Our original plan was to leave on Thursday before the race and drive about halfway, then get up on Friday and drive the rest of the way. Closer to the race, they announced Kara Goucher would be at the expo signing her book from 11am-1pm. I desperately wanted to get there in time to see her and get a book signed. Ty came up with the idea of leaving Wednesday after he got off work and driving to my parents' house to cut a couple hours off the drive and not have to stay in a hotel. Thursday we drove 8 hours to a little north of Minneapolis and then Friday we drove the 2ish hours to Duluth and arrived right when the expo opened at 11am. I had been excited about running Grandma's ever since I signed up and I watched some course videos on Youtube. I came across one about the "troll mile" around 21 miles which was at 20.5, I checked my watch when I went through that section of the race. I showed the video to everyone in my family and some of my friends and talked about how excited I was for that part of the race. When I went up to the room Ty and I stay in at my parents' house, there was a troll on the bed with a note attached. It was the gray haired troll my grandpa got at his retirement party and then gave to me. When I read my mom's note that went with it, I cried. It was so sweet. I packed the troll in my drop bag so I could take pictures with it after I finished, but I was so tired and out of it that I forgot. Stopping in Pittsburg was also nice because I got to run with dad on Thursday morning. I had run my shake out run with him the night before Houston, so I felt like it would be good luck. Spoiler Alert: It was not!
The troll waiting for me with a note attached.
We went for a walk with mom and dad.
Elise all set up for our drive, reading with Lemur.
When we were driving through Madison County, Iowa, Carter had to go to the bathroom. I was annoyed we had to take an exit where the closest bathroom was miles off the highway. As we were driving to the bathroom we passed one of the bridges of Madison County which I thought was really cool and we decided to stop off there and walk a bit. It turned out that specific bridge wasn't mentioned in the book or filmed for the movie, but we still thought it was pretty cool! Our drive there was pretty uneventful. I was a little concerned because every time we got out of the car, it was hard for me to walk because my heel/ankle was really sore. It was the same issue I dealt with during the Houston Marathon taper so I was hopeful it wouldn't cause issues on race day. I wore compression socks for all of our driving and that seemed to help.
Walking a path down to the bridge.
Posing with the Imes Bridge.
When we stopped for the evening, we made sure we had a hotel with a swimming pool. The kids were thrilled! All they need for a trip is hotels with pools and a microwave for their Easy Mac. We took a cooler in the van and kept drinks in it for the drive. We also had snacks we picked up at Sam's before we left. For lunches the kids had lunchables, Ty did peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and I had overnight oats. It worked out really well, saving us time as well as money since we didn't have to stop for food.
My troll showing off our view at the hotel.
Friday I decided to do my shake out run before we left for Duluth so we would have more time after the expo to do some sight seeing. When we got to the expo I grabbed my packet and then went straight to find Kara Goucher. I stood in line waiting to get her autograph for 1.5 hours. Ty walked around the expo with the kids until they lost interest and then he took them out to the car and they ate lunch while they waited for me. It was worth the wait and I was so excited to get to chat with her very briefly as she signed my book.
The kids found my name on the pace car.
Kara Goucher!!!!
In preparation for our vacation, I created a Google Doc where I listed different places we might want to visit. I was in a Facebook group for Grandma's Marathon Participants and kept notes on places people recommended there. I also looked at my friend Sara's blog posts about her racecation and looked through the Duluth Visitor's Guide online. It worked out really well because I linked websites and listed addresses. When we wanted to go somewhere, I'd pull up the Google Doc and click the link for directions. As we visited places I highlighted them and typed a few notes so I'd remember what our thoughts were. That way if I run Grandma's again, we can check out places we didn't get to see this time around and can re-visit places we really loved. When I was planning our trip, I found a list of places with waterfalls because Elise loves waterfalls.
After the expo we headed to Lester Park, one of the places with a waterfall. We did a short hike out to the waterfall and Elise wanted to keep going. We ended up hiking about a mile and half. I was having some breathing trouble on the hike which made me a little nervous for the marathon the following day. There was a playground at the park but the kids decided they'd rather go get ice cream than play at the park. I wanted to try Love Creamery because we'd seen lots of recommendations for it. We decided on the location in Canal Park so we could walk around afterward and sight see at the pier. The ice cream was super yummy. We walked around on the pier and crossed the Aerial Lift Bridge. Ty really wanted to see the bridge lift so we meandered around that area for a while. The kids played down by the water and we walked out by the lighthouse. Ty eventually got his wish and we got to watch the bridge lift for boats to cross. It was pretty cool to see. We also walked down a section of the pier that had flags from each country represented by someone running the Grandma's Marathon. I can't remember what it was called, the something of nations, maybe walk of nations.
