Sarah's Day: Vacay Part 1

I just looked, and I have 65 some pictures taken. So I decided I’d work on a draft of the blog, because it is going to take a while to get it done. And I can’t get online at my parents house. The security on his wireless hook up is really good. Even with passwords I can’t crack the code. So here’s a draft.

Before I left for vacation, my friend from Alaska, Janice, came to visit. She said she has been sending me e-mails for months, and I haven’t responded. I haven’t gotten any e-mails and was very surprised when she called me from Mpls. Either way, she was staying in Iowa with her in-laws, and came up to visit for an evening.

So here we are. I’ve known Janice for over 20 years. Unbelievable….Unbelievable that I can say I have known a person for over 20 years.

I ran a race the weekend before I left. Saturday, I ran the St. Mary’s trail race. I have to tell you, it was HOT and humid! Here I am at the beginning of the race-(Ignore the stupid look on my face)

This is me at the end

Note the soaking wet shirt. I followed Nina, a girl in my age group that usually beats me by 30 seconds or so. She is standing next to me in the top picture-blonde hair/green shirt.

Here’s a picture of Dave. The reason I took this is that he is dressed in clothes that were owned by Cody. It’s kinda weird really. I should try to find a picture of Cody wearing these clothes.

I won 2nd place in my age, after Nina (by about 30 seconds). It was my best time at that race. And Nina set the course record for our age division.

Sunday we went and watched the Mariners get shut out at Target Field.

We had good seats-this is the view.

This is Ichiro-anyone who knows baseball would recognize this.

It was very hot that day-we were glad it was a little overcast, because the sun beating down on us would have been brutal. It was 89 degrees at first pitch.

Here’s a few random shots.

After this, I went to my hotel. I ended up walking the mile to the Mall of America to get some food. Holy Cow. I took a shower as soon as I got back.

I got up early and got the shuttle to the airport to come to Seattle.

Empty airport at 5 AM

Breakfast.

We took off right on time. And the got to Seattle right on time. However, we didn’t land in Seattle. There was fog in Seattle. Lots of fog. We were supposed to land at 8:10 or so.

Instead we circled…….

And circled…..

And circled……

….I was able to capture Mt Rainier several times. Finally we ended up in Moses Lake, in Eastern Washington.

At the Grant County International Airport. International! We got to sit on the tarmac for about 45-50 minutes. Because I had extensive heat training at the Twins game Saturday, I was not too bothered by the rising temps in the airplane. But other people weren’t too happy and the screaming baby was definitely not happy.

We finally got into Seattle 3 hours late. My sisters, who came to pick me up spent their time at the mall at Southcenter, buying clothes at Nordstrom. Traitors.

So, anyway, I arrived in Tacoma at about 1 or so. Did I mention that my bag was overweight and I had to pay 75 extra dollars? I am still trying to forget that.

Happy is still running the show. They got a furminator, which we called a furilator. Either way, Happy really likes the thing. Which is amazing to me.

This cat is giant. Here he is dwarfing my knitting bag.

I went on my annual personal shopper trip. And not one picture. What’s that about? My Katie is still there for me, and did not let me down. I did NOT spend nearly as much as last year, but enough that the credit card company called to make sure the card hadn’t been stolen. I saved a ton of money after we figured out there is no sales tax in MN, so I don’t have to pay it in Washington. That was 9 or so percent. WooHoo on that one. We had to void the original bill, which is really the reason the credit card company got spooked.

On Saturday, there was the Tacoma Narrows Half Marathon. The weather was perfect-cool, little drizzle. Wonderful. I really need to rethink my energy strategy though. I am really losing steam about mile 8. Fortunately, they had some Goo there, which was helpful for the last 5 miles. Someone said the last 3 miles were downhill, and they would be lying. Because the last 2 were flat and downhill, but were still rolling hills between 10 and 11 . I liked it though, and ran in under 2 hours by about 50 seconds. I was glad about that.

This is the finish line, with a walker going through.

This is the recovery area, with the band playing. One of the guys in the band won a prize in his age division. It was a really good band.

Before the race, I met up with a friend from Ravelry, April, and we rod the bus and hung out at the start. It was nice to know somebody there. And after the race, we met up with another Raveler, Kelly, who won a prize in her age, which is my age, too. I was 11th in my age division, and she was 3rd. I was very happy for her.