hi, hello there.

the other day as i was browsing around facebook i saw my dear friend megan's post about claiming the award for the worst blogger ever. knowing megan and all about her adventures in the last few months (seriously this girl is doin big things!) it occured to me that i have also fallen off the bandwagon. originally moving i had said i would keep up with things and continue writing, wellllll that definitely didnt happen and its about time i fixed that!

so lets start with the job and the move. its going great!!! i have made it through 2 retreats, 1 with an 8 member exec board including a sleepover and a trip to the beach, and 1 with 65 members over 2 days learning the ins and outs of guiding campus tours! 

family picture at the beach!

things are going to get crazy busy as i am starting my official travel this week and so does our fall event series. i have really fantastic coworkers that have just enveloped me in their circle no problem:) they are some of the nicest, most welcoming people i have ever met! i have also settled in from the move to my little town. i have a routine now through the week that seems to fit it all in, i think. many have asked how it is moving from such a big city of vegas to the college town of statesboro? truth is, its very similar to flagstaff, the town i went to college in. the bigger adjustment than town size has actually been the adjusting to the south. the humidity down here is unreal, but my hair loves it:) and it rains all the time. which i personally love! the food is for sure different, and i can say that i have officially tried hashbrown casserole haha. ive been here just about 2 months now and things are really good:) i still have my bouts of homesickness that comes in waves, thank goodness for technology that they are all only a phone call or text away!

yes that is candied bacon on top of ice cream.

but we get to tailgate!

and bonfire smores are a normal thing:)

training. many have asked if i am still planning on doing the full marathon next month, so let me clear that up. HELL YES!!!! (seriously have we met people) i have been training like a mad woman and have made it through 10 weeks of training and have logged about 290 miles since the 2nd week in july. boom. 

not too say this hasnt been an incredibly tough process. adjusting to a new climate alone has definitely been rough. i swear i have never, ever sweat so much in my whole life as i have down here haha! sure i would have probably liked to take some time to adjust to my new life before jumping into a training plan, but that isnt how life works, you just gotta go with it. i think its actually been a blessing in disguise. with all of the changes, moving literally from one coast to the other, going from a steady 12% humidity to 75% on a regular basis, to having to find completely new running routes and finding a new gym, running has been the one constant thing in my life that hasnt changed. it may be a new plan but the comfort of sticking to a training plan and knowing that i can do it no matter where i live is incredibly helpful. not to say that i havent fallen apart a few times like after a really tough 1/2 marathon 2 weeks ago in which i fought for every mile after 5 and then had more rough, rough training runs throughout the week. and in those instances i say, thank goodness for an amazing friend and family support team. i am so grateful to be able to reach out to a few new marathoners that i saw struggle through the process a bit and have given me so much great advice in my own struggle. i cant tell you how incredible it has been to have them! 

this happens.

and so does a good recovery:)

so in the theory of changes...there are a few coming for this little blog of mine. its about time actually! it started as something small and has grown a big part of my life but hasnt done much evolving. i think its about time to change that:)

the san francisco adventure part 2

so we left off sunday night with all of us turning in. my parents headed out the early the next morning to the airport but luckily jessica was staying around for a good part of the day. we decided that meant it was time to finally ride the cable cars! so we trekked down to union square to pick up the famous powell and hyde line that would take us by all the good stuff.

we finally get to have post-race coffee together:)

we landed at the bottom and conveniently stumbled upon the buena vista. this was actually the place we were planning to go for breakfast sunday but just ran out of time before my grandparents came into town. apparently it has a very famous irish coffee so we saddled up to the bar and ordered some coffee, our 2nd of the day hehe. it was delicious and so cool to watch the bartender make tons of coffee for awhile. turns out they actually go through about 80-100 bottles of whiskey on a weekend day! omg thats a lot.

yum!

afterward we explored fishermans wharf a little while and people watching of course. which of course means the sea lions! jessica was very excited and im pretty sure she was scheming ways to take 1 of the little guys home:) we settled on in-n-out for lunch, which i realize isnt very san francisco, but it is very california. and man it was GOOD! i havent had anything like that in months. yum.

lombard street!

it seemed sooner than we both would of liked but we needed to head back to get her to the airport and us to our afternoon tour. we got back right on time and soon jessica was on the bart on her way to the oakland airport. i hate it when we have to say goodbye:/ richard and i hopped on the nearest street car that would take us all the way around to the pier to hop on our cruise to alcatraz! i have always wanted to go there and finally was able to fit it in. as we got closer and closer i started to get worried about the time since you need to arrive 30 minutes before the boat leaves to board. just as we got to the ferry building our driver informed us this would be his last stop since one of the front doors was broken and we would have to wait for the next car behind him in about 5 minutes. so we hopped off, did we really have a choice, and began waiting for the next one. richard started getting more and more upset at this point that we would never make it and now we wasted our money. now when people in san francisco say 5 minutes i swear they really mean at least 30 minutes. by this time we had more than missed our boat and wasnt sure we would be able to get refunded. i decided we should still go to the dock and see if theres anything they can do. richard decided he was fed up waiting and walked down to the pier as i waited for the street car. he apparently needed to blow off steam from something.

