August 14- Race Day!

What a day it was!  Triathlons start super early, like even before sunrise early. 

Chris was ready to race!  

A couple of his fan club members even made signs to help cheer him on. 

It's always such a relief when the swim is over!  Chris did really well on the swim this morning. 

Transitioning to the bike. 

While he was out for the next 3 hours biking, Mike took some beautiful beach pictures. It was a hot sunny day. It felt much warmer than the 82 degrees the weather app showed. 

The second big relief comes when the biking is over. I'm always worried about wipeouts. I think I watch too much of the Tour de France. 

Now he transitions to the run. We think this is maybe the safest leg of the race?

He finishes the race!  We're so proud and happy for him. But then we learn that his knee is killing him and it's off to the medic tent. Good news is that there's no knee injury. Bad news is it's a torn hamstring. Ouch!!

Overall, Chris had a good race, and hopefully he will recover quickly. 

August 13-Steelhead 70.3

Today we hit the road and drove to Benton Harbor, MI in preparation for tomorrow's Steelhead 70.3 Ironman race that Chris is competing in. 

It was super hot and steamy at the park for race packet pick up. 

We met up with the Karr's and had a late lunch with them at Azul Tequila. 

Back at the hotel it's time to rest and recharge. 

Chris and Ryan end up going to the race park to swim in the lake. They just want to get in the water and get a feel for it before the race. 

August 5- One Last Day

Meghan worked last night, so Janice and I went exploring on our own today while Meg slept. 

We walked to the Denver Botanic Gardens which was only 1.1 miles away. The gardens were beautiful. We got caught in about a 10 minute rain shower while we were there. Luckily it didn't last long. 

We stopped for street tacos at Tacos Tequila Whiskey for lunch on our walk back to Meg's. It was right on the way and Meg said it was really good. We started with guacamole and then had fish, pork, and steak tacos. 

We had time to fit in a quick nap before heading out to the airport. Before leaving, we took one last selfie of the 3 of us! 

 

August 4- Return to Denver

Today was very low key. We got up this morning and drove back to Denver from Vail. We wanted to leave before the rain hit as the forcast was calling for flash floods. 

This is Meghan's apartment building. She lives in a really nice neighborhood that is close to many restaurants and parks. 

Back in Denver, Meghan went to bed since she had to work at 7:00. Janice and I went out for a late breakfast at a place called Annie's. Following this we went shopping at Cherry Creek Mall. The highlight would absolutely be our stop at Little Man Ice Cream on the way home.  Well, actually, it wasn't "on the way", but we had time to kill before getting the car back for Meghan. We decided we would have ice cream for "lunch" since we hadn't eaten anything while shopping and then have dinner later. 

It was delicious! The salted caramel peanut butter cup was the best!

After Meg left for work, we walked up to Chik-fill-a for dinner. 

The rest of the evening was spent watching Netflix and repacking suitcases. 

August 3- Vail Day 2- Our Epic Discovery and Adventures

Here's an Instagram shot of our room. It's quite comfy. 

Meghan was the first one up and at 'em this morning. She went out for a run/walk. 

It really was a beautiful morning. 

After a quick Starbucks breakfast, the diner we wanted to eat at had an hour wait, we bought adventure passes and went up the gondola.  

Here's a map of the activities available at the summit. 

Meg and I are interested in:

1.  Eagle's Nest Tubing

2.  Golden Eagle Zip Line

3.  Forest Flyer Alpine Coaster

Here we go!  Of course, there's a photographer taking pictures of groups going up!

But first, the views!  These next photos are taken from inside the gondola on the way up. 

Where we're staying is the lodge with the green roof with the crane in front of it. 

It was just stunning!  

But now for the fun...

First up, tubing!

Meghan is on the right, Kim is on the left. 

Next, we decided to wait the hour it would take for zip lining. It was totally worth it!

Getting harnessed up. 

Ready to go!

Janice took a really cool video of us coming down. I can't upload it to the blog, though. 

 

We had so much fun doing this. We got to ride the ski lift back up. Janice got our picture on it. 

And lastly, there was the Forest Flyer Alpine Coaster. 

Like other alpine slides I've been on, you controlled your own speed. You have handles that you push down to go and pull back to slow. But unlike other slides, this one was more of a legitimate coaster.  It started at the top and wove through a stand of pine trees. It was super fun and you could get going really fast. Once the track ended, you were pulled back up to the top like a traditional coaster before going down the first big hill. Meg was in front of me, I was able to pull out my phone and snap some photos of the track. 

We had worked up an appetite so we went down the mountain and had lunch at Moe's BBQ. The pulled pork sandwiches were delicious. 

After some rest time we took the shuttle bus to Vail Village and did a little more shopping.