Pirate Cruise around the Harbor!

For the second year running, I headed to Disney World the first weekend in May to run the Expedition Everest Challenge with Charrissa and Derek! This year Noel joined us, since the trip dovetailed nicely with our family trip with Noel’s family. So we had two couple teams, ready to enjoy the weekend and race!

We definitely learned a few things from our previous Expedition Everest Adventure–mostly, to eat early and to REST the afternoon before the race. We managed to do about half of that–we had a nice early lunch at Via Napoli. But thanks to an unexpected, special, May the 4th Star Wars event at Hollywood Studios, we did A LOT more walking than we had planned on race day. Like miles more than we should have done! Whoops!

(Although we didn’t eat with them, we met up with fellow Team Peacock members Craig and Elizabeth after our Via Napoli reservation and before theirs. Always fun to catch up with them.)

We did manage to get a bit of rest (and I watched the Derby) before it was time to don our costumes and get ready for the race. Yes, Noel and I ran in pirate garb. As a team we had to stay and finish together, so I was okay running in something different so that Noel and I could have some fun with our outfits. I thought we looked pretty cute, but I’ll say, I don’t know how people do longer races in costume! A 5k was enough for me!

We headed towards the park around 8, got caught in a bit of traffic, but then made it to the corrals with plenty of time. The race was so much more organized in this respect than it was last year. The corrals were clearly marked and organized by time. Charrissa and Derek were in A, so they went to their corral to start. Noel and I were in G, so we had a LONG time to wait. It’s so weird to not have to rush to an early corral, and definitely strange for me to try to keep my energy up while waiting. But we killed some time taking some fun pictures with Craig and Elizabeth, who were also in our corral.

It seemed like we waited forever, but finally it was our turn to go. And almost from the start, we were frustrated. Noel is slower, and my goal was to pace him to a good 5k time since he’s trying to improve in that area. Even though he’s slower, he runs most of the time, but we were immediately blocked by a wall of walkers. We did a lot of weaving the first half mile, and quickly caught up with the tail end of the walkers in the previous corral. And then we got to the first obstacle, where we had to wait for our turn to jump the hay bales. This was pretty much the pattern for the whole race–weave around walkers, wait at the obstacles. Despite this, Noel did a good job of maintaining a fairly even, fast pace, even though it was hotter and more humid than what he had been used to running in. We finished the 5k in 39 minutes, which was great considering all the log jams we had to deal with (including a full stop and wait at the tire obstacle).

And then it was time for the Scavenger Hunt, which I knew would be Noel’s strength. And it was! He definitely got most of our clues, but he would say that I helped him in key ways. I’m not sure what those are, but we had fun solving them together. Until we got to the last clue, which was seriously hard. But Noel figured it out, and we are able to finish well ahead of others who took a lot longer to get that last clue. We held hands as we crossed the finish line together, which is something I had always wanted to do!

Because we were in such a late corral, I didn’t have as much time to enjoy the post race party as I had last year. But we still had a bit to eat, took a ride on Everest, and visited with some folks we ran into at the post race party before heading back to the hotel. All in all, a very fun experience. It was really great to run with Noel, especially in our matching costumes!

From the butterfly house at the Epcot Flower and Garden show!

So, I disappeared for a while. It wasn’t planned, but it may have been what I needed.

I’ve been struggling a bit with the blog recently, mostly because I’ve moved away from it’s original center–baking–some in the last few months. Why? Well, earlier this year, in desperation, I decided to eliminate most wheat from my diet. Desperation? Yeah, desperation. You see, I’ve been sick, on and off, with a horrible stomach condition for years. I was tested for celiac (among many other things), but it came back negative. I thought I was soy intolerant, so I eliminated that, but over time, the problems came back. After being sick through our whole trip to Puerto Rico, I knew something had to change. Thus the drastic wheat cut back. And I’ve never felt better. But that leaves me in a sad baked good free zone. I know I can try gluten free recipes, but I just haven’t gotten there yet.

I also ended up horribly sick at the end of April and then went on vacation. Oh yeah, and I did some running–and some not running. I hope to talk about all of these things soon!

