Beach Weekend Getaway

Mom and I went to the beach for a long weekend and this was my view for three days.  It was fabulous.  I basically did nothing other than sit on our deck and look out at this for days.  The weather was warm, blue skies and no wind.  Abnormal for a Washington beach especially in October.

To break up the sitting and reading and talking to Mom I ran five miles on both Saturday and Sunday.  The last time I went that far was quite awhile ago so it felt good to get into "high" mileage again.  In addition to the running I also did some swimming and, like a good Finn, some sauna-ing. 

We also ate some wonderful food including a pumpkin yogurt/honey granola trifle that haunts my dreams.  Movies and horrible wedding shows were watched and a good time was had by both.

This weekend was probably the most relaxed I have been in awhile.  Our typical vacations are "go go go" the entire time and this was refreshing to just do nothing and have no agenda.  I know it was a much needed escape for my mother too.  She almost didn't go but gave in to me and was extremely glad she did.  After the crappy year she has had she deserved a few days of R and R.

Oh, and on our way down to the beach on Friday we stopped at a bridal store and I bought my wedding dress!  Whoo-hoo! 

Mojo

Two great runs in two days.  Mojo back maybe?  My motivation seems to have kicked in and I am looking forward to my first double-digit week in months (how sad is that).  Sixteen miles may not seem like very many but it is the first concrete step of my marathon base building. Oh how great it feels to run and run well again.

Tour de Colorado

We are back from a much needed vacation and I feel a little more like a normal human being again.  It has been kind of a stressful summer for some very obvious reasons and I really needed a complete change of scenery.  Our vacation took us on a tour of dang near all of Colorado.  Since Kevin and I both want to visit all of our National Parks we built the trip around hitting as many of those that we could and getting to spend some time with our good friends in Denver.

The first stop on our trip was Great Sand Dunes National Park.  We climbed the big sand dune and I was fairly certain that was going to do me in.  However, Kevin's mountaineering skills came in handy as he encouraged me to do kick steps in the sand and do rest steps with each step.  That made it much easier to climb the dunes and we made it to the top.  The big dune is 650 feet high and the elevation before you even start climbing is 8200 feet and it was sunny so you can see that it was a bit of work to get up there.  Well worth it even though I will be picking sand dune sand out of my shoes and pockets for the rest of my life.  Running down the steep slopes of the dunes was a blast though!  Hooray for gravity!!!!

The next stop was Mesa Verde National Park to ooh and aah over the cliff dwellings built by the Ancestral Puebloans (can't use the term "Anasazi" anymore) and the overall beautiful area of SW Colorado.

We took a couple of guided tours into some of the cliff dwellings including one that involved a climb up a 30 ft ladder to get in and a crawl through an 18 inch wide 12 foot long tunnel and then some more ladders and such to get out. I was kind of convinced my ginormous ass would get stuck in the cliff dwelling and then oh, what a tourist attraction I would become. 

This is one of the small exit ladders for one of the Cliff Dwellings.  Imagine one three times as long to get in.

Mesa Verde is really an amazing place and one that is well worth your time.  So much history and so beautiful.

Kivas, kivas everywhere!  I am pretty sure I have had my lifetime fill of kivas.  Besides, I think they were probably more ancient living rooms rather than holy sites 'cause, well, you know I have that anthropology degree and everything.  Or at least a degree that alphabetically precedes anthropology in the course catalog and that should totally qualify me to make these statements.

Look!  I am doing women's work!!  The women would grind corn with these HEAVY rocks for 6-8 hours a day. 

After camping and exploring Mesa Verde we headed up to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and camped there for two nights.  I also got to experience my first night camping in a thunderstorm with torrential rains.  Wheee!  On the way we stopped for a gold mine tour that seemed like it might be cheesy but was actually really interesting and informative.  I learned a ton about mining and got to see a hundred year-old porta-potty on tracks that the miners used to use in the mine.  Yes, even a mine tour can be turned into a discussion about poo.  That is just how I roll.

