Mt. Major and a swim lesson

I took the day off today because I realized that I had 10.5 hours of personal time that I need to use or lose by the end of June, and things are going to be so busy for May and June. I was so glad that I took today, because it was a beautiful day, and it's supposed to rain all weekend. 

The reason I chose today was that I had a second swim lesson at the Y in Oak Square, which is actually kind of far to get to - it was a 30 min lesson that was a 45 min drive. I spent the whole ride there feeling grumpy and questioning my judgement on going there, but then the coach that I took the lesson with was so good, and she gave me some tips on breathing that were so effective! I actually feel confident that if I practice her drills I will get the bilateral breathing down eventually.

After, I went to the kittery outlets, mostly to go to the lulu outlet there. I tried on like 15 things at lulu, and not a single one of them sparked joy. There was a pair of hiking pants with the zip off legs that I though about getting but they were $100 at the outlet, and I though that once the legs were off, the shorts would bunch when I walked. On the way out of kittery I stopped at the eddie bauer and they had a pair of shorts I really liked, and a cute summer dress. They had the shorts in 3 colors and the dress in 2, and I bought all of them :)

I was excited to hit Mt Major - it seems like it's become my traditional first hike of the season. The weather was so nice, and the leaves were just coming out. It took me 50 minutes to get to the top. Once up there I admired the view. I think you can actually see Mt. Washington! Last year I hiked Mt. Straightback and enjoyed the ridge line so much I decided to do it again. I really like walking over there, but then I decided I didn't need to go all the way up straightback because it's viewless, and turned back. I went down the main trail this time - it was a little wet in a couple of the steep places, but still a nice trip down. 

On the way home I wanted to stop at this new place I saw called buns and bowls (because that sounded yummy) but they were closed. So I got ice cream instead, which was delicious! 

On Thursday I bought new running shoes. I tried on every pair of la sportiva trail runners, but in the end I got the exact same shoes as the last time. Now, just have to put them on and run.