First, I would like to thank the Canadian dollar for peaking just about the very weekend we traveled. Then I would like to thank the new customs guy who asked "you mean like a bunch of cases" when I advised I had 67 beer in the back - to which I responded "well, I have some singles." Woot.

Ann Arbor is apparently defined by the University of Michigan more than any other university town I have seen. Every street seems to have another institute of some kind or another which means there are plenty of egg heads in lab coats with egg head in lab coat tastes. This is a good thing. Like the fantastic brewpub next to the fantastic chocolate shop.

After finding a place to eat on Friday night - most places having an hour wait - we walked next door and unexpectedly found Garnet Rogers was playing in front of 40 people in a venue called The Ark right next door. We were almost the youngest people in the place as it appears to be entirely run by retired 1960's folky volunteers. Yet it has Bell's Two Hearted Ale which you can go get and bring back to your seat mid-set.

Handy place right off the ribbon of highway: 401, 402, 69, 23. Michigan has a speed limit of 70 mph. Who knew? The city is sorta Ithaca with the volume turned up but without the waterfalls. Hotels were 2/3s of Iffica, too. The football stadium, one end of which is at the top of this post, sits 100,000. I now own more things with a big yellow letter "M" on them, more than I would ever have thought I would. Goal for 2008: see a game at The Big House. I have the right tie to wear...and the pickle dish.