Tag Archives: vacation

Alaska: Ketchikan (Days 2-3)

23 Jul

Our second day in Ketchikan, Travis, Matthew and Al went fishing with Kurt pretty much all day. So Beth, Drew and I had a lazy morning, then walked to the shops in downtown.

Drew refused to take a picture as a pirate. He retorted, “I don’t do that in public.”

I was so fascinated by the named streets that were really just staircases that I took a picture of this “intersection” two days in a row:

The cruise ships are HUGE.

And you could definitely tell who was a tourist (dressed up, wearing heels) and who was a local (wearing jeans and Ketchikan sneakers). We were kind of in-between because our plans had been to be at a cabin all week so we only brought jeans and sweatshirts along.

Creek Street was the old red light district. While I like historic things, brothels are not one of them, so we declined that tour. (The rest of Creek Street is now just local shops.)

By the time we were done shopping, we were ready for lunch so we headed back to the apartment. The fishermen stopped by for about 5 minutes and when I discovered they were going back out fishing, I got a little angry at Travis. But I got over it and our group of 3 decided to ride the city bus out to Totem Bight State Park, which went smoothly with not a single incident. But on the way back, our bus driver stopped at the gas station to fill the bus up. That was a first.

The volunteer working in the visitor center was just closing up for the day and was in a very good mood so she let us in to the building where they were ‘rehabilitating’ some old totems that were rotting.

It was a lot easier to look at them when they were laying down (otherwise, some of them are so tall you just about fall over following them to the top).

Then we continued on to look at the clan house on-site, which was interesting. The natives lived in houses like this in clans of 45-50 people during the winter. In the summer, they set up camps near wherever they were fishing.

We of course saw more totems, but they’re not as cool in pictures as they are in real life, so I’ll spare you. It was low tide at the time so we walked out on to the exposed seaweed and looked for hermit crabs.

While we waited for the bus, Drew played with something I haven’t seen in over a decade.

I asked him if he knew what that even was. He did. Smartypants.

We got back to the apartment around 6 and since we had no idea when the guys were coming back, we made dinner when we started feeling hungry. Beth and I (but mostly Beth) put together beautiful homemade pizzas. About 10 minutes later, they were burnt to a crisp. Apparently, the oven temperature was not accurate. We were able to salvage them though – just the cheese was burnt so we peeled that off, put on more cheese and put them back in the oven, checking them every minute. So we had pizza for dinner and it was still pretty tasty. The guys came back not long after that and after they ate, we all went to bed.

The next day, the guys weren’t going fishing until the afternoon so we all went on a hike up to Lower Silvis Lake. It was 5 miles round trip and gained about 800 feet so while the climb wasn’t crazy steep, it was constant. All up on the way out, all down on the way back.

The guys saw the tunnel around the big pipe and just had to walk through it. I refused because of the spider-danger. Nothing is worth encountering spiders.

Being the almost-teenager boy that he was, Drew had to try climbing everything.

Even if it meant he could barely get down.

(He survived.)

We got up to a dam and had to climb over the fence to check it out.

Water, water everywhere.

We also came across a big pile of granite core samples.

We contemplated bringing them home for a new kitchen countertop but decided against it.

Finally, we reached the lake.

The bugs were so bad there though that I literally kept pacing back and forth until we were ready to turn back. Travis decided to imitate Ace Ventura and walk the ledge.

Then the guys went out fishing.

The rest of us hung out with Marlene, talking and drinking. Being around Drew reminds me of how much I hated adult conversation when I was his age. Talking seemed like The Worst way to spend your time. Now, I honestly enjoy it. I guess that makes me an adult, huh?

We played some Phase 10 as well until the guys got back and had gutted their fish. Then we had dinner: salmon chowder. Yum. So delicious. I can’t wait until we get some of the salmon Travis caught from his parents because I will be making this! After dessert of mint brownies and ice cream again, we called it a day.

Only one post of Alaska left… don’t be so excited. 😉

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Alaska: Ferry and Ketchikan (Day 1)

22 Jul

We got on the ferry around 6 pm on Friday, June 29. We wouldn’t be getting off until 6 am on Sunday, July 1. Yes, the ferry ride was 36 hours long.

We had reserved a 4-person berth, which was nice because it gave us a secure place to put all of our crap, and I was able to go to bed at 7:30 that night. Seriously. We ate our pizza up on the top deck under the Solarium and then I tried to hang out in the observation deck but was too sleepy. So I went to “take a nap” but didn’t get up before morning. Apparently, I was tired!

The Solarium

Our ship’s name

The map of the ship

At first, the ship seemed huge. But after being on there just a few hours, you pretty much knew where everything was (at least, what was accessible to the passengers).

To be completely honest, I got a little bored on the ferry. There’s only so much watching and waiting for wildlife, reading and crosswording, hanging out and napping I can do. We stopped at 4 different ports before getting to Ketchikan: Sitka, Kake, Petersburg and Wrangell. We stopped at Sitka in the middle of the night but got off for 20 minutes at Kake the next day, walked to the only store within walking distance and bought some ice cream.

The stops at Petersburg and Wrangell happened while we were awake but they were only for about 20 minutes and we didn’t think it was worth it to get off, only to get right back on.

