As we were standing on the rooftop deck out side of our Lake Placid room, we could look out over Mirror Lake and see where the IRONMAN swim course was already set-up. As Chris and I were looking at the water, we were suddenly impressed by a full rainbow that stretched over the lake.

It wasn’t until later that evening that I called my sister Jen to check-in for any updates on my Mom’s situation. I was aware that this was going to be a tough day for my Dad & family… as they were having a “final” discussion with the medical doctors, and deciding to move onto the hospice phase of her care. It was a tough decision for all of us. Yet we were all sadly aware that there was no more hope for recovery or any sort of “quality of life” left for my Mom. We were responsible for seeing to her final wishes.

As I was talking to my sister on the phone, she told me all about the meeting, the doctors, the choices, and the decision agreed on by all to move forward with hospice care. She then asked me about my trip to see how it was going, and to make sure we made it there okay. I told her about our “accidental trip” into Canada, and then told her about our hotel room and the rainbow over Mirror Lake.

She stopped me right there. The mention of the rainbow stopped the story.
She told me that during the meeting with the doctors, they offered up three different hospice care companies. My sister & brother researched each of them, checked locations & services, and finally chose the one that best fit our needs & wishes.

The name of the company?…    RAINBOW HOSPICE.

Yep, chills went through me too!
Like this isn’t a “sign” from my Mom???… saying that she’s okay with the choice???…
and that she is wishing me well in my upcoming swim?! I mean seriously?!

Could she make it any more obvious?!!!
Slapped right upside the head. “Hey look at me… and my rainbow!!!”

Save

Save

So we woke up early in Niagara Falls… ready to get started on Day Two of our adventure!
We knew we had a long ways to go… and yet we had to walk down to see the falls in daylight first!!! So cool to see it in natural light… to fully see the power & force of the water. But where does it all come from? Where does it all go?… and more importantly… Why doesn’t it ever stop???

We stopped to get gas before we head out…
and I loved seeing how they had even “Canada-ized” the McDonald’s logo!!!

And then the moment of truth… going through Customs in the opposite direction!
The Customs Agent going into Canada told us that Canada pretty much lets anyone into their country… but it’s getting back into the USA that is a bit tougher. And here we are without any passports!… “PASSPORTS PLEASE!!!”

So here go again… but this time we know what’s going on… and we’re hoping for the best. Needless to say, the US Customs Agent was not nearly as chatty & cute. He was a bit more gruff & obstinate. He found no humor in our situation. But eventually he let us through.. and BACK INTO THE USA!!!

And so we were off… back on the road. I finally got a chance to drive…
and found out that Chris is a brilliant conversationalist!!!

Needless to say, upstate New York is beautiful! So many trees and hills…
and they only increased as we headed towards Lake Placid and into the Adirondack Mountains! As the mountains & trees increased, so did my anticipation, excitement & anxiety about the race!

And then with Chris back at the wheel… the rain clouds moved in!
Okay, maybe full-on STORM CLOUDS!!! It was crazy. Tough to see the road at times! Good thing was that the locals all turn their flashing hazard lights on when the rain comes. Brilliant idea!

The rain stopped as we carried on… but there were more clouds to come.

The sky eventually cleared up as we entered Adirondacks State Park.

As we continued on, the trees & mountains increased. So pretty… and yet somewhere back in the deep recesses of my head I started worrying about the IRONMAN race ahead of us. This are not little hills for bike riding… they’re downright MOUNTAINS!!!

At the High Peaks North rest area, we read some signs about how HUGE the Adirondacks State Park is… it’s the largest contiguous state park in the country, over six million acres… approximately the same size as Vermont… and three times the size of Yellowstone!

Somewhere along the road… I had forgotten how big Adirondacks State Park was… I knew it was huge, but I was wrong when I kept referring to it as “six hundred million acres!!!” By erroneously adding the “hundred” into the equation, I made the park a LOT bigger in my head… and my stories!!!

Soon enough we started seeing signs… exciting & somewhat terrifying… LAKE PLACID!!! Reality started setting in about the endurance race before us! Chris may have been training for real… legit training with a professional trainer!!! Me?… not so much. I was a bit concerned about my lack of training. And quite honestly, a bit unfocused knowing that my Mom was still in the hospital and not getting better… and knowing that some tough decisions were being made while I was gone. In fact TODAY was the day that my Dad, brother & sister were having a very serious meeting with my Mom’s doctors to determine if there was truly any hope of her improving. I wish I could have been there… as it was in my mind a lot of the day… but we all knew that my Mom would have wanted me to go through with this trip to compete in my THIRD full IRONMAN race!

