Weekend Happenings

This weekend was quite busy!

For Christmas this year, Joey and I got kayaks and we've taken them out a handful of times so far this season. We are very fortunate to have a lake in our backyard and we just have to carry them down the hill to launch them. On Saturday morning, Joey was working so my friend Lisa joined me for a kayak adventure. We had a blast! We explored a few coves and the water was high from the recent storms but was clear (in most areas anyway) and calm. We saw a trillion turtles! So many teeny tiny babies the size of quarters were sitting on logs and rocks sticking out of the water. One of these days I'll take my camera out there and get some photos. We also saw deer, a giant snapping turtle, geese, great blue herons, green herons, swallows, and fish. The turtles were far and away my favorite. 

After our kayak adventure, we went to pick up our bridesmaid dresses for our best friend's wedding in August. I'm really excited! (I'm also glad I didn't listen to the woman who measured me... my chest, waist and hips measured as different sizes and she advised me to order according to my chest size, which was the largest of the three... I told her I was more comfortable ordering a size lower, in line with my waist measurement. The dress is actually a bit loose in the chest and waist so it was a wise choice!) We took the bride with us and met the third bridesmaid there and then proceeded to the mall for a day of shopping. It was a fun girls day topped off with a trip to the bar to watch the Belmont. 

On Sunday morning, I met a friend to go strawberry picking. It was a perfect morning for it as it wasn't too hot and it was a bit overcast with no rain. It was a tad humid but nothing horrible. We each picked nearly 9 lbs of berries! It was back breaking work but oh so worth it. Strawberry pie is in the works for this week! 

After berry picking we hit up our wholesale bulk store to restock a few things. Then, I decided I wanted to head out on my bike again. Two weeks in a row! I decided I wanted to do more trail riding and ended up on a few steep, rocky, and rooty trails. It was definitely a workout and I had to get off my bike and walk it up a few challenging spots. 

As seen on my bike ride at a spot where I had to walk my bike.

Very hilly, rocky, rooty terrain. 

Bike Trek

On Saturday morning, I decided to get my bike out for the first time this season. I considered a run but it was already fairly warm and I just wasn't feeling it. I had a few hours before I needed to be anywhere so I found my pump and got my bike ready. Then I set off for an hour long ride over to a nearby park. I started on the paved lake trail and made my way over to the visitor's center. Then I climbed a big hill and cruised down to the boat ramp. I knew there were some good off-road trails that I wanted to explore. I climbed up a hill and then thought the trail ended ahead so I turned left onto a different trail. Turns out, that trail didn't really go far and it took me in a loop and spit me out where I started. I tried going straight and it turned out there was a small bridge to get over the portion that looked impassable. I was having a fun time on the twisty trails dodging roots and rocks and going up and down hills. It's times like these that I'm glad I have a mountain bike. Then I came across a downed tree that was a bit challenging. It was pretty high so I decided it would be easier to push my bike under it once I climbed over.

 Not long after clearing that one, I came across another. I ended up having to lift my bike over it and then through some branches. I eventually made it out to the road and decided to head back that way since I was running out of time. I stopped by the dog park to say hi to my best friend who was there with her dog and then headed home. I got back to my house with close to 10 miles and wanted to round out my ride. I took the trail in front of my house all the way to the end and back and finished with exactly 11 miles for the day. It took me 62 minutes but I know I would have been much faster if I hadn't gone off-road. The off-road was my favorite though and I can't wait to get back out there and explore other trails.
Part of my favorite part of riding through the park is seeing all the wildlife. Saturday I saw 2 deer, 2 turtles (one in the water and one out), a bunny, a vibrant bluebird, and a great blue heron.

Sorrento/Naples

Our last morning in Barcelona, we took a shuttle to the port and boarded a cruise ship that would be our home for the next seven days. Our first full day of our cruise was at sea as we headed for Naples, Italy. When we arrived in Naples, we had arranged an excursion to take a bus to Sorrento to explore on our own. It was maybe an hour drive and our tour guide gave us an overview of the area and gave us some suggestions of what we could do while in Sorrento. It's a small town with a lot of shops along the cliffs.

Sorrento is off in the distance.

