Everything BUT the race

My pictures are all in a scramble so I will just have to jump around. To leave off from my last report, the boys came back from their ride Friday morning and we all left for a run. The weather for running is Perfect! Because it was pre-race day, we had a lot to do. After getting ready for the day, we headed to the high school in Windsor to pickup their race packets. Once they had all their stuff, we drove part of the bike course and went to the beach where they would be starting the swim. It was a tiny beach, amazing they could fit that many people in one place.

Once the business was taken care of, we decided to spend the rest of the day at a little county fair nearby our hotel. Oh the smells of the fair! It's been awhile since I've been to a fair. We ate kettle corn and Jake ate some raw fish dish, ewww! We watched the horse races and looked at lots of farm animals. None of us were much for thrill seeking, so we didn't ride any rides, although Jake was itching to go on one, none of us wanted to go along. When dinner time hit, we went to a fancy pasta place, gotta get loaded on carbs ya know! We looked at the menu and decided we would fair better across the street at Sizzler. It's also been a long time since I've been to Sizzler! We turned in early so everyone could get a good nights rest.

We were up at 4:30 to get to the start line. I will go into race details another time. While the boys did their thing, Jenny and I filled our time with a few other things. I went running while they did the swim since there wasn't really time to leave. It was my fastest 5K. The town was a little hilly so the roads were either up or down. I averaged 9:36 min/miles, for me that is really good! We went back to the hotel and showered and then headed to the outlet mall. It was kind of small, but I came back with a few little things, nothing too exciting. We needed to get back to the race so we grabbed lunch and then spent the rest of the day sitting in the grass watching the boys run back and forth. We got back to the hotel about 11:30pm. Not one nap or snooze!

Sunday we drove to San Francisco to see what was to see. We first stopped at the Golden Gate bridge, then went over to the city to Fisherman's Warf. I didn't realize it was so commercial or I wouldn't have suggested it for Sunday. We walked around a little, the boys were limping is more like it. We bought taffy for the kids and tried to get on the trolley, but the wait was over an hour. We had lunch and then headed out. We drove as far as a little town called Solvang and stayed there for the night.

Got up and ran again Monday morning, again...so great! After breakfast we went around this little town that has a dutch theme. It's very cute and had tons of little bakeries and antique shops. We didn't have a lot of time, we needed to be getting home, but we did stop in at a little Christmas store. I got all my kids ornaments for this year while there. So, back in the car we went and pretty much came straight home. We got home right around 8 pm to a great welcome by most of the family who had come to welcome Glade home and hear his experience with the race.


These are the piles of crabs that lined the street in San Fran. The smell was seriously gagging me.

Glade tried his hand at "milking " the cow at the fair.

This is what lots of the roads looked like as we drove around Napa Valley, so beautiful.

This is where they swam for the race.

I only include this cuz the story is funny. We were running on Friday and Glade is always faster than me, but because he was taking it easy before the race, he stayed with me the whole time. Right at the end, he took off ahead of me...so in my competitive way, I decided I could keep up with him and stepped it up. What I didn't realize was that he was running ahead cuz he wanted to take my picture. He turned around to take it and "bam" there I was. Woops, sorry honey!

Willie Birds...nuff said.

Heading out for our run.

San Francisco from across the way. Amazing. While driving around, we went all the way to the top of the city and then back down. It's seriously steep! Every time we headed down, I would throw my arms above my head and scream. Crazy.

Funny thing about the bridge, it was super cloudy and cold over here, but when we went across to the city, sunny and warm. Looking back at the bridge, it still looked like this.

Alcatraz Island. I really really wanted to take a tour, but they were sold out till middle of August.

Jake, Jenny and Glade walking down the pier.

This was the scene in the little town the swim was in. I got to run with this as my view, gorgeous!!

Hills and hills and miles and miles of grape vines.