The scenery was AMAZING!!!
So beautiful… we had to stop a couple times along the way to take in the sights & smells….
and dip our toes in the water!!!

We finally made it to the small town of Lake Placid. A quaint little town known for hosting TWO Winter Olympics!!!… as well as hosting the Lake Placid IRONMAN!!! So much so that they have a large placard on a boulder in front of Mirror Lake. See the buoys?… already set out in the lake for the race. A little concerning as I am NOT a strong swimmer! And can you see where the buoys go?… ALL THE WAY down to the other end of the lake!!! I was a little freaked seeing the distance… and knowing that we had to swim all the way down & back… hop out of the water… get back in… and do it all again for a second loop!!! YIKES!!!

A full 2.4 miles of YIKES!!!

And here you can see the buoys a bit better… ALL THE WAY DOWN!!!
For this race, the buoys would always be on our right… swimming the yellow side first, then returning back on the orange side!

After a bit of an internal meltdown… I calmed down a bit as we walked around town and finally had dinner at a sweet little restaurant overlooking Mirror Lake… and the ever-present Swim course! Just as a constant reminder! A reminder that I don’t know how to swim well… and might NOT be prepared enough to do this!!! 2.4 miles is a LONG way to swim!!!

Loved the low-flying fog & clouds moving in & floating through the hills opposite the lake!

A healthy dinner after all of the junk & coffee cake pizza I had eaten all day in the car. A little clean protein and something green actually tasted great! And another great ending to Day Two of our adventure!… and Welcome to Lake Placid!!!

Save

Save

Save

Save

Well, the big day was finally here. After much soul-searching, and rationalizing the trip, Chris and I finally packed up the car… bikes, gear, luggage, and road trip snacks!!! With all of the things that were going on with my Mom in the hospital after her latest stroke, it had been hard to focus. Hard to keep on task… and hard to rationalize going on “vacation” while she was laying in a hospital bed. But I taught my Tuesday night pottery class, got home late and finished packing, and over-packing, and got a couple hours of sleep. But as of this morning … we’re on VACATION!!!

After packing Chris’s car with all of our stuff…
we set the GPS course for Lake Placid and headed off!!!

Lucky for us, we have some of the greatest friends ever!!!
Including our friend Nancy who knew we would need some road trip snacks… and had stopped by earlier in the morning at Chris’s house to drop off this huge coffee cake “pizza” with lots of fruit & icing! Nancy knows it’s one of my favorites from my favorite bakery in Elk Grove Village… Jarosch Bakery! She knew this because two years ago when Nancy & I went up to Madison to cheer on Chris in her first full IRONMAN, we stopped and got one of these for our road trip together… and polished it off with ease!!!

Needless to say, we hadn’t even made it to the Skyway Tollway Bridge before we cut into it… basically still in Chicago!!!

So there we are blindly following the GPS… talking… chatting… singing.. and eating.
Basically all of the fun of a road trip as we finally crossed into Indiana across the Skyway Toll Bridge!

And then soon enough… hello Michigan!!!

Soon enough there were “signs” along the road that we must be nearing Detroit.
Kind of exciting… as I have never been to Detroit. Still just following the GPS in the car.
Still having a fun time chatting & sightseeing along the way!

And then we started seeing highway signs that caused a bit of concern…
we didn’t want to go to either Lansing or Canada??? Uh oh… Which way to go?!

We knew we wanted to keep going EAST towards Lake Placid. So we continued on…

But then all of a sudden…

All of a sudden we came upon this really cool looking bridge. The Ambassador Bridge. I was so busy admiring the bridge & taking pictures… I wasn’t really paying too much attention to where we were headed. I guess in hindsight I should have known better?…

The bridge was cool. The bridge was long… with no options to exit. Before we knew it, we were stopped at this weird Toll Booth looking area that was moving very slowly. It was only then that the reality of the situation began to sink in. Why was it taking so long? Why weren’t the cars moving through faster with their iPass? Something must be going on?!!!

It was only when we finally made it to the Toll Booth window that it hit us.
As the guard in the booth asked us for our PASSPORTS… “Passports please!”
Of course we didn’t have them. Who knew you would go through Canada to get to Lake Placid? The GPS route never said anything about needing a passport? So we sheepishly offered up our Driver’s Licenses… and again “Passports please!” The Customs Agent was surprisingly nice as we bumbled our way through the “interrogation”… Where are you going? Why are you coming to Canada? How long are you staying? Where were you born? All we had was Lake Placid… IRONMAN… triathlon… here are our bikes… here’s our gear… just following GPS… we had no idea… we’re idiots from Chicago!

