Berry Enlightened.

I spent all day yesterday at Big Basin State Park with the hubby and a group of girlfriends, hiking the Berry Falls Trail!

Stats

Time: 5-ish hours?
Distance: 13.5 miles of HILLS
Attitude: Smashingly good.

It was such a great hike and left me feeling like ... well... I'll say it. A superhero!

The hills didn't kill me. The distance wasn't miserable. And I'm not sore today! (Although, I skipped my scheduled "easy 3-mile run" in favor of a quick, tough KB press/pull up workout to give my knees a break.)

We hiked in about 2 hours to Golden Falls, where we stopped to eat lunch...



Then hiked about 10 minute further to Silver Falls, where we clung desperately to the guide wire to maneuver down a steeply descending trail of wet, slippery rocks...


And finally found Berry Falls, which looked like something out of a movie.



Then hiked the 3 hours out... which - frankly - was a bit brutal for the last 2 miles uphill to get ourselves back to the car. But we made it back with just a few blisters and big smiles!

The hike was definitely NOT for beginners. It's long. It's steep. It's long. But it was absolutely beautiful and the falls were well worth the hills and the distance.

(please don't take that to mean I didn't whine at least 3 times on the way out. My feet friggin' hurt!)

Being down in the ravines, staring up from the bottom of Redwood Trees that were thousands of years old was a really cool reminder of my own impermanence.

I am listening to a book on Zen meditation and change during my commute (review to follow) and my favorite quote thus far has been from the Buddha himself.

"What I do matters. But I am not in charge."

And those huge ass trees and falls eased out by time and falling water were a beautiful example of how passing the human condition (confusion and suffering and trying to find peace despite those) really is.

In the area and want to check it out? Hike info at FindingYourZenPulse !

Bay to Breakers 2011!

When a frient (friend-client) asked me to run the 100th Bay to Breakers 10K with her back in March, I thought...

A normal race to kick off my spring/summer training? Brilliant!

A chance to run from the Bay to the Ocean in Beautiful San Francisco? Amazing!

I did not expect to wear a cape...



I did not expect to leap and dart through crowds bigger than the 4th of July on the Capitol Mall.
(yes. seriously.)


I did *NOT* expect this...

(sorry. I had to.)

And I did not know I would have most fun I'd had in a while :D

We spent the night in San Francisco to avoid traffic in the morning, and spent the evening watching No Strings Attached and chowing delicious Thai food in Superman's adorable urban apartment.

Girls' Night Extraordinaire.

The next morning, suitably attired, we struck out to fight crime and fight to the finish!



There were muppets.


and butterflies.


and the most crowded hill I have ever seen.



(darting and leaping was required to keep a jogging pace!)

The event was much tamer than years past, as the usually liberal San Francisco banned all floats and alcohol on the course - but we had a blast!


Only complaints (and you know I always have one or two) :

• The race was SO big, that it was just poorly organized. Bottlenecks at the end made it next to impossible to just grab a mini protein bar and get the heck out.
• And the MUNI shuttle (we had pre-paid for) kept filling up at an earlier station, so we stood at a corner, looking amazing in our capes, for 20 min waiting to have our superasses hauled back downtown.

We made up for it at Chevy's with table-side guac, veggie fajitas and a beer the size of my super hero head.

Yum.

All In All:
A successful day fighting crime and seeing a piece of San Francisco History. 100 Years of Bay-to-Breakers!

Cook Book GiveAway!!

(am committing to being a better blogger... also known as: Giveaway Love!

Last week WhatRunsLori gave away a kick ass cookbook and I totally missed the boat.

From here on out: get on the boat or swim my ass to friend island!)

***

The Lucky Girl herself is sending love in the form of cooking peace of mind!

Go comment at Lucky Girl Sweets 'n' Stuff and enter to win Five Ingredient Solution!

'jus sayin....

Best. Weekend. Ever.

About *cough...* years ago, a Dear Friend of mine attended Country Thunder. We arrived Thursday night... planning to go home Thursday night. We got home Monday morning and declared it the
BEST. WEEKEND. EVER.

This weekend - I did the grown-up version of BEST WEEKEND EVER!

Miss Lori - the amazingly talented blogger that she is - was selected by FoodBuzz to attend the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival! She was given a +1 ... and I was her date!

(If you don't know what this thing is: It's ridiculously swanky. $200 ticket swanky.)

We spent Saturday shopping ($2.50 Tank Tops at Forever XXI ... why YES! I'll be 21 Forever!)

and eating artichokes...

and drinking martinis...

and watching a movie ... um... falling asleep during a movie (see also: drinking)

And Sunday - we awoke, fortified ourselves with a green smoothie and drove to Pebble Beach!

If I haven't mentioned it lately - this part of California is insanely beautiful.

The drive was sunny and warm, the ocean was briny and cold, the avocado stands were advertising 4-for-$1.

After meandering around the Pebble Beach Lodge and Shops (we'd paid our $10 to drive 17 Mile Drive and we were gonna get our money's worth!) ... we took a walk and some photos.

Then : IT Happened. And because I'm a lazy lazy blogger and a very good linker...

Check out the details at What Runs Lori.

Suffice it to say... I was in fish-eating, wine-tasting, beer-drinking, chef-stalking heaven.

If you need more incentive to click over to Lori's recap:

- We have a picture with Chef Morimoto
- A hug from Michael Simon
- Giant Fuzzy Arm Chairs

(no meat was consumed [by me] in the making of this event...)

I cannot say enough about how happy this weekend made me. Came home feeling loved, relaxed and completely at peace.

And SO glad to have amazing friends.

(and luck with a camera. because this is a baller shot I'm about to end with...)

Thanks, Lori!!