more vino please

Yup its official, I really like wine. Bri and I decided to get away for a few nights and drove up to Santa Barbara. It was definately eerie driving through LA on Friday and seeing the huge smoke clouds from all the fires, but once we cleared LA it was clear as anything. California never ceases to amaze me with its beauty and crazy terrain. Fortunately I was in a car, but often wishing I had my bike on the back to hop on for a ride through some of the mountains and on the coast. It has been super hot here so it was a bit of a relief when we got to Santa Barbara and it was a bit cooler. The downtown is super cute and we had many recommendations for restaurants so off we went. We did not make it far before I saw a wine bar and we started to tie one on pretty early. We ate, we drank, we ate some more and we drank more than that. It was great. I was able to meet up with a girl I went to high school with and have not seen in 12 plus years. You facebook haters can hate all you want but if weren't for the fook then I never would have been able to reconnect with her. I discovered a perfect summer drink that night, so refreshing. It was vodka (was supposed to be gin but i am a vodka girl), sprite, lime juice, and cucumbers. yummmmmmmmmm.


On Saturday we felt like we really missed the heat so we headed North East to Santa Ynez, where all the vineyards are. We stopped at the Gainey vineyard where the temps were up around 105. At one point I asked Brian "was it this hot at the triathlon?" and he replied "it was hotter" It left me baffled at how I was able to move in that kind of heat. Fortunately all I had to do this weekend was relax and pose for pictures in my cute new sundresses.

We had some great tastings and came home with some great bottles of wine.

We had maybe one of the best Italian meals of all time at Ca Dario in SB. I found myself almost crying at the end of the meal not wanting that last bite of my ravioli's to end. I topped dinner off with a "Josephine" in honor of Nana whose 93rd birthday would have been last week. It was a macaroon, with whipped topping and covered in chocolate....yeah and earlier that day I had about 2 pounds of yogurtland for