Anniversary Weekend

That’s my husband and me, on the morning of our 19th wedding anniversary. Aren’t we cute? ;)Yes, another anniversary is in the books, and although it was challenging, my husband and I did manage to sneak away for a bed-and-breakfast overnight with dinner. We had hockey in St. Clair Shores for Jamie at 10:30 Saturday morning, then we had to drive back Downriver to drop both boys off at JJ’s practice. My father-in-law met us there about 2 o’clock, and then Jason and I took off.We drove for about an hour and a half, out I-94 to 127 north. Sometimes, he likes to take the “long” way to our destination, just to throw me off. This time, however, I think he actually got lost, because we ended up in a small town called Onondaga. We stopped to get gas across the street from an old school.

I went in to get a drink and use the restroom, and I was delighted to find that the little gas station had tons of historic photos and articles along the walls.

It was hard to tear me away from all the interesting history. 😉 We did learn that while the town name looks to be pronounced Ah-nan-dah-ga, the locals actually say Ah-nan-day-ga. Far be it from me to correct them, but… I think they’re wrong. ;)Back in the car, we drove another half an hour or so to just north of a town called Eaton Rapids. We were on the main road, and then suddenly, we pulled into a driveway.

Pretty stunning, eh? It’s called the English Inn, and it’s a beautiful old mansion, built in 1927, by a former vice President of Oldsmobile, which would later become part of General Motors. The house was gorgeous, and from what I could tell from the pictures, the grounds are beautiful in the summer. I did get to see the sunset over the Grand River, which is just out the back door.

I made sure to get pictures of the beautiful dining room as well.

They do weddings there, and in fact, I ran into a two different couples who were scouting the place to determine if they wanted to hold their wedding there. It was fun to talk to one of the couples; newly-engaged young ladies are so…enthusiastic and innocent. 😀 Or maybe I’m just an old married lady. ;)My husband managed to reserve the “master” bedroom for us, called the Somerset. It was pretty impressive!

That bed is actually original to the home.  They clearly took the “English” part of the “English Inn” to heart, because our room was filled with items regarding British royalty.

I must admit that I found “Majesty Magazine” to be a new guilty pleasure. 😉

I didn’t get a chance to look at any of the other rooms, but I was sort of bummed to learn that our room wasn’t the one that had the “secret panel” by the fireplace. The brochure said that it was probably used to store either important documents…or contraband hooch during Prohibition. :-PWe had the Getaway Package, which included not only the night stay and breakfast, but also dinner. In a rush to pack before the game, I just picked a dress I’d bought for a wedding a couple of years ago, and I was thrilled to discover that it fit wonderfully.Not the best picture, but it seems that people don’t realize that you’re supposed to hold their phone or camera up high when taking a picture. Take note, amateur photographers: it makes for a much more flattering picture if your camera is above your subject!

We were given a table in the smaller dining room, and I was quite surprised to find there were lots of people at the restaurant. Usually, we’re eating all by ourselves because it’s late January in Michigan and no one wants to venture outside for dinner. 😉

We did manage to get the waitress to take a better picture of us while we were sitting.

Don’t we clean up nice?

By the time we sat down, I was so ready to eat…and drink. 😉 We usually have a bottle of champagne in the room that we open when we arrive to officially start our anniversary celebration, but my husband had forgotten it.  However, the Getaway Package he purchased included a bottle of champagne with dinner. Specifically, this bottle of champagne:

So, a word of advice for all of you: don’t ever buy this champagne.  To say it was awful is an understatement. After one sip, I referred to it as “swill,” while my husband preferred to call it “a step above vinegar.” Yes, it was that bad. And yet…we still drank it! 😛 Normally, I would never waste calories on something that I disliked so intensely, but it was our anniversary, and I was following the Avril Lavigne philosophy: “[We’ve got] a bottle of whatever, but it’s getting us drunk.” 😉

Thankfully, the food was much better than the alcohol. (Please forgive the quality of the following pictures; the lighting was awful, and you don’t get very good pictures with a cell phone. )

The meal came with an appetizer, but all of the shareable appetizers were either cheese-based or seafood, neither of which appealed to my husband. So, he ordered a bowl of French onion soup, which meant I got to chow down on a plate of brie and crackers all by my little self.

Yes, I ate that whole thing. It was full of fat and calories and it was so good. I like how they threw the raspberry sauce in there, almost as if there was something healthy about it. 😉

After that, it was a salad, with some delicious bread.

 

Sorry, I cropped out the bread by accident. Funny thing about the bread, though. They didn’t give you a bread basket at the table; instead, they walked around with a basket and tongs, giving you one piece at a time. (Oprah would not be amused.) (As a fellow bread aficionado, I love that commercial.)

