Greetings from da U.P!

Well we made it to Marquette. And as of now Ben is passing the test of being away from us. We dropped him off on Friday and he didn't even glance up as we left because he was too busy playing with another dog.

However an hour into our drive I got a phone call from the trainer. Apparently Ben puked 3-4 times and then had major puppy poo outside on their walk. Poor little guy. At least by now we know that it's just nerves/excitement.

Since then Leah (his doggie sitter/trainer) has been texting pictures and giving him A-plus reports. Apparently Ben is in love with a 100lb golden retriever that is also staying for the weekend :-)


The rest of our drive flew by. We had great weather to travel in and it was super pretty out. Before I knew it we were crossing the bridge....

The water below DID NOT look warm...


Once we got to the Upper Peninsula we had to stop for a Fig Newman break and check out the bridge from the other side. Yup, that's where we came from...


It was dark out by the time we arrived in Marquette and we had a bit of trouble finding a place to eat. The Noquemanon ski race was happening on Saturday with about 1500 skiers racing. The town was packed!

Today (Saturday) was super low-key. We slept in, went to my favorite bagel place for breakfast sandwiches and then went hat shopping. Scott wanted to buy a new Kromer and naturally I had to try some on too. It was very tempting to buy one but right now I'm on a self-imposed hat buying freeze. Too bad, because Kromer's rule! Plus they are made in Ironwood, Michigan. Dang it, now I want to go back and buy one after all :-)

We also checked out some of the ski race that was going on. When we left Grand Rapids on Friday there was very little snow. Not the case up here!

There were lots of spectators cheering the skiers on as they went through the woods. I was really happy that I was not doing the ski race. For one, I haven't skied once this year. And secondly the littlest thing will make me crash. And once I crash with ski's on I can't get up. I could only imagine myself on the ground in front of the spectators trying to get up.

Finally we hopped on our snow bikes and spun around town. It was cold riding next to the lake, but also really beautiful.

Tomorrow is the 25k snow bike world championships and we will be going off at 10:40. Temps are going to be in the low teens and it's going to be windy. I would never come up here and expect it to be easy, but I have REALLY TOUGH competition tomorrow. And the shorter distance is not going to play to my favor. It's basically going to be all out from the get go. Right now I'm really nervous and really excited. It should be a blast in a very painful way :-)

I won't be able to do another post until we get home, but I should be able to do an update on Twitter!