Honeymoon

The dust from gold country is still on our shoes, in our toenails and in our baby jogger tires. It was by no means a relaxing honeymoon in the Caribbean, but rather a test of our limits, a discovery of the land and ourselves. Somehow we kept the 2 week cost around $2000. And The Bois survived to his 5 month birthday.

After the essential free breakfast at a Hotwire-booked hotel, we rented a large SUV, which we would refer to as The Behemoth.


Our first day of running was in and around The Golden Gate Park.
There are some incredibly steep hills in The Presidio for running up and down with a baby jogger (if that's what makes you happy). My mom actually used to live in The Presidio as her dad was an army doctor there.


Next, we stayed at a cabin we had booked near Spooner Lake in Tahoe State Forest, Nevada. It was equipped with a propane stove, dishes, pans and coffee. We took turns running up and down the mountain the frist day. The second day, we took an 11 mile hike with The Bois attempting to reach the 9,214 foot Snow Valley Peak.













SR was determined to reach the summit.

But The Bois wasn't quite up to it . After breastfeeding, he just wouldn't calm down. Maybe it was the wind, maybe it was the altitude. Either way, we wouldn't make it to the top. We did make it to about 9,000 feet, though.









On the way down, The Bois got attacked by a million mosquitoes at once, ending up with 14 bites on his face and head. After that, SR ran with him in his arms the last 2 miles back to the cabin. And then they got to play (you might be able to see all of his bites here).













So maybe they were a little itchy.













Then on to Reno to visit Elaine and Merlot. Elaine provided us with a really nice hat of hers for The Bois.

Back in San Francisco, we bided our time before the race . We loved La Petite Auberge (the B&B we stayed in) and Saha (Yemeni restaurant).



The Angel island race, as previously described, was one of the high points of the trip. I'll never forget SR taking off much faster than everyone, bolting up the long set of stairs and then seeing the slow mob behind him. Scott Dunlap even mentioned this in his race report.

Here he is leading the pack.




Here I am feeling strong and leading the women by about 10 minutes at the halfway point. I'm still not quite sure what happened 3/4 through the race to slow me down, but hypoglycemia, hyponatremia and lack of really long runs probably all contributed. One easy thing to change will be replacing the water I carried (stupidly) with sports drink. When our bodies are under stress we actually retain water as a protective mechanism. So unless it is extremely hot, I see no reason to drink water at all during a race. Our bodies are apparently evolved to be dehydrated while we're stressed. And can't well tolerate hydration at these times. Many of you probably know that the one death (22 year old David Rogers) during the 2007 London marathon was from hyponatremia.



Anyway, once I got some sports drink, food and SR to accompany me for the last lap, I was able to finish feeling pretty good. (See Angel Island race report or google results for more details). Here I am collapsed at the end.

We spent a long time on Angel Island afterwards just chatting, soaking up more sun and frantically eating candy and soup. Before we took the boat back to Tiburon, SR and I were speaking in Danish (which we had been practicing it basically non-stop since the honeymoon began). I asked him as I came back from the bathroom if he could "give me a back pocket" (let me skip in line up to him) and a Danish family (now living in SF) heard us talking. They actually thought we were both from Denmark. The mother said I had just a slight accent. Man I was thrilled. Of course she was being nice, but I worry constantly about speaking Danish well enough to work as a doctor there.



Then we made our way to Sacramento. We had an amazing dinner under the stars at my mom's sister's house. I don't know how they found enough food to feed us. The next day, in 106 degree weather, we went on a 4 hour bike ride with my incredible uncle as a tour guide. And then went swimming in their pool.

Clean and well-fed, we took off for the Sierra Buttes, with a quick stopover in Reno to bring my mom to the airport.
We stayed in Sierra City, which has an elevation of just over 4000 feet. It was so hot the first day. We struggled though a run. And the Bois and I got attacked by sheep dogs herding sheep on a remote dirt road. It was unreal to be so isolated in California. We then found Sand Pond, a beautiful place to swim under the towering Sierra Buttes (obscured by smoke in the background).



























That night started out hot, too. But gold country cools fantastically after the sun sets.


We did some running and hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail (which traverses the US, running from Mexico to Canada).























We eventually returned to The Bay Area and went to a crepe restaurant called Ti-Couz owned by a family from Bretagne. Voila le petit mec francais.



Before heading home, we went to Reyes National Lake Shore. The Lorax was worn out by this point, but I wasn't really ready to come home.

Our honeymoon. It's something we'll always have when it is us against the world. SR said at one point that the trip reminded him of what is important in life. He told me what that was and I smiled, loving him. This is our life.