Weekend Wrap Up! (Short and sweet!)

Most of the weekend was spent in my pjs...

I did do a lot of grocery shopping and school shopping in efforts to be ready to go back to work on Tuesday. Boohoo...

Sangria makes things better.

The highlight of my weekend was spending Saturday morning at Pinchot Park with my family.

I got to kayak for the first time ever. I even swam in a lake for the first time in 16 years. Honestly, the only reasons I got in the lake was because the real feel was 110 degrees and then of course I wanted to play with my SMART, FUN, BEAUTIFUL NIECES!

Family drum circle!

I did some running and some lifting. It was so hot out! I'm sure wherever you are, you are experiencing this crazy heat wave!

Like I said, not much to report, so that makes today's wrap up short and sweet! If you need me, I'll be rolled up over here in a ball, mourning the last day of my summer vacation!

Do you swim in lakes?
Tell me something fun you did this weekend!

Beach Getaway! (Part 2)

Paul and I just got home from a very short beach getaway! On Tuesday, we headed down to Cape May, NJ and spent the day there. Wednesday and Thursday were spent in Wildwood, NJ. I'm not going to tell you every single thing we did, but here are some highlights!

(I realized this was a little long so I broke it up into two parts. Check out Part 1 if you missed it!)

Jet ski/Running Date

On Wednesday morning in Wildwood, we had a jet ski/running date... AKA Paul rented a jet ski and I went for a run. He never went jet skiing before and he had the best time ever! I was so glad he had fun. 

My run was not fun. This is going to sound crazy, but I hate running at the beach. Too many cars. Too many people. It's just impossible to find several miles of road to be able to zone out. And I am definitely not a boardwalk runner. First of all, it feels weird on my feet. Second, I hate dodging in and out of people. I hate people.

Boardwalk @ Wildwood

We spent our last evening in New Jersey walking Wildwood's huge boardwalk. There were lots of shops, lots of food , and three piers full of amusement rides and attractions. The boardwalk was very crowded and I realized I am so over the boardwalk. Every single shop is the same and everything is overpriced ($4.50 for an ice cream cone!?). We actually walked the entire length of the boardwalk but were lazy and took the tram on the way back.

Raging Waters (This is the long one!)

Did you know I freaking LOVE water parks? Water slides are the best. Not the scary speed ones, but the safe ones. (Actually water slides statistically are the most dangerous amusement rides there are. I know this. I researched.) 

One of my favorite beach memories from childhood was going to water parks. When my family went to Wildwood, we went to Raging Waters, and I remember my brothers and I having a TON of fun. There was this one slide called Shot Gun Falls, where you slide down a steep slide, then free fall 6 feet down into a tank of water.

Obviously my goal was to recreate this awesome memory with Paul! We decided to do the early bird ticket where you could ride from the opening at 9:30 to 12:30. I figured 3 hours was enough time to squeeze in some good water park fun.

My goal was for us to be the very first people in line to buy tickets, so we rolled up the the park at 8:52am. There were only two other guys in line in front of us. Score! 

As we waited in line, we could see the lifeguards doing safety drills. It made me feel very safe to see this in action. Also on a side note, I have to say that throughout the day all the lifeguards were on POINT. After riding certain slides several times, I started picking up on some of the safety rules they had. Like after a rider goes down Shot Gun Falls, they wouldn't wave the next two riders down until BOTH of the previous riders had touched the ladder to get out of the pool. That's just one example. All in all, they knew what they were doing, and while I'm a strong swimmer, you never know what could happen and it was good to know the lifeguards, while young, were taking their job very seriously.

As I suspected, they started selling tickets around 9:15am, and since Paul and I were literally the second people to step foot in the park, it was probably only 5 minutes between the time we bought our tickets, threw our stuff in a locker, and were climbing the stairs of our first slide. See, my planning pays off sometimes!

For the first hour and fifteen minutes, Paul and I were in high speed mode. We went from slide to slide riding most of them several times because that early in the day there was either no line at all or a two minute wait at the most. This is going to sound silly, but we were exhausted by the time it was 10:45! So we took a little breather and floated through Adventure River that winds through the park. It felt great to just lay on a tube and relax for ten minutes. But after that, it was time to get going again!

By now, it was 11:00am, and it was starting to get crowded. There were actual lines for rides, but some were still shorter than others. We went hard for about another 45 minutes, but after that, we were ready to call it a day. Not only were we tired, but it just continued to get more crowded.

I bet you are wondering if I rode Shot Gun Falls again. I sure did! I went down that slide 6 times! Other cool rides were a rope swing, where you literally would swing like Tarzan and leave go into a pool of water. Then of course there were lots of twisty slides that you either went down on your back or on a tube. I loved the tube ones- they went very fast!

That's Shot Gun Falls!

There was also a cargo net stretched above one of the pools where you had to go across sort of like monkey bars... but it was a lot harder because it was a cargo net! Of course I had to go across the thing, and I actually was able to do it thanks to all the pull ups I do at Planet Fitness!

