The rest of the weekend in southwest Michigan

I mentioned in my race report post that I spent the weekend in southwest Michigan visiting my college roommate Jess and her BFF Kim. It was a pretty chill "girls" weekend - Jess brought her niece, and we stayed with Kim, who has two little girls. Saturday night was girls night out with one of Jess and Kim's friends, and Kim's husband had his own "girls night" at home with the younger girls.

Jess's niece

Most of the weekend revolved around the race - as I mentioned, it was put on by Kim's family. Friday night, we made baked goods (OK, I watched) to bring to the race, Saturday morning was the race and then the afternoon was spent at Kim's parents' house as they finalized post-race details - posting race results online, reconciling the money, etc. (And hanging out - Kim's family is really nice!)

Kim and her giant dog

Saturday night we went out in Kalamazoo, which is a cute town. We started at the Wine Loft and then Casa Bolero. (My not-a-foodie review of both: Good. Recommended.) Dinner ended around 9:45pm and we all admitted that we just wanted to go home and go to bed. We reminisced on how much of a change that was from our college days. (How many years post-college can we get away that? We graduated almost eight years ago.) But I pointed out that back then we slept until noon and then didn't get going on our night until 9 or 10pm. Whereas on Saturday we were out the door by 7:30am for the race and had a pretty busy, but fun, day, regardless of our bedtime.

So we went to bed early and "slept in" until almost 8am on Sunday before Jess and I got moving to head home (in opposite directions - she lives in Detroit). On the way home, I made a slight detour to Warren Dunes for a peek at Lake Michigan.

Frosty beach

More frost (in the shade)

Lake Michigan

Then I remembered that it's February and it gets a little chilly standing right next to a great lake and continued home. And another trip to Michigan is over. I love that state!

But it is nice to be home

Meanwhile, in honor of super expensive Super Bowl commercials, I cracked open a super fancy beer. My not-a-beer-runner-blog review: It was good. (For actual an beer runner blog, and some sweet MS Paint pictures, check out Eat Drink Run.)