Wine and Victory!

What a weekend!  This will be a long post, but it was an eventful and busy weekend.  I had a lot of fun up north, drank a lot of much-needed wine, "watched" Michigan beat Notre Dame in one hell of a nail-biter while drinking and dancing in a gay bar, watched the Tigers complete their third consecutive series sweep, and got a good long-ish run done.  Whew!

So on Saturday, I carpooled up to Traverse City with some great girls.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat downtown and then headed up to Suttons Bay for a wine tour.  It was such a beautiful weekend and the scenery was gorgeous!

The view from Leelanau Cellars Tasting Room

The wine wasn't bad either.... We went to four wineries on the Leelanau Peninsula: 45 North, Chateau Fontaine, Good Harbor Vineyards, and Leelanau Cellars.  45 North had the best wine, and Leelanau Cellars offered the best tasting experience (as in, all you can taste), but Chateau Fontaine wasn't far behind.  I would not go back to Good Harbor, we didn't have a great experience there, unfortunately.

 Ready to start the wine tour at The Vineyard Inn on Suttons Bay

Gettin' our drink on!

After the wine tour, we chilled on the beach at the Vineyard Inn before heading back to our condo at the Grand Traverse Resort.  While getting ready to go out, I took the opportunity to turn on the Michigan game (though muted) to follow the action in between gift opening and other things.  At one point someone said - "Pizza, Beer, and a Football game - this looks like Neil's [the groom's] bachelor party!".  Ha!  Girls still know how to have fun!  We beautified ourselves and headed downtown to Sidetraxx, which is a gay bar.  You know what they do NOT put on TVs inside of gay bars?  Sports.  So, this girl "watched" the last quarter of the Michigan game on ESPN Gamecast on her cell phone.  It was sufficient (though I caught up on the video replays later), and I am so glad I got to spend the night celebrating Magen!

Me and the Bachelorette!

And besides, if I stayed behind, I never would have had the chance to see this beauty:  a Disco-Chest!

Only in a gay bar... I hope anyway.

We took off pretty early the next day to get home and recuperate.   I spent a good portion of the afternoon on the couch and watched Doug Fister and the Tigers sweep the Twins for their 9th win in a row!  They are on FIRE right now, and it is so exciting to watch them play.  I just hope they can keep this momentum into October and win then too :)

Around 5:00, I got my butt off the couch to go for a run.  I spent the day hydrating fairly well, so I really wanted to get a good 14-miler in.  This would officially put me back on track for the marathon, having only missed 1 long run (an 18-miler) and 2 weeks worth of shorter runs.  I made it!  It wasn't pretty at the end, but that was a great cap to a week of come-back running.  Here is how Week 13 shaped up:

M 9/5: 9.18 bike, 49:27, 11.1mph; 2.55 easy, 22:39, 8:52 pace
Tu 9/6: 4.02 easy, 37:34, 9:21 pace
W 9/7: 5.21 easy, 48:30, 9:18 pace; first half of P90X Shoulders and Arms
Th 9/8: 7.06 easy, 1:05:03, 9:13 pace
F 9/9: Rest
S 9/10: Rest - up north
S 9/11:14.0 long, 2:14:58, 9:39 pace
Week total: 32.84 miles running, 9.18 bike

After all that, I am exhausted!  To cap off the night, I watched a replay of the Michigan-ND game on the Big 10 Network.  It's great, to be, a Michigan Wolverine!!!!!

VICTORY