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I am getting old. Last night, I was happily asleep in my Heavenly Bed at the Westin until 1am, when a party erupted in the room next door. Some woman was belting out Air Supply’s “I’m all out of love” and there was loud talking and laughing and OMG, I was pissed. After about a half an hour of this, I called the hotel front desk, who sent security to the room.
I hear security come by and tell them to be quiet, and as soon as they were gone, the party raged on with more rousing 80s tunes. I turned on the TV trying to drown it out. I was miserable. I banged on the wall a few times… And after another hour of this, I called security a second time, who assured me that the ‘unregistered guests’ in the room had been escorted out. I asked for ear plugs, but they didn’t have any (mental note to travel with those from now on).
I don’t function well on lack of sleep. And I was so pissed that by the time the party died down at like 2:30am, I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was very tempted to bang on their door this morning to show them how it feels to be woken up.
So here is the kicker… I meet up with a co-worker this morning to walk to our meeting together, and I tell her how I’m low on sleep because there was a party in the room next door, and she busts up laughing… Come to find out, that room was full of three of my co-workers (good God, it sounded like 30). The girl belting out 80s tunes at 2am? One of my good friends. And evidently SHE called security on me because I was banging on the wall.
I don’t know how she does it. That co-worker, who had to be sloused last night, is leading today’s seminar, and she is chipper as can be. Meanwhile, I was sober and just a grumpy old woman, and I’m dragging.
It sucks getting old.
Oh, and my partying friend?! She’s like 10 years older than me. I guess it’s all a state of mind.
I think my life is on fast forward right now, and my blog is suffering. I have tons of pics to post from Pumpkin Patches (did 3 visits) to Halloween, but that will have to wait until I return from Seattle, where I sit right now.
I’m meeting in a building in downtown Bellevue, on the 11th floor with an amazing view of Belleview and Seattle. If you could just get rid of the layer of clouds, I’d love it here.
Halloween was full of princess fun. Little Miss picked out a “snow princess” costume, which I told her was Cinderella, as the Cinderella Disney costumes were overpriced pieces of you know what. Anyway, she spent the day with her cousins, one of which was also Cinderella (Little Miss had a blue dress, my niece had a pink one). The parade of princesses was adorable. I took the two Cinderellas (pronounced Cinderwella by Little Miss) to my work for cubicle trick or treating, and we joined my sister in law and both nieces for trick or treating in their neighborhood. The girls were thrilled with all of the candy.
We pretty much avoided our neighborhood until 8pm, as it is out of control on Halloween… All of the streets in our neighborhood were lined with cars on both sides from people driving into our area, and the streets were so crowded with rowdy teenagers that you can hardly drive. Oh, and they are RUDE. I put a bowl full of candy on the porch around 8, and it was gone within 5 min. No one seemed to want the snack packs of pretzels I put out. Anyway, thankfully no vandalism to our house due to our absence for most of the night.
Back to my business trip, I have two long days of meetings, but the reward is staying in a super nice hotel (Westin — love that Heavenly Bed) and dinner tonight at a wine bar and we’re doing a cooking class at the Culinary Institute tomorrow night for our dinner. Yum.
Fun. I upgraded to Internet Explore 8 Beta, and although it is really cool, it doesn’t work with Word Press yet, as Word Press won’t become compliant until it is in its final release… So off to downgrade I go (typing this on my home PC with IE7), as I can’t blog from my work PC now.
I went to Seattle for a day trip yesterday for our company meeting. This wasn’t just any meeting, people. It was attended by 20,500 people, was at Safeco Field in Seattle, was hosted by Dwight from the Office (aka Rainn Wilson), featured pyrotechnics and break dancers, and the grand finale was our CEO running around like a mad man and getting a reception fit for a rock star. (He and that video just make me smile… Such a contrast to the up-tight CEO I was used to at General Motors.)
Yeah, I work for a pretty cool company. I’m a PC. (Did you see the new ad campaign?)
Anyway, tomorrow is my first running race of the season — the 8K Journal Jog (4.9 miles). The packet pickup was insane tonight, so I’m anticipating a ton of people. Fingers crossed that it goes well!
Here are the pictures from our trip to Mammoth over Labor Day weekend. Enjoy!
We had one of the best camping trips of my life this past week at Lake Almanor in California. My brother and sister in law had scoped out a primo group camp site, where 21 of us were camping. It was secluded, with our campsites being nestled in the evergreens, but with the beach only a 50 yard walk, and stunning views from our site.
We used our new-to-us (thanks G&J) pop up camper, which I just love. Most people in our group had kids, and Little Miss was entertained the whole time by the other kids, but namely her two cousins. Since we had a secluded group spot, the kids could roam from camper to camper, and we all kept an eye out for all of the kids. Little Miss got her first ride on a waterski boat (yeah, she hated it), but I did get her in the lake water a bit.
We saw amazing sunsets every night, and I took my kayak out every day (many times with a kid in my lap). On Saturday, I did a REALLY long open water swim, which I estimate was between 2.5 and 3 miles (I was gone about 1 hour 40 min). I also managed to get friction burn from my suit, which apparently got infected by the lake water, so now I’m treating my infected armpit (yum) with antibiotic cream. (Sorry, that may be too much information, but I find it funny that I have an infected armpit).
I also got to take my road bike out for a long ride, and they have an awesome bike path that goes around the lake. I got to try out my new bike shoes and pedals, and they worked great!
So thanks to my brother and sister-in-law for arranging this awesome trip. I’m now scrambling to find one more open weekend before the weather turns cool that we can go camping again!
Here are my pictures… I somehow didn’t manage to get any pics of my youngest niece, but I guess that’s because Little Miss was hanging out with the older one the whole time.
Little Miss has started to repeat a phrase to us that you can tell means a lot to her, but nothing to us… “Lucky Boom Boom”.
Doesn’t that sound almost a bit dirty to you?!
This weekend, we stopped by JB’s company picnic, and she kept going up to his boss saying “Lucky Boom Boom”. He’d turn to us and ask what she was saying, and I’d reply, “Lucky Boom Boom”. Who knows what is going through her mind.
Our maiden voyage in the pop up camper went really well. We even managed to get it set up in the pitch dark on Friday, and I really enjoyed having more substantial dwellings than a tent.
We camped at Donner Lake State Park, and they are REALLY strict on bear regulations. As in each site gets a bear locker, and all food and toiletries (including coolers, toothpaste, deoderant, lotion) must be in the bear locker unless actively in use. They threaten a $1000 fine if you don’t follow the regulations.
The first night we were there, I asked JB to take our toiletries out to the bear locker before we went to sleep. He said no, and said they were just trying to scare people into being compliant. I, on the other hand, was too tired to take it out myself, and threatened, “you know this could mean I’ll have a nightmare.”
And that I did. I’ve talked about my lucid dreams here before. It doesn’t happen often, but generally if I go to sleep with the slightest bit of unease (as in if JB is out of town, or I am thinking about bears), I will have a dream so lucid that it has me jumping out of bed and screaming.
Which is just what I did in the middle of the night at the campground. In my dream, a bear was trying to grab me through the canvas on the camper, and I didn’t wake up until I was all the way across the camper screaming at the top of my lungs. I somehow made it over the wobbly table and into Little Miss’s bed before waking up. I must have scared the be-Jesus out of my fellow campers. JB promptly told me to be quiet and go to bed, while Little Miss remarkably just groaned and went back to sleep.
