Panama City Beach, Florida - Tracy's 50 state marathon!

My sister Tracy is an amazing person. She was completing her goal of running a marathon in each state, and we wanted to be there to celebrate! She planned to make it happen in Panama City Beach, Florida. She got a big Airbnb, invited a bunch of family and friends, and we were off!

Kris, my dad, and I flew from Detroit to Panama City Beach airport, which was really small. We took an uber to the house and immediately walked to the beach. It was raining, but that didn't detract from the absolute beauty of the white sand and blue-green water. I touched it, and it was pretty warm.

More people flew in, including Tracy and my mom, and we walked to Ford's Garage to eat lunch. It's a chain, but I love Ford's Garage for their nice little touches like having a gas pump as the doorknob, and having tires as sinks. What can I say? I'm from Michigan.

We went to the grocery store and I was unable to resist buying a Panama City Beach sweatshirt. It's so touristy, but I loved it so much.

Back at the house, Tracy gave everyone their shirts she had specially made! They said 'Tracy's Marathon Era Farewell Tour', and then on the back '50th State', with a map of the United States colored except for Florida. I gave everyone stickers of Tracy's face that said 'Tracy's 50th State' so we could wear them with every outfit. The Airbnb had a hot tub, so we warmed up in that and then headed out for dinner.

We chose McGuire's Irish Pub, and it was delightful. It's one of those places that has dollar bills all over it, and they had live music which I loved! Also, the food was great. I had shepard's pie and could only eat half of it. Tracy had a giant, giant pretzel. We made both of them into three meals. (This is also a chain. Chains very popular here.) Erin had us all sign a dollar and slapped one of Tracy's stickers on it before adding it to the wall. Let me know if you see it.

Day Two

Race day! Tracy and Louann got ready for the race. We were all together now - Gage, Tracy, mom, dad, Louann, Kelly, Laura, Erin, Lydia, Kris, Erin, Lisa, and me. We headed to the start line. Tracy and Louann running the marathon, Gage, Kris, and I running the 5k.

Let me note here: since we had landed, it had been raining. It never stopped raining. Fun fact - it continued to rain the entire time we were in Florida. This was unfamiliar to me, because I've never been somewhere where it never stops raining. In Michigan it doesn't ever rain an entire day. If it is a rainy day, it rains on and off, but there are definitely breaks. Here it rained the entire time, even through the night! It was so different! 

We laughed as we looked at the forecast. 52 and rain. "Rain likely to continue for the next several hours." This didn't seem to bother Tracy and Louann. They danced to the start line and...they were off! IT WAS HAPPENING!

An hour later, Kris, Gage, and I ran the 5k. I had decided to run as fast as I could, and it was really fun. Kris said that he figured he could run three miles as fast as he could if Tracy was running 23 more(?!) I came in second in my age group with a decent time, so that was nice. 

The race had gumbo and drinks in Margaritaville afterward, so we gathered there. The timing was perfect, because we were able to see Tracy and Louann at the halfway point! They looked soaked and determined. Definitely in the zone.

We headed back or got clothes or bought a swimsuit or went in the hot tub and watched MSU play basketball or ran along with Tracy (lots of people, lots of activity!) and Louann texted that she was going to walk.

We all gathered at the finish line to wait for Tracy, as we followed the app that told us what mile she was hitting. Did I mention it was raining really hard? 

Lisa had told the announcer about Tracy's feat. As she neared the finish line, we all cheered. She literally danced joyfully over the finish line and - GOAL ACHIEVED!!  

A note here about Tracy. Not only is it the absolute athletic feat of running marathons in all 50 states, but there's the rental cars, finding where to go, the Airbnbs, the working a full and part time job, the logistics of timing, the fact she's doing it all with the genetic visual impairment Stargardt, and really it's just so incredibly impressive in so many ways. I ran three marathons with her, (plus one alone and one ultra) and I've seen up close how difficult it all is - but so, SO amazing. I am so proud of her!!! There aren't enough exclamation points.

Tracy finished in high spirits, joking, laughing, happy. She jumped in front of the finish line. (Yes, she could still jump after all of that!) She said she wanted to walk back, because she couldn't be any wetter anyway. 

We went in the hot tub, and she said, "I just feel so good right now," and I was again amazed, because I don't think I've said that after any marathon.

We watched games, hung out at the house, and looked at the driving rain. We narrowed down our dinner choices to three places and chose the Salty Goat. As soon as we arrived in the uber, we called the second car and said not to come, it was very lively, lots of people were watching the Georgia football game, and they had a live band, but there was nowhere to sit except outside (in the rain!) 

We met up at The Craft Bar, which was perfect for our group. We went around and said what we loved most about Tracy, and we laughed and also cried. We gave a toast to Louann for being the only one of us even willing to try to run a marathon that day, and we enjoyed our time celebrating Tracy's accomplishment together. (I had the bread pudding, and it was incredible.)

