Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

IronHubs and I took the kiddos on a mini vacation for the last few days.  We were only about three hours from home, so it wasn’t exotic or anything, but it sure was nice to get away.  Vacations are sort of like Christmas decorations for me:  the only thing I like better than going on vacay is coming home.  We went to Monterey (over on the coast), where we were hoping for a little sand, surf and sunshine, but instead were greeted with some crazy June-uary weather, including high winds and more clouds than I was hoping for.  Oh, well, at least we weren’t at home where they got pelted with hail and had tornado warnings!

It was sunny, but it sure wasn’t warm.

Four days and three nights of eating restaurant food is all I can handle.  We tried to eat reasonably healthy foods in normal sized portions (read:  we shared entrees), but there’s a certain amount of collateral damage you can’t avoid.  Here’s some unsolicited advice:  don’t ever weigh yourself the day you come home from vacation.  Whoa, Nelly!  Of course, some of it can be attributed to “traveling colon,” but the rest is from all the crepes, tilapia tacos, Italian bread, clay pot catfish, and numerous Frappuchinos I consumed.  The return to clean eating starts now.

The restaurants on Fisherman’s Wharf all give out samples of their clam chowder, so what can you do but try them all??

We managed to get in plenty of exercise, too.  We did some hiking, some hotel pool swimming, some leisurely walking, some “historic walking trail” walking, some running on this great trail around a lake that was right outside our hotel’s door, some playing at wonderful parks, and lots of fork-to-mouth lifting.  But I think I already mentioned that part – ha, ha!

Hiking at Ano Nuevo State Reserve.

Enjoying the view and getting blown by the wind at Natural Bridges.

Goofing around at Dennis the Menace Park

You’re never too old to build sand castles.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

So, now we’re back to reality, with mail to sort, a car to clean out, grocery shopping to be done, and hundreds of blog posts to read (I think I know what I’ll be doing instead of while tackling the enormous mound of laundry).  Oh, yeah, and a race to prepare for!  I’m doing a sprint distance (3 miles/16 miles/3 miles) duathlon on Saturday, the first in a series of three over the course of the summer.  IronHubs is doing the sprint triathlon (because he’s not afraid of swimming) and on Sunday, Little Boy is doing the first of his series of three kids’ triathlons.  Sophia, I think this answers your question – yes, I’ll be spending LOTS of time at Rancho Seco this summer! 

I am rather underprepared (wait, you mean taking two weeks off isn’t good training??) for this race, but I’m really looking forward to it, since I’ve never done this distance as a du and I love me some automatic PRs.  Plus, I can’t wait to use the phrase, “Well, after the World’s Toughest Half, everything else just seems easy…”  Ha, ha!