Wedding Time in Nebraska

In early September I went to the wedding of an old friend of mine who I first met at Reading. Jerilyn was one of the Oklahoma students who studied at Reading, so when we reversed the exchange and went to Oklahoma she was there to look after us (and make many many many trips to Walmart to buy all the things we needed)!

Jerilyn and I in Oklahoma City in 2005!

I arrived Friday and after a 3 hour drive across Nebraska (yes, there is a lot of corn) spent a couple of hours hanging out with Jerilyn and some of her friends and family. Saturday morning I decided to check out all the activities Kearney, Nebraska had to offer, starting with the Yanney Heritage Park and the view from the tower. It was going to be a hot weekend (in the 90s F) so I wanted to get my outside activity in the morning. The park was nice, with a big pond and I spent a while watching the swans and cygnets and trying to take good pictures with me new camera.

View from the park tower

Sundial in the park

Kearney is the Sandhill Crane capital apparently!

Swans in action

Got to have a corn close up!

After the park I went to the Great Platter River Road Archway - a museum/historical center built as a bridge over I-80. It was quite interesting learning all about the Oregon trail, 49ers trail and Mormon trail that all went through Kearney - I didn't know a lot about it so I came out considerably more educated than I went in. It was a bit cheesy, but enjoyable!

The archway! That sun was hot...

I enjoyed this quote in particular

Flowers outside the archway

After a quick trip to downtown Kearney - which has all brick roads (and a nice mural on one building) it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the wedding!

Mural in downtown

The wedding was at Jerilyn's home church which was very pretty. I'm still not used to American churches (which are almost all modern buildings) compared to the old churches in the UK, but this was a nice one with stained glass windows so it felt a little older!

Congratulations Jerilyn and Travis!

 After the wedding I headed back to the conference center next to my hotel for the reception. It was a fabulous wedding and great to catch up with old friends from Oklahoma that I hadn't seen in many years. We ate, drank, danced and had fun all night. My legs were feeling those high heels the next day!!

This was a delicious cake!

Jerilyn and I in Kearney, Nebraska in 2013!

Sunday morning I was up and driving through the fog at 9am to get back to Omaha for my flight home.  It took a little longer than expected to get home - flights with broken radars and waiting on standby on the last flight of the night, but I made it in the end! It was a wonderful weekend and my first trip to Nebraska was a good one.

Secret Caverns

On labor day we headed west for a day trip to Secret Caverns and Ommegang Brewery. I'll make this picture heavy and word light! Secret Cavern is near to Howe Caverns, which we visited about this time two years ago (blog here). We had seen the signs for Secret Caverns and the underground waterfall but didn't visit that day - it only took 2 years to get back there!

After a few minutes waiting for the tour to start and playing old school video games, we headed down the stairs to the caverns (no elevator here).

Arcade games are serious business you know

The cavern wasn't as large as Howe but it was an enjoyable walk through the caves to the waterfall at the end. Being smaller it was also less busy and commercial, which was nice. I have to point out that I don't know how to take good "i'm in a cave" pictures with my new camera, so the pics don't do it justice!

Follow the path...

... and watch your head

Reflections

The huge underground waterfall at the end was great, and was all lit up (they did turn all the lights out which was a little creepy).

The waterfall

Pictures are hard in a cave and don't don it justice!

After climbing back up the stairs we headed out to Copperstown to the Ommegang brewery for some beer and food. The tasting was great and informative and they were releasing the new Game of Thrones beer so there was a lot going on. The food was also delicious. Highly recommend a visit if you like good beer and belgian style food!

Lake George Swim

I really will make this one quick this time! As a birthday present to myself I signed up for a 2.5 km open water swim in Lake George. We stayed close by on Friday night, ate lots of pasta at the pre swim dinner and headed down to the beach at Hague for the swim early (~6.45) on Saturday morning.

Oh yeah and this was the first real outing with the new SLR camera I got for my birthday!!

Representing!

It was chilly in the morning but clear blue skies and it actually made the 72F water feel warmer. After a brief delay, I head in to the water, lined up (it was a standing water start) and we were off!

Getting in for the first time

The start - I'm in there somewhere

Headed out - can't complain about the view!

