Tuesday May 22: Meeting London and Ironman Matt

San Diego - a wonderful city! What's helpful of course is having kids that live just 30 minutes north of the city :-)

Matt and Wendy left the day after we arrived. Their destination was northern California - to Santa Rosa. Matt was running in an Ironman competition so we had their home to ourselves.

Might as well be tourists, right? And having been off of the boat for almost 2 weeks now, we thought a tour of the San Diego harbor would be a great thing to do!

Two hours - kind of cool as the sun was not out very strong until the last half hour. Great tour though. This is the second-largest Naval base - with Norfolk being the largest. Excellent tour guide and I think he knew the name of every naval vessel! Submarines, aircraft carriers, destroyers and everything in between. I'm always glad to know that they are ours .....

Lunch after at the restaurant on the water by the fishing boats.

We were also finally able to meet London - Becky's new puppy (well, four months old at this point) - London. She's a mini goldendoodle. Part golden retriever and poodle. Great dog! Very loving as she just cuddles anytime Becky picks her up :-)

She has long legs but doesn't weigh more than 15 - 17 lbs. And VERY fast! I'm sure due to the long legs. She reminds us very much of Eli (on Stevedore in Banana Bay) who is off and running to the grills whenever he has the opportunity! I mean, really, there are ALWAYS some kind of treats to be found in the grill area!

One trip made of course was to the dog beach at Delray.

London had a great time - as did we of course. How can you not enjoy a trip to the beach!

We ended Becky's weekend trip down from LA with breakfast at our favorite place: the Encinitas Cafe! And of course London was able to join us - as long as we sat outside of course :-)

Craig and Karen from Rahn DeVous (we met them in Canada a couple of years ago) were able to drive an hour south from San Juan Capistrano to join us for the afternoon. It is always great to see them!

In the meantime, Matt and Wendy were doing GREAT at the Ironman competition in Santa Rosa, CA.

                 2.4 miles                                            112 miles                                            26.2 miles

So an Ironman competition consists of 3 legs: swim, bike and run with NO breaks other than the transition from one segment to another. It has been Matt's goal to qualify to run in the World Championship Ironman competion which is held every October. In Kona Hawaii. The Big Island.

It was a great race with Iron Matt using all of  his training to swim, bike and run a great race.

So great that he qualified (the only way to be able to run in the World Championship) for the World Championship Race in Kona in October.

With a masterful decision in mile 18 of the run, he decided he felt well enough to make a push to pull ahead of other men in his age group (45 to 49). He moved from 9th place to 6th place in those last 8.2 miles. A masterful feat.

Matt approaching the finish line.

Matt crossed the finish line at 9:57.00. That's not 9:57 at night or 9:57 in the morning. That's 9 hours, 57 minutes after starting the race at the swim. Continuous. No resting, no stopping.

Matt's acceptance for the race in Kona.

Personally, I think Ironman is a good description of anyone that can perform at the highest level possible for almost 10 continuous hours. I would most assuredly be dead :-) He proudly displayed his acceptance letter for the competition in Oct at left. Way to go Matt :-) !!!

There was a celebration waiting Matt and Wendy when they returned home on Monday.

We had just one more day to enjoy being with them before it was time on Wednesday to head to Ohio and then on to Canada.

Steve took advantage of the spring morel mushroom hunting season to scour the farm and found a lone white sponge. It was very good :-)

Thanks to my brother Warren for leaving a batch of mushrooms in the fridge that he found earlier in the week.

Once in Ohio, we headed off to Cleveland for visits to Steve's sisters (and respective husbands) and then to doctor/dentist visits.

Sunday, we'll head to Ontario and Guppy!

One last thought about the Ironman:




And of course you know we'll be in Kona Hawaii to cheer Matt on come October 13 :-)