A Week in the Mitten!

This year started off with a bang...stayed up until around 3 am cleaning and organizing so that I could pack for the big trip the next day. I woke up again at 5:30 to continue the packing process, which hadn't actually begun, so I could be ready by 8am to leave. However, due to my lack of readiness and helping the neighbors with their car, we didn't get on the road until 9:30am or so. Megs feared that we wouldn't make it up to Michigan in good time and wished fervently that we had left earlier. We didn't know then what things we were getting in to.

All was going well; the sun was shining through the mostly cloudy sky until we hit Illinois and Indiana. However, it was when we hit the border of Michigan that we got the Lake Effect snow. Wind blowing everywhere, snow covered not only cars but the lights and streets as well. Not going over 20mph down the interstate, we followed a single file line of cars through the first fifty miles into Michigan. After we got through it, there was nothing but inky black sky sparkled with little stars and the moon, bright as the sun. (it actually DID hurt my eyes to look at!) All in all, our trip back to Michigan went without conflict, thanks to caffeine, adrenaline, and laughter.

We had decided that we wanted to start our resolution to keep our past resolutions which all women know is to be healthy and have a rocking body. We began by going grocery shopping and working out with our good friend Jillian (The Biggest Loser Trainer). We started Sunday, my 20th birthday, which was a great idea because then it would be at the beginning of the week. Wow, after 30 minutes of cardio, strength, and abs, we were both sweating, shaking and hurting. Jillian hasn't seen us in a while. :) Any way, later that night, it was decided that we wanted to go to see a movie. After many indecisive moments of "oh, I wanna see that!" and "No...I want that instead!", The Frog and the Princess won and ended with smiles.

Flipping through the Healthy Choice cook book has opened many options and wonders for a cook to behold. How can so many things look so tasty and still be healthy? Well, Megs and I decided that we were going to be like Julie Powell. Cook through the cook book, one by one, except we weren't writing a blog about it...and we weren't trying to be like Julia Child...Just finding a healthy solution to our bad habits. So after looking through the book intensely, we finally decided to try the Beef Eye Round Steaks with Vegetables, Orange-Sauced Roughy, Honey-Glazed Cranberry Cornmeal Muffins, beef stew and a few other things.

We didn't know where we could find Roughy, let alone know what it actually was, so we settled for Pollack, Mahi Mahi, and swordfish...Figuring one of the three would work in that recipe. After we got back, I was delegated to choose what we were dining on that night, so I chose the mahi mahi in place of the Roughy and made some jasmine rice to go with it. All in all it was the best choice. I hadn't ever had jasmine rice (or at least known what it was called) before and loved it so much that I am buying a bag of it as soon as I get back to Nebraska.

The next thing that was on our menu was the beef eye round steak with vegetables. This was all well and good and the vegetables were cooked to our liking. We had decided that next time we would use whole marjoram leaves rather than the ground marjoram because it certainly didn't look like the picture. It did, however, do the job of spicing the food. It came to the conclusion that neither of us could understand how food this delicious could be so good for us.

Not much later, lakes and site seeing was on our minds. Being from Nebraska, I hadn't seen half of the things here in Lansing, so I went down to the Kellogg Biological Station with Lou and got to be a part of her work. That was a once in a life time shot. :) After that, we went down to Gull Lake to look at the beautiful scenery. Sadly enough, it hadn't frozen over. Only a small pit of it had formed an icy cover and the rest was cold, murky depths of Gull Lake.

And so, after a wonderful week up in Lansing, it was time to pack my things only to board a train for 16 full hours back to Nebraska. Memories had been made, laughs, sadness and even crazy cooking skills, but it was time to get back to the reality of things. However, in the middle of our nightly movie session, I had received a call! It wasn't a number that I was acquainted with and tried fervently to figure it out. Calling back, I only received to monotone greeting of Julie, the voice recording. It was Amtrak calling to inform me that my train from Chicago to Lincoln, boarding at 2pm that very next day, had been canceled due to weather conditions! Lou was kind enough to call and get service help to rearrange my train ticket for the next day only to find that it was down for the entire weekend including Monday! I grew frustrated with the weather, cursing it left and right, I turned to cooking to make it all seem better. Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes and bread sticks made with the original yeast and flour had turned my frown upside down enjoying the yumminess of a home made meal. It soon caught our attention that we had a grand three more days that we could spend together, since the soonest I could board a train would be Tuesday morning at 8:28 am that day. Through all of this, we continued our little expedition of Lansing and Michigan.

