And we're driving, and we're driving....

We have finally made our way back to the Midwest after a long day of traveling yesterday. After waking up at 3:30am, our flight was delayed out of LAX and we didn't get to Milwaukee until 4:30pm. From there, we drove two hours south to Chicago. We had a great dinner with Michael's mom and dad at an Italian Steakhouse and it was great to catch up over a nice meal.

We left Chicago around 11pm and started the 6 hour drive up to Michigan. Michael is doing the Melges 32 Nationals this weekend with Team Roxanne so he had to be here Wednesday morning for practice. Luckily we had downloaded "Into Thin Air" and the book kept us awake for the drive. We finally got to Traverse City, MI around 5:30am. We didn't realize that they were on Eastern time and therefore we lost an hour.

We put the address for the house into the iPhone, but we could not find it anywhere. Finally around 6am we gave up and called Michael's teammate. Turns out the regatta is actually in Harbor Springs, not Traverse City...which was about 2 hours away. (the event is held at the Travese Yacht Club, which is why we assumed it was being held in Traverse City...you know what they say about assumptions) By this point we were both so tired that an additional drive really didn't seem that bad and people had started getting lost on Everest, so it was good timing for the book. We finally pulled in a little before 8am and were exhausted.

On top of all that, Michael was worried about his target weight. When he does team regattas, all the team members have to weigh in and be under a total weight. You could see how this didn't bode well, given that he has been trying to GAIN weight for the Laser. He had to lose 15 pounds in order to hit his target, so he didn't eat or drink yesterday or today. So after we finally got to Harbor Springs, I went to sleep but Michael had to go sit in the sauna to sweat off the pounds. Luckily the team weighed in shortly after that and hit their marks! Michael chowed down after starving for 2 days.

The team went for an afternoon practice sail and I decided to check out the town. Harbor Springs is a really cute town and reminds me of Annapolis, Edgartown, and small town Maine. The Main St. had quaint shops and restaraunts and is right next to the harbor. I am happy to finally be here and check out more of the sights tomorrow!