Girls On The Run

Part of our excursion to Michigan included some volunteer work at the Girls On The Run end of the season celebratory 5K run. My dear friend has been coaching a team of amazing girls and this event was the culmination of all their training! My husband was enlisted to help check in the volunteer runners who ran along with the girls to keep them encouraged and moving. I provided photography services for the day. I love this pic at the starting line - only grade school girls would have the bead-embellished socks for the event!

It wasn't always easy but all the girls finished and got to feel that wonderful sense of accomplishment. I loved seeing the girls encourage one another when they were struggling, running hand in hand, arms wrapped around one another's shoulders urging each other on. The look of joy on their faces as they rounded the track and picked up another popsicle stick to indicate one more lap down.

Rounding the track one last time to pick up their medal when they finished elicited the most joyful smiles and laughs (and a few celebratory dances and poses along the way)! One particularly inspirational part of the day was seeing the father of one of the girls running the race as well. At the ceremonial lunch following the run, we all came to find out that this father is battling cancer. The girls surrounded him and cheered him on with one of the Girls On The Run cheers.

Another fun aspect of the our trip was searching out lots more letters for collection! We found letters around the Soo, Mackinac Island, on the ferry, lots of places!

Michigan Munchies

My husband and I are spending an extended Memorial holiday weekend in Michigan and at the end of our first full day with our friends here in Sault Ste. Marie we headed out for burgers at an institution here - West Pier. They have ginormous burgers which are great, not great for you, but great nonetheless. I ended with a wicked stomach ache that evening, not because the burgers weren't good but as they were so good I kept eating long past the the point at which I should have stopped! West Pier is even mentioned as one of the best burger joints around Lake Superior in the current issue of Lake Superior Magazine.

I took this pic as I immediately noticed the imaginative spelling of burger in a few different ways on the same sign. My friends said they had never noticed it before!

Fast forward to the next day and our visit to Mackinac Island and an entirely different culinary experience. Following a couple of hours of exploring the island and feeling the need for some sustenance, we stumbled upon Bistro on the Greens on Mission Point as we were searching for another restaurant entirely. We were so happy we did! It was the cherry on top of an exceedingly beautiful and perfectly relaxing day. My husband laughed at me taking photos of our food, but they were so beautiful in their simplicity and presentation that the experience had to be recorded! Taste did not disappoint either and I made the decision right there that from now on, at least once a week I was going to prepare only grilled bread with feta and roasted garlic for dinner. The staff and service there was fantastic as well along with the fabulous view of the great lake on a gorgeous summer day!

Our visit here certainly consists of more than great food, but for today I wanted to make sure to remember these memorable food moments.

Hostess Gift

I am visiting one of my very best friends over this Memorial Day weekend. We've been friends since grad school days and though we don't get to see each other as much as we'd like, I'm so happy when we do! A couple years ago, she came to stay with us for a week and now we're seeing her - on the other side of the great lake that we have in common! It's fun to have another perspective of Lake Superior that we look out on every day! We're going to spend time exploring Sault Ste. Marie as well as taking drives (and ferries) down to Mackinac Island, quilt shops (as her partner and I have that in common) and just general relaxing!

I wanted to share one of the little hostess gifts that I brought along for our wonderful hostesses. I baked some slightly healthier shortbread cookies and wanted to package them in an attractive way in some container that I wouldn't need back. My mom sells Tastefully Simple products, so I find that I always have lots of jars and containers from them that I like to find other uses for. I found that one of the drink mix containers is the perfect size to hold a couple dozen of the petite treats. Then I scoured my recycled papers boxes and covered the container, added a little label from JSIM, and it was ready to go!