It had actually been a full year since I had last been in New England which was the longest I have been away since I started college 7 years ago now....(feeling old). Needless to say, I was really excited to not only get a break from AK and training up there, but to see lots of my friends and family. If only I had more time...I have so many friends and family in New England, that I would need at least a month to see everyone.
First Stop: CAPE COD! I had a recovery week and nothing says recovery quite like Cape Living does. I gorged on steamers and lobsters, flipped Patrick and I in the sailboat in the middle of the cut, ate Four Seas ice cream for lunch and dinner, and spent some time with Charlie and my cousin Jen. We also got an opportunity to visit the Ocearch. Ocearch is a giant (former crab) boat that goes around the world catching Great White Sharks for research purposes. It started with a show on Discovery and History that you may have seen, but now is solely working for research purposes. The boat is ironically from Park City and my Dad worked on financing it through US Bank. He is also obsessed with it so if you know him, you have probably heard more about it than you want to know, but if not, here is the website you can check out. Betsy is the most recent Great White caught off of Cape Cod and you can track her on the website to see if it's a good day to go swimming or not...
http://ocearch.org/
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| This is the small boat they use to actually catch the Shark and tire them out |
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| Then, this lift is lowered on the side of the boat where they then drag the shark on to the lift in order to get samples from the shark and put a GPS on it. |
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| Here is Dad, super pumped pretending to drive the thing |
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| YEAH PC! |
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| A school of porpoises came by. |
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| I swear they are there. |
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| Loving Four Seas! |
Second Stop: Putney, VT. Patrick is from Putney so we went to his house for a few nights to visit his parents. It was full on blueberry season so we went picking and I had to make a pie!
Third Stop: Stratton, VT. Many of my former Dartmouth teammates now train with Stratton Mountain School T2 Team. Patrick and I headed over there to check things out. It was great to train with my Dartmouth teammates. I miss them a great deal! They are the best training partners I have ever had and was very happy to spend time with them. I also accomplished a 70 minute swim in a pond where I couldn't touch the bottom most of the time. I am a very slow swimmer, but that was quite a feat. I wish I had a picture of it. Pat and I both looked like drowned rats afterward.
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| Me leading Erika in intervals |
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| Cruising on a distance ski |
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| Sophie and I hammering out some more intervals |
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| Patrick and Eric heading up |
Stop 4: Dartmouth. We stopped by Dartmouth on our way north to visit with our old coaches. It was great to see them and great to reminisce about the good ol days. Hanover is a wonderful town and I am so thankful for the time I got to spend there.
Stop 5: Craftsbury, VT. We finally made it to the Kingdom. I learned how to drive a dump truck so we could do some trail work and pick up some trees. We also had an exciting afternoon of water recreation. We tried out stand up paddle boarding for the first time. I have to say, it wasn't as great as everyone makes it out to be. It's a bit slow for my taste. But I also got to FINALLY jump on a water trampoline which I have been wanting to do since our neighbors at the cape got one many years ago. It also was not as great as I had imagined, but I had fun anyhow. We tested out all the water toys at the kids camp and being the land lovers we are neither Pat nor I were very good at any of them. Nils came to visit which was a huge highlight. Nils has moved on from competitive skiing so I don't get to see him as much. We also went to the community corn roast put on by a local dairy farm. It was quite the seen with live music 100 different types of pasta salad and baked beans, and lots of local color. I found it really neat to see the operation of the dairy farm. Pat's uncle has a small dairy operation on his farm so Pat is quite knowledgable and taught me all kinds of things. There was even a cow that had just been born that day! I failed to take any pics of the farm : ( Lastly, Hannah was racing in some biathlon rollerski races that are quite important as they help her to qualify for the World Cup. We went to volunteer at the races and cheer her on. She WON the first day!!!! and came in 2nd (top american) the 2nd day! So that was spectacular to see. She looked really good out there!
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| Nailing some targets |
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| Skiing hard |
As per usual, I was having too much fun to bother taking pictures, so sorry for the small sampling. It was a busy and fun trip and I am sad it's over!
