Labor Day Hike

Last Monday for Labor Day, Jason and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather. We figured that since it was in the high 90's out our way, that it would be much nicer along the water. We headed out to Stinson Beach to hike around Mt. Tamalpais. I had heard from a few people that Mt. Tam is a great place to hike, and now I want to extend the recommendation to all of you! It is gorgeous - full of redwood trees combined with an ocean view - can't get much better than that.




After our 2.5 hour drive (yes, it was so backed up on Hwy 1 getting into Stinson Beach - took over an hour to go just a few miles), we were more than ready to start our hike. We started at the Matt Davis trail head, and went from there. That trail took us to the ranger station, and from there, we took the Dipsy trail back down. Overall, it was about a 7.5 mile hike and took us about 3 hours. If you have a weekend afternoon free, I highly recommend it. It was beautiful. Here are a few pictures to convince you to go!

Back to School...

Well, school starts tomorrow, which means summer is officially over! I think that this was by far the fastest summer ever! Because I had seven trips planned between the June 4th and August 5th (click here for my pre-summer post), it made my summer fly by because I never really settled in. But, I must say that I had a blast this summer with all of my trips.

I've been in my classroom this last week, getting things all organized and ready for my 4th year of teaching (I can't believe I'm entering year four!) Here is my classroom, all set and ready for the 175 little 6th graders that will be my students this year...

For the first time in three years, I didn't feel like I had to spend the last two weeks of summer living in my classroom. This is the first year that I didn't switch classrooms, and it's also the first year that I am teaching the exact same curriculum as I did the year before. I definitely feel much more prepared and relaxed going into this school year than I have in any of the previous years. I hoping that it will be a great year. Farewell summer, welcome year 4!

Hearst Castle

One of my best friends (Yay, Meg!) from college got married this past weekend in San Luis Obispo. While that could be a whole post in and of itself (such a fun wedding/college reunion), this post is dedicated to what I did the day AFTER her wedding...

Funny how I went to college only 45 minutes away from Hearst Castle and somehow during those four years at Cal Poly, I never made it to Hearst Castle. Well, it only took me another four years since graduating college to actually get in my tour of Hearst Castle. With that, the day after Meg's wedding, Jason and I made the short drive from San Luis Obispo to San Simeon, the home of Hearst Castle.

I really didn't know much about Hearst Castle (or William Randolph Hearst) going into the tour, but boy did I learn a lot! The tour started with a five mile bus ride through the hills to make the 1000 foot ascent up to Hearst Castle. The bus ride gives you a history of the Hearst Family and the construction of the castle, plus a beautiful view to enjoy along the way.

View from Hearst Castle

Upon arriving at the castle, we were shown the outside of one of the many guests houses (or mansions) - this guest house has 18 rooms! (We saw four bedrooms and a sitting room).

Casa Del Sol - Spanish Style

We then saw the outside pool and wow, this was awesome. Mr. Hearst and his wife were all about bringing European culture and architecture to their estate, and the pool was one of my favorite demonstrations of that. Loved the ancient Roman and Greek history here.

The Neptune Pool and Roman Pool

Apart from the pool, the gardens were probably my favorite part. The vegetation was so colorful - I couldn't stop taking pictures.


The last stop of the tour was the main house. We viewed two of the sitting rooms, the dining room, the billiard room, and the theater. And of course, we couldn't have a complete tour without viewing the indoor pool.

Casa Grande - The main house

Assembly Room

The Refectory - one very long table

The Indoor Pool

I had so much fun exploring Hearst Castle and feeling a part of another century. Too bad I waited so many years to visit when I was so close for so many years...

Training is in Full Swing!

Running a half-marathon is one of the check-offs on my '30 before 30'. I started training about three weeks ago for my half-marathon, giving myself twelve weeks of training before I actually run my first half-marathon on October 3rd! (I'm running the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon with my friend Kristina). My new running shoes and my nike+ipod are a good motivator to get me out running. (The nike+ipod is awesome! It is a small chip that I put in my shoe, and then there is another piece that I attach to my ipod. It keeps track of all my runs, telling me how far I went, what my pace was per mile, how many calories I burned, etc. I can then plug the piece into my computer and it creates graphs and what-not. Basically, perfect for me!)






