Visiting Valdez

Instead of doing any brewing over the weekend, we went to visit Sara in Valdez.  I normally make it there a couple times each summer.  It's a nice change of pace, a beautiful drive, and a distraction from the daily grind.

(Note: I've come to the realization that I *suck* at documenting through photography.  This trip was filled with lots of people and beautiful scenery, and I captured a minute amount of it.  No pics of the three sisters, none of the cousins, none - or rather, ONE - of the friends that also made the trip. Sigh.)

Leaving after work on Friday means that arrival time in Valdez is the wee hours of the morning.  Fortunately for us, Sara is always willing to let us wake her up so she can show us to the rooms we get to use while we're there.  It's lucky that we can stay at the cannery.  If not for that, I wouldn't be able to come visit.

Valdez isn't large.  And it hasn't changed much over the years - at least not enough for a casual, two-times-a-year, weekend visitor to notice.  Since I've seen Horse Tail Falls and Bridal Veil Falls multiple times - every time I go, I stop to look - I suppose I didn't think about taking a new picture.  And I've been down the mine road several times, so I didn't take a new picture with my car in the creek as we crossed over (the bridge washed out a few years ago, but the creek is shallow enough that the brave-of-heart - and vehicles with enough ground clearance - can make it across).  But I saw two waterfalls that I haven't noticed before, and we watched seals in the water.  No bear viewings this time.

On Sunday morning, we woke to fog thicker than pea soup, and received a tour of the fish processing plant.  The season's over, so it's all shut down and almost eerily quiet.  It was really interesting, and pretty cool since I hadn't ever been any farther inside than the main office.

When we came out of the plant, the fog was starting to lift.  For all the times I've been to Valdez, it's rarely sunny.  But those few times are precious, because the scenery is absolutely stunning.  I'm glad that we were able to enjoy some sun before the long journey back home.

Jeannea and I took a little side trip on the way home - a little off-roading with the car.  Because it was sunny the view was awesome; however, the wind was blowing so hard that I was afraid it'd rip my phone right out of my hands (and it was a chilly wind).  My pictures aren't the greatest because I was shivery and fighting the wind for balance.

 

As we got closer to home, clouds moved in and the sunshine evaporated, but the end of our trip was blessed with a rainbow.  An excellent finish to a wonderful weekend!

Adventures in Spent Grain

Greg asked me if I wanted to keep the grain from the beer to use for cooking.  I'd never heard of such a thing, so I told him that we would keep the grains for one day.  If I couldn't find anything to make with them, then we'd throw them away.  Turns out there are all kinds of things you can make with spent grain from your beer.

I found a couple websites that have lots of recipes - and now I'm excited to graduate from extract to grain-based brews.  I selected something relatively easy to start - a bread that incorporates the grain without having to dry it or grind it.  I made the first batch on Monday night.

It's an easy recipe, not very different from some of the other breads I've made - except for the grains part.  I found it here, along with some good information about using spent grains in bread recipes.  I found another recipe here, but opted to try the first one (mostly because there's a picture, fewer steps, and the rise time - and therefore overall time - is shorter).

It was delicious!  In fact, I set aside more of the grain so I could make the recipe again on Thursday - which I did, but then added chunks of sharp white Cheddar cheese.  Yum!!  For the remainder of the grain, I opted to dry it and then grind it into flour.  This idea came from yet another website (here), which also has all kinds of non-bread recipes for spent grain.  Cookies, banana bread, brownies, pie crust... It seems that if a recipe uses flour, it can be modified to use spent grain.  This opens up a whole new world to me!

I followed the instructions for drying my grains.  While I'm excited at the many options I see ahead, there's LOTS of room for increasing efficiency in my current process.  Like seven hours.  That's how long it takes to dry one sheet of grain in the oven.  Yeah, I know that's what the recipe said, but some of the comments indicated it might be shorter.  (And I thought my oven was at least partially convection because a fan comes on every time you turn it on and continues to blow until long after it's been shut off - turns out that's just a fan, and I have a standard oven which takes 7 hours to dry spent grain).

