A-Town Half Marathon & Mom Comes To Town
This is the furthest away we have both been from family in a very long time. Amity is almost 2,000 miles from Kirksville and I am over 600 miles from Whitefish. We are happy to know that running those 600 miles is an Amtrak train from Whitefish to the Seattle area for my mom to come visit us. We had a great time with her in Anacortes, and the surrounding areas. We also took on the Anacortes Half Marathon. This was my first one, while Amity is a seasoned veteran.
Mile: 23,077
Quote of the Blog: “It always seems impossible, until it is done.” - Nelson Mandela
Scene of the Blog: “Forest Gump Running Scene” - Forest Gump
On our way out to Anacortes, we had a family reunion in Manzanita, OR with my mom’s family. While we were there, we made plans for my mom to come visit us in Anacortes. She was also able to spend some time with her sister (Aunt Deedee) in Silverdale. On Saturday, we met them in Everett at my cousin, Larisa, daughter’s softball tournament. After a nice lunch at Scuttlebutt Brewery on the pier in Everett, we made a quick trip home and had a chill night of watching football at our house.
We didn’t want to make reservations for the ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. We instead made advanced plans to just drop the car off at the parking lot in Anacortes, walk onto the ferry and then get a rental car on the island to adventure around the island in. It worked out perfectly.
While I walked to get the rental car, my mom and Amity walked from the ferry landing over to The Whale Museum. It was a great spot for us to reconnect and start our day. I also ran into my buddy Scott from college, who lives in Friday Harbor. It was rad to see him, even if it was only for a couple minutes. I then met back with Amity and my mom to explore the Whale museum. We learned some really cool elements about the lives of whales, the genealogy & family trees of the local Orca pods and so much more information about everything whales.
We then hopped in the rental car to explore the island. We started by going to the Cattle Point. This is a little preserve next to the Cattle Point Light House at American Camp. We had to compliment that with a drive by the English Camp. The story behind this is about a near military conflict over a pig that was killed while the island’s territory was still disputed between the United Kingdom and the United States. Fortunately, nothing came of this stand-off other than a couple cool historical points and the United States ended up retaining the San Juan Islands. We went just north of American Camp to Roche Harbor. This is an area of the Island that I have wanted to visit for a long time. It is a beautiful colonial styled small town on the northwest side of San Juan Island. We got lunch at The Madrona Bar & Grill. It was a really nice spot right on the water. It was a beautiful early fall afternoon. We watched a seal swim around the harbor while we had lunch. Following lunch, we ended our afternoon getting ice cream from Friday Harbor Ice Cream & waiting for the ferry. After an adventurous day in the rain, we decided that it would be a good opportunity to try out Bob’s Chowder & BBQ Salmon. We got enough Crab Chowder for all of us to share and some crab tots which were tasty.
Amity had to work on Monday, but I had the day off to spend with my mom before she had to get on the train back to Whitefish. We started the day slowly, as she did not need to be to the train depot in Everett until around late afternoon. We drove down the shore line from Anacortes towards the town of Tulalip. I found this area while looking around on google maps, and didn’t really know what we were going to find. It was a nice drive through the farm land of the area. When we reached the coast line, we found it to be primarily populated with natives. They have a very beautiful area of the sound to call their home. My mom and I had some extra time to kill before she needed to be at the train depot, so we ended up hanging out at The Fireplace Bar. It has been amazing to spend this time with my mom and we are so grateful to have shared some adventures with her! Unfortunately, I had to drop her off at the depot and say our goodbyes. We love you, Mom!!! We miss you and we are so happy you visited.
We have been training for the Anacortes Half-Marathon, since arriving in Anacortes. I have never done this before. I don’t think that I have ever run over 8 miles at once, but I am into new things and always up for a challenge. Amity was a great coach! She always knew how many miles I was supposed to run each day of the week. We have found our time running has allowed us to find really beautiful areas of Anacortes. We have mostly been running on a path called the Tommy Thompson Trail. It runs the shore line along Fidalgo Bay, and then it cuts across a small jetty before turning into a foot bridge that spans the entire bay. We have seen so many seals, otters and other sea creatures during our runs along this route.
Our race day was the Saturday after my mom left. Through all of my trash talking with Amity, I knew she was going to smoke me. This is her fifth half-marathon and the second one she has done since we have started our travel life. She has set a new goal to do a half-marathon in every location we move to. It was a chilly morning, so we didn’t want to spend too much time outside before the run, so we ended up walking up to the start as they were shooting the gun to start the race. I got off to a good start with the majority of people, while Amity waited to be around the end of the start. She quickly passed me, and stayed there. My goal was to keep her in sight, which I eventually failed with. She set a PR time by shaving 6 minutes off her last half-marathon time at 1:53:11. I also set a PR (still counts even though it’s my first ever) at 1:59:24. I am proud of the two of us for putting in the work and following through with strong performances. I am very excited to see how far we can take this.
We spent the following Sunday resting and relaxing…… NOT!!! Do you know Amity? Instead, we took the day to drive up to Mount Baker Recreation Area and explore around there. She had a couple points she had researched that we checked out. First was Picture Lake and the second was Artist Point. Both were very beautiful. Even though we both looked like broken old people walking around on our super sore legs, we managed to get some decent hiking in. Artist Point is a breath taking short hike from a chaotic parking area. You can see Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker, their glaciers, the chair lifts for the Mount Baker Ski Area and the surrounding ridgelines. 100% worth it!
Coming back into town, we stopped in Bellingham to sample one of their breweries for a late lunch. We ended up going to the Aslan Brewery. The beers were really good, and we both got rice bowls that were delicious. Amity wanted to drive Chuckanut Drive back from Bellingham to Anacortes. This road runs north and south along the Bellingham bay of the Puget Sound with several amazing views of the water. To end the night, we met up with our friends Colin & Emilienne, who just so happened to be camping just outside of Anacortes at Washington Park. We celebrated a great weekend with cold beers and good laughs. We hashed out some plans to catch a hockey game with them before our time in Anacortes ends.
Throughout this journey we have had a lot of moments where we have needed to pull closer to motivate each other and to help each other grow. This last weekend was a prime example of this. We have been working together to fit in the training around when we have had friends, family, work and our personal endeavors distracting us. This is what it means to Live Rad!!! Here’s to rest…… I mean, HERE’S TO NEXT WEEKENDS ADVENTURES!