Finally, we were coming in to Ketchikan. It’s very cool to watch how they get the ship tied to the dock in the right place. They winch it in. (The pics below are from 2 different ports, if you’re confused about why the dock is on one side in some and on the other side in others.)

We got off the ship, walked across the street for some blessed coffee and waited for our ride in the Alaska Marine Highway building. (I was reading blogs on my phone for the first time since getting to Alaska.)

Have I mentioned that Al and Beth (and Travis and his sister Carolyn) used to live in Ketchikan? Al and Beth moved there when they were first married, stayed for about 8 before moving back to MN and haven’t returned for about 25 years. I think they enjoyed seeing their old stomping grounds.

They still have some friends who live there – Kurt and Marlene. They were so nice and accommodating to us! They let us stay for free in an apartment they own that doesn’t have any renters currently. They borrowed us a car for free. And they invited us over to their house 3 nights out of the 5 we were there.

After Kurt picked us up, we went grocery shopping, napped and then drove around town to see some of the schools Travis went to and apartments they lived in. One of those apartments was actually just at the end of the street a couple hundred feet from the apartment we were staying in.

The streets in Ketchikan are crazy steep and narrow. The street our apartment was on was so narrow that you had to back out of it – no room to turn around! And the steepness reminded me of San Francisco. They have named streets that are just stairs, which I’ll talk more about in a different post. I remarked “Wow, I bet this is horrible in the winter” and was told that it doesn’t really snow in Ketchikan, and when it does, it melts pretty quickly because they get 160 inches of rain a year. Ketchikan is literally in a temperate rainforest (as opposed to a tropical rainforest).

Look at the moss on the back of this roof (the apartment at the bottom was the one they lived in):

Near our apartment was also a float plane harbor, which had planes flying in and out as early as 7 am everyday (grrr):

We tried to go tour the fish hatchery and native museum but you had to pay for them now (not 25 years ago!) so we ended up just walking around in the rain for a while.

Then we went to the Saxman Native Village to see the world’s largest collection of totems.

We learned what most of the symbols mean but I’m not going to tell you because 1) I’ve already forgotten and 2) they never made a ton of sense in the first place. I need an expert to interpret the poles for me.

After driving to the end of the southbound road (there are only about 20 miles of road in Ketchikan because it’s on an island), we went over to Kurt and Marlene’s house. Their two daughters and son-in-law were there too so we were a big group! We finally ate some wild salmon worth writing on the blog about! The locals know how to do it right. It was awesome. We also had carrots coated with pecan Nut-Thins and sour cream (I think… regardless, they were delicious, trust me) and baked potatoes. For dessert, we had mint brownies and ice cream and were informed at the end of the meal that everything had been gluten-free (their son-in-law has celiac). I was impressed – nothing tasted GF!

After we were thoroughly stuffed, we played some Phase 10 until about 10:45, and then went home to bed. There was fishing to be done the next day!

Coming up: Ketchikan Days 2 and 3

 

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Alaska: Seward (Day 2) and Juneau

21 Jul

The morning after our Kenai Fjords Tour (our second day in Seward), we got up around 8, ate breakfast and took showers. We left the RV park and drove to Lowell Point, for a hike to Tonsina Point that you could only do at low tide.

The first part of the hike was pretty, though it was just on a gravel road.

But then the trail narrowed and we crossed a stream or two.

As we continued on, we encountered a lot of plank bridges covered with nets, to keep them from being incredibly slippery in the constant dampness.

We also crossed a lot of bridges.

Even though it was cloudy and rainy, the views were still beautiful.

The trees covered in moss reminded me of something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Finally, we made it out to the beach.

The sand is black because of the high concentration of mineral sediment from the surrounding bedrock, which is also black. It looks cool, no?

We were there at low tide so we could walk out a long way.

Barnacles!

After hanging out at the beach for a while skipping rocks and looking at the flat rocks (like the ones we saw on Fox Island), black sand and kelp, it started raining pretty good and we were getting hungry. So we decided to head back. Travis and Drew walked along the beach instead of following the trail back. By the time they reached the RV, their feet and pants were soaked.

We ate lunch and then got on the road back up to Anchorage. We ate dinner with our friends, A & L, who are in Anchorage doing traveling nursing, at the Snow Goose Restaurant in downtown Anchorage.

The food was decent but nothing to write home a blog about.

We were flying to Juneau early the next morning so we parked and slept at the RV rental place, since it was close to the airport. The next morning, Travis drove all of us and our luggage to the airport, then drove the RV back to the rental place and literally ran back to the airport.

Our flight to Juneau was short and uneventful. We were greeted by typical summer weather in Alaska: 50s and rainy. We rented a sweeto minivan from a company called Rent a Wreck (seriously) and drove to downtown Juneau.

We did some shopping – I bought some Glacier Silt Soap, which is made with the sediment in glacier runoff. It smells amazing, makes your hands really soft (and not filmy like regular bar soap), and it’s made and sold only in Juneau!

Then we took a tour of the capitol. It’s a pretty humble building – no dome – because it was built as a federal building and not a capitol. And it’s not they have a ton of room to build a completely new one, since the town is right on the ocean.

After the tour, we walked over to a historic Russian Orthodoxy Catholic church.

It was interesting, and the smallest church I have ever seen.