So my first recommendation: if you're using the oven, don't start the process at 8:30 at night - especially on a work night.  I slept in the recliner that night.  And I think one of my next acquisitions will be a dehydrator.  Because after 7 hours of drying and then a half hour of grinding (done the next evening, because no one wants to listen to the food processor grinding endlessly at 3am), I have just about 1 cup (ONE cup!) of spent grain flour.  My second recommendation (or observation, really): spent grain flour will not have the consistency of all-purpose flour - it's chunkier.  It's possible if I had some other implement to use I could get it finer and more flour-y.  Instead, it's finer than cornmeal and coffee grounds, but not powder like flour.  We'll see how that impacts the next recipe I try...

And On To The Next One...

We had a busy weekend planned - mostly cleaning, organizing, and getting Jeannea moved back into her room (so she didn't have to sleep on the couch any more... two weeks is more than enough of that) - but I decided I wanted to throw in another batch of beer too.  In part because I'm going to Valdez for the next weekend, so it's now or it's in two weeks.  If I wait, I'm not confident that the second beer (third batch) will be ready by Halloween.

We originally talked about brewing from the first recipe again.  This time, instead of going from primary to secondary to bottling, we'd skip the secondary so I could see the difference in color and clarity.  However, since nothing much happened while the first beer was in secondary timeout, I figured there wouldn't be much change.  So I went to the beer store looking for a new recipe, with the backup plan to use the first recipe if I couldn't find anything I liked.  I shouldn't have worried.

The third beer is exactly the same as the first, only different.  It's got the malt extract, a small amount of hops, orange peel, and cracked coriander.  But it also has grains, and the amounts for orange peel (double the amount, sweet and bitter) and coriander (half as much) are different.

I used the "Lessons Learned" from the first two batches in brewing this one - but still came up with more.  We put everything in bags - the hops, the grains, the spices.  Greg had picked up some more of the smaller bags, but we couldn't find them, so used the gigantic bag that will hold a small world and maybe some satellites for the grains - just tied it off and dangled it in the boiling water.  However, because it's a 15 gallon brew pot and we're only starting with 2-3 gallons of water, it touches the bottom.  Turns out my new lesson is that the grain bags can melt and burn holes, which in turn releases all the bits that I'm trying to keep contained.  Sanitized strainers come in handy for a rescue mission when it's time to remove the grains...

And likely because of the escaped grains, the pour spout on the kettle didn't work - yet again.  So we ended up siphoning the liquid from the kettle into the carboy.  But it was easier this time because most of the floaties were already gone.  One of these days I'll have the lessons down well enough that when I brew we can actually make the transfer in the easy way...

But the beer is done and active in the carboy.  It's still darker than I'm used to for a wheat bear.  Greg says that this is because we're using the malt extract, and it's darker even with the grains.  In a couple weeks, it'll be ready for the next step.  I think we're going to transfer this one straight to bottles.  At the same time, the apple beer will be ready to transfer into the secondary.  And it's possible (if I'm up for it) that the same weekend we could brew the fourth beer...

Bottling the First Beer

Beer the First has been in secondary for just about a week now.  It doesn't look like it has done anything at all.  No bubbling, no mess, no fuss.  To me, it doesn't seem to be any clearer, but there's definitely a small sediment layer at the bottom of the carboy.  So I suppose that's something, right?

I thought we were going to wait until the next brewing to bottle, but Greg picked up some supplies and we're ready to go.  The extra time spent waiting isn't going make the beer any better, so may as well get it in bottles - it's that much closer to drinking...

We didn't have enough bottles from Greg's previous foray into brewing, so he picked up some more.  (We've also been saving the non-twist-top bottles from the store-bought beer to re-purpose, but we still hadn't amassed enough.)  In addition, Greg acquired a bottle tree for us.  We had already washed the bottles in the dishwasher, but they need to be sanitized too.

This is another part of beer-making where prep, sanitizing, and clean-up actually takes longer than the beer process.  It took about a half hour to bottle the beer, but we spent an additional hour and a half prepping, sanitizing, cleaning up, and sanitizing again.  I keep thinking it's a wonder that anyone from hundreds of years ago had any beer at all...

So what I didn't know (and it wasn't included in the recipe) is that there's one more additive to the beer before bottling: corn sugar.  This apparently gives the beer its carbonation.  So we boiled water and added the sugar, then transferred the beer (one more time!) to a 5 gallon bucket with a spigot at the bottom.  We put the sugar water in first so the beer would (hopefully) mix evenly to get good carbonation.

From there, it's out the spigot and into the bottles.  Now to wait for two weeks - then this batch should be ready for drinking.  (*fingers crossed that it's drinkable - or even tasty - rather than drain cleaning poison.  I'll know in two weeks...)

