Great Chefs, Great Cities

I think there used to be a show of that name on the Travel Channel...I watched it all the time! We are in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan (going home tomorrow), and as always, the Cherry Capital is DELICIOUS. I have some recommendations for future "As Seen on Television..." signs. We had cherry chicken salad yesterday for lunch and seafood for dinner. Today we ate at Pearl's, which is Cajun. They own several gluten free restaurants in the area, and I was SO happy to go to a place that gets it. 

First, they specifically asked if we needed a GF or vegetarian menu. Yes, thank you. Then, their menu is labelled "celiac friendly" and it explains that while they do their best, there may be cross contamination, etc. (which means they understand that eating out could cause a reaction). Then, they asked if we wanted gluten free cheddar jalapeno corn bread. OH MY GOSH, YES! It was good AND you have no idea what it's like eating out without the bread until you have to do it. I swear, restaurants expect you to fill up on bread, so if you just order a salad, it's like a teeny tiny little thing, and you leave hungry, after paying $13! Steve got shrimp and grits and I got BBQ shrimp. There was another dish on the online menu that he didn't see when we got there, but we didn't think to ask about it until after we'd ordered. I bet they would've whipped something up if they had the ingredients. 

We got up at 6 to run. It's downhill for 3 miles from the hotel, then the bay. Totally worth getting up early! 

Of course, that means it's three miles back UPHILL at the end of your run, but it's not too bad. We both ran 10 miles (to earn our lunch). And then we went for frozen coffee (cherry lemonade for me) and they had gluten free peach pecan muffins!!! It's like paradise (for $1.33!). I went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks, and they have a TON of cherry stuff, but I limited myself to the cherry honey mustard and the cherry vinaigrette, since it all has sugar. At least these were pure sugar, and not corn syrup. I'll probably use them to marinate chicken -- if there's any left! The cashier said both of them are her favorites. Glad I made a good choice! 

I'm trying to get 30,000 steps today to make up for all the travel! I might have to walk laps around the ballpark tonight.