We walked back to the main strip and ate lunch at the Red Dog Saloon. It had a cool atmosphere, similar to the Old West feeling. I had the fish and chips and they were pretty good.

After lunch, we drove around the island and Juneau, and saw the Mendenhall Glacier from afar.

Then we bought some pizza to eat on the ferry and headed to the boarding area.

Coming up: Alaska Marine Highway and Ketchikan

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Alaska: Seward (Day 1)

20 Jul

If you missed my first two posts on Alaska, here are the links to the marathon recap and our adventures in Talkeetna/Denali.

On the morning of Day 6, we took showers at the Big Bear RV Park (which were very nice btw), ate breakfast, and got on the road. I sat in the front of the RV with Travis as his co-pilot, which was nice because I could really see where we were going (otherwise, in the back, you can only look out the side windows or you have to ride hunched over to see out the windshield.)

We stopped by the RV rental place on our way through Anchorage and got a new air mattress, which we liked a lot better. The inflator machine also ran on batteries instead of electricity, so we didn’t have to fire up the generator every night, which was nice.

Finally, we were on our way to Seward. The drive was beautiful.

 

We stopped at several scenic overlooks and wildlife viewing sites.

 

 

 

 

Everyone looking at Dall sheep on the distant mountainside

We ate lunch on the way and arrived at our RV site by mid-afternoon.

 

 

After checking in, we had plenty of daylight left to go check out Exit Glacier.

 

 

 

That sign was where the glacier reached in 1951. It’s receding fast!

Here’s why the glacier looks blue (I won’t tell you myself since I’ve been saying it backwards whenever I explain it):

We grilled up hamburgers and potatoes for dinner when we got back. Then, while Beth went to do laundry, the rest of us played several intense rounds of Gin Rummy and Trav’s dad, Al, got caught cheating.

The next morning (Day 6), we got up early for our Kenai Fjords Tour.

We didn’t know this before arriving at the RV Park but Kenai Fjords Tours has free shuttles that run to several of the local RV parks. Just thought I’d tell you in case you’re planning a trip to Alaska after reading all these posts. 😉

The Seward Harbor was really cool. I can’t get over how awesome mountains + ocean is.

Our ship was the Nunatak.

It got cold on the boat!

The first wildlife we saw were sea otters, just chilling right in the middle of the wide open sea.

Silly otters.

Then we saw a couple of humpback whales, which was very cool. You can just barely see the whale fluke in the bottom left of this picture.

Then we got closer.

It was a mommy and a baby!

The landscape and water were so pretty too. Such a change from all of the sediment-y glacier runoff we’d been seeing.

It was nice and warm in the back of the boat, and with standing in front of the heat exchange but the diesel fumes started to make me sick so I had to go back up to the top deck after a while.

I love how the sky and ocean are almost the same color in this picture:

The next wildlife we saw was a group of Killer whales (maybe 5-6). They never surfaced at the same time but it was cool to see so many in one spot.

We also encountered some stryofoam that had washed over all the way from Japan (aftermath of the tsunami).

They tried to spear it but it was too big.

All this time, we were making our way over to the Aialik Glacier. It was massive.

For a point of reference:

That ship was the same size as the one we were on. The glacier is something like 400 feet tall and breaks off into the ocean by as much as 20 feet per day. We could hear the ice heave and pop, and we even got to watch some of it break off:

It was very cool. Literally.

Matthew with some glacier ice

Way more awesome (and bigger) than the Exit Glacier.

We set off again and before long, we saw a whole bunch of puffins and seagulls on appropriately named ‘Gull Island.’

So many birds.

The sun poked its head out of the clouds for a bit, which was very welcome.

We saw some sea lions sunning themselves.

In these pictures, it looks like mid-day but it was actually almost 5 pm! We got off on Fox Island (which only Kenai Fjords Tours’ customers get to do) and ate a dinner of salmon and prime rib. I didn’t have any prime rib (ew) and the salmon was a little dry and disappointing. But the boys got some good rock skipping in with the flat, oval rocks that made up the beach.

And then it was back to port and to our RV park. We picked up some drinks at the liquor store (for those who were old enough) and attempted to have a campfire. But wood was scarce and wet, and it started to rain a bit so we threw in the towel and went to bed.

Well, this post has gotten quite long! Between this tour and the one in Denali, I’m pretty sure I took about 400 pictures. So I will write about our second day in Seward in another post…

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Alaska: Talkeetna and Denali

9 Jul

Hi friends! I’m back. Alaska was wonderful and so much fun but it’s good to be home. Now that we’re all unpacked with clean laundry and food in the fridge, I can tell you about our Alaskan adventures.

You’ve already heard about how the marathon went. 

After the race, we went and picked up our RV.

{at our first campsite}

We weren’t able to get a late checkout from our hotel so Travis and I ended up showering at the RV place. A little strange but it worked. After lunch at The Village Inn, we went grocery shopping (we cooked all of our own meals, except 3-4 that we had to eat out) and then headed north on our way to Denali.

We made it as far as Talkeetna and then settled in for the night at the campsite above. It wasn’t the most appealing campsite ever but we didn’t really mind as we were all exhausted from traveling and a long day in the RV (and me, running a marathon!).