Apples are in Season

To get back on the weekend brew schedule, I decided to pick up the ingredients for the next brew on Saturday.  I was planning to make the same recipe that we've already done, but Greg convinced me to try a fruit beer.  It won't be ready for Halloween (Greg says it'll be drinkable, but won't come into it's own until Thanksgiving or Christmas), but we can brew this one, then next week brew the first recipe again (which will still be ready by the end of October).  So I pulled up some of the recipes that I've been ruminating on and we picked an apple beer.

I like apple beer.  At least, I like the apple beer that Moose's Tooth used to have (they still have apple beer, but the recipe has changed and it tastes more like hard apple cider, which I'm not as fond of).  So I'm interested to see how this turns out.

It was a lovely day yesterday.  Perfect for collecting supplies, manual labor in the yard (for Greg), and brewing beer.  Since Greg spent the afternoon working with the neighbor to put up our fence, we didn't get started brewing until after 8pm.  In the meantime, I picked up the remaining necessary ingredients, which included apples picked fresh from our friends' tree, and a drive down Turnagain Arm to get more water.

Because we were starting so late (and it's fall, so we're losing sunlight faster and faster), Greg set up his construction lights on the deck.  Don't look directly in them unless you want to be blinded.

We started the prep by cutting the apples.  That was a chore all on its own.  Twelve pounds of apples that ranged in size between a golf ball (the smallest) and a tennis ball (the largest) takes quite some time.  Fortunately we didn't have to core them.

The apples are added at the very end, so we started by boiling hops, adding the malt extract, and priming the yeast.  The yeast was dry this time - not a slap pack - so we had to rejuvenate it and ensure it was active.  According to Greg, there's not a persuasive reason to use dry yeast over a slap pack - which is a lot less work.  I asked why we didn't get one this time - he said we're staying as close to the original recipe as possible for the first go-round.  If this turns  out well and we decide to make it again, I'm definitely using the easier method.  Eventually we'll cultivate our own yeast, but we're not ready for that yet.

The apples are supposed to steep in the brew for 15 minutes.  We continued the boil for a bit, so the apples would soften.  We wanted them soft so they'd be easier to transfer into the carboy with the beer.  (Had we been transferring to a bucket, this wouldn't have been an issue.)  Which leads me to the lessons learned this time:

• When adding hops to a beer that has fruit in it, put the hops in a grain bag.  Otherwise, there's no easy way to separate the hops to keep it out of the carboy.  According to Greg, having the hops in the primary fermentation won't hurt the beer, but it's preferable to remove them prior.  They'll be gone (as will the apples) when we rack the beer into the secondary (in three weeks).  Because of the issues we had with the first brew (where I didn't put the cracked coriander and orange peel in a grain bag, so they blocked the spigot), I'm thinking that we should probably use grain bags for just about everything.
• When using fruit (apples in this case, but any fruit really), cut them small.  Since we use a carboy (with a very small opening) for the primary, it's difficult to force the apple slices through the funnel into the carboy (and I'm still not sure how we're going to get them out again).  Next time the apples will be chopped (but not diced, because we don't want them to block the spigot of the brew kettle).

Overall, this time things seemed to go quicker and smoother.  As a bonus, we got to watch the moon rise.  Not sure if it's waxing or waning, but it looked close to full.

We finished brewing and transferring the beer at 1am.  Because Greg was getting up early to go hiking, he went to bed and I spent another hour cleaning and sanitizing the equipment, getting things prepped and ready for the next use.  Thank goodness today is Sunday, so I could sleep in.  (Two AM is late on a work night, even for me.)  The finished product is darker than the apple beer I'm used to, but Greg says all the beers we make using extract will be darker looking.

We were a little concerned about whether or not the yeast would be active, because the wort cooled down quicker than we expected (because we added the hot liquid to 3 and 1/2 gallons of from-the-rocks-cold water).  Not only that, but Greg has mentioned several times that there's the possibility that this brew will pop the cork and explode all over the garage.  I'm not sure why there's more of a concern with this one than the last - maybe the apples?  I certainly hope it doesn't explode, but we're sure the yeast is active.  As of this afternoon:

Next week, the plan is to bottle the first beer and brew the third batch.  The third will be the same recipe we used for the first - but this time we're not going to move it to secondary (and I'm going to use grain bags for the hops AND the coriander and orange peel).  I'm looking forward to tasting my first beer.  I'm guessing it'll be at least a week or so after bottling, so in two weeks?