Luckily, the second night I was better, as no bear encounters actually happened (unlike when we camp at Bullards Bar, where the bears come into the campground during the night and day).
So anyway, we had a good time, and I got in a lovely swim in Donner Lake, which makes me want to do the Donner Lake Open Water Swim again, where you swim across the lake (2.7 miles).
That’s all for today. Your assignment for the day is to go up to at least one co-worker and say, “Lucky Boom Boom” with a lot of gusto! You’ll get a great reaction!
The reason I was quiet here for a week was that we were in Maryland getting all of the Bellin family together. Little Miss finally got to meet her two Bellin cousins, ages 3 and 2, and the girls had a blast together. The weather was rather mild, so although the humidity felt muggy to us, it could have been much worse.
We did a lot of hanging out as a family, going to parks, out to eat, and one trip to the Baltimore aquarium. During the girls’ naps, I got in some trail runs in a beautiful state park right by my brother in law’s house while JB and his brother went on bike rides.
We traveled via Southwest Airlines from Reno to Washington Dulles, and in typical Southwest style, we took the scenic route with multiple stops, and it took about 12 hours door to door each way. Little Miss was a champ, but I admit it was a rough trip for us. I showed up in Maryland with a splitting headache, just in time for Little Miss to choke on food at a restaurant and puke up her entire dinner. We also had a diaper explosion on the plane. Fun times!
But did you know that the new Southwest planes have diaper changing stations in the restrooms? I tell you, that was much appreciated! I can’t tell you how difficult standing diaper changes are during turbulance!
Anyway, here are the pics from our vacation. Sorry, but I’ve been asked not to put pictures of my Bellin nieces up on this site, so I had to weed out a lot of the pictures I took. Enjoy!
OK, so it only took me a month to post these. Here are the pics from our weekend at Mammoth back in April. Enjoy!
A sign in the lobby of my hotel says, “Children left unattended will be fed espresso and given a puppy.”
Man, imagining my kid on that combo is a funny thought.
The Willows Lodge has to be one of the nicest accommodations I’ve ever stayed in. I had a jacuzzi suite with a gas fireplace, flat screen HD TV with surround sound, and a walk-out patio. It was a shame to check out this morning, and the website just doesn’t do this place justice. It is right next to the Sammamish River, which has a beautiful bike path along it. I really enjoyed the rural atmosphere with walks and runs on that path when I wasn’t in my marathon meeting.
In the lobby of the hotel, they also have a Bassett Hound that sleeps most of the day on a stationary dog bed with a sign in front it saying, “Complaint Department”.
I have to appreciate their humor, and realized how refreshing it was to stay outside of the normal hotel chains for a change.
After spending three days in Taos, I dropped JB at the airport and stayed in Albuquerque for 5 days to visit with my parents and my best friend and her kids. The week flew by, and we did a ton of fun stuff. Mom and I took Little Miss to the Albuquerque Aquarium, which she absolutely LOVED (look for the pictures of her making fish faces at the fish).
We also got her 2 year portraits done (will post those later), and my best friend and I took our kids to Explora!, which is an awesome kids museum. The kids just ate it up, especially the ball exhibits and the bubbles exhibit. On Saturday, we had a small early birthday party for Little Miss, and she was even able to blow out one of her two candles. She absolutely loved the divine carrot cake that my Mom whipped up.
All too soon we found ourselves on the plane again yesterday, which was about 5 hours delayed (oh, such fun with a toddler). We had a great time in New Mexico — thanks to my parents and my friend A for making it such a fun visit!
Here are my pics from our 3 day getaway to Taos, NM, billed as the steepest slopes in the nation. You can hike to some pretty gnarly terrain, and of course JB wanted to do so. You start hiking at 11,800 feet. I think it was the hardest workout of my life. It was also freezing cold — I stick to the saying of the coldest day of skiing is a sunny day at Taos.
Anyway, Rocky Mountain skiing goodness below:
Hello, Internets. I haven’t forgotten about you. I’m on vacation in New Mexico. We flew in on Friday, and JB and I skiied at Taos Sunday and Tuesday (area was closed Monday due to a storm), he returned Tuesday night (in a marathon travel day) and now Little Miss and I are hanging with the Grandparents for the rest of the week. I’ll update soon. Promise.
Thanks to my co-worker and travel mate D, who took the below pictures on our Seattle trip. Even though we were in REALLY long meetings most of the time, we did get out for two fun activities. One night, our group went to the Seattle Glass Blowing Studio, where we had a catered dinner, drinks, and we were able to create our own glass masterpieces (with the help of the true glass blowers). I came home with a really pretty bowl and a sphere (that Little Miss is obsessed with, as she thinks it’s a ball to play with).
Then, on our last day, we had about 4 hours to burn before our plane departed, so we headed down to Pikes Place Market. I got a lot of my Christmas shopping done, and the atmosphere was just lovely as the market was all decked out for Christmas, and there were a lot of singers and street musicians adding to the ambiance.
So, here are the pics. I just love Seattle. It’s a great place to visit, but I really would prefer not to live there. I’m a desert girl at heart.
I finally got the pictures developed from the underwater disposable camera I took on our cruise. I am horribly disappointed with the quality of these pics, and it was pretty darn expensive once you pay for the camera and the developing!
Anyway, these pics show our Mazatlan ocean kayaking excursion and our Cabo San Lucas snorkel excursion. The kayaking was a blast. They basically took us out and around this little rocky island with a ton of birds. We were in a two person kayak, and the guides said that the person in back was the ‘captain’. Of course, JB stepped up to the task, and took it very seriously. I do have to say that we had a good groove going on with our kayak, especially as is counted out like drill seargent “left, right, left, right”. After the kayaking, which lasted about 45 minutes and was over way too soon, we had some time to burn, so we body surfed for at least an hour. JB, who went to college near the beach, is awesome at catching waves. I caught a couple, and one even took my swim suit top off! (Don’t worry, family, no one saw!) After our beach time in Mazatlan, we met my cousin and her family on board another Princess ship for lunch.
The next day we went to Cabo San Lucas for snorkeling in the Sea of Cortez. We were in a tour with a bunch of tentative swimmers, who were shocked when we asked if we could ditch the life jackets, and then jumped in and swam to a far off cove for some uninterrupted snorkeling. The rest of our tour group stayed about 10 feet from the boat. Our guide then caught up with us and had managed to catch a blowfish. He told me to go get my underwater camera, and then took some pictures of me holding the blowfish. This was way too cool, and one of the highlights of my trip. It was all slimy, and I could feel it trying to puff up bigger as I held it.
You’ll then see a picture of JB eating the infamous meal at Cabo Wabos that made both of us SICK, and landed me in quarantine in our room for about 14 hours. I swear almost one month later, our guts are just now recovering. As for how I was the ony one to get quarantined, I was the only one stupid enough to believe the postings I had seen saying that if you had stomach issues, you would get treated for free. What really happened is that as soon as I mentioned that I had stomach issues (a PC way of saying it), the on board doctor and two nurses announced that I was to be quarantined and could not leave my room. That is NOT what you want to hear when you’re paying a lot of money to be on a vacation! (Since Norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships, they take any reports of stomach ailments very seriously. And I didn’t even have Norovirus!!!)
