I’m going to split this post into four parts since there are so many memories and photos I want to share. As I went back through the photos I had to make some changes to the “official” ordering of my list as some of the old photos confirmed that I had in fact hiked a peak well before I recorded it after re-hiking it later.

This is Part 1
Part 2 (coming soon)
Part 3 (coming soon)
Part 4 (coming soon)

First White Mountain hike: Back in Spring of 1995 or 1996 my girlfriend and I went to the White Mountains for the very first time. I attempted to hike Mt Lafayette having no real gear or idea what the conditions would be like. This was early in the internet and there was no website with current trail conditions and trip reports like exists today. I remember trying to borrow boots from my friend Chris but in the end I think I opted for tennis shoes. I also wore jeans and had to borrow a pack. I also had to rent a car in order to make the 3 hour trip north. We made it as far as Greenleaf Hut which is about 1000 feet below the summit all the while scrambling up icy slides in our tennis shoes. Needless to say we did not reach the summit and slid most of the way back to the car on our butts. Nevertheless I had a great time and my interest in hiking in the Whites was born.

So young, so clueless

#1 and #2 – Lafayette and Lincoln: Later in 1995 or 1996 I went back with my friends Chris and Dan to do that same hike. I don’t know exactly when we hiked it and I don’t have any photos but I remember it being a grey, rainy, and wet day on Franconia Ridge. We hiked up the Old Bridle Path, had lunch crouched behind a rock on the ridge, and hiked down Falling Waters trail.

#3 – Moosilauke I’d forgotten that I did this hike in 1999 with Chris until I went looking for photos and discovered one of Chris and I at the Moosilauke trailhead. Initially I thought when I did this hike in 2004 with Steve it was my first time. What I do know about the Moosilauke hike with Steve in 2004 is that was the first time I was made aware of the 4000 foot list. Steve was working on completing his 48 at the time and told me about it. At that point I started tracking what I had hiked.

Lunch with Chris in 1999

#4 – Cannon Another double hike! As my discovered photos indicate I did this hike with Chris and Tenille in the summer of 1999. However I didn’t remember that until November of 2011 when I hiked Cannon in the snow with Susan, Steve, and Erik. When I got to the tram station and ski lifts at the top a flood of memories came back from that day in 1999. The vivid memory other than the ladders pictured below are of coming off of a relatively secluded trail and finding 11ty billion tourists on the top who had ridden the tram up from the base station.

Tenille and Chris on the ladders

Steve and Susan in the snow in November 2011

#5 – Osceola I have no photos of this trip. Sometime in 2001, Susan and I hiked Osceola. Since I wasn’t keeping track of my peaks yet I’m not sure if we hiked East Osceola in 2001 or not. This would prove to be a problem later as when I went back to officially hike East Osceola as my 25th peak in 2008 I got bit by a tick and ended up with a nasty illness that took about 4 months to recover fully from.

#6 through #12 – Presidential Traverse! One of the classic New England hikes. This is an approximately 20 mile hike over the alpine peaks of the Presidential Range in the White Mountains. I did this hike with Susan and Dan (in body) and Steve (in spirit since his body was at home recovering from kidney stones). We did this hike over 4 days and hiked Pierce, Eisenhower, Monroe, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison. Day 1 was a short hike up to the Mizpah Spring Hut. Day 2 took us to Lake of the Clouds Hut which we got to right before a huge storm rolled through, Day 3 took us to Madison Hut and day 4 we hiked out. The weather was clear all of the days except for the storm while we were safely in our 2nd hut.

I hope I can do this hike again someday. One of my favorite things in the world is to walk along an exposed ridge line and this is the longest stretch of exposed ridge I can think of in New England.

Susan near Lake of the Clouds Hut

Why do they call it Lake of the Clouds?

