Upstate NY and Boston

One race that keeps calling to me (besides Big Dog) is the Don't Run Boston 50-miler the weekend before the Boston Marathon.  It's a trail run with navigational elements, a fat-ass event with support, and an adventure in a wonderful park south of Boston.  Whenever I'm anywhere near New England in the spring, I try to figure out how to get there.

As a side benefit, Mom and I got to spend more time together, very enjoyable.  Then it was time to pick up my rental car from Burlington and head south.  And since "straightforward" is a word that rarely applies to me, I took a detour to Albany to visit friends along the way.

Which is how I ended up at Crown Point, one way to cross from Vermont into New York.  There have been a couple iterations of bridges at this spot, and for a while it was actually a ferry crossing while this newest bridge was being built.  Admiring the structure on a bluebird day:

The memorial lighthouse across the way:

What's this, another trail?  I had not heard of the North Country Scenic Trail before, but apparently it ends right here:

Another view of the pretty bridge:

Walking around the old fort, a nice bit of leg-stretching in the middle of the drive:

Trail sign - these tend to catch my eye nowadays:

Continuing south, I stopped at the town of Ticonderoga.  I'm pretty sure we went on at least one field trip to the fort here when we were young.  La Chute River through town connects Lake George to Lake Champlain (file under: I learned something new today).  I very much enjoyed walking along the river and checking out the shapes of the water:

Much of this is probably manmade, props to whoever came up with these designs:

I've never seen a diagonal waterfall before:

A covered bridge for good measure:

Now the real reason I stopped in Ticonderoga...

The Star Trek Original Series set tour - only open on weekends (bummer) but at least I could say hi to the Gorn (and I'm only half-nerd, because I don't remember anything about the white furry guy):

Mock shuttle Galileo out front:

Live long and prosper - but don't park overnight:

Dinner with my friends/former coworkers was great fun and full of reminiscing and laughing.  Thank you guys!

Another little side trip the next morning, to Kinderhook to continue the "I don't know why I started this, but apparently I'm going to keep visiting dead presidents" quest.

I do appreciate the little sign at the cemetery:

A nice commemoration for Martin van Buren:

His large house on the other side of town:

The drive to Boston was uneventful and I had time to stop at another cemetery in Quincy:

The previous location of the graves of #2 and #6:

A lovely town square with John Hancock presiding:

And of course an excellent statue of John Adams:

The church gives a nice tour that focuses on the presidents and their history in the area, along with a visit to the crypt in the basement.  I also learned that "visiting presidential gravesites" is a thing, so at least it's not just me.

The US flag at the time of John Adams' presidency:

A few more stars by the time JQA was in office:

Every year there is a wreath-laying ceremony; David McCullough was there to participate a couple years ago:

And now - to Boston!  Even though I wasn't running in the marathon, I greatly enjoyed seeing the city the weekend before the race.

On my way to the race expo, I emerged from the T to see the 5K that just happened to be going on - racers crossing the finish line, cool!

A bit of 2013 emotion about this place:

Site of a future memorial:

Didn't expect to see a Tesla here, nice!

I enjoyed a couple of the runner seminars at the expo - a morning meditation and a panel talking about mental strategies for racing:

Heading back down the street, there was another race going on.  I suspect from the Jumbotron that it was a mile race, probably not a beer mile:

More wandering around the city, admiring the bloomings:

Another Chinatown:

Large public art:

A Boston Tea Party ship:

At the Children's Museum:

I met up with my friends Jeff and Nicole for lunch and got to meet their adorable son Jake - I believe his bib says "Home brewed", too funny:

Now for the "race report" portion of this post.  Short and sweet this time!  I just love running in Blue Hills Park, following a map around (and around) through the maze of trails, up and down, over rocks on the Skyline Trail, and with plenty of actual running on non-Skyline trails.  This time I ran most of the race with Steve, who had just gotten into the race the week before and didn't really know what he was getting into.  He was game to follow me around and we chatted and worked on finding the turns in the trail together.  Toward the end we teamed up with Evren for a few miles (and one major mishap while I was going on and on about the Barkley).  It was a different experience running with other people on this course and I enjoyed the company.

The highlight was climbing up Rattlesnake Hill and getting a group photo (Boston is sort of in the background, easier to see in person than in a picture):

 

Photo credit - Evren Gunduz

Fun times!

Well, that's it for my Big Trip!  Back to California to spend a couple months finishing things up before we get back on the road again...