We asked her if we had any other option… to maybe turn around and stay in the USA. She said we could, but then we would need to backtrack all the way and go back around UNDER the lake… thus adding about 3-1/2 to 4 hours onto our trip. We said NOPE… we’ll try our chances in Canada! So after she scanned our Driver’s Licenses and chatted it up with us… she finally let us through.

And then, and only then… as we were now driving through the Canadian countryside, Chris decides to tell me she printed out a traditional map from Mapquest. Showing the route we “thought” we would be taking. Apparently Chris didn’t realize that there might be different GPS routes… she assumed the printed out online map would be the same as the GPS directions in the car. Apparently she was wrong… and apparently it was too late to use this printed map!!! Oh well, scenic route here we come!!! Hello Canada!!!

Luckily… we were now headed towards Niagara Falls for the evening! It had been a long time since I had been there… and we both knew that it is much prettier from the Canadian side. And since we were in Canada already… all good, right?!!!

We found a hotel room just a few blocks from the falls. We settled in quickly and then walked to find dinner. After dinner, we walked down to see the waterfalls. Another wonderful surprise was that the falls were all lit-up in wonderful colors!!!

And if that weren’t enough, they also decided to show off and welcome us with an amazing fireworks display over the falls. AMAZING!!! And such wonderful timing for us… and our surprise “adventure” into Canada!!!

After the fireworks, it went back to just the beautiful light-painted waterfalls.

And then it was back to the hotel for a well-deserved night’s sleep. Chris had done most of the driving, while I did most of the photo-taking… and eating. It was only Day One.. and we’ve already had a wonderful adventure. So much more fun to come!!! And THIS is how Chris and I travel… one adventure after another!!!

Save

Save

Well, just a smidge over a month ago… my third full IRONMAN race!

IRONMAN LAKE PLACID 2019

It was a long time coming, and I would love to say a lot training… but I can’t.
With everything that was going on in my “real life” with work, pottery, summer camp and my Mom’s dire health issues, something had to give. Unfortunately I was heading into IRONMAN weekend without a lot of confidence… but a ton of determination! I know my Mom would have wanted me to carry-on and conquer yet another IRONMAN… and I did. For her.

I have finally sifted, sorted & edited down all of my photos. I am in the process of posting everything here on my blog, and I’ll post links on my Facebook page as well. There’s a LOT of photos and a LOT of stories! Be prepared to settle in for awhile… and read about our latest IRONMAN adventure!

Save

Yesterday was a beautiful day for the Chicago Triathlon. Well, beautiful except for the crazy waves in Lake Michigan. So crazy that they called off the entire swim portion, and changed it to a Duathlon – run, bike, run. Always a fun day “racing” downtown with one of the best bike courses EVER!!! Up & down Lake Shore Drive, through Lower Wacker Drive and down along the Bus Lane… all 100% closed to traffic! Always a fun day playing downtown with my Tri-pal Tracy!

And this is what happens sometimes when you ask a total strange if she can take a few pictures for you. Still not quite sure what happened… some errant filter somewhere maybe? At least she tried…

At the Finish Line… thousands of medals are waiting for the Finishers! The Chicago Triathlon is the city’s only downtown Triathlon… and one of the world’s largest with over ten thousand athletes competing over the weekend!

Also after the Finish Line, there are an assortment of vendors, team tents, recovery stations and medics. My favorite of course is the Rapid Reboot tent. We’ve tried them many times at both Chicago Triathlon & a few IRONMAN Expos… and so much better when you get to use these AMAZING compression pants after the race when your legs could really use the boost! #rapidreboot

A rare Selfie... with a bit of a post-race afterglow much attributed to the compression pants massaging my legs at this very moment. Thanks to Clark and the fun folks at Rapid Reboot!!!

After the race, we decided to “walk it off” with a nice stroll through Millennium Park since the day was so gorgeous!

After having the SWIM portion of our race cancelled…
the day just didn’t feel complete without getting a little WET!!!
So we decided to play in the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park.

Scroll through the next few photos quickly, and you’ll see my friend Tracy doing her best Snow Angel Stroke in the fountain… to “complete” the third leg of our Triathlon!

And notice my still sealed, never-been-opened Swim Cap and extremely dry goggles!

We still lined up to start our race at the Swim Start arch… even though the lettering had been removed already. I guess to avoid confusion?! As we would basically be RUNNING the swim course instead of swimming it!

All in all, another great day downtown for the Chicago Triathlon… even if it was changed to a Duathlon! Always fun to get another medal to add to the collection… even if it is the THICKEST & heaviest medal yet!!! Rumor has it that if you were to complete all of the Lifetime Triathlons in the series, your medals would stack up to look like a replica of a sports water bottle!