The summit of Mt. Washington is cold at 9am, even in August

Mt. Washington and Great Gulf Wilderness from the north

Morning on Mt. Monroe

Part 2 (coming soon)

Water:  We opened the pool at the beginning of May, and all 3 of us really enjoyed the water thanks to the heater we put in this year.  Isaac started out enjoying floating on his back, but now he really likes the front crawl, both on land and water.  He loves the water, at bath time or pool time.  We’re trying to teach him to blow bubbles and not swallow water.  We hosted a Memorial Day party again this year, and had almost as many kids as adults.  Most weekends you can find us having a few friends over to splash around and cool off.  Isaac and Brian did their first swim class at the Y today, and learned some songs and games to play.  Isaac seemed to have a great time even though the water is a bit colder there than at home.

Garden: The garden has been a success again this year. We had a good crop of peas that we managed to get in early enough to harvest before our July trip to the midwest.  We have had a lot of salad greens, kale, and a good number of haricot verts. Our tomatoes and peppers are starting to fruit and the herbs are really taking off.  Our fennel looks like it’s about ready to harvest too.  The only disappointment has been spinach – we just can’t get it to grow, or else we have a small critter who loves to chomp it off as soon as it gets a few leaves.  We put in another round of lettuce, chard, and kale to have through the fall.  Most of the time we garden when Isaac is napping, but sometimes he is content to play in the grass while I’m weeding or picking vegetables. (and yes, sometimes “playing in the grass” = eating the grass)

Travel: Somehow this year’s trip to visit our family seemed even more rushed than usual.  Maybe it’s because Brian’s mom and grandma are getting ready to move, or because we’re sensitive to Isaac having down time between meeting so many new people, or maybe we’re just getting older.  But we had a wonderful time seeing family, and realized how hard it is for them to be so far away.  Some of the highlights for Isaac were showing off his eating and crawling skills, playing with puppies, swinging with James, seeing grandparents and great-grandmothers, some of our oldest and youngest family members, and learning that beards aren’t actually that scary.  The hardest parts were sleeping in so many new places and spending lots of time in the car.  But we all were good road trippers overall.

Work: I have a new job as of June, in the same company, but a different position.  The good news is that it’s more self-paced and doesn’t have sales and funding goals.  The bad news is that it’s self-paced and I have some bad habits to break!  July has been a bit better with coming in early, leaving at a reasonable time, and getting in a few more workouts during the week.  I have visited most of the sites where my software engineering team works, and I’m learning a lot about the breadth of our company’s capabilities.  It’s been an adjustment to get used to a different culture, a different boss and a different set of co-workers after being in Burlington for almost 10 years.   But I’m confident this is a good move for me and I look forward to getting settled and making real progress.

 Exercise: Brian competed in his first race since Isaac was born, and literally made a splash at the Wildcat Sprint Triathlon in Lowell last weekend.  He saw a flyer for the race at the Y when he joined, and decided that it was time to baseline his fitness.  It turns out that he had a terrific race, placing 3rd in his division! Woohoo!  

Other than that, the weeks seem to go fast.  Between trying to get a reasonable amount of sleep (sometimes interrupted by 3am feeding, sometimes not), keeping healthy food around to eat, chasing an active baby and having a little down time to feel like a normal adult, life is busy and fun.  We’ll try to do better about blogging as the summer days fly by in August.

Issac got on his first boat ride since he was born. The ferry to Fort Sumter left from where the USS Yorktown (now a floating museum) is docked.

USS Yorktown

After a short 30 minute ride to the island the ferry docked for a little over an hour letting us explore a bit and learn a little more about the battle for Fort Sumter than our history books taught us. We got on the ferry back to the mainland, did some grocery shopping, and headed home to a tasty home cooked chicken dinner with the Brian, Heather, and Liam.

Approaching Fort Sumter

Boom!

Flags on top of the newest gun battery

Brian K with Isaac

Liam giving kisses

It’s clear that he can see farther away and we think he’s seeing more colors.  He loves faces too – now he will smile when you make faces at him.  He continues to be an easy and happy baby.

Isaac has gotten to meet lots of new people, including several good friends and family members from out of town.  Carolyn took the train up from Boston after her conference so she could have dinner with us and meet Isaac.  After a busy Stitch-n-Bitch, we wound down at Dan’s house where Isaac got to meet G who was visiting from Montreal.

