Greetings from Ann Arbor - Senior Year!

Greetings from Ann Arbor!  Another summer winds down with a drive to Ann Arbor... and another year kicks off for Katie.  This time it's her senior year!

Hard to believe it's been 3 summers worth of packing up the car/unpacking the car (not to mention the spring trips to bring her home)!  The only difference this time around is that we left on Sunday, going back on Tuesday.  Normally it's a Saturday-Monday trip.  It'll be interesting if the drive back is any different, time-wise, on a Tuesday.  Probably not - but there's always hope :D

Here's to a great Senior Year for Katie!!

Greetings from Ann Arbor - Junior Year :D

Another summer comes to a close with a drive to Ann Arbor to deposit Katie back at school.  This time it's for the start of her Junior year.  It's a cliché, I know, but it's amazing how time flies.  I can remember like it was yesterday, driving up here to check out the campus before she formally accepted.  Similarly, the trip here for her first year - and moving Katie into her freshman dorm hardly seems that long ago!  The list visits here can go on, and on...

Well I guess at this point Ann Arbor has become our adopted second home - Go Blue! :D

trip to ann arbor, via clarion :O

it was an interesting 72 hour road trip to ann arbor this weekend.  in what typically is a 10 hour drive, the weather conditions driving out to michigan on saturday were so lousy that we had to stop over in clarion, pa (with 4+ of hours driving to go).  in a rambling succession of snow, sleet, rain, fog and dreary darkness, we opted to finish the drive sunday morning.

sunday afternoon in ann arbor (after an easy drive) was spent moving katie into her new apartment for the spring semester.  the first two trips from her old place were pretty straightforward - then the snow arrived.  the third and final trip to get her settled into the new place was a bit challenging given the single degree weather and snow.  but when it was all said and done, we went over to the blue tractor for dinner :D

on downside to the trip was having to miss the kick-off 2015 boston build-up, the 10k in norwalk.  last year it turned into an icy adventure race - this year it would revert back to a regular road race.  but a 10k is on deck for this weekend, in central park.  the joe kleinerman 10k will be my first nyrr race of the year. 

the drive back home, sans katie, was uneventful (mostly sunny and dry!) - and less than 10 hours after we left her, we pulled back into our driveway - home!  hard to believe that the winter break went by so quickly.  katie probably won't be back home again until the summer :(

greetings from ann arbor - sophomore year :D

greetings from ann arbor!  after i ran the summer series 11 miler yesterday, we finished packing the car and drove - with a 45+ minute traffic jam inching through the delaware water gap and getting pulled over in ohio for speeding (but the officer let us off w/just a warning) - katie to ann arbor for the start of her sophomore year at michigan!  the big difference this time around is moving into her sorority house instead of the freshman dorm last year.

not sure how much sightseeing i'll get in this time around - but hopefully at least on visit to a brewpub :D

stay tuned!

greetings from michigan... versus indiana!

this is my 4th trip to michigan this year!  pat and i drove up on friday to visit katie during parents & family weekend here at the university of michigan. one of the highlights was this afternoon's football game - i was my first big 10 college football game (and 1st time i've ever been in such a huge stadium).  it was a fantastic experience - which even grey skies and occasional rain couldn't dampen.  the 63-46 michigan win may have also contributed to that mood!

tomorrow we drive back home (and won't see katie again until thanksgiving).  on a related note, now that the giants season has been relegated to the scrapheap of history - even if they manage a win on monday night, they'll sport a fantastic 1-6 record - the wolverines have picked up the slack!  go blue!!

our newly minted college freshman!

well, it's official now - katie is a college freshman!  pat and i drove home yesterday, after 2+ days of helping her settle in to the dorm and her new surroundings at the university of michigan, ann arbor. it's hard to believe how fast the time flew by.  forget middle school and high school, and even elementary school - i can still picture katie in pre-school, as if was only yesterday!  it's going to take me a while to realize this isn't like dropping her off at summer camp and then picking her up 6 weeks later! 