I ended up back in our room crying as I was going to miss formal night with the lobster dinner. I sent JB to dinner without me, as I didn’t want him to pay for my stupidity. Anyhow, minutes after I returned to my room, a team of sanitizers dressed in white suits and masks. They wiped down the entire room, including the walls in the bedroom area, which I found pretty funny. I kept expecting them to put some crazy quarantine sign outside our door. And of course, the only thing playing on the cruise TV was 1980s movies, so I spent the night watching When Harry Met Sally and Pretty Woman feeling pretty sorry for myself.
The next morning I was feeling better, and I managed to convince the ship doctor to let me out of quarantine just in time for spin class. We took three spin classes on the ship, which were excellent, and kept us in good shape. In fact, I love traveling with my hubby, who is just as nutty as I am about working out. He didn’t bat an eye when I asked if he wanted to work out twice in one day on our at-sea days, and we’d work out after our excursions on the other days.
Anyway, to end my rambling, we both ended up losing weight on our cruise, thanks to the crazy gut issue and working out a lot. I guess I’ll wrap up my comments on the cruise with the only thing that really annoyed us, which was the Cruise Staff that seemed to show up at every bar/party we attended. We’d be dancing and having a great time, and then the Cruise Staff would show up and start at least an hour of cheesy line dancing songs, like the Marcarena, Electric Slide, Tush Push, etc. The first night, we humored it, but after six nights of this (the same line dance songs every night!), we were ready to empty our drinks on their heads!
Alright, enough rambling. Enjoy the rest of our vacation pics!
Although I have a lot to share about our vacation last week, I have been completely swamped in work this week, and my system has been in shock jumping right back into my normal schedule. So, in brief, we were on a 7 day cruise to the Mexican Riviera onboard the Golden Princess. We had lovely weather, and stops in Puerto Vallerta (where we rode zip lines in the jungle), Mazatlan (where we sea kayaked and body surfed) and Cabo San Lucas (where we went snorkeling, ate at Cabo Wabos, and got SICK from eating the food in Mexico). Oh, and my parents graciously watched Little Miss for the whole week, granting us our first child-free vacation since she was born (if you don’t count the weekend ski trip last Spring).
In Mazatlan, I got to hook up with my cousin, who’s husband is a captain on another Princess ship. We boarded their ship and lunched with them in the Captain’s quarters (pretty cool, I tell you). They are raising a 14 month old toddler while living on a cruise ship, the thought of which baffles my mind.
Anyhow, here are the pics from the cruise. I only have pics from Puerto Vallarta right now, as the pics from our other shore excursions are on a disposable underwater camera. Lord knows how long it will take me to get those old fashioned pics developed and posted!
Here are the pics I took after we returned from the cruise, including some great pics of a hike I took with my parents on Sunday to see the Aspens turning colors.
Just back from a week long cruise of the Mexican Riviera. I meant to blog to tell all of you I was leaving, but just got too busy. The vacation was great, and included rapelling in the jungle, sea kayaking, snorkeling, and being quarantined for about 14 hours in my room. Fun times. Lots of stories to tell, but right now, I’m in email hell, as I have over 200 emails to get through before my afternoon meeting starts. More later!
Sorry to have been absent from the blog world lately. I was traveling for business last week, came home for three wonderful days spent with my family, and now I’m back in Southern California for work this week.
This week has been remarkably smoother, mainly because those insane 5:30 am start times have been moved back to 8am, which is much more manageable for me, despite working late every day.
This trip is wreaking havok on my diet, as our vendor brings in lunch each day, with generally “healthy” options such as pizza. We then go out to dinner every night. I’ve managed to go running most days, as I’ve found some great running trails close to my hotel, and it has been a welcome respite in the mornings.
Southern California seems to make me have the complexion of a teenager and gives me bloody noses. Attractive, isn’t it?
I can say without a doubt that I just hate being away from Little Miss. I feel like I’m missing my right arm. Luckily, when I came home last Friday, she was super excited to see me, which helped ease the guilt a bit.
Well, I must get back to the grind. Work has been pretty intense these past few weeks. I’m just keeping my sights set on Friday when I get to come home again — for good this time.
You know you’re old when you opt for a quiet evening instead of a party at a bar called the Glo Lounge with an open bar. I tell you, 10 years ago, I would have been all about a bar lit by black light and an open bar. Last night, is was completely unappealing to me.
Instead, I returned to the hotel from my booth shift, took a nap, and then went to the pool. Upon my arrival to the pool, it was bliss. I had the place to myself, and for a hotel pool, it was pretty decent for laps, despite being really shallow (and making me be very careful with each flip turn).
That lasted for about 2 minutes. Next thing I knew, I group of European men clad in Speedos got in the pool, and two of them decided to do laps width wise. In other words, they couldn’t figure out how to swim parallel to me, and started swimming in a complete collision path with me. Then, about 10 mintues later, a woman showed up with her - count them - SIX children, and I knew my laps were over.
After the pool, I had a relaxing dinner at the hotel with a good girl friend, and then turned in early. It was quite lovely. And yes, I’m now officially old.
I’m almost done with working this conference, and will be headed home tomorrow. I can’t wait to hug and smell my sweet baby again!
I am kicking myself. I just assumed what time I needed to start working the booth this morning, and managed to show up two hours before my shift. Considering the shuttle from the hotel takes 45 minutes, I have no choice but to stay put. Argh. The days are long enough at this conference without adding 2 hours that are not required.
Last night, we had a great dinner. We ate at Emeril’s, where I got the scallops on a bed of butter noodles. Yum. I must hit the workout center for a long workout today to try to undo the damage that dinner did to my waistline!
I’ve talked to some interesting people here. That’s a nice way of saying strange. Like the guy that told me about the 4 foot long alligator living on his property that he has named Smiley. He said he’s waiting for Smiley to get bigger so that he can shoot him and make gator kabobs out of him. And did you know the cheek meat is the most tender on an alligator?!
Ah, the things you learn…
I’m off booth duty at 3pm today, and am hoping to catch some time at the pool. I’ll just have to ignore the strange looks I’ll get as people stare at my parasite marks!
I’m currently in Orlando for a conference, where I’ll have the extreme pleasure of working a booth every day I’m here. It has been a while since I’ve taken a longer flight, and let me tell you, that flight from Las Vegas to Orlando seemed extremely long, but perhaps that had to do with the horrible stench of the woman’s feet beside me. She just HAD to take off her shoes!
Anyway, my hotel is a nice resort that is supposed to be a replica of a small Italian port town. The staff all greets you in horrid Italian, and to someone that has been to Italy, this resort just comes off as hokey.
The conference I’m working requires me to wear a long sleeved shirt with long pants. IN FLORIDA IN JUNE. I am actively seeking the person that decided this dress code so that I can smack them over the head. I had to walk about 1 mile from my parking space to the convention hall today, and showed up with sweat stains all over my long sleeved shirt.
The man to woman ratio seems to be about 10:1. That would be a good thing if I was single and the men were my type. But neither is true, so it’s just something of note.