Then Uncle Woody visited us from Fishers.  He was a huge help, from cooking and helping with laundry to tackling our handyman list (including helping to fix our gas fireplace and installing a ceiling fan!), to feeding Isaac and changing his diapers.  We look forward to seeing him again in just over a week!

Note from Brian: Su wrote this just before we left for Christmas and it’s been waiting for me to upload the photos. Oops! It’s been a busy few weeks but now that we’re home and settled back in it’s time to get back on the blog wagon.

First, Football started, the beginning of the fall season for us.  We invited people over the first couple weeks, setting up two TVs and internet access for checking Fantasy scores, and enjoyed hosting the “regulars” plus a surprise visitor from out of town.   There is something familiar and comforting about a little chill in the air, a couch full of friends, having a cold beer (or in my case, the non-alcoholic version), yelling at the TV and ordering delivery in the middle of a Sunday afternoon.

Our friend Mary visited us for a few days after her sister’s wedding.  I fear that the R&R at chez Juddmansee didn’t prevent her from getting a cold, but we still had a nice time hiking in the woods, playing games, cooking together, and talking.  We went to the Sox/Yankees game before dropping her off at the next stop in her New England tour.  Speaking of Red Sox, Brian also went to a game with Dan.  Now we can officially call this season “over” and hope for a better outcome next year.

We also enjoyed Dan’s Pig Roast, a now annual event, which always promises great company and tasty pork.  This year the pig was roasted to a higher temperature and it was simply delicious.  Check out Brian carving the tasty swine here.  We tried the tongue, which is evidently a delicacy in some parts of the world.  Yum.

We officially changed baby delivery plans, and are now working with Kim Lueders.  We interviewed her when considering a doula, and through the course of getting to know her, several more dis-satisfying encounters with our “new” OB practice, and researching home birth, we decided that hiring Kim as our midwife was the right choice for us.   We’ve had two great appointments so far and look forward to meeting the rest of the team in a few weeks.   We also took a preparation for childbirth class with  my yoga instructor; we both came away relaxed and comfortable, and now Brian knows why I come home in such a serene state every Tuesday night.  At 35 weeks, I’m still feeling terrific, and the pregnancy continues to be normal and healthy.

September also went quickly because I was in DC the past week.  It was my last business trip for a few months, where I got to present at a conference .  It was great to see friends and colleagues, but I’m happy to be home after a long 5 days, successfully navigating airports and weather delays in the process.

So now we embark on October!

We landed at SFO on Wednesday and drove to Morgan Hill to see my cousin Betsey.  It turned out that the LeCounts were also visiting, so we had a short but fun visit and lunch, chatted a bit more with Betsey, then headed down the road to Pacific Grove for the wedding “retreat.” There were fun activities each day, as well as an activity room where we put together puzzles, played games and just relaxed.  We woke up early and ran along the beach, before meeting up with the rest of the crew to fly kites, view the sea lions and check out the lighthouse on Thursday morning. Other fun events were a beer and cheese tasting, Movie Night at a small local theater, Game Show Night, and a bonfire with s’mores.  There was also a fun afternoon of science that included non-Newtonian fluids, slime, making superballs, crushing cans, playing with dry ice (including making ice cream), and some key research into how much liquid disposable diapers can hold (almost a liter!).   The grand finale was Diet Coke +Mentos fireworks – amazingly the kids who each held a string managed to wait until the count of 3 to pull the string and drop the Mentos into the 2L bottles to make a pretty cool fountain!

Two highlights were the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where we saw jellyfish, “pregnant” sea dragons, the otter feeding, and the big ocean tank feeding.  I liked the touch tanks too.  The other highlight was the whale watch.  While the water was a bit choppier than expected, Brian and I both managed to hold onto our breakfasts and enjoy amazing sightings of blue whales and hump-back whales.  Both types of whales could be sighted by looking for their blows, then we could see their shiny backs and dorsal fins when they dove.  We also saw a good number of flukes on the humpbacks. There were lots of cool shore birds too, including some brown pelicans who hung out near the boat.  On the way back to the harbor we saw a pod of dolphins, plus some otter and sea lions in the harbor.

