What a Week...

Wednesday.  Drove with my Greco guys to Freedom, WI to host a duel wrestling match against Japan.  Next three weeks will be very interesting. 

Dani dragged me out to dinner on Thursday night which I just threw on an oversized sweatshirt and jeans…and ended up going to sing karaoke with a group of Correction Officers who just passed their certifying exams.  Needless it was a night I needed. 

Bachelorette Weekend

This weekend I drove down to Chicago where Dana and I threw my bestest friend (and Dana’s sister), Regan, a bachelorette party.  All but one bridesmaid was able to make it for the weekend (NYC is a far drive just for a weekend), we missed her greatly but still had a great time!

Everyone arrived throughout the evening on Friday night where we stayed at the Congress Plaza hotel on Michigan Ave.  Saturday was a busy, busy day beginning with a group Pilates class.  Regan, being the only expert at Pilates, sure made it look easy!  We all had both fun and a workout.  Working up an appetite, we stopped at a little soup shop for lunch before heading to get our nails done.  On our way to the nail salon, we enjoyed the St. Patty’s Day festivities in downtown Chicago, green river, parade and all!  Reservations at 3:30pm at the nail salon where we were greeted with a bottle of wine which we cracked open while we waited for the bachelorette party before to finish.  With wine in hand, we all got pedicures and manicures together! 

After nails, we headed back to the hotel to rest up, freshen up, watch some of the parade from our hotel window and then out on the town for dinner we went!  After powdering our nose and throwing on some heals we hailed a cab to head off for dinner!  Reservations awaited us at .  Pretty drinks, a delicious dinner, and a fun time, we were all beat and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Quick breakfast at Jamba Juice and off to the road in different directions to wherever home may be.  A busy, but fun and exciting weekend in Chicago!!!

 

Chad and I before he departs. We tried numerous times to take a picture where we both had our eyes open or not squinting. This one is the best shot, two squinters = eyes open...right?!

This past week was Spring Break for NMU and thus, we (Colby, Amy, and I) split shifts: morning, afternoon, or off. This gave me more time to myself than I knew what to do with. Had I know about the schedule for this week prior to mike arriving, I would have delayed his visit. Oh well…

Monday I finished studying for the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES) course and sat for the exam on Monday night…and PASSED!!!! YAY! Now I am officially Jenna Street, MS, ATC, NASM-PES! So now that I have that completed, I decided to put knowledge into practice and worked on creating my own training program while at the same time organizing the 800pgs of information onto just a few quick reference pages.

Saturday night my younger brother, Chad, made his way over to Marquette. He is currently on Spring Break and came up to the U.P. with a buddy of his from the area. I was a great hostess and welcomed him to the U.P. with some mac and cheese for dinner (it was 9:30pm) and watched Escanaba in Da Moonlight. Sunday after letting him sleep in we went to the Pasta Shop for breakfast…er…lunch and then toured Marquette that included the following: the Superior Dome, my office, the wrestling room, the boxing ring, walking around the U.P. Builders Show, and then drove through Presque Isle, NMU’s campus, Downtown Marquette, and Lakeshore Drive. We planned on getting some desert during the mid-afternoon, but Gopher’s, Babycakes, Coco’s, Cookie Cutter, Jilberts, and the Up Front were closed!!! No desert, but had dinner at Aurbey’s Pizza (and sent the left overs with him to Deer Camp). After dinner he packed up and headed back to Deer Camp (that doesn’t have an address, but I have coordinates from the GPS…). Tomorrow they are planning on snowmobiling to Pictured Rocks National Forest. I am jealous; they are going to have a blast.

It was wonderful being able to spend some quality time with the little bro and show him around what has become my neck of the woods!!! Yay for 2 weekends of visitors…and next weekend is Regan’s Bachelorette Weekend in Chicago!!!!!!!

Mike's Visits!!!

YAY! I love visitors, especially this one! Mike came up on Monday evening and stayed until Sunday!!! Unfortunately, I had to work all week, but I could get used to coming home and having a freshly prepared lunch ready and waiting!

I realized how much of a creature of habit I am, especially when I’m in the groove of the work week. Oh well. Saturday went out to the Yooper Tourist Trap (picture) and then ate lunch at the Jasper Ridge Brewery, both which I had yet to explore. The Tourist Trap was HILARIOUS! So many little trinkets and things “yooperish”…it was splendid! Then across the street to lunch at Jasper Ridge where we got the beer sample (4oz of the beers they brew on site). Within the first 30 seconds of the waitress setting down the sampler I managed to spill 2 of them directly onto my lap. She was nice, brought me a ton of napkins and refill the beers. They were all pretty tasty. The food was good: I got a hamburger and Mike got the Man Burger (burger with mashed potatoes and gravy). Yes, it does sound a bit unappetizing, but it was actually good!

