San Diego

Driving into San Diego was TERRIFYING! Remember how I told you NM drivers were awesome? Well, anyone west of the Grand Canyon drives like a maniac! Oh, and no one in Cali uses their turn signals. We saw several cars cross four lanes of traffic without letting anyone else know their intentions. I realize my fear of flying is unfounded and what I should really be afraid of it driving!

As we got closer to San Diego, PALM TREES WERE EVERYWHERE! You must understand, this is very exciting for me.

The only time I saw palm trees was three years ago when we drove through Santa Cruz.

After a long drive, we were so excited to get to Best Western Mission Bay. The hotel was at a great location, but we did not feel welcomed when we arrived. We got there 13 minutes before check in time (3pm). Our room was not ready yet. No big deal, we were a little early. They told us it would be 10 minutes. You can already tell where this is going, right? We didn't get the keys to our room until 3:50pm!!!!!!!! I WAS LIVID! We had to wait in the tiny lobby the whole time. It was ridiculous. Don't worry, I already left a bad review on TripAdvisor.

Once we finally got in our room and calmed down, we headed straight for the coast!

The first thing we did was head down to Mission Bay and Mission Beach. Hellooooooo West Coast!

We walked the Mission Beach Boardwalk for a bit.

Not a Grand Canyon sunset, but still gorgeous!

The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo. We got there right when it opened, which means we got to do the opening countdown with the crowd and see the release of 5 Macaws! They were trained to fly straight to their trainer on the other side of the zoo. When they were released, they were so beautiful!

We don't mess around, so we followed the map STRAIGHT to the pandas so we wouldn't have to wait in line later. It was a good thing we did. We had lots of time to visit with Mr. Yu!

Then we checked out the gorillas because that was something else we really wanted to see!

It was Maka's birthday, so their environment was decorated with crepe paper. The workers threw boxes full of food down for the gorillas to open. It was so cute!

The orangutans cracked me up!

Funny zoo story:

We were looking at the kangaroos and there was a 2-3 year old kid being held by his mom. Their conversation went as follows: (by the way, the kid was screaming)

Mom: You see he has feet like you.

Kid: Yeah! And he has a butt.

Mom: Yes.

Kid: Does he have a penis?

Mom: Yes I think he has a penis.

Hahahaha. I do like that kids use the correct terminology!

After the zoo, we hung out on Pacific Beach for a few hours.

My new favorite book! And I did take my first dip in the Pacific!

West Coast beaches are a lot different from East Coast beaches. On the West Coast, it seems like EVERYONE is being active. It made me want to run, jump, bike, and roller blade!

We walked the boardwalk for a bit! I am calling it a boardwalk but it is clearly not made of boards! Cali peeps, what is it called?

The next day we had a disc golf/running date at Balboa Park!

This is a very popular disc golf course. There were a TON of people there!

I was looking for a trail I saw online, but I couldn't find it, so I ended up in a ritzy neighborhood. Soon I did end up finding the trail!

I didn't want to miss the opportunity to have a Cali run!

That afternoon, we hiked at Torrey Pines State Reserve... GORGEOUS!!! Here are a bunch of pictures I took.

Torrey Pine Trees. 

They only grow here and on a small island a little farther north.

We were then going to visit La Jolla but it was soooooo busy. We drove through the town and it was packed. There was absolutely no parking anywhere. I looked at Paul and said, "Do you just want to go home?" He replied, "I love you baby." Hahaha. We were VACATIONED OUT by the last day. We stopped for Mexican food on the way back to our hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon chilling/packing... FAR away from crowds!

Adios, San Diego!

Have you ever been to the West Coast?

If you live on the West Coast, please tell me what is up with the drivers!?

Do you like going to the zoo?

Home, sweet HOME!

Vacation was a crazy adventure, but being away really makes me appreciate what I have at home.

We arrived home around 11:30 on Monday evening. I unpacked everything and went to bed. When I awoke, Chrissy was laying on my chest and Jelly on my legs. I couldn't breathe, but it was awesome.

Can I tell you how happy I am to be home? I missed the kitties so much while we were gone. Twelve days... that is the longest I have been away from home and the kitties. I had a couple breakdowns, but I ultimately made it. 

As I write this, I have only been home one full day, but I feel pretty caught up on my life. I cleaned the house, did the wash, went grocery shopping, and tended to my garden as much as I could before it started storming. Mowing the lawn will have to wait until tomorrow. We even managed to watch three Jeopardys! We have a lot of those to catch up on...

Thanks for putting up with me while I was MIA from my blog for awhile! I was still posting (I am sure you are sick of vacation stuff but I have one more San Diego update), but I didn't read any blogs while I was gone. However, I am proud to say that I have recently caught up on my Bloglovin' feed, so I now know what is going on with all my crazy blogger friends! Lots of racing, PR'ing, and general awesome-ness!

I feel like I have been sharing a lot but have been disconnected on what is going on with everyone else. I can't even go back and look at my Facebook feed- it's too overwhelming! So again, if something HUGE happened- like you got engaged, got married, got pregnant, PR'ed, or ANYTHING else exciting, I may not know about it, so please share!!!!!

What is the longest you have been away from home?

Tell me what is new with you from the past 12 days!

Las Vegas

Okay, confession.... I DID NOT LIKE VEGAS!!!!!