Right away that first night, we realized how weird it was to have so much daylight. It’d be 11 at night and you’d think it was 5 because of all the daylight. Even when we went to bed at 10:30, it was bright outside, and whatever time we got up, it was light outside (it gets dark around 11:30 and light around 4 that far north). We ended up making a sunlight blind from a beer box for the upper bunk of the RV.

The next morning, we walked over to check out the small town of Talkeetna.

The water is so dirty because it’s glacial runoff and is full of silt. (I actually bought some soap in Juneau made with glacial silt and it’s amazing! It makes your hands feel so soft.)

After touring the town and doing a little shopping, we walked back to our RV and got on the road. We stopped frequently to take pictures and see the sights on our way up to Denali because 1) we had nowhere to be and 2) the mountains were gorgeous.

We stopped at the Veteran’s Memorial.

Saw Hurricane Gulch, which is pretty impressive.

After a very bumpy RV ride, we finally made it to Denali National Park.

We went to the Visitor’s Center, then ate dinner and fixed the air mattress that Travis and I were sleeping on (it had gone flat the night before!). After that, we took advantage of our copious amounts of daylight at 9:30 pm to go on a walk down to Riley Creek.

{Check out the giant blister on the inside of my right big toe!}

The next morning, we got up early for the 7 am Eielson Tour into the park.

 

{From left to right, Travis, Drew (our nephew), Matthew (T”s bro), Al (T’s dad), Beth (T’s mom), and me}

The first animals we saw were some caribou (reindeer) down by the water. They were pretty far away so you needed binoculars and a mega-scope on your camera to see them well.

And then 3 different times, we saw a momma brown/grizzly bear and her 2 cubs (at least 2 different sets, if not all 3). They were SO cute! The little cubs were bumbling along and playing with each other. It was very cool. They only have about 600 bears in the entire 6 million acre park, so seeing that many was really special.

We stopped a couple of times along the way (it takes 4 hours to get up to the Eielson Visitor Center – it’s 66 miles into the park). You’re allowed to hike around and get on another bus if you want but there aren’t any trails (you’d have to just bush whack) and it seemed fairly involved to get on a different bus. So we just stayed on our own the whole way. Our driver was really funny and knowledgeable too so it was an enjoyable drive.

Finally, we got up to the visitor center. It had been a sunny, warm day when we started out on the trip into the park but the closer we got to the mountain, the cloudier and colder it got. Apparently, Denali is big enough that it creates it own weather and when the sun melts the snow, it creates a lot of clouds and hides the mountain. All we could see up at the visitor center was fog (which is normally where you get the best view of the mountain).

On the way back, we were all tired and struggled to stay awake. We saw some more bears, eagles, a marmot, some more caribou and then we were back to where we started.

We had already “checked out” of our campsite so when we got back to the RV, we hit the road back toward Anchorage. For the night, we stayed at the Big Bear RV Park in Palmer (near Wasilla).

We finally had a campfire! Every other place we had been were selling little bundles of firewood for $10. This place had a bargain of $6 a bundle. Having a fire was a little weird though because it was completely light outside.

And that was the end of Day 4!

Coming up: Seward (whales!), Juneau and the ferry

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Our Alaska Itinerary

21 Jun

{source}

We leave for Alaska tomorrow! Little by little, the knowledge that I’m running a full marathon on Saturday is sinking in, but it still feels surreal. It probably won’t feel real until I’m running the race.

So what are we doing after the marathon?

Just about everything we can pack in. Here’s our itinerary:

Friday 6/22 – Fly into Anchorage. Go to packet pickup. Eat carbs. Sleep.

Saturday 6/23 – Run 26.2 miles.

Celebrate! Shower. Eat. Pick up RV. Sleep.

Sunday 6/24 – Drive to Denali State Park and check into campground. Hike, relax, see the sights for the rest of the day.

Monday 6/25 – Go on Eielson bus tour of Denali State Park.

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Check out of campground and start driving back toward Anchorage. Stay at a rest stop somewhere.

Tuesday 6/26 – Drive down to Seward and check into campground. Hike or relax.

Wednesday 6/27 – Take a Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise all day.

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Thursday 6/28 – Explore Kenai Peninsula. Drive back up to Anchorage.

Friday 6/29 – Fly to Juneau. Visit the Mendenhall Glacier.

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Board the Alaska Marine Highway (ferry) to Ketchikan.

Saturday 6/30 – Spend all day on the ferry – hopefully viewing marine wildlife and glaciers.

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Sunday 7/1 – Arrive in Ketchikan. Depending on weather, either boat out to family friends’ remote cabin or check out Ketchikan.

Monday 7/2 – Explore Ketchikan or fish. I’ll be reading books and napping.

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Tuesday 7/3 – Explore Ketchikan or fish.

Wednesday 7/4 – Explore Ketchikan or fish. Watch the fireworks set off from Pennock Island (I’m hoping).

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Thursday 7/5 – Explore Ketchikan or fish. Head back to Ketchikan if not already there.

Friday 7/6 – Fly back through Seattle to Denver. Cuddle with pooches!!

The first week of the trip will be a whirlwind of sight seeing and I’m sure, very tiring. The second week should have more time for relaxing and hanging out. A good balance. And we’ll have all day Saturday and Sunday back home to do laundry, recuperate and sleep before having to head back to work.