Friday morning, Lou and I were getting ready to leave for the Kellogg Biological Station and I went down start her car. She had called down to me to go get her keys for the apartment and I went to grab them. Throw them up here!, she said and feeling uneasy about it all, I did. Mind you, her balcony is the third floor up and my aim is completely terrible. The keys landed on the second floor balcony next to the door and the people who lived there weren't home. After three hours of frustrating thoughts of how to get the keys back, we ended up driving the car to the balcony taking a coat hanger rescuing them from the grasps of those unknown!

After this, we went to KBS Saturday morning to see if the cultures had liced at all and surprise! They weren't. It was a communal decision to go see Lake Michigan and to take the day exploring. We didn't know then what we were getting ourselves into.

An hour and a half to South Haven was an amazing trip with beautiful scenery and trees surrounding the roads and the curves that took us into the unknown. People were out and about in downtown South Haven going about their business and eager children and parents going down to the pier of Lake Michigan. That was our destination. Upon approaching the beach, seeing the lake in the distance between the historical houses sent chills and goosebumps down my spine. We found a way to get down to the pier, got out and found myself gawking in awe at the beauty of this sight. The water reached into the horizon with no hint of shore except for the shore line extending from North to South. The pier was dangerous with icy chunks added by the constant sprays of tidal waves rolling from the distance. Clouds only filled the western sky making the lake look even more ominous and a frightening site to behold. It was like nothing I have ever seen before except in movies. The red light house stood upon a thick surface of glistening ice while on the northern pier, there stood a striped green and white light house with one thick icicle coming off the western side. Being as clumsy as I am and having the history of falling like I do, I honestly feared that I wouldn't leave this trip alive. being surrounded by ice and not having great balance is the kiss of death. However, I made it off the pier with nothing even a scratch.

I had decided that I wanted to "walk on water" meaning the iced over Lake Michigan. Getting down to the beach and iced area was a great challenge for the two of us since it was either we walk all the way back to the beginning of the pier or we hop off the side with the snowdrifts; we chose the latter. Lou thought it would be wise to follow the tracks that other people had left. She went and jumped, well she actually fell into the snowdrift and was stuck! I slid a little more gracefully into the snow, but paid the price by getting stuck myself in the snowdrift! Being the photography freak that I am, I decided to just point my camera and then just see what the photos turned out to be. A lot of them turned out to be ecstatically amazing! A nice older gentleman took our picture which turned out to be fantastic. Standing on this bit of earth made my heart overwhelmed with the beauty in which I am such a small piece of it amongst this big world. It reminded me of the Boundary Waters and how I am so small compared to nature and all the wilderness that surrounds me. I had to stand and take it all in before I could leave and still to this day, that image burns at the back of my mind and will always be there for years to come.

Heading home on Interstate 196 was nothing short of normal...traveling down at 70mph happy as a clam to be heading back while there was day light. We were driving along and heard something rattling and I happened to look beside me and saw a Rover passing us and I told Lou that it was the other car, but it quickly became apparent after the Rover was gone that it wasn't them...the back window was still rattling and frantically I tried to convince her to pull over for fear of something loose. She refused and I finally said, No, we NEED to pull over and we need to now. After we had parked on the shoulder of the interstate and I opened my door. a wave of smoke and the smell of burnt rubber met my nose. We had blown a tire. Cars flew by, not bothering to change lanes and three good Samaritans pulled over to the side to help us. Lou was a real trooper and kicked that blown tire's behind! But it was frozen on, so the woman who had stopped to help went to go get a sludge hammer from her friend's place and when she came back, Lou had successfully gotten the tire off.

Outside Holland, Michigan and driving 50mph on a doughnut tire made for a very long trip back to Lansing. And after getting lost a little bit, we finally found our way home only to find no place open for tire changes on a Saturday afternoon. We were so very lucky that we didn't swerve or lose control of the car that entire time.

Sunday rolled around and we had gotten news that we were to be going cross country skiing with a couple of Lou's friends that morning so at 10:30 that morning and after much silly harassment, we were in the car on our way to go skiing for the first time. It was so amazing coming up to the Green Trail and seeing the sunlight shine through the thick trees with hills on one side and the woods on the other. Little particles of snow blew in the soft wind creating little sparkling prisms of light shining through in the light's rays. It was such a gorgeous sight to behold. To say the least, old Jillian would be proud that we lasted 3.3 miles in skis! To my dismay, I found I had battle wounds and proud to show them like a proud mother! However, it makes bending my knees and walking quite horrifying! I found two lovely symmetrical bruises on each inside knee.

Now it is Monday evening and I will have another set of adventures tomorrow when I board the train for the first time. I am so glad that I have been blessed to get to spend a good week and a half here in Michigan with my big sis and it will be a hard thing for me to get on that train and wave good bye. THe one thing that I won't forget is all the memories and love we shared this past week and a half. Thanks for coming along for the journey. I hope to see you all again. :)