Hurricane Irene

By Saturday morning, Irene started showing her strength on our beach.  

 We've lived through storms like this before, so we knew to board up the windows and secure the loose/lighter stuff in the yard. 

While mandatory evacuations were in place, we weren't sure we'd leave.  However, eventually we decided it would be smarter to be safe -- so we headed to my house outside of Philly. 

Clearly, other people didn't like the idea of Irene messing up the last weekend of summer before Labor Day weekend, either. 

We listened to the strong winds and rain from my house, and hoped we wouldn't lose power.  We were anxious to hear what was happening on the island, and by late morning we were ready to head back. 

Although the skies were clear by Sunday afternoon, the west winds were fierce.  There had been lots of flooding, and some people lost power, but for Irene to make landfall in the inlet off our south end, the island survived relatively unscathed. 

The bay, normally flat and calm, was whipping in the west wind.

But the beach was beautiful.  Big waves, and rough surf, and lots of erosion, but it was there.

LBI, again, survived a hurricane. 

And so did we. 

Summer Good Stuff

Fun rides on new routes with friends

New goggles so I can see on my long swims

New shoes for all my running

And snuggly recovery time with the pup

It's supposed to be FUN!

I've gotten more serious -- sort of -- with my triathlon training this summer.  Gotten better with my swimming, grown up on my biking a bit, and done more of the tri training this summer than ever before.  Today, I set out for a long workout.  Long.  And while I hoped I'd have company with my friend DS who's here on vacation, the timing wasn't going to work for him.  Instead, he left me motivational messages on the road by the street where he's staying. 

I loved it. 

Yesterday, while getting my workout planned and set, I had a sort of flash of a thought go through my mind.  This is supposed to be fun.  I do tri's for fun.  I should get that mindset back for running races, too -- but that's for another post.  With all the greater focus on improving my triathlon work, I realized I started taking it a little too seriously.  I don't want to do that.  I want to enjoy these races, and when I take them too seriously I end up getting too stressed and full of anxiety.  This is supposed to be fun! 

So when I set out early this morning, that's the thought I kept in my mind.  Have fun.  And I did.  Yes, at a certain point, the hard work sets in, but I reminded myself through the whole workout to have fun.  And DS's messages helped me do that.  Thanks, D! 

The rest of the Napa trip!

Gah!  I haven't had any time to sit and write out the rest of the Napa trip report.  It was a fantastic trip, and I wish I could get all the fun details in, but here's an overview:

We started Friday with bubbly!  Muum Napa had some delicious sparkling wines, but the Santana (yep, as in Carlos) was my favorite.  It was a beautiful winery setting (actually most of them were!) and it was a solid start to the day. 

From Muum, we traveled to BV, which was fine -- nothing too extraordinary there, and then grabbed lunch at some run-down mini mart.  That was not so fine.  We were tight on time, so we had to grab something on the go to make it to the next winery on time.  The mart had a kitchen where they made Mexican dishes -- now, I have nothing against Mexican food, but it often doesn't like me.  I settled on a basic rice and beans burrito, and hoped the rest of the trip would allow for better wine pairings :)

The rush was well worth it when, after climbing and twisting our way up the mountain, we arrived at Chappellet.  By far, this was the best winery we visited.  The grounds were gorgeous, the hostess was fabulous, the wines were delicious.  We got to taste the wines while seated at a grand table right alongside the wine barrels.  It was chilled in there, so they provided us with comfy coats to keep warm, then invited us to tour the grounds with our wine.

 We even got to taste the grapes!  They weren't ready -- they were sour.  :(

After Chappellet, we made our last stop at Clos Du Val.  This winery had beautiful gardens, but the hostess left a lot to be desired.  We eventually made our way back to the resort, freshened up and enjoyed the view from our deck for a bit, and then headed to the riverfront area of downtown Napa.  We didn't realize everything would be closed by 6, though, so we did some window shopping and ended up (shocking for this group!) at a tavern.

 I wished the running store was open -- it would've been fun to see how theirs was set up!

After dinner at the Greystone Culinary Institute, which was good but the atmosphere seemed better out on the porch than inside, we called it a night. 

Saturday was a day off -- which was great for me.  I got a solid run in in the morning, then took a yoga class at the fitness center, then got a long swim done in the outdoor lap pool, and then lunch and some lounging time with my friends at the regular pool.  Got my nails done at the spa, then we were off to dinner.  Saturday's dinner was at Mustard's, and it was another good meal. I have to say, I really wasn't blown away by any of the meals I had -- but they were all good restaurants. 

Saturday night was hilarious -- a few of us ended up back at the resort's main bar where there were a whole bunch of men on a business trip golf weekend partying at the end of the day.  It was a shark tank, for sure -- but no harm done. 

Sunday was another day of wineries, but this time in Sonoma -- and we enjoyed mimosas on the bus on the way there!  We went to Chateau St. Jean, Coppola, and then Ferrari-Carano.  Ferrari was my favorite there.  By the end of the day we were silly and happy and having fun playing around.  This picture sort of sums up the trip in all its wine and silliness and fun:

That's my friend A on the ground.  She took her part of the picture seriously. 

Sunday night was our last night in Napa.  We had dinner at Bistro Don Giovanni, seated at a great table on the terrace.  I had one of the best dishes here -- a beet and asparagus salad -- and we all enjoyed our last night together.  Until a spider fell out of the rafter onto our table.  Then we were ready to wrap up the desserts and hit the road.  But it was a great night and a couple of us stayed up late, the music playing and our non-stop laughing at the events of the weekend. 

Monday morning I got an easy run done, with a short stop at the fitness center in the middle of it for a half hour on the stationary bike.  We all showered, grabbed coffee and hit the road.  We tried to stop at Muir Woods (whoa!  Lots of twists and turns -- not good for our hungover people!) but the parking was impossible, so off to the wharf we went.  We had a fun lunch on pier 38 (39?) and then walked around a bit. 

A few hours later, a couple of my friends and I were on red-eye flights home.  What a trip.  I did get a little sleep on the flight, but it would take me a few days to get caught up from the time difference and all the energy, excitement and fun of the long weekend.  That was a trip I'll long remember with a great group of people. 

Napa Trip Day 1 - Let's get it started!

This trip was a birthday celebration for my friend J, who turns 40 this month.  11 of us, all coming from the east coast, flew to San Francisco Thursday morning.  Once we all arrived and met at the car rental center, we hit the ground running.  We had two cars and a plan.  Head across the Golden Gate

and stop at IN-n-Out

Hess was a great way to start our wine tasting because Larry was very informative.  We listened, we asked some questions, and we finally got to taste.

We then made our way to check-in at the Silverado Resort.  It was great.  We had two condos, close to each other, and the resort had lots of options for fitness stuff for me and lounging stuff for my friends. 

Dinner Thursday nite was at the Grill right at the resort, which worked very well for us to be able to have a few drinks and not have to drive anywhere, and since it was a long travel day, we called it an early night to get ready for the first big day of wineries.