The water felt ok and there were about 60 people in the race so it started a little rough, but nothing I can't handle. After a few minutes I had some space - I thought I was near the front but wasn't quite sure. I felt good so I just tried to keep a constant speed and not get too off course. On the way out there were only 2 buoys and the turn around so I know I headed a bit off course a couple of times, but nothing too bad. I closed in on one person at the turnaround and had them in my sight on the way back but couldn't quite reach them! The way back felt ok for the most part, felt tired in the middle but powered through and got some energy back to pick it up at the end. The finish was on land so I just kept swimming until I practically beached myself (that's what it felt like anyway) and then stood up and sprinted. I knew someone was behind me so didn't want to get overtaken on land!

Finishing strong!

Apparently Matt didn't think I would be done so soon but he did get some pictures of my finish. As I put my timer in the container I saw that there were only a few in there - I must have done better than I thought. I finished in 42.44, which was faster than my goal time of 50 and my ultimate goal time of 45 minutes! I was happy with that!

Happy after finishing

It turned out I finished 8th overall and 4th female. I missed 3rd my 30 seconds - could I have caught her if I'd pushed harder I though to myself - maybe but I'm still happy with my swim. I came 1st in the 30-34 age group so got a nice water bottle as a prize.

Award ceremony

After hanging around at the beach for a while - it was a beautiful hot sunny day at this point - and watching the 10 and 5km finishers we headed out homewards with a couple of stops along Lake George. 

Lake George

Lake George and us

It was only my 2nd open water swim but I enjoyed it a lot and hope to do more it the future!

Hanging out in Bolton's Landing

Saratoga Polo

In the summer (I realise it's now October) I got tickets to a polo game in Saratoga. The first time we went the game got cancelled due to rain but we were fortunate that they switched our tickets to the big game the next weekend. The tickets were in the clubhouse area, center field with a bar and food service - if we were doing the polo thing we were doing it in style!

Ready for some horse polo fun

We got there early to enjoy the pre-game and I was very excited to see Pimms on the cocktail menu - so delicious on a beautiful summer afternoon/evening. I wasn't sure about the the rules of polo or what it would be like but it was a lot of fun. A good mix of people in the clubhouse side, with cars tailgating on the other side of the field.

Start of the game right by our seats

The game itself was more exciting than I thought it would be. It was fast and the commentary was really helpful in figuring out what was happening. I would have been very puzzled if they hadn't told us that they switch ends after each goal! The horses are so fast and athletic it was impressive when the action got up close to us because we were only a few feet from the edge of the field.

Polo action

The game was close, within one goal the whole time until the end (I think it was 9-7 or something at the end). After the game they did a big presentation of the trophy and all the players got to drink champagne from the cup. They even brought out the horse of the game to the presentation zone! The players all mingled with the spectators after the presentation which was quite nice, all very fun and inclusive. 

Presentation time

Crazy funny guy on the winning team

I would definitely go again next year!

Polo patrons

Ithaca, NY

I'm so behind so I'm going to make these next few blogs quick and easy. In mid-July I entered a swim meet in Ithaca (in the Finger Lake region of central upstate New York). I decided it was a good excuse to go on a trip to wine country!

The swim meet itself was a long course meet, so it was in an Olympic length pool which is 50m long. It is very different swimming a long course meet to a short course meet (25 yards or 25 meters) like my last meet in April but I wanted to give it a go. I estimated my times based on what I swam in April with a little buffer. Master's swimmers in NY apparently don't swim long course very often so the times swam were often quite different to the entry times. This meet was much bigger than the last one, as long course meets are few and far between up here (just like the UK I suppose)! I swam the same events as last time... 50, 100, 200 Back and 50 Fly. I did better than I thought - my entry times were about right but it felt a lot harder than last time. I managed to win my age group in all the backstroke events and came second in the fly. It was a beautiful almost brand new pool too so all in all, a good morning of swimming even if it was hard!

I won some blue ribbons!

After swimming we headed on the Cayuga wine trail and stopped at a couple of wineries for some tasting and some buying. It was getting late so we only made it to two, followed by some delicious locally made ice cream. Yum! Dinner was in downtown Ithaca, which is a really lovely place, but we were once again disappointed by a Mexican restaurant in NY. There must be good ones somewhere right??

Anyway, we camped by the lake on Saturday night and got up bright an early for a hike around Taughannock Falls State Park (where we camped). We started out at an overlook by the falls, which was a great view on a beautiful morning. We then hiked all around the rim of the gorge that the falls had carved out, followed by walking up in the gorge to the base of the falls and then back up to the overlook. It was a nice, fairly easy stroll and so pretty. We didn't see many people until we walked the flat path to the base of the falls so it was even better.

