The Ironiversary

Hello! We spent our anniversary weekend in Birmingham. 6 years is the candy/iron anniversary. You are probably supposed to choose one or the other, but we kind of went with both.

It just made sense to get candy for the drive. Road trip!

We worked on our Dave Ramsey homework on the way up. It was a thrilling car ride. Ha. It also just makes sense to work on Dave Ramsey homework and eat a payday. Am I right?

We stayed at the Ross Bridge. We got there around 7 p.m. Friday evening, just in time to catch the bagpipe man playing right outside of our balcony.

Saturday morning we met up with one of our Ragnar teammates, Elena, that lives in Birmingham. We did a long run with her training group. I was blown away by how many runners were out that morning. Hundreds! I guess I forget how much bigger Birmingham is than where we live, but it was just crazy to me. Crazy good! I loved seeing so many people out training.

According to my schedule, I needed 14 miles between 7:25 and 7:45 pace. I got exactly what I needed. The route was a little hilly (not as hilly as it could’ve been though … they took it easy on us) and the weather was a little iffy (very humid with some rain sprinkled in every now and then), but otherwise I felt great!

Daniel ran 16 miles and then we did the usual post-run coffee hangs. We met some really nice people. I felt oddly comforted by the fact that post-run coffee is a universal running ritual.

The rest of our Saturday was pretty typical, we just weren’t in our typical setting. We did a little bit of shopping, I took a nap and Daniel watched plenty of football. After the Alabama game, we wandered out to find some dinner. There was a restaurant less than half a mile from the hotel called The Front Porch, so we decided to walk over there to check it out.

It was a good choice! We aren’t fancy restaurant people and this was the right up our alley. We Daniel was able to watch football and we got a really good meal. Win-win.

In the spirit of eating more fish and iron-rich food (hey that goes along with the anniversary theme too!), I ordered the Power Salad with Ahi Tuna. It had a little bit of everything on it (kale, cabbage, red onion, edamame, grape tomatoes, blueberries, dried cranberries, cashews and sunflower seeds) and it was delicious!

We ordered key lime pie for dessert and were surprised to see it served in a mason jar. I think it was a bigger serving than if it had just been a slice. Mason jars are so trendy these days.

I got a really pretty picture of the hotel all lit up at night on our way back.

Sunday morning we went on a short run to explore the area around the hotel, since we hadn’t run there Saturday morning. We found some neat trails and hills. We found lots of hills!

We had a 10:30 tee time (that sounds so fancy). Neither one of us had played golf in years. Daniel played in middle school and I played every now and then growing up. I was hoping that we might get some beginners luck working in our favor. Golf can be a super frustrating sport (especially if you aren’t any good at it). We hit a few shots from the driving range before deciding that “this is as good as it’s gonna get” and heading out to tackle the actual course.

Speaking of the course, it was tough. Lots of hills, water and sand traps (basically a beginner/non-experienced golfer’s nightmare). When we rented the clubs, the guy in the pro shop made sure to let us know that we would need to buy an extra 12 pack of balls because we were definitely going to need them. Ha.

After our first drive, we made the executive decision to play best ball. There were big groups playing in front of and behind us and we really didn’t want to hold anyone up with our lack of skillz. I am so glad that we played this way! We would both hit a shot and then we would just use whichever shot was the best, pick up the other ball and go from there.

We actually made a pretty good team. We used 90% of my drives (I have one club that I can hit well and the rest of my game is no good) and 90% of Daniel’s approach shots and putts. Every now and then one of us would hit a good shot outside of our usual strength and so we’d use that one, but for the most part it was pretty predictable.

The course was beautiful! We actually scored fairly well (in my opinion). We shot 45 on a par 36. It’s not great, but it is certainly not horrible either. We actually returned the entire pack of extra balls because we didn’t use any of them. Hashtag winning.

We decided that playing best ball helped us to avoid the IRONY of splitting up on our iron anniversary trip. Not that it was a competition by any means, but when you put two highly competitive people in a competitive environment, things happen. We avoided those things!

Thanks for reading. I’m sure that wasn’t the most interesting post ever, but I know that one day (when I am old and gray and have probably lost my marbles), I’ll want to look back and see how we spent our time together. Anyone have a good anniversary story to share?