In addition to the planned activities, we also did a little sight seeing on our own.  We walked along Cannery Row, did plenty of jogging along the coast and bike trail, and had a lovely and delicious date night dinner at Bistro Moulin (duck confit – yum!).

We did a little hiking with the group at Point Lobos before saying goodbye and heading back up to the city to see our friends Wayne and Santina, who just moved into their new home.  Their boys are growing up fast, and are both very athletic!  Wednesday we headed to the airport for the flight home, relaxed and cool from our wonderful week in California.

The wedding ceremony itself was held on the beach at Asilomar. We sat with our friend from college, Brenton, and his wife, Kat. The kids all got to carry the flower arrangements down the aisle and hang them at the end of the rows of seating. Then Mary and Craig entered for a fun, memorable ceremony.

One of the themes of the weekend was games and most of the people invited had spent a great deal of time playing games with Mary and Craig over the years. The reception seating” namecards” were Scrabble racks and letters. The goal was to make the highest scoring word with the letters at your table. After the kids table won with ‘jazzy’ and then scored with ‘razzamatazz’ (which they made after raiding other tables for letters), Brian had some fun. Seriously, having kids named Liz, Zoe, and Josie at one table was too much for the adults to overcome.

We left Friday morning from our house and within 5 miles I had already taken a wrong turn and set us on a path to downtown Lowell. A quick correction, and we were on Rt. 3 North heading to Canada. The weather was mostly sunny giving us some great views as we passed trough Franconia Notch. A quick stop for gas (since it’s more expensive in Canada) and coffee in Littleton, NH and we were on our way once again.

The border crossing was non eventful and despite a little rush hour traffic heading into Montreal we were at our hotel in about 6 hours. We decided to stay in the lovely boutique Hotel Gault in Old Montreal. Montreal is a collection of islands in the St. Lawrence river with Montreal island being the largest. Old Montreal is the location of the original European settlers and has great old architecture, cobblestone streets, and is rich in history.

After settling in we went out to a wonderful dinner at Le Comptoir Charcuteries et Vins. Fortunately we had a native French speaker with us to help with the menu translation but based upon what we ate we couldn’t have gone wrong with any order. The food was served on small plates and we ordered enough for the table and shared with each other. The cheese and meat plate we had to start was a hit, although my thinly sliced veal was a close second. After a leisurely, thoroughly enjoyable meal we headed back to the hotel to crash for the evening.

In the morning, we woke up, had a tasty fresh breakfast in the Hotel Gault lobby, and decided to wander on our own for a while. We walked down to the river and explored the waterfront of Old Montreal. It was a cold morning in the 20s (Fahrenheit) with a brisk north wind off of the river. We saw many people carrying ice skates and followed them to an outdoor ice rink. Susan loved watching the large crowd of young and old skating in a circle on a clear, cold March morning. She particularly enjoyed when the whistle blew and on cue all the skaters reversed direction.

Ice skating in Old Montreal

By this time we were cold and decided to head back to the hotel via the cobblestones instead of along the water. Along the way we stopped into the Notre-Dame Basilica. As in most large cathedrals the art work and architecture were spectacular.

Once we got back to the hotel we grabbed our car and decided to head to the Montreal Botanical Gardens. We had intended to go to the Biodome but there was a very long line just to get tickets and the line was filled with strollers and small children. Fortunately the Botanical Garden was a short walk away.

After a nice warm walk through the greenhouses and a moth and butterfly exhibit we were feeling a bit hungry. G suggested we try a French Canadian local delicacy, Poutine. We headed to a local fast food restaurant for our lunch of french fries covered with gravy and melted cheese curds (with a hot dog on the side for good measure). Fortunately we had a light breakfast and did a lot of walking or the amount of grease might have seriously injured one or both of us. I’m not sure I need to eat Poutine again, but I’m glad I tried it.

