Walking Ann Arbor-the Greek and High Rent Edition

I have three sons, and getting them interested in my little walking project, I thought, would be a challenge. But my son Nathaniel joined me today and we had a blast. We started the day, picking up a little Subway lunch so we could eat at Nichols Arboretum before starting our trek, and also to further document my favorite tree project. 

The amazing thing about that place is that no matter how often you visit, no matter when you visit, it is ever-changing and I almost always see something new. And you need to be observant. What just looks like a couple cut-down tree trunks:

Can turn out to be a really cool park bench!

After enjoying our tasty subs, we started our little adventure. I'd parked on Oxford, because it is close to the entrance that is closest to my tree. There is a complex of student housing on the street, but what I didn't know is that Oxford is apparently the address for a good number of fraternity and sorority houses:

Ladies, rumor has it if you want to join Delta Gamma, you must weigh less than the anchor in the front lawn...

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the houses were along this street. We walked all the way down to Washtenaw, dodged traffic and crossed to Ferdon. There are many nice houses along here as well,

Window planters, ivy, and that center window which was a special, diamond-pattern glass. A house just a little down the street had done some amazing things with stucco, a building material I don't particularly like:

And their garden was also incredible as well. Bonsai on a large scale...

Turning onto Norway, we were beginning to realize that this area had nothing but nice houses. If someone from Ann Arbor ever gets elected President of the United States, he or she probably lives in this house:

This time of year, the trees and gardens are nothing but stunning in this neighborhood. Even if a tree could probably be nicknamed, Droopy, it probably was meant to look like this:

While I'm a big fan of the front porch, size of a living room, with couch and TV on a rolling cart included so you can watch the ball game in style, such things would never be tolerated amongst the tea-and-crumpets crowd, so a nice, under-stated screen porch fills the need nicely. My son and I both admired this one:

We made a short turn onto Scotwood, which immediately ended a block later at Woodside. This being a Sunday afternoon, the local realtors are busy hosting open houses, trying to move some houses off the market. This one was available for viewing:

The lattice on the right is another screen porch. I'm becoming aware that maybe I need to include more people in my blog. If local realtors want to advertise, maybe I can be enticed to visit their open houses as part of my walks and include a little plug. I'll plug this house because I'm new to this and I think no one in their right mind would pay this much for this house. Good luck selling! The link does have a picture of the porch from the inside, and it doesn't look all that great.

You know how some houses just look like they're trying really hard to be huge without looking huge? As we turned onto Copley, we saw one like that. From the front it doesn't look massive, but it goes waay back! Lovely to look at as well:

One of my other sons was asking me to return home, so we started trying to figure out how to return. It wasn't an emergency, and I was truly enjoying the one-on-one time with Nathaniel. I like being around all three, but nothing beats just having some of that individual time with each of them. We turned onto Brockman, looking to go back without going directly back, and got onto Washtenaw again. Washtenaw is, of course a main thoroughfare through town, and so we tried to flee for the backstreets ASAP, but not before running into this monstrosity:

This sucker is so pretentious, it has a sign and a sponsor!

It's not a mansion, it is The Mansion! All hail The Mansion! Genuflect, you serf!

If you live on Washtenaw and list polo as one of your hobbies, you need to keep the riff-raff off your lawn. Roving patrols of Dobermans and razor wire are so Kid Rock, so you try and show a little class. And it doesn't get much classier than stone fence posts topped with slate:

The fence was nicer than the house it surrounded. This house sat on the corner of Devonshire, which we turned down so we could talk without shouting over speeding Beemers with pizza delivery signs on their roofs. Last week, I encountered The Vines That Ate a Buick. This week, we found The Flesh-Eating Ivy! It got the slowest and smallest one:

Good thing I keep a canister of Roundup in a holster. I saved him before he disappeared. Well, even on a hoidy-toidy street like Devonshire, there's always that one house, that house that must've been bought by the lottery winner who thought he'd like to move to the big city after a lifetime selling bait in White Pigeon. Well, guess what? I know where that guy lives:

Across the street, some poor sucker was trying to sell his house. The realtor's sign had a Take One box (henceforth to be known as a takeone box). I know that this is the kind of neighborhood where, if you have to ask, you can't afford it, but damn let us nosey commoners know:

