October 11, 2014

Arches National Park

Thursday morning I headed out of my aunt’s house at 5:30am! Bright and early (kidding, it was dark, but it was early…)! I knew I had to get to Arches National Park and to Salt Lake City in order to get to Portland the next night! I made it through Denver and as I got into the mountains, I was totally in awe! They were gorgeous!

I stopped in Dillon to get gas and was just completely amazed. Speechless. I decided to head up to a lake that I saw on my Google Maps and ended up spending over an hour in Dillon/Frisco. (I haven’t gone through these- so you all get my Instagram versions.)

As I kept driving, I think I just became even more amazed than I had been. Colorado is such a beautiful state and I never could have pictured the adorable little towns! As I got into Vail, the trees really started to have some color (the leaves had fallen off a lot of the other places)! I found a great turn off spot and got a few pictures!

I really thought I was never going to make it to Utah, but then the news came on saying they were expecting a wintery mix in the afternoon for elevations greater than 10,000 feet and flash floods for areas 7,000-10,000 feet! No thanks! It started raining on me too!

LONG drive to Utah! But beautiful!

I got to Arches National Park around 1pm and ended up spending over 4 hours there! I think I could have stayed forever! I didn’t see a lot of the arches there since I had limited time and a lot of the arches called for longer hikes. It was also really crowded there and I hate crowds of people! They ruin all my photos!

After feeling rushed through Arches, I realized that it was Thursday and that I had two FULL days left of my road trip! I have no idea how I thought it was Friday all day, especially since Jon and I talked throughout the day about his classes and we talked about how he got up early to take out the trash (Thursday is trash day). This opened up some doors of opportunity! I had a whole free day that I wasn’t expecting!

After Arches, I was feeling pretty drained. I had been doing tons of driving (over 2,000 miles at that point!) and was starving and spent all day walking around in the heat! I decided to stay in Moab for the night, get dinner, relax, and then head to Canyonlands National Park the next day!

Moab was a super cute (super small) town! They had so many healthy options for eating and everything was walkable! My room was even pretty decent for being in a little motel! I was expecting a much more disgusting town but was pleasantly surprised!

I ended up staying up to upload photos. I’ve already filled all my memory on my Mac that I just got in May! I need to stop and buy a terabyte tomorrow since I can’t even upload all my pictures from today!

October 11, 2014

Rocky Mountain National Park!

Wednesday was a fantastic day of traveling! It was my first “zero” day as Jon calls it. No actual progress made on the road. I slept in until 7:30 and then enjoyed a morning chat with my aunt. My other aunt and uncle stopped by as well, which was really nice! I just can’t believe how long it has been since I’ve seen my family!

I headed out around 10am to go to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was an amazing drive through the Big Thompson Canyon! I was in awe at the scenery! I was even more excited to finally be getting into the mountains that I had been seeing from afar!

I ended up parking and taking the bus up to the Bear Lake area, which is also the starting point for a loop where you can go to view other lakes as well. Bear Lake was really gorgeous! I was a bit confused about where to access the other trails, but I also tend to overlook simple things when I’m hiking alone (in a crowded place anyway- I’m careful if the trails are lonely!).

I started out on my ascent to see the other lakes after a brief stop at Bear Lake. My hip was definitely in discomfort during the hike, but it wasn’t too bad. I also ended up passing a girl who was hiking alone and then she’d catch back up when I’d stop to take photos! We started chatting and completed the rest of the hike together!

The lakes were gorgeous up in the mountains! Each lake kept on getting better and better! (The internet connection at the hotel is SO SLOW so these are all the pictures you get!)

The whole hike was about 3.8 miles, I think? It didn’t take very long and was a really easy hike overall. It was a constant incline up but not very steep so really doable. I drove around the park a little bit after the hike and did a little sightseeing, but then I had to head out to make it back in time for dinner!

I went to dinner with my aunt and uncle (the ones I’m staying with) at a Hawaiian place and then went back to their house to relax for a bit before preparing to head out very early on Thursday morning! I really enjoyed having some family time with my dad’s side and am really hoping to make it back to Colorado to see them again soon!

October 10, 2014

Road trip Monday and GARDEN OF THE GODS Tuesday!

