Bellingham and Whidbey Island, WA

So, it has been a little while since my last post...I've been in Bellingham, WA visiting my Dad for about a week now. It has been a great spot to recharge and get organized. I've been joking that I should start my own travel agent business...I've been trying to find the best flights to Costa Rica, calling the Transcanyon shuttle in Arizona to try to bribe them into leaving the South Rim earlier than scheduled, writing a running training plan for the Coastal Challenge, figuring out how I can get from Nicaragua to Belize, giving hotel advice for the Miami Man triathlon, and mapping out mountain biking routes in St. George, UT.

My brother flew out from Ft. Lauderdale to visit and has been freezing in the 68 degree temps here in Bellingham. I, on the other hand, have been suffering from heat-stroke on my training runs on the Interurban Trail that skirts the town.

Here are some fun facts I've found about Bellingham, Washington and some great photos of our trip today from Bellingham to Coupeville, WA on Whidbey Island. Fantastic day out there!

Cheers,

Kelly

Best Place To Drink Wine: Gadling.com named Bellingham “One of the 25 Greatest Cities in the World for Drinking Wine,” noting the city’s wine bars, local wine, proximity to British Columbia and laid-back pace of life. (2010)

Espresso Capital: Whatcom County holds the record for the most drive-up espresso stands per-capita in Washington. More than 50 stands dot the landscape, with such lively names as "I Wanna Moka" and "Supreme Bean".

Best Paddling Town: Outside Magazine rated Bellingham as the best paddling destination in the U.S. (August

2006)

Adventure Town USA: National Geographic Adventure named

Bellingham one of the top adventure cities in the nation. The issue, themed “Where to live and play now,” describes Bellingham as a “base camp essential to the Northwest.” (September 2004)

Best in the Continent! Frommer’s Cities Ranked & Rated (May

2007) rated Bellingham #2 as the best place to live compared to all cities in Canada or the U.S. Criteria was based upon demographics, economy and jobs, cost of living, climate, education, health and healthcare, crime, transportation, leisure, and arts and culture.

Where's Wrangell?!

If you haven't taken the Alaska Marine Highway yet, you should. Hey, you get to visit Wrangell, AK! I've had a great time and all kinds of weather. You've seen the beautiful scenes from our trip from Skagway to Juneau. We also had a nice ride from Juneau to Ketchikan.

In Ketchikan, we stayed at a great place right on Creek Street...The New York Hotel. Sorry Anthony...We never found the "bucket bar." Next time I guess!

Today was a very different ferry experience. We woke up at 4:15am this morning in Ketchikan to driving rain and 60 mile-an-hour winds. When I drove my little Honda onto the ferry at 6:20am, the AMH staff warned me on the car deck, on the stairs, at the Purser's office and in the cafeteria that today was "going to be a bumpy one." Well, they didn't lie! We had quite a ride...I even had to remind myself a couple of times that I've been on the Bering Sea and that this was no big deal. My Dad was a real trooper though. People were running outside left and right and he just curled up and took a nap.

Still swaying from today's ride, we are now hanging out in a cute little B&B built right on the dock at Cow Bay in Prince Rupert, B.C., Canada. The goal tomorrow is to drive the 450-500 miles to Prince George or Ten Mile Lake. I hope it isn't raining there! I feel like I am beginning to mold...

I'll shut up now and add pictures.

Cheers,

Kelly

Ferry to Juneau

I'm hanging out in Juneau for a few days, waiting for the ferry to Ketchikan. My Dad and I actually had a wonderfully sunny ride to Juneau. Predictably though, it is now pouring rain and foggy here in Juneau. My Dad and I attempted to be tourists and visited Mendenhall glacier. Here are some pictures from the ferry trip and from the glacier.

Klondike Slideshow

I'm trying out a slideshow of the Klondike including Amber's pictures. Let me know if it works!

http://www.flickr.com//photos/39119353@N04/show/

Klondike 2011 Images

Klondike 2011

Klondike 2011 - So you want to run from Skagway to Whitehorse in the middle of the night?

Okay, so I am writing this post with less than 3 hours of sleep for each of the last three nights...Please forgive my typos! Why less than 3 hours of sleep? The Klondike of course! It is the best 4 days of sleep deprived running, driving, dancing, RVing and well, more driving...that you will ever have!

This year over 1300 racers participated in the mayhem in the middle of the night; running supported approximately 110 miles from Skagway, Alaska to Whitehorse, Canada. Our race start was 9:00 pm on Friday, September 9th. We finished in Whitehorse around 15 hours later on a sunny Saturday morning.

There are 10 legs of varying distances. The longest leg is 16 miles (go Jen!) and the shortest is somewhat less than 7. However, those slightly-less-than-7 miles take you up White Pass and the moonscape landscape above Skagway. Very tough running! We had an elaborate system of running and supporting and driving and cheering, with each woman taking her turn at each one during the night and early morning.

Our team this year was stellar. Meaghan, Karol, Amber, Paula and I put together a "dream team" of ladies. The idea came about over a year ago on a long run. We wanted to have a group of fun and fast ladies and we really did it this year! One of our first recruits, Paola, named the team one rainy night at track practice and "These Legs Go All the Way" was up and running.

In fact, "These Legs Go All the Way" was such a success that we ended up on the podium at Klondike 2011 as the first place women's team, beating out 21 other all-women teams of 10 with a group of only 9 women! We were short one team member due to a passport issue so Amber ran Legs 2 and 3 (ouch!). The team this year was Meaghan, Karol, Amber, Paula, Jen, Paola, Deana, Cory and me.

Thanks to all of those ladies and to Cousin Brenda for hosting the 9 of us! It was a blast.

Cheers,

Kelly

Travel Adventure

First Post:

For those of you that don't already know, I resigned from my job as Associate Counsel at Cook Inlet Region, Inc., am packing my car and heading South...full of plans and expectations! I have several goals in mind, including visiting family and friends, adventuring, learning Spanish and volunteering on a conservation and/or teaching project. I don't have a lot of solid plans yet, but here is a sample of what I do have planned -- mountain biking Utah, running the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim (No Tab, I haven't committed to R2R2R yet!), Thanksgiving in the Bahamas, a jungle race in Costa Rica, surf school in Nicaragua and volunteer work in the Galapagos and possibly other areas of South and/or Central America.

I was inspired to take this leap by several persons. I think I first imagined this idea was possible after talking with Larry and Sandra on a ski trail somewhere. Donna pushed me when I faltered. Karl has supported me unwaveringly. Meaghan made sure I was prepared. And Mom and Dad have always believed in me.

I'll post my itinerary as I go on this blog and you can check if you are interested. I am going to figure out how to post pictures even without my Mac, etc. I'm a bit of a Luddite so I have some catching up to do on the tech front!

Signing off,

Kelly

The Girls of Lost Lake, Seward, Alaska