Pure Michigan

Every week we drive by gi-normous billboards that apparently deliver subliminal messages of "Pure Michigan"...
Jared always repeats the saying "Your trip begins at Michigan.org" as we drive by. So this past weekend since Nebraska was playing Michigan and we love seeing John (even though it was my birthday weekend) I consented to a day trip to Michigan. Apparently those billboards work! We got up bright and early and headed to what is called "The Big House." It was a pretty fast trip, 2.5 hours and we were in the midst of all the Wolverine fans. We met up with Billie for some tailgating and then to the game!

It was chilly and gray out but we had a great time, even with the Husker loss. We saw a cool military fly over, endured the crazy crowd cheers where the entire stadium of 113,000 people yell "YOU SUCK!" and even found Coach JP in the booth during the game... right under the "V."

Since the team flies back to Nebraska directly after the game, we said our goodbyes and headed into downtown Ann Arbor for the evening. It was a little early for dinner so we stopped off at an Irish pub for a drink. The place was packed! We met some interesting people and had a few tasty beverages... Jameson being one to celebrate our newest nephew and my birthday.

Someone might have mentioned it was whisky... ugh! Next we headed right next door where Jared had made dinner plans at the nicest restaurant in Southern Michigan, The Chop House.
Dinner was fantastic! We had shrimp cocktail, wedge salad, beef wellington for me, a rib eye for J, and of course, creme brulee for dessert. It was such a lovely little birthday-football-Pure Michigan day trip.

And the next morning, my actual birthday I FINALLY got to open this...

A 1/110th scale model of the space shuttle or what J calls my signed football. Love, love, love it! We had a lazy and relaxing day. With a trip to Chagrin Falls for coffee and bagels, an afternoon movie, and a pizza dinner at Anthony's on the West Side. It was a great weekend!