Uncategorized

City of moose

By March 22, 2014 No Comments
The beautiful view over the ocean from Packer's deck! And the light stays until about 10 in the evening!

The beautiful view over the ocean from Packer’s deck! And the light stays until about 10 in the evening!

Here we go…the last 4 races of this oh-so-very-long season are coming up fast! I’m up in Anchorage, Alaska with the SMST2 team, and it’s been awesome to see these guys again! Especially since we’re all living together in Eric Packer’s house, which is so generous of his family to let us all stay here. I mean, we come with a lot of baggage (literally)! I got picked up at the airport by Erik and Annie, and when Annie found me in the airport we did that totally cliché girly hugging, jumping up and down squealing thing you see in “Love Actually” credits. It made me so happy to see my club teammates again!

We jumped right back into our routine from the summer; cooking meals together, hanging out and celebrating things together. Like….Sophie’s Birthday, which is today! I’m excited to sing to such an awesome person on her 24th!

Before coming up to Alaska, I had about 2.5 days at home, which I really needed. On the one hand, it was hard to be home and then pack up again leave again, but it was worth it to get a couple relaxing days with my family. The first thing I did when I got home was cuddle with the dogs and then have a wonderful family dinner, and spend time talking and catching up with my family. I didn’t do a whole lot besides laundry, spending time with my family and skiing at Lake Elmo with my Dad and Mom the whole time I was home. It was the perfect break! When I return home in April for a much longer stay, I’ll be much more social, but it was pretty fun to be a little hermit for a couple days and recharge.The awesome lodge and start of the Lake Elmo ski trails!

The awesome lodge and start of the ski trails at Lake Elmo park, where I went skiing with my Mom and Dad!

We had fresh snow at home...and turkey's invading the backyard.

We had fresh snow at home…and turkey’s invading the backyard.

Ok, so…the reason we’re all up here: racing. Or at least, the excuse to come up to Alaska and then stay a couple extra days to try and backcountry ski afterwards. While I’m very ready to be done, I’m also excited for these races, especially the mixed team relay! I’ve always been so jealous of biathletes since they get to do this race on the World Cup, and it looks like a ton of fun. It’s a 4x5km relay, with the first 2 legs classic and second 2 legs skate, but it also alternates girl-boy-girl-boy. Talk about team depth! This will be the first time we’ve ever had a national race like this, and I’m hoping the format will stick.

In my first day up here we already came across a moose. Actually, Gus chased it across the road in the car, and it was pretty exciting. I hope to see a lot more while I’m here…but hopefully not on the trails during a race! I’ll get a more detailed post with more pictures up soon!

 

Leave a Reply