I’ll write later. Tomorrow night I’m going to a party at a bar called the Glo Lounge, where everything is lit by black lights. That just sounds too cool. The next night, a party at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville. The goal is not to be hung over for my booth duty during the day.
Ciao! (Ha! Fake Italy talk there!!!)
On a one day business trip, I found myself in the middle of a security breach at the Oakland Airport. I showed up with plenty of time before my flight, and arrived to find mass chaos at the entry to the airport. I was redirected outside and down about 1/4 mile from the normal entrance, and that was where the security line started. The airport was stuffy and hot, overpacked, and they had huge fans running that weren’t making a difference.
When I looked at the flight status screen, no departure flights had departure times listed.
Oh, that wasn’t a good feeling. But can you believe after all this mess, my plane was only 10 minutes late departing?
More details from this article below:
Oakland airport emptied after alarm triggered
Man vanishes at terminal; search turns up with no one meeting suspect’s descriptionAuthorities evacuated boarding gates at Oakland International Airport on Thursday after a man set off a security checkpoint metal detector and vanished, an airport spokeswoman reported…
Airport authorities then searched for the man, including searching two flights that were boarding, but could find no one meeting the description, Barnes said.
“When they did not locate the individual in a few minutes, they made the decision to evacuate the boarding area,” sending passengers back to the public area of both terminals to be re-screened, Barnes said…
“A couple of thousand (passengers) were impacted today,” Barnes said. “There were very long lines” to get back through security, and “queuing was all the way out on the sidewalk areas when the checkpoints were shutdown.”
Before I had found out what was going on, I asked the woman checking my ID at security if there was something going on, and she shook her head no. I then asked, “this is normal for this airport?”, and no response. The Oakland airport is usually a nutty place, but yesterday took nutty to an all new level.
I discovered that the best way to figure out what is going on while you’re at an airport is to call the airline. It wasn’t until I called Southwest that I was told about the breach. It doesn’t take a genious to figure out that the extra police, bomb sniffing dogs, and crazy lines mean something is amiss, but airport personnel were rather mum about it.
We returned yesterday from five days in Albuquerque (better known as Albuqturkey during Thanksgiving). No time to write all the details now, but it was good. Little Miss was a lot more challenging to travel with, but once we got there, she was pretty happy. We took her to the zoo (loved the monkeys yet again, and the giraffes were definitely a favorite), on two hikes, and she got baptized in the church where I grew up.
I had wonderful pictures of all of this until my camera fell out of the camera bag in a parking lot and was subsequently run over. The camera and my $70 flash card are toast now, along with those very special pictures.
Put a bit of a bummer on the trip.
But we’re home. It’s winter here — highs in the mid 30s, and it is starting to feel like the holiday season. I’m planning on putting up the tree this weekend, making sure not to put ornaments on the bottom two feet of the tree, as Little Miss is a pro at crawling now, and is focusing on walking, which I anticipate she’ll be doing on her own by Christmas.
Anyway, more details later, and I’ll post some of the pics my mom captured.
Signed,
A sad, camera-less Momma
Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while. We were out of town for the weekend in Seattle, where I managed to come down with a cold that turned into bronchitis. Add that on top of an Internet connection that has been less than reliable this week, and you get an overwhelming silence at my site.
So Seattle. JB had a business trip there last week, and Little Miss and I flew up to meet him on Friday. Yes, it was cold and rainy, which is to be expected there in November, but we had a great time. Little Miss was a great traveler. She slept on the plane (when she wasn’t petting the stranger seated next to her), napped in her stroller while we walked around the city, and was a perfect little angel when we went out to eat — three times a day (which is quite an accomplishment for her I’d say).
We ate some wonderful food, drank some really expensive wine, stayed in a pretty swanky hotel in downtown, and did up the tourist traps.
On Saturday, we took Little Miss to the zoo for the first time. We figured she is so amused by our two dogs that she’d surely be amused by the zoo. We weren’t disappointed. Hearing her giggles when she saw the monkeys was priceless. All four limbs waved around, she blew her lips together and let the drool fly as she cackled in between blows. She really liked the goats and the gorillas, too.
Here she is getting a big kick out of the wild dogs.
And here she is practicing modeling for Gerber.
Remember how well I said she napped in her stroller? Here’s proof:
And finally, I include this picture just because I love this matching sweater and hat set so much.
Here is one more picture while I’m uploading… Finally something to make my husband look short — a picture of him in front of a painting of the World’s Tallest Man.
Anyway, on Sunday, we did the Seattle Underground tour, which was very interesting, but challenging keeping a 9 month old happy as you’re holding her and walking around underground for 1.5 hours. She kept reaching out to pet women’s hair, and tried to be the assistant tour guide, as she liked to start talking right as the tour guide was speaking.
That’s about all I have to report from the trip. I came back with a horrid cough, stayed home from work on Monday, and finally made it into the doctor today, where I was officially diagnosed with bronchitis. I left the doctor’s with five prescriptions, one being an inhaler and another being antibiotics (thank GOD), so I hope that I will be on the mend soon.
And in other news, last week, Little Miss turned nine months. She has now officially been outside of my body as long as she was inside of it. She gets cuter and more fun every day. I just can’t seem to hug or kiss her enough.
While staying at the Wynn Las Vegas resort this week, I checked out the Parasol Up/Parasol Down bar. The bar features an outdoor deck that overlooks on a waterfall and water feature that has different light shows periodically.
My favorite was when the whole water feature turned green and this gigantic frog appeared above the waterfall, singing “Low Rider”.
It was really funny.
It would have been more funny if I had been drinking alcohol instead of hot caffeine free tea at $6 per cup.
I’m leavin’ on a jet plane tomorrow bound for New York City. I have a conference there Monday and Tuesday, but Saturday night and all day Sunday, I’ll be chillin’ with my sister-in-law, CB, in the city that never sleeps.
But I guarantee I’ll be sleeping, because pregnant ladies have to sleep.
Expect details on my trip by Thursday… I’ve refused to take my ancient heavy laptop, as the trip is too long to deal with that dinosaur.
Last night, I began singing Frank Sinatra’s New York song to the hubby, who promptly begged me to stop. I then started whispering the lyrics, which resulted in a sharp elbow jab to my ribs.
I may not be much of a singer, but here are Frank’s timeless lyrics:
New York, New York
Start spreading the news, I’m leaving today (but it’s really tomorrow)
I want to be a part of it - New York, New York
These vagabond shoes, are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it - New York, New York
I wanna wake up in a city, that doesn’t sleep
And find I’m king of the hill - top of the heap
These little town blues, are melting away
I’ll make a brand new start of it - in old New York
If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere
It’s up to you - New York, New York
New York, New York
I want to wake up in a city, that never sleeps
And find I’m a number one, top of the list, king of the hill
A number one
These little town blues, are melting away
I’m gonna make a brand new start of it - in old new york
And if I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere
It up to you - New York, New York
I leave tomorrow for the Blog Business Summit in San Francisco. Need I say how geeked I am about this? I’m really excited! It’ll be ALL BLOG ALL THE TIME for two straight days. Woo!
And, for those of you wondering, I’m going to get ideas on how to build the Reno-Tahoe Blog, NOT this site.