Racking and Caning

That's the next step for my first beer.  Although the recipe says we can skip this step and go straight to bottling, we're going to rack this beer with a cane and put it in secondary.  Sounds like torture.

We actually could have done this step on Sunday, so we keep to the weekends for brewing - which I prefer.  But this past weekend was Labor Day, the last long weekend - and the last campout - of the season.  So Greg assured me we could wait a few days before bottling (and brewing the next beer).

On Wednesday, when Greg, James, and I headed up to the camp ground, the forecast was rain, with more rain, and a cold front moving in over the weekend.  Dubious camping conditions, to be sure.  But we were taking tarps and awnings and a truck FULL of wood, so we figured we'd make it through.  And instead of the rain we had sunshine, clear skies (cold nights), and a beautiful weekend.

I intended to take more pictures, knowing that I've started blogging again - and even if my blog may center around my beer-making activities, this counts (since it delayed my next beer).  Instead, you get the best two scenery shots, and a warning picture of what can happen at the end of the life of an air mattress.

There has been some internal hemorrhaging in our air mattress.  And every now and then you could hear a new pop - something else in there let go.  Originally the only external sign of damage was that a couple of the divots bumped up instead of bowing down like they're supposed to.  We've continued to use the mattress over the summer, each trip another pop or two.  Until this time.  The last night on the mattress, as Greg was going to bed, it sounded like several soft gunshots (or some very loud, hard farts), and the night was very uncomfortable.  In the morning, after giving thanks for several years of good camping use, we snapped pictures of the deformity, deflated the mattress, and sent it off to the dump.  There's another one in the shed, but I don't know if it holds air.  I'll have to test it before camping next summer so I know whether or not we need to get a new one...

We got home early evening on Monday and spent the rest of the time unpacking, showering, cleaning, and getting ready to go back to the real world.  Tuesday was supposed to be the next step in the beer dance, as well as beginning a new flavor.  Problem is, I haven't picked the next recipe I want to try.  To be precise, I've picked some recipes that I want to try, but they won't be done in time for our Halloween party, and I really want at least one more brew ready for tasting by then.

We decided to transfer the first beer into a secondary.  Greg says it won't hurt anything, it'll just make the beer a little clearer and there will be less sediment when we go to the bottling stage.  Because I'd like to have two batches ready for Halloween, we've opted to make this recipe a second time, but not put it through the second transfer.  This will let me see the difference in clarity and taste (if any).  We'll also be brewing a fruit beer - as soon as I pick the recipe - but it won't be ready for consumption by the end of October.

 

We're doing all our brewing activities on the deck or in the kitchen right now.  At some point, we'll have things set up so we can work out of the garage, hopefully over the winter so we don't get frostbite.  So Greg lugged the beer upstairs so we could make the transfer.  It's messy because of the yeast-y overflow.

To make the transfer (rack the beer), we use a cane with a flexible hose attached.  The cane is just a long, hard plastic tube that is held in the beer, the hose goes to the soon-to-be-filled carboy.  The most difficult part (aside from making sure everything is sanitized) is creating the siphon.  We filled the cane and tube with sanitized water, making sure there was no air in the line (harder than it sounds, for someone who's only siphoned gas one time years and years ago and ended up with a mouthful of nastiness).  Once this is done, Greg inserted the cane in the beer, down to just above the sediment layer, and the end of the flex-tube into a bowl (so we could drain the water without putting it in the new carboy).  After the water was flushed out, the tube went into the new carboy and the beer started flowing.  In all, it took longer to sanitize before and after the process than it did to transfer the beer.  Now it'll sit for a while in the secondary - while we figure out if we've got enough bottles, get more if needed, and get them sanitized - before we head to the bottling stage.  Now it's time to decide the next recipe and start the process over again...

The Yeast Is ALIVE!!!

That should read:

The yeast is ALIVE!!!

...and you should maybe hear some creepy Frankenstein music, followed by some triumphant Rocky Balboa music.  The title line doesn't allow letter formatting, so I have to spell out the cues so you get the multiple layers of meanings.