Some people headed home, and some of us headed to the Tiki Bar to play pool. We then went to the Whiskey Saloon to play darts, and we had a great time there. Darts were really fun. We then were entertained by watching Gage challenge a young guy who brought his own pool cue(!) to play, and Gage beat him twice. The band was good, we danced, we were amazed you can still smoke indoors, and we caroled at the front door of the Airbnb for good Christmas measure.

Day Three

Did I mention it was raining? It literally rained again, the entire day. We walked to the beach with umbrellas, walked to the grocery store, and hung out until we headed to the airport. Some people were delayed another day, we had to hop on an earlier flight to make our connection, but we all made it home eventually. Tracy, Lisa, and my mom stayed another night. Tracy sent some follow up pictures: 1. Tracy and Lisa wearing the same Panama City Beach sweatshirt from the grocery store. 2. A clear sky and a bright, shining sun! 

Tracy's husband John couldn't come because of the timing of his cancer treatment, but he was able to start work again this week. Tracy headed home to her happy husband, new home, and having another amazing accomplishment in her back pocket. 

Detroit at Thanksgiving

We have really come to love Detroit. It feels kind of familiar now, but on this trip we saw new places!

Thursday

The Lions are on a streak - they've been playing every Thanksgiving since 1945! So I was super excited when we got tickets to go. I quickly ran a Turkey Trot with friends in St Johns, and we were out the door by 9:15 a.m. We parked in a lot and walked around the stadium.

I absolutely loved the atmosphere. People were so excited. There was a buzz in the air. The crowd was really festive - lots of turkey hats, and amazing custom Lions gear. The women went for sparkly, and the men were wearing jerseys and jackets that were one of a kind. There was a beautiful tree people posed in front of for pictures. It was a fun walk.

We found our way to our seats. Cole wanted to walk again to get vouchers, and I went with him. Now, it was too crowded. A totally different feel! There were bottlenecks and tons of people. It was better to get there early, for sure.

The game started. I love the start of a game, since there's so much pomp and circumstance and everyone is so excited about the possibilities of the game. Gospel singer and Detroit native CeCe Winans sang the national anthem, and no wonder she's famous. The game started, and the Lions played well.

We were looking forward to seeing Jack White play at halftime, and I thought everyone would stand...and they didn't. Then Eminem popped out of the stage and everyone JUMPED to their feet in excitement and stayed standing the rest of the time, including through Seven Nation Army, which is weirdly a sports anthem played at every game we attend, ever. It was so incredibly exciting! A little concert with a surprise guest right in the middle of a game on a holiday with my family all together?! YES! 

The Lions did not win, but our spirits were not damped, because due to our long history of being fans, we don't expect them to win. We rushed to a restaurant for dinner because...we had another game to watch! MSU was playing basketball against UNC. And MSU killed them! This also seemed unusual, because I have watched MSU lose a lot to them.

There was still a lot of day left, so after we checked into our hotel (Hilton Garden) Kris and I walked down to see the Christmas tree. Beautiful holiday.

Friday

I got up and ran along the riverfront, which is always pretty. I saw a cool park with artistic animal structures.

We walked to Woodward and shopped, then went to a few parts of the city I hadn’t seen – Corktown and Midtown. We walked around Nike, Alo, Third Man Records, Carhartt, Shinola, Timberland, etc. There were lots of people out and it was festive. We got coffee at The Roasting Plant and checked out the Christmas indoor booths at Campus Maritus.

We went to Corktown Taphouse, because they offered a lot of games! They’re the kind of place where you get a bracelet and every charge just goes on your bracelet so you could spend so much money if you don’t pay attention. Bowling was full, so we did darts, which were real darts with projector games. Really fun!

We checked into our new hotel (The Athenium) and went to the gym. Then we walked to The Brakeman, which was awesome because it had shuffleboard, foosball, and ping pong! We played them all (and ate good food) – mostly shuffleboard. They had a lot of TVs and we watched the Pistons narrowly lose.

Saturday

I ran to William G. Milliken park, which was so pretty – it even has a lighthouse! So fun to go to a new part of Detroit. I also ran on the Dequindre Cut, which is a greenway through the city.

I had floated the idea of going ice skating to the boys, and they all were up for it. We got our rental skates and headed out onto the ice. Kris got a coffee and watched us from the side. It was magical. The Christmas music playing, the beautiful tree, our boys here, gliding around the ice, laughing, people happy, meeting smile after smile…you get the point! I love, loved this.

We got ready and headed to meet our friends at Harry’s Detroit Bar and Grill. We ate there before the game and talked to all of them, and then walked to Ford Field for the MSU game!

The crowd was completely different than it was for the Lions game, which was interesting being in the same spot for a different game.

Once again, a festive atmosphere, and then…a really good game! Michigan State won! None of us expected it, and it was a delightful ending to our sports weekend.

We walked back to our hotel and it was really snowing. It was the kind of floaty, pretty snow that people write songs about. People like Eminem.