A different kind of meet. . .

We’re taking a break from swimming this week—but not from traveling! This weekend is the Michigan Open for swimming, but Lexy didn’t have any qualifying times. Maybe next year! Good thing, too, because Sydney has been rehearsing with the Drama Club almost every day after school for the Drama regional competition, which is being held at Holland High School this weekend.

Midland High won the district competition against Bay City and Saginaw a few weeks ago, so this weekend seven high schools across this region are competing. Each high school needs to prepare a 45-minute one-act version of a play or musical. If the performance goes over 45 minutes they are disqualified! I don’t know all the criteria the kids are judged on, but length is definitely one of them.

In 2007, MHS performed Seussical, and in 2008 they performed 45 minutes worth of Godspell. This year, the musical is “Do Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?” I wasn’t familiar with the show, but it is fun, and the kids do a great job with it. The basic premise is about growing up while attending Catholic School. Sydney plays trombone in the pit orchestra. She has to dress as a nun.

Holland is the tulip capital of Michigan, and is 145 miles from home! But we’re still a few months “Tulip Time”, as the local festival is known. I’ve only been to the tulip festival once, and the tulips were on the wane anyway.

Holland is also known for its Dutch-inspired architechture, which is fun to look at, as well as a number of outdoor tourist attractions, most of which are closed in February. It is a bit warmer than it has been – the local bank showed a temperature of 49 degrees at 9 am. I guess this is what caused the ice on the roof of our hotel to melt and slide off at varying intervals during the night. I would just drift off and then – BANG—there went another sheet of ice. The wind also woke me up from time to time. I later learned it was gusting up to 60 mph. If it was any colder, there would be a wicked wind chill! But we are thankful it is warmer and the sun is out.

After we dropped Sydney and Julius off at the school, Lexy and I went over to Bob Evans for a ‘real’ breakfast. As we were leaving, a man tapped on my driver side window. Weird, but whatever. He wanted to tell me that he had also once owned a Ford Expedition and that he sold it but kept his third-row seat. He had noticed that I didn’t have my third-row seat in my car. I told him I don’t usually drive around with it because it’s so heavy and I get better mileage without it. I guess he walked away disappointed because he really wanted to get rid of it! After he left Lexy and I laughed for a long time because it was just so weird!!

I didn't make Lexy sit through all seven performances today, so we did a few things while the other schools were performing, and made sure we were back by the time Midland High School went on. We spent a good part of the day at the nicest pool I've ever visited -- and I've been to a few over the past couple of years! The Holland Community Aquatic Center gets high marks from me for being a very clean, modern swimming experience. They had not only an eight lane lap pool, but also a huge curvy slide, a splash zone for the younger kids, several diving boards, tubes, a basketball net and a floating obstacle course. Lexy had a great time here! It was about as much fun as she could have for $5!

Back to Sydney -- we went back to Holland High School in time for MHS's performance. They did a great job, even better than at districts. All this rehearsal time was really paying off! The audience laughed in all the right places, and I enjoyed it even more the second time. The judges were VERY late with their awards though -- almost an hour later than expected -- and since Holland is 2.5 hours one way to Midland, I really was getting antsy to leave. They had to do all kinds of awards for the seven participating high schools but the amazing news is that Midland won the competition against some really excellent schools. They will go to states next weekend. I wish them luck!