For the record, it is too much! In the 'hood, you have to beware of the roving packs of wild dogs on the streets. On Devonshire, beware the herds of apparently rabid squirrels. I only got a few in this picture, but there were like ten here, all grunting at us like they knew us for the interlopers we were:

As Devonshire sloped downhill, I knew it was curving away from where we wanted to be, so we turned onto Avon. Surprisingly, no house wives here tried to sell me any soap-on-a-rope or even cheap colgne in green glass decanters shaped like antique cars! It was a very nice street. We walked the 40-yard length of Belfield Court, one of the home-owners looked at us like we were loonies, but she didn't call the cops. I saw this one on Avon:

The rhododendrons were in full bloom, and the greenery almost covered the silly green donkey pulling the cart.

Of course if you are on Avon, you must come upon Stratford. Sorry, no wandering bards showed up, but this house makes yellow seem like a really nice color for a house:

Stratford was also a dead-ender, so we got back onto Avon, then immediately onto Hill Street. I saw this window, and while I wouldn't want to clean it, the light it sheds inside must be absolutely wonderful in the morning:

I'd say that sucker is 12 feet tall, if it is an inch. Hill dead-ends into Geddes, which is where we wanted to be to get back to my car. This terraced garden was quite a sight to behold. I just wanted to go lay down in the grass and look up, admiring it:

I worry about where my brain goes some days. Apparently, a long time ago, a guy named Rudolf Steiner started something called the American Anthroposophical Society. I haven't done a lot of research into exactly what that is, I just know back in the '80s, there were two professional wrestlers who called themselves the Steiner Brothers who proudly wore maize 'n blue wrestling singlets while everyone else wore shorty shorts and leather boots. I wonder if the Anthroposophical Society is a group dedicated to fooling people into thinking professional wrestling is a sport:

Oddly, I saw no 'roided giants roving the grounds. The day was wearing on, and we got back to our car. Hope you've enjoyed our little tour of Ann Arbor's finest homes today!

Happy Memorial Day! NOW MARCH!

First of all, I just want to wish everyone a very happy and fulfilling Memorial Day. Let's not forget this isn't just a day for cookouts, partying and avoiding work. Many of our nation's finest young people have taken the oath, put on the uniform and put themselves in harm's way so we could safely eat that hot dog and get that sunburn. If you see a veteran, thank them for their service. Visit a cemetery today, honor that vet who has passed on. 

That was my goal in walking Ann Arbor today. I wanted to find a cemetery, look up the headstone of an American vet and remember him here, even if no one else, even his family will do it today. I started out at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, a church prettier on the inside than out. Walking eastbound on Stadium Drive, I came upon some of the many Mcapartments in town, Wyndham Hill McApartments. Why do they give them such high-falutin' names? They're still cinderblock turds!

Okay, so its made of brick, you get my point. Passing these uglies, I turned onto Franklin Blvd. The first house had received the toilet paper treatment, but the guy living there was more concerned with picking up his hedge trimmings. I had to be careful not to pick up a 5-foot length of TP to carry with me on my trip to find my soldier of the day. 

I suppose it might be worth noting that when I set out today, I had a vague idea of where a cemetery MIGHT be located, but no definite locale, nor did I have a map showing me where one might be situated. This will come back to haunt me later in the day.

Franklin Blvd is one of those odd little diagonal streets that leave a lot of odd lot shapes and little triangles of green space along side of it. The houses started out looking fairly nice. I got my dormer heaven indulged early, along with a nice front garden:

And then there was the little triangle park, park bench included:

But it clearly needed a little attention. The bench is almost consumed in the verdency! (is that a word?) But as Franklin ran downhill, so did the homes. Sorry, but domiciles should never, never, NEVER have flat roofs. Not only on aesthetic grounds, but from a practical standpoint as well. I truly hope this house is abandoned:

It looks like a split level as well. Sigh. Well, I did notice it had an AC unit tucked in the back. That way you don't have to stand outside and be jeered publicly. Proceeding down Franklin, which is a rather short street, end to end, I came across this one. guess what is missing:

Maybe the same kids that toilet papered the house down the street, stole this house's driveway and replaced it with grass. Silly tricksters! Mercifully, Franklin ended shortly after The House With No Driveway. It does earn the distinction of being the first street in Ann Arbor that I've walked full length. I almost turned down Hutchins, but something in the park, Allmendinger Park, caught my eye:

Give up? There was a similar arrangement of hoops about 30 yards away, facing this set, with parents and little kids packing up and leaving. Near as I can figure, they were attempting to play Quidditch! I don't know how they make much of a game of it without self-propelled golden snitches or bludgers or not being able to fly around on brooms, but apparently nerd-dom knows no bounds...