For dinner on Saturday night Amy joined us at the Up Front (where we got a big booth!) and then Colby and Mariah joined for a beverage. After dinner Mike and I went to the top of the Landmark Inn, a location I have been told by many I had to go with Mike, and had a cocktail. It is on the 6th floor, overlooking the harbor and had it not been snowing, we would have been able to see further. But, the view was wonderful, even with the big snowflakes falling. A romantic location if I do say so myself.

He left late Sunday morning to head back downstate. It was wonderful being able to spend the entire week with him!!!

UP 200 Dog Sled Race

Amy’s friends from Pennsylvania came up this weekend for the UP 200 Dog Sled Race!!! It is a qualifying race for the Iditarod.

Friday after I was out of work I busted home, quickly changed, and ran (yes, ran, literally) to the Landmark where I joined Amy and her home gang for dinner in the VIP area! I had quite the appetite after rushing over…it is not easy running in boots with fur in the snow! Then we walked downtown and watched some of the teams run by and then we went down to the start to see a few depart the gates! Run doggies run!!! Video above is from the start. Please be kind to the camerawoman (me), I took it with my digital camera and was being elbowed by cheering people I weaseled in-between to get in the front. It was an extremely unique experience watching dog sled races. Awesome.

Saturday I went skiing with Dany and then we headed to the Up Front to listen to the reggae band and hang with the peeps from Penn. before calling it a night.

Sunday I set my alarm because I was told the dog sled teams should return between 10 and 11am. I get there around 10.30 after walking from my house over a mile without sidewalks in the -15 degrees to find out they don’t expect anyone before noon. Then it was 2.30pm. long story short Mariah and I met up and made it to the finish line before the first team. We waited about an hour because they hit white-out conditions a town away and were slowed way down. After finishing, it was refreshing to hear how every single rider stated that the priority was to finish with healthy dogs and gave the dogs all the credit and took care of them like they were their kids. Picture below is me at the finish line all bundled up!

Michigan High School Golf Coaches Hall of Fame = My DAD!

(Picture to come shortly)

I took Friday off of work so I could drive down and attend a banquet where my dad was being honored. I drove down to Mike’s on Thursday night, met my mom at the outlet mall where we ditched a car and drove to Grand Rapids together. Just prior to going down to the banquet, my younger brother decided it would be a perfect time to tell our parents he broke his thumb skiing (of course I knew earlier).

Down to the main floor of the hotel was where the banquet was held for the Michigan High School Golf Coaches Hall of Famers. Yes, my pops was inducted into the Michigan High School Golf Coaches Hall of Fame!!! It was wonderful being able to make it down and support him for all he has accomplished in the world of high school golf!!! I drove back to Owosso to spend the rest of the weekend with Mike.
It was wonderful because we had the house to ourselves all weekend. Unfortunately, I got a minor case of food poisoning from breakfast and wasn’t feeling to hot for all of Saturday. Mike made an amazing dinner Saturday night (tenderloin with portabella mushrooms…mmmmmm). I took leftovers home and ate for dinner on Sunday in Marquette because my stomach was in no shape for it on Saturday night which was not fun. But we got to spend time together which is what matters most!

Drive back in Sunday was uneventful…whew!

Crooks Sledding Hill

Disclaimer: I did the same thing last weekend and this weekend so I decided to merge the enteries into one.

When I first moved up here, one of the first items I was told I had to put on my Marquette/UP Things To Do poster was to go sledding down the ice luge at Crooks Hill. This is a family run activity that a father created for his sons 15+ years ago to keep his young boys busy in the winter. Now, the popularity of it I know throughout the UP, and spreads by word of mouth. When someone mentioned to them that they should run an article, they all opposed. A local TV station once ran a story on it and the wait was well over an hour to take one ride, and the line was over 600 cars long down the street. Colby, Mariah and I went last weekend and this weekend Amy joined us. This weekend we were the last ones to leave and got to hang out with the locals for a bit. Have you seen Escanaba in da Moonlight? That is what it was…honest!!! Drunk men (young and old) hanging around a 25-square-foot bonfire with couches on 3 sides, and stories flying around. It was surreal. The picture above is me going down the hill this weekend. Last weekend we were unable to time the flash of the picture with my lightning speed down the hill!