Dieting - Back on the Wagon

So, when I stopped blogging I was on week 6 of my dieting, I actually continued well into week 11, on or around December 20th when Gert died, the weather got cold, and the holidays hit.  Then my exercise routine fell apart.  I ended up getting down 43 pounds!  Not bad for 11 weeks of dieting.  Unfortunately, it took me until now to get back on the wagon.  We've actually been eating decent and mostly healthy but with the weather being cold I wasn't doing my normal exercise routine, now that it is nice again, no more excuses!  I ended up gaining back about 10 pounds over the last 2 1/2 months.  So sad after all of that work but, I'm pretty much at the same as I was when I stopped blogging in November. 

So, here we go...more updates to come!  :)

SURPRISE! Happy 30th Birthday Lisa!

On Friday, March 9th we went to Dave and Buster's in Maple Grove for a SURPRISE 30th Birthday party for our friend Lisa!  Nick and I were in San Francisco during Lisa's actual birthday so we were happy to be able to celebrate with her.

Vacation Day 6 - San Francisco

Tuesday March 6th was our last day of vacation.  We started off our morning with another Starbucks coffee, I really wish those coffees were healthier!  I could seriously drink them everyday.  After coffee we headed into San Francisco and went back to Haight and Ashbury so Nick's Dad could get a shirt.  I ended up getting my sister and her fiance a shirt from there too.  After that we went to Union Street to get the dogs treats at the Moulin Pooch.  I know, I know, they are dogs, but, everytime we go on vacation we bring them back a special treat, they sniff out our suitcases when we get home now.

Little pizzas

and Hotdogs!  They loved them!

While we shopped for the dogs, Nick's Mom and Dad went to a bar down the road for a drink.

After we were done on Union Street we made our way to 21st Amendment...ANOTHER BREWERY!  We had lunch here and hung out for quite a while since we had to wait for our flight that didn't leave until 6:00 PM.

We ended up getting to the airport about 3 hours early, a little too early but it was nice too to not be in a rush.  The flight went well, we ended landing in Minneapolis just after 11:30 PM and getting home around 1:00/1:30 AM. 

All in all we had a great vacation.  I was really disapointed that I had so many back problems while we were gone.  Usually I hurt after flying (from sitting so long) but this time I hurt pretty much every day.  Nick thinks I did something to my back when we went to the Oscar best picture movie days (pretty much sitting watching movies for 12 hours).  I think I have something different going on.  My ribs were even hurting which was something new/different.  Anyway, it wasn't so bad and Alieve was my friend on this trip but when the nights were over I was ready for bed, that is for sure!  Great time!  I really like wine country, I'd really like to go back and spend more time in just Napa Valley and Sonoma.  I've become a wino I guess.  

Vacation Day 5 - Sonoma

On Monday, March 5 we started off our morning with a continental breakfast in our hotel lobby.  Afterwards we made our way to Sonoma and went to Imagery Winery.  I loved Imagery, their wine was delicious and they have very neat artwork on their labels.  Nick and I ended up joining Imagery's wine club.

Here is a picture of Nick and I on the Imagery grounds:

After we finished up at Imagery we made our way to the Sonoma Olive Oil Company.  Oh my gosh, delicious!  If you spent $100 you got free shipping on your order and let me tell you, I did not have a hard time spending my money in that store, I think we bought $150 worth of Olive Oil and Jam.  I bought Lime Olive Oil, Habenero Olive Oil, Jalepeno Olive Oil, Basil Olive Oil, Garlic Olive Oil, some kind of berry jam and a Jalepeno jam, all very delicious!  My olive oil package should arrive this Wednesday and I can't wait! 

It was then time for lunch, we looked for a place in a nearby town and ended up finding a delicious Mexican place where we were able to sit outside, being that it was our last day of vacation I was determined to soak up as much of the nice weather and California sun as I could, it was absolutely beautiful our entire trip, it was in the 70s the enitre time we were there.