Su and Poutine

We headed back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap and hopefully sleep off some food before dinner. We had a late dinner scheduled at one of Montreal’s acclaimed restaurants, Joe Beef. It was going to be hard to top the meal from the night before but Joe Beef lived up to the hype. The menu was all in French and written in chalk on a wall so it took quite a while to translate and make up our minds. Susan opted for a straight forward steak (how can you go to Joe Beef and not order beef)? I ended up with a slow cooked wild hare with foie gras. I’m not sure how to describe it other than to say it was the richest food I’ve ever eaten. It was like cheesecake except it was a very tender, rich dark meat. Once again we all sampled each others wonderful meals and without exception they were all outstanding.

In the bathroom at Joe Beef

Upon getting back to the hotel we crashed into bed for our last night in Montreal. In the morning we decided to go for a run along the river to try to work off some of the previous nights dinner. It was moderately successful as we felt hungry enough to have a wonderful brunch before we said goodbye to G for the weekend.

The drive home was very pretty again and the weather had warmed up into the 60s; Spring came early this year. Hopefully it won’t take us 9 years to go on another vacation out of the United States. We’re both looking forward to going back to Montreal during the summer and seeing what else it has to offer.

Mary had planned a visit right in the middle of our preparations. Fortunately, she’s a work week veteran and was game to help us. We spent almost an entire day on the kitchen, and boy was it nice to have the help! We again packed up things we didn’t think we’d need in the next few months, cleaned and wiped down every surface, and she even cleaned all the little bits of cat kibble out of the cracks in the floor. While we were working on the first floor, we had a contractor come in and do a bunch of odd jobs that had been piling up – repairing some siding and flashing around the living room window, putting up new wood downspouts, replacing the sill on the kitchen window, replacing the cracked banister finials, plastering the chimney in the attic and patching some plaster in our bedroom. He did excellent work and was quick! Note to self – in the future don’t wait 10 years to get all those little jobs done. It’s totally worth having a handyman come in and do it. That evening we enjoyed a nice clean 1st floor, sipping some vintage Road Trip Orchards wine and playing Settlers of Catan.

Over a few short weeks, the house has gotten into the best shape of our tenure. One day Brian fixed the gate on the side of the house so we now have a fenced in yard. Another evening the front closet got cleaned out, with winter coats taken to the cleaners or packed away. Another day, Brian cleaned the office and then the exercise room. In between, painting touchups were completed and the window boxes were planted. Frankly, Brian did most of the heavy lifting since I could really only help on weekends. On May 16, our realtor came through and gave us the “thumbs up,” and our house officially went on the market May 18. We’ve now completed over 50 tasks from our “to do” list, including all the top priorities.

So far, I don’t mind keeping things tidy and clean. It’s good incentive to put things back where they belong. We’ve only gone to the attic twice to get something we’d packed away. Now we just want the right buyer to come look at the place! Hopefully after Memorial Day, the house hunter traffic will pick up. In the mean time, we’re enjoying Newburyport, living in a clean de-cluttered house.

We arrived on Thursday night and were met with wagging tails and wet noses from Atticus and Ronan. We enjoyed plenty of quality time during the weekend with “the boys” especially Ronan, who at 14 is an amazement. He has tumors on his tumors but can still pop a “wheelie” when it’s dinner time. Atticus is as friendly as ever, and still manages to find the strangest “safe” spots to curl up under furniture. We caught up with H and B, then headed for bed.

Friday we enjoyed the cherry blossoms on the mall and explored the Smithsonian’s American History Museum. Our favorite was definitely Julia Child’s kitchen, but we also liked the historic house from Ipswich (hey look, it’s just like our house!), the American President (you know, we definitely need a Ceremonial Host-in-Chief who’s different from the person who get’s real work done), the First Lady’s dresses (and shoes!), the Gunboat Philadelphia (close quarters with 40 of your closest friends), and learning about the atomic age (better living through Chemistry!). We enjoyed a hot pretzel from a street vendor, grabbed a water, and headed over to the Art and Portrait Gallery.

We agreed that in addition to just enjoying art, it often makes us think differently, and after a few hours perusing different genres and media, we definitely had a lot to reflect on. From the “typical” historical portraits to modern studies of sports figures, Kate Graham, large format photography, and futuristic ideas, we had a lot to absorb and consider.

Then, it was time to watch the Red Sox. Note that I can only blog about it now that they’ve actually won a game. Opening Day was disappointing, despite the excellent venue and company at First Down and dinner at a nearby Thai restaurant.