Crossing the park, I headed down Fifth St. And to my wondering eyes, what did I see? Someone on a porch swing! On a porch! I truly believe our society would be so much better if we did away with decks and put porches on houses again. It forces you away from isolation and into contact with your neighbors and members of the community. Fifth St. has a lot of great houses with great porches. And hanging plants on some of those great porches!

Across the street was that much under-appreciated house, the bungalow. This one had a porch the size of most living rooms. Sorry, that for sale sign says it is under contract. Fooey.

Yesterday I made fun of a house for its rather blue appearance. Well, applied in just the right way, it can completely change, for the better, a home's appearance. Subtlety is the key!

Um...Hello? Time to take down that porch swing. Time to use it!!!

The beautiful homes just don't stop on this street. And even if this brick home were nice on its own, the garden completed the feeling of homeyness. 

I'd been on Fifth an awful long time and seen so many nice things, I was about to turn, but had to continue for another block. Some conscientious Prius driver had hooked up rain barrels to conserve water. I bet a few days ago he had to get that second one because the first filled up:

While I don't like decks, the great American back porch can have its benefits, especially if the house sits on a corner:

And the dog didn't mind my taking his picture either. I think he smiled. At this point, I turned right onto Jefferson.

I think the big problem in communities today is noise. It seems like so many things that CAN be done quietly and efficiently are being lost to marketing, noise, and even pointless gas consumption. For the small amount of sidewalk that needed to be cleaned of grass clippings, I'm willing to bet no significant amount of work was saved by this guy using a noisy, stinky, smoky leaf blower over an old-fashioned push broom:

And the sucker was heavy, I bet!

As I was about to turn onto Second Street, I couldn't believe my eyes! Seven people, appearing to encompass three generations, were sitting on the porch, socializing! I snuck this picture, so sorry for the quality, but I didn't want to disturb them:

Second Street is closer to downtown and the university. Student housing became a little more obvious:

If you lived here, you'd be hungover now.

Approaching William, there sits a grand old brick monstrosity:

Gotta love the bricked-up second floor window, but really? I think some historical commission should kick in a subsidy for cable so that satellite dish can be taken down. At this point I'm thinking lunch. I turned right on William dreaming of getting one of my favorite burgers downtown. I'm trying to give up meat, but some days, you just need grease. Getting my bearings, I realized I needed to backtrack just a little. I came up to this house and loved how appropriately, the garage was clearly an afterthought, stuck in the back and hidden as much as possible:

Turning right down Ashley for a block, I was greeted by condos that seemed so much better than run-of-the-mill. They sit on their topography rather than try to overcome it:

And right along the tracks, a Montessori school had converted a caboose into a playhouse!

This community never misses an opportunity to turn normally ugly features, like Jersey barriers, into opportunities to create art. Even local hoodlums get to spirit, but to less appealing results:

I turned up Jefferson, approached Main Street and jogged slightly onto Packard, heading for my greasy destiny, when I came across this wonderful paint scheme:

And that was the back porch! The garden was also very nice, as is the fence, you can see. Across the street is one of those old homes with a slightly Victorian cast:

Sadly you know that little round room is just in an attic and that means that the only thing that it does is let sunlight fade anything that is stored up there. What a waste!

Just wondering, how do they mow that patch of lawn?

Strolling down Packard, I can almost see the roofline of my destination, Crazy Jim's Blimpy Burgers. What? What's that in the window?

Closed on Memorial Day???? Man! Honor the fallen, but don't deny me my Blimpy Burger!!! If you can ever forgive them, make sure you bring cash. And expect your change in $2 bills and 50-cent pieces.

Disconsolate, I turned down Division, heading back into the vicinity of where I walked yesterday. Hundreds of miles of city streets and I was already almost overlapping on the second day of this project! Division has a lot of student housing and some of the homes are nice, some not-so-nice. Memo to architects: It doesn't make it a porch if you put really tall columns on it, it just makes it unsightly:

And will someone PLEASE give this building a little TLC?