Carter was all about this cloth he picked up at the expo.
Hiking at Lester Park.
Playing around on the rocks by the water when we were over by the Aerial Lift Bridge.
When we were eating ice cream Carter saw a place across the street called Adventure Zone. They advertised mini golf and he really wanted to play. We decided to go ahead and do it because it was only $5 per person. The kids really wanted to play arcade games too, but we decided on just the mini golf. I got a hole in one on the first hole and ended up beating Ty. It was the first time I've ever beat him in minigolf so we took a picture of the score card! Elise was cracking me up, constantly bouncing around and dancing. She would occasionally hold the golf club backward, but in true Elise fashion was uncoachable. One hole we stopped counting when she got to 9 strokes, but she refused to give up and kept going until she got the ball in! Carter has gotten quite a bit better and wasn't that far behind me and Ty at the end. When we were walking along the pier we saw these big golf cart looking bicycles you could rent to ride around on the pier. There were pedals for 2 drivers and then a basket seat for kids. Carter really, really wanted to rent one, but I didn't want to bike around the evening before my marathon so we nixed the idea. More on that to come later in Minneapolis. We went back to the hotel for dinner. The kids ate Easy Mac and Ty got take out Olive Garden for us. We went to bed when the kids went to bed and I read my ebook for a bit before going to sleep. I slept decently well for the night before a marathon. We took Carter's air purifier on our trip and that helped cancel out the noise of other guests coming and going.
We saw this sign the night before the race and I had no idea how true it would be for me the following day!
Saturday morning was the marathon. We didn't stick around for long afterward. The kids played in the water while I sat in the water and then we headed back to the hotel. We didn't go over to the Bayfront Park for the post race festivities. I just wasn't feeling it. Plus I was wet but didn't have it in me to change in a porta potty. When we got back to the hotel we realized the stuff we wanted to do in Duluth would be hard to access with the marathon still going on. I got tickets for the Split Rock Lighthouse the following day, thinking I wouldn't be up to walking up a bunch of stairs after running a marathon, but we decided doing the stuff we wanted to do over in the Two Harbors area would be a better bet. Ty called and they let us switch our tickets over. I got them online ahead of time thinking everything would be super busy race weekend due to the marathon so we might not get in if we didn't buy tickets in advance. It was not busy at all and we totally could have just walked in and gotten tickets day of with no problem. The lighthouse was interesting, but not a must see. We didn't spend a whole lot of time there, but we did watch the video in the visitor's center and then walked through everything on the grounds. The lighthouse was not as tall as I expected and the stairs were totally do-able even just hours after running a marathon. The coolest part was seeing the Fresnel Lens they used to project light out into the harbor.
On the shores of Lake Superior after the race.
View over by Split Rock Lighthouse.
Going up the stairs in the lighthouse.
The Fresnel Lens
Posing on an anchor at the Split Rock Lighthouse.
We took a short hike at the lighthouse.
From the lighthouse we headed over toe Gooseberry Falls State Park. The hike down to the falls was super short and the kids had an absolute blast playing around in the water. I was hobbling a little bit but climbed rocks with them to spot them and help them get to the areas they wanted to explore. This was one of my favorite places we went on our entire trip. If you only have time to go to one place when going up for Grandma's Marathon, this would be where I'd choose to go. We could have spent way longer there, but we were all getting hungry so we decided it was time to head for dinner. We stopped at Betty's Pies on the way back to Duluth and it did not disappoint! I got the French Blueberry pie and it was the best pie I've ever had! That could have been partly the marathon talking, but even the next day when I ate my leftover pie, it was incredible! I got a burger and fries and it hit the spot. The Gooseberry Falls/Betty's Pies combo was the highlight of the trip for me! I had hoped we'd have time to stop off at the Great Lakes Candy Kitchen, but by the time we were headed back it was closed. That was the only thing we missed that I was disappointed about.
I climbed the rock behind us here with marathon legs. The hardest part was getting my hips to stretch.
I got a decaf coffee to drink with my pie and it was bliss!
