Suckers for punishment, B and Gracie (and the dog!) and I got back in the car on Friday and drove back to Michigan. This time we even brought the Namby Pamby. After hitting ever imagineable traffic hiccup and then pulling over frantically to deal with dog barf (thanks buddy for aiming DIRECTLY INTO MY HAND AND LAP) we pulled into the driveway at B’s parents house at 1:30 the morning. This time Gracie decided to peacefully sleep the whole way there (unlike our drive from hell some months back) and we all put ourselves to bed to get ready for the festivities.
Andy why were we gluttons for punishment? Because we had tickets to the Real Madrid- Manchester United game in Michigan Stadium! Many thanks to our good friends and Michigan season ticket holders that were able to order us the tickets when they were first available. We spent some time in the morning with Gracie before leaving her for a fun day with Grandma & Grandpa, and after picking up another friend, the four of us drove to Ann Arbor for the day. After circling around for parking like fools we gave in, paid to park in a garage, and walked over to the Red Hawk for lunch where I had an unusual open-face pulled pork sandwich served on top of jalapeno cornbread – in a word, delicious. From there we meandered to my husband’s favorite AA haunt, Dominicks, where we enjoyed their famous sangria. We made a pitstop at the M-Den for some new Michigan gear for Gracie and perused the soccer t-shirts before heading over to the stadium.
Michigan Stadium is cool for a lot of reasons, but one of the neatest (for me) is the fact that from the outside it looks so incredibly small. You wonder how on earth in can be the nation’s largest stadium and then you walk in and discover you walked in at row 74, and the massive bowl in front of you becomes visibile. Still takes my breath away! In case you were wondering though, Michigan Stadium is uncool in its “no bag” policy and it seriously means, no bags, ladies, your wallet must fit in your pocket, and to that I raise a hearty bulls**t cough, becuase really? I took advice from a friend and after we all filled our pockets with necessities (wallets, iPhones, a backup battery charger -shutup- and a small bottle of sunscreen) I carefully folded a Ziplock bag and shoved it in there too. Once through security I pulled out the bag and we all emptied our pockets of things that did not belong, like, say, sunscreen.
We found our seats and squeezed in for the match among the other 109,000+ spectators. Although I am not a huge soccer fan, my husband and Namby are, and each of their favorite teams was playing (Namby = Man U, B = Real Madrid) so their enthusiasm was contagious. The game itself was great (and since it was sponsored by Guiness they even had adult beverages, much like my college football days, long live Tulane) and it was pretty cool to see so many world class athletes on the pitch- even Cristiano Ronaldo!
After the game we made our way back to the car and worked our way back to Detroit (seeing the team busses on the way to the airport) where we had dinner before heading home. All in all it was a great day, and from all reports, Gracie and the Grandparents had a nice day as well- a little Costco, a little pizza, a little play time. Sunday we had breakfast, took advantage of an outlet near the car (our Chicago parking situation is outlet-less) and vacuumed it out (it is the little things in life) and hit the road home, where we again sat in every traffic situation ever before finally walking in the door around 6 pm. We are exhausted but it was well worth it! I mean, it isn’t every day you get to be part of history!