Road trip recap!

Monday I woke up at 5am to head out before 6am. I got ready, finished packing, ate, and said my goodbyes to Jon! It was definitely hard leaving him, but no time to dwell! I’ll see him in 9 weeks!

The drive really went well on Monday. I stopped every 2 1/2 hours or more (mostly more) to pee, so I didn’t make very good progress on Monday at all!

I had planned on making it to Kansas City around 6pm their time, but realized pretty early on that there was no way that could happen (peeing plus accidents, not going to happen)! I decided to find a CrossFit gym in Missouri for an evening WOD to stretch out my legs after sitting all day! I picked CrossFit COMO in Columbia!

I was excited that it was near Mizzou cause I haven’t been to a “college” gym in awhile! It’s fun to have a younger crowd, but all my gyms lately are young professionals (like myself). It was really weird though cause the drop in fee was $16.20. Usually $10-$15 is the drop in, but $16.20? Really? Also, I had planned on running before the class, but because of 5pm traffic, I got to the gym right at 4:55 so there wasn’t time.

The group was really welcoming but the class was gigantic for the space! We did a decent warm up but I think I needed to warm up my legs a bit more. We started with a 10 min EMOM of overhead squats, but we teamed up on the bars. A bit of mass confusion at that time. So I did 5 sets. Unfortunately, at the bottom of my squat (105#- not heavy at all), my right hip popped and it hurt like a bit. I kept going with the squats and didn’t add weight, hoping it’d get better. WOD as follows:

10 Min EMOM of

10 push ups

Double unders for the remainder of the minute

Total score is the number of double unders (130, I was totally shocked that I did that many double unders since it’s such a weak point for me!)

My hip felt fine for this WOD, but then we had to sit on the floor to stretch at the end and I realized how sore it was to lift off the ground or swing side to side (all movements that I didn’t do for the WOD).

After the gym, I headed to HyVee for some deli meat and sushi. Pretty sure the Japanese guy making sushi offered to help answer questions I had about the sushi, but I was confused and asked him to make me an avocado roll with cream cheese. We had a conversation but I’m not sure what he said cause of his accent… All I know is that he did actually make me the sushi and it was phenomenal for grocery store sushi! So fresh!

My hip was really getting sore and I knew this couldn’t be good. I ended up driving to Kansas City to stay with my aunt that I haven’t seen in about 15 years! It was great to catch up, but once I got in bed, it was misery. Laying down was beyond painful and my sleep was not pleasant!

Tuesday I headed out by 6:30am to get to Colorado! Long, boring drive through Kansas and the eastern part of Colorado! I got to Colorado Springs at 2pm (good timing!) and had a meal at Whole Foods and grabbed some stuff for the road. Then I went to Garden of the Gods.

I LOVED Garden of the Gods! It was so beautiful and again, great weather! It wasn’t too crowded and it felt great to stretch my hip out! (I even considered running around the paved sidewalk there but decided I needed to rest longer.)

I could have walked around forever there, but I had been tired all day and knew I needed to head out to make it to my other aunt’s house! I ended up hitting rush hour through Denver so I decided against stopping in the city. I still would really like to see Denver, but since I prefer nature, I feel like there will be another time for that! I stopped at a burrito place for some dinner and then got to my aunt’s around 8pm! We chatted for 2 hours (also haven’t seen her in probably 10 years or more). Great to catch up with family!

Tuesday night I edited some photos and then headed to bed for a day of Wednesday explorations!

October 9, 2014

Last Georgia Weekend (again)

It has definitely been a busy last few days! I’ll start with my last weekend in Georgia, just because it was actually a pretty fun one! On Friday, our new bedroom furniture was delivered! I am so excited about how it looks and I love it!

I feel like we’re real adults now that we have such a fancy bedroom set! I also love how it fills up the space in our room! Unfortunately, we had a lot of cleaning up to do after the furniture was delivered since almost everything from our bedroom was in the living room, so we spent the next 4-5 hours getting organized and taking stuff to Goodwill!

