Michigan Trip

Five months ago, my parents gave Josh a birthday present of two tickets to a University of Michigan football game. Josh is a big U of M fan, and it just so happens that not only did many of my relatives attend the school, but my grandparents taught there in the past, and my Aunt Vivi currently works there. So my mom had me pick a game that we could attend, and she and my dad got tickets for Josh's birthday in May. I picked the October 13th game against Illinois, which ended up being Homecoming weekend for the Wolverines. So for the past 5 months, we have been eagerly anticipating our trip to Ann Arbor! With airline tickets being so expensive, we decided to drive the 8-9 hours instead. Josh and I have never taken a long road trip together, so I knew it would be a (hopefully) really fun adventure. On Thursday after work, we rented a car so we wouldn't have to put the miles on either of our vehicles, and Friday morning we left around 4:30am. We thought about leaving Thursday after work, but since we had never made the drive ourselves, we didn't want to make it at night for the first time. Plus, we were staying with my aunt, and I didn't think she would enjoy us showing up at 3:00 in the morning!  I've made the ride itself MULTIPLE times in my 28 years...almost every year we'd head up there for one of the holidays, ever since my brother and I were babies. With a set of grandparents, three uncles/aunts, and many cousins living in the area, it was a drive that we made constantly, and it was NOT always fun for me, as an 8-10 hour drive never is for a kid. And with my parents constantly hearing "Are we there yet?" it was probably not always fun for them! But now that I could share in the driving, I figured it would be much better. Parts of me that are STILL sore do not agree, but it ended up being an incredibly easy drive, not to mention GORGEOUS with all the green and red and orange leaves, and such a nice experience for Josh and me to make that drive together.

We reached Detroit around 1:30pm, and one request that Josh had made was to get a Coney dog, which are famous in Detroit. There are 2 restaurants next to each other that were featured on Food Wars, so Josh wanted to try at least one of them.....and it was definitely worth it! He said he has never eaten a hot dog that literally snapped when you bit into it. Now, I have never had a Coney dog, so I can't tell you one way or another what it was like, but my Greek salad with grilled chicken was pretty delicious!! After we left the restaurant, we went to visit my grandmother, whom we haven't seen since December. She recently moved into a new apartment, so we stopped to see her and take a look at her new place. We spent about an hour with her, then drove out to see my Uncle Rob and Aunt Rhonda, who live nearby and were leaving the next morning for a trip to Florida. So we were able to visit with them for about an hour and a half or so. We also wanted to visit my Uncle Peter and his family, but unfortunately schedules did not match up, so we'll have to try to get together next time! After we had made all our visits, we headed out to Ann Arbor to my Uncle Reyn and Aunt Vivi's house. We unpacked and had a yummy dinner (turkey meatloaf, which I never thought I'd try but it was amazing!), and then Josh and I headed into town to try to find U of M sweathshirts for the game. We weren't successful, but Josh got a hat and we got ponchos because there was rain in the forecast.

Saturday morning we had planned to wake up early and take a walk around campus before the game at 3:30pm, but we were so exhausted from the early morning and the long drive on Friday that we slept in a little later than planned. We ended up heading out around noon, and of course as soon as we got in the car, it started to rain. Friday was beautiful, and Sunday ended up being beautiful, but Saturday was of COURSE the one day with 100% chance of  "steady, soaking rain." Go figure, it started as soon as we headed out for the game. We tried to find the parking lot where my aunt had a pass, but they were all closed for the game, and cost $20 to park. So we somewhow ended up at the mall instead, and it turned out they offered shuttle rides to the stadium for $1.50 a person. Before catching the shuttle, we went into the mall and found our sweatshirts, which were really helpful considering how cold Michigan is in October, and the rain did not help lol! We got to the game, and even though the weather was not the best, the stadium was packed! And for their homecoming game, they definitely did not disappoint.....ended up scoring a touchdown in the first 5 minutes, and won the game 45-0! We were a little wet and cold, but definitely glad we went. The stadium was awesome...I would have loved to have taken pictures, but bags, including purses, aren't allowed in the stadium, so I had to leave my camera in the car since I didn't want to carry it in the rain without a bag. We're planning to take another trip in the future, and hopefully the weather will be nice enough that we can get to campus ahead of time and take pictures.

After the game, we went to a really cute restaurant called Karl's Cabin, and had a delicious dinner...followed by pumpkin cheesecake which I have never had, but I keep seeing it advertised everywhere and just had to try it. So we split a piece....amazing!!! Afterwards, we headed back to my aunt's house and went to bed early, since we were planning to leave at 4am Sunday morning. It was definitely a whirlwind weekend, but we had a great time and can't wait to do it again!! Maybe next time we will pick a September game so the weather will be a little warmer and hopefully drier!

Me and my grandma

My gloves!! Ignore the fact it's upside down...supposed to be an "M" lol...