Vermont and Montreal

After our Alabama adventures, we met up with Kip at BWI, flew to New Hampshire, and drove to Vermont to visit Mom for several days.  We haven't been to the east coast in a while so it was a good opportunity to see Mom.

Plus Kip hadn't been given the tour of route 100 (north of Waterbury) so we immediately set out to see the cider mill (cider donuts!), Green Mountain Club, Cabot (cheese samples!), and of course Champlain Chocolates.

Yay for finding more of Dad's signs at the GMC!

What a beautiful table/map:

Udderly amoosing:

Oh, I almost forgot, we went here too:

Our next adventure involved a border crossing and a Canadian bakery - buying bread from a place our family has been going since we were little.  That all went fine, but the return border crossing took a while.  And included a car search.  Not sure what they saw in us, but apparently it was suspicious.  Eventually they did let us back into Vermont.

The rest of the morning was more fun, exploring places from our childhood.  The train line along our school bus route has been converted to a rails-to-trails path so Kip suggested we go for a run.  Sounds great!

There was still some snow here and there, but overall easily runnable and really cool to see the sights from the train track point of view.  Hi John!

The next day we gathered with Jay, Billi Jo, and some of her family for a family reunion at Jay Peak, fun!  The waterpark was entertaining, including a tube float, hot tubs, a climbing wall over water (excellent idea), and waterslides that made me giggle all the way down.  Supper was also excellent, although I forgot take any photos of the family.  Overall a very enjoyable day.

OK, it's basically April, how is there white stuff covering the car??

Kip is on a running streak, so a little snow isn't going to stop him:

Our next big day was a drive up to Montreal.  It didn't take long to realize it was going to be a very cold and windy day for walking around the city, but it was worth it for some delicious crepes:

I didn't know Montreal has a Chinatown:

We had a nice walk throughout downtown, popping inside buildings to warm up every few blocks.  At least the sun was shining.

The very tall Leonard Cohen mural, very nice:

This sculpture had us mesmerized for a few minutes, changing shapes as it moved, and we debated whether it had power running to it but decided it must be wind-driven:

A little video to demonstrate:

Moose!

More animal sculptures:

We checked out a retro pinball arcade; we're finding more of these as we travel.  I think Las Vegas has the most comprehensive one, but you kind of can't beat "free play Sunday" on the last weekend of each month in San Francisco.

I can't recall seeing a totem pole on this end of Canada before:

Excellent ostrich on skates:

High five:

Public art at McGill University:

The last stop in Montreal was the most fun - our 2nd time at a board game cafe (also glad to see more of these opening up).  Love the concept of paying a little to hang out, have food, pick a game to play.  We chose "Bears vs. Babies" because we like Exploding Kittens, and it was a lot of fun.  Better designed, I think, giving us ways to slowly learn while leaving open more strategies to explore.

John and Kip had to get back to work the next week, while I got to stay longer and hang out with Mom.  One highlight I've already written about was my FKT run around Grand Isle Loop - thank you again for the support, Mom and Renee!

The theme of the next week seemed to revolve around how Vermont is putting the "green" in the Green Mountain State.  For example, an EV charger at the Waterbury library:

At the sustainability fair with Billi Jo - she was as excited as I was to see the Teslas on display:

I've never given much thought to electric bikes (I might as well just do the work and get the workout "credit" when I ride) but I did enjoy the opportunity to test one out at the fair:

OK, that was pretty neat!  Thank you Billi Jo for snapping a couple photos of me having fun whizzing around the parking lot:

On another day Mom and I went to Montpelier to participate in a climate march for justice.  A group of intrepid folks had walked from Middlebury to Montpelier, so we went to lend support as they crossed the final couple blocks to the state capitol.

But first - lunch at the Hippie Chickpea - and yes, it was as good as the name suggested.  Tea while waiting for the food...

Then we gathered with the walkers plus a bunch of other folks at a church to get organized.  And I do mean "organized" - I've not seen this level of coordination in a march before, quite impressive.

Also neat to see - the geese they brought along:

Walking and singing our way through town:

On the steps at the capitol:

Staying mostly dry and warm:

The purpose was to show support for some bills being debated in the legislature, and I think filling up the inner halls of the building made a point.  There were some short speeches, more singing, then we filed out.  It was inspiring to be a part of it.

We've had a couple of exciting weeks, haven't we?  Renee thinks so:

Thank you Mom for a wonderful visit!