I am so excited for this vacation. It will be the longest vacation I’ve ever taken as an adult (and the most expensive – holy cow!) and after this past year of being so busy and feeling burned out on running and life in general, I’m hoping this trip will refresh me and bring me back ready for triathlon season!

………………….

As for the pooches, they’re being watched by friends the first week of our trip and then going to Camp Bow Wow for the second week. This way, we still get to save some money but they still get to have some fun with other dogs while we’re gone. Should be a good time!

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The Blessing of a Broken Routine

7 Apr

Vacations are great. It’s actually been proven that simply planning a vacation makes you happier. I can vouch for that. During the past 2-3 weeks of being crazy busy at work, knowing that I was going to have 3 days off was like a ray of sunshine through clouds of gloom. And now that that trip is over, I’m looking forward to our Alaska trip where I’ll run my first full marathon.

But something about vacations has always bothered me: the break from routine. You may think that sounds ridiculous but for me, a person who values routine, having many days in a row without my usual routine makes me feel naked and unproductive. It also makes me worry that my routine must not be that important to me, if one little vacation makes me throw it out the window. The result is that I come back from vacations feeling like, for however many days I was gone, I wasn’t really living my life. I was living someone else’s life, a life in an alternate universe.

I can hear some of you saying, “That’s the sign of a good vacation.”

And now, I’d have to agree. I was thinking about this while we were down in Evansville, how feeling so separated from normal life bothers me. And then I realized: the break from reality is God’s blessing. True, I come home from vacation feeling like I was someone else for a while, but that reinvigorates and refreshes me for my everyday life. It makes me even more excited for my routine, more thankful for my own bed, more loving to my pooches, more grateful for my house. Without the break from reality that a vacation provides, I wouldn’t feel that new life instilled in the “same old.”

So now, I’m looking at the break from routine as a good thing… and trying to keep that positive perspective when I look at what happens to my eating habits on vacation.

Over the course of doing my Food Log for Lent, I have experienced many of the “diet downfalls” that normally trip me up: group meals, vacations, baby or bridal showers, date night, post-long run food fests. It has been very interesting to me to see how my body naturally regulates itself so that higher calories days (or weeks) are balanced out with lower ones.

On our recent trip to Evansville, I kept up my food log as much as I could (though I’m pretty sure I missed a mini Twix bar or two). And looking back on what I ate and drank, I was interested to see that 20% of my calories were EMPTY. Meaning they were in the form of chocolate (not dark), alcohol (white wine), and soda (Mountain Dew), and provided no nutritional value (there were other things consumed that weren’t the epitome of health but they had some nutritional value). I compared that to a “normal” week of eating and found that my empty calories then were only 8% of my total calories. Sure, the numbers aren’t a night and day difference but when I look at days where I ate 700 calories of pure sugar, it’s not hard to see why I feel sluggish and blob-like on vacation.

You know what they say, Knowledge is power. It’s been helpful for me to see the truth of my eating habits, even when they’re not pretty. And even though at first, I was surprised at how much I ate (which ended up being a higher-calorie week than average anyway), I’m now surprised that the times when I feel like I’ve eaten “so much food” and have “gained 5 lbs” really aren’t that big of a deal calorie-wise in the end anyway (it’s still a big deal glorifying-God-wise). And because I can relax over “the damage that has been done,” I can focus on what really matters: finding my satisfaction and joy in God alone.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a little more chocolate than usual while I’m on vacation.

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Off to Minnesota!

29 Sep

I’m so excited to be flying back to Minnesota today. The biggest reason is to see my family at my cousin’s wedding and my sister-in-law’s baby shower. But I’m also excited about the (more) real fall weather that they’re having.

It’s still warmer than I’d like, but it’s better than Denver! Yesterday, it was 90 degrees here. Blah. And although today’s high is only 68, the temperatures are supposed to get back up into the 80s again over the weekend. Quit it Mother Nature! I’ve already put away my flip flops, put our comforter back on our bed, and lit the pumpkin candles. No more harking back to those bygone summer days – it’s time to be fall for real.

This is fall. {source}

Anyway, I almost got everything done that I wanted to before leaving. Tuesday night, I made chocolate chip banana bread while Travis grilled dinner (both turned out delicious!). Then I did the dishes, finished the laundry and got out the outfits I knew I was bringing to Minnesota for the wedding, the groom’s dinner and the baby shower. I came home from my book study to find that Travis had read my blog and cleaned the bathrooms for me. What a sweet husband! I LOVE it when he does things like that for me. Such a load off. So with that, I was able to go to bed and finish reading Managing God’s Money (thoughts to come later). The only thing I didn’t get done was go to Walmart to buy cards, coffee and face lotion. But no biggie. (For me, at least. Travis will probably go berserk when he discovers the coffee is gone.)

Yesterday morning, I got up early again to go run repeats on the track at the gym. Besides one other time when I ran half-mile repeats, this was my first real track workout. The other times that I’ve done speedwork, I’ve either done tempo runs, done .1 mile sprints, or ran fartleks outside using trees as my measurements. It was a great workout – very challenging. I ran 8 x 400 – 400 was 2.5 laps around the track. I did the first 400 in 1:55 but I knew that I couldn’t do another 7 at that pace. So I slowed it down a bit and ran the others anywhere from 2:05 to 2:15. Based on the McMillan Running Calculator using my most recent 10K time, I should be running 400s in 2:05. So I was right on pace!

