My summer vacation

So...the other day I was riding and I started thinking about all the adventures I've had this summer, and how so very, very, very few of them have been recorded here.

So here's what I did this past month.

Wore a cowboy hat and flip flops in two airports (BTW... people look at you funny when you do this, no matter where you are)

Celebrated with Betty and her sis after they successfully jumped out of a plane. I am forever indebted to Betty's sis for doing this with her, so now I don't have to!

Went to the Salinas Rodeo (with Betty), thus the need for cowboy hats 

Learned that at said ROE-DE-OH, parents will put their children on sheep and let them hang on for their dear lives in an event called "mutton-busting." (see that small bump on the side of the sheep? That is a small child!)

Reconnected with my wonderful cousins Mary and Barbara 

Drank wine with my Aunt Rosa and Uncle Emilio

Took pictures of Elsie's Dad and his roping partner and their BIG BELT BUCKLES! 

Celebrated Elsie's Dad's last rodeo with her and her family

Took a 7 day road-trip with Betty...and laughed the whole time

Learned that oxygen is essential to running well...and that at 5000 ft, there is decidedly less oxygen (Along the Truckee River, between Alpine Meadows and Tahoe City)

Hiked a mountain with Clarence, her hubby Jeff, and Betty.

Rafted down the Truckee River with Betty and Jeff (I love this picture because Betty and Jeff were working so hard, paddling to get us to the bank...my job was to take pictures)

Went to the Del Mar Racetrack and got to sit in the chi-chi Turf club... 

...where Walter picked three winners...so I think we should go back

Also...in the last month I've logged

• 40 miles: Running
• 150 miles: Cycling
• 10 hours: Worked out with my trainer

I go back to school on Monday (a week's worth of meetings...then classes start the following Monday). It has been a glorious summer, and it's not quite over yet, but whenever school starts, it's certainly a time for transitioning. Both Turbo and DramaGirl started school yesterday (yes, I know it's early). I have two high schoolers now. YIKES!

Hope ya'all are having a fine summer too!

Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before...

Isn't everyone getting just a little bit tired of me bitching and moaning about being hurt and not running?

Stay tuned...cuz there's more comin' your way...

After doing just a kick-ass job of doing SQUAT this week, no running, no biking, no anything (yes, this was due to having a cold, but still), I went and hurt myself again today doing, of all things...

Surfing.

Yes, you read right.

Surfing.

And no, I don't surf. An no...there are no pictures of Betty or I surfing.

I took Turbo and a nephew to the beach this morning and met up with Betty. The high school where Betty works (and where I used to teach) started an after school surf club this year, and through some grant money, put together a week long surf camp. Very cool. Take some kids from east county San Diego (which may as well be Nebraska for all some east county kids actually see the ocean, even though it's only 10 miles away...geez), and teach 'em how to surf.

So of course I had to try.

In all honesty, I've pretended to surf before (it's much more difficult than it looks), but the last time was probably about four or five years ago...well before I started running. I felt pretty confident that I was stronger and would do better than my last outing...

And for the most part, that would be true, but on the third wave I tried to catch, I was too far forward on the board, didn't get to my knees fast enough, and went over the front end...which again, isn't such a bad thing. That happens all the time when you're in the surf. Unfortunately, this time we were in some pretty shallow water, so when my left foot hit the ocean floor.

TWANG

I felt the tendon in the bottom of my foot just pop (like three times).

As the surf receded, I tried to put weight on my left foot and almost fell over.

I think I scared Betty to death. She took one look at me and said, "We are soooo done now."

She may have been wondering how she was going to carry me back to my beach chair, but I managed to walk back up, even though I was swearing like a sailor, and almost in tears the whole way.

So...the foot? It hurts like a mother. When I got home, I stuck it in a bucket of ice water for about 20 minutes. Swam 30 minutes in the home pool (which is a lot of effing laps by the way in a 40 ft pool), iced it again. Now it's taped and I think I'll ice it before I go to bed, but it hurts to stand on it.

Damn, I'm tired of being hurt.

With that...I'll leave you with some lovely beach photos...other than maiming my sorry foot, it really was a fun day.

Betty knitting at the beach...

Turbo, on the surf board. We saw loads of dolphins today.

