The Life of Reilly Enjoys October

October brought Griffin's first Halloween, a trip to the state fair with John and Madeline, a visit to a pumpkin patch, and the appearance of Mikey and Minnie at our annual kids Halloween party.

Tommy Galloway

The Family

We recently had some family photos taken, they turned out very well if I do say so myself

Happy 105th Birthday to Colonel Benjamin Whitehouse

September 6 - 9 found us on one of my favorite places on the planet, Cape Cod. Beth and I have been going to Cape Cod just about every year since we first moved to Connecticut in 2000. We have missed one year when we moved down here but otherwise it has become a very nice tradition. Here are links to previous Cape Cod trips, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006.

Click here for all of our pictures from this trip.

This year was very special as Ben, Gladys, Harry, Ilene, Cindy, Dave, Zak, Emily, Ben and Sabra joined us along with Aunt Trudy, Uncle Ed, Kelly, Mike, Daniel, Craig, Matthew, Connie and Tia joined us in celebrating Beth's Grandfather's 105th (not a typo) birthday.

originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

2007_0910originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Sunday Grandpa's place celebrated his birthday and gave him 105 red, white and blue roses.


I was also able to get a nice run in on the Cape Cod Rail Trail, below is the route I ran along with a couple of embedded pics, I created this using EveryTrail, a very cool gps/picture site.

Cape Cod Rail Trail Brewster, MA at EveryTrail

Map created using EveryTrail: GPS, Travel & Geotagging!

The Trails

I have found a very cool new site which allows me to embed pictures in a google map along with the gps route. Check it out.

He is Handing Them Out

2007_0813(006), originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Griffin started smiling a few days ago, now he won't stop. What a cutie!

Banschee

Banschee, originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

I am playing around with blogging from flickr, my new site for storing all of our pics, check it out sometime, www.flickr.com/photos/tommygalloway.

This is a shot of one of my favorite sections of one of my favorite trails, from my back door to trailhead, less than 1 mile.

How to Beat the Heat? Head to the Mountains!

Saturday 8/04/07

6:00 am

Sunny 59 degrees

Moses Cone, Blue Ridge Parkway Milemarker 294

http://www.brptrails.com/brp2940.htm

We took the boys along with Gary and the Girls and headed to the mountains this weekend to beat the heat. A stunning sunrise run was one of the the highlights of the weekend.

I tagged along with Gary for the first part of his 24 mile training run this Saturday. Not too crazy about his strict 6am start time, I dragged myself out of bed at 5am. We arrived at one of Gary's favorite destinations and quickly becoming one of mine, Moses Cone http://www.blowingrock.org/mosescone.html, and were running shortly after 6am. I was running the first 10-11 miles with Gary, 1.5 miles down to Trout Lake, then 4 miles up to the top of Rich Mountain, then back.

Here is the elevation profile from my garmin.

The sun starts to rise as we pass Trout Lake, and the run takes a very difficult turn up, basically 4 miles of slow, gradual "up" on winding carriage roads. If you can catch your breath, you are rewarded with beautiful views of the mountains. Don't let the run back fool you, while mostly downhill, running with Gary downhill is a quad burning experience, and the last 1.5 miles is all uphill as you leave Trout Lake again and return to Moses Cone.

The tempatures were a good 10 degrees cooler than Chapel Hill and we passed exactly zero people the entire way up and most of the way down. All in all another excellent run on the carriage roads of Moses Cone. Watch out for Gary, whatever he has been doing is working, he is a RUNNING MACHINE, I recommend staying away from hills if you are running with him.

A "3-D view" of the route w/elevation from Google Earth, you can see 221 and the BlueRidge Parkway wrapping around Grandfather Mtn in the background.

Swimming Lessons for the Life of Reilly

originally uploaded by Tommy Galloway.

Reilly and his buddy Thomas have started swimming lessons

Photos by Kathleen Hunter

Griffin Galloway

Griffin getting a little play time!

Before and After

Want to see what 4.5 years of running will do for you? The picture on the right is from Christmas 2002, the left was taken last week. Quite a difference?

July 4th, 2007

Griffin has almost doubled his weight since he was born, he is 6 weeks old today! Dad, Carol and Matt came for a visit the week of July 4th.

The Brothers Galloway

Par nobile fratum - A noble pair of brothers - Horace, Satires

My own brother included this quote at the bottom of a picture he gave me years ago, I still have this picture hanging on my bedroom wall and it is one of the most treasured items ever given to me.

Words cannot express how proud and happy I am to have brought another pair of Galloway Brothers into this world. I trust that Gary and I's relationship will serve as a model for how two brothers should treat one another.

Life of Reilly Adds One

After a tumultuous start, Griffin Benjamin Galloway arrived 5/27/07 1:36am, 4lbs, 11ozs, we are bringing him home today. Reilly left the NICU on Fathers Day 2004, Griffin leaves on our 7 year anniversary, 6/3/07.

WELCOME HOME BABY GRIFFIN!

Finger Lake Trout

Reilly catches his first fish.

Falls Lake Trail

Easter Excursion at Falls Lake Trail.

A few months ago Gary and a few others ran a part of the Falls Lake Trail. This trail is approximiately 23 miles long and outlines the lower section of Fall Lake. The trailhead off Hwy 50 is less than 10 minutes away from Beth's parents house. I HIGHLY recommend this trail for a run or hike. It is not that hilly and offers great views of the lake. I did a 12 mile out and back on Easter, weather was perfect and the trail was very runnable. This is now one of my favorite runs in the area.

detail info can be found here:
http://home.nc.rr.com/schnabba/falls_lake_nature_trail.pdf

The Dipsea Trail

Work took me out to San Francisco in late March, I took the chance to drive up to Muir Woods and hit the Dipsea Trail, home to one of the oldest trail races in the country and a very beautiful trail. I picked up the trail in Muir Woods, and decided to run towards Stinson Beach. After almost 3 miles of up, up and more up, I was rewarded by some beautiful redwood forests.





After leaving Muir Woods, the trail climbs the mountain and offers incredible views of the Pacific, the top of the Golden Gate and a skyline view of San Francisco.









Right after the climb I was fortunate enough to run through this beautiful forest, the trail then takes you down, down and down into a canyon on your way to Stinson Beach. The thrill of running downhill was enough to keep me going the entire way, of course I then had to turn around and head back, up, up and up. I made it back just as Muir Woods was closing. All in all, a great way to start my business trip. Elevation Profile and Google Earth views are below.

Baby Griffin!

It's been awhile since I've posted, directly correlated to me taking a new job, still with the same company, just a new role. Things are going great, Reilly's little brother, who we have decided to name Griffin Benjamin Galloway, or GG Jr. as Gary calls him, continues to grow! Here are the latest shots of the little guy. Spring is starting and we're excited for what's ahead. We're taking a week vacation soon to the Finger Lakes with two other families and then we're back to get ready for Baby Griffin.

Hope everyone is doing well!