Since my speed work usually consists of me going as fast as I possibly can for only 1 lap around the track, I found it a little bit of a challenge to gauge how fast I could go for 2.5 laps without either slowing down at the end of the repeat or getting so tired during the first repeats that I couldn’t do the last repeats. I think I did ok for my first time but there is definitely room for improvement.

I also made sure to stretch really well before heading home.

This morning, I went swimming. The pool was abnormally busy for the early morning but I was able to have my own lane for the majority of my workout. I swam my good ole trusty pyramid – 100, 200, 300, 200, 200 (I added an extra 100 on to the last one because I couldn’t stand swimming 900 and not 1,000). I swam about 65% front crawl and 35% breaststroke. I think I’m going to try to learn to breathe every other stroke during the front crawl – maybe that will help me swim faster? Even if it doesn’t, it will keep me distracted during my swims and get my heart rate elevated higher than just a normal swim.

Since we’ll be staying at a hotel in the Cities this weekend, I’m hoping to get a few workouts in but we’ll see. I’m not a workout nazi and would rather spend time with my family so if it doesn’t fit in our schedules, it doesn’t fit. Plus, I had planned on these days being rest days so if I do exercise, I get bonus points.

I’m very proud of my packing job for this trip – I fit 2 outfits per day + running clothes + running shoes + 2 pairs of dressy boots + hairdryer + straightener in my carry-on suitcase. I was apprehensive if I could make it work but I did! I always show my suitcase to Travis like a little kid – look at what I did! – because he always makes fun of me for bringing back our ginormous suitcase (with only my stuff in it) for Christmas vacation. I tell him that it’s because I bring my winter sweaters along and they take up a lot of space. I’m not sure he buys it.

Are you a light packer or an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink packer? Do you carry on or check your bags when you fly? 

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Labor Day in North Carolina

8 Sep

For the Labor Day weekend, Travis and I flew out to visit our good friends, Mark and Sarah, and their 2-year-old daughter, Ellie. They live in Charlotte, NC, but we actually didn’t spend much time there. Our flight left at 6:15 on Friday morning (meaning our wake-up call came at 3:30!) and everything went smoothly. We were relieved to not have to check our suitcases at the gate due to full overhead bins.

We arrived in Charlotte around 3 pm and Sarah and Ellie picked us up from the airport. Mark met us at their house and we spent the evening catching up and eating a delicious home-cooked meal – cheesy beer chicken and noodles, garlic bread, and cooked broccoli. It was so good, I went back for seconds. Even though in Denver time it was only 7:30, we went to bed at 9:30 Charlotte time. We were exhausted!

The next morning, we got up around 7:45, took showers, ate breakfast and packed up for our trip up to Sarah’s parents’ cabin in the Smoky Mountains. It’s in Transylvania County, which is also known as the Land of Waterfalls. The elevation increases 2,000 feet in 4 miles and it rains 80 inches a year, so it’s technically considered a rainforest (and it definitely looks like one with all the kudzu growing everywhere!).

{source}

On our way up to the cabin, we stopped at Sky Top Orchard to pick apples and eat some apple donuts. I hadn’t been apple picking in forever so it was fun to be there, but I have to admit that the humidity slightly ruined it for me. I’m not cut out for that anymore! It just makes me feel exhausted and sleepy. So we only stayed at the orchard for about an hour and a half.

Travis was the wagon puller.

Of course, we had to get some Honeycrisp. The orchard had actually picked all the Honeycrisp trees clean that morning but we found some decent ones on the ground and got them for 1/2 off. They were still delicious!

Some of the trees had tons of apples on them – very pretty.

They’re such a cute little family! Sarah is pregnant with their second child, due in February. She finds out today whether it’s a boy or a girl!

After picking apples, we ate the sandwiches we brought and some fresh, hot apple donuts. They were so yummy – I could have eaten all 6 of them.

We drove another hour and a half on the windy mountain roads and then stopped at a roadside store that sells boiled peanuts. The store has been there since 1947 and is a tradition with Sarah’s family. All I can say is that I think boiled peanuts are gross. Travis said that he thought that when he first tried them too but he muscled through half the bag and then they started tasting good. I don’t know why he does that. I did not muscle through. I ate 2 and decided that they were not for me. Kind of like pork rinds. Ew.

Finally, we got to the cabin.

After we unloaded and chose our bedrooms, Mark, Travis and I took a walk around the neighborhood to see all the unique houses and pretty gardens while Sarah and Ellie napped. When we returned, we read and hung out for a while and then ate dinner – North Carolina-style BBQ, bean medley, and mac & cheese. We watched TV for a bit until I started falling asleep. I got my second wind to play 2 games of Scrabble and won the last game (though Mark would have won if he had remembered to play Qi, which is a special word for Chinese life force). Then it was off to bed.

The room that Travis and I slept in had french doors that opened out on to the screen porch, so we left the doors open at night to let the mountain air blow in.

We slept in until 9:30 both mornings we were there! That was one of the many great things about this trip – it was very relaxing. We got a lot of good time to just hang out and talk with Mark and Sarah and be amused by Ellie. She is so cute and hilarious. I hope our kids are as cute someday!