Turbo and my nephew, who decided that boogie boarding was waaaaaaaay easier than surfing and switched

Scary beach-dude, who was playing horseshoes and had a totem pole with him.

Summer Runnin...

Gosh, it took me a couple of days to get to this...but summer is, well it's summer, and family weddings, and other distractions happen...so my blogging this week suffered. I am writing this from a hotel room in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is where I've been since Thursday, with the family for a cousin's wedding. (That's me, Walter, Drama Girl and Turbo at the Presidio...the Golden Gate Bridge would be behind us if not for the fog...a beautiful day still).

Even with the travel, it's been a really nice running week. It started last Sunday.

I sometimes forget how incredibly lucky I am to live in one of the most beautiful, awesome, places in the world. On Sunday Betty, Elsie, Her sister Kim, and I ran on San Diego Mission Bay for a few miles. The best thing about running on the bay on a Sunday, summer, night, in addition to the cool bay breezes, and the view, and the flat, 1/4 mile marked path (which works for goal-oriented me) is that Sunday night is when the rental week starts for those who rent a vacation home for the week...so it was, at the very least, entertaining to be offered tequila shots for boob shots by men who were WAAAYYYY too old to be offering such things, as we ran by...Zoners...gotta love 'em (easy for me to say because I don't live at the beach). It made the 4 miles (or so) go by quickly.

OK...so that was Sunday evening, and now it's Saturday...and it would take far too long to thoroughly describe all of my running adventures and not bore my 12 sometimes readers to tears, suffice it to say that I have been in Northern Cal since Thursday at a family wedding (in Marin County), which is ALSO one of the most beautiful places in the world. I had been full of angst about attending the events surrounding this wedding, mostly because I was worried about having lengthy interactions with my mother-in-law, who doesn't like me much right now, and with whom I was going to have to spend considerable time on a shuttle-van going to and from the wedding because we were staying about 45 minutes from the wedding site.

However, my angst was for naught, and everything has worked out much better than expected, even though for a few moments on Thursday morning I thought we might miss our plane in San Diego. The wedding was lovely; the weekend thus far has been nice; The weather has been fabulous (I packed waaaayyyy too many clothes because you never know if San Francisco/Bay Area summer weather is going to be summer-like, thus making summer clothes a necessity, or winter-like, making sweaters and mittens a must...luckily, it's been the former).

On Friday morning, Walter ran with me (photo - left - Walter before our run together). This morning we hiked about five miles around Bon Tempe Lake (I think that's what it's called), a place I'd never been to, and which was so amazingly wonderful, that even drama boy didn't whine about walking five miles until we'd walked almost 1/2 of it, and even then he recovered.

I'm hoping to run again along a really nice bike bath in Corte Madera, along the Northern end of San Francisco Bay (OK...it's near San Quentin, and I'd have lots of political commentary if I did such a thing here, about the cost of homes here, and that San Quentin inmates have the same view for free...so to speak, but since I don't typically do that sort of blog-commentary here, I'll withhold)...anyway, my goal is to run there in the morning. And if things go as planned, I may also fit in a run on the Golden Gate Bridge on Monday morning before we leave (hooray!).

Other than that, I could go on an on about what dorky tourists we've been...or how Walter's family is both wonderful and ridiculous (as most families are) at the same time, but instead of lots of writing about the weekend...here's a photo essay (with captions!) that perhaps captures part of it.

Turbo at the bottom of Lombard (the crookedest) Street in SF...we are SUCH tourists. I don't know how people who live on this stretch of Lombard Street do it..with all these tourists in their front yard all day...on the other hand, I guess they knew what they were signing up for when they moved in????

Drama Girl, Walter, and Turbo at Presidio Park...the Golden Gate Bridge is behind them (I promise!)...same day, just a little further west, different weather. AWESOME FOG!

Turbo and cousin wrestling in the grass at a 4th of July "BBQ at the Beach." SF beach party sure looks different than a beach party in SD... Fun nonetheless.

Mandatory group family photo.

Walter attempting to stay out of his brother's family photo.

Is anything better than kids dancing at a wedding?

Oh, yeah...cake is better than dancing for some.

We clean up nice :-)

What does the family (cousins, uncles, aunts) do after the wedding? Pile into one small hotel room to eat pizza and watch a movie...cuz we NEVER do this at home!