Kevin summed it up best about Black Canyon:  it is worth seeing but it isn't a "must see" destination.  If you are anywhere near it you should definitely hop on up there and take a look at it.  The canyon is 2700 feet deep at its deepest point and the Gunnison River has some serious drop; 240 feet per mile at its ....um.....droppiest.  Also, some amazing rocks up there.  Quartz, feldspar and mica everywhere you look.  I was a good park visitor though and fought the overwhelming urge to pick some up and take it home.  So. Very. Hard.

While we were camping we made a friend - Olive the camp grouse.  Olive was perched on the picnic table at our neighboring site when we arrived and she hung around for the next two days.  She has been gorging on all the tiny acorns and fattening up for winter.  Smart bird to pick campsites that predators generally steer clear of to live in.  Our bird is wicked smart.

After two days at the Black Canyon it was at trip to Denver to hang with The Blue Sky Girls.  Don't sue me H for unathorized use of your photo!  I'll take it down if you really want.

We went to the Hammond Candy Factory where they have been hand making candy canes, lollipops and ribbon candy for 90 years.  So fun to see how Kevin and I bought our weight in candy at the store. 

We also went to the American Mountaineering Museum where Jim Whittaker tried to kill Kevin,

did some beer tasting, went to a large carnivore sanctuary that was eye opening about how many nutbars there are who try to keep large exotic animals as pets, and had fascinating conversations about pigeons and guinea worms.  And really, can a conversation about guinea worms be anything but fascinating?  The answer is a resounding "no".  If you don't know about the guinea worm you should really Google it because it is insanely creepy and disturbing. Don't be eating spaghetti when you look.

The last day in town we did a Volksmarch through downtown Denver to get to see some of the cool public art downtown Denver has to offer.

We had a great time and are very grateful for our delightful hostesses for loaning us their camping gear and putting us up for three days.  Can't wait to return the favor.

Instant Motivation

My running has been sporadic and kind of crappy lately.  I have been having big motivation issues that I am trying to overcome and I need something to focus on for my running or I just might stay in the "blah" zone for the rest of the year.  I need to get my mojo back so I can build up a strong base to start marathon training in January.  Besides, I miss running and running well.  *sigh* Those were the good ol' months.

Enter Amanda at Run To The Finish and her PR Challenge.  She is getting different people across the running blogland to compete at your chosen distance (5k, 10K, half, or full marathon) to have a bigger PR than your competitors.  The competition runs from October 1 to November 30 and all you have to do to sign up is head on over to her blog and fill out the information for your distance, previous PR, and name.  Whoever doesn't have the biggest PR in your group will send a small token to the winner for a) motivating them to get out and run and b) congratulating them on their accomplishment.  Voila!  Instant motivation!   Since signing up a few days ago I already feel more motivated.

I am signed up for the 5K group of 26-31 minute PRs and will hopefully blow my previous record of 29:14 out of the water.  I haven't picked my race yet but I am leaning towards the GreenLake Gobble on November 21 as my chosen race. 

I know there are a few of you out there who sometimes need some motivation.  Any more takers?

Home Alone

I love my boyfriend very much.  Let's say that up front. I love spending time with him and have fun with him no matter what we are doing.  But, I also enjoy a little bit of alone time and I don't get that very often anymore.  Tonight I got my precious alone time to have the kind of slovenly Friday nights I used to have as a single gal.  While he is off at a wedding rehearsal dinner, I have spent the evening reading outside by our pond, talking to an old friend on the phone, eating cupcakes and frozen burritos for dinner and watching Kathy Griffin on TV.  The most heavenly Friday night I have had in a long time. 

Now if you will excuse me there are TV shows about cake to be watched.