finally the street car arrived and i took it down to pier 33 to met him. we went to the window and the lady was amazingly nice, gave us our tickets, and told us we could do stand-by anytime tuesday. she gave the advice to be there for the early ones because they were the easiest to get on. this meant no tour tonight and no plan. after hearing all about how his plans never pan out and no one wants to do the things he wants when he wants to we decided to go see the painted ladies instead. luckily i still had a few maps in my purse, so i set out to figure out the easiest way to get there. it was also getting dark and we needed to get going if we wanted to see them in the daylight! turns out it was actually pretty easy and made it there just after the sun had passed over.

ill be moving in tomorrow:)

it was about dinnertime then and we were both hungry. after a few failed attempts at finding somewhere there, we seemed to keep getting into not such good areas we shouldnt be in after dark or really in the daylight either, we headed back to union square to find a diner instead. it turned out to be delicious and we headed back to crash for our early rise the next morning, determined to make it to alcatraz on the 1st boat out!

already knowing where we were going and how long it would take us to get there we made it in plenty of time to be 1st in the stand-by line tuesday and hopped on to the 1st boat no problem! its a quick trip to alcatraz and there was just a little bit of fog to make it a beautiful morning:) once we got to the island you here some quick safety tips from the park ranger then you are free to explore anywhere you want. get to the top of the hill, which equals a 13 story climb ps, and you get to the jailhouse and you can take an audio tour which we did. it was soooo cool! a little creepy, i wont lie, but very cool. i had no idea there was so much history to it!

the bay bridge.

spooky.

how did we get in here!

the view from alcatraz.

i seriously love divider plates!!

we made it back to the main land about 1230p and headed to pier 39 for lunch. it was finally time for a seafood lunch and the pier is the perfect place! the weather was fantastic all day and after lunch we walked around the shops a bit before grabbing some ice cream and heading back to the hotel before our next tour. i was actually able to sneak in an hour nap in the meantime!

found at the chocolate store at pier 39!

right on time, earlier than we probably needed but we didnt want to be late, we headed to the bart station directly outside to chinatown for our culinary tour. my parents took a culinary tour a few years ago in seattle and still rave about it. so when researching tours in san francisco i found one for chinatown and little italy and with just a little bit of convincing i was able to get richard on board pretty easily! our guide was great and there was only 1 other couple on our tour so it wasnt huge. we started with a tea tasting with all kinds of different chinese tea leaves then headed down back alleys of chinatown i would have never found on my own. next we stopped by a real fortune cookie factory and actual saw the little chinese man making the cookies and putting the fortune inside! i really wanted a picture but didnt have any change to give him:/ but we got to try a chocolate fortune cookie and our guide gave each couple a huge bag to take home!

next we got to taste dim sum at an eastern bakery that apparently bill clinton frequents when he visits haha. it was all kinds of different options and so much food! note to self:: next time i go on a culinary tour go really, really hungry!! luckily we got walk a bit and there was quite a bit of time before our next food stop. we wandered through chinatown and before we knew it we were in little italy. i had no idea they were so close. our guide was awesome and pointed out all kinds of history things along the way. we ended in a little pizza restaurant for some amazing pies and wine! the pizza was like wafer thin and had sooo much flavor. the owner was from rome and you could tell she made each pie with a lot of love:)

afterward we wandered around little italy a bit and found a cafe to have a cup of coffee in. it was delicious and the streets were so alive with people at 9pm on a tuesday night! man i would live in san francisco if i could:) we headed back soon after to pack since the next morning we were heading home. i was kinda sad to leave in a different way since we were able to spend so much time in the city on this trip. we had an amazing time and i am soooo grateful to my parents and jessica that came out to support too! to have so many faces travel with you and cheer you on such a big race is more than a girl could ask for:) till our next group adventure!!

the san francisco adventure part 1

i hope you are ready for a whole lot of pictures! i think between all of us we took more pictures than ever before, and i love it:)

so thursday night began with a long-distance packing phone call between jessica and i in her seriously exhausted state after not getting much sleep the last few days. as we were trying to figure out what to pack and not my parents were trying to fly to oakland to stay with my grandparents for a few days but couldnt get out of the airport because las vegas actually decided to have weather complete with hail and flash floods! it was an interesting start to the trip to say the least haha.

friday morning richard and i were up around 7a to make it to the airport to find my parents made it ok, but my moms luggage didnt, along with jessica boarding her plane at the last second because she wasnt super paying attention! like i said, interesting start. once we arrived in oakland we found jessica anxiously waiting for us in the baggage claim and boarded the bus to the bart station pretty easily. i apparently cant read a map correctly (im usually so good at it) and had us going about 20 minutes in the wrong direction! after jessica got us back on track we arrived in the city right on time to check into the hotel. we had booked it online and werent totally sure what to expect. the plus...it was literally steps from the bus stop and the bart station. the minus...it was in a really not so good area. so thank goodness for those transportation stops!!

