A weekend "Up North"

We had a fun filled 4th of July weekend camping up north. John and I both grew up spending summers on the Whitefish Chain. John at a camp on the chain and me at my grandparent's cabin. We both love the area and were both saddened with the rest of my family when my grandparent's decided to sell the cabin about a year after Jake was born. While we have been there a few times since then, Jake attended the same camp as John several years, it just wasn't the same and I always felt in a little funk for a day or two afterward. So we quit going up there. It has been about 5 years since we were there but it was calling to us and we decided to head up again this year. I think 14 years must be the mourning period for loss of a cabin because this trip I went up and just enjoyed the experience. I didn't wish for the cabin memories but enjoyed creating our own memories. And in doing so it turns out we were able to easily experience many of the same things, sitting on the dock with my feet in the water soaking up the sun, swimming in the lake, walking on wooded paths, shopping in Nisswa. And we added a few of our own, canoeing down Pine River, eating Ice Cream almost every day at the Chocolate Ox, a candy store that wasn't around in our day, running a 5K on July 4th morning with the whole family and swimming in a pool the first night up there because the campground was full and we "had" to stay at a very nice lodge across the street.

The day before we left I bought a new camera for the Africa trip and so we had fun learning to use it this weekend.

Pictures from The Whitefish Lodge where we stayed our first night. Noted for my parents and sister who might want to stay there if we ever do a family weekend up there. I know they don't camp. :)




Finally set up at the campground Friday morning. The site was so nice, very private with just the right mixture of sun and shade. With our van parked in the entrance we really couldn't see any other camp sites from ours. And should we ever have a boat there was a little path right out to the lake from our site. We haven't been camping since Isabelle was a year old so we were a little rusty but felt like we pulled it off quite well. John and Jake were the master camp kitchen managers and did all the dish washing and most of the cooking and food prep. It was a wonderful treat.


This outfit on Isabelle might be deceptive. This was getting ready for the fireworks. It was sunny and in the high 70's the entire weekend. We couldn't have scripted better weather.





Our Friday plan was canoeing. We considered several locations on the lake but because it was such a busy weekend we didn't want to be fighting alot of boat traffic and decided to put in at a river. Our initial idea was to canoe upstream and then float back when we were tired. However the Dam at the top of the river wasn't letting alot of water through so we were really scraping the bottom. We decided to go downstream toward a lake at the other end. We didn't have to go too far before we were comfortably floating along without hitting any rocks. However, eventually we were going to need to get back. Once we got to the rocky area it became obvious to John and Jake that there was only one solution...walk back up the river dragging the canoe and Kayak. John referred to it as his recreation of the Panama Canal. Isabelle and I enjoyed our ride back. And in case we might be lost it was fun to find all the rocks we had scraped our canoe on going down and left a little aluminum mark. John and Jake did great and we all enjoyed the experience.

Of course we did not bring the new camera on the water so this was taken with Jake's phone:



But I grabbed the camera out of the van as soon as we got back:








The up side of walking a river bed is you get to find interesting things in the water and stop to pick them up. Jake found this jaw bone in the river. I wonder what it is from.


And in case you are wondering how we brought 2 boats on top of our van here is the answer:

First you get out your power drill and loosen one of the bars in your canoe:


And then you simply slide your Kayak inside:


Isabelle loves canoeing and is fun to have along. Her highlights include naming the croaking frogs we could hear "Bill" since that is what she thought they were saying, I bet you all thought frogs said "ribbit". And seeing dozens of turtles sunning themselves on floating logs. I was excited to float by a duck I had never seen before. After consulting my Birds of Minnesota book I believe it was a female Hooded Merganser. Or it might have just been a Common Merganser. I wasn't able to photograph it to remember the details.

On the way back to the campground this happens to a little girl who has spend several hours on the water enjoying the view.


After an afternoon of pulling your wife and daughter up a river there is nothing any red blooded american man would want to do more than go chop up firewood at the campground wood pit. Right?



John enjoyed playing with the camera and got a great shot of the sunset:


And tried to capture some fireworks, those little lights at the bottom are all the boats:


Saturday morning we got up early to head over to the Crosslake community center for "Grandpa's Walleye Run". A 5K they hold every year. Isabelle did the kids run which for her age was running around the baseline on a ball field and Jake and I did the 5K.

Jake's high school friend Nika was also up there for the weekend at her family cabin. The two of them had been texting back and forth trying to figure out how to meet up at some point. As they chat it turns out Nika will also be at the run that day. When we get there we discover that Nika's grandmother is on some board that organizes the run and her family helps with it every year. What are the odds? So Nika led Isabelle's group on the run around the bases. Here she is getting the kids organized. Note Isabelle's very fashionable pink plaid running skirt.

And around they go, Jake is in the brown tank running beside her:



Jake has been wonderfully running with me this summer. I am slow but he holds back and I enjoy the slightly more challenging pace he sets for me. However, I told him for this race he could go all out and see what he could do. Unfortunately he wasn't paying attention when they announced his time but we are thinking it was around 24minutes. 8 minutes per mile. Not bad.




I am slower than Jake but hoped to do a 10 minute mile. I finished at 30:09 and felt great about myself. I promise I am running in these pictures. I look more like a power walker.




It was a great weekend which we hope to do again next summer. Now that we know we can make our own memories in Crosslake I hope we are able to spend more summers there sharing it with our children.

Urban Wildlife

I got out this morning for my run. It was a lovely run. The sky was overcast with a slight warm breeze, about 55 degrees and the ground was damp from an early rain. I love the smell of the world on these days when everything is fresh and fragrant. On my route today I saw 2 geese and their new 5 new baby ducklings just sitting on the side of the road as I ran by. I love those moments where I get to see wildlife close up rather than glimpsing it as I speed by in the car or watch it on tv.