You know, like this:

I turned a block down Liberty and saw @burger. Since I had my heart set on a burger, I went in. I ordered some Southwest burger with fresh guacamole and pepperjack cheese and a tropical fruit smoothie. I'm trying to get out of my culinary rut. Normally I would've ordered a diet Coke, but the smoothie tasted very good. The burger was also very good, but the big surprise of the meal was the home-made potato chips. I don't normally eat chips or fries, but I didn't leave a single one uneaten. 

After stuffing myself, I was still no closer to my goal of visiting the last resting place of an American soldier. I passed a cemetery yesterday, briefly considered going back, but decided to trust my instincts and pressed westbound along Liberty, getting out of downtown as soon as I could. I turned north on Third and took a little detour onto Krause. You see, there are all these little dead-end streets in Ann Arbor, and if I am to honestly walk every street, I have to walk down these little cul-de-sacs when I pass them. I was starting to wonder when I was going to find a cemetery, but I felt I needed to get Krause out of the way. Short, but interesting little street to say the least. People take their art seriously on Krause:

I didn't see a lot of continuity in the sculptures, maybe the artist lives here. Across the street, the full artistic use of pedestal sinks and rubber snakes had been explored, and I kind of like it:

Turning back onto Third, I realize I'm still walking away from my car, but I don't honestly know where a cemetery might be. Could I fail in my mission? Did Jimmy Doolittle let a little adversity turn him back from bombing Tokyo? Hell no! I pressed on...

But I still had to look at some troubling sights along the way:

Like the fish on the wraparound porch, but damn, what is that on the second floor for crying out loud?

I think that guy needs to talk to this guy:

Maybe together they can talk to this guy about defoliating his roof:

Third eventually turns into Chapin, which dead ends at Miller. Miller means I've officially walked too far. I turn westward, wondering if I can ever accomplish this mission. Death is staring me in the face:

But really, Mr. Death, why do you have the word "clown" spelled in mirror image on your forehead? I love sidewalk art. Miller is also the street that is not as nice as some of the neighborhoods I'd previously trod today. It was about this time that Soul Asylum's "Runaway Train" started going in my head. Psychologists have determined that songs constantly running in your head is a psychological problem. So at this point I'm almost wishing Mr. Death would spirit me away from the Runaway Train. 

I'm curious, does the guy who owns the Tyvek company have Tyvek on the outside of his mansion too?

I needed to get out of this neighborhood or I might end up finding a cemetery the hard way. So I turned on the pleasantly named Arborview Blvd. They love to garden on Arborview:

If you look closely, you can see from one house's front yard garden into the neighbor's garden in their back yard. Both very nice.

It was at this point that a little voice in my head told me I knew of the location of a cemetery. But I didn't like the answer because it was freaking far away! I pulled myself up and just put one foot in front of the other, heading in that direction, hoping I'd find another one before I got there, but knowing I had a destination if all else failed. I turned left for a block onto Linda Vista, and right again on Harbrooke. I don't know why, but this house simply screams Marcus Welby MD:

If you stare at this garage door long enough, you'll start to see black dots at the corners of all the squares:

I did another little left onto Wildwood and saw a kid with a push mower, which I thought was great. I didn't get a very good pic, I was a little shy to take the picture:

I turned right on Linwood and saw this sight in a side yard:

Beware the Vines That Ate a Buick!

I turned onto Doty, resigning myself to a fate of having to go really really far to see my soldier. As I approached Dexter, I saw that some people like skylights so well, they'll use them on a porch. To provide extra light to their garbage cans:

Even I don't like skylights that much!

Well, my venture to pay homage to a soldier had officially turned into the Baataan Death March. I turned right on Dexter, a main road and slogged to Maple, turning left onto it, another main road, choking on exhaust fumes. At one light, there was a woman in a white Tahoe, driving, talking on the phone and applying makeup all at the same time, all badly:

I thought that picture would turn out better, sorry.

By this time, I'm becoming aware that I may have wanted to apply sunscreen. A car stopped in the middle of the street, mistaking my forehead for a red light. I turned right onto Jackson, dodging traffic exiting I-94, and walking underneath the interstate, which was muddy and nasty, I finally found the cemetery!