we checked in no problem and set our sights on subway across the street for a very late lunch. we ate quickly because we were so hungry deciding to head down a few blocks to check out some shopping. the plan was to just kind of hang out the 1st day since we were doing most of our tourist things when my parents came into the city the next day. after a rather scary walk down the wrong side of the street we headed into the westfield mall to the be a little overwhelmed. it wasnt like any mall we see in vegas or phoenix! still very cool and it helped pass the time, plus jessica and i found this amazing chocolate shop that had amazing combos i had never seen before. 

not really knowing what to do after finishing we continued our shopping spree into union square and saw where the expo was being held! we were going there saturday morning with my mom so we steered clear. we decided on burger bar for dinner because jessica had never been and it satisfied all our culinary tastes! it was amazing as always and i was glad to walk it off a little bit afterward. we were soon able to meet up with betsy aka the everday warrior!! she and i had teamed up many months ago meeting over blogs and twitter to get a ticket into nike so i knew we needed to meet in person. we met at her hotel that had a great bar on the 39th floor with beautiful views. i was so glad to finally meet! soon afterward we decided it was time to head back to our hotel and turn in with such the long day of travel.

we finally meet!!!

saturday morning my parents were right on time with their bart train to meet at our hotel to head to the expo! my mom, jessica, and i took out coffee/tea with us as we headed to the fun while the boys stayed at starbucks. the expo was really cool and lots of photo ops of course:) inside the actual tent you are able to pick up your packet, check out a few of the sponsor products, and see some exhibits. the gear is all located across the street at niketown which we called in the boys for. i had seen a litle glimps online earlier in the week and knew my budget would be quickly out the window! oh man was it worth it though:)

after we got all our gear, bib, and took lots of pictures it was time for our hop on/hop off tour! it picked us up right in union square and our tour guide was hillarious. we got off at one of the 1st stops in chinatown and had a few eggrolls as we walked around! it was seriously cool. the tour buses are supposed to run every 1/2 hour so we headed back soon to the drop off point only to wait over an hour for the next bus. after much debate we decided to get off soon at the embarcedaro to walk down to the ferry building for lunch. well turns out i misjudged it a little (or a lot) and it ended up being about a 1 mile walk each way, oops. lunch was delicious once we finally got there and we decided no more getting off the bus once we caught it again.

one of each please!

we returned to the drop off point only to wait another really long time for the next bus. we decided to walk down just a little to pier 39 and actually caught the bus pretty quickly, thank goodness because i couldnt handle the anger anymore. the top of the bus was actually quite chilly with the wind and decided against our new plan of not getting off the bus again when we got to the golden gate bridge. i mean, really can you not get off for that??

as we waited for the bus to come back and pick us up, late again, i started dreaming about getting to little italy later for carboloading! my dad kept trying to convince us we needed to stay at the hotel and eat at the restaurant there. luckily i had lots of backup to help me veto:) we finished off our tour and headed back to the hotel to get warmer clothes. seriously, if you have an opportunity to do a hop on/hop off tour i highly suggest it, it was super fun, well when the buses were there to pick us up!

the chinese tea garden

jimi hendrixs house!

the adams family home.

city hall!

we headed to little italy soon after to lots of indecissiveness from my family and i was getting so hungry i just made the final choice. turned out to be a family style restraunt with absolutely amazing food. it was bursting with flavor and was just the right amount of food. plus i got to eat off of everyone elses plates, which is one of my favorite things ever:) i think we might have waddled back to the hotel after that one! sleep came pretty easy that night once back at the hotel with full bellys and early alarms set.

sunday morning was the big day! and i will recap the whole thing here...that you get to wait for:)

after the race we headed back ot the middle of the city and found a really great cafe still serving breakfast at almost noontime. we had an original plan of going to a place down by fishermans wharf that was suggested to my dad by his friends. but we stayed a little bit longer at the nike race and then my grandparents decided to come into the city about 2 hours early! needless to say our plans were switched around pretty well haha. spending time with them though was great and my grandma even brought my all time favorite cookies for me:)

our irish coffees, yum!

it was finally time for a shower, thank goodness! we decided to shower and chill out for just a bit before heading down to pier 39 for dinner and then onto the promise land...ghiradelli square for ice cream!!!! i finally got to have clam chowder and ice cream and in the same meal. it was glorious:)

yum!

we headed back to the hotel soon after since my parents had an early flight and there hadnt been a nap post race. i wont lie that i was getting a little sad part of our big group would be leaving:( i had a blast with everyone and am soooo soooo glad they were all able to make the trip! it wouldnt have been the same without everyone:)