48 Days of Summer: Olalla & a Half Marathon

Fact: We almost broke the all time no-rain record here in Seattle this summer. We didn't quite make it, but this year scored second place in the annals of history, so I'll take it. From July 22 through September 8th, there was not one drop of rain in Seattle. Glorious. Anyways, here's another weekends worth of enjoyment of that fact.

Friday afternoon Matt and I jumped on the ferry and made our way over to my parents place in Olalla. We both needed to do some studying, and home and our friends can be very distracting despite how much we love them. Plus, Olalla is magic in the summer. We BBQ'd, relaxed, and enjoyed the setting.

ferry time

dont worry, it's not a real person. Man overboard drill.

Grillin!

peace

fresh blackberry pancakes

Saturday afternoon we met up with a group of friends at Magnuson Park, where we swam and played volleyball. I only snapped a couple of pictures, but here they are.

Sunday morning, way too early, we got up and drove north to Burlington where Matt was running the Skagit Valley Flats half marathon. Pretty country, a completely flat course, and some cool weather made it a perfect morning. Matt killed it once again, beating his PR by over a minute with a time of 1:27:45. Hooray! Afterwards we gorged ourselves on a late breakfast at Rhododendron Cafe, also in the Skagit Valley.

gearing up

and he's off

check out that determination

yayyyy

 (clock says 1:28 but time is based off a chip on his foot so it records when he actually crossed the start line)

a lil bit tired here

Plus, we've lately been harvesting squash & zucchini from our garden box and blackberries from the neighborhood for pies. yumyum.

blackberry pie fillings

garden box bounty

oh, and we got a quick visit with cutestnephewever

 

Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon

My husband is a stud. Did I tell you that before? If not, I'm going to tell you now.

This is Diane + Barry. They are Matt's Aunt & Uncle, and they are cool. Diane is way cooler than I am and runs 1/2 marathons and even full marathons. This is the third year in a row they've come up for the Seattle Rock & Roll Marathon and the second time we've had the pleasure of them staying with us. Friday night we had a giant pasta feed at Andy's house where we got to meet cousins Ryan & Maya's cute new baby boy Jack who is only 7 weeks old. There was lots of other family there too but Jack & one year old Ben were the stars of the show. I forgot my camera, so if someone wants to send me pictures, I wouldn't complain.

Saturday morning we woke up way to early (5:10) to get Matt, Diane & Andy dropped of for the start of the race. Barry & I played the very important role of chauffers. We ate breakfast while they ran. It's a tough life. Diane had rolled her ankle really badly and managed to push through anways and do better than I could with a not-rolled ankle. All three of them did the 1/2 marathon and did awesome. My hubby is a fast runner, and his previous best 1/2 time was 1:32:55 back in Vancouver in May. Despite the fact that he hadn't trained much at all, he had always wanted to break 1:30. Guess who came in at 1:28:57? Thats right - running 13.1 6 minute 48 second miles. I'd be lucky if I could run one of those! He's also always wanted to qualify for the Boston, so now we'll have to see if he's serious.

Just before the finish line

Guy in front of Matt is trying so hard and he's just smiling away

Andy's almost done too!

...and Diane finishing it off with a smile

We all hung out enjoying our (their) success for a while and then headed home for some showers and another great lunch w/ D&B at Cactus on Alki. Then it was off to Canada! (previous post).

Vancouver, Canada + a visit from Germany

Back in the fall of 2009 we went to Chile, where we met some fun guys from Germany at the beginning of our trip and ended up hanging out with them for most of the rest of the trip. Fall of 2010 we visited them in Germany on our way to Morocco. While staying with Chris in Germany we hung out with his roommate Markus for the weekend too. Markus has been travelling around the US for the last month on his way to Vancouver where he'll be doing research at a university for the rest of the year. He spent last week with us in Seattle and then on Saturday morning we all headed up to Vancouver together where Matt had been planning on running the Vancouver BMO 1/2 marathon anyway!

Most of the pictures from Markus' week with us are on his camera, but we had a great time getting to know him better, hanging out, and eating good food. He got some decent weather to go out an explore the city, and it was nice for me to have someone else around the house to eat lunch with (working from home can get a little lonely). He'd been eating restaurant food for three weeks while traveling around and wanted to do some real cooking - it was a treat for us to try some new things and all have fun cooking together. Proof below that he's a good cook - fresh made red pasta sauce that he got me (the tomato hater) to eat.

Saturday we made the quick drive up to Vancouver, walked around downtown and the waterfront, Granville Island, and Stanley Park. We scrounged up a picnic of bagels, fresh cream cheese and lox at the market, and dined on the dock at Granville Island. My first time up there in many years was last year during the Olympics, but it was good to get more of a feel for the city during a 'normal' time and it's really a gorgeous place. Water everywhere, Stanely Park is huge, good food and drink, and lots going on. Saturday night we had some great pasta at Cin Cin and made an early night of it so the boys could get some sleep before their race.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny (an early) and both the boys had a great run and were able to set PRs. I was photographer/cheerleader and thought my role was perfectly enjoyable. After washing up we headed to Red Robin (outdoor rooftop seating was calling our name) and enjoyed some hearty burgers and milkshakes. We lounged on the rooftop long enough to get nice and sunburned and then dropped Markus off at his new apartment and headed home.