Life of Wry

[That’s the Huron River Rd that runs between Ann Arbor and points west. Loch Alpine is about 5 miles from A2 along this road.]

This lazy summer day in Ann Arbor starred Dexter and Lowertown Bar & Cafe. It also starred our darling kiddos, but they’re always the star of the show.

Day opened with another round on the Peloton. Claire’s created a nice workout space on the bottom floor .. surround by plants and flowers, a powerful fan, a place to position/charge your devices, a clear view of the big screen tv (though I didn’t have the patience to navigate that) … just step on and go. Which I did. Fun.

Then Jim and I headed to Dexter, a tiny town (pop 4500) 4 miles west of Loch Alpine (L&C’s rural, deer and lake-rich neighborhood). Dexter is just darn sweet. It sits, as well, along the Huron river. Its downtown has a critical mass of bakeries and essential merchants, the residential areas are tidy and awash in flowers and fresh cut grass. We sat outside at Joe and Rosie’s and drank coffee/tea, ate muffins, did puzzles and watched small town life happen.

Peter summoned us at noon and we picked him up (again, at the loading dock), and headed to El Limon, a Mexican restaurant, again on Plymouth, close to his office. Kept it short, as he was busy and was going to be spending the end of his day at the optometrist getting fitted for new glasses and his first set of contacts! He lost his own glasses (sad) and has been wearing Maya’s (for a month or two!), which only approximate his prescription.

After lunch, we dropped Peter back at his office and Jim and I whiled away the afternoon at Loch Alpine. Around 5, we met Peter and Maya at their newish neighborhood hangout: Lowertown Bar and Cafe.

Lowertown Bar & Cafe is a hybrid neighborhood space, serving Hyperian coffee and pastries during the day, and a wide selection of beer and craft cocktails in the evening.

Lowertown is more than a location – it’s a community revival. This neighborhood predates much of downtown Ann Arbor, with the oldest commercial building in town just steps away.

Where morning coffee meets evening cocktails in Ann Arbor’s historic northside.

Tuesday night offers a rousing Trivia competition and we were there for it. In fact, we got 2nd place in the first round (and won a gift card!) and we came in 6th in the second round. Looked like about 20 teams, some very large.

Maya and I had walked over to a nearby Indian restaurant to pick up to-go dinners, which was wonderful. Lo Town only serves drinks.. people bring their own food.

A nice shot of Maya…probably conferring on a correct answer of some sort.

After all that excitement, we headed to that ice cream place (the one we’ve noticed for the last 5 years, the one with the very long lines) at Liberty and 1st. Fantastic ice cream (the line moves fast) on a warm night. Heavenly. We drove them back to their car and we headed home.