My new running shoes











My nike+ipod ~ love!






I figured it might be good for me to do a few smaller races leading up to my half-marathon (well, Jason more so decided for me or rather highly encouraged...), so this past Saturday we both ran in Brazen's Bad Bass at Lake Chabot. (Jason was ecstatic about doing our first race together - especially because I have been refusing to run with him because I think I'll be too slow). I ran the 10k and Jason did the half-marathon.

Right before the race...














Again, Jason was very excited!








The challenging part was that the run was 50% trail and 50% paved - which means for me I literally had to run 1.5 miles straight uphill. But, I must say that it was a GREAT experience, and I absolutely loved it. Jason and I both did really well, too. We were both very pleased with our times - I ran my 10k in 1:02 and he did his half-marathon in 2:08. Considering that we were running straight-up hill for a quarter of our race, we were happy. I ended up coming in 5th for my age group (and 35th overall out of 140), and Jason got 2nd in his age group (and 37th overall out of 95).

Just about at the finish line!

Besides the fact that it still hurts to walk (that downhill is brutal on your body), I had a blast! I could definitely see myself doing a few more of these leading up to my half-marathon. The only downfall is that it sure isn't cheap to do these races. However, they sure can become addicting!

Weekend in LA

Jason and I spent this past weekend in LA. Jason is a huge Dodger's fan (I know...), and he goes to a home Dodger's game every summer. This year he insisted that I come along and experience my first game at Dodger's stadium...

We left early Saturday morning (6am) and made a quick stop at Anderson's Pea Soup. Jason got a cup of split pea soup for the road at 7:45am. Gross.

Split pea soup at 7:45am.

We first headed down to Santa Monica. We were planning on spending the afternoon at the beach, but it was pretty overcast and a bit chilly. Instead we had lunch down by the pier and then walked around 3rd St. Promenade and got some Coffee Bean (Jason's first experience). If anyone knows me well, you know I LOVE Coffee Bean! On Saturday night we went to Downtown Disney, which was so cool. I had never been there before, and I loved the ambiance. It is so fun. We ate at this amazing restaurant called Ralph Brennan Jazz Kitchen. It is designed with New Orlean's architecture and ambiance - with an open-air courtyard in the middle of the restaurant (which is where we sat). They also have a jazz club, which you can hear in the background while you eat. Sometimes you sacrifice good food for the sake of good ambiance, but the food here was amazing! We had coconut golf shrimp with a pineapple-mango salsa as an appetizer, and for dinner I had blackened salmon with blue crab, and Jason had the seafood jambalaya. We were both blown away by the food.

The fountain that was next to our table at RB Jazz Kitchen

Downtown Disney

On Sunday we went to John MacArthur's church (one of Jason's favorite pastors). Unfortunately he wasn't preaching, but the guy who was, Steve Lawson, was amazing, so it ended up being a win-win situation. After church, Jason took me to his all-time favorite Mexican food restaurant called El Tepeyac. I was served the biggest burrito I have ever attempted to eat! I ate about a fourth of mine; Jason polished his off. No surprise there.

My burrito at El Tepeyac - huge!

Jason's finished product next to my finished product.

Jason and his cleared plate.

We spent Sunday afternoon in the Venice Beach area before heading to the Dodger game. We had great seats at the game (lower level in the outfield by the first baseline) and sat next to such a fun crowd. While I'm no Dodger's fan, I must say that my first experience at a Dodger's game was a blast (and I did wear Dodger blue...but NOT a Dodger's shirt. I figured that since they were playing the Cubs, I was technically neutral since the Cubs are also the same shade of blue). The Dodger's beat the Cubs 7-0, so of course Jason was a happy camper.

My first Dodger Dog - When in Rome...?

We tried to go see the Hollywood sign on Sunday night after the game, but didn't really have directions, so after roaming around the Hollywood Hills for a while, we finally gave up and settled for some Diddy Riese. So good!

We left on Monday morning, and made a stop in Hanford on the way home to see my grandma and my mom's whole side of the family. Jason hadn't meet Grammy yet, so I wanted to make sure that happened sooner than later (especially since Grammy is turning 99 in a few months). We had a great time visiting with family (plus, my mom, sisters, and nieces came down too, so it was quite a full house). Jason and I had a great first trip together and are looking forward to many more!