Yellow Shiny Happy

I promise that you won't be inundated with wedding related stuff for the next eight months but I do feel the need for one more wedding post.  These, my fine friends, are my wedding shoes:

I am giddy about these shoes.  Seriously, these were in my dream the night they showed up on my doorstep.  I am not a shoe obsessed person but these shoes could turn me down the path to the dark side.  Besides being cute as hell they are actually comfortable and fit my weirdly shaped feet perfectly.  It pains me to have to stick them away in their box until May. 

Now I guess I have to find a dress to match them.

Ugly Confession

I have a confession to make.  An embarrassing confession really.  Come, closer so I don't have to say it too loudly.  OK, here goes....My name is Ann-Marie and I enjoy wedding planning.  There I admitted it and said it to the world or at least my tiny corner of the interwebs.  I feel better now.  Admitting you have a problem is half the battle or something like that, right? 

Seriously, since the engagement I don't think a day has gone by that I have not looked at wedding ideas online or in a magazine or discussed them with Kevin.  Dang it but it's fun.  And the creativity people exhibit with their wedding planning blows me away.

Now before you worry too much and wonder what really happened to me I would like to point out that I have not become a white tulle obsessed Bridezilla dreaming of how she can incorporate white swans, ice sculptures, tiaras and 13 matching bridesmaids into her vision of her "perfect day".  None of that crap.  Although if I could get a swan wearing a tiara and a bridesmaid dress that would be kinda cool.  No, I am just talking about throwing a party since that is what a wedding is anyway.  A big-ass party with a quite serious moment at the start and as the impetus for the whole thing.  So really, the planning has been about cool favors, and fun ideas for invitations and table centerpieces and oh, the cake porn, the beautiful, magical cake porn.

If you have never flipped over the rock to peer into this underbelly of the wedding world you might have been as blown away as I was about the sheer number of products and services and websites and blogs devoted to all things wedding.  It is truly fascinating and I had no idea it was really this much of a giant wedding industrial machine.  Here are a few things I have learned so far:

• THE coolest website for all things left of center regarding weddings is Offbeat Bride.  This site has some of the most creative weddings and ideas featured and it isn't all some little girls cupcakes and ponies and Prince Charming dream crap.  If you want to get ideas how to incorporate sci-fi themed centerpieces,or how to dress a transgendered bride, or about the hand-fasting ritual, or what tattooed brides do about their beloved tattos this is the site for you.  Even though none of the above are things I am concerned with it is still kind of interesting to read and digest.  What this site excels at, and to me its reason for being, is that it reassures you that the most important part of the ceremony and party is that it must feel authentic to you and the person you are marrying and it gives you ideas to send you down that route.
• Offbeat Bride also gives the sage advice to not worry because no matter what you do someone will think it is tacky or ugly or stupid.  So don't worry about such things and just do what feels right. 
• Knee-length wedding dresses are very hard to come by.  Are there seriously that few of us who don't want a long-white gown?  And yes, I used to think I would just get a pretty dress in some random color but I decided I wanted the dress to at least look like I was getting hitched.  I truly feel for the poor women who want sleeves, particularly long-sleeves.  You guys are truly screwed.
• There are a whole lot of crazy women out there.  Dip your toe into the boards on sites like TheKnot and you will see what I mean.  Really ladies, let's chill out and remember why you are doing this in the first place. 
• I love cupcakes but if I see one more cupcake tower at a wedding I will scream.  Also, the everybody wear a fake mustache things for the ceremony or in the photo booth is not funny and in fact veers to creepy.  Stop it already, please.

I am also lucky because I keep running into articles about how to get the groom more involved in the planning.  Kevin is having fun creating the website and meeting with the photographer and all of that stuff.  It is interesting because this process has revealed how few "normal" weddings I have been to and how few "unusual" ones Kevin has attended.  I think it is an East Coast-West Coast thing but I could be wrong.  We keep having discussions about the wedding and he is definitely the one who envisions a  more traditional gathering and my vision is a little less normal.  Don't worry, no actual fighting occurs but it is interesting to see a different interpretation of weddings than my own.

Now, if you will excuse me I have to go read about a Moroccan/burlesque themed broom jumping or some such thing...