St. Patrick's Day Weekend

St. Patrick's Day weekend was a beautiful weekend here in Michigan. It has been unusually warm for this time of year which is what a lot of people have been experiencing. We decided to take advantage it and pulled out our bikes to head out for a bike ride. There is this trail we discovered earlier in the week on a run called the Pere Marquette Rail Trail. We only have to ride about 1.5 miles to get to it so we thought it would be good to check it out.

The trail is flat and paved and you can take it some 30 miles if you like. It is motorized free and the only time you have to worry about cars is when you occasionally come upon a cross road. The traffic isn't bad though and we're excited to see how beautiful it is later in the spring and the fall.

 It was St. Patrick's Day so we did make a stop at the Midland Brewing Company for a beer. Conveniently located just off the trail.

We went a little further on the trail before heading back and realizing how sore we were going to be the next day. It was tempting to stay in that night but we made ourselves go out to do something. Bennigan's had a tent set up outside their restaurant and music playing so after eating dinner we thought we'd check it out. We  were about to go in but then thought it looked like a high school dance with everyone just standing around and no dancing so we went home instead. A pretty tame St. Patrick's Day but that's okay!

We hopped back on our bikes the next morning (even though I protested quite a bit) and rode to a place for brunch. Then it was back to the Rail Trail to check out a few buildings we'd ridden past the day before. There was a historical building talking Herbert H. Dow's electrolytic production of Bromine in the area. It was closed for the winter but we'll have to go back once it opens in April.