Well, I’m back. Did you miss me? I spent Wednesday through Thursday of last week traveling to/from Boonville, Missouri for my grandmother’s funeral. The entire Cook side of the family gathered for the funeral, so it was great to see everyone, and we know that my grandmother would have been extremely pleased with the turn out.
Traveling to Boonville, Missouri from Reno is an all day endeavor. We left our house at 6:00 am on Wednesday morning, caught a flight from Reno to Vegas, and then had a lay over in Vegas. Then, our flight got delayed by about an hour. Why, you ask? Well, because the plane flying from San Diego to Vegas HIT A BIRD, which put a huge HOLE IN THE WING, and hence, they had to arrange for a new plane for our Las Vegas to Kansas City flight.
But really, I’m OK with that, because who wants to fly on a plane with a huge hole in the wing?! Not I!!!
JB and I traveled with my brother, Chuck, sister-in-law, Audra, and niece, Kacey. Kacey is now 9 months old, and this was her first plane ride. She did amazingly well.
Anyway, we finally arrive in Kansas City, Missouri, and rent a minivan (much to Chuck’s chagrin), and started the two hour drive East to Boonville.
“Wow, there isn’t much traffic here for rush hour on a Wednesday,” we were commenting, just as the traffic came to a screaching halt on I70.
Then, people started getting out of there cars. You know you’re going to be stuck for a while when people are milling about on the highway.
Luckily, we noticed we were right next to an on-ramp, and many of the locals were going up the on-ramp to get onto the business access road. We followed suit, and saw that a mile ahead of us, there was a huge wreck.
We later found out it was Eminem and 50 Cent’s tour bus, which had been traveling West, and veered onto the median and up onto the East bound lanes of I-70. Literally, we came within minutes of colliding with them! Here is the article to prove it!
Because of our delays, we were over an hour and a half late (we arrived at 4:30 PST, so that was about 10 hours of travel to get there) for my grandmother’s wake, but managed to say hello to everyone. It was a remarkably upbeat gathering, despite the open casket of my grandmother in the back of the room.
I don’t do well looking at dead bodies. It really creeps me out. Regardless, I went up with JB to look at her, and was instantly consumed by tears. I should have known better.
The funeral was Thurdsay, and although it was a beautiful celebration of her life, I couldn’t stop myself from crying, even when I had to get up and speak. I think I actually made a bunch of other people cry when I started crying into the microphone. It wasn’t pretty. I’m glad it’s over.
I’m also so glad that JB was able to make the trip, because I think I would have completely fallen apart without his hand to clutch to.
Thursday afternoon, our family gathered at my grandparents’ house one last time, as it is about to be put up on the market for sale. Some neighbors brought over a quad, so all of the kids and some of the adults, including JB and I, all took turns riding the quad around the property and around the pond.
After dinner, JB and I went walking on a dirt road through my grandparents’ property, which is about 12 acres right now. We were told there were ticks around, but I didn’t remember any from my childhood. Besudes, we figured we’d be safe staying on the dirt road.
First, I must tell you that my husband is deathly afraid of ticks. (Read this for his last tick encounter.) He kept thinking that things were crawling on him, and he kept sweeping off his legs. I thought the man was being paranoid.
That is, until we got back to my grandparents’ house, and I found a tick crawling up my leg. And then another on my shoe. And then JB started finding ticks in his shoes, and let me tell you, there were ticks and ticks and ticks. Luckily, none managed to dig into either of us, but it was at that point, I knew it was time to remove ourselves from the premisis before my poor hubby had a panic attack.
We returned to the hotel, stripped down, searched each other for ticks, and then jumped in the hotel swimming pool.
JB now referrs to Boonville as Tickville.
So anyhow, those are the highlights from our trip. We returned on Friday, and then had a weekend at home to catch up on laundry and house work.
Grandma, may you rest in peace.
JB had been scheduled to play with his band at the Solor Cookoff this last weekend. I decided to join him, as originally planned, in hopes that it would help take my mind off things (see previous entry).
And it did. It was an enjoyable, yet very interesting, weekend. The Solar Cookoff is basically a gathering of modern-day hippie types that are really into solar ovens. Somehow, although I’m not sure of the connection, they arrange for bands in the Reno Blues Society to play during the day on Saturday. That is how JB’s band got involved.
The cookoff was in Taylorsville, CA, which is this tiny town situated in a valley that is surrouded by beautiful Sierra mountain ranges. It was perfect weather, and truly beautiful surroundings.
We showed up Saturday afternoon, and I couldn’t believe how many people were crammed into the campground. There were at least four tents or campers on what would normally be a spot for one. We pitched our tent in an ‘open’ space, which put us about five feet on all sides from other campers. I was really thinking it would be a miserable time sleeping, but thanks to JB bringing earplugs, I slept just fine.
JB’s band did a great job, and people danced for their entire set. They even threw in a version of Sublime’s Santaria, which went over really well.
After they played, there was a pot luck. Basically, all of these people had put dishes for dinner in their solar ovens earlier in the day, and it was a display of what you could cook with a solar oven. The spread was great — casseroles, meat, pasta, etc. Someone even had what was left over of their wedding cake, which made for a great, sugary dessert.
That night, there was a concert/dance in the main building (called the Grange) in Taylorsville. The building had spring loaded floors. I didn’t think much of that until the music started. Picture this: JB had a full beer. The music starts, and everyone starts jumping up and down. I’m talking a few hundred people. It was like an earthquake, and JB’s beer started going everywhere, including down my chest. I started yelling, “chug!”, which was funny to watch him chugging in circumstances that felt a lot like an earthquake.
Anyway, we danced the night away, and the next day, after packing up camp we went to a swim hole called Indian Falls. Basically, there is a beautiful waterfall that flows into a nice swimming hole, made up from Indian Creek. There were people jumping off rocks, standing under the waterfall, and all in all having a great time. It was so beautiful in there. I’d show you pictures if I hadn’t forgotten my camera…
The people at the solar cookoff were a tad strange, but unbelievably friendly. For example, as we were setting up camp, a complete stranger came up to us and gave us a Nutty Buddy. Giving me ice cream is one way to get on my good side FAST! They were all wearing tie-dye or broomstick skirts, and I was truly entertained with two men wearing Utilikilts. I am so not kidding.
So, I feel better today. It was nice getting away from everything and being social. My grandma’s funeral is this week, so I really needed something fun to help brighten things up around here.
OK, now that I’m a bit more recovered from my trip, I can give you the low down on it.
Friday:
I started off the day going to visit my grandmother, who is currently in hospice. She was asleep the entire time, so I sat and held her hand and rubbed her shoulders, which are now extremely frail. It was really hard to see her that way, but I am so glad I got to see her one last time.
After breakfast, JB and I went to the gym with my parents. Mom and I did a weights workout together while Dad pumped weights alone and JB swam.
That afternoon, we went to the National Atomic Museum, which is run by Sandia National Laboratories. My dad worked at the Sandia Labs for over 30 years, so if was fascinating to go through this museum with him and have him give us the inside scoop on nuclear weapons.
Friday evening, we met up with Amber and some of her friends for dancing at Graham Central Station. JB and I tore it up that night, two stepping, waltzing, swinging, and then going in to the 80s room, where I strutted my running man moves, and did a bit of salsa in the Latin room. Too much fun! We were so sweaty by the end of the night!
