A Flatlander's Diary

Saturday, September 12, 2009

A Visit to Fort Myers

After the triathlon, Josh and I went down to Fort Myers to vist Aunt Mary and Uncle Wally. As an added bonus, their granddaughter Shelby was there for the weekend, so we were lucky enough to get to know her a little better. We hit the beach, the nature preserve(with Wally as our naturalist), plenty of ice cream (yum), time by the pool and some delicious cooking. Oh yea, and how could I forget?! The newest game, Bananagrams!!

Crystal River Sprint

Josh and I wrapped up the inaugural 2009 triathlon season with a final race in Crystal River, Florida. This swim was in the very calm Gulf of Mexico with a beautiful ride and run through salt marsh. Luckily, the sun wasn't out and the humidity was manageable, so Josh and I both had good performances. He even got 1st place in the men's fat tire (mountain bike) division! No more triathlons until 2010, but I am already itching to get another one on the calendar!

a whim, we decided to go to and watch the space shuttle take off a few weeks ago. Its always a gamble because it can be scrubbed so easily, but luckily everything worked out and w

e headed south three hours to Titusville, Florida to watch the launch. Titusville sits about 12 miles from the launch platform, so it offered a nice view. The launch wasn't scheduled to occur until 11:59pm, sod we drove down, ate a late dinner, watched the launch and drove back. Long night... but it was awesome!

Anniversary Celebrations

Although we are taking a trip to Colorado to celebrate our 5 year anniversary in September, we wanted to make sure we marked the day at our actual anniversary. We decided to have a stay-cation and it was worth it. We feasted on the biggest lobster tail I had ever seen at a delicious local restaurant and then headed to Cumberland Island National Seashore, one of our favorite places. Even with all our trips over the past few years, we have never made it to the north end of the island because it is just too far to walk in one day. So we decided to be brave and bikes on the island and see if we could make it to the north and back. After a 28 mile ride on sandy roads and cruiser bikes, we returned to the dock happy and exhausted because we made it. The day was great with lots of time spent together and Josh was a great sport. We counted up the number of times the chain came off of his rusty rented bike. It averaged out to at least once a mile. All in all, a great little weekend to celebrate the anniversary!