Where Rob Reiner, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman lead, there others follow. Reiner’s 2007 movie “The Bucket List,” stars Nicholson and Freeman as two terminally ill patients who flee the cancer ward and set their sights on completing a list of adventures before they “kick the bucket.” In critical reviews it was generally seen as a mediocre movie, but audiences generally liked it and it turned a profit. More interestingly, it brought the phrase “bucket list” into common usage as a list of places to see or accomplishments to achieve before death. It has spawned worthy sites like www.thebucketlistreamfoundation.org .
I’d like to suggest a rather modest “bucket list” for UM engineering students starting in Fall 2011. But this is a list of unexpected and unusual things to do in southeast Michigan before you graduate and leave Ann Arbor, so perhaps it should be called a Sheepskin List. It’s easy to write a list that says “Hill Auditorium” and “The Big House,” but what about the paths less trodden? You need transportation to get to many of these, but its worth the effort to find a ride.
- Visit Jiffy Mix, in Chelsea Michigan. Many of you know the corn bread mix in the blue box. These, and their other products, are all made in the little town of Chelsea, 20 miles West of Ann Arbor (also home of movie star Jeff Daniels, and the best restaurant in Michigan, the Common Grill). Jiffy Mix offers tours, and now you can see where that corn bread mix comes from.
- Eat at the Common Grill. And while you are in Chelsea, eat at the Common Grill. Grill owner Craig Common describes himself as “a simple chef,” but visiting Chelsea for seafood at the Common Grill is an uncommon experience.
- Between Chelsea and Ann Arbor lies the town of Dexter. Two skew arch railroad bridges built there are worth seeing, one over Dexter-Pinkney road, and one across the Huron River (best seen from the little park hidden behind the Fire Station). These bridges were designed and their construction overseen by Fredrick Blackburn Pelham, the first African American to graduate, in 1887, in Engineering from the University of Michigan.
- Peach Mountain is worth a visit as well. Just a few miles north of Dexter, Peach Mountain is the location of the University of Michigan Radio Telescope, as well as a large amateur optical telescope. It has a great view of the area south of the mountain (well, it’s a big hill, really), and more importantly a great view of the sky. Peach Mountain hosts open houses for stargazers of all ages.
- Back in Ann Arbor, visit the Vault of Midnight, on Main Street. This is one of those geeky comic book stores, and not something you can find just anywhere.
- The Ann Arbor Art Fairs are quite well known, and might not deserve a place on this list, except for the fact that so few of our students get the chance to attend. Held in late July when few students are around, the Art Fairs (there are several simultaneously) are a must see destination for Ann Arbor in summer. If you need an excuse to spend a summer in Ann Arbor, do some summer research and go to Art Fair.
- If you really can't make the Art Fair, at least go to Festifools. Festifools is Ann Arbor’s street fair of giant puppets, mostly created by students in the Lloyd Hall Scholars program and in the School of Art and Design. Held in early April on Main Street, it just a silly, fun blast of creative experience.
- The galleries of the School of Art & Design are well worth a visit. These include the Slussler Gallery (first floor) and Robbins Gallery (second floor) in the Art & Architecture building, and the Work gallery on State Street, across from 5 Guys Burgers. These are places to see challenging things, from the beautiful to the weird.
- The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the first general purpose electronic computer, first became operational in 1946. Four of its panels are now on display in the entryway of the Computer Science and Engineering building.
- The Ann Arbor Hands on Museum (http://www.aahom.org/ ) is designed to spark kids interest in science, and is therefore a wonderful playground for engineers of all ages. UM Engineering students recently designed and built a digitally controlled inverted pendulum for the museum. Turn it on an it up-ends itself and maintains an inverted position, no matter how hard you try to knock it down. Everything there is a blast.
- Traveling east you will find the town of Dearborn, Michigan, home of the UM Dearborn campus, and The Henry Ford. The Henry Ford (yes, that’s it’s exact name) is a huge museum of technology, from the 19th century to the information age. Presidential limousines, amazing steam locomotives, an IMAX theater, a living history museum at Greenfield Village … it’s all good.
What are your favorite, unusual places around southeast Michigan?