as is obvious - we're very proud of her :D

blue tractor bbq & brewery - once again!

when we visited the blue tractor bbq & brewery in june, pat and i came for lunch.  last night, along with katie, we went back the blue tractor for dinner.  as always, i love to try samplers - so i had another go at their 6 beer sampler.  i had the 4 regular selections plus two seasonal choices.  of the 6, the "lime flew over the cucu's nest" witbier was fantastic.  i'm a big fan of wheat beers in general - but this one, with a lime twist, incorporated cucumbers (hence, what i would suspect the "cuco" is about).

here are the six sampled:

smokehouse amber
bumper crop ipa
bearded pig cream ale
pitmaster porter
tiger cub session ipa
lime flew over the cuco's nest

while the tiger cub session ipa was also good, i'm not generally into ipa's.  on the food side, don't miss the fried green tomatoes appetizer!

grizzly peak brewing company, ann arbor :D

on my third trip to ann arbor, dinner at the grizzly peak brewing company was my forth visit to a brewpub in this fantastic town.  i had planned on lunch at grizzly peak during my june trip here - but it was closed for renovations at the time.  no problem, because the blue tractor bbq & brewery was, literally, just a few doors down the street.

but grizzly peak was definitely worth the wait - if only for the elk burger that i had to go along with my 9 beer sampler - the full flight, so to speak (samplers varied from 5 to 9 selections).  my selection included not only the ginger beer, but a gravity pulled ginger beer infused w/peppercorns (my favorite of the bunch).

here are the nine i sampled:

victor's gold
gizzly peak pale ale
steelhead red
bear paw porter
blah blah ginger beer
anniversary black ale
county cork's irish stout
hms sheerwater ipa
gravity pulled ginger beer w/peppercorns.

as mentioned, the ginger beer infused w/peppercorns was my favorite, followed by the regular blab blah ginger beer.  the novelty of ginger beer added to my interest - i had only tried this stuff once, years ago.  the rest of the selections were good - among them, the pale ale and ipa were excellent.

in addition to the beer selection - the food was great.  i couldn't pass up the elk burger - again mostly for the sheer novelty.  but that burger was fantastic!

don't pass up a visit here.

greetings from ann arbor - again :D

we arrived in ann arbor late last night - just after 11 (and a drive that took us 10+ hours!).  it's our 3rd trip to michigan in the last 5 months.  today is the big day for katie - she officially move into her dorm room at the university of michigan - and transforms into a college student!  it's the start of a great new chapter in her life (and ours, as we suddenly join the ranks of empty nesters)!

after all the moving business is take care of this morning, maybe i'll get a chance to visit another ann arbor brewpub for lunch :D  stay tuned...

blue tractor bbq & brewery, ann arbor

i followed up yesterday's dinner at the jolly pumpkin café & brewery with lunch at the blue tractor bbq & brewery.  these two brewpubs are w/in a couple of blocks of each other - and blue tractor is on the same street as the ann arbor brewing company and the grizzly peak brewing company (which had been my initial lunch destination, but was closed today and tomorrow for renovations).

as it turned out, blue tractor was a great place for lunch (and beer).  i sampled 6 of their selections:

bearded pig pilsner
bumper crop ipa
smokehouse amber
simply the zest (belgian wheat)
demonic black ipa, and
the pitmaster porter.

the sixpack of 5 ounce samples was served up in cupcake pan - with a pint of water on the side ;O

i'm awed at the sheer number of brewpubs here - and conveniently concentrated in - downtown ann arbor.  i've already lined up a new pair to check out for parents weekend in october :D

greetings from ann arbor... redux :D

we arrived here last night, after a 10 hour drive (door to door, w/about a half dozen stops along the way), for katie's freshman orientation.  it's hard to believe that we were here less than 3 months ago, for the accepted students visit.  and, we'll be back here again in late august to move katie and her stuff into the dorm for the start of the fall semester.

seems as if michigan will be a much visited state over the course of the next 4 years!  now all i need to do is find some races to round out the visits :D