Save

Raining this morning… but luckily it was a gorgeous morning yesterday as we all started early down at Monroe Harbor for the start of the Chicago Triathlon. The sky was amazing… but the waves were crazy! So bad, that they cancelled the swim all together… and instead turned it into a Duathlon… run-bike-run! Better safe than sorry… at least we got a wonderful sunrise show as the Chicago Fire Department was there to show off super-neato water-spraying boat!!!

And an IRONIC “no swimming” sign on a Triathlon morning with NO SWIMMING!!!

And an early morning “attempt” at a sunrise selfie for me & Tracy!

Also last week, while I probably should have been “training or packing”… I spent the day with my own little Great America Gang. So much fun playing with my niece, sister & cousin on all of the roller coasters, eating snacks and focusing on the FUN!!!

Oh wait, but first… Taylor had to braid Kim’s hair. Sure, we came all this way…
and THEN we braid hair???

And then finally… we got onto some rides!!!

Great fun flying out of our seats” on The Viper!!!
I love that feeling of “weightlessness” when flying over the wooden hills.

Spinning Teacups!!!

Ready for one of the originals… The American Eagle!!!

A beautiful sunset over The Raging Bull… my favorite roller coaster here at Great America!

X-Flight… so smooth!

Spinnin’ & flyin’ high on The Revolution… so much better when the lights come on!!!

And the end of another fantastic day at Six Flags Great America!

Save

Save

After a fun morning of Summer Camp yesterday, I zipped over to Six Flags Great America for a fun outing with my sister Jen, niece Taylor and cousin Kim… the “Fun-Foursome” with our Season Passes!!! It started out a little cloudy, but that soon passed and it became a beautiful evening playing in the park, zooming on the coasters & eating some great “park food”!!!

After spending the night in Minneapolis at a friend’s house, I got up and headed over to the Minneapolis Convention Center for a full day of NCECA fun. Okay, let me just say from the get-go… for the record… I’m NOT a huge fan of NCECA. I just want to make pots. I just want to see pots. I just want to have fun, buy pots, buy tools,  and see a LOT of pottery friends!!! Not so much into the “educational-lecture” part of the show, which I totally get as it IS an educator’s conference! So I knew going up that one day of NCECA would be enough for me! Well, that plus a full day of touring NCECA Gallery Shows on Friday.

So the first thing I ran into after registering for the day was the Artstream Gallery… LOVE IT!!! I’ve seen it before, but you can never see it enough! Basically they took an old Airstream Trailer and converted it into a mobile pottery gallery! What a wonderful idea!!!

There were several galleries that had made little Pop-Up Shops with their ceramic wares.
Many of them focusing on a few featured artists… like one of the galleries was featuring
this oversized sculpture by George Rodriguez

So many mugs… so little time. Loved this contemporary twist on mug display & shelving… one mug per shelf.

Also fun to see so many potters that I’ve been introduced to through social media. Like this slip-cast, layered-colors and carved tumbler by Valeri Alexsandrov. Beautiful to watch on Instagram, but even better to touch, fondle, caress and admire in person!

So many things to see… so many pots everywhere… I WAS IN POTTERY HEAVEN!
And the first “souvenir” to come home with me was this Ted Neal mug. Loved the rustic, almost rusty quality of it… as well as the industrial-somewhat agricultural aspects to it.

And one of my favorite things at the Pop-Up Gallery areas were these pre-packaged shot glasses. What a wonderful idea – a comic satire on commerce & mass-production… with a handmade ceramic piece inside the retro-inspired retail packaging. So, so funny!!!

And then it was off to the Trade Show Expo area. Always fun to see all of the latest in pottery tools & supplies. Many of which I’m not in the market for… like kilns, commercial glazes or more pottery wheels. But even though I might not be looking to buy any of these… still fun to see everything.

Including these little mini-wheels… a tiny little wooden box that is actually a miniature potter’s wheel… perfect for making miniature pots!

And then I finally got down to the back corner to find my favorite… DiamondCore Tools!!! Great to finally meet Robert and his crew, as well as see all of their amazing products all in one place! And all ready to be played with on some clay. Carving. Scraping. Sgraffito-ing. Whatever. So much fun getting a chance to play with all of their tools… as well as seeing some great demos by some pretty great artists!

Save

Save

Just got home from a wonderful weekend in Minneapolis for NCECA 2019…. the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. A lot of pottery, inspirations, shopping and meeting up with a lot of other pottery friends!! More photos & stories to come!!!

As an added bonus… it was a BEAUTIFUL weather weekend in Minneapolis! So I made sure to get outside to see some of the sights outside of the Convention Center too!