Yes, I'm Still Alive!

I guess the only excuse for not blogging in over a month is that I’ve been too busy having fun on my summer vacation.  School ended June 30^th and after waiting over 17 months for a real summer vacation it finally arrived. 

On Canada Day (July 1) I took part in a 143 km Canada Day ride – one km for each year that Canada has been around.  Although the weather wasn’t perfect for the ride it was a lot of fun.  Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from the ride this year.

Once the Canada ride was out of the way, and the long weekend over I quickly settled in on catching up with doctor(s), dentist, and hair appointments.  I finally met with my Canadian GI doctor to learn more about my Cholitis.  Thankfully it hasn’t been too bad and I think a big part of that is the decreased stress since returning to my highly functional school and job in Canada.  I also got busy catching up with friends.  Although I’ve been back in town for over six months there are still several people I haven’t caught up with yet.  Having this time off has been a real blessing.

On the July 16-18 weekend I took part in STP – which stand for Seattle to Portland.  It’s a 200 mile bike ride that starts in Seattle Washington and ends in Portland Oregon.  I did it with four other girl friends and we did it over two days.  It was a lot of fun and actually made me feel more confident about my bike riding.  While my Ironman possie friends are much stronger cyclists that I am I was still a lot faster than many of the two day riders.  It was a good experience and I was surprised by how easy it was to ride over 100 miles two days in a row.  I’m not sure if I’d do the ride again though because I didn’t like some of the route in and out of the big cities or the in experienced cyclists.

Rocket Girl Amy

Superstar Brenda

Power House Elaine

Come Back Kid Tammy

Tammy and I at the STP Start Line

I returned to town on the Monday and left again on Tuesday morning for the Okanagan to meet up with Danielle and Zane.  If you were reading this blog while I was in Australia you know that D and Z and I visited a lot of Australian wineries together.  This Okanagan trip was all about visiting Canadian wineries –well it was until Danielle let me know that she and Zane were expecting their first child.   We still managed to visit several wineries – I can’t tell you how entertaining it was to watch wine loving pregnant Danielle smell her husband’s wine since she couldn’t taste it herself.  We did enjoy good meals though, three of them at wineries so all was not lost.  Over all it was a really good vacation and it was so nice to spend time with my Canadian Aussie friends.  It was also nice to show off my province a little bit. The Okanagan is very stunny and the Naramata and Oliver wine regions are just beautiful.   I’m hoping we’ll do it again next summer – with their little baby but in the mean time I think I need to book a trip to Edmonton to visit them in their province.

Zane and I outside Burrowing Owl  Winery  Oliver, BC

Wine Capital of Canada - Oliver, BC

Danielle and I

Naramata Wine Tasting with Danielle

Naramata, BC

Stunning Naramata

Cherry picking in Naramata, BC.  Mmm, mmm, good!

From Penticton I packed up my car and headed north to Vernon to visit with my friends Kerry and Carl.  They live on an organic beef farm and so we ate a lot of beef that weekend – probably more beef than I’ve eaten in the past six months.  They were so good to me and it was a really great visit.  Unfortunately my camera battery was dead by the time I made it to Vernon so I have no pictures.  What I can say is that it was also a very relaxing holiday and I’m so glad I took the time to visit them.  They are both such good people.

Anyhow I’m now back in Vancouver and I’m still dealing with appointments and visits with friends.  I’m trying to keep my Ironman training up as well but some days I’m not all that motivated.  I think that’s pretty normal though as the race is getting close which means I’ve already been training for a long time.  This is suppose to be my last Ironman race before I retire from Ironman distance races. This will be my fifth which I think is five more than any normal person would do.  I’m happy to have such amazing fitness again but I am really ready to be done with this distance.

I have a few more adventures for the month of August including my niece’s Bat Mitzvah the same weekend as Ironman Canada.  It will be interesting traveling back and forth over the weekend to fulfill both my Ironman commitment and attend my niece’s Bat Mitzvah.  Thankfully I have some friends that are willing and able to help me out.

In the meantime enjoy your summer.  I certainly will be. J