Everything after lunch was kind of a downer!  We went to the California Geyser, very neat, but not worth $10/person.  I would have been happy with it if it were $2/person!  It was pretty much the Geyser pictured below and some farm animals.

Jess and Nick with the Geyser:

Jess feeding the animals, this thing creeped me out, if you can tell from my face.  :)

This guy looked like a unicorn and had to be photographed.  :)

Nick feeding the little creep.  I think it was their eyes that freaked me out???

This little guy was adorable!

After we were done at the Geyser and the petting zoo we tried going to this Cheese Factory that we read awesome reviews on.  Well, if you are ever in Santa Rosa don't go to this cheese factory.  It was really weird, we basically walked in to a woman that did not speak any english, she gave us a piece of cheese that she cut from under the counter and then we just sat and starred at eachother, very odd and weird.  It gave us a good laugh though.

After that we tried going to the railroad district in Santa Rosa and that was another bomb of an idea.  We parked and decided it was just a bunch of weird thrift stores and left and then headed back to the hotel. 

I ended up taking a nap while Nick drank more beer.  Once everyone was ready for dinner we headed back to the Russian River Brewery.  This time Nick only tried the sour beer sampler.  I have to admit I was actually a fan of the sour beers, most sour beers are fermented with bacteria instead of yeast, giving them the sour flavor.  Nick is going to try making one in the coming weeks but we won't be able to drink it for over a year!

Day 5 turned out to be a semi-success.  The winery, Olive Oil and Lunch were great but everything after that until dinner were very weird or odd. 

Vacation Day 4 - San Francisco (Part II)

After we finished up at Muir Woods we tried to make our way back to Haight and Ashbury Street so that Nick's Dad could get a t-shirt.  Since it was the weekend the city of San Francisco was jammed backed.  So, we decided to skip the t-shirt and make our way to Pier 39 for lunch.  We had excellent seafood.  My original plan was to try a king louie salad but I couldn't resist the crab melt and a bloody mary!  DELICIOUS!

After we finished lunch we watched the sea lions for a bit at the pier:

From there we could see Alcatraz:

Jess and Nick (with Alcatraz behind us):

We went and had a drink at a cafe while we waited to board our boat to Alcatraz, I had this great cucumber kiwi drink, very refreshing!

We waited about 45 minutes and then it was time to board the ship to Alcatraz Island.  We got great views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city of San Francisco from the bridge.

Once we made it to Alcatraz we hiked up some pretty large hills to the main prison.  It was very interesting once we got there.  We did the audio tour and learned quite a bit about the prison, the inmates and the guards.

Jess and Nick:

Tom and JoAnn:

Nick inside one of the prison cells (with some woman).  :)

Nick:

Jess and Nick at Alcatraz:

Sunset over the Golden Gate:

We didn't leave Alcatraz until about 7:30pm, by that time it was completly dark, I had a headache and my back was killing me.  I was ready to take some pain killers and go to bed.  We had planned to go to 21st Amendment for dinner, it is another brewery but I just didn't feel up to it and I don't know that anyone else did either since we had such a large lunch.  Nick's Uncle Brian always talks about Jack-In-The-Box, it is a fast food place in the Southwest and we had one basically right across from our hotel so we decided that would be a great place to try!

We ended our night there and hit the hay!

Vacation Day 4 - San Francisco (Part 1)

On Sunday, March 4 we started out our morning at IHOP for a nice big breakfast and boy oh boy was it delicious!  Nick has Chicken and Waffles and I had crepes with fresh fruit.

After breakfast we drove to Muir Woods to see the great big trees.  Here is Nick with one that was cut down, they estimated that it was from 1100 and that it was probably cut down/fell around 1930.  Pretty impressive!

