First of all, Lake Chelan is by far one of our favorite places as a family. It feels like true summer when you're there (if there's no smoke from wildfires). It's beautiful, warm, lots of fun things to do and the lake itself is just so clean and refreshing. There's truly nothing like that lake. And now we've been there enough times that we have our favorite restaurants, activities, etc. that we like to do every time.
The other fun thing about the annual ChelanMan trip is it brings us back together in sort of mini-reunion style with our friends/community from Eastlake Church. We don't really see each other during the year, but without fail the group makes it to ChelanMan every year. Even people who aren't competing in the race still come back just to all be together. Instead of renting a big house this year like we usually do, we basically all took over the Lake Chelan Motel. A darling little place just 2 blocks from the race location (no parking drama this year yay!) with a major bonus--a pool! We've never had a pool before and it was a game changer. It was so nice to just hang out at the pool and have an activity for the kids. We had a room without a kitchen which was a little tricky, but we've already booked the place for next year and made sure to get a kitchen. ;) It was so so nice being walking distance from the park where the ChelanMan is held.
James did the Olympic triathlon on Saturday and did awesome. He came in at around 3 hours, 10 minutes and felt strong and good. The weather wasn't terribly hot either--it was a gorgeous day. We celebrated afterwards by hanging out in the pool all afternoon and then had a pizza dinner at a rented house that one of the families stayed at.
My Sprint triathlon was on Sunday (always hard having to go the next day--builds up the nerves too much!). Except for a challenging swim this year, I had a really good race. I got overwhelmed in my swim and couldn't catch my breath. It took me awhile to get in my groove. I finally did and made up some time, but man I felt like the swim would never end. The bike part was great--that's always my favorite. And I only stopped once to walk during the run! I came in under 2 hours (1 hour and 50 minutes I think) which is always my goal so that felt good.
Of course we couldn't leave out the boys! ChelanMan has a great Splash n Dash kids triathlon to wrap up the event weekend. This is the third year Nate has done it and second year for Cam. They did terrific! They basically "walked" the swim part through the shallow water. But then both were super fast on their bike and run. They did great!
We spent the rest of the day at Slidewaters--the wonderful waterslide park in Chelan. It was the best thing we could have done because it kept our bodies moving and it was refreshing to be in the cool water all day. And this year we decided to stay an extra night--another fabulous idea so we could just enjoy time as a family and relax. We went to the Lakeview Drive-In for dinner and then played in the pool again the next morning. It was a fantastic weekend and not long enough. Can't wait to go back to Chelan again!
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