I have had some amazing encounters with nature here in the city. (OK suburb, but near the city.) I often have wished to live in the country. When life gets crazy I think it would be nice to go sit alone in the woods. But maybe I don't have to go very far to experience nature. At least not the wildlife that goes with it.

A few weeks ago I ran by 6 mallard ducks just walking down the road together like neighbors out for a little exercise and conversation. You would think I lived near a lake. Where do they come from?

I have had deer hanging out in my backyard and then hopping the fence to lay down for a nap in my neighbors yard.

2 years ago birds nested in the hanging baskets outside our back door. One day I opened the back door as a large hawk flew out of them having taken care of the eggs.

There are wild turkeys living in the next neighborhood over, one of my neighbors was almost attacked by them on a walk. I have seen them but they stayed put as I walked quickly by.

I have looked out the kitchen window to see a fox strolling down the alley.

And most amazingly last summer I stood right next to (we are talking less than 5 feet) a hawk sitting on a neighbors fence post. Just as I gazed down at what he was standing on he lifted off flinging up the chipmunk he was holding to grab with both legs as he flew away. The National Geographic Channel has nothing on a simple walk around my block.

Rumor has it there are some cougars living near the creek down the road, maybe this summer I will catch a glimpse of one on an evening stroll.

What I have learned as an adult onset athlete

I am an adult onset athlete. (I did not make up this term, it is used frequently by John Bingham who writes a column in Runner's World Magazine.) I have been blessed with good genes and a lack of any significant food issues and so I have never struggled with my weight despite leading a sedentary lifestyle. However, eventually we all get old and things catch up with us. I started feeling tired and was getting easily winded in my early 30's. I referred to myself as a skinny fat person.

I did not play sports as a child. I remember being signed up for t-ball when I was little, I attended one practice and then we went to the first game where I hid in the car refusing to get out, we drove home and never went back. In 6th grade I played girls volleyball for a whole year. I don't know if I was good but I do recall enjoying it. The following year at the first practice we were supposed to run a mile, it was torture and I was one of the last, if not the last, to finish. Never one to appreciate that success required work, I decided I was no good and never returned to volleyball after that.

Then one day 4-1/2 years ago I woke up early, strapped on my who-knows-how-old tennis shoes and ran out my back door. I had no plan. I ran about 1/2 mile (sounds good but it was all downhill), thought I might pass out and finished the 1 mile loop back to my home walking. I thought I would walk one more mile but got about a block away and thought I was going to throw up so I went home and laid around the rest of the day. The next day I got up and did it again. This time I grabbed some water after the first mile and was able to walk that second mile. Slowly I built up to running a mile and then 2 miles. Since that day I have run several 5K's, a 10K and on a weekend of true insanity rode my bike 150 miles in 2 days on the MS150.


I have learned alot as an adult onset athlete. Running has changed my entire view of life and how I approach it. I have learned that I tend to run from a challenge and I have learned the thrill in working toward a goal and accomplishing it. I have learned that I tend to give up right before I crest the hill and I have stood atop that hill. I have learned that I don't always value the work put into accomplishing a task and I have savored the daily runs that have prepared me to reach a goal. I have learned that I fear others are better than me and look down on me and have experienced encouragement from runners of all skill levels just excited to see me out on a run.

Almost 5 years later I am still learning about myself from running. I am a slow runner, for most regular runners 3 miles in 30 minutes is just a standard, I had never done it. I wasn't too far but was more like 35-40 minutes. Doesn't seem like much but it is a big deal in the world of running and I wanted to do it. This winter with my job at a health club I have been able to do something I have never done before, stay in shape and improve my shape during the winter. A few weeks ago I was running along and realized I was at pace to do 3 miles in 30 minutes and still feeling well. I kept going but soon my mind started panicking, my heart started racing and I fell apart. I actually had to stop and walk for a few minutes before I could resume my running. I called my SIL and fellow adult onset athlete to tell her about it and she said, "Melanie, get over yourself and just do it". OK that isn't an exact quote but that is the gist. I wasn't willing to push myself and I wasn't telling myself I could do it. So the next day I got back on the treadmill, set it for a 10 minute mile and forced myself to keep going until I hit 3 miles. I did it with relative ease, although I did slow down the moment I hit 3 miles, and actually was just under my goal at 29:30. It felt great! The past couple years I have sort of been stuck simply maintaining and forgot how it feels to reach a new goal. It has become my new normal and now I wonder why it took me so long to reach this goal. Inspired anew by reaching this goal I am looking forward to making new and more challenging goals in the years ahead as I continue to learn and grow from my running.

I like to think I have inspired some others to become adult onset athletes. One morning I woke my husband up and told him it was time for him to start running too. He quickly took to it but an injury slowed him down a couple years ago and one of my goals this year is to get him up with me again. My Sister In Law, Julia, started running a few years ago and despite a few slow downs to have a couple babies she has surpassed me and inspired me to keep going. And during a visit to my sister Michele's house a couple years ago I woke her up every morning just to take a walk together but by the end of the week we were running together. This led her to become a little obsessive about running that summer and gave herself a stress fracture in her foot but now she is coming back slowly and feeling great. I convinced them both to do their own blog posts on what they have learned as adult onset athletes so go check out The Wolfe Cubs and GEMS to Bragg About for more on this subject.----------------I almost forgot about my cousin Jessy, I don't think I was her inspiration but she started running I believe around the same time as I did and has become an inspiration to all of us as she did a mini duathlon this past year. I just heard she might be joining us in doing a post as well. Check her out at Just Breathe.