I did manage to fit in a trip to CrossFit:

Strength:
Hang Power Clean- 2 TNG EMOM @80-83% x 10 min (I used 85#)

WOD: (103 reps total)
4 min AMRAP @77% of Power Clean 1RM (75#, 36 reps)
Rest 2 min
4 min AMRAP: (12# ball cause I hate wall balls, 60 reps)
Wallball-20/14#
Rest 2 min
4 min AMRAP: (7 rope climbs)
Rope Climb-15″

After getting everything together for the weekend, Jon and I headed to my parent’s cabin in Blairsville. We got in pretty late and headed to bed shortly after getting there.

We woke up to some brisk weather on Saturday- perfect for a fall day at the cabin! We had planned on doing a hike but Jon was getting impatient about breakfast, so we had to go grab a bite to eat first. Over breakfast, we decided not to hike and to have a fall day! I was so excited because my favorite view in Blairsville is right by the Southern Tree Plantation and they always have pumpkins out in the fall!

We headed out to the Plantation, only to find that there were no fall festivities this year! Bummer! We decided to check out a local winery instead- Odom Springs Vineyards.

The winery was only about 20 minutes from the cabin and it was so adorable! They had a little bonfire going and we were the only people there. To top this place off, they had a cat! And this cat was the sweetest cat ever, so of course it’s my favorite winery now. We did a tasting of 6 wines. I really liked the rose, but the others were dryer than I prefer. We decided to each get a glass and sit outside and enjoy the beautiful weather and the cat.

We spent some time hanging out by the fire and walking around. I’m a lightweight, so by the time we finished that tasting, I felt a little bit buzzed! So of course, another wine tasting seemed to be in order!

Odom Springs told us about a few other good wineries in the area so we headed up to Nottely. It was a little farther away but I really liked the location! Very picturesque.

It was a really minimal winery- outhouses instead of real bathroom type of thing. The guy doing the tasting was great! Very educational, which I really like because I like learning more about wines! Unfortunately, after the first tasting and some more wine from this one, I don’t remember many of the fun facts he taught us…

We headed out from that winery to go to a third, but then we came to a sign for Chattanooga and Jon mentioned never having been there. I love Chattanooga and I was drunk so I said he should go if he wanted to! We grabbed some sushi as soon as we got there at Sushi Nabe since they do the Delta Skymiles Dining program and you might as well make bank on those points cause sushi is never a cheap meal! They had nice outdoor seating that we really enjoyed! They also had a pumpkin roll (I added cream cheese) that was awesome! Their sweet potato tempura roll was one of my least favorite sweet potato rolls I’ve had, but the pumpkin made up for it. I was pleased.

After dinner, we walked around Coolidge Park and then crossed the river via the pedestrian bridge. We enjoyed the downtown area and then decided we should probably head back since it’s a 2 hour drive back to the cabin!

We slept by the fire that night (love real wood fire places) and then woke up early on Sunday to head back! It was another beautiful day and I would have liked to enjoy the weather outside, but I had packing since I had to leave for my road trip on Monday!

As soon as we got home, I started doing laundry and packing. My parents came by to say goodbye for a bit and so did Laura. Packing took quite awhile (as expected) and was harder than I thought it would be since the weather is still in the 70s-80s! I was expecting all cold weather! Totally messed me up! But I took way less for this assignment than the last one, so I’d call it a success!

I talked Jon into going for a run before it got dark out! I hadn’t gone for a “real” run in awhile (I’d done a few shorter ones with other stuff mixed in) so I was curious as to how it would go! We went about a mile together and he was ready to head back but I was feeling great so I kept going! I did another two miles but have no idea how long it took. I didn’t use my MapMyRun cause I thought it’d just be a short run, but I’d be curious about my time! It was my old 3 mile go to from last year! I must say, I really enjoyed my run! I may have to get back into doing a few short runs a week!

Jon and I headed to bed around 11 on Sunday night. I really didn’t wan to go to bed and kept bugging him since I knew when we woke up, it’d be time for me to leave! I was super bummed about having to leave him since I enjoyed my time at home with him so much! And I always hate leaving Tom and Kitty too!