Saturday:
After a run at my high school’s track, we went to the Santa Fe Wine Festival at Rancho de las Golondrinas. When you look at the slideshow (link below), the pictures of the Adobe buildings are from this outing. It was a beautiful place, and there were great jewelry booths and some live music. Unfortunately, it was HOT HOT HOT! After JB purchased some New Mexican wine, we were off to my favorite New Mexican restaurant — Sadies! I LOVE NEW MEXICAN FOOD! I was in heaven as I ate my stuffed sopapilla and then topped it off with a sopapilla and honey for desert. Yum!
Sunday:
This was our lazy day, where we slept late, and then went to Los Altos Pool, where I worked as a lifeguard when I was 16 and practiced for our high school swim team. Our lap swim was cut short by someone throwing up in the pool. I stopped to chat with a few lifeguards as we were leaving. I mentioned that I used to work there, and man, did I feel old when they asked how long ago that was. “Thirteen years,” I said, knowing those girls were toddlers when I was working there. Ouch!
Later that afternoon, after a liesurely lunch, we went wine shopping, which is one of JB’s favorite passtimes. He purchased a Greg Norman wine for my Dad, who is an avid golfer.
We stopped by to see my grandmother again, but she was asleep again. Unfortunately, the day we left, she took a turn for the worse, so that was probably the last time I’ll ever see her alive.
On to happier topics.
After dinner that night, Samantha and Amber came over, and the four of us went down to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta park to see the Tempations. I knew all of 4 songs, but it was a fun atmosphere anyway.
Monday - Independance Day:
Amber and Karl picked us up at 8:30 in the morning so that we could drive out to the Jemez mountains for a hike. I got to sit next to my God-Daughter, Kylie, on the 1.5 hour drive, and had fun playing with her. The hike was very scenic, and you can see pictures from that hike in the slideshow (below).
After our hike, we stopped in a tiny town at the base of the Jemez Mountains in a restaurant called Los Ojos for some tortilla burgers with green chili. Talk about authentic New Mexican cuisine. I was in heaven! So yummy!
Later on that night, my Mom turned into Martha Stewart as she hosted a party of 11 people. My parents friends were there, and so were Samantha, Amber, Karl and Kylie. After the party, we drove to a park with a great view of Albuquerque, and we watched the fireworks from all over the city.
We returned Tuesday morning and then worked a half day on Tuesday. Now that was an exhausting day, and I topped it off with an hour and a half nap after work!
So, now for the infamous slide show I keep talking about. Click here to see all of our pictures from this past weekend.
Just back from a 4 day trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico to visit family and friends. It was action packed, and I ate a lot of good food. More details to come later.
Yesterday, after a mountain bike ride, we were sitting around the camp fire area enjoying lunch. My two brothers were in deep conversation, and my nephew, Jack, was trying to play soccer with me while I was seated in a lounge chair eating a sandwich (in other words, he would kick the ball to me and then beg for me to kick it back).
“Earthquake!” JB exclaimed. Everyone kept talking and doing what they had been doing.
“Earthquake!” he repeated. Still no reaction.
“Hey! We’re having an earthquake!” he said, finally interrupting my brothers’ conversation.
“How can you tell?” I asked, as I felt nothing, and the trees didn’t seem to be moving.
Then I felt it. I swear it went on for like 30 seconds. Jane, who had been in the camper napping was awaken by the shaking.
“Wow, I wonder if San Francisco just had The Big One,” someone said.
When we got home, I looked up Google News and got the scoop. We were about 60 miles outside of the epicenter. Read the article.
This weekend was the fifth annual Cook kids mountain biking and boating weekend at Bullard’s Bar Reservoir in the foothills of the Sierras in California.
It was a grand time. We mountain biked and swam both days (chose to do open water swimming instead of water skiing this year), and the weather was incredible.
The bears were back this year, but not with the vengence of last year. We had a bear go into a campsite close to us, and at 5 in the morning, the idot in that campsite decided to scare the bear away by using his car alarm. Multiple times. Nice way to wake up the entire campground, loser! A simple shout of ‘go away’ wasn’t enough for him!
We brought two out of our three Black Dogs camping. Bringing dogs camping always adds a bit more complication and work, so I really didn’t want to bring any. However, we thought that we’d have a bunch of people looking at our house this weekend with the real estate agent, so we decided to take two dogs. Poor Shadow had to stay home because we weren’t sure how he would get along with my brothers’ two male dogs.
The fist night, we let the dogs sleep in the truck bed, which is covered by a shell. They were barking constantly. I was ready to strangle them. They did a lovely job of keeping all three camps in our party awake, and finally at 3 am, I took Heidi, the main barker, and put her in our tent, much to JB’s chagrin.
Heidi was an angel once she was in the tent. Hence, the next night, we put both dogs in the tent with us, and voila — angel dog campers! They were great! Plus, I got to snuggle with Tucker all night long, which was lovely.
We did come across a suicidal midget dog this weekend, though. A little white dog that looked more like a rat ran straight over to our campsite and started barking at Tucker, seeming to say, “I’m going to kick your butt, you big giant black dog.”
If there is one thing you need to know about Tucker, he HATES little dogs with a passion. I don’t know where he got this, but the second I saw that little dog aproach Tucker, who was tied to a tree, I knew there would be trouble.
Dust flew, and I screamed, and Tucker was like, “bring it on you little rat, I will KILL you!” Soon, the rat ran away, but then Heidi, who happened to be off the leash at that point, took off in hot pursuit.
Want to see a little rat dog’s owner flip out? Sick your Rottwieler on it!!! Luckily, JB caught Heidi, and the rat dog escaped. But good golly, the adrenaline. I later saw that those campers had three rat dogs with them, and they learned to keep their dogs away from our campsite after that.
And after all that effort to vacate two of our dogs from our house, not one person looked at the house. Not one. Damn “Brad”.
I got to spend good quality time with my two nephews and one of my nieces this weekend, which I enjoyed completely.
With that, I give you the family camping trip pictures, starting with my favorite — JB and I after we swam about 1200 yards in the lake on Sunday.
(I’ve placed the rest on another page to save those of you on a dial-up connection. You know who you are!)
Read the rest of this entry »
JB and I went camping this past weekend at Lake Davis, which is Northwest of Reno.
The theme of the weekend seemed to be, “What did Lynnette forget to pack?” We had decided to procrastinate packing until Friday after work, and while I was packing, JB was at the computer trying to determine where we were going camping.
Really, there’s nothing like waiting until the last minute.
So I ended up packing all of the equipment and food for us in a hurried 45 minutes, and then we were out the door. We drove north from Carson City into Reno, and that’s when I remembered that I had forgotten to pack pillows.
We stopped at a sporting goods store and I bought us some camping pillows.
Back on the highway, about 2 exits later, I remembered that I had forgotten to pack a pan in which to cook our breakfast.
I ran into Walmart and bought the cheapest pan I could find.
Later on, it was determined that I forgot to pack:
- A book — considering it was just the two of us camping, a good book would have been wonderful.
- My swim cap and goggles — yes, I forgot to pack these, even after I told JB last weekend, “I never go on a trip without my cap and goggles!” We were at a lake that was great for swimming, and I had to deal with opening my eyes in the lake water. (Which wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.) But, I had to listen to JB tell me the entire weekend that he never goes anywhere without his goggles as he’d put his on and go for a swim.
