Lacing up my shoes

What have I done? Apparently, I am running another marathon! I'm telling you this because the more people who know about it, the harder it will be for me to back out. It started out as a passing thought. I had been wanting to run another big race which would give me something to train for and work towards. The New York marathon was such an amazing experience and to this day remains one of my most challenging and rewarding experiences ever (outside of getting married and having Finn, obviously). Because of hurricane Sandy, the NYC marathon was cancelled last year and they decided not to open it up to the public this year so that race was out. Chicago seemed like a good second option. The race is in October which would give me plenty of time to train and the course is very flat. They had some kind of snafu with the registration process and as a result had to hold an online lottery to distribute the remaining 15,000 slots. I thought my chances would be slim, so why not enter. I convinced my friend and former DC neighbor, Summer, to enter with me, to have an accountability partner. Summer is amazing--she trained for and hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro  but caught a bad case of pneumonia half way up the mountain and had to be flown home. It was a big scare, but she made it home, and has recovered, thankfully. So, Summer entered with me and lo and behold, we both got in. More than 36,000 people entered for the 15,000 slots and lucky us get to run and train to run 26.2 miles. Hooray. Although, I may be regretting this in a couple of months. 

Hot Air Balloon Ride Over Sedona

I was so excited about our hot air balloon ride over Sedona, until I realized that I would be going way up in the air, held up only by a balloon, while riding in a basket. We lucked out with weather conditions because if they are less than perfect, they don't take off. Now I knew nothing about hot air balloons, so I really didn't know what to expect, but all I can say is that it wasn't at all what I expected, if that even makes any sense. Our morning started at 6:30 am . . . they picked us up at our hotel along with our other riders. There were 6 of us total, including the pilot (in that little bitty basket). Apparently conditions are best early in the morning, light winds, little traffic and FREEZING cold temperatures. We rendezvoused at a meeting spot, basically a clearing in the middle of nowhere, with the 4 other groups of balloon riders. They take up 5 balloon groups at a time. Then the team went about getting the balloons set up and inflated. They roll out these giant balloons and turn on the giant fans to begin inflating them, then the hook up the basket, and turn on the propane tanks so that the heat will inflate the balloons and stand the baskets upright. Then you have a few minutes to hop on board, the pilot positions you according to weight (you can't really move after) and liftoff. It took a while for them to get everything set up and then before you know it, you are in a basket, flying into the air. It was a little nerve wracking, to say the least. The one thing I couldn't get over was how quiet and peaceful it was in the air. Not a sound except for the propane tank occasionally shooting fire in our balloon to make us go higher. It wasn't until we were in the air that the pilot told us he could only control our altitude, not our direction. It was up to our driver to drive around and locate us after we landed. They do stay in touch with the pilot and use GPS coordinates, but the pilot said sometimes the balloons get off track and it can take up to 2 hours for the pick up driver to locate them. They only tell you that once you are up in the air.

The ride itself was very calm, peaceful, beautiful, and somewhat scary. We were up in the air for close to an hour, which is a long time to stand in one place, so Finn got a little antsy, but overall he did great. We landed, a bit bumpy, and it took some time to meet up with the other 5 groups but when we did, we toasted our trip with some champagne (OJ for the kiddos) which apparently is customary of hot air ballooning and then hit the road. Amazing experience for sure. A few days after we got home I read on the news about a hot air balloon explosion that killed 5 people--so glad I didn't know about it before we went! 

Inflating the balloons with giant fans

Trying not to freeze!

They inflate 5 of them which is a pretty cool sight to see

Turning on the propane to set the balloon upright

All aboard!

Lift-off

You can barely see those two dots, halfway down, but they are some of the other hot air balloons from our group

Beautiful scenery

A little out of order--on the ground waiting for the rest of the groups

Up, up and away

Finn was terrified of the "fire" which helped us go higher. It was a little jarring until you got used to it. And you automatically ducked everything you heard it because it felt like your hair would catch fire.

Flying over the road

Our littlest passenger who could barely see over the edge of the basket--which was good because I didn't want to worry about him falling out!

On the ground, safe and sound!

A "Special" St. Patty's Day Treat from Charlie

Charlie continues to prove she is the polar opposite of Lily, as if any doubt remains. In yet another example, as a treat, they both got leftover rib bones to chew on from Mark's dinner earlier. Lily chews on hers for hours, while Charlie happened to swallow hers WHOLE. This rib bone was a good 4-6 inches long and could not have gone down easily. But you never would have known from watching her do it. It took her half a second flat. Mark said he thought she would pass it but I thought differently and low and behold we found ourselves waiting for a set of x-rays at the vet 36 hours later. The verdict? Said rib bone was lodged in her small intestine and wasn't going anywhere without being surgically removed. They said it was a blessing that we saw it happen and got her seen so soon after. So, Charlie underwent surgery that afternoon and they removed the entire bone, intact. She had to spend the night and then wear the cone of shame for an entire week. The vet told us she did great but that she definitely did not learn her lesson and would likely continue to eat everything in sight. So, happy St. Patty's day to us!

Poor Charlie, clearly embarrassed by her state of affairs

The cone of shame--look familiar? 

They let me go see her the morning after her surgery--she was so pitiful she just plopped in my lap. It's the stillest she has been in her entire life.

Clearly, she hasn't learned her lesson as she is trying to eat a pinecone while wearing her cone

They shaved her belly--who knew it was so black?! Showing off her scar makes her feel tough

Cone comes off and Charlie finds trouble

The worst beggars in the world, paws down!

Nothing good comes from dancing on tables

Days 10-11: Sedona, Arizona

From Las Vegas we drove to Sedona, AZ to take in the beautiful scenery of the red rocks. Mark had taken a day trip there once before and said we should include it in our trip and I am so glad we did. It was breathtaking. We had hoped the weather would hold up for us to take a hot air balloon ride and it did. Finn was barely old and tall enough to go, whew! I'll post pictures from that in another post. We did some hiking, some hot tubbing and some swimming. But I was just happy to drive around and look at the beautiful scenery. Sedona is only a couple of hours from Grand Canyon National Park and I wish we could have scheduled in a stop there but a couple we met said the shortest hike was about 5 miles, which would have been a little much for Finn, so that means we will just have to go back. These pictures are out of order and it really is more beautiful in person. 

All of these rocks have names, but I have lost my brochure so I won't even attempt to guess. We did a little hiking up Bell Rock, but about half way up we passed a rescue crew with a stretcher hiking up to the top to rescue someone who had fallen and broken his/her ankle. We decided we had gone far enough. We went up to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross which is this beautiful old church built into the side of the rock. We got lucky because on the day we left, it started snowing! 

Bell Rock

Chapel of the Holy Cross