I did not sleep well the night after the marathon. Carter got up to go to the bathroom at 3am. He turned the light on and then slammed the door when he went in. I couldn't fall back to sleep so at 3:30 I checked my phone and saw I had over 30 messages in my family thread. I opened it up and read that there had been a really bad storm in Tulsa with 90-100 mph winds. Everyone was safe, but there was a ton of damage. Jeremy said a tree branch fell and slammed against his windows in the living room. I laid in bed and worried about Ty's truck that was at home in our driveway and wondered what kind of damage everyone was looking at. Jeremy and Thomas both lost power and I assumed that meant we had as well. I didn't fall back to sleep until after 4 am and then was wide awake again at 6 am. My Garmin let me know my lack of sleep had slowed my recovery, thanks a lot Garmin! That morning I texted our neighbor, Carol, and she sent me pictures. Our trampoline was in her backyard, the shed doors had blown open and the top hinges were ripped off, Ty's flattop grill and smoker were both blown around and dented, and limbs fell from our front tree. One of the limbs crushed our gas meter. We kept checking on our electricity and we were scheduled to have it back by 5pm on Saturday and we were scheduled to return Saturday evening. We ended up getting power back Thursday evening. My parents went to visit my brothers for Father's Day and did a ton of work on our house for us. They removed the giant limb that had fallen across the road, put our trampoline back in the yard, and emptied out our fridge and freezer so we wouldn't come home to rotten food. I was so thankful we weren't home for the storm and I couldn't believe we had planned our trip so perfectly that we wouldn't have to be at home without power. Friends told me the storm was scarier than tornadoes they lived through because a tornado goes through quickly but this lasted for over 30 minutes.
Dad and Thomas taking care of the limbs so the gas company could cap our gas meter.
Roof damage
Our trampoline in our neighbor's yard.
That morning while my parents traveled to help take care of our mess, we did the sightseeing we planned for Duluth. We started our morning with Duluth Coffee Co which was incredible! Their food looked delicious, but we just got coffee. I got a Maple Latte and I'm still dreaming about how delicious it was. Elise really wanted something, but didn't want to get something and waste it so they gave her a tiny little cup used for espresso shots and she filled it with water and was thrilled. Carter got a steamer with honey and I thought it was delicious. It would have been wonderful for a sore throat. Ty got a cold brew. He didn't seem too impressed, but he typically prefers Starbucks over local coffee shops. Then we were off to the Rose Garden. This would have been a really pretty area to run and there was a running path that led down closer to the water. Elise climbed onto something for a picture and slipped and scraped her leg so she was done after that and we walked back to the car. From there we headed to Enger Tower which was way more stairs than the lighthouse. Thankfully I was a day removed from the marathon so it wasn't too bad going up or down. The views were amazing! We also walked through the Japanese Garden and rang the peace bell. Before leaving town we stopped off at the Bookstore at Fitger's. It was incredible and I loved it. I could have spent way more money there. With my medal from the race I got 20% off! Carter had been asking to read Jurassic Park so I read it to make sure it would be appropriate for him and I thought it was, so he picked to buy it at the bookstore. Elise got a sticker book that she worked on off and on the rest of our driving.
When this popped up, I had to get a picture of it!
Elise's little cup at Duluth Coffee Company.
I had to get a picture of my maple latte before I put the lid on.
Duluth Rose Garden
Look at that view at the Duluth Rose Garden!
This was taken right before Elise slipped and scraped her leg.
View from an overlook near Enger Tower.
View from the top of Enger Tower.
Ringing the Japanese-American Peace Bell
We headed on to Minneapolis after the bookstore. I found a hotel with an indoor water park. 2 nights at that hotel were the same price at one night in Duluth, thanks to the jacked up prices due to the marathon. It was a little bit of a bummer that they only had the water slides open on Fridays and Saturdays so we didn't get to use them, but the pool was still really awesome. We got to Minneapolis before we could check in to our hotel so we went straight to Upper Saint Anthony Falls Visitor Center which was one of the National Parks I found along the way. We got out and there was some art festival going on along the river and it was so crowded and there were so many stalls set up, we couldn't locate the visitor center. We walked to a playground and played for a while and then found the visitor's center. By the time we found it, I was super tired. It wasn't all that interesting and I wouldn't recommend it to others. There was a dam and some locks which was neat and reading about why they were put in was also interesting. I think I would have liked it better if the art festival hadn't been going on because it was so crowded and hard to get to where we wanted to go. No one was visiting the national park though, so once we got in we were able to go through the Junior Ranger Booklet pretty quickly and the kids got to swear in and get their badges.
Upper Saint Anthony Falls
Getting sworn in as Junior Rangers.