- Salt and pepper — our food was it’s own natural flavor.
- Coffee for JB. He later confessed that he didn’t actually NEED the coffee, but he really enjoys making it when he’s camping.
I’ve determined that we will pack for camping trips the night before we leave in the future, as that lets me have time to remember what I was about to forget. And I’ve also declared that we’re going camping for my birthday weekend, and JB is doing all of the shopping and all of the packing for that trip. So there!
Despite my forgetfullness, the trip was wonderful. We had a camp site with a lake view (despite our lack of reservations), and we slept like logs. During the day, we’d mountain bike, followed by a swim in the lake and a nap on the beach.
The food also cooked up very well, if I must say so myself. It was a weekend where we didn’t rush to do anything, and just relaxed, enjoying each other’s company and the beautiful surroundings.
So without further ado, here are a few pics from this past weekend:
This is Lake Davis.
This is the view of Lake Davis from underneath our beach umbrella. I rather like this picture, as it is a bit artistic…
And this, ladies and gents, is a self portrait, as I smooched for the camera.
JB and I spent four days in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Independance Day holiday. He had said that he couldn’t marry me without seeing my homeland. And now, he has.
We did about every touristy thing you can do in Central NM. We rode the World’s Longest Tram to the top of the Sandia Mountains and hiked around at the crest of the mountain. There are wonderful views from there. We did Santa Fe, ate tons of New Mexican food, and even hiked at Tent Rocks (pictures to come later). We also attended Albuquerque’s largest fireworks show, Freedom Fourth.
On Saturday, we spent most of the day up at Amber’s house, which is East of Albuquerque. They own a house on 12 acres, and have chickens, dogs, and two horses. Amber and her husband treated us to horseback riding that afternoon. Being the daredevil that I am, I was begging them to let me gallop with the horse. Each time I asked, I would get a strange, but cautious look. I didn’t figure it was a big deal because I had ridden numerous galloping horses before.
Well, after Amber’s husband and I went riding, JB and Amber took the two horses out. When they got back, they offered for me to go out one more time for a good run, now that the horses were tired out. I was on the stallion named Buck. (Side note: Buck is actually a mustang from Nevada, of all places.)
When I kicked Buck’s sides, he started running. We never reached a smoothe gallop, and in fact, it was really rough. And then Buck started to buck.
My feet were slipping out of the stirrups, and I was hanging onto the saddle horn with all my might. I managed to get him to stop, and looked over to Amber.
“Was that bucking?”
“Yeah. You want to do it again?”
I shook my head no. That was plenty of excitement for me!
Later that night, my parents threw an engagement party for us. We had about twenty people come over, and it was good to see everyone. They were all people that I hadn’t seen for quite a long time. JB did great, considering he didn’t know a soul there, besides Amber. The excitement of the party came when a fire truck pulled up in front of our house.
You see, my mother’s cousins’ kids (follow that?!) had decided to light a bonfire of pine needles and silly string in front of our house, unbeknownst to the adults at the party. Evidently, a neighbor called the fire department. The fire had been put out by the time the firemen showed up, and the entire driveway was wet from being hosed down.
The ironic thing is that the fire department showed up right after the kids had announced that they were going to set off fireworks, and everyone should come to the front yard. So as all 20 of us were filing into the front yard, the firetruck pulled up. Dad said a few explicatives and head-tailed it back into the house. Luckily, we had a firefighter at the party (Amber’s husband).
So Amber’s husband went up to the firemen and started chatting with them.
“Have you been setting off fireworks?” one of them asked.
“No, but we’re about to. Do you want to stay and watch?”
They all shared a chuckle and the firemen hopped in the truck and drove off. Needless to say, Amber’s husband was the hero of the party, and my Dad was ever so thankful for him when he came back outside after the coast was clear.
That night, Amber, her husband, JB and I checked out a new club in ABQ called Graham Central Station. If you live in ABQ, you totally have to check it out. They have four bars in it — country, kareoke, 80s music, and rave. We had a ball going from bar to bar, dancing the night away. I was shocked when I walked by the DJ booth at the country bar and heard my name being called.
I turned around, and the DJ was smiling at me, saying, “you don’t remember me, do you?”
I looked at him, and from out of the air, I pulled out his name and remembered that I had swam with him back in high school. Woah. And he didn’t even play the song I requested.
But I digress. As for the rest of the mini-vacation, in addition to gorging ourselves on New Mexican food (which is VERY different than Mexican food), we indulged in Mom’s creations, including cinnamon rolls, quiche, carrot cake, chocolate chip cookies, and homemade ice cream. (Yes, the big DIET started again yesterday!)
We watched our family’s home movies on an old projector, and JB got to see me as a 5 year old cheerleader and swimmer, my first attempts at biking, and shots of my brothers in all of their 70s glory riding the go-carts that they built themselves.
We also had engagement portraits taken by mom’s favorite photographer, and they turned out really well. I’ll get them in a few weeks and will be sure to post them.
So now we’re back. I have four days until Sharkfest! Woo!
We finally had a fun weekend again, after two weekends were consumed by moving. JB and I ventured to Petaluma, CA this past weekend, which is in Sonoma County just 32 miles outside of San Francisco.
The city wasn’t anything like I expected. I thought it similar to the other Bay Area cities I had frequented, but it was totally the opposite. It is a little country town that is incredibly charming, historical, and easy going. Petaluma one of the oldest cities in California, and it is one of those places where time just seems to pass more slowly. The area is famous for their eggs, and JB and I have decided that we’re going back for their annual Egg Day festival in April.
But I digress. We we ate a lot of eggs at some incredible little breakfast nooks, went to a museum (many pictures of eggs), enjoyed the music of numerous accordian players, I did the polka with the cutest little old man with a handle bar mustache, we went to a cheese factory, drove through winding country roads, and just all around relaxed. It was just what the doctor ordered. Small town, slow, relaxed living.
We stayed with an old friend of JB’s, who got married 2 months ago. He and his wife were a very fun and warm couple, who felt like instant friends when I met them. On Saturday, we went to see a Giants game in Oakland, and wow, was it a great game. We had seats that were four rows behind home base, and the game went into a very exciting extra inning.
On the way home yesterday, we stopped by to see my brother and his family. It was so fun to see both of my nephews and to relax out on the patio with my brother and sister-in-law. My 3 month old nephew, Luke, is growing like crazy, and Jack the 3 year old is a never-ending source of energy. JB and I had fun spinning Jack in circles, then setting him down in the grass and telling him to run. Tehe.
Now my sights are set on the long weekend ahead. It promises to be just as enjoyable.
This past weekend, JB and I ventured to San Diego for a short vacation. His band was playing in the Rock and Roll Marathon on Sunday, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
We traveled to San Diego on Saturday. We both had duffel bags, and managed to get to the airport a bit late. When I was loading the plane, the flight attendant yanked my bag from me and told me I was going to have to check it. I was OK with that until I saw her letting JB take his duffel bag on with him, and it was the same size as mine!
Needless to say, by the time we arrived in San Diego, my bag was Missing in Action. I was told it would arrive in a few hours.
