Stalking the Daughter

 

Sometimes I miss the daughter, even though she's living under my own roof.  She's just so BUSY with all her teenaged life.  Sometimes I show up at her work and she has to spend time with me because I'm a paying customer.

Band Festival

 MAN did these kids sound great.  Mrs. Fontaine knows how to pull a band together, that's for sure.  All 1s for the Houghton Gremlin High School Band at Festival today!  Reagan even had two solos!  Good job, Gremlins!

Rob's 56th Birthday

 The order this year was "surprise me with a unique lodging venue where we will eat deconstructed tacos and have birthday cake while playing pinochle and other games."  Surprise with very explicit instructions.  Got it.  

I booked "the Lodge Luxury Suites", which is an old ELKs lodge turned into a boutique hotel.  We stayed in the Palmer suite, which was lovely.  As we were essentially the only people in the entire place, we had the common areas (the bar and fireplace) to ourselves as well.  It was a fantastic evening.  We had a great time, and it was just what the big guy ordered.

Happy Birthday, Rob!

Post Clinic Fun - Nordic Skiing Edition

 We usually try to do dinner and some kind of activity with our out of town guests after a clinic.  We've done sled hockey and curling.  This year, the adventure was Nordic Skiing!  

Sit skiing looks like it would be hard, and I'm here to tell you... it IS.  Really, really hard.  But it gets you outdoors on a blustery day, and able to enjoy the Narnian winter that is the UP in February.  There may have been a few tears, and potentially a ruined foot surgery (SO SORRY ABBIE!), but overall it was a great time.  

A UP Track Clinic

 

Every year I harumph around, convinced this is the LAST track clinic we'll do in the UP, because there is so much uncertainty and stress involved every.single.year.  And then it all turns out great, and I forget all about it by the next year.  We DID have to pivot as far as audience goes, focusing more on health care professionals and college students in the health-related fields.  We just can't seem to locate many new athletes up here in the Yoop, despite our best efforts.  (I say we.  I mean ME). 

 And then there was the stinkin' BLIZZARD that hit the day before the clinic.  Thirteen of our registered guests, including one of our presenters (Abby), cancelled due to the weather, and I was distraught.  Do we bag the whole thing?  How is Amie Day going to make it in from Wisconsin?  The U of M from Ann Arbor?  I called Erik (Assistant director of U of M Adaptive Sports and Fitness) in a frenzy on Thursday.  

"You guys are probably not going to come, right?  Because of the storm?  Do I need to cancel the whole thing?"

Erik, however, is an optimist.  And young.  And maybe a bit reckless.  "There's more than one way to get to the UP, right?  If the bridge is closed, we can always drive around."  What the what?  "I like driving in the snow!" says he.  He's Canadian.  Snow doesn't scare him, I guess.

The U of M team ended up NOT driving around Lake Michigan in order to avoid the storm.  They drove right THROUGH it, risking a potential Mackinac Bridge closure and zero visibility, and turning a typically 8 hour drive into a 12 hour drive.  Harrowing, and I was constantly texting to see how they were and if they were making it ok.  Everyone made it safe, thank the good Lord, and we had ourselves a clinic.  Not our typical clinic, but a well-received one none-the-less.  It's all good.  It's all good.

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