Road Trip Recap Part 2- Maine!

Being able to stay where I grew up was truly special and something that I know not everyone can experience! My mom was generous enough to open up the home (it's usually boarded-up) for us to stay there while we were in Maine and it was amazing. Stella also loved having so many places to explore! 

Saturday I went for a short 4 mile run around the roads before my Dad's wedding. 

Holy humidity! But also running at sea level was AMAZING! My paces were consistently 20-40 seconds faster per minute (without any extra effort) than they typically are at altitude. 

After my run, I quickly showered and we were off to the wedding! Luckily it was super close to where we were staying and we could just walk over.  

Sometimes we dress up and look fancy!

On Sunday, we went out to lunch with my dad before he left for their honeymoon and then we went kayaking on the Saco River! It was super beautiful out and thankfully the humidity started to die down a bit. 

We also learned how much Stella enjoys Jeep Rides (like us). She hardly ever moved from that spot and she couldn't be happier! Monday morning we planned to get up early to go for a hike, so I got up early (so rough) to get my run in. 

4 miles later, we were showered and off to go hike in Crawford Notch! It was a bit chilly out, but luckily no rain showers showed up. Alex had never been hiking in NH before, so I took him and Stella on a relatively easy, but beautiful hike to the top of Mt. Willard! I've done this hike a few times and the views from the top still get me every time. 

It was pretty muddy on our hike and unfortunately I only brought along my running sneakers, so it was slower-going than normal. The hike to the top also brings you by a set of small falls that pour into Centennial Pool- super beautiful place to stop and rest. 

Tuesday we split off and did our own things (Alex went to go visit his friend that lives in Maine now & his nana/ I went off with my mom for the day) and we met back up at night to go have dinner with one of my oldest friends! I got in a run that morning of 3.25 miles before heading off to do some outlet shopping!

Wednesday, I got in another run and a quick strength training session before we headed off to Vermont (about a 2.5 hour drive) for the afternoon (then onto Massachusetts for the evening)!

While our trip was definitely short and we didn't get to do/ see everything that I had originally planned, it was really amazing. I think it made us both appreciate the area more and how lucky we were to grow up there. 

The ample amount of roads to run on definitely made me a bit envious (since Steamboat doesn't exactly feel like it has many route options to vary it up), but I made sure to soak up the amount of running time I had there and managed to get in runs on 4 of the 5 days we were there, so I'd say that was a bit of a success.

Getting up early definitely contributed my being able to get my runs in because after we ate breakfast, we were off for the rest of the day doing fun activities and seeing family/friends! It was also a great way to kinda just 'zone' out for 30 or 40 minutes and think of nothing but how beautiful it was out. Running in New England is special.

Stay tuned for part 3- Vermont/Massachusetts!

Beginning of trip recap- 2, 225 miles to Maine

We left Steamboat at around 5:30 (later than expected) and had to get to Maine by Friday evening (or Saturday morning at the latest). We definitely had a bit of a time-crunch to get there! 

Stealthy photo taken of Stella spying on us while on the road! The first night we drove until somewhere in Nebraska until around 11pm and stopped for the night at a hotel. 

We were up and out of the hotel by 7 and back on the road the next morning! Hello extra caffeine! Within 40 minutes of leaving the hotel, we crossed the Central Time Zone and added an hour onto our drive (bummer). Driving through Iowa seemed to take forever (it's really really flat there), but we finally hit Illinois and started feeling like we were actually getting somewhere!

We arrived in Indiana in the late afternoon and decided to stop there for the evening. That left us about 11 hours (12 with the time change) left to drive on Friday to get to Maine! 

The hotel that we stayed at (hellllo Quality Inn #2 - also never staying at another one again because we somehow only got these hotels through our priceline deals) had a gym hotel so I got in a quick 3.25 miles before we left around 7:30. 

Also Indiana has REALLY nice rest stops. They had Panera and we couldn't resist not stopping for some healthy eats while on the road. Fuji Apple Chicken Salad #1 please!

We hit the Eastern Time Zone again within an hour of leaving the hotel (definitely a pattern that followed throughout our entire trip) and soon enough we were in New York!

Driving through New York brought back so many fun college memories (I went to Syracuse in upstate NY) and we drove right by the exit that I would get off at when I drove to school after vacation breaks! I wanted to stop, but when we hit it at 6pm and knew we had 7 hours left to go, Alex wasn't all for it...ha ha. 

We arrived in Vermont around 9pm and drove right past Alex's parents house (so of course we had to stop there at 10pm at night and surprise them)! They were pretty surprised especially when we told them several times that there was "no way that we could stop there". 

We finally arrived in Maine at 2am on Saturday morning (pure adrenaline keeping us going at this point) and crashed until 10am! 

It was a really long trip and I think if we could have left a bit earlier on Wednesday, that would have made the last leg of the drive easier, but we really didn't hit much traffic and kept our stops to around 10-15 minutes (but would stop every 2-3 hours keeping our minds/bodies refreshed). The weather on Friday was pretty terrible as well (pouring rain almost the entire day), which slowed us down too- driving on the highway with hail/wind/rain= not so much fun.