My dad is a retired wheat farmer. His siblings and him still own the farm, but they lease the farm land out to another farmer (it's a long story, but since my dad and uncle are older and there's no one in my generation to take over this was their option). So because they still own the farm, they still get wheat money, anyway, my dad said that he got his wheat money a few weeks ago and he decided to take his kids and their families on a cruise to Alaska in August. So I guess we are doing that on my Mom's birthday. =)
Okay, so this is the only place I will admit this (because no one from my family reads this), but I'm conflicted about this. I'm definitely excited to go to Alaska on a cruise, that's not the issue. What I'm conflicted about is that this is happening in August. We usually go to my families lake house in August and we will be unable to do that this year.
I know, I know, the Lake isn't anything like an Alaskan cruise, but I love the sun and quietness of going to the Lake. I look forward to it every year. I will not have enough time off to take 2 weeks of vacation in August, not with the 8 days of vacation I'm taking to go to Hawaii.
And the other thing that has me conflicted about this cruise is that I will be in high mileage month for marathon training. August is usually the month that things really start ramping up. My first marathon my runs were 13 miles, 10 miles, 15 miles and 16 miles in the month of August.
So what are my options? Well, I was thinking that we could go to the Lake over Labor Day weekend. If we flew, it would be a 1 hour flight (compared to a 6+ hour drive) and we'd avoid all the traffic. We could take one extra day off and be there from Friday morning to Monday evening. I currently have a mileage credit card, so if I put everything I possibly can on the credit card, I could maybe get enough points for 3 flights to Spokane (eastern WA). I could take things to my Dad's house before going to the Lake (like floats and my paddleboard) and hope that my Dad will let us borrow a car for the weekend . . . or I could just invite him to go with us.
Now, marathon training on a cruise, I'm sure they have a gym, and I've heard that these cruise ships have a track around the ship. Can you imagine running around a ship for 10 miles?? That just seems ridiculously tedious. Plus, dodging walkers . . . but that is probably my only option.
So, quit whining about "having" to go on an Alaskan cruise and be super thankful that my Dad is paying for us (15 people total) to go.
I'm feeling very spoiled, Hawaii in February (39 days, 10 ours and 28 min, but who's counting?) and an Alaskan cruise in August.
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I hear ya...it will be hard to miss the week at the lake...even though the alternative is fabulous! I think you do have the lake issue worked out with the long weekend and flying.
ReplyDeleteThe marathon training...that one you do have options...I think you may like the circuit on the ship (just guessing...not from personal experience)....could you maybe do early mornings so as to avoid a lot of people and not lose time with your family? Could you also maybe adjust your running schedule so that your really long weekly runs are the day before you leave and the day you get off the ship? Like maybe run the morning before you board and the morning after you get off??? That would only leave your shorter week day runs? (I’m assuming that’s how your schedule works?)
My cruise is Saturday to Friday, so I could try to make it so my long run the weekend I'm on the boat is a scaleback week. I did that the first year I ran a marathon, my long run on my vacation was "only" 10 miles. Since we board the ship early in the morning, I won't have time to run 10 miles before that. But I definitely could run 15 miles the weekend we get back (the mileage I ran that same weekend in 2015).
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