It's been a couple years since I've done any posting to my blog (in fact, I have a partially completed draft from November 2012 that I'm debating on whether to delete or post).  I'm sure the 12 followers I used to have gave up on getting anything new a long time ago.  So I'm going to assume I'm writing this for me.  At some point, maybe I'll let people know I'm filling my e-pages again, but for now I'll keep it small scale.
--------------On to my title:
For various reasons (some of which I'll likely go into in future posts), I've decided to start trying my hand at brewing beer.  One of the reasons that I started thinking of this a while ago is that I don't care for IPAs - and a lot of the beer offered up here is really hoppy.  I'm trying to expand my palate so I have more to choose from than a hefeweisen, white, or fruit beer (usually raspberry wheat), but apparently I'm rather particular, and there just aren't that many options for someone who doesn't care for the bittery hops taste or the darker beers.

When we visited Colorado a few years ago, one thing I remember is the virtual cornucopia of beer selection.  It's when I got really interested in beer, because it was so tasty and there were so many options.  Of particular note were the lemon grass and the chai beers.  They're what I remember most, but I had good beer everywhere we stopped.

And now I've started by making my very own first beer.  Greg's helping me, since he's done home brewing several times in the past and this is my first foray into the art.  We started with something that should be simple, but was more than a kit.  Like making my first cake from scratch, rather than a box mix.

To start, we spent three hours pulling out all Greg's equipment and sanitizing everything.  Turns out that we decided to replace some things (is that just discoloration, or black mold growing on that plastic? - why won't that discoloration go away? - I don't have anything small enough to get in and scrub the dust / dead spider out of this thing...), rather than trying to find a way to salvage them.  Probably better for everyone that we were wise like that.

We picked up the ingredients (and whatever replacements were necessary), and the next evening we took a drive.  It wasn't because I was too nervous to start my first venture (although I admit to a bit of trepidation), nor was it because the weather was just too fine so we had to pass on brewing (although the weather was indeed spectacular).  The actual reason was to get the water for the recipe.  Greg says we can't use tap water (or if we do, the beer won't taste very good).  So the options are to buy RO water (reverse osmosis, according to the recipe) or head out to the pipe along Turnagain Arm and get fresh (well / spring / glacier / from the rocks) water.  And that's exactly what we did.

What followed was another long evening.  It was fun and exciting, but I also had a mini-meltdown and was sure that I'd ruined what was supposed to be a relatively easy recipe for my very first beer.  The whole process is a bunch of this:  add something then wait for a while; add something else then wait some more; add something and choose whether or not you want to add this other thing, then wait some more...  So during the waiting periods we spent time visiting, Greg grilled hot dogs for dinner, we cursed the rain (but I noticed it beading up really nicely on the new deck paint - yay!), we stirred the pot and checked the temperature, and we waited.  At various points we added grains, malt extract, hops, and spices.

A few things that I've learned from my beginning venture:

• Always, always use a mesh bag to steep any additives (like cracked coriander) - leaving it loose makes it so the spout on the keg cook pot becomes blocked and you have to move your operation inside to get the remaining liquid into the carboy.
• If you're having to scoop floating debris out of your beer, you should not try putting it down the disposal in the kitchen.  It will plug the drain and then you'll have to use the plunger to get the water to drain properly again.  Use the trash can - it's much more forgiving.

• Beer yeast is sensitive to temperature, similar to how bread yeast is sensitive.  Which brings us to the title of my post:

I didn't kill the yeast!  Which means that the beer is doing whatever chemical reaction it does at this stage.  I'm not sure whether my beer will taste like crap yet, but I know it has a chance to be a real beer, with carbonation and everything.  (Cue Pinocchio voice: It's going to be a real beer!)  I know this because we had to clean up some spillage.  The yeast is bubbling enough that oozy foam is leaking out the de-gasser thing on top and pooling at the base of the carboy.  So, having to clean up a mess is a good indicator that my first beer is not dead out of the gate.  Yay!  I'll take that as a positive.  Greg says this is not technically a wheat beer, although we used wheat malt extract, and it's not really an amber, although the color is more similar to that, but something of a hybrid.  I don't have a name for it yet, but here's a picture of the product in day two of fermentation:

This one doesn't require a secondary transfer.  The next time we touch this (aside from cleaning up more oozy foam), we'll be transferring to bottles.  It'll sit in the bottles for a while, and then it'll be the true test.  But before we get there, I'm already on the hunt for my next recipe, because we'll be brewing again before I even get to taste the results of my first one... *fingers crossed*  Here's to hoping my beers are actually tasty (and definitely don't poison anyone)...