Tom (Nick's Dad), JoAnn (Nick's Mom), Nick and Jess at Muir Woods:

Tom and JoAnn standing between two big trees

Tom (Nick's Dad), JoAnn (Nick's Mom), Nick and Jess in Muir Woods:

Jess and Nick:

Jess and Nick (and Tom):

JoAnn and Tom

Nick inside one of the big trees

JoAnn and Tom:

Jess and Nick:

JoAnn:

During our trip to San Francisco we were seeing so many phone booths, I couldn't remember the last time I found a phone booth, seemed weird to me.

Vacation Day 3 - The Coast

On Saturday, March 3 we started off our day with a yummy, delicious cup of Starbucks coffee!  Oh how I love my Starbucks!

After our Starbucks stop we made the hour drive out to Sonoma Coast State Beach.  If you are ever in the area I would highly recommend this beach, it is a 22 mile drive to many different beaches.  Such a beautiful area!

This was our first beach stop, Vista Point.  We were able to see lots of seagulls, sea lions and even a starfish that was stuck up on the beach from the tide, Nick put it back into the ocean!  I wasn't going to touch it! 

Jess and Nick

This is the beach where we found the star fish just beyond these rocks.

Jess and Nick with our little seagull friends in the background.

Tom (Nick's Dad), JoAnn (Nick's Mom), Nick and Jess at Sonoma Coast State Beach:

This was a stop at the second beach, Shell Beach, in the Sonoma Coast State Beach:

Shell Beach

Nick and Tom (Nick's Dad) in Sonoma Coast State Beach:

Jess and Nick at Shell Beach:

Nick at Shell Beach, notice the ridiculous shirt?  Nick bought that shirt on our first day of vacation in San Francisco.

After we finished up at Sonoma Coast State Beach we made our way to Point Reyes (just south of Sonoma Coast State Beach).  You drive into Point Reyes and then they bus you down the 6 miles to the coast so that vehicles do not disturb the whales.  I wish these pictures would do justice to how beautiful it was there!  The first stop was the Lighthouse!

After you walk the 1/2 mile you have to walk down these 350 steps, which really wasn't a big deal until you have to come back up those steps!  Whoa!  Quite the workout!

So, in this picture you can see two little splashes towards the middle upper left hand portion of  the photo.  Those are two whales, a momma and a baby!  We were able to see 6 whales total that day (2 of them may have been the same ones that we just followed as we were walking up the 350 steps). 

After the hike back to the bus at the Lighthouse stop, the bus took us to Chimney Rock.  After a short hike we were able to watch the elephant seals which was absolutely amazing!  At the time that we were there most of the females had left so it was only pups and adult males left.  It was interesting to watch the males on the beach protect their beach from other males.  We learned that these male elephant seals start off at 5000 pounds when they and the females come to the beach (around December).  From December until mid-March they don't eat ANYTHING and loose about 1500-2000 pounds!  Once the females have the pups they nurse for about a month, once the pup is weaned the female leaves (and leaves their baby on the beach).  The pups that are left are called weaners.  :)  About 50% of the pups survive the first year, only 30% of those make it through their second year.  I obviously liked the elephant seals, can you tell?

Jess and Nick at Chimney Rock:

We had plans to go to muir beach but by the time we finished up it was after 4:00 p.m. and it was another 1/2 hour drive to Muir Woods so we thought we would skip it and go back to Santa Rosa so Nick could finally go to the Russian River brewery, look how happy he is to be there!

We had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, during that time Nick had 2 beers.  Once we were seated Nick tried the Russian River sampler which consisted of 19 beers.  Needless to say, ummmm, Nick was a little tipsy.

Nick was still wearing his "Fear the Beard" shirt which received quite a bit of attention at the Russian River, he had people yelling at him from the street, people chanting "FEAR THE BEARD, FEAR THE BEARD" inside and a lady even gave him a note to go to www.putyourbeardinmymouth.com because she thought he would enjoy it. 

Vacation day 3 was a success!  After all the hiking and early morning I was ready for bed that evening though!