Fairie Doors in Ann Arbor

     Several weeks ago, I stumbled upon a list on FourSquare for Fairy Doors in Ann Arbor.  It had seven locations listed, and knowing a little of the history of these Fairy Doors, I wanted to take Esme on a tour of them.  As it's winter out, and many of these doors are outside, Esme may not be wearing the most appropriate fairy door explorer gear, but it's Michigan.



     Our first stop was the door outside of a local art gallery.  This was the first door I'd discovered years ago, so it seemed fitting to have Esme start the downtown portion of our tour there, too.  I didn't fully realize this when we started, but, from that point, there are (at least) seven fairy doors within three blocks.  And we hit them all, even finding an extra two at the only local bookstore that was willing to stock my first book, The Rapscallions.

Our first stop of the day, Liberty St, outside of Selo/Shevel Gallery

     Esme was a trooper throughout, and seemed to really enjoy these little doors that I pointed out to her, or perhaps she was just mimicking my pointing.  In any case, we had great fun exploring our city and noting the varying styles and positions of the doors.  Several doors were at ground level, which made sense.  But other doors are at toddler eye level, or even above the mantle of a fireplace.  I was at first puzzled by these heights until I realized that fairies, by nature, have wings, so their doors can be anywhere.  And so they are!  Anywhere and everywhere.


     Our second stop of the day was Peaceable Kingdom on Main St.  A friend of mine later sent me a photo that showed the interior of this particular domicile.









     Our third stop was a fluke.  It wasn't on the list, but I wandered in to Crazy Wisdom bookstore and asked about fairie doors.  The woman at the register pointed out the cabinet-like fairy apartment that Esme is squatting next to in the photo, as well as the smaller fairie door by the elevator.  (Sorry for the blurry face shot there, but Esme was jumping up and down at the time.)

     Next we walked over to a place that seems to help the fairies take the best care of their doors of any of the places we saw this first day.

     This is a close-up of the door at Sweetwater's coffee shop.  (It's the same one in the first picture on this post.)  Here you can see the coins, buttons, and other trinkets people leave for the fairies.  I later learned, by checking out an urban fairie website, that this is often donated, as the fairies have little use for money.

     This fourth stop for us of the day was listed on FourSquare as Red Shoes Thrift Store.  The door pictured was the one Esme is pointing to, though it was red with blue trim at the time.  The store has since become a boutique and I suppose the fairies are just keeping up with the times, changing to a pink door that matches the rest of the building.

     Knowing full well that the Ark, Ann Arbor's premier live music venue, was closed during the day, we stopped by anyway, just to see if the door happened to be on the outside.  Sure enough, there it was on the bottom of a door I have walked through no fewer than a dozen times in the past 15 years.  I never saw it before.

     That was the end of our fairie door tour for day one.  We were not, however, done with the FourSquare list.  There was still a library branch and a bookstore on the outskirts of town.  A couple of days later, we headed up to the library listed, but were told by the librarians that it was the downtown branch that held the fairie door, fittingly enough in the children's section that Esme and I had been several times.  (Again, these little things in life are sometimes hard to see when you're not looking for them.)     We headed out to the bookstore next, and found the door without assistance at Nicola's.  It was made a bit easier by the placement of three books about fairies and a poster we ended up buying that showed a list of about 27 fairie doors in the Ann Arbor & Dexter areas.  So the day we thought we were hitting the last two, we discovered we may have just gotten started.

     From Nicola's, we headed back down town to find the door at the main branch of the library.  I looked all around, but finally had to give in and ask a librarian for assistance.  And even walking around looking for it, I had walked right past it.  This, like the one at Peaceable Kingdom, was visible from multiple directions, allowing the viewer to see the little fairie apartment, complete with furniture and little lamps.

      Seen this close up, it's hard to miss the little windows on these books, but sitting across the room, you literally don't notice -- even looking at them intently.
     This concluded our first round of fairie discovery, but again, we now possess a fairie door poster as well as a paper that tells where each of the doors on the poster is located.  (Though three of them are 'in the Wright's house, which again, is better explained by the Urban Fairie website.)
     We did make one trip out to Dexter to see if we could find one of the doors there, but I had failed to bring our paper with us and couldn't get a consistent internet connection to be able to look things up while parked in town.  Plus, Esme fell asleep in the car right before we drove into town, so even if I'd known exactly where to go, I'm not sure I would have chosen to awaken her.

     I'll post more on these later, as we have had subsequent adventures and sightings, both in expected places (from our poster) and in completely unexpected places, like a tree in our neighborhood.  Stay tuned for more Adventures with Esme!

Outings

I started this post back in November, to show some special trips Esme went on around town.  Now it's March, so I thought I'd come back and finish it off.

'The Cube' is near the Michigan Union.  Her stroller is under the corner of The Cube for scale.
It's mounted on a vertical axel, so the whole thing spins like a top if you push it.

At one of our favorite newer restaurants in town.  Esme is getting much more proficient with a glass.

Over Christmas, we visited Grandma in Lansing.  Esme received a toy bottle set where the liquid disappears as you tilt the bottle upside-down.  Literally overnight I noticed her playing change.  She now feeds her baby, or the dog, or her Cheshire Cat, or Tina or me.  Imagination is a part of her world now!

She was also able to play outside in the snow several times this winter.
She loves to get outside every day.

 We had several visits to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum this winter.  Tina and I have taken her individually, we have gone as a whole family, and we've met friends there to enjoy the child-friendly environment.  Esme loves the water table, though she always ends up much wetter than one would think possible.  (Yes, I know you would think a lot is possible.  Not far enough...)

You can't see my skis in this self-portrait, but that is Esme asleep on my back.
I look forward to more 'backpacking' outings as winter eases into spring.

Esme at the playspace in the mall.  I don't really do malls,
but this play area is cushioned and has neat things to climb on.

Esme loves the Main Branch of the Library downtown.  There's one table with a rotating toy selection that she loves, in addition to the incredible chess set.  (I always have to be on close guard if there's a game going on -- Esme's libel to walk off with a queen or a knight just when it's most needed.)
Though they do have the Infant/Toddler hour here on Monday mornings, I've found it's a great place to go with Esme anytime.  Toys to play with, people to watch, stairs to climb, plus it's not a quiet library type of kids room.  It sounds more like the hum of learning in an active classroom than a library.

Finally for today's post, I bring you Mardi Gras in Ann Arbor.  There are paczki all around, and one can find an occasional King Cake, but this is not Coastal Mississippi, so the celebrations are mild.  Esme did get into the spirit while sharing one of our three paczki with me and helping to decorate the pub.  They even gave her beads to bring home, which she's been playing with for the intervening weeks.

Thanks for reading and sharing the journey!