Birthday Weekend Part II

Yesterday I shared part of a wonderful weekend, thanks to a handful of very special people in my life.

I feel like a huge goober making such a big deal about my birthday this year. I never really want to do much for it, but after feeling extra loved this time around, I wanted to share some of the cool places celebrating the big 2-9 took me. And thank the people that brought me there!

Saturday morning started off with an early morning training run on the trails with Alex. With a sunny morning in the mid-40s it couldn’t have been more beautiful weather for us to conquer five miles.

I guess scenic views on the trails weren’t horrible, either.

There are a handful of things about this photo that makes me laugh. One of them being that I finally looked the right way at the camera, while Alex didn’t. (It’s always the other way around.) Another is that we are wearing the same sweatshirt because we’re cool like that.

As each weekend goes by, we increase our group run time and always reward ourselves with some kind of warm breakfast afterwards. This time we walked over to a Panera Bread close by and I found us a new healthy breakfast sandwich to drool over.

Mediterranean breakfast sandwich (egg whites, spinach, roasted tomatoes, cheddar + basil pesto) on wheat bread instead of Ciabtta.

Washed down with fresh hazelnut coffee, it was all dreamy and will be something I will be ordering many times to come.

We spent the next few hours doing regular Saturday errands like grocery shopping and store returns, but together, which made it a little more fun.

A couple of hours later, I drove over to her place and hitched a ride to spend the afternoon in Detroit. Alex planned a circle of cool places she has been wanting to show me and I am determined that she is doing this to try and keep me in Michigan forever.

First, we drove over to the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum for a quick peek inside before they closed. Any Michigan residents living in Wayne, Oakland, and Maccomb counties get free admission, and the highest ticket price for the day is $8 for visiting adults.

We didn’t have much time to look around (I plan to come again with Scott!), but the main purpose of our visit this time was to show me a neat cafe in the center of it.

The DIA introduced a new version of Kresage Court last June to look and feel more like a living room. There is an interior courtyard that beams natural light and historical architectural style I was instantly drawn to.

After noticing a menu of drinks (coffee, tea anddd spirits!) and appetizers, I deemed this spot an ideal place to work, read, or even hang with friends when I’m in the area.

I loved the little reading nooks and thought the pop-up electrical outlets on almost every table was genius.

These photos really don’t do the space justice, either.

Here’s one that is closer!

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We were only able to catch the tail end of business hours, so we took our cafe party a few blocks over to Great Lakes Coffee.

This is the same coffee company that houses a small shop in our home church, so I was looking forward to checking out the bigger location.

For the next hour or so, we sipped on warm beverages, ate a couple of appetizers and chatted the afternoon away.

(Also another great place to work when I’m in the Downtown Detroit area!)

Liz and I

Alex and Alex

Around 6 p.m. we packed up and headed over to the main reason of visiting the area: dinner at Green Dot Stables.

Since the spot was extra crowded and dim, I didn’t get any personal pictures of it. To help show you the charm of the atmosphere, I found the following photos online and credited the sources below.

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I had heard nothing but great things about this restaurant and bar from our friends. Local legend has it that it was opened by a former horseracing jockey and the location even has traces to old mafia stories. Quite the interesting spot. You can read more about that here if you’re so inclined.

Being a very popular place to unwind, there is almost always a wait and ours was just short of two hours due to limited seating. It sounded crazy at first, but our waiting time went by in a flash thanks to their outside patio and $2- $3 drinks.

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They are best known for their large variety of sliders, which are also around $3 each. Talk about bang for your buck!

While I could have easily gone for their fried chicken with syrup or barbeque sliders, I evened out my (three?) hard ciders out with something my stomach was a little more used to.

quinoa slider (left) + black bean slider (right)

I also ordered the chicken tortilla soup, which was creamy and delicious.

I tried a sample of almost everything brought to our table and have to give the most original award to the Peanut Butter & Chipotle Raspberry Jam slider. It was so good!

After a few rounds of drinks and a lot of laughs, I thought I got out of the whole birthday embarrassment thing until a candlelit Guernsey Ice Cream-Mexican Tea Cookie (<- say that three times fast?) showed up.

I am already dying to revisit that menu and take Scott with me to see what I have been talking about.

After a few continuous days of celebrating, I felt very blessed to be surrounded by such fun and thoughtful people who helped me celebrate my birthday, especially with an out-of-town husband.

Thank you for such a special weekend, lovelies. It truly was a blast!