Family Vacation Part Two

My second week of family vacation is now over. I am really grateful that I was able to be there for the full two weeks because I had a blast camping on our annual trip to Cape Cod.Some things I learned this week were…1.) There is nothing better than family time! Being able to spend two whole weeks with my grandparents, parents, and sister is really something special. With my grandparents living in Germany, I only see them 1-2x a year and only for short amounts of time. My sister Nadja, lives all the way in California in San Francisco and I only see her about 2x a year as well. And of course my parents, who I get to see less and less, were glad to have me back for 2 weeks before I head to Stratton.2.) Ocean swimming is hard…ocean swimming intervals are even harder. Unlike a pool, you have waves pushing you around, people, dogs, and seals all around, and really salty water that splashes in your mouth. I probably drank a good amount of salt water that day (probably way too much…oooops).3.) Running is really hard. I got to run for the first time this week and I must say it was the hardest 2 miles I have ever run. Even though I ran in the AlterG a lot in Park City, I must admit my first run was one of the hardest parts of my rehab so far. It was both a mental and physical struggle; I found it tough to feel so slow running even though I was working hard. Thankfully, with every run I feel better and better and I am stoked to be outside!4.)Working out with friends makes me happier and more motivated. I was excited to have our friends Lucian and Luis, as well as my parents and sister join me for my strength sessions. I love being able to show them some of the things I have been working on and passing along the things I have learned. My sister, my parents, and our long time family friend Rick also joined me for some beach yoga sessions(I am still getting the hang out teaching people yoga).5.) Seafood is now one of my favorite types of food. My family and one of our long time family friends, Rick, went out to dinner one night in Wellfleet to this amazing seafood place with a gorgeous view of a sunset. You just can’t beat fresh seafood while sitting right next to the water.6.) Breaking down camp in the rain yields for much more work later at home. It rain extremely hard our last night and continued to rain the morning when we broke down camp. Everything was extremely wet and dirty, so when we came home we have to re-set up everything. I decided to power hose most of our gear off and found it was quite fun. The good news is that I came home to our vegetable garden filled with tomatoes and eggplants and out peach tree was producing too many peaches to eat ourselves.7.) I am going to my sister Nadja VERY VERY much! My sister and I are extremely close and she is my best friend and best sister ever. She is always down to do anything with me from surfing, to working out, to doing yoga and much more! These past two weeks with her have been so incredible and now she is off to San Francisco for grad school. Good luck Nadja, I will miss you! <3-JKern