Taughannock Falls from above

Cayuga Lake

Can't complain about another great waterfall!

Taughannock Falls from the bottom

Then it was back to Albany for a brief rest before work on Monday.

At the falls

Visiting Colorado

I was attending a workshop in Boulder, Colorado at the beginning of July and I took the opportunity to visit Fort Collins the weekend before the workshop. I got to stay with my friend who still lives there - thanks Rachel and Ben - and visit for the first time since I left in 2007!

Friday consisted of flying into Denver, driving up to FoCo, grocery store, cooking delicious lentil tacos and chocolate breakfast buns and eating yummy ice cream.

Saturday was a little more adventurous. I had to spend some time outside so we went for a little hike with the dog up to Horsetooth reservoir - the location of my one and only open water swim (until last week) of 2.4 miles in 2007. We walked past the CSU football stadium (which I never went to) to begin. It was hot that weekend (in the 90s) but there was a nice breeze so it was quite pleasant. The lack of humidity was also  great!

CSU's Hughes Stadium (if it's still called that)

 Past the stadium and up to the reservoir. There was a great view of Fort Collins and my former department from up here, but I didn't get any good pictures.

Horsetooth Reservoir

 After heading back down we went for lunch in old town where I had a great sandwich (brie, caramelized onions, arugula and blueberry jam), salad and lemonade at 415 (which is new since I lived there). This was followed by a couple of beers at Equinox brewery in old town (also new since I moved away). It was great to hang out, eat good food, drink good beer and watch people for the afternoon.

Can't be in Colorado without visiting a brewery

 The evening we cooked again - veggie bean burgers that were also delicious, and relaxed. It was off to drop me off in Boulder in the morning. We headed down early, met up with some friends and had brunch at the Chautauqua Dining Hall. More delicious food for me! A quick stroll around the park for some quick pictures before taking a drive up into the mountains a little more.

Me, Rachel and the Flatirons

 We took a loop up into the mountains, no idea where we went exactly but it was just nice for me to watch the scenery. You really miss it when you aren't living in it all the time. My pictures out of a moving car weren't the best, but you get the idea.

Colorado

After getting back to Boulder I got dropped off at the University of Colorado where my workshop was. It was a really beneficial workshop and I'm very glad I got to go - I learnt a lot, had fun and got to see some friends I hadn't seen for a while. I also had to stay in a shared dorm room. I'm so glad we had single rooms when I was a fresher at uni (in American that's a freshman in college ;-) )! It was fine, but it would have been much better if I had a) a step stool to get on and off the bed, and b) a fitted sheet for the plastic mattress!

Oh American dorm rooms...

I <3 NY, but I sure do miss Colorado!

Camping in Vermont and Lye Brook Falls

In June we went camping in Vermont for the first time. We chose Emerald Lake Campground which is between Manchester and Rutland in the beautiful Green Mountains. We headed up Friday night, set up camp and enjoyed some delicious tofu dogs on the campfire.

We started early on Saturday and drove down to Manchester for a hike to Lay Brook Falls. The trail head was just out of town and there was only one other car. It was a nice straightforward 2.3 mile hike to the falls, so 4.6 mile round trip. Matt enjoyed searching for mushrooms, of which there were plenty.

Reishi's... he makes tea out of them

The trail has been was interrupted by quite a large landslide, which looked fairly recent.

Glad we didn't get hit by this

Not long after the landslide we reached the falls. We spent a while there which was very enjoyable to be all alone with such a lovely waterfall to watch. Really quite impressive.

Matt...

... and Ellie

We headed back to the car and went into Manchester for lunch. We found a Thai place and had a very delicious and really cheap lunch. There was no shopping allowed though (Manchester has a large number of outlets with no sales tax)!

The afternoon was spent at Emerald Lake itself, just a short mile-ish hike down from the camp area. It was a nice sunny afternoon so there were a few people at the "beach" but it wasn't too bad, especially out in the water.

Emerald Lake from the beach

The view from in the Lake

We went for a swim out and around the island. On the back was a large rope swing which Matt had to try...

Action shot

It was fun to watch but I was happy in the water.

No action shot!

After a swim back to the beach, and some time drying off in the sun we hiked back up to camp and set about making dinner - pizzas on the grill! So so good. I may have dropped the first one in the fire, but luckily I divided the dough in half so we had a second pizza and more tofu dogs. We drove back to Albany on Sunday. A great weekend in the fresh Vermont air and water.

Happy Vermont Weekend!