Tri, Tri, Triathlon

Brad and I headed north Wednesday night for an extended four day weekend, and to enjoy some time off before Brad prepared for his 2nd ever triathlon at Crystal Lake on Sunday. I must admit, it was really, really nice to get some time away. As usual, I don't have the faintest idea how to write about everything we saw, did, and ate, but I'll try to cover the highlights. I am also thankful the weather was so beautiful the entire time, and only wish now that all 4 day weekends could be equally as awesome!
Our up north trip started off Thursday with much-needed together time. We slept-in until we couldn't sleep any more, then Brad and I spent the day shopping in Frankfort and Traverse City. I had never been shopping in "actual" downtown Traverse City, and boy was it cute! My head whipped around from store to store, trying to take it all in. Definitely someplace I want to go back to. On this particular trip though, Brad was on a mission to find some new golf wedges, so any hardcore shopping was left for next time. We did stumble upon a cute little place to eat some dinner though!

"Hamburgs" actually exist (The Shuberg's apparently didn't make them up)Typical diner lookDelicious root beer float for BradCrunchy and delicious burgers for the two of us

After dinner, we hit up North Bar Lake; someplace I've been bugging Brad to take me for quite a long time. North Bar is near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, and has an outlet to Lake Michigan. It also means, because it's an inland lake, that it's much warmer than Lake Michigan. Which is good for my cold little toes!

North Bar Lake as seen from Pierce-Stocking overlookArtsy fartsy shadowsWarm water post-swimming faces

Friday was more relaxing time for me, as Brad trained a bit more for his tri, and Patty (Brad's mom) and I headed to Pierce Stocking for a nice hike and drive.

Shadowy hike

Beautiful blue lake Michigan and dunes

After the hike, we headed to Glen Arbor for some wine tasting at Cherry Republic and shopping.

Cherry RepublicApples schmapples (for you Steph!)Tasting deliciousness

To close out the evening, Patty and I headed to Dinghy's in Frankfort for the famous Friday night fish fry. I don't have any pictures from Dinghy's, but seriously, BEST dinner ever (even in spite of the 1 hour 20 minute wait). All you can eat perch or cod, with a roll, choice of potato, and cole slaw. And this cole slaw, let me tell you. I really don't like cole slaw that much, but this stuff is legendary. I don't know what kind of crack they're putting in it, but I'm always left wanting more. Why does Dinghy's not deliver to Ann Arbor?
Saturday was the big Frankfort art fair, book sale, and farmer's market. I woke up early, and managed to hit all three, but also managed to forget my camera. Doh! The rest of the day was spent quietly by the beach; swimming and reading (I finally finished the silly Twilight series!) before helping cook some tasty pre-tri dinner and polishing it off with some Dole-Whip. More on that tradition some other time.

Yummy fresh tomato salad

Finally, Sunday I woke up with Brad bright and early to go cheer him on for his Triathlon. Have I mentioned how proud of him I am? I can't wake my ass up early enough just to run, let alone swim 1/2 a mile, bike 16 miles, then run for another 4. My mister is seriously amazing, and even if he were the last person to finish (which he was not thankfully), I still would be impressed beyond belief. Just being able to cross that line is an accomplishment I'll never be able to reach!

Swimmers take your markTransitioningNearing the finish line