Thanks for sticking around and giving me this space, and the opportunity to step back from it for a bit. I need this outlet, and I love the friendships I’ve made here.

Girls go to New York!

This was way back on President’s Day Weekend, but it’s fun to remember!

Tonight I’m all in for Boston.

Through some serious magic, last Friday I found myself with a day off of work and a free ticket to the Orioles home opener.

I’m not sure I had ever been to a home opener before, but when the ticket came my way, it seemed like a no brainer. A beautiful day with a party like baseball game? Count me in.

We started off with some lunch and drinks at the Heavy Seas Ale House. I had two of these delightful Musket Ball’s. And then we were off, with a pit stop for some Jamesons in the Inner Harbor.

Then it was game time. I was in the outfield, right next to the area where the players gathered before the game to make their trip down the red carpet. It was cool to see them all up close before the were announced to the screaming crowd.

The game was a great one. I spent the whole time chatting with an old friend that I don’t see nearly enough of, and then an exciting game was capped off with an amazing, game winning grand slam (which is actually pictured above!). We left the stadium on a huge high, loving the Birds and the city of Baltimore! I was lucky enough to head back to the Yard on Saturday. Yeah, they lost that one, but it was still a great time!

Let’s go to the only tropical rainforest in the US, El Yunque!

I hope everyone had an excellent Easter weekend! We headed out of town, to South Central PA to spend some quality time with Noel’s family. We’re making a real effort to see them every month, because we like seeing them and we don’t want life to get too busy and miss them!

We opened Easter baskets, hunted for eggs, did A LOT of cooking (yes, I still love to cook, even if I’m not blogging about it as often, mostly because I’m not cooking a ton of new things)

Oh, and we drank some apple pie moonshine! It was quite delicious, and dangerous! Made in York, Pa.

And then my darling nephew got me hooked on this:

It started out harmless enough, with me assisting him on a few zombie kills on my mother in law’s phone. And then I downloaded it. And now I’ve been killing zombies for at least an hour, with about a billion levels left to go…

HAPPY EASTER!

Yep, the one who got me hooked is on the right. Good thing he’s so cute!

Let’s rewind a bit, to my birthday. Yep, now I’m thirty one. We started the birthday weekend off with a bang–I ran an awesome race in DC, then we saw O’Malley’s March at the Patterson. That was one fun event, since we were sitting very close to the stage and basically got to heckle the governor and his band the whole time. And my sister and Larry were there! Fun :-)

After a relaxing birthday brunch with the whole gang, Noel and I decided to ride out to Black Ankle Vineyards. Black Ankle is possibly Maryland’s most talked about winery–they have the reputation of being very high end, and very California. I had been meaning to go out there for ages, but had never quite made it. So my birthday seemed like the perfect time!

Our first impression of Black Ankle was that it was remote–it literally felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, with cows wandering around in the grape vines. But as we got closer to the tasting room, it was nearly love at first sight. The building is cute, quaint, and there was smoke coming out of the chimney. On our way in we saw the sign asking us if we were members of the wine club, and I joked to Noel that we weren’t yet. Inside the building was even better, with a beautiful tasting bar in the middle of the room and lots of tables, filled with people who just seemed to be kicking back and enjoying some wine on a cold March sunday.

We headed to the bar (which is beautiful, made with cuttings from their first grape harvest) for our tastings, which was four wines–1 white, and 3 reds. Based on their production, it seems like Black Ankle focuses on reds, and I can see why. While the white, a blend, was okay, each of the three reds we had was fantastic. We had quickly finished our samples and were debating a bottle, when we noticed someone else ordering some food. We hadn’t had lunch, so Noel and I decided to order a baguette, some salami and cheese and settle in at one of the nearby tables. It was so much fun. We settled in and chatted and just relaxed. No pressure, just relaxing. What a great space!

And then we joined the wine club. This surprises no one. They sold us with the special event evenings in the summer. Black Ankle is definitely a place I can see us hanging out. And for wine lovers in the DC/Baltimore area, it is definitely worth a visit. It’s an easy, enjoyable ride, and the wine can’t be beat!