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.
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.
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.
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!
WOW what a wonderful weekend getaway and a wonderful scale surprise too! Looks like you picked a winner there! Happy Anniversary!
There is so much happy going on in this post! I love it 🙂 Congrats on the anniversary (and what a gorgeous place to stay!) and getting below 120!
Happy Anniversary! The English Inn looks like a really romantic spot to spend a special occasion and the food in their dining room looks excellent! No apologies for gushing–you’ve worked really hard on your weight loss journey and its feels terrific to see the result of your efforts!
Aw man, what a wonderful anniversary weekend. We’re celebrating five years in November and planning an anniversary weekend, too!
Congrats on being below 120. I could feel your happiness through the screen!