Post-Marathon Recovery: Ice Cream Seems to do the Trick

Fortunately, and quite unusually I might add, Grandma’s Marathon was held on Saturday morning, which gave us plenty of time to rest and recuperate throughout the remaining weekend. And what could be more relaxing than a visit to Green Lake? Absolutely nothing. Green Lake is my favorite place in the world. I hope to be married on its shores, and someday scattered over its waters. Centrally located, it’s Wisconsin’s deepest lake, and also one of it’s largest. Green Lake reminds me of Lake Geneva, but without the wall-to-wall boat traffic and pretentions.

Immediately following quick showers at the dorms, Karen and I got on the road back to Wisconsin. Karen’s legs were still quite stiff from the marathon, so she had a little trouble pushing down the gas petal, but luckily we made it uneventfully through the six hour road trip to the lake. Our first stop there was my favorite fish-fry restaurant, the Mecan River Lodge, where I feasted on a succulent dinner of fried shrimp, walleye, scallops, and French fries. Truly an artery clogging fried feast. But why stop there? From the Lodge, we stopped for double-decker ice cream waffle cones at our favorite ice cream shop, All in Good Taste, which features sixteen flavors of Cedar Crest ice cream. After all, we did run a marathon that morning.

The ice cream was followed by a great long slumber, and the next day was spent eating blueberry pancakes, relaxing on the pier, shopping the boutiques of Princeton, boating, grilling out, and more ice cream—this time at Bayview Landing Ice Cream Parlor, which definitely deserves a posting of its own that will surely come later this summer. In short, it’s a fun boat ride across the lake to Bayview, but they’re much stingier with the ice cream there, which obviously irks me, and they always seem pissed to have customers. Huh? Luckily Mr. and Mrs. Smiley were suprisingly quite pleasant on Sunday night. This because there weren’t too many customers. So I enjoyed service with the faintest hint of a smile and a loosely packed cone of Moosetracks. I love how you can run a marathon and then easily justify crappy eating for a week. Make that a month. I mean, geez, I just ran a marathon. Luckily, this afternoon I'll be heading back to Green Lake for a mid-week vacation day of more sun and relaxation (and, err...ice cream).