Adventures in Roadtripping!

One of my best friends from college, Megan, just finished grad school in Denver with a Master's in Social Work (congrats, Meg!). She is getting married in a month, and her and her soon-to-be- husband will be living in San Luis Obispo. So, about six months ago Megan asked me if I would be up for a little roadtrip from Colorado to San Luis Obsipo this summer. Of course I was in! I love Colorado (my sister Mel went to University of Colorado, so I've spent a bit of time there)...plus, I'm always up for an adventure (which turned out to be more than expected)!

I flew out to Denver on a Tuesday night. On Wednesday we spent the day in Boulder - love that place! We enjoyed Buchanan's Coffee, Illegal Pete's (confession: I think Chipotle is better), and Pearl Street. Thursday was packing day and loading up the U-Haul so that we could leave early the next day. On Thursday night we went to a Rookie's vs. Red Socks game, which turned out to be one of the best baseball games I have ever seen. (The Red Socks won 13-11 in the 10th).

Pearl Street

Coors Field

Packed game - so fun!

We set out at about 8:15 on Friday morning, planning on a ten hour drive to St. George Utah, and then a nine hour drive on Saturday from St. George to SLO. Well, that plan was quickly out the window pretty soon, as we were pulling a U-Haul and were pretty much stuck going 60mph the entire time (our roadtrip ended up taking about 6 hours longer than we expected...)

Colorful Colorado! So beautiful

The adventure really started about four hours into the trip. We stopped for lunch, and as we were getting on the freeway, Meg realized we should have got gas while we were stopped. But since we were already getting back on the freeway, we decided to get it within the next few miles since we were already back to driving. We had over a fourth of the tank left, so we were good to go...so we thought. Well, Meg and I get to chatting, and its been maybe 30 minutes and we still haven't stopped for gas. I then see a blue sign on the side of the freeway that says "No Services 60 miles." (Thank you, Utah desert). And so begins the dilemma: Can we make it? We have a little under a fourth of a tank at this point. We decide to just go for it...

If anyone knows me, they can quickly guess that I am beginning to freak out at this point. Let me give you the play-by-play of how all the events unfolded from this point forward:

Gas tank approaching empty. No services 60 miles.
Megan: "We'll be fine."

Gas tank on empty. No services 40 miles.
Megan: "The gas light hasn't come on yet. We're good for 20-30 miles once that comes on. And it hasn't even come on yet. We'll be fine."

Gas tank below empty. No services 20 miles.
Rebecca: "My stomach is in knots."
Megan: "We'll be fine. It's not like we're gong to die."

Sign: Thompson Springs 1 mile - Services!
Car begins stalling.
Rebecca: "I'm pretty sure we're running out of gas."
Megan: "No, that's just the cruise control."

Car out of gas. Almost stopped.
Rebecca: "We're out of gas. Pull to the shoulder."
Megan: "We can just cruise like this on the shoulder the rest of the way, right?"
Car stops.
Rebecca: "No."

Start walking to the gas station in the middle of Utah's desert. Get gas, refill, start driving again.
Megan: "We did a lot of things right up to this point - got the U-Haul, packed it up ourselves, drove for five hours. You can't win them all..."

No, you can't win them all. And we certainly didn't. We had a few other funny stories (such as paying for gas at a gas station and then leaving without actually filling up - whoops, miscommunication....or driving 15 miles in the wrong direction before there was actually an exit to allow us to turn around) but running out of gas was definitely the best of them all - or the worst? Here's a little photo op from that portion of the journey...

@#!$ - 20 miles?

I can't tell you how many NO SERVICES signs we drove by!

Almost to gas!

Oh wait, we're out of gas...

After 24 hours of driving (13 hours on Friday and 11 on Saturday) and about 22 hours of talking (we only listened to 3 CD's - one time through each - for the entire trip) we finally arrived in SLO safely (much to the relief of the men in our lives...). We were quick to hit up Firestone's for a burger and beer after that trip!

Back safely in SLO

Jason came down on Sunday to pick me up, and we had a great day exploring SLO and the surrounding areas before I had to hop back in the car for another 3 hours of driving!