The day before

This past 2 weeks has been crazy. Not all in a good way, not all in a bad way. About 2 weeks ago, I came down with a cold. FOR REAL?! Thankfully, it wasn't horrible, and I've managed to recover to almost 100% (I'm still sniffling a little, but it's nothing too bad).

Jon's grandma has fallen ill, and we're just praying that she feels better. She's 90 and basically has said that whatever happens, happens. No news is good news, so we're praying for no news (at least while we're on this trip).

We traveled to Springfield, MA on Wednesday to see my family. I was so excited to finally be able to meet my two youngest cousins, see my aunt and uncle, and visit with my grandparents.

On Thursday, we traveled to Old Orchard Beach, ME, where we promptly discovered that I screwed up the reservations and we didn't have a place to stay! So... we headed to Portland, ME for the night and stayed on the waterfront. It was beautiful! We took a cruise around Casco Bay to check out the lighthouses and forts. We also saw some seals. After that, we met one of Jon's 2nd cousins for dinner. It was awesome. We had dinner at The Grill Room. Fantastic! Great company never hurts :)

Friday, we went back to OOB to drive the bike course, check in, and explore the area a little. After driving the bike course and mentally noting 2 hills that are going to be not fun, we checked into our hotel. The key didn't open the door (seriously, who uses real keys for hotel doors anymore?!) - and we found out there's a second door. The doors are apparently keyed differently. Ah well. We got everything in the room and set out for lunch. We went to Amatos. It's a pretty tasty sandwich & pizza place. We decided to go ahead and do packet pickup, as well as some shopping for "gear". Jon seriously spoils me at these races. I got a car magnet, cycling jersey, 2 running shirts, and a sweatshirt. Jon got himself a cowbell. For dinner, we headed back to Portland to meet up with Jon's 2nd cousins again. Dinner was at Flatbread. It was super good! All local and organic items in their dishes. Yum!

Today, we got up to do the practice swim. It was good to be in my wetsuit (which miraculously still fits... seriously, I need to lose some weight!) and get in the water. Haven't really done that since May. The ocean's about 65 degrees, so it's still chilly, but once you get used to it, it's actually comfortable. The water is surprisingly clear - which is awesome and freaky all at the same time!

After the swim, we walked around a bit, then headed to lunch (back to Amatos) and to get my bike ready. The bike had to be checked into transition today, so we were going to take care of that, listen to the pro-talk, and then stay for the athlete meeting. After doing all of that (so around 2pm), we headed back to the hotel and took a dip in the pool to chill out for a bit. Around 4:30, we headed back to South Portland for dinner at Olive Garden (carbs = good). We were a bit surprised by the 30 min wait at 5pm... so different than where we're from! Dinner waits don't really start until about 6pm or so. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel for an early night of packing my transition bag and Jon's support bag. Should be in bed by 9!

I can't believe that the race starts in less than 12 hours!