Messengers of Spring

This winter has been particularly rough for me.  I don't think it's wise for me to go Outside in the winter.  Oh, it's nice to get a break from the cold and dark, but it doesn't do my psyche any good.  I've spent the last couple of months swinging like a pendulum from depression to anger and back again.  Depressed that it's been SO DAMN COLD, and then angry that by the time summer gets here it'll be over in a flash and then I'll be back in the cold (which triggers the resentful depression).  It's no different than other years - well maybe just a bit, since this year we had a record number of days below zero in January, and we're working on record snowfall - but it's worse because just a short while ago I was walking around in shorts and t-shirts, and wearing my jacket was often too warm.  Now I can't seem to get warm, can't go outside without several layers (and I *still* get cold),  can't seem to beat the winter gloom.  But the end is in sight.

Visits from my sisters, headed to fish camps, are one of the signs of spring.  It's a treat - I almost feel like it's a reward for having endured another winter.  Plus, I *love* to see my sisters!  I didn't have a whole lot of time with either of them, but a few days is much better than no time at all and years between visits.  I'll take what I can get!!

Sara wanted to make goulash, go to Bear Tooth for dinner and a movie, and go to Turnagain Arm Pit.  We made two of the three things happen - and will try to work in a trip for barbecue when she comes back in September.  It's going to be an exciting, alarming, growing summer for her and I'll be sending support and love vibes - and working in a trip or two, if I can.

Not even a week later, Jeannea was here to visit.  Yay for more Sister Time!!  We had some friends over to visit and "help" Jeannea practice what she's learned in massage therapy school.  She did mention that she needs to build up strength in her hands - and there are more than plenty volunteers that we can drum up for her!  It's also going to be a crazy-busy summer for Jeannea, so I'll be sending support and love vibes to her too, I just can't go visit.  =(  But she'll be back to see me in August, so I'll be content with that.

Now if only the snow would melt so we can get through the dirty part of spring and on to the green, growing, warmth of spr... I guess by then it's pretty much summer.

Florida Connection - Finis

(Note: Long ago I found a way to change the date on my posts - so instead of being dated when I publish them, I can have them chronologically dated for when the events happened.  While keeping things in order, this means that not every entry was posted in a timely fashion.  Take this one, for example.  In real-time, it's June.  I only mention this because I know I haven't been updating regularly - it's been, say... five months or so?? - and I have more entries in queue.  Bear with me while I get back to this whole blogging thing, will you?  I mean, if the twelve or thirteen of you haven't gone off and abandoned me already since I've neglected your trust in me to provide... something... more frequently than TWICE A YEAR...  Ahem.)
 ------------------
We spent our last evening having dinner with family friends I haven't seen for more than 20 years.  (It doesn't seem right that I'm old enough to have known someone that long ago.)  In a complete coincidence (and thanks to Facebook), we found that Sam and Pam were in Florida for vacation at the same time we were there for Greg's running mania.  I'm absolutely amazed, and a bit shocked, that we could be so far from home and hook up with friends from Idaho (of all places), just because a picture from Olive Garden was posted on Facebook.  How cool is that?!? 

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous - I mean, what am I going to say to these folks after so much time?  And what do I call them?  I mean, I'm an adult now, but they were adults when I was a child so is using first names acceptable?  But Mr. and Mrs. just sounds way too formal...  And I also admit to being a little concerned that they wouldn't approve of me in some way.  (I choose to think that was a throwback to my childhood days and remembered authority figures, rather than an indication of deep-seated self-doubt.)  It didn't help my nerves that we were running behind, went to the wrong pickup spot, then had to backtrack to finally get connected.

As soon as we were together, it was easy as pie.  We spent the few hours we had catching up on family goings-on and glossing over the intervening years of separation.  Almost like going back in time, only better because now I can more fully enjoy the interaction.  They're almost unchanged from what I remember - or else my new memories are superimposed over my old ones - a little grayer around the temples, perhaps, but still the same. Amazing to think of how time has passed, and so totally wonderful that we could get together - I was sad when our time together ended, but glad of the new memories we have.  God bless and keep you, Sam and Pam.

