At the end of September, Clint had some time off so we took a few days and went up to South Haven, MI.
We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast that gave us free usage of their bicycles as well as a gift certificate to a
Clementine's, a downtown bank built in 1897 that was converted into a restaurant. It was really neat...the inside had a lot of exposed brick and heavy woodwork. This was taken outside of Clementine's.
Downtown South Haven 
Along Lake Michigan Our first full day there, we biked around South Haven and along Lake Michigan. As we were biking back to our B&B, we came across the the Kal-Haven bike trail. The Kal-Haven trail runs E/W and connects South Haven, MI to Kalamazoo, MI. I believe it's 34 miles long.
We met two couples who had just biked in from Bloomingdale, a small town along the trail. They told us that they were staying in South Haven and had biked to Bloomingdale for lunch and then biked back. It was obvious that all 4 of them were in pretty good shape. As we were talking I heard them say something to the effect of biking "around 17 miles."
These were the bikes we tooled around South Haven on. Thankfully, we had better ones for our Kal-Haven Adventure. The trail sounded like a lot of fun, so Clint and decided to bike it the next day. If you know Clint and I, you'll appreciate this difference between us.
He wanted to get up at 6am, bike to Bloomingdale and back before our breakfast at 9am. I, on the other hand, did not think that sounded like so much fun. There was no way we'd get off in time and be back in time for breakfast. Plus, the mornings were FREEZING and we didn't have a lot of warm clothes. "Let's go after breakfast," I convinced him. He agreed. And when we woke to pouring rain, he knew we had made the right decision.
By the time breakfast was over, the sky somewhat had cleared up. So we decided to risk it.
We rode into town to buy me a sweatshirt and we were off. Our host had graciously told us that as we rode east, the trail would gradually incline. So here we go.
Biking.
Uphill.
By about mile 6 or so, I'm really feeling the burning. But, no big deal. If we're only biking 17 miles, the halfway point is coming up. I mention this to Clint and he get's a big smile and says, "no, it's about 17 miles ONE WAY." You've got to be kidding me. I just might die. I haven't biked for probably 10 years! I couldn't believe it.
Pride can take you a long way.
I kept biking.
And biking.
By the time we reached Bloomingdale, my legs were on fire. And I felt like a jell-o man when I tried to walk. Bloomingdale wasn't that impressive. But we had lunch and as we were eating, we noticed that the sky was looking quite dark. Again...you've got to be kidding me.
We start biking back to South Haven, and really noticed that the trail was at a gradual decline. Which was so so nice.
Somewhere around 8-9 miles into our journey back, it began to spritz. The spritz turned into drizzle and the drizzle into rain. And at times, the rain turned into heavy rain.
By the time we got back, we were soaked, tired and sore, and ready for a warm clothes and soup! But Clint and I had so much fun being together and chalking up another memory in our journey together. And the trail was quite pretty. :)