We checked into the hotel, and then headed to the beach. I got to sit on the beach while JB went and froliced in the ocean. Those of you that know me well, know that I love the water. And let me tell you, I was not happy with the fact that my swimsuit was in the bag that was missing.
That night, we had dinner on the beach with the other members of his band. On the way to dinner, I had called the airline and was told that my bag was found and would be arriving at the hotel around 7:00 pm.
I was happy with that. But when we returned from dinner at 10:30, my bag was still missing.
Sunday morning, JB and his band went to set up for their gig at 5:15 am, while I tried to eek out a few more hours of sleep. I called the airline at 6:30 am, and was told that my bag had been delivered to the hotel the previous night at 10:30. So I called the front desk, that hadn’t seen my bag. So I called the airline back, and they said, yes, your bag was delivered to the Holiday Inn on the (name of wrong street) to Penny Cook.
That’s right, they delivered my bag to the wrong hotel and the wrong person.
“Oh, your room isn’t under Penny Cook?” They asked.
That was pretty incredulous. Luckily, the other hotel was nearby, so I told them I would go pick up the darn bag. Well, because of the marathon, the street in front of my hotel was closed, meaning I had to walk about a half mile to the other hotel to get my bag.
Grrrr. They are getting one angry letter from me this week!
But after my bag was returned to me, the vacation became quite enjoyable. I went to watch JB’s band play… Basically, they had bands along the marathon route, and JB’s band was at mile 13. I had been asked to bring two coffees and water with me.
I later discovered that the closest I could park to their stage was about a 30 minute walk, so I got to make that walk with full hot coffees in each hand and a gallon of water in my backpack. So along with the runners, I definitely felt like I was getting a workout.
Of course, by the time I arrived at their stage, they had plenty of water that had been delivered by race officials, and it was ‘too hot’ to be drinking coffee.
As for the marathon, I really admire anyone that can run that distance. I’ve done numerous 5Ks, and I honestly think that is about as far as I would really like to run. The people that really amazed me were the three people that ran the marathon barefoot. Is that not insane?!
After they finished playing, we went back to the hotel and took a nap. JB and I then went and played in the ocean a bit. He thought I was quite the dork for wearing my swim goggles, but I was the one snickering when he later started complaining of his eyes stinging! That night, we went to see the concert for the marathon runners, which was the band Live. The rest of the band happened to be really avid Live fans, and had arrived at the ampitheater when the doors opened at 5:30 pm. JB and I strolled in at 8:30, and discovered that they had saved us seats — front and center, baby!
After the concert, JB and I went to meet up with my cousin, John. John is 9 months older than me, and is currently in grad school in San Diego. He lives in a house 5 blocks from the beach with 3 roommates (and former fraternity brothers). John and his roommates took us to his favorite bar, which was a little hole in the wall. We played the world’s most pathetic game of pool (which was abandoned because we kept scratching), the guys played darts, and I had a blast catching up with my cousin, whom I hadn’t seen in 7 years.
On Monday, we did a bit of boogie boarding, and then had an incredible dinner at a fancy restaurant with a view of the beach. That night, we headed to the Gas Lamp district to check out a few bars, and discovered quite a party scene on a Monday night. Do people in San Diego really work?!
Tuesday, we met up with a friend of JB’s from college for lunch, and then rented beach cruisers. I felt like I was truly immersing myself in the local culture as we cruised up and down the boardwalk. We parked the bikes, rode a cute wooden rollercoaster, and then did a bit of body surfing and napping on the beach.
So, now I’m back, a bit tanned (and parts of me a bit burned), happy, and tired… I seem to notice this pattern with our vacations!
The food theme for this vacation was Mexican. We ate fish tacos, fish burritos, shrimp burritos, lobster enchiladas — if it was Mexican with seafood, we ate it! And yum! I’m sure I’ll have to do a bit of extra time at the gym this week to undo the damage from all of that great food.
There you have the download on our beach vacation. Now, let me see if I remember how to do this thing they call ‘work’.
I’m back from an absolutely wonderful 3 day weekend… Here it is in a nutshell:
Friday night:
We went out for Indian food, and I swear it was like being on a hidden camera show. It started off with the waiter coming over to take our order, and looking anywhere but at us, and when he left, we were wondering what we were really going to get since he wasn’t paying attention. That’s when they delivered the wrong kind of beer to JB. And then they delivered a plate that we didn’t order, and as we sat there looking at it, another waiter came over and yanked the plate away from us. About 10 minutes later, they delivered the SAME wrong plate to us again. At that point, we determined that we should probably just take what we could get. It went on and on like that, and if the food wasn’t so darn good, we probably wouldn’t want to go back there again.
After dinner, we checked out the newest country bar in town, Rock-N-Rodeo. The premise is that they play both Rock and Country. We watched the line dancers, which are endless entertainment for us, and then we did quite a bit of two-stepping and swing dancing. Mucho fun.
Saturday/Sunday/Monday:
We got up on Saturday for a quick run before catching a plane to Vegas. Once in Vegas, we drove to Lake Mead, with all of our camping equipment in a suitcase. We were doing boat-in camping with some of JB’s friends. We had an entire beach to ourselves, and enjoyed lots of fun in the sun (and the water).
There was an island about 400 yards from our campsite, so I swam there and back about four times over the course of the weekend. I am training for the Alcatraz Shark Fest, if I haven’t mentioned it before… JB joined me for two of the island excursions, and we claimed the island as our own, writing “LC+JB” in the sand. (Corny, I know!)
JB’s friends had rented a water trampoline, which served up a lot of fun. After swimming out and back from our island, JB and I hopped onto the trampoline (OK, it was actually rather challenging to get up on it, so I should say we moaned and groaned as we pulled ourselves up onto it), and began inventing our own games on it. There was King of the Hill (who can kick the other person off first), and then we’d spin the trampoline by trying to run in circles on it, and last but not least, one person would lay down while the other would bounce around, which threw the other person around quite a bit.
Because it was so bright and I didn’t have a place to put them, I left my swim cap and goggles on my head while we were playing on the trampoline. JB’s friend later said that it was really quite a scene to see me jumping on the trampoline, giggling and wearing my cap and goggles. Hey, I might have looked goofy, but I was having a blast.
At night, there were ghost stories around the camp fire, s’mores, and illegal fireworks (provided by the teenage boys in our group).
We returned on Monday to four very attention starved animals, and one very hot house. After a nap, we took the dogs out for a nice walk at sunset, then came back to my place to cook up some delicious garlic burgers. Yum.
So that was the holiday weekend. I think I brought back half of the sand from the beach we were at, plus a plethora of little spiders, but it was all worth it.
I won’t torture you with all of the pics I took in Seattle and Canada (unless you’re one of the poor souls on my photo distribution list). So here are three of my favorites:
JB and I at the top of the Space Needle.
JB and I on the ferry back from Victoria, Canada. This was shortly after my poor navigational skills caused us to miss the first ferry, which in turn caused us to miss our plane. We recovered well, I must say.
Now, really… Who could resist kissing this?! (OK, maybe you guys out there could.)
Well, plans for the weekend are a bit up in the air. I’m hoping to make the Warren Miller ski movie on Saturday, and see my favorite local 80s cover band, Bad Intent.
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