Crush

 We jumped right into Crush summer baseball.  he's already had 2 games and one skills camp.

We loved that D and M would come stay a night with us.  so nice to see them again and visit after they've been in Reno on a mission for the past year.

 E made them friendship bracelets :)

E and I ran the Float Dodger 5k this morning.  Early on, he held my hand, but then took off on his own, and I had to push myself to keep him in my sights the rest of the race.

 found some friends afterwards.

Results:
E finished in 35:13, with a 11:20 pace.
I finished in 35:18, with a 11:22 pace.

Ragnar Northwest Passage

A very nice family let us stay at their house in Bellingham.  R dropped me off there on his way out of Whistler back to Seattle.  It was really helpful to get all our runners in the same place so that we were ready to go for the next morning.
We loved our Van 1 schedule!
We ran from 8am -2pm from the Peace Arch State Park in Blaine to Bellingham High School where we got lunch.  N was runner 1 and I was runner 2 so we both got to run in cool morning temperatures.
My first leg was 4.8 miles through Birch Bay State Park.  Partial van support meant the team wasn't monitoring my run, but I still felt pressure to go fast. 
then it got hot.
We drove to Burlington-Edison High School where we showered. I braided N's hair and we tried to sleep for 2 hours.

We started our 2nd legs at about 7pm.  As runner 2, I ran at 7:42pm. It was dusk, but not dark.  I had a slow uphill and then a big downhill through Mount Vernon.  
We all took turns driving. Adrenaline kept me driving from 10pm-1:30am.
In the La Conner High School gym, we got almost 3 hours of sleep (see fit bit screen shot below)!  Nicolle was so great to take a few minutes to pump up an air mattress.

Van 2 ran from 1am-6am.  no fun for them. middle of night, dark and long legs.

N was runner 1, then I started at 7:12am. I only remember the last part of my leg along the water with low tide.  I wanted to run more. My 3 assigned legs were only 11.6 miles total.  Two team mates had run long (6 and 8 miles) legs twice on Friday in the heat and fast, so they were hurting on Saturday.  Three of us were able to step in and cover some of their Saturday miles, so I might have run 2 more miles.  I got to run past the Navy base and hear jets flying overhead.

it's really hard to remember locations, because we kept moving along, so I'm referencing the website.  we saw so many beautiful places, but often we were so focused on the runners and legs, that we didn't register locations.

We finished around 1pm at Coupeville High School where we waited in long lines to shower.  Then we found lunch and spotted an HGTV celebrity.  we blame the slow service on their giving him preferential treatment. but the food was good. also, it was great that we had a big lunch so that we didn't have to wait in line at the finish line for the free food.

 

We drove to the Island County Fairgrounds in Langley to meet Van 2 at the finish line.  saw the wild/domestic bunny rabbits hopping around the parking lot.

 the puzzle on the back of our medals says: Together we believe. We are Ragnarians. We can accomplish anything.
we waited in the ferry line for 2 hours! ugh.  adrenaline kept us going until we got home.

It was fun! lots of time in the car with team mates.  next time: bring more snacks/food for car, because there isn't time to find food or the options you want around when you're hungry. also, make sure you want to spend so much time with the people on your team.  lots of time is spent with them.  fortunately, these folks were nice :)

  

Next are photos others shared.

R and E came to the finish line.  that was so awesome to see them there, but feel bad that they spent so much time in the car and in ferry lines out and back.

Summer vacation, Thursday

 we had steep stairs, but Grandma had no problem going up and down with the bike.
She and I took about 6 grandkids on a 6+ mile ride back to Alpha Lake. 
other adults and dogs came in the cars with water toys.

 these paddleboards were a huge hit.

 

It was a colder day, but yes, we jumped in for swim #4 out to the platform.  

Unfortunately, my family had to leave the party at 2pm, to drive back to USA, so that I could start my next Adventure = Ragnar.  so many fun things to do in life.

We will definitely go back to Whistler and next time, we will stop in Squamish to hike Chief.

Summer vacation, Wednesday

Wednesday was rainy, but taking Uncle D's philosophy, we didn't want to sit in our hotel room!  We got out in the rain and hiked and ran into lots of other rainy day hikers.  This was a family friendly Train Wreck hike.

We hiked in along this train track, following the GPS download on A's phone.  not an official trail, but was good to let the dogs run. and a little scary as the train track is actively used and we were on a cliff next to a raging river.

then we crossed the suspension bridge to the official trail, and came back to the cars that way.

this not-fast-enough-photo is of a bear cub crossing the road in front of us!  all around Whistler are signs that "This is bear country" with safety tips. 

We drove to Rainbow Park on Alta Lake.  Alta Lake has 3 public areas, and Rainbow Park has the dog park!  We swam from the pier to, you guessed it, the platform, for cold water lake swim #3.

Still raining, but some of us headed out to a 5 mile quick hike to Cheakamus Lake.  Some of the group made it a trail run.

and those that ran were so exhilarated by it all, that they swam in this crystal blue lake! until Mom and I showed up.  then they ran back down.

D's stash.

We ate at the condo all except this one dinner out to a restaurant.  fortunately, we found a nice one that could seat the 14 of us together and quickly, since it was late and we were hungry.