Out of Town   

8:00 am Bus boarding begins

8:30 am Bus departs Meijer Lot

4:00 pm Bus returns Meijer Lot (time approximate)

Please note:  Payment is due in full upon registration, but no later than Wednesday, September 9^th. Price includes factory tour, museum entrance fee, motorcoach transportation & the gratuity for our driver.  Lunch is on your own while at museum.  No refunds after September 9^th.

Location:  Meet at Meijer Parking Lot, 3825 Carpenter Rd., Ypsilanti

Discover how American manufacturing made history as our OLLI group travels to the Henry Ford Factory Tour and Museum.  We start our morning with the five-part multisensory experience of the Henry Ford Rouge factory tour.  The observation deck has views of the Rouge complex and the F-150 assembly can be seen from an elevated walkway.  After the factory tour, we board the motorcoach and travel to the Museum of American Innovation for lunch ‘on your own’ from the Plum Market Kitchen or Lamy’s Diner and gather to enjoy conversations together in designated group lunchroom space.  In the afternoon, explore the Museum ‘at your own pace’ and visit any of the many highlighted collections prior to our return to Ann Arbor.

This trip is sponsored by Claire Turcotte.

9:00 am Bus boarding begins

9:30 am Bus departs Meijer Lot

4:30 pm Bus returns Meijer Lot (time approximate)

Please note:  Payment is due in full at registration, but no later than Friday, September 25^th.  Price includes art center entrance, the Pewabic workshop, lunch, motorcoach transportation, & gratuity for driver.  No refunds after September 28^th.

Location:  Meet at Meijer Parking Lot, 3825 Carpenter Rd., Ypsilanti

Join our OLLI group for a visit to Little Village, a vibrant new art campus in Detroit that spans three historic east side neighborhoods.  At the heart of Little Village is ‘the Shepherd’, a one hundred ten-year-old Romanesque-style church.  We will start our morning with a tour of the Shepherd, now an art center.  The adaptive reuse of this church, redesigned by Peterson Rich Office (PRO), includes two gallery spaces, a public library curated by Asmaa Walton of Black Art Library, and community workshop space.  Located just a short block from the Shepherd is Pewabic Pottery, a century-old cultural anchor in the community.  Pewabic today is an active working pottery, architectural tile studio, and ceramic arts education center.  This vibrant cultural destination attracts visitors from around the world.  After lunch at the Marrow restaurant, we will visit the Pewabic center in the afternoon for an OLLI member only tile workshop, tour & shopping.

8:15 am Bus boarding begins

8:45 am Bus departs Meijer Lot

4:30 pm Bus returns Meijer Lot (time approximate)

Please note:  Payment is due in full upon registration, but no later than Friday, October 16^th.  Price includes museum docent-led tour, lunch, opera house sip & stroll, motorcoach transportation, and gratuity for driver.  No refunds after October 16^th.

Location:  Meet at Meijer Parking Lot, 3825 Carpenter Rd., Ypsilanti

We start our morning with a guided cultural & educational experience at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.  ‘The Wright’ is the current home of the Tuskegee Airmen, in addition to housing select exhibitions such as ‘And Still We Rise’.  For lunch, we will dine at the Detroit Beer Company in the heart of downtown Detroit on Broadway across from the Detroit Opera House.  The Opera House opened in 1922, closing in 1985 due to fire damage.  Reopened in 1988, the refurbished and very ornate Opera House now seats 2,700, and hosts opera, dance, and a variety of musical & comedy productions.  Our afternoon will be spent at the Detroit Opera House for a docent-led ‘Sip and Stroll’.  This experience starts with a beverage & snacks, then we embark on a tour of the front of and back of house spaces as well as the Skydeck with beautiful views of Detroit.  Once you have your souvenir gift in hand, we will depart the Opera House for our return to Ann Arbor.

12:00 pm Lunch at Aubree’s

2:00 pm Matinee Begins

Please note:  Payment is due in full upon registration, but no later than Friday, November 6, 2026.  No refunds within 30 days of theater date.  Price includes a buffet lunch and theater admission.

Location:  Meet at Aubree’s Pizzeria & Grill, 8031 Main Street, Dexter, MI.  Ample parking behind restaurant or at Encore Theatre lot.  Encore Theatre located at 7714 Ann Arbor St., Dexter.

Let’s arrive by 12 Noon to lunch with our OLLI friends at Aubree’s Pizzeria & Grill in Dexter.

Seating will be together at lunch, as we talk and mingle.  After lunch, we will walk a short distance (or you can drive) to the Encore Musical Theatre Company for a matinee performance.  At the theater, we will be seated together for the musical production of a Christmas classic, ‘the Holiday Inn.’  This updated off Broadway production is based on the 1942 film and features Irving Berlin’s music and lyrics featuring classic songs like “White Christmas,” “Cheek to Cheek,” and “Steppin’ Out with My Baby”.

NOTE: Presentation is from 2-4pm.

Our presenter George Jabol shares his experience on a 13-day tour through northern Spain and southern France.  Beginning in Barcelona, the tour focused on the architecture of Antoni Gaudi, including Park Guell and the masterpiece, the La Sagrada Familia church.  At Figueres, we visited the Salvador Dali Theatre-Museum, which showcases his Surrealist art.  Our tour group proceeded into southern France for a walking tour of one of the world’s wine capitals, the cosmopolitan city of Bordeaux.  A highlight of this trip was our visit to architect Frank O. Gehry’s gleaming Guggenheim Museum in the Basque city of Bilbao.  In Madrid, we toured the city and visited the Prado Museum.  We concluded our journey exploring the hilltop city of Toledo, culminating with a visit to its renowned El Greco painting at the St. Tome Church.

Commissioned on November 11, 1926, Route 66 originally stretched 2,448 miles, acting as a crucial link for transportation and economic growth.  Later becoming a cultural icon of American travel is often referenced as the ‘Mother Road’.  This premier diagonal highway celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.  John Deikis, a favorite OLLI presenter and motorcyclist returns to share another of his many travel adventures.  Traveling by motorcycle, John shares the many quirky roadside attractions and historic sites he explored on Route 66 between downtown Chicago to the Santa Monica pier in California. 

John caught the travel bug while working on an ocean-going ship in the 1960’s.  He spent much of his youth & early adulthood exploring the world to include Europe, South & North America, and Africa.  When he retired from a career as a clinical psychologist a decade or so ago, he returned to his love of travel.  His preferred mode of travel now is by motorcycle and John has ridden in very state and Canadian province, most European countries, Latin America and Egypt. 

Back by popular request, OLLI will again explore the Longwood Gardens holiday spectacular that transforms the gardens into a festive wonderland.  Our virtual stroll will be led by Jim Sutton, Associate Director of Display Design.  Jim will guide our group through many decorated spaces (inside and outside) in their holiday display of thousands of poinsettias, festive flora, twinkling lights and decorated trees.  Timothy Gould, Director of Continuing Education, Longwood Gardens, will facilitate our discussion and Q&A.

A living and expanding expression of the 1920’s founder, Pierre S. duPont, Longwood Gardens is a public garden that consists of more than 1,100 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in the Brandywine Creek Valley in Kennett Square about an hour west of Philadelphia. It is one of the premier horticultural display gardens and fountains in the United States welcoming visitors year-round to enjoy native and exotic plants and horticulture (both indoor and outdoor), events and performances, seasonal and themed attractions, as well as educational lectures, courses, and workshops.