Since it was Father's Day, I had packed Ty and Carter's matching shirts. I searched everywhere for Elise's shirt, but we couldn't find it anywhere which bummed me out. I forgot to get a picture of them in the morning so I got one when we arrived at the hotel and checked in. The kids were thrilled about the special pool and Elise was even more thrilled when she saw there was an arcade area. We gave the kids each $20 at the beginning of the trip to buy snacks or drinks at gas stations and Elise used what she had left in the arcade area. She won a couple squishees out of a machine. Carter used all his credits playing a Minecraft game. He even paid for Elise to play with him. When she lost interest, he asked me to play with him. We spent the rest of the evening swimming and then Ty picked dinner since it was Father's Day. We went to TGI Fridays which was a bust. It was crazy slow and our server was either new or just terrible at his job. We wasted pretty much all evening there and ran out of time to do anything else.
The water park was Venice Themed.
I slept a little bit better that night, but still not well. I woke up a lot and had a hard time falling back to sleep when I did, but I wasn't awake for 1.5 hours in the middle of the night like the night before. I still woke up at 6am wide awake and unable to fall back to sleep. The big plan for the day was going to the Mall of America. That didn't open until 10 so we did a couple things I wanted to do before heading there. First stop was the Sculpture Garden which was AWESOME! It was about a mile walk with 60 sculptures. The kids actually really enjoyed it and didn't complain until the very end of the walk. The highlight for them was the spoon and cherry water fountain sculpture. After that we went to Minnehaha Falls. The walk down to the falls was very short and the kids spent a long time exploring and playing in the water there. They pretended they were searching for treasure and it was a blast. They had the bikes here that Carter had seen at the pier and he really desperately wanted to ride one. I told Ty my legs were still tired from the marathon, but I would do it if he wanted to. Elise was adamant she didn't want to ride, but Carter wanted to so badly. We decided to go for it and it was a calamity. Something wasn't quite right with our bike and it was very difficult to pedal. When Carter wanted to pedal, I sat in the middle and was dead weight. When I pedaled, we switched spots. Ty's arm was pressed against me and I could feel how sweaty he was. The rental was for an hour and afterward I asked Ty how long we biked for. He said, "Maybe 20 minutes, but I would have paid to do it less." I was dying laughing. The kids had to wear helmets and they only had child sized helmets so none of them fit. Then while we were riding, Elise kept yelling about how terrifying it was in the front basket and that we were going to drive off the road. It was just a mess!
Sculpture Garden Walk
This was the kids' favorite sculpture.
Minnehaha Falls
Never again, fun looking misery, haha!
By the time we finished the bike ride, the Mall of America was open so we headed that way. I was shocked that it was free parking. Elise got her shorts wet playing in the water at Minnehaha Falls so we dug around in the car and eventually found a pair of Carter's shorts for her to change into. We started off at the Crayola Experience and after buying the joint Crayola Experience/Nickelodeon Universe package for each of us we heard the lady behind us tell the cashier she was a teacher and found out teachers got into Crayola Experience for free! Go figure! I looked it all up online before we left and it didn't say that anywhere, so I was a little annoyed I had paid. Elise absolutely loved everything. Toward the end Carter started to rush her through a little bit because he wanted to get to Nickelodeon Universe. He did pretty well once we told him there was time for everything. Ty ended up walking the kids' clay creations to the car so they wouldn't get ruined in our bags and was back in time to melt crayons into molds with us. When we got down to Nickelodeon Universe we realized we should have started there because the lines were a lot longer than what we had seen when we looked down from the upper floor we were on. The longest line was the first one we waited in for a log ride. After that the lines weren't too bad. We rode pretty much every ride the kids were the right size for except the roller coaster that went upside down and a couple others they thought were too scary. There was a Ghost Destroyer ride with guns like The Great Shootout at Silver Dollar City. Ty was cracking me up shooting rapid fire. I got a higher score than he did though, so I don't think it was worth it! We stopped off at the M&M World Store and then grabbed pretzels at Auntie Ann's before heading back to the hotel. The kids ate dinner and I laid down to read while they ate before going swimming, but I fell asleep. It was about 6:00. I woke up when Ty got back with them from swimming around 8:00. I slept through dinner but since I'd eaten a pretzel at the mall before going back to the hotel, I decided to just skip dinner.
Elise wouldn't sit here for a picture because the speaker behind the slime was making fart and burp noises.
The next morning I ran a mile from the hotel while Ty and the kids went down for breakfast. Then we headed out for our drive to Topeka, KS. Ty's brother and sister-in-law and their kids were visiting from Florida so we stopped there for the rest of our vacation. It worked out perfectly that by the time we arrived home we had power back! Now we're just waiting for the gas company to replace our gas meter so we can have hot water and use our stove, oven, and dryer.
What a fun racecation!
ReplyDeleteIt was awesome!
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