Here is what Vegas consists of:

1. Crowds

(OMG, The Strip was just people, people, people!)

2. Secondhand smoke.

I really freaking hate the smell. It just STICKS with me. I was trying to fall asleep and I could still feel the smoke in my throat!

3. Overpriced shit.

1 ice cream bar + 1 green tea at a hotel shop = $8.55!!!!

4. Weather that is hot as balls.

110 the day we were there.

You are probably thinking, "Of course Megan, what did you EXPECT Vegas to be like in June!?" But I know several people who go to Vegas and love Vegas, so I thought it would at least be tolerable. Nah.

Also, everything takes forever. Just to check in, we waited about 45 minutes. Why do they only have 4 people working at the hotel check in when there are over 100 people in line???

I was so relieved once we finally got to our room...

We stayed at The Flamingo, which was right on The Strip. Once we checked in and settled down, we got spruced up to walk around.

I felt pretty hip until I noticed I had to rings around my legs thanks to my compression socks I wore all day.

First we walked around the hotel...

Palm trees!!!! Something this PA girl NEVER sees!

Look, you weren't allowed to feed the wildlife at the Grand Canyon, either!

Then we checked out the shops on LINQ and looked at the High Roller. There was no way we were riding that!

Then we walked The Strip... ugh! That's when things started going downhill! (See list above.)

We got REALLY hangry, so we went in the MGM Grand looking for the "perfect" spot to eat. Obviously, that is hard to do!

Just being silly...

We ended up somewhere sort of expensive but it was delicious. It was one of Wolfgang Puck's places. The service was incredible. It was a nice change to have a server who didn't make you feel like you were bothering him. Paul's temporary filling came out in Santa Fe, so he couldn't eat anything hard. Luckily, this place had DELICIOUS pasta he could eat!

We checked out the fountains at The Bellagio on the way back to our hotel. It was really cool! Of course, it was difficult to find a spot where someone wasn't blowing secondhand smoke in your face!

Did you know there are naked chicks just standing on the streets in Vegas? Well, they did have on thongs and pasties. Paul said that we should just take our pants off too. (Don't worry, we didn't!)

So that was our day in Vegas! We didn't gamble. They did have Deal or No Deal but I was too tired and just wanted to go to bed! I think I would have thought Vegas was fun 10 years ago, but not now. I guess I missed my window! It would have been fun to see a show, and if I had realized how much we were going to dislike just wandering around, we would have done that. 

Ya live, ya learn!

PS. We did hit up the Hoover Dam before Vegas. No tour, just a quick looksie because it was 110 degrees (no joke!)

PPS. Oh, and when we left Vegas and were on our way to San Diego, we stopped at a really cool 50s diner called Peggy Sue's. I ate my weight in eggs, bacon, and FRENCH TOAST!

Have you been to Vegas? What did you think?

Blogger Spotlight: Running Over the Hill

Today's spotlight blogger is Karen of Running Over the Hill! I love Karen's practical approach to running. She listens to her body and trains in a way that gets her ready to run strong during her races. I also appreciate that she is very dedicated to weight training! Here is some more about Karen...

1. How long have you been blogging? I started my blog, http://karensclutter.blogspot.com/ on March 31, 2013 after ran my first 5K. I started the blog I currently share  http://moreclutterfromkaren.blogspot.com/ in December 2013.

2. How did you come up with the title of your blog? 

I did not start running until I was 46, so Running Over the Hill seem right.

3. Describe your blogging style. Do you blog on a schedule? Do you write your posts ahead of time? How long does it take you to write a post?  I try to write truthfully about myself and share my highs and lows. Running hasn’t come easy for me and I battle my weight, so I try to share my journey. I am never consistent! I wish I was, but life happens…I try to work around it J

4. What inspired you to start a blog? I love the connection to others blogging gives me. I also blog for myself, I tend to look back sometimes and see what I wrote, how I felt, etc…

5. What types of blogs do you enjoy reading? I love fitness and running blogs.

6. Tell us your current fitness related goal(s).  I work hard at weight training, trying to build my overall strength for my health. I hope to run a marathon someday, but I am recovering from a tribal stress fracture so I am still undecided if 2016 will be my year.  I am planning on running the Richmond Half in November 2015.

7. What is your proudest running and/or fitness related accomplishment? I think crossing the line at my first half marathon was the happiest I ever felt. My longest run had only been 10 miles so I wasn’t sure I could do it!

8. Do you race? Why or why not? I love to race and it does give me extra motivation when I know an event is coming, but I’ve only run 5 half marathons, so I don’t feel like I race often at all. I would love to increase the number of events I do, but racecations can get expensive, so I am trying to find more local Fall/Winter events. I am not a summer runner.  

9. Where is the coolest place you have run?  My runs in Montana when I visit my Mom. I love the beauty, the clean air, the low humidity, some of the happiest runs I’ve ever had were in Whitefish.This post had some of the pretty views Montana Pictures 

I also loved the Disney Princess Half, the whole event was fun (although not cool at all)!    

10. And last... what picture sums you up in a nutshell? (provide the picture please!)  

Hard to pick just one! I have a few race shots I love because they remind of how happy I felt running!  :) 

Karen, thank you so much for sharing with us today!

I would love to feature some more bloggers, so keep the entries coming! You can find the details here!