Why the hell do they put those interstate monstrosities near civilization? Sigh. Walking into Bethlehem Cemetery, I quickly found the last resting place of Herman Ashfal, a veteran of World War I. I'd finally found my soldier and I think he was a fine one. He was born March 23, 1896 and died April 17, 1971. I suspect that since Mr. Ashfal passed 40 years ago, there probably aren't a lot of people to remember him anymore. So I honor him today and ask God's blessing on him and all his comrades everywhere:

Leaving the cemetery, I had three options. Backtrack, which I like to avoid, follow the busy Jackson over to the busy Wagner and down to the busy Liberty to get back across I-94, or go into the neighborhood behind the cemetery and see if I could find a back street to either Wagner or Liberty. I turned left on Highlake and immediately right on Lakeview, following it on its meandering curve. Tip for homeowners with solariums: Let a little sun in!

And for God's sake, don't display your Thing in public!

I turned left onto Parklake and got a bad feeling. Two days and how many miles of walking, I finally found a street without sidewalks. But there were some very nice May apples:

Parklake started curving away from where I wanted to be, but there was park land between it and Wagner, where I wanted to be. Finding a trail, I took it and found my way out the other side to the front entrance of Dolph Park Nature Area. Turning out of it left, southbound onto Wagner, no sidewalks in sight. It was about this time that the Runaway Train left my head, to be replaced with the Wicked Witch of the West's guards, chanting. Well, it was better than Soul Asylum...

 I passed a house with an interesting out building:

Glad to see someone found a use for Justin Bieber CDs.

I turned the corner onto Liberty, still no sidewalks, and came to the unpaved, dead end, Lakeview Ave. Seriously, how can it be called an "avenue" if it is gravel? Not wanting to return this way, I walked down it. One house had it right, a Coke machine and a couch on the porch:

As I stumbled down the road, my blood began to boil:

This clown, on Memorial Day, was flying his American flag upside down. I don't really care what political ideas rattling around in his empty cranium would inspire him to fly the flag upside down on any day, but there are some days of the year when your patriotism should supercede your politics, and Memorial Day is one of them. His disrespectful treatment of the flag dishonors those who died for it. Flying the flag upside down means you are in distress. I almost called 911 on his ass. Let him explain his politics to the cops pulled away from more critical duties....

Getting away from Lakeview, I rejoined Liberty. At this point, I'm starting to wonder what are the symptoms of heat exhaustion or sun stroke. I was briefly distracted by finding a roadside treasure:

It's an almost new utility knife! I don't really need one, but I picked it up anyway. You can never have too many of those, if you don't buy them all. Sweating, dehydrated, tired, hot and knowing how badly I'm going to burn, I realized that I'd been outside the city limits:

After uttering a few choice words, I briefly considered petitioning the Ann Arbor city government to install a city-wide invisible fence, so when I am about to leave the city, I get a shock and turn around. But considering how many parks have knee-high grass, I guess I'd be wasting my and their time on such a request. The metal grate contraption that passes for a walkway over I-94 was quite interesting. It was basically hung over the edge of the bridge and when a truck passes underneath, it shakes quite loudly and hardly instills the pedestrian's confidence. Once across the bridge, I approached another one of those faux traditional-looking condo complexes. They apparently couldn't even fill one building, because the rest of the property is vacant:

It strikes me as rather fugly, frankly. By this time, I'm getting sick. I stopped at a convenience store and bought a 1.5 liter bottle of water and could only sip it without getting nauseous. The suffering I go through to write for you...

I really don't care to walk too many of the main thoroughfares of Ann Arbor. I'm aware that just walking all the side streets I'm going to end up walking them all anyway. Walking down the main thoroughfare of Liberty, I approached the equally main thoroughfare of Stadium Drive. I had two choices, turn down the sunny spattered Stadium, suffering traffic noise, even more sun than I already had and walk directly to my car, or try and find some shady back streets and meander back. To this point my walk was approaching 5 hours and I still needed to mow my lawn today. So I turned and walked Stadium directly back to the car. En route, I came across a rather strange business, right under Farm Bureau Insurance:

What kind of crap is Self-Realization Fellowship? I had no patience for this stuff now. I shook my head and staggered to my car. It took me almost 5 hours to walk today, and according to my best effort at Google maps, 9.7 miles. Don't expect another blog tomorrow. I'm burned, I'm hot and I need to mow.