It's been an amazing trip.  Between the sightseeing, getting acquainted with friends, Greg's running accomplishments, and the wonderful surprise of connecting with old friends, it's almost hard to leave.  And yet... home beckons.  Not the cold (it's been below zero for almost the whole time we've been gone), but the friends and family who are waiting for us.  And, I suppose, the knowledge that I have not yet found the job that will pay me to not work.

And so we're down to the final adventure: the trip home, where I almost lost my wallet, Greg shoplifted from the Disney store, we barely made one of the connecting flights, and I saw another new vending machine (with makeup, a mini boom box, sunglasses, and eye covers for sale).

After we checked our bags and were heading for security, we decided to use the restrooms.  From there, we stopped at the Disney store to browse for souveniers.  I found some chocolate covered pretzels but when I was heading up to the counter, discovered my wallet was missing.  I handed everything to Greg - rather abruptly, I might add - and raced back to the restroom, praying all the way that someone had turned it in, and where is the lost and found anyway? I don't care if they take the money, just please, please leave the ID so I can get home...  Miracle of miracles (thank you, Lord), my wallet was on the floor just outside the stall I'd used, where it must have fallen out of my pocket.  I gathered the recalcitrant item (and my racing heart, and my dropped stomach) and headed back to find Greg, only to discover that he had followed me out of the store and half way down the long hallway.  I marched him back into the Disney store so we could pay for the pilfered items, and then we were on our way home.  (To be fair, I guess the pretzels got wrapped up in my coat, so Greg didn't even realize I'd handed him an item from the store.  But it's much more fun to say that he shoplifted...)  Only one delay, one mad-dash race to the gate for the connecting flight, and now we're home, dreaming of sunny, warm Florida while attempting to avoid frostbite from the frigid weather.

Florida Connection - Let the Running Commence

And the insanity begins.  Greg ran three races in three days.  And I had to get up and moving before the butt-crack of dawn for those three days - a minor miracle, in and of itself.  He started with a 5k - the Family Fun Run - on Friday morning.  It was a good test, since we knew we'd have to leave even earlier and deal with more traffic for the other races.  (As it is, I almost took an off-ramp that I shouldn't have - thanks  and *waves* to the folks creeping along behind that let me back in the lane.  In my defense, it was labelled "runner drop off" and it sure as HELL isn't me running these races.  And it was early.  And I hadn't had much caffeine.  I don't do well in these kinds of situations.)  Ahem.

Friday afternoon, we hooked up with Mike and Marci (they came up to Orlando from Naples to spend the weekend with us and cheer for Greg), and Dayna (aka Lethal Lavender, one of my all-time favorite roller derby girls - yay!!).  Dayna is the one that planted the seed in Greg's demented brain for running all these races.  It's super-cool to meet her in person, since I've admired her from afar for quite some time (I may have just a bit of star-worship going on here, but it's not stalker-ish...  I promise...).  We've been "Facebook friends" for a while, but never actually interacted in person until now.  She's down-to-earth and friendly.  She's funny, and totally human.  (I suppose that's true of other celebrities too, but this is my first brush with such a luminary.)

Early to bed, early to rise...  Both are rather difficult for me.  To accommodate, I had to shower the night before, so I could get out of bed, get dressed, and get going. (We also made sure to stock the fridge with Rockstars.  I think I barely remembered to brush my teeth.)  Still, try as I might, I didn't get to bed until almost midnight, which made the 3:30am wakeup rather painful.  Ah, well.  It's for a good cause.  (That's what I kept telling myself, as I was dragging around, working extra hard not to be too grouchy.  Mornings in general are not my thing.  Mornings that start at 3am are especially torturous.)

Once we were moving, everything seemed to go relatively well.  Disney is incredibly organized.  They'd have to be, to host an event of this scale.  Apparently more than 26,000 runners registered for the half-marathon, almost 17,000 for the marathon, and there were about 6,498 people just as bat-shit crazy as Greg and Dayna to run the Goofy.  Who knew there were that many deranged runners in this world?  Anyhow.  To support such a gathering, there were more than 6,000 volunteers, in addition to the Disney staff.  And it seemed to run smooth-as-pie good.  Which is to say: phenomenal.

