Traverse City

I am sitting up in Traverse City right now-- or TC as someone likes to call it. I'm Horizon Books, this really sweet bookstore that has free wi-fi in it and also a nice cafe and discount section. I know-- it sounds like Barnes and Noble, but really its a lot cooler and they sometimes have live music-- though never when I've been here. They also have a fireplace where locals like to play chess or cards and such.

I'm working on what I am doing for my reading for Sena and Seth's wedding, but I needed a brain break sincde I'm exhausted. Jim and I have come here several other times, but this time we made one of our $1 bets for who would be ready to go first. He had to be sitting in the car with it idling when I got there. Today when I arrived it was 6:20 am and he was still in the shower. Ha-- I've also won $1 for Eric Bana's nationality-- he's Australian. Several more bets are out there unresolved, and Jim is vowing a rematch tomorrow for this bet.

Tomorrow we are driving to Ann Arbor because Sena is going to be briefly in town and we are going to just have time for breakfast or brunch and for me to show her myself in the dress for her wedding and then turn around for Todd and Jennifer's wedding in Kalamazoo. So once again we need to be on the road at 7 am (this time in our wedding clothes), but this time he'll likely be in the car at 5:30 or something. Oh well, even if he is, I'll still break even on this series of bets, and still have a chauffer to TC and to Ann Arbor.

After we get back and have Todd and Jen's wedding we've got the possibility of dinner with Jim's dad who will be visiting from Ohio and Jim's nephew Joey. I'm geeked to finally meet Joey, who is really close with Jim, and it might be nice because apparently his dad isn't the most talkative of guys. I'm sure if we do have dinner with them then I'll hear some lovely Jim stories. His mom didn't tell me too much, but I think she was afraid she'd scare me off and the possibility of grandkids. After that we need to go running. We have been exercising, but it has only been sporadically and we have been including kayaking on my lake and working outside in the sun on John's house for 4 or 5 hour spurts. We are trying to be more faithful in the actual running on the track. We are using the system where you run for a minute and a half and then walk for 2. It seems to be very effective, and soon we will move up to running 2 min. at a time. I'm excited because I was running up to a mile and a half regularly, but then I got my job and lost my motivation and I was really missing the feeling of physical fitness and the qaulity of sleep afterwards.

Oh well, enough to think about for today alone. We are going to have a picnic and I think Jim'll want a nap because he is battling fierce allergies. Thank goodness there are beautiful parks here and plentiful parking. The next time we'll come will likely be during Cherry Festival, so the parking situation may change a little bit.

Restaurant Recommendations:
Scalawags -- All I have to say is that I tried their whitefish sandwich and loved it and for those of you who know me, you know that that is saying a lot for a piece of fish. The decor is great as well. All of the lights are made out of little minnow buckets.

Noth Peak Brewing Company The building used to be a candy factory!!! That is enough of a draw for me, but also the food is stellar. I had the white cheddar ale soup and they use these yummy garlic mustard pretzel bits for croutons on top of it. I would say that it is in close competition for the best soup I have ever had.

Mmmm- my mouth is watering just thinking about it, so I need to stop because we are planning on grilling hot dogs. Still yummy, but in a food town, for 2 foodies its not quite the same.