Sunday morning, we ate breakfast (banana pancakes made by Mark) and then hiked up one of the mountains nearby. The hike was no joke! It was challenging for me, I think mostly because of the humidity (it’s amazing how much that makes it hard to breathe just like high elevation), but maybe also because I hadn’t hiked since the Fourth of July. I have discovered time and time again that triathlon/running shape does not equal hiking shape. I must admit that I was very frustrated on the way up during this hike because it seemed like everyone else, including Sarah who’s pregnant, was in better shape than me! They were just moseying up the mountain while I was hacking up a lung. This just reveals my pride in being “athletic” – something for another blog post.

Nonetheless, we made it to the top. The view was definitely worth it.

I called this a Beach Project picture because it was so bright where we were looking (though you wouldn’t guess it from the clouds) that I could barely keep my eyes open. That’s why I look slightly weird.

I’m not particularly fond of this picture but I’m including it just to show the massive sweat stains on my shirt. I was disgustingly sweaty from the hike up. Ew. Ew. EW. Luckily my shirt was dri-fit so the sweat evaporated fairly quickly.

After our hike, we grabbed some snacks to tide us over and went to a place the locals call “Little Sliding Rock.” Instead of explaining what it is, I’ll just post pics.

It’s a rock you can slide down. Mark and Sarah said that this was the busiest they had ever seen it so I only went down twice. The first time, a couple of little girls starting sliding down from the deep hole (see below) right as I was coming down and I ended up running into one. I pulled her to the surface to make sure she was ok. (She was.) Whoops.

That’s Travis going down the rocks. In the upper right, you can see kids hanging out in the middle of the rock. That was actually a huge hole – so deep that kids were literally jumping off the rock into it. It was also a popular hang out spot although the water was so cold, I didn’t really see the fun in hanging out in it.

Travis and Mark went down several more times and even pushed each other down so they’d go faster. Boys.

Nice and refreshed, we went back to the cabin for a nap and dinner. We had steaks with sweet potatoes and salad. Another delicious meal! Mark and Sarah really fed us well. 😉 I also had about 2 Mike’s Hard Lemonades a day. Calories don’t count on vacation, right? After dinner, we got sucked into watching a Dateline Mystery. Sarah said that SNL has done a spoof on the narrator guy. He was pretty hilarious to listen to. I’ve never heard so many rhetorical questions be answered by the person who asked them. Then we played 2 more games of Scrabble and hit the sack.

I woke up around 4 am to what I thought was a really loud fan in our room. Nope, it was rain. We had known it was supposed to start raining during the night and continue all the next day – in fact, the weather reports listed the chance of precipitation as 100%. There was no chance it was not going to rain. And they were right. It rained all day. I welcomed it, though, because it was such a nice change of pace from Colorado where it has been 95 degrees and sunny everyday. (Who knew that cloudy days once in a while could be nice?)

We just kind of bummed around the cabin until late morning and then headed over to Highlands, a nearby town. We shopped for a while, ate lunch accompanied by delicious white hot chocolate, then went back to the cabin. The boys went to a waterfall and swam in the natural pool at the bottom while Sarah and I enjoyed listening to the rain and reading. When they got back, it was time to pack up and head back to Charlotte.

On the drive back, we stopped for a true Southern meal at Waffle House. There are Waffle Houses out here in Denver but somehow, it just doesn’t seem the same. I had an egg and cheese biscuit with a side of grits. You could not have fit one more plate on our table, we had so much food!

We got back to Charlotte around 10 pm, just in time to go to bed. The next morning, we showered, ate breakfast and left for the airport around 10:10… we were supposed to leave for the airport at 9:30 for our 11:30 flight but that didn’t happen. The security line was ridiculously slow – I get so frustrated at the security personnel. They lolligag and take their sweet freaking time while the rest of us are frantically trying to get through because we’re about to miss our plane. To add to that, I forgot I was wearing a belt and didn’t take it off when I went through the full-body scanner (that’s the first time I had to do that!) so I required an additional pat down. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I had to stand there for a couple of minutes while the security lady watched another guy go through the scanner. I wanted to be like, “Hello! I am going to miss my plane. Can you hurry the eff up?”

Travis and I ran to our gate and arrived just as they were starting to board. Whew. We made it.

Our connecting flight in Minneapolis was only slightly less eventful. When we got off our plane from Charlotte, I looked at the departures board and I swear it said our gate was C4 – on the complete opposite side of the airport. Since we had an hour and 15 minutes, we decided to eat lunch at Wolfgang Puck Gourmet Express. Despite the debaucle of their ordering system, I had a very delicious Chicken Tortilla soup with avocado and goat cheese – seriously, I will use that idea myself. The goat cheese melts so it’s like sour cream, only healthier.

Lunch eaten, we headed to our gate. Only it wasn’t our gate. It was for a flight to Philadelphia. Maybe it was C7? Nope. Hmmm… we went and looked at another Departures board.

Our gate was F9.

Are you joking?

We had to walk all the way back around the airport. Travis was mad. I was mad at his being mad, in addition to my mind reeling. What? How did I think it was C4? Did I remember that from the Charlotte airport – no, that was an A gate. Did I look up Charlotte instead of Denver? No, that gate was for a Philadelphia flight. Do I even remember looking at the Departures board? I must’ve because Travis said I did. 

