I'm sitting at my friend Merritt's place in Cannon Beach waiting for my family's Suburban to pull up any minute. We've having a bit of a "family reunion" after a long season on the road. Also, I'm embarrassed to say that I can't even remember the last time I saw my brother, Brian. There are many wonderful things about World Travel, the Olympics, etc, etc but missing your family is not one of them. I'm super pumped to see them and this upcoming weekend, help my grandma celebrate an early 90th birthday party. Don't tell her but a pink boa and sparkly crown is coming her way!
I absolutely love Alaska but whenever I travel "outside" I'm reminded of all the fabulous things elsewhere too. Here in Oregon spring is in full force. It's lush, everything's covered in moss, the cherries are in full bloom as are the tulips and daffodils. It's magical. It's colorful. I love it.
Catching up with Merritt :)
I'm looking forward to life slowing down a bit and enjoying that extra cup of coffee. I feel like I've been running and scrambling ever since the races in Anchorage ended a bit ago. One big component of this was the traditional USOC trip to Washington DC to meet the President. Yep, that's right, the President! I actually wrote an article about the experience for my hometown paper, the Anchorage Daily News. You can read it here if you're interested:
The women's team in WA. (Kikkan and Ida had other spring plans before the trip was announced, hence only five of us)
Obligatory jumping picture with the National Mall behind us.
One really fun thing was celebrating Rob's birthday. For the past X number of years I've completely and physically missed Rob's birthday. I decided that this year things had to change. So, the day after the 30k we had a mountain side birthday for Rob half way up Manitoba Mountain. We hauled a grill and all sorts of fun supplies half way up a mountain. FIFTY people showed up to help celebrate and I think it will go down as a pretty epic party :)
Here is our friend Greer with the most decadent cake I've EVER had. I'm pretty sure the thing weighted at least 20 pounds and it should go without saying that it was delicious!
Nearly last but not least the APU team is preparing for our annual spring fundraiser to help cover the costs of the past competition year. If you live in Anchorage and haven't been it's actually a pretty fun time. Put it on your calendar or better yet, if you're so inclined to donate something to the cause, shoot me an email!
Oh - and of course by the time I actually got this blog published my family has shown up :) Here we are on a beach walk last night. It's great to see them!
Cheers & thanks for reading,
Holly
