Thunder Cats: GO!

We are leaving The Woodlands ahorita! First stop: AustinTown.

Gearing Up!

Since Robert and I moved our stuff up to Seattle, we have been very busy. We were visited by a two-day-old fawn, ate lots of tomatoes from Bern's garden, attended two weddings and a bachelorette party, went sailing, and rain tested our tent.

Junior takes a drink from Momma.

A single day's tomato harvest

Robert and his cousin, Stevo at David and Christina's wedding

Stevo and his girlfriend, Carol

Robert, David, and Thomas...Three Brothers

Robert and guest

Miranda, Hope, Lauren, Me, Christi (hairdresser) and Amanda at Mint, gettin' our hairs did

Bridal Portrait

"You have a plan, right?"

My finished 'do

Getting Hope dressed was no easy task

Miranda (foreground), me and Lauren

Hope is wearing her der-wasted grin, but she isn't der-wasted, just happy to be married

A vision in maliblue

Gorgeous bride

Our friend, Tommy, sailing a dolphin. (Robert and I took out a twin boat.)

Robert faked a rainstorm and our lovely tent failed.

Finally, Robert and I are planning on embarking on another Great Adventure. This summer we are going road trip/backpack up to our final destination, Seattle, WA. We plan to arrive in Seattle on August 25th and take five extended backpacking trips along the way.

1. Gila Wilderness, NM - Meadows-Big Bear Loop Trail
2. Sequoia National Park - Trail TBD
3. Yosimite National Park - Trail TBD
4. Someplace in the Redwoods/Big Sur
5. Oregon

We leave The Woodlands in two short days, get excited!! (and expect updates from us along the way)

Sea Kayak to Finish line

Here is Carter, our star kayaker. He had the honor of finishing the
race for us. We were lucky to be able to just make it to the finish
line before him due to traffic and parking craziness.

He had the timing chip tucked into his life jacket and instead of
losing time fishing it out, he dove across the finish line to get the
chip close enough to the timing mat. What a trooper!!

All together, Nooksakulous placed 18th out of 500 teams!!! (Did I
mention their team name is ridiculous and only slightly explained by
the name of the river in the course - the Nooksak River??)

Excellent work, gentlemen!

Packing up the canoe

Here are Robert, Grant (mountain biker), Ben and Marc removing race
preparations from the rented canoe and about to hoist it onto Ben's
car for transport. The race is still raging, we just need another car
to help transport all of our gear and people to the finish line.

Cyclo-cross start

Davis ensures a fast time by using a cyclo-cross start, the ol' run n'
jump method as I like to call it.

Finishing Strong

They seem to be in a world of hurt, but Marc makes absolutely sure the
chip isn't misplaced during the hand-off

Canoe to Mountain Bike Transition

Marc and Ben finished their leg in two hours and seven minutes,
despite Marc's wicked leg cramps. Here they are met by the mountain
biker, Davis. He is required to help them get the boat up and out of
the way before taking the chip and starting his leg.

Competitive Women's team

Notice the decking and hydration system and carbon fiber paddle...

Away they go!

Calm and collected

Canoe launch

The Hand-Off

I have no idea who these people are, so apologies for posting
unauthorized images, but I wanted you to see how the canoe leg starts.
The road biker hauls down his last stretch and then has to pass off
the timing chip to one canoer. That canoer runs down to the canoe
staging area, grabs his boat and awaiting teammate and they launch
their boat into the river.

The handoff is pretty tricky because no one wants to slow down for it.
The vast majority of bikers seemed to just pitch the chip at their
teammate and fly by, letting their teammate figure out where the chip
landed. 

Scouting their river entrance

Ski to Sea, May 27, 2011

This post is coming a few days late because the cross-country road
trip ended and we catapulted back into busy days preparing for two
weddings and our next cross-country trip, but here goes.

While in Seattle, Robert and I got to watch my brother, Ben, and his
roommate, Marc, compete in the Ski to Sea Race. It is an enormous
relay race with seven legs: cross-country skiing, downhill skiing,
running, road biking, canoeing, mountain biking and sea kayaking. Ben
and Marc did the canoeing portion of the race and took it very
seriously. (I wouldn't expect anything less from my two favorite
nortwestern mountain men.) I thought they were going a little crazy in
their preparations, decking the boat, rigging hydration tubes, adding
friction to their seats, padding the gunwhales, etc., but then I saw
their competition. Check out these boats!