Spring Break

We recently returned from our spring break trip to Kentucky and southern Illinois, where we visited with my parents (who had traveled from Michigan) and saw interesting natural areas in Shawnee and Daniel Boone National Forests, as well as Land Between the Lakes. I have created a Google-maps based tour of the trip. You can also view our photos here.

Updates

The blog is woefully out of date now, so I am going to do a big "winter update" post. My last post was at Christmas! Yikes! So here is a run-down of some recent events.

Skiing in Canaan, round 1

For MLK weekend, we rented a house with some friends in Canaan valley. The winter had already been cold and snowy for a month by that point, and we managed to arrive on the first mild weekend since the winter started. There was plenty of snow, and ski conditions were decent on Saturday. Things turned "south" on Sunday, with rain and temps above 40 - so we stayed inside and played games most of the time. I went for a long run through slushy gravel roads in Old Timberline, where we were staying. I did not get many photos because of the weather, but I did create a map of the various places that we tend to visit in Canaan valley.

Calista's Birthday

Believe it or not, Calista turned 2 years old on January 28th. We had 4 birthday celebrations - with Tatiana's dad the weekend before; with just the three of us on her birthday; with church friends including Bella Bouman, whose birthday is two years earlier; and then with both of Tatiana's parents. Calista keeps growing and changing every day, it seems - she has changed a lot even in the 6 weeks since her birthday. She is very talkative and interactive, loves to read and play and tell you what she is thinking. She likes to look at pictures of animals, and the latest thing is to listen to recorded bird calls - after she and Tatiana heard an owl one afternoon. There are some photos here.

Lake Placid

We had 4 days off for President's weekend, which followed the two major storms that hit the mid-Atlantic in February. Tatiana was in Atlanta for a Smithsonian event during the first storm, and her return was delayed because of the snow. She snuck into town between storms, and as things were clearing back out we drove north to the snowy wonderland of Lake Placid. The snow conditions were perfect there - not a huge snowpack, but plenty for good skiing, and temps in the low 20s. Calista was on skis for her first time, on a pair of beginner skis borrowed from someone we met. We skiied at Mount VanHoevenburg, home of the 1980 Olympic competition, and also on part of the 40+ mile Jackrabbit Trail, which runs right past the cabin where we stayed. It was fun to be there during the Olympics, partly because the olympic torch in Lake Placid was lit.
Pictures are here.

Blackwater Falls

We had our final ski trip for the season about 10 days ago. We were still on the tail end of a cold snap, and Canaan had 5 feet of snowpack in places! We stayed at Blackwater Falls, and skied both in the park and at Whitegrass. Wonderful conditions and fun times. Pics are here.

On into spring

Since our Blackwater Trip, we have suddenly launched into spring. We have already experienced several beautiful early spring days, with temps in the 60s and sunny blue skies. We also had a rainy weekend, accompanied by some serious flooding in places. I am getting ready for the Boston Marathon, which goes off in just over a month.

Christmas

We spent the Christmas/New Year with family on both sides. We were in Hampstead for Christmas, and then drove to Michigan on the 27th and stayed for a week. It was fun to spend time with family members, and Calista really enjoyed opening lots of presents. The snow in Michigan was excellent this year, and we were able to ski every day while we were there. We spent New Years Eve at a small cabin in Cadillac, on Lake Mitchell. We skied at Cadillac Pathway and at Mackenzie/Caberfae. More pics are here.

Blizzard of 2009

Washington DC got 16+ inches of snow yesterday, which is a record for December. Thankfully it came on a Saturday and did not cause major disruption to commuters. Our church was canceled this morning, the school (faculty) Christmas party was canceled yesterday, and school for tomorrow has already been canceled. Since I am scheduled to give all my exams tomorrow morning, that means the students will take them Tuesday instead - and I have one less day to get my grading finished before Christmas. We played in the snow with Calista yesterday and today, and today I skiied around Greenbelt Lake a couple of times - something I have only been able to do once or twice before in the 6 winters we have spent here (counting this one, which technically just started). I uploaded some more pictures here. Often it warms up to 40+ degrees the next day after a snow here, but the forecast calls for low-to mid 30s as a high all week, so the snow might stick around for a while. It's going to be tough to go running.

Christmas tree

We got a real Christmas tree for the first time! Our house was to small to make a larger tree work until last year, and with an 11-month old we did not want to try last year. Calista helped us pick out the tree from a vendor who operates out of the parking lot of our local supermarket . . not quite as romantic as "cut your own", but it works. We decorated it this afternoon. Calista helped some, and mostly managed to stay out of trouble.
Things are finally settling down for me now. We had our cross country team banquet last Tuesday, which mostly concludes the events of the season - other than making arrangements for purchasing championship jackets for the team members. Exams start on Wednesday . .

Thanksgiving and beyond

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. The weekend before Thanksgiving, I went to NY for a cross country meet - we were victorious at the Jesuit championships, beating several other very good teams. We headed to Chincoteague for Thanksgiving, and went from there to North Carolina for the southeast regional cross country championships. The team did well, finishing 7th in a region that spans from the Mason-Dixon line south to the Gulf coast. After two days of classes I went to the Loyala Retreat House to help lead a 3-day retreat for seniors at Gonzaga. Looking forward to some more free time in the coming weeks!

State championship race

My team raced in the Maryland-DC state championship for private schools today. In Maryland and Virginia, unlike in most states, the private schools do not compete in the state-sponsored championship events/tournaments. This has an unfortunate effect on overall competition, by splitting the best teams. This time around Gonzaga was vying for first place, against strong competition from St. Albans. We had narrowly defeated them a few weeks ago, and felt confident that we could repeat that performance, but we came up short. Several runners fell apart in the last mile and we ended up being edged out for 2nd by fellow Jesuit school Loyola.

I continue to be frustrated by near misses at state championships in my coaching career. At Wilmington Christian we finished in 2nd place three years in a row, and in each of those years we were as good as the team that won, but in each case the other team had a better day. Last year we ran our worst race of the season at the state championship and came in third; champion Calvert Hall definitely had a better team, but winning was not out of our grasp.

On the positive side, Tatiana and Calista were able to come out to cheer for the team. Calista had fun exploring the recently-harvested corn field and checking out the goats and pigs.