From the spectator side, everything was done well.  (For a bit of the runner's perspective, Dayna has a blog and posted here, here, here, and here.)  We had free transportation from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom (and back), and routes were well marked.  Aside from the staff and volunteers every few feet, I could just follow the hordes of people - we were all heading the same way.  (Yes.  I was a sheeple. But it worked.  I didn't get lost and was at the finish for both races.)  For the half, I went directly from dropping Greg off to the railway to get to Magic Kingdom.  Unfortunately, they didn't open the park for spectators until 5:30am.  So I rode it back and forth for a bit, until I could get in.  I walked up to the castle, which was beautiful in its pre-dawn splendor, to wait.  Then I started to get nervous about fighting the  hordes of people to get back to Epcot to watch the finish, so I turned around and went back.  Turns out, I probably would have been just fine, but I didn't know it at the time and opted to watch the finish over a mid-way point.  I only had one chance to get a picture, because action shots on my camera require me to push the shutter half way down and wait for my subject(s) to enter the frame.  So when Greg and Dayna kicked it to the finish, I just missed the shot where they were side-by-side (literally by a second).  Instead you get the shot above, where I had to circle Dayna's head so you'd see she was actually there.

It took them a little over 3 hours to finish the race.  They weren't super-fast, but in no danger of the sweepers either, and they finished.  (Disney has a time limit, and if you're not going fast enough the sweepers will pick you off from the back of the pack, so you won't get to finish.  Rather like nefarious vampires (aren't all vampires nefarious?), only everyone lives and there's no blood - unless it's a popped blister or some other race-related injury.)  It brings to mind a t-shirt we saw at the runner's Expo: The slowest runner is faster than the guy sitting on the couch.  Ain't that the truth!  Way to go, Greg and Dayna!!

I didn't get after-the-half pictures because Dayna had to take off (for some reason she thought it'd be a good idea to schedule a massage after the race...).  So Mike, Marci, Greg and I headed into Epcot to spend the afternoon wandering the park.  We started in the countries, and determined we were going to eat and drink our way around the world.  It was a heroic endeavor, and I'm proud to say we completed the task (although it was just prior to closing and the fireworks, but we did it).  We took a break half-way 'round so we could go to the other side for some rides and entertainment.  We didn't get to do Soarin' because the wait-time was too long, but we caught Captain Eo (the old, OLD 3D skit with Michael Jackson).  I also had to take a picture of Greg at the Norwegian troll.  Brought back memories of the last time we were here, years ago.  (There's a similar picture in this post.)

Sunday was exactly the same... only different.  This time, I napped in the car for almost two hours before I headed to the Magic Kingdom.  (As I was heading to the railway, I could hear the announcers heralding the first finishers crossing the line.  Damn!  Those dudes are fast!!)  I have to say, the text updates were super-helpful.  I had some idea of where they were at, so wasn't panicking that I'd missed them as I was standing at the castle, watching the runners go by.  On the way back to Epcot, there was some kind of issue with the railway, so we had to take a ferry across the lake (I'd hooked up with Mike and Marci by that time), then wait in an enormously long line at the central station to get back to Epcot.  I must say, Disney is the King of Queues.  We were almost constantly moving.  Down the lane, 180 degree turn and walk back the way we came (only a foot or two closer), wind down a ways, then back and forth again.  Just when I thought we were on the homestretch, I'd see that there was another labyrinthine twist to the line.  But because we were moving constantly, it felt like we were making progress so no one got overly grouchy or upset because of the glitch.  Almost like magic.

It was fun to stand in the crowd, watching the runners.  Constant amazement that these people have just run 26.2 miles and are still upright.  And the other crowd members were incredibly supportive.  A few were even runners that had already finished and were hanging out for a while to cheer on and support everyone else.  I got smart this time, and instead of trying to get a single picture, I set my camera to video.  This is only the second video ever that I've posted - might even be the second video ever that I've taken.  (The first is here, and it still makes me laugh every time I watch it.  Thanks, Greg, for being such a good sport!)

The rest of the day was spent in recuperation-mode, and saying goodbye.  Sunday was one of the only times I can remember where I could walk faster than Greg.  I felt bad for the obvious discomfort they both were feeling, but it made me giggle to be able to "run get the car" while he hobbled out of the restaurant.  Is that bad?  I think it probably is, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  Besides, by Monday he was hearty and hale again (and I was trailing behind in our dashes from various planes to new ones as we headed home).  I'm so proud of Greg for doing this (but not surprised).  Once he determined this was what he wanted to do, he made it happen.  He's just like that.

Way to go, Dayna and Greg!!