Back from the cruise...back to school...and the other shoe has dropped...

Hi all......finally back from vacation (which was amazing!), but picked up a nasty little cold on the last day and that's the "other shoe" to which I've referred.  I've been so lucky through my marathon training thus far.....doing my best to not get injured as the weekly mileage starts to increase.......and trying my best to avoid picking up any flu or colds along the way.  As an 8th-grade teacher, I work in a germ factory...my kids expose me to everything, so the fact that I've made it this far is a bit of a victory.  Still, on the last night of our cruise, I started to feel a bit of that tell-tale drip.....and by the time our last flight touched down in Boston around 10pm, I knew it was only going to get worse.  Sure enough, Sunday was a bit bad, but by yesterday it really started to bloom.  Now I've got to hope this goes away as quickly as it came, so I can get back to serious training!

So the vacation was awesome.......the cruise was wonderful fun, the weather was terrific, and I was actually able to train a bit.  The "running track" on the ship was useless......clogged with geriatric walkers, people smoking, and deck chairs, so I spent most of my time on one of the lower decks.  It was definitely an odd place to run, as I quickly named it "Lifeboat Alley", as all of the lifeboats were directly overhead....

 

Our boat, the MSC Poesia, was terrific.....not the biggest cruise ship working the Caribbean, but definitely big enough for us.......here we are at the dock in St. Thomas, VI.

One of my favorite parts of any vacation is being able to indulge my passion for photography, and being able to capture the sunrise as we were pulling into San Juan harbor was truly special!

In addition, I managed to get a great picture of my biggest fans......my beautiful wife Barbara and our son Benjamin........here they are on the ferry to the lovely island of St. John, VI.

 I could add literally hundreds of pictures, but this is my running blog, not my photography blog, but I need to at least add these additional pics.  Old San Juan is a photographer's dream....loads of beautiful old buildings painted in a rainbow palette of pastels, each with unique, beautiful wrought iron reminiscent of so many buildings in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

And then there's the water.....OMG, the color of the water is amazing.  In particular, some of the pics I got as we pulled into the harbor in Nassau, Bahamas are beyond belief....see for yourself!

Now I'm back home.....with only a few short weeks before Boston.  Got the official confirmation from the BAA...wow.......this is really going to happen!  That's about all for now.  I need to get to bed to try to lose my cold.  We're expecting a snow storm tomorrow but it's supposed to be back in the 50's again by the weekend, so I should be able to get out for my 13 miles on Sunday....providing I can breathe!