The Bay Breeze Half Marathon

Another weekend, another Half Marathon! This time I drove down to Hayward and met up with Trisha, Jeff and Maureen. The picture is of Maureen (left) and Trisha (right) coming across the finish line. It was the most interesting start to a race I've ever had. Before the race began we had arrived in time to sign the release form and pick up our running numbers. However, Jeff had a group bag full of our stuff and there was no bag check to be found! So Jeff and I took the car keys and jogged a half mile back to the car to put it away. Then we turned around and jogged back. When we got to the starting line the runners were already GONE! HAHA! So we just kept on jogging, right on upto and through the start. The announcer said "And here come a few more half-marathoner's" and then they started lining up the 10K'ers.

Jeff REALLY pushed me on this run, and the last mile he went ahead. He's really been keeping to a fast pace! This race was along the path that Jeff, Trisha, Maureen and I practice on when running in Hayward. But this is the first time I've ran a race along it.
As always, you can checkout my run map, pictures and stats on my Runkeeper.

Tamarack Vacation

Traditions; one of my favorite things. Especially when it's a Vacation Tradition! What a wonderful year; Ashley brought along her boyfriend Jeremy all the way from Texas and Sara brought along her fiance Jeremiah! Molly, Andrej and me were stag this trip.

It was not just a reunion trip, but also a bachelor and bachelaurette party for Sara and Jeremiah. We had a lot of fun with cake, drinks and gifts too! Congratulations Sara and Jeremiah!

The cake batter flavored beverages were served. The hot tub was still the best place to party. We had a whole quarter sheet of cake! Mmm. It's one of my favorite trips each year and I'm so glad everyone made it!

Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon and Superbowl Sunday!

This morning came early; I met up with Amanda McGowan and we drove down to San Francisco to run the Kaiser Permanente Half Marathon. Thanks to Amanda, we were there with plenty of time to spare and got primo parking! You can see the map, running times and pictures taken on my Runkeeper post.

On the way back we stopped and had lunch at Sol Food in Corte Madera. It's one of our favorite spots so we had to stop, of course!

I came home and took a nap, then headed over to Peter's house to catch all the awesome commercials. Why? Because it was Super Bowl, of course! It was a fun packed day.

Emma & Ross vs San Francisco

For Emma's Christmas present I told her I'd take her to San Francisco for a crab dinner. When the day came, we decided to just take the whole day and make it an adventure- BOY OH BOY did we! We stopped off at the Golden Gate bridge despite the bright sun and strong wind for a photo shoot. Emma hadn't ever been up top to look down across the bridge, bay and city.

Our first stop in the city? One of Emma's favorite places; Morton's Steakhouse for cocktails and crab cake sliders. The crab cakes were just enough to wet our appetite for the Cheesecake factory across the street. Before dinner? Sure, it's totally normal to have your desert before a crab dinner. HAHA! I had the raspberry martini with a blueberry cheesecake. Mmmm! Emma had the strawberry cheesecake and raspberry martini too.


Then we walked over to Ghirardelli Square and sampled the chocolates and I bought a 40 count bag of the chocolate caramel squares. Oh Yeah! After that glutenous afternoon, it was finally time for our crab dinner... except I was too full to eat anything but a salad! HAHA! We did have crab fondue as an appetizer, which I ate with my salad but no dinner for me. Emma DID have her crab dinner, and it looked delicious. Then we headed back home after our crazy food rampage of San Francisco. Merry Christmas Emma!

East West Cafe

Amanda McGowan told me about this vegan restaurant in Santa Rosa that I finally tried and WOW it's my new FAVORITE! I had the avocado hummus wrap and salad with citrus dressing. Amazing- and relatively health, too! I'll definitely be back, I'm looking forward to trying the other dishes they serve here.

Flying Home...Nope!

My flight back home on the 2nd was at 6 something in the morning. Why not more specific? Because I missed it. When I went to re-book my ticket for later in the day, I decided, "what the heck!? I'll just stay the rest of the day". I called Chuck and after some convincing (that I wasn't teasing him) I got him to come back to the airport where he'd just dropped me off and pick me up.

It was a fun "Extra" day in Boise. I got to spend it with Chuck and Emily. One of the things we did was hit up the Chocolat Bar in downtown Boise. DELISH!

New Year's Dinner

Mom always makes us a special dinner for New Year's Day. This year we decided on King Crab legs. Emily hadn't ever had them before, so she was a brave soul and gave them a shot. Apparently she didn't care for them ((Shock!)) but that wasn't a problem for me or Chuck as we consumed all that was left! Paired with the delicious Ste. Chappelle Soft Huckleberry wine I'd found made it perfect. It was a great day for the start of a New Year, spending time with my Parents, Chuck and Emily. I think I even won a few hands at hearts.