Last Friday, Annika and I headed “up north” towards Traverse City with a bunch of German interns.After being woken up by a tremendous, earthshaking thunderstorm, we left Royal Oak around 8.30 a.m. With no traffic jams or accidents on the streets, we arrived at Silver Lake around lunch time.
Following a tour through the house (which, by the way, was beautiful), the rooms needed to be allocated. Finding a spot to sleep for all 18 people wasn’t easy, but in the end, everybody had some sort of a bed.
We spent Friday exploring the lake behind our house, barbecuing, playing sports, dancing and having a good time. I am still surprised that none of the neighbors called the police, seeing as they had enough reason to. Having a bonfire, using the outdoor bar, swimming in the lake, having music turned up and using outdoor loudspeakers - all of this until 4.30 a.m. - should be enough to get neighbors annoyed. 
As you can imagine, the next day didn’t start too early. When we finally did wake up, we went on a wine tasting tour. After having had several (tiny) glasses of delicious wine, sun-bathing at the Traverse City beach was the next stop on our to-do list. Back at the house, the day ended as the night before, with food, drinks and a lot of fun!
On Sunday, we got up early - at around 9.30 a.m. - to clean the house before heading off to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The cleaning went surprisingly well and we were able to leave the house around noon.After arriving at the national park, we climbed up the famous sand dunes. It looks a lot easier than it actually is - that I can assure you. The sand is so hot; you better hurry up walking if you don’t want your feet getting burnt! But we made it and - as a treat to ourselves - we spent the rest of the day on the beach at Lake Michigan.
In the late afternoon, we headed back to Detroit. It took us five and a half hours to get back, friends of ours made it in four hours – with a speeding ticket and a $100 fee.
Miriam
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Jack