falling into fall

Well, it's a time of transition and anniversaries. I've been out here in Seattle for a year now and am trying to settle back into life post-Croatian Adventure. School starts again in a couple of weeks and the unintended masters team swim practice 6-week hiatus will be ending on Monday. All good news as I'm feeling (and yes, I know this is hard to believe) a bit at loose ends about what to do with myself. Some routines and more structured time will be good for me. It's taken the whole summer to recover from the craziness of my first year in the doctoral program and I'm finally feeling like I can string together a decent series of thoughts again. Amazing!

I think there's no substitute for getting way, way, way out of your element for a long time like a kayaking trip along the Dalmatian Coast. I mean, I know y'all know I'm a thinker, so having to focus on things like getting provisions for lunch, packing my boat, finding a campground, setting up the tent and what freeze-dried meal to have for dinner helped to quell the storm of thoughts in my head. Getting to spend so much time with Alden and seeing him both with and through the eyes of his family were incredible ways to learn even more about what an amazing person he is and how honored I am he chooses to invite me to be a part of his life. Overall, it was a fabulous trip that I smile about every time I think of it!

My parents came out from Michigan at the end of August ostensibly to visit me, but their timing just so happened to coincide with a Red Sox road trip to Seattle. Hmm.... I didn't have the heart to ask which was a stronger motivator for buying those plane tickets. ;) But seriously, it was a good way to benchmark what all I've done in the past year. My Mom remarked that it really seems like I know where I'm going when I drive and my Dad mentioned a couple of times how many people he saw who were "like me" and by that, I think he meant bikers, runners, outdoorsy types, etc.

I left Seattle at the beginning of August in the best cycling shape of my life and found out that sitting your butt in a kayak for two weeks can't really be considered "cross-training" like I was hoping it could. I'm finally starting to get it back, just in time for my last race of the season (the oly at Black Diamond) on the 24th of September. A couple of my run club compatriots will be racing and I'm especially happy to say that Alden will be out there completing his first ever tri- woo hoo for him! He'll be competing in the sprint weighing in at a 750 yard swim, 11 mile bike and 3 mile run. Too bad I'll be out on the course because I'd love to see him crush everyone in the swim and then see if he can widen his lead on the bike enough to keep the runners from catching him on the last leg!

Overall, I'm feeling good about my crazy summer of nothingness and adventuring, but looking forward to fall with its promise of return to routines and a comfortably busy life. That's all the news from the left coast representative of the 35 and dry crew. I've gotten bits and pieces of updates from everyone, like I know from checking Alex's blog that Meagan's been flying; Cory reported that Chris was promoted; and the Macy's ads everywhere let me know that Nate's work is chugging along. So I'll pose two questions to y'all: What was your favorite adventure of the summer? And, what are you looking forward to this fall? You should be able to divine my answers from this post and I'll look forward to hearing yours!