McCarty's Take on Tahoe

For the second month of parents helping babysit Bronte, Matt and Julia came to San Francisco. It took a couple of days for Bronte to settle into the new faces, and soon became mesmerized with Dad’s guitar. We all got into a routine of walking through Golden Gate park together, and Dad and Julia mastered the hills. Bronte napped as they walked the neighborhoods, and even spent a morning drinking her morning milk at the Japanese Tea Garden. We had such a wonderful time biking and strolling through the park, and Dad and Julia loved people watching all the characters of the city.

Near the end of their month here, we traveled to Tahoe for a triathlon. Dad, prior to arriving to SF, managed to break some ribs while training for the bicycle portion of the race (a cop car pulled out in front of him, and he flew over the handlebars!). While his training for the race turned into “swimming” in our living room with books in his hands, and jogging 5 steps at a time, he still worked on healing and getting ready for the race. He did such an amazing job - to be 70yr old and training for a race having a broken rib! We swam one morning in the ocean at the aquatic park, and his wetsuit gave him confidence for the swim portion of the race.

Once in Tahoe, he was feeling better, and completed the race! Jamie beat us all - and considering how she gave birth 5 months prior to this race, she rocked it. I finished somewhere between the healing postpartum wife and the partially broken “old” man. Race day was difficult - while it was such a beautiful race, the weather dramatically changed in Tahoe just for that weekend. From sunny summer days, the day of our race snow decided to hit Tahoe. The temperature of the water to the air was 30 degrees difference, which means the warmest part of our race was in the water. Once leaving the water, we got on the bike and quickly became numb with the sleet that started to come down. At times we shook so bad that our handlebars veered into the road. I remember passing Dad on the out and back bike portion - he smiled and said “I still have my ankle bracelet on!” which meant that he didn’t drown, and they didn’t have to pull his lifeless body out of the water. He was so, so proud! During the run the sun peaked out amongst with the falling rain, and we ran on beaches and amongst pine trees. It turned out beautiful, but it was rough. Julia watched Bronte in the cozy house, and eagerly awaited our survival.

The rest of our time in Tahoe was delightful. We had a picnic, watched a shakespeare performance at Sands Harbor, and had cozy nights by the fireplace. Even Bronte dipped her toes into the lake. We had a blast.