Summer Vacation 2.0

My family was blessed to be able to take two major vacations this summer.  Everything aligned for us to travel with my parents in June after Grandma's Marathon (trip details here), and our second excursion was in July with my mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, two nieces, and a nephew.  Our ultimate road trip destination was Niagara Falls, but we stopped along the way for several other activities.  We visited 6 states (or 7 if you count our home state of Missouri):  Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.  Here is a quick break-down of our trip, including what I ran each day!

We bought this photo, but I didn't end up with it...I need to
borrow it to scan for a better version than this picture of a picture!

Saturday

• I ran 10.6 miles before we left home, including winning the Girls Just Want to Run "5K" in Springfield.
• We visited the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville, Illinois (just outside St. Louis, Missouri), then drove about an hour farther before stopping for the night.  Jon and I had toured this before, but the rest of our group saw it for the first time.
  

  

  On top of Monk's Mound with the St. Louis cityscape in the background

Sunday

• I ran 7.3 miles in Mount Vernon, Illinois, mostly on fairly rural roads.
• We visited the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky.  It sprinkled on us and was unseasonably cool.  The Ark was very extensive and impressive!

Ark Encounter

Donkey ride

Monday

• I ran 11.2 hilly miles in Florence, Kentucky.
• We toured the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, then headed northeast.  If you can only do one of the two, choose the Ark Encounter over this, but both are worth seeing.

Creation Museum

Tuesday

• I ran 8.7 miles, including 5 x 3'/3' farlek workout in Willoughby, Kentucky.
• We drove all morning to Niagara Falls.
• We ate authentic New York pizza.
• We took a trolley ride to the Falls area and did a walking tour around the visitor's center and downtown area on the U.S. side.
• The kids finally got to swim in a hotel pool!  All it takes to make these children happy on vacation is hotel pools, WiFi, gift shops, and fast food, so I always jokingly tell Jon that we should just get a hotel in Joplin (between us and cousins) and call it good!

Niagara Falls

Wednesday

• I ran 10.5 miles on the Riverview and Shoreline Trails.
• We took a Niagara Falls mega-tour that included:
• Maid of the Mist boat ride
• Visitor's Center observation deck
• Cave of the Winds Tour
• Crossing the Canadian border
• Viewing at Whirlpool Aero Car area (Canadian side)
• Viewing at Queen Victoria Park area (Canadian side)
• Ride up and viewing from Skylon Tower (Canadian side)

Visitor's Center observation area

Cave of the Winds tour

Canada

 Thursday

• I ran 10 miles + strides on the Riverview, Shoreline, and ___ Rim Trails, and I saw a rainbow over the Falls.  This was certainly the highlight of my vacation running!  The Falls are something to put on your bucket list for sure.
• We toured Old Fort Niagara, which was impressive and also had a great view of Lake Erie.

Worth stopping my Garmin for!

Old Fort Niagara

Lake Erie

 Friday

• I ran 4.4 miles in Mansfield, Ohio (the town where Shawshank Redemption was filmed, although we did not get to tour the Ohio State Reformatory because it didn't open until 11:00).
•  We drove/rode a lot...  I am not a fan of sitting in the car all day, but I read some great books on the trip.  The kids slept a lot in the car!

Tired

 Saturday

• I ran 13.1 miles in Troy, Illinois, mainly around corn fields.  The front desk attendant at the hotel was sleeping seated upright when I left on this run!
• We spent our final day at the St. Louis Zoo before returning home that night.  We were planning to go up in the Gateway Arch too, but the tickets were sold out.

St. Louis Zoo

I set a PR for the most miles run on a vacation (67), beating my previous best of 52 miles (detailed here), plus I managed to get in some strength training.  I learned more about figuring out where to run when spending every night in a new area, and about how to fit everything in, so I'm going to do a full post on vacation running tips soon.