Oh Canada and Peep Leafing

A few weekends ago a group of friends rented a lake house in VT on the border (literally) of Canada and Lake Champlain. Although the forecast predicted rain all weekend, Rob and I didn't want to miss out on any fun so we drove through heavy rain (and Friday afternoon traffic) and made it to the house late Friday evening.

Saturday morning we woke up to this awesome view of Lake Champlain :

Although the weather looked a little threatening, Rob and I decided to do some early morning exploring. We walked to the end of our driveway, looked to our right and saw the U.S./Canada border! There were security stations for each country, but we thought we could bypass the system...
It gives new meaning to the phrase "hopping the border," right? (yuk, yuk, yuk)

After we got yelled at by border patrol (really) we came home and a group of us headed over to the Adirondack Mountains for a hike. The weather held up and we drove through some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. It is so beautiful here in the fall...if the season just wasn't so short and wasn't followed by such a long, brutal winter, I would be totally up for living in New England permanently!

Later, our friends rented a speed boat and the crazy boys went waterskiing (apparently there's a man-rule that says : If there is a lake, a real man must ski regardless of the water temperature). :) In the evening we made s'mores around a campfire before falling asleep, completely exhausted. The next morning we stopped at a nice little branch in VT for church and did some more peep leafing on the drive back to Cambridge.

All we need is 2 wheels and an open road....

I don't know if y'all have heard about this, but apparently Lance Armstrong is making a comeback! I guess 7 Tours de France titles and countless hours in the saddle haven't satisfied his thirst for road biking.

Rob and I understand how he feels...
After doing a lot of research and debating back and forth, we purchased early Christmas (and birthday and Valentines Day and St Patricks Day and Yom Kippur) presents for ourselves: we bought road bikes!
After getting completely outfitted and broken in, Rob and I went on a more extended bike trip Saturday morning. We headed north from Cambridge, all of the way up the MinuteMan Bike Commuter path, then did a big loop to take in some beautiful scenery, a cranberry bog, and Great Brook Farm (where they make awesome icecream from their own cows). It was probably one of the best Saturdays we've had in Cambridge so far!
At the end of the trip we checked out our nifty cyclocomputers to see stats about our ride. We ended up logging 45 miles, with a total trip time of about 4 1/2 hours (including stops), and hit a top speed of 32 mph. The traffic-rebel, Rob, thought it was pretty cool that we were breaking the speed limit on our bikes. We finished tired but totally exhilarated and happy; biking is definitely a lot easier on the body than running and it's such a rush!
We're addicted. Too bad it doesn't look like we'll have much more time for biking before the cold, cold winter sets in. Maybe we should retire from this whole responsible adult/school/work stuff and give Lance a run for his money....