They were having a special thing for the month of January: four different types of filet mignon. If you know me, you know I love me some steak, especially filet, so it was like sensory overload, trying to choose just one!  I was tempted to get the filet that came with the lobster cake, but instead I chose Beef Wellington, which came with some fancy mashed potatoes and (a smattering of) green beans:

It was all delicious, and I ate every bite. There were four desserts to choose from, but I don’t remember what the other three were, because as soon as I found out there was a flourless chocolate tort on the menu, that’s what I honed in on. I was so excited about it, I had it half-eaten before I realized I didn’t take a picture.

Actually, I didn’t eat it all by myself. Jason and I shared it, and we even left a couple of bites on the plate because we were so full. Me? Wasting chocolate? What the hell is wrong with me??

The next morning, I got up early with the intent to get some pictures of the sunrise. When we checked in the day before, they asked us if we wanted a “coffee basket” in the morning. We said yes, although I didn’t have much hope for a basket of coffee…?  But after I showered, I quietly opened the door to the hallway to head outside, I discovered this:

Isn’t that cute? It was a tiny little thermal carafe of coffee, with glass mugs and all the necessary accompaniments, included my all-important cream.  I loved it! I made myself a cup of coffee and took it outside to wait for the sunrise, which unfortunately turned out to be a dud.

You just can’t predict the weather, you know? But I enjoy the peace and quiet for about 45 minutes while I waited. Though it was a bit nippy (35° when I took that shot), the weather was ridiculously warm; I think it ended up getting to 53° on Sunday! The ice sheets on the river, created by all the warm temps, were kind of cool.

Eventually, my husband managed to get himself out of bed for breakfast. Once again, I was surprised at how many people were there in the breakfast room. They had quite a few overnight guests for a Saturday in late January! For breakfast, we both had quiche, Jason trying the quiche Lorraine, while I stuck with a vegetable quiche. It came with a fruit cup and, of all the odd things, a salad.

Ha, I just noticed the smiley face. 😉  It felt weird to eat salad at 9 AM, but it actually wasn’t too bad! And certainly healthier than the bacon and bread that my husband got with his. After breakfast, we looked around the rest of the first floor, and we even did a quick “anniversary selfie.”

Unfortunately, after that, it was time to go back to reality, which in our world means a hockey game. :p  I know I shouldn’t wish for this, but I can’t deny that I long for the days when I don’t have to schedule my anniversary trip around playoff hockey!

As you can probably guess, I ate a lot this weekend. I did well on Sunday, though, keeping within my calorie goal, which did not include any exercise, since I don’t run on Sundays. When the week was over, my calories and SmartPoints looked like this:

(Note: I updated my SmartPoints calculations to account for swapping my “FitPoints.” I will get into that in the next post.)

Saturday looks pretty awesome, doesn’t it? 😉  I will admit to being a bit worried about my weigh-in (ok, more than a bit). But when I got up on Monday morning, I was actually feeling pretty good. The weather was a bit warmer than it had been, around 39°, and the winds were pretty good, certainly better then than last week’s 41 miles an hour! Mondays are one of my three “goal pace” days, which means sub-10 pace. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but I gave it my best shot. As it turned out, it went great!

That 9:35 pace is my best pace since last summer!  🙂

When I got ready to step on the scale, I knew that I felt good, even–dare I say it l–thin.  You know how sometimes you just wake up and feel like your waist is smaller? Well, that’s how I felt, and I was determined not to let the scale change my mood, regardless of how I fared over the week. And then I stepped on the scale…

I have to confess, I actually gasped out loud when I saw it. 😀 That’s my first time being below 120 in 11 months, and that time was just for one week, right at the end of my marathon training–I went back above 120 the very next week.  So, in essence, that’s actually my first time being below 120 since May 2014–almost 2 years!  It really shocked me to finally get there. I’ve been working for so long to make it back there, it seems, it felt fantastic to finally see that number on the scale.

But, the scale isn’t what matters. What matters is that I feel really good. In fact, today at work, I kept checking my belt to make sure that it was on the last notch, and that I hadn’t accidentally put it on the second-to-last one after a trip to the restroom. I can’t remember the last time my jeans felt so loose! I actually have a pair of jeans that I can’t wear anymore, because they were a little big on me to start with, and now they’re just so loose, they’re uncomfortable and frustrating. You know, in a good way. 😉

Anyway, I’m sorry for gushing, but it feels so good to be below 120!  And I’m really working hard this week to stay there, because I want to really be in maintenance again–finally!

Thanks for reading!