Panna and I woke up to a foggy morning.

We were on our way to Sandusky in the morning, getting lost a few times along the way, but we were able to make it there. Along the way, Panna pulled over a few times to text and call Monica to determine where we would meet at the race (Christelie's full Ironman Triathlon race). She started off at 7 05 AM this morning and had already gone from swimming to cycling by the time we arrived.

A church along the way.

Along the way to Sandusky on Hwy 13/250 on the way to Norwalk, we passed an Amish family in a horse carriage about to come onto the main road we were on, and we pulled over to read more text messages from Monica for directions. The Amish family passed by, and I took pictures and waved at them.

So this is what it looked like to have people passing by in a horse carriage! It was a strange experience, as I had never experienced anything like this. The child in the rear waved back. As we caught up with them, you could see the horse running, and the carriage behind him made him look like he was dancing side-to-side.

Architecture that is typical of the small towns along the way.

Arriving in Sandusky and finding the place was tricky, as Panna's GPS kept trying to point us back to the road that was closed for the race. The worst part was the fact that there is Cedar Point Road, Cedar Point Drive, and Cedar Point Causeway, all terminating in the same point at Cedar Point, and her GPS couldn't distinguish between them. At least, with Monica's help, we didn't end up in a pond. We finally met Monica and Sophie just outside the parking booths to the Cedar Point Amusement park, on the shores of Lake Erie in Sandusky, OH. I was so excited! I did not expect to be at Lake Erie on this trip! When we understood we had to drive down the causeway, we could see that we were driving onto a body that jut out into Lake Erie. I hadn't done that since the Galveston Island trip last year. In the second photo, you can see parts of Cedar Point Amusement Park.

Anyhow, we went to eat before parking and entering the race transition area. A seagull was watching us.

I found this Mountain Edition Jeep Wrangler (should have taken another photo of it, but here it is).

The race transition area is where the racers change from cycling to running, so it would be several hours before we would see Christelie come in on her bike and change for the final stage of the race.

Look at the hundreds, if not thousands of bicycles parked here!

If you are a nature lover, you would want to steer CLEAR of the amusement park, its incessantly loud speakers that play music with what must be ship air horns right on top of the ticket booths (it even hurt my ears!), and the nightmare that is the huge flat parking lot. Go to the right of the parking lot, the northeast boundary, where you will find an opening to the shores of the lake and turn right, or eastward away from the amusement park.

We waited for several hours, talking while waiting for Christelie to arrive in the transition area and enduring the ship horns overhead. Monica and Sophie spent several hours inside the park, and at one time told us they were getting on the ferris wheel, and we walked as close to it as we could outside the park to try to see them with my camera which can snap 40X photos with digital zoom, but I could never find them in the car they were in. (do NOT ask me to go on rides at a park - I like my still-relatively-gray-free hair, thank you) Check out this hearse near the ticket booths.

I had noticed the fact that the racers were sitting down to sodas, chips, and sandwiches provided to them at the end of their races! The horrors! You don't eat so soon after a race when your GI tract is still shut down from physical activity! Whatever... We went out to Panna's car to get our food and came back.

We met up again before Christelie's arrival, and I could see an artist was very creative in painting Sophie's face somewhere in the park.

After about 45 minutes of waiting and running down the camera batteries trying to find her coming down (as I wanted far-away and close-up photos of her arrival), she came in, and we cheered her on to the next stage, every one of us.

Quickly, we moved to the exit area for the running stage of the race, and Sophie eagerly waited for her Mom to come running out. We cheered her on again as she went running by.

Since it would be several hours before she returned, we went to get more food to eat on the beach before going there.

We got onto the beach, the first time I had been near Lake Erie! The water is dark, the beach a dark brown where it is wet. The sand away from that was light colored and dry, so I pulled off my sandals to feel the heat of the sand, as the air from a few inches above the ground and up was a bit chilly.

These are the signs we used to cheer Christelie on to her final leg of this Ironman Triathlon race. This, by the way, is the photo I have of my aunt standing on the second beach. I hope there will be a third!

We walked by the rides next to the beach and sat under one of the rides to eat again and talk.

We sat under this ride as the people spun 'round at 30 MPH (Panna said she could hear the announcer for the ride make that known over the speakers).

Here are some flowers by the park.

We walked back as it was getting dark, and we could see the full moon to the east, just slightly off-white. Panna and I finally saw Christelie come in, and I snapped a photo before we hurried to the finish line.

We waited and waited. And waited. Racer after racer arrived, getting the "finish the race photo," the finish line photo with supporters next to them, and getting the tracking device taken off the ankle before being handed a thin aluminized space blanket to help with body warmth retention. She never arrived. Well, (slapping drunk hand across the opposite shoulder twice with a stupid look) it turned out that she was merely HALFWAY through the running phase of the race and was running back out to run the second loop, so Panna and I missed her running out for the second loop while waiting for her arrival at the finish line. We learned that she would not be arriving back for the finish line until possibly 10 or 11 PM.

We were getting tired, as we were past our bedtimes. We just sat around and talked some more until shortly before midnight. We were back at the finish line really hoping Christelie would make it before then, otherwise the remaining racers out there would be pulled off the road at pull-off time. I kept running precious batteries downward in the camera to zoom in the final 30 yards or so to see if she was coming down, since her tracking device was lost, and Monica couldn't track her progress. This is the finish line.

It was getting cold, and I was a bit irritated at people wearing t-shirts and SWEATING in the sub-70-degree night. Finally, I could see her and daughter Sophie running together to the finish line, so I told Panna it was her this time. We were excited when she made it through. I bowed before her several times. She did it. She actually did it! She completed the full Ironman Triathlon race in 16 hours, 52 minutes, and 6 seconds. That was amazing!