near I-94, runs $148 per night, (734) 761-2929, (888) 465-4329, www.holiday-inn.com.

Courtyard by Marriott, 3205 Boardwalk St., also near I-94, $99 per night, (734) 995-5900, (888) 685-7632, www.marriott.com.

Dining:

eve-The Restaurant, 415 N. Fifth Ave., (734) 222-0711, www.evetherestaurant.com

Logan's, 115 W. Washington St., (734) 327-2312, www.logan-restaurant.com

Zingerman's, 422 Detroit St., (734) 663-3354, www.zingermansdeli.com

Cafe Zola, 112 W. Washington St., (734) 769-2020, www.cafezola.com

Gratzi, 326 S. Main St., (734) 663-6387, www.gratzirestaurant.com/pages/gratzi.html

Kerrytown shops and restaurants: www.kerrytown.org.

Hands-On Museum: www.aahom.org. If you belong to a science museum in the Chicago area that is a member of the ATSC Passport Program, such as the Field Museum or the Museum of Science and Industry, take along your membership card and you will get in free.

Kayaking: Sun & Snow: Ski Swim Paddle, (734) 663-9515, www.SunAndSnow.com