The Great Beerd Run

My amazing friend Portia told me about this great 5k in Traverse City Michigan, The Great Beerd Run. This was a truly inspired fun run/walk.  Here in Michigan we are very proud of our breweries. We are becoming beer snobs and creating new amazing brews everyday. This race was all about beer and beards (No shave November).

Portia had the genius idea of dressing like lumberjacks.   We picked out matching flannels with suspenders. I swear she's a genius sometimes.

The race packet was fun. It contained the bib, some beer coasters, advertisements for breweries in Traverse City, and a knitted beanie with a beard attached.  The race was held at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa on their golf course. It had massive hills. It felt like we were going backwards as we ran them, but I'm getting ahead of myself.


This is the first year of this race. No one else thought of dressing up, there was a lot of really crafty homemade beards, but no one dressed up. We stuck out a little bit.  There were a lot of participants there and considering the 25F, snow, and some of the ice on the golf course, many people were very excited about the race and the beer at the end. It took us 34 minutes to finish, the race was not timed, but we timed ourselves anyway. The beer stations slow you down, but it's more about the experience than the time it takes to finish.

After the race we had a ticket for a free beer.  I tried the Key Lime from Shorts Brewing company. It was delicious.

Upon crossing the finish line we got a really cool bottle opener souvenir. The newspaper was also waiting there and they took our picture. We ended up on the front page.

It was a lot of fun. I hope they do it again next year.

Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, MI

I am not a Christmas person. Not really at all. I feel like it's too commercial and some of the good will done during this time of year is just to make up for all the ill will done all year long. In addition to this I have worked in retail for 15 years. It's hard for me to enjoy it at all, especially when I miss a lot of time with friends and family because I'm busy working.

Don't get me wrong, there are redeeming qualities about Christmas and the entire concept of it is beautiful. I love midnight mass, advent calenders, and the lights are pretty to look at and they make the extra winter darkness more tolerable.

Randy loves it. He turns into a 3 year old and wants the lights, the gifts, the shopping. I suppose this balances my pessimism and bitterness to the season, or at least makes an effort of it.

So, for Randy's birthday this year I let him pick what he wanted to do. He wanted to go to Frankenmuth and see Bronner's. He had talked about this before and I have always been reluctant, but because it was his birthday I agreed to the two and a half hour drive.

When we arrived Randy was relieved they were open until 9 pm. We thought they closed at 5:30pm and we arrived at 4pm. I was a little discouraged because I didn't want to spend more than an hour and a half in this Christmas wonderland.

The first place we stopped was at the Christmas villages. There were dozens of these tiny little villages. They had trains and little trees, minute little people ice skating on itty bitty fake ponds, and of course real working baby street lights.  On top of this there were dozens of different countries represented in bulbs.

It was truly a wonderland. There were more Christmas ornaments than I could stomach. The entire store is broken down into sections. It is placed on 27 acres of land. The store itself is about the size of 1 1/2 football fields. It was enormous.  They also have free personalization's, so if you are getting bulbs for special people you can have their names and the year put on them. 

After 2 hours of browsing through Christmas ornaments, tree toppers, and a lot of advent calenders (My favorite part of Christmas) we cashed out and decided to have dinner. We went to Zender's. Everything is German, Bavarian, there was an entire menu of really tasty food to chose from and there is also unlimited home style menu, which is really the best value if you are eating in a large group. We tried it, there were so many side dishes and the fried chicken was amazing.  There was soup, then breads, some different kinds of salads. When they served the chicken it came with dressing, potatoes, noodles with breading, and squash. It was delish. After the meal dessert was either a Sherbet or chocolate ice cream. I had the Sherbet.

It was well worth the trip, even if you don't like Christmas. The downtown area was amazing and no pictures could even do it justice.


Where we went:

http://www.bronners.com/category/christmas-ornaments.do?nType=1&utm_campaign=lv14&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=bad

http://www.zehnders.com/

Edinburgh, Scotland: The Castle and Parks

The best advice I can give to anyone traveling to the United Kingdom is be prepared to walk and use mass transit. As an American I can appreciate this, I do not have the luxury of mass transit, I do a lot of driving (I'm not being sarcastic, I really wish there were a bus stop closer to my work, I would use it). As far as walking, I know a lot of people here do it for health, but in Scotland I noticed a significant number of people just walking, as if they are actually going places other than to their cars. Imagine that.

 There is a lot of walking to be done and there are paths, gardens and amazing walking tours everywhere. In Edinburgh there is double decker bus tours if you don't feel like walking. Scotland is more than walking. Honestly the entire place looks like magic. Green, rocky, castle-filled magic.  It's as it the entire land is made of mountains just under the surface that want to rise up. God's personal pile of rocks. There are mountains (or maybe just large hills "Highlands") that you can see far off into the distance when you are in Edinburgh. These are visible from the top of the castle. So is the sea.



The Edinburgh Castle

When visiting the castle be sure to purchase the audio walking tour. There are stops along the way to explain the history of certian spots and history of the Scottish monarchy. I was facinated by Queen Mary, her life fell apart quickly. If you don't know google it. You can see the entire city from the castle. It's not a very big city, but it's an odd mixure of old and new.

The views in the rooms of the castle are lovely and it's crazy to imagine that people lived there. They walked down the narrow staircases and ate at tables, they lived here. Eating, breathing, sleeping, and going about their daily routines. They have their own Scottish Crown Jewels, including the Stone of Destiny (Stone of Scone). This was returned to them in 1996, but it started out traveling to Egypt, Sicily and then Spain. It landed in Ireland for 140 years and was taken when the Scots invaded.  Anyway, it's a very large stone with the purpose of being placed under the throne when a new King is crowned.  Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom so if a new King or Queen is crowned, it will be moved there for the cornination.  The St. Margaret's Chapel in the castle is the oldest surving structure. It was a tiny little alter and Gospel books on display. I can only imagine they were made of vellum paper and inks from local plants. They were very old and under glass.

Other parts of the City

If you are an ambitious walker you can go pretty much anywhere within the city with out transportation. The hills around the park grew tiring, but the walk was amazing because everything was so green. I walked the entire park, it seemed safe, there wasn't anything remotely dangerous about it. I've never been somewhere so placid. The streets are pretty consistetly cobble stone and I found some of stones are loose. Not enough to make a person lose balance, but it was noticable. When I visit places I always think about the how it would be to live there. The cobble stones must have created interesting adaptations in foot wear over the years.  

The Park 

Up and down the streets there are a ton of vendors selling various souviners. I bought a really spectatcular faux fur hat. They have regular souvieners as well. The street vendors only take cash. There are actual souviner shops as well. I do not recommend the fudge. Other stuff, like the candy and of course the Walker's Shortbread Cookies, are good.  Actually the Walker's Shortbread cookies may be my undoing someday. I only see these around Christmas time and I'm glad it's coming, I've already polished off the twin packs I bought from this visit a month ago. 

The Street 

Overall, it's a beautiful city to visit with lots of things to do which I couldn't possibly have covered in this blog.