Ann Arbor

Over 22,000 sq ft of climbing terrain, with 50-ft walls, a motorized climbing wall, three bouldering areas and adventure racing including rappelling.

University of Michigan

The University of Michigan and the infrastructure and support services for it are major employers in Ann Arbor.

Thomson Reuters is an information business for professionals. The healthcare division is headquartered in the 777 building as it's known locally. They currently employee over 1500 employees with in Ann Arbor between the heathcare and tax divisions, and are the third largest employer in Washtenaw county. The Tax and Accounting division headquarters are located 10 minutes west in Dexter, MI.

A highly-ranked research university with a strong athletics tradition, the University of Michigan has been located in Ann Arbor since 1837 and is deeply intertwined with the town, being one of the major employers in the area. It offers both undergraduate and graduate programs in social sciences, sciences, humanities and arts, engineering, law, business and medicine. The average student population is around 40,000, with about 5,000 faculty members. There are three campuses - North, Central, and South - with downtown Ann Arbor being adjacent to, and somewhat intermingled with, Central Campus.

With three permanent indoor ice rinks under one roof, this is the perfect place to practice your hockey or figure skating skills, or just go for recreational skating.

Kensington Beach

Is 20 minutes north of ann arbor.

Pinball Pete's

Large video arcade featuring pinball machines, air hockey, pool tables, shot clock basketball and football, ticketed games, Dance Dance Revolution, and classic arcade games from the 1980s as well as popular new fighting games.

Mid-July through the end of October, pick your own insecticide-free blackberries $4/qt then red, yellow, or amber raspberries $3/Qt. The owners also sell raspberry honey. Children welcome, no pets; working farm dogs on premises may sometimes be aggressive.

Google opened the headquarters of AdWords, their advertising system, in the McKinley Towne Centre building in 2007; currently they employ about 150 sales and customer services representatives, with plans to expand their workforce to between 850 and 1,000 by around 2012.

Multi-level laser tag and an arcade.

Canoeing

Is popular in the area through the huron-clinton metroparks.

Held the first Saturday in April. The Hash Bash began when poet John Sinclair was jailed for marijuana possession, leading John Lennon and Yoko Ono to headline a protest rally in Ann Arbor in 1971. Beginning in 1972, it became an annual event to commemorate the occasion and support the reform of marijuana laws. The Hash Bash is a gathering point for thousands of cannabis aficionados from all around, with guest speakers in the Diag attracting large crowds. Given the nature of the event, you probably will see people smoking marijuana; those who do light up tend to take advantage of the difference in fines between the town $25 and the university $100 and possible jail time, which basically means that your punishment depends on which side of State Street you stand on. Vendors sell everything from hemp bracelets to "glass art" actually pipes and bongs, but who's quibbling?, bongo drums are played, and people-watching can be an event in itself.

Held in mid-May. First organized in 2004 to promote reading, heighten awareness of literacy challenges, and showcase the rich culture of the written word in Michigan and beyond. The festival features a bookstore crawl, antiquarian book fair, author readings, symposiums and panels on literacy and writing, tours of the U-M library conservation and preservation lab, and a street festival.

African American Downtown Festival

Held the first Saturday in June since 1995. Crafts, merchandise, food, live music.

Taste of Ann Arbor

Kiosks along Main Street offer people the chance to sample menu items from over 35 local restaurants. Also includes three stages of live music, dancing and more.

Held from mid-June to mid-July. An annual event since 1983 with different nightly indoor cultural performances: singers, musical bands, dancers, comedians, plays, and other acts including acrobats and animal handlers.

Held from mid-June to early July. Nightly local and regional live bands, outdoor film screenings at 10PM, and concession booths from eight local eateries. Traditionally this event was held on the upper level of the Fletcher parking structure, next to the Power Center - hence the name - but it has been temporarily moved outside the Rackham School of Graduate Studies. In inclement weather, performances and films may be cancelled.

Held throughout downtown, four juried art fairs that display and sell art: the original Ann Arbor Street Art Fair (http://www.artfair.org/) along N University; the Ann Arbor Summer Art Fair (http://www.michiganguild....) along Main, Liberty, William and State; the State Street Area Art Fair (http://www.a2state.com/ar...); and the South University Art Fair (http://www.a2southu.com/). In practical terms, it's all one great big fair that takes about a full day to explore if you move quickly and don't look at every booth. Prices are generally rather high, as befitting an art show of this calibre, but there are definitely bargains to be found, as well as some less expensive non-juried booths that tag along for the ride. Loads of concessions, live entertainment, and booths with great sales from local businesses are scattered throughout. During the Art Fair, hotels are generally booked up and parking can be difficult to find, so book a room early by February or March and find a spot at one of the park-and-ride stops to catch a bus into downtown.