Saturday went at a slower pace. We took our time over breakfast and eventually headed to Mount Vernon for a walk, only to be forced to turn back due to rain. We did drive past the building so we could see it through what was now a rather torrential downpour. Great weather for napping! Then we headed to another sports bar to watch the second Red Sox loss and some NCAA tournament games. Then Sunday it was time to head to the airport and back home.

Other signs of spring:
– Not thinking twice about running in shorts on Thursday, and getting the “pack” together for a noon time run at work
– Spring peepers! We heard them while strolling along the Eastern Marsh Trail in Salisbury yesterday
– First trip to Kimball Farm for ice cream! Even though it was chilly by nightfall, the place was packed with all windows open and about 10 people deep in each line
– First bike ride of the season today

Can daffodils and tulips be far away?

I had high hopes for the weather, since we had 46 degree sunny days earlier in the week. Instead, the howling wind did not subside overnight, so I awoke to 17 degrees with 35mph wind gusts. I was awake before my alarm, re-calculating how long packing and transit might take, to determine when I absolutely needed to get up. I assembled my gear and puttered around the house, admittedly uncomfortable with preparing by myself (being Coach Su instead of relying on Coach Beej) and having butterflies for no logical reason (I increased the number of bathroom stops compared to last year). Of course I made it to the registration early, met up with my friend and his support crew, and was able to discuss what to wear and make a fueling plan. I even made a trip back to my car for a final chap prevention and shedding of extra clothes with plenty of time to spare.

And then, it was time to go! My friend had run 13 miles the previous week at a 10 min per mile pace, so we started out conservatively behind the 9:30 pace group. I always miss the mile 1 split, but we came through mile 2 at around 20 mins, so considering we started about 45 seconds back from the start, was a good warmup. I encouraged him to eat a Clif shot at mile 4, but he decided that mile 5 would be better, and it did work out well; I ate a bit of Clif bar since I was feeling hungry by then. We stuck to our 9:30 to 9:45 pace until mile 7, when I learned that he likes to run hard up the hills – as I do! After that spunky sub-9 minute mile, we caught up with the 9:30 pacer and decided to hang with that group until mile 10. We walked every water stop and picked up gel again at the 8.5 mile point, which made a big difference over his training run last week in keeping up his energy level. And, the wind wasn’t too bad, so we were comfortably warm.

It was a great feeling to turn onto Rte 1A at mile 9 and know we were on the home stretch. My friend was tired but running strong, so I was happy to chatter about the beautiful mansions, the blue ocean, and the way the finish line was pulling us in as we cruised downhill with the wind at our backs. It was fun to be the coach at this point and feel like I had a good reserve. We took it easy for mile 12 but pushed a bit for mile 13, coming in at our fastest mile, an 8:12 into the finish at 2:05:06, a 9:33 mile pace.

Success! And a high five for my friend managing a 2:05 for his first half marathon. His wife and her friend were there to meet us at the finish, where we replayed the race highlights and did a little eating and stretching.

So what did I learn? First, that it really is great to share the joy of running with someone else. I’ve had so many friends do training runs with me, so many races where Beej paced me, many times when I felt like skipping a workout but having someone else to run with made it not only a priority but the highlight of my day. If I could give that to someone else, wow, totally worth it. Second, it doesn’t matter whether I am “racing” or “pacing” – my digestive system tells me I am nervous and excited just the same. Third: I can actually rise to the occasion and hold a pace. I know a couple of you will be shocked, and others will wonder why that’s even an issue. (You know who you are!) I now feel comfortable and would really enjoy pacing someone again in a long race. Lastly, walking those water stops was probably worth it in the end.

So what’s next? I am really itching to get back to speed work. Can I go out and do a speed workout by myself? That would be unprecedented! But all signs point to it being a necessity if I am going to do that structured training plan I talked about in January. I definitely am physically ready to get back to training if I can motivate myself to make the time. I am also thinking a lot about the McNaughton Ultra in May, another race where I could keep a steady pace but still push myself, and this time treat it more competitively.