Oh, Winter, Why Must You Torment Me So?

Well let’s start with my anniversary, which was awesome.  We ended up driving all the way over to Saugatuck, which is about two hours and 45 minutes away. The drive there was uneventful, and we enjoyed the sights, although there wasn’t much snow to marvel at. (Note: remember this for later.) We drove out to the coast and looked at the ice on Lake Michigan.

We then enjoyed downtown Saugatuck.

We ended up staying at the Belvedere Inn, which was gorgeous.

It was built in 1913, and has quite an amazing history. When the inn’s owner found out I have a degree in history, and did an internship with a preservation society in college, he was pretty excited. It’s not often that I am able to impress someone with my useless undergraduate degree. 😉 He offered to let me see the manuscript that they’re working on for the book about the inn. Right up my alley! 🙂

The inn is also a very nice restaurant, and we had dinner there, as well, which was awesome. It was the first year in all the times we’ve done this that I didn’t have to worry about slipping on snow in my high-heeled shoes during our anniversary outing.  (Yes, I know it was my choice to get married in January.) Instead of having to drive somewhere for dinner, we just walked downstairs.

We had actually dined here a couple of years ago, when we stayed in Allegan. Dinner was as yummy as it was then…and I’m pretty sure I got the same thing I did last time.

What can I say, if filet mignon is on the menu, I’m going to order it. 🙂 I ran 9 miles Saturday morning, so I also made sure to order dessert, which they even did up for us with candles for our anniversary. 🙂

Aw, aren’t we cute? 😉 I got the apple tart, and it was delicious.  The next morning, I got a copy of the manuscript, and I didn’t stop reading until I finished it all. The best way I can describe the history of that home is like an American Downton Abbey, only with various owners in many different decades. They could make a miniseries out of that home’s history!  I hope they get the book published someday.  I won’t lie…I would love to be able to write the story myself.  😀

Anyway, I could go on about history forever, as everyone knows, but suffice it to say we had a great time. The only downside to this wonderful trip was that it was challenging to try to stick with my goal of weighing and measuring everything I ate. I did the best I could, though, which included all the great food from Saturday night, and some delicious French toast and sausage the next morning. However, after logging the sausage in my eTools (12 points for two pieces of sausage? WTH?!),  I decided next time I would skip it.

So, remember me saying that there wasn’t much snow to appreciate on the way up? Yeah, well, that wasn’t a problem on the way back. :/

Yes that is a car facing the wrong way in front of us, after spinning out. The snow started early Sunday morning, and we drove home in it. What took two hours and 45 minutes on the way in took four hours and 15 minutes on the way back!  We made it, though, and then we hunkered down for the night.

Seventeen inches of snow later…

That’s what it looked like Monday morning! And guess who decided to go out for a run?

Yep, me. I had 7 miles on the schedule, and somehow, I decided that I could manage to run through all that snow. Um, no. But I gave it my best effort!

Can you believe I actually managed to do 5 miles on the road before I gave up? I was fooled by the fact that one of my neighbors must have plowed down about a 10th of a mile, so I had the idea that the whole road was plowed.  Not quite. I ended up running about 1.25 miles in narrow ruts left by a single car. It was a nightmare. I’m lucky I didn’t hurt myself. 🙁 I finally turned around when I crossed the main road, and it was as if no human head even touched the snow on the other side. By that time, I still had to come back another mile and a quarter, and then, to make matters worse, I was running straight into a 15-mile an hour cold wind. Not my best run by a long stretch. When I got back to my house, I took the crossroad and went back-and-forth for about half a mile in either direction, because all the neighbors had plowed sections of it. That’s how I got to 5 miles, but at that point, I just decided I was tired and needed to be done running on the road in the wind. I did the last two on the treadmill, and I was happy to see that my new Garmin with the built in “foot pod” did a good job of tracking me on the treadmill.

I will say that my 5 miles on the road was actually the best average calorie-per-mile burn I’ve ever done! Still, when I went to weigh myself later that morning, I was nervous after all the food I’d eaten over the weekend. And…

Wow! That’s a 2.4 pound loss from last week! That makes for a total of 3 pounds in two weeks, and it’s also the lowest I have weighed since last June!!  Hmmm…maybe there is something to this “weighing and measuring” thing after all. 😛  I’ll guess I’ll keep doing it and see where it takes me.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a shot of the beautiful sunrise I took Tuesday morning.

Winter sucks, but the views are often awesome. 🙂  Thanks for reading!

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