**Funny story: The next day when I went to the gym to lift, I noticed my shoulders and triceps were sore before I even began. Then I remembered the cargo net from the day before and realized that's what I get for being cocky!

**One more funny story: All the warnings said don't wear your sunglasses on the water slides because you will either lose them or break them. I did not heed the warnings so of course mine broke. Dang, and I'm always such a rule follower!

Have you ever been to Cape May or Wildwood?
Where do you like to hit the beach?
Do you like water parks?

Beach Getaway! (Part 1)

Paul and I just got home from a very short beach getaway! On Tuesday, we headed down to Cape May, NJ and spent the day there. Wednesday and Thursday were spent in Wildwood, NJ. I'm not going to tell you every single thing we did, but here are some highlights!

(I realized this was a little long so I broke it up into two parts. Check out Part 2 tomorrow!)

Cape May Lighthouse

The internet told us to go here. The lighthouse was very tall and pretty. 

Inside, you had to climb up 190 steps on a spiral staircase to get to the top. It was so hot inside, but we managed to get to the top in about... hmm... 3 minutes? We felt fine and weren't too winded. I did not feel comfortable at the top so I only stayed out there a few minutes. In my opinion, it was a waste of $16. Especially since the next day my calves were KILLING ME. They were SO FREAKING SORE after just 3 minutes of stair climbing! They actually stayed sore for several days.

We tried to get a pic with the lighthouse in the back!

CAMEL TOE lol!

Paul pointed to the sign and said "Three out of four of these pertain to me."

Beach time @ Cape May

I love sitting in my beach chair reading in the scorching sun, then cooling off in the ocean. The ocean was perfect that day because the water got deep very quickly. You did not have to go far from the shoreline to be able to swim, which I was really happy about. I like swimming in the ocean but I also like feeling safe!

Washington Street Mall

After our long day on the beach, we putzed around the Washington Street Mall. We meandered in and out of shops and had dinner at an Irish pub. For an appetizer we had rueben egg rolls- YUM FREAKING YUM!!!

Zero makeup, zero bra, zero fucks.

No bra fittings or this girl!

Have you ever been to Cape May or Wildwood?
Where do you like to hit the beach?

Running Treasure Hunt

Today I'm showing some love to Wendy @ Taking The Long Way Home. She organized a Running Treasure Hunt. I am probably too late to link up, however, I still wanted to participate.

On Monday, I headed out for a 6 miler around my 'hood. Now that I'm not training for anything, this run had no agenda other than it being a "Tomorrow I'm going to the beach so I better not look like a whale in my bikini" run.

I thought it would be fun to do the treasure hunt during this run to give it some real purpose. Plus it would be interesting to see if I could find anything at all worthy of being documented along my running route.

Here's what I found and decided to share with you...

1. A Mini Papasan Chair.

I sort of wanted to take it home and see if Jelly wanted it!

Are tiny little papasan chairs things? Have you seen these?

2. Weeds!

I freaking LOVE TO WEED, and at a playground near my house, it has come to my attention that their play area is getting overgrown with weeds!

Do you think they would be mad if I weeded for them? I am serious. It would give me so much satisfaction to pull these weeds.

3. Too Many Trump Signs.

Not a single Clinton sign. Don't worry, I ordered mine about a week ago.

Can't wait to represent!

4. Lots of bears.

These bear decorations are all from a yard a block from my house.

5. A monkey swing.

Okay, so the reason this monkey swing caught my eye was because the last HOH Competition on Big Brother featured the house guests seeing who could stand on a swinging monkey swing the longest. I wanted to hop up on the swing just to test and see how hard it actually is!

And last but not least, I found home sweet home!!!

See anything interesting on your runs lately?

Would You Rather... (Running Survey!)

Just a short little SURVEY for you today! Feel free to steal... because that's what I did!

Run a big city race or a small, local race? Big city race! Why not!?

Have a post race beer or post race dessert? I don't drink beer, so I would definitely do the dessert!

Run with a blister the whole time or side stitch the whole time? BLISTER! When I get a side stitch, it is rip roaring. I feel like I am getting stabbed, Jodi Arias style, in the abdomen.

Train through winter for a spring race or summer for a fall race? Summer, simply because I have more time in the summer.

Get a new pair of running shoes for free or a new running outfit for free? Shoes, for sure. While I will admit I like to look stylish in my every day life, I am not into stylish/new running clothes.

This "sports bra" I wear...

Used to be a camisole!!!!

Run alone or run with friends for every run of an entire training cycle? ALONE.

Run a flat race in the heat or a hilly race in the cold? Eh, either. They both don't sound that great! How about a flat race in the COOL? Haha!

Run a 5k or a marathon? If it's for fun, a 5k. If it's for serious, a marathon.

Run naked or take a naked yoga class? RUN NAKED! In fact, I have had my eye on this race for years...

Would you ever run a naked race?