On vacation in Door County, Wisconsin

It was not clear to me what was different. I was running on rural roads of Door County, Wisconsin Sunday, our first full day here on a week's vacation. I was a full 8 miles into my 10 mile training run and had not yet put my finger on it. What was different??

Then, like a very wet towel, I realized the difference. No Humidity!! What a concept! On this small penninsula, the "Thumb of Wisconsin", thrust out into Lake Michgan 150 miles north of Milwaukee, we had finally escaped the Gulf of Mexico's influentce. A perfect blue sky, breeze from the northwest, blowing dry Canadian air was a treat. And, despite the temperature in the low 70s, I was running hard and was not soaking wet. No sweat in my eyes, no sticky shirt, no dripping wet hair, no shorts looking like I had just been swimming. It was a beautiful thing.

Yeah, we're on vacation and it is a real treat. We are here with two of our three sons (Nathan was unable to get here from Portland for a full week...we miss him), plus David's wife and three munchkins. We're sharing a rented house for a week and it has been fun. The running has been nice...I always remind myself that it is good to do hills once in a while. The dry air is a welcome relief from the mugginess of Indiana.

But the best part is being together. Relaxing, playing with the little ones, (the twins 5 1/2 and Miss B being 3), reading, doing many crossword puzzles, walking to the beach, hiking, geocaching and, best of all, out for ice cream every night after dinner. My wife and I are humbled and amazed by the mere chance to do something like this. We're thankful.

Adding icing to the cake... I got back from my five miler this morning (Tuesday) and twins Drew and Nathan were playing outside. "You guys want to go running with Grandpa?" They grinned... and off we went. We ran maybe 400m or so along a side street. And Grandpa got a great reminder.

Running should just be fun.

An overnight shower had left several puddles in the street. What to little boys want to do with puddles?? I joined them and the three of us clomped and splashed through all the puddles we could find, laughing all the way. We came to a small clearing in the woods and there was a young doe. We stopped and whispered (big challenge for 5 year olds) and watched her watch us. We ran some more and then went home.

That's what running can me. No GPS required to splash puddles. No on-line running log necessary to be surprised by nature. Best to not even have a clock when connecting with children. All good, folks, all good.

Here are a few snapshots of an outing we had on Monday.

with sons David and Matt
with her Dad looking on, I help Miss B learn to putt
Miss B looks at flowers while the twins play mini golf


Persevere.