How to show off Ann Arbor in 24 hours

When you go back home, how do you explain Michigan to your friends? Do you only show them pictures of you in the Big House?

Chances are, you have a Facebook album devoted to all things Michigan, and it’s probably a photo calendar of school year festivities — from the glory days of football tailgates to sweater party season, V-Day heart-shaped Pizza House cheezy bread to St. Patrick’s Day darties. So when your friends/parents/great grandparents from Texas want to know what you’re up to in Ann Arbor, they have approximately 567 pics to choose from. But how do you show off Ann Arbor in real life? Where do you start?

Real life scenario: My friend Danielle, a senior at Purdue, came to visit me this weekend on her first trip to Ann Arbor. Naturally, I wanted to give her an excellent first impression of Michigan and show off our amazing college town — and I had to do it all in 24 hours. A bit of a squeeze, but totally possible if you plan your day just right.

Here’s how to show off Ann Arbor in one Saturday. Ready, set, GO DO ALL THE THINGS.

Morning: Kerrytown Farmer’s Market

Artsy-fartsy Kerrytown is a must-see for anyone visiting Ann Arbor, and if your friends are lucky enough to be here on Saturday morning, the Kerrytown Farmer’s Market can’t be beat. Sure, it’s a little nippy in the winter, and the produce selection isn’t as vibrant as it was in the fall, but the toppling mounds of freshly baked pastries and pies, local nut butters, and piping cups of Roos Roast coffee and apple cider more than make up for it.

Along with food vendors, the market is packed with local artists, selling everything from craft soap to photography prints. Danielle and I were headed to Zingerman’s for an early lunch, but we made sure to meander through the market first to see the local flavor of Ann Arbor (and let’s be real — taste the local flavors).

Pro tip: Sample the Mindo artisan chocolate bars while you browse through vintage photos of Ann Arbor for a true Kerrytown experience. Also, check out the beards on the maple sugar candy guys.

Lunch: Zingerman’s Deli

Legend has it that the reuben sandwich at Zingerman’s is the best sandwich President Obama has ever had. Whether that’s true or not (it probably is), we have picture proof of him eating the reuben, and he looks damn happy about it. If you’re talking lunch, there’s no better place than Zing’s. Period.

It’s not just the sandwiches that make Zingerman’s Deli great — though I’d venture to say that all 113 sandwiches on the menu are the best you’ll ever have — it’s also the experience of the store, which has grown into an Ann Arbor empire since its establishment in 1982. Apart from the deli, Zing’s has an enormous bakery, meat shop, cheese case and oil selection, and when you walk across the courtyard, you’ll find an entire house devoted to desserts and coffee. Oh, and one more thing: you can sample EVERYTHING.

Fun fact to impress your parents: Zing’s founders, Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw, spoke at graduation last year. (So obviously their sandwiches are worth $15 a pop.)

Pro tip: Get to Zing’s early, because the line tends to wrap around the door. Also, it helps to browse the menu online before you go — did I mention there are 113 different sandwiches?

Early afternoon: Shops on Main Street

Main Street is like the hot, sophisticated older sister of State Street. It seems unapproachable and maybe even snobby from a distance, but when you get up close and personal with it, you realize that it’s actually kind of awesome and you should probably hang out here more often. A little bit of Kerrytown’s hippie vibe is carried over to Main, creating a mishmash of chic shops, quirky bookstores and ethnic boutiques. After leaving stuffed and happy from Zingerman’s, Danielle and I drifted towards the storefronts, our sights set on Literati Bookstore and Dear Golden Vintage, a retro clothing store.

Literati is hands-down the most charming bookstore you’ll ever visit. From its hand-stamped paper bags to its checkerboard floor, the upstairs coffee loft to the downstairs typewriter that invites visitors to leave behind a note, the shop will turn even the most stubborn reader into a book lover. Or at least a typewriter lover.

I have a love/hate relationship with vintage fashion. There are some days when I watch The Great Gatsby and die a little inside because outfits in the 1920’s were so chic and beautiful. Where are the flapper dresses of today? But then I’ll find a horrible velvet jumpsuit from the 80’s and hate vintage clothes altogether. Still, Ann Arbor’s Dear Golden Vintage has a little something for every taste and every decade, from 1930’s-era trench coats to leather driving gloves, and even a lookalike gown for the ancient wedding dress in The Proposal . Also, old Seventeen magazines.

Late afternoon: Campus Tour

Ah yes, the campus tour. Remember when you were a teeny high school senior, all bright-eyed and dizzy in the Diag? Oh wait, maybe I’m thinking of myself during finals week. Either way, there’s something monumental and beautiful about our campus, and sometimes it takes showing it off to someone else to really appreciate it. Though I tend to avoid the Diag like the plague on weekends — I’ve never been an Ugli-er or Hatcher dweller — Danielle had never seen the UM campus, so we made the trek to the golden ‘M’ on the Diag, through the Kissing Arch under West Hall, and finally into the Law Quad.

Pro tip: Tell your friend not to step on the “M” or else she’ll fail her Blue Book exams. Try not to yell when she stomps all over the “M” anyway, because she doesn’t even go here.

Dinner: Frita Batidos

There’s burgers and milkshakes, and then there’s fritas and batidos. It’s like comparing pre-makeover and post-makeover Mia Thermopolis in the Princess Diaries : there really is no comparison. Classified as cuban street food, Frita Batidos wins ‘most Instagrammable’ for its mouth-watering fritas (a chicken, beef, pork, fish or black bean burger, piled high with garlic shoestring fries and your choice of toppings), batidos (tropical milkshakes, in flavors like coconut cream and hibiscus), as well as the restaurant’s airy ambience, with whitewashed walls and candlelit tables. Of course, “airy” is a figurative term — the restaurant is usually packed with people on weekend nights. Luckily, if you’re in line for long enough, the staff will hand out fries while you wait.

Pro tip: You can’t go wrong with any flavor batido, but my favorite is coconut cream with a splash of rum. Basically a vacation in a cup.

Night: Mash

Here’s the real dilemma of the day: where do you take your friends out at night? Since we’re seniors (and therefore très ~classy~), I wanted to broaden my nightly horizons from shots at Skeeps and Skittle-colored fishbowls at Charley’s, so we decided on Mash, a cozy bar in the basement of Blue Tractor BBQ. Though it took about 45 minutes to get in (turns out grad students party too), the wait was worth it: live music, dim lanterns, old-fashioned bar stools, and cocktails called “Lipstick On a Pig” and “Suffering Bastard.” Enough said.

Pro tip: Mash’s peak hours are about 10-11:30 p.m., so if you want to skip the line, try to get there a little earlier or make it your final destination for the night.