When we arrived, our tour guide took us to the main square and gave us coupons for a free drink or gelato at a nearby cafe. We decided to get one water and one gelato to split. This time I tried the nutella gelato and it was delicious! Then we set off to look at the shops and wander the town. We bought a few souvenirs and wandered down to a beautiful view of the ocean.

Before we knew it our time was up and we were ready to head back to the ship. We had the option to walk into Naples from the port but decided against it.

The next stop on our adventure was Rome, but I'll save that for another day.

Three Things Thursday

1. For the past two weeks, I've started doing a few two-a-day runs. I've never done this before and was always nervous to try it. When I joined my new gym this year I considered it since I'd done a decent number of two-a-day workouts but was worried I'd overdo it before my half marathon and didn't want to risk injuring myself. Since I don't have a goal race in the near future and am not doing any real long runs on the weekends I decided to give it a try. So far so good! My two-a-day runs usually consist of a lunch-time run with coworkers for 3.5-5 miles and then a treadmill run of 2-4 miles at the gym after work.
2. The main credit card I use was compromised and fraudulent charges showed up on it this week. Luckily, it was flagged and they put a hold on my card until I called and had it canceled. This all happened on Tuesday of this week. I received an email just before leaving work today saying credit and debit cards used in the cafeteria at my work had been compromised and to check all accounts. *sigh* I hadn't even eaten at the cafeteria in over a month... until this week when I went twice. I always use my main credit card for these lunch purchases... until this week when that account was canceled so I used a different card. I called and had that account number changed as well just to be safe. A coworker had his account compromised too so most of my coworkers are getting their accounts changed. Such a pain. Now I have to update all the accounts that are set up for auto pay.
3. Tomorrow, Delilah turns 7! It is hard to believe it's been 7 years! Where does the time go? I hear it goes even faster with children.

If only I could figure out how to jump.

What?

Her ears were so dark when she was a young pup!

Floppy!

Just a young thing.

Barcelona

Last Thursday, Joey and I hopped on a plane for an overnight flight to Barcelona. It was our first time in Europe and didn't really know what to expect. We had a hotel booked for 2 nights and had transportation arrangements to get us from that hotel to our cruise ship set up for Sunday. Until then, we were pretty much on our own. It was a little overwhelming at first but we managed.
Before we even left DC, Joey asked about our transportation from the airport in Barcelona to our hotel. Um... I thought that was included in our package but realized they never asked about our flight info so clearly I was wrong. We tried looking up info on our phones but ran out of time and once we were in Europe our phones wouldn't work, even when connected to wifi - FAIL. We hit up the travel info booth and were told we could take a cab ($$) or figure out the metro. We opted for the metro at my request. I thought it would be 'fun' (read: something interesting to say we did) to take the train (I love trains!). Success! I found a guy working at the metro who helped me purchase our tickets. I couldn't understand him but he understood me so it was a win.
Getting off the train and out of the station was a bit overwhelming. I read so much about pickpockets that I was nervous. We waited after our train pulled out to head up the escalator but as soon as we got there, another train arrived and it was super crowded! I had two small suitcases and my camera bag that I was carrying up a non-working escalator. Fun times. I got separated a bit from Joey and some seemingly nice man offered to carry one of my bags for me but I refused to let go so he held onto my hand and lifted it that way. Once we were on the streets of Barcelona we figured out where we were and headed three blocks to our hotel. No problems after that. Whew!
It was such a relief to be in our tiny hotel room. After we got settled we explored the city a bit and eventually found a place to eat. There were a ton of restaurants but we were nervous about communicating with the servers. We managed though. I took Spanish in high school and an intro level in college but that has been so many years ago. I can recognize words but can't really speak well. The first night we had paella and sangria at a sidewalk cafe. It was delicious so I'd consider it a win. We then picked up some beer and champagne and headed back to our room.
The second day we ended up wandering around for about 5 hours (a general theme of our trip). We saw gorgeous architecture and the open air market (which was insane on a Saturday afternoon!). We ate lunch in an English speaking restaurant and got gelato at the market. We considered going to the zoo but were exhausted by the time we made it over that way so we headed back to our room. Eventually we went out for dinner and had tapas at another sidewalk cafe. They were just alright.

I loved all the narrow alleyways! 

The Arc de Triomf. So beautiful.

The castle of the three dragons.