A slight redemption came when we made it to F9 and there was a little old lady who was also at the wrong gate. The airline employee said that the gate had been switched and she now needed G17 instead of F9. Maybe that’s what happened to us?

Either way, we made our second flight as well. The only bummer was that they made us check our suitcases at the gate, and then proceeded to let people on behind us with their luggage. We were slightly annoyed. I am not impressed with Delta’s overhead bins at all. But they do give out free pretzels. Bins or pretzels? Bins or pretzels?

Overall, our trip to NC was very fun and relaxing. I hope to see Mark and Sarah again soon!

{Just a quick note – things at work have finally picked up, so my blog posts and comments will probably be a little more sporadic. But I’ll still try to post and keep up with your blogs as much as I can!} 

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Minnesota: Pine City and Minneapolis

10 Aug

If you missed the first few days of my glorious vacation in Minnesota, go back and read it.

After we left the cabin in Voyageur’s, Travis and I drove down to my parents’ cabin in Pine City (about an hour north of the Cities).

We did some tubing.

I was very nervous about falling off (since taking a nasty waterskiing spill a few years ago) so asked my dad to treat me like a 5-year-old. It ended up being a nice ride, though I did almost fall off a couple of times.

Then we took a long boat ride around Lake Pokegama (the lake my parents are on), down Snake River to Cross Lake.

The most exciting thing we saw was a heron.

It was pretty late by the time we got back from our boat ride so we ate dinner and went to bed, after watching this video several times:

The next day, we ate breakfast and went to Walmart. Later, I amused myself by taking pictures of my mom’s flowers:

Aren’t they just gorgeous? I’d love to look at that garden everyday. I took pictures of some other things too…

That’s the view of the cabin from the lake.

While I was taking pictures, Travis tried to go fishing on our neighbor’s canoe before my brother and sister-in-law arrived from Indiana but didn’t get to. He did catch a few fish off the dock, though.

Once Jeremy and Jen got there, we ate lunch and went out on the boat for some waterskiing. I was water-sported out but Jeremy and Travis went.

Charlie made another friend.

My brother, Jeremy and sis-in-law, Jen (who’s due in January!).

Katy made a friend too.

When we got back to the dock after a little swimming, we decided to try to get Charlie to swim (both her and Katy don’t like water). I sat on the tube, called her to get on it, and pushed away from the shore. Then I got off and started walking back (it was about 3.5 feet deep) and called Charlie to follow. After much hesitating, and putting one paw in the water, she jumped off the tube and swam to shore. She can swim!

Soon after that, Chris (my younger brother) and sis-in-law Meg arrived. After some hors d-oeuvres, we played an intense game of croquet.

Chris and Meg

There was much debate over the official rules of extra turns and knocking other balls out of the way.

After dinner, we had a campfire and made s’mores (though I was so stuffed from Meg’s famous carrot cupcakes that I didn’t have one). My other brother, Brian and girlfriend, Lauren arrived then and we all played Two Truths and a Lie. Good way to get to know one another a little better!

Saturday, we were all heading down to the Cities for our cousin’s wedding (Ben and Nikki). Travis and I left early to take our dogs to Brian’s house (we left them in his yard) and to have lunch with some friends. I met up with 3 of my really good girlfriends from college – it was so great catching up! I only wish I could have stayed longer and had time with each of them one on one. Travis met up with his best friend from high school too.

Then we headed to the wedding. I unfortunately didn’t take any pictures of my lunch or the wedding but the wedding was so awesome. I really enjoyed it. Their ceremony was very traditional at St. Olaf Catholic Church in Minneapolis but their reception at the W Hotel was anything but traditional. The wedding party danced for their entrance, they made people sing songs instead of clink glasses to get them to kiss, their tables were assigned by various engagement pictures they took while wearing banana costumes, and instead of signing a guest book, you were supposed to write a message on a little chalkboard and get your picture taken. (Travis and I drew a rollercoaster with the message Hold On Tight! and put our arms up like we were on a rollercoaster.) The father of the groom (my uncle) wrote a very funny, cute poem for his toast and my cousins, Josh and Tim, made a really funny slideshow for their toast. And to top it all off, they had a candy bar at the end!

We left a little earlier than we would have liked, because we were worried about our pooches. Good thing we did, too, because on the way over to Brian’s house, it started pouring. Like can’t-even-see-where-you’re-going pouring. Poor pooches! Luckily we had left the kennel there for them so they had some shelter but I was sure they were getting wet anyway with how hard it was coming down. Travis braved the pouring rain to load the kennel and the dogs up while I sat in the cab, trying to see what was going on. Katy’s harness had gotten snagged on a bush and when it started raining, she had evidently wrestled out of it to get to shelter. Shows you how hard it was raining (or how much she hates water!).

That night, we stayed at our friends Holly and Eric’s house. The next morning, bright and early, we all met up for breakfast at Keys Cafe and then Travis and I hit the road stopped at Cabela’s again. Travis had a return to make for his dad so while he did that, I filled up the truck with gas, bought some cheese curds (!), and took the dogs for a walk. Then we were really off to Colorado! Oh so far away… We arrived home at 11:30 pm, mountain time. Long, long trip that I am still recovering from.

Minnesota vacations never disappoint! (Maybe I can work for MN Tourism if I move back, huh?)

Next up: My awesome birthday presents!

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