October 3, 2014

Randoms

1. I’m feeling better today! I actually ended up calling out of work, for like the 4th time this year (4 times more than I’ve ever called out of work in my life). I hate calling out of work but have also learned that when I’m sick, it can be impossible to actually get out of work and didn’t want to deal with it. I felt nauseous and exhausted when I woke up today, so decided to play it safe. I offered to go to work at 1 today but the supervisor said they didn’t need me. I need to go in to get my stethoscope though and had considered going in tonight from 7p-11p, but I’m glad I didn’t cause I was exhausted after running errands today.

2. I’m feeling the need to deep clean our house. I cleaned up mostly when I first got home, but I just want to purge! Since Jon and I are getting new bedroom furniture, I had to clean out some stuff from under our bed tonight and take the chairs out of our bedroom. The amount of cat fur I found was insane! I thought I already cleaned all the cat fur up! And we just have so much little stuff that we don’t need! Jon is worse and keeping little things (receipts, gloves, magazines) and I tend to hold onto my clothes more. So we have tons of random stuff that just needs to go! (Really, it’s NOT tons of stuff at all- I just hate clutter and hate opening drawers to see shit, shit, and more shit!)

3. No workout today. I wanted to run but my stomach was still a little off all day. No need to push it! But after 3 full rest days, I’m excited to get back to the gym tomorrow! The WOD actually looks good too so I just hope the furniture doesn’t come right at 12:30! I might try to get ahold of them earlier in the morning to get a better estimate of where we are on the truck.

4. I’m making a breakfast casserole for Jon’s work tomorrow. I meant to make them something before I left for Massachusetts since they gave us so much money for our wedding, but never got around to it! I’m making them this casserole. I hope it turns out since I can’t taste it before I take it!

5. Parenthood is back on! Time to go watch it! This blog sucked! Oops!

October 1, 2014

Sick Days

Yesterday I never ended up working out! FAIL. I kid. I spent far longer working on my stuff for work that I had expected and had to make two calls to Apple. By the time I finished, I decided to head to Ashley Furniture since Jon and I wanted a TV stand or a cheap dresser for the guest bedroom since we’re renting it out. I found a few things I liked and then came up with the great idea of buying a new bedroom set for Jon and me so that our old dresser could go in the guest bedroom! That way we aren’t investing in cheap furniture or a TV stand that we’ll want to replace in a few years when we sell the condo.

I picked Jon up from MARTA (he had class and I drove him there) and we headed back to Ashley Furniture to look at what I had found. We ended up buying a new bedroom set and then I had a (fake) panic attack over how much money we just spent. I really hate spending large amounts of money and while we have plenty of money in our bank account, I have been getting so excited seeing our savings account finally creep back up lately! And that money is all for grad school! Bummer. But it is a really nice bedroom set and Jon will finally have a dresser of his own! It gets delivered on Friday so expect a photo sometime soon!

I worked today and had a decent day! I swapped assignments with a nurse and am so glad I did because he spent his afternoon with an extremely critical patient! I did get a patient who projectile vomited all over the waiting room, but I’ve seen worse.

I started feeling a little iffy around 2pm and kept having hot flashes and nausea. Thankfully I got off work at 3, because when I got to my car at 3:15, I proceeded to vomit in the parking lot (thankfully, I took an emesis bag with me- you know nurses come prepared). Then I got pulled over on my way home by a state trooper for going 77 in a 55. I think he took pity on me as I told him in my really pathetic voice that I threw up before leaving work and just wanted to get home (as I threw my empty emesis bag out of my purse to grab my license). He gave me a warning. I owned up to speeding though so maybe he just appreciated that I wasn’t crazy.

I’m still sick but took some anti nausea meds and am eating saltines now, thanks to my wonderful husband who has to go out every time I get sick to buy bread products for me. He’s the best.

The only positive aspect of this is that I really did not want to go to CrossFit today (it looked really hard and I’m not in the mood) and was going to feel guilty for skipping another day. Now I had a legitimate excuse! I just hope I feel better tomorrow cause I have to work a 12 and then clean up our entire bedroom (we store stuff under our bed) before our set is delivered on Friday!

	lavitanuestra on Short post
	Liz on Short post
	lavitanuestra on Short post
	Angela on Weekend.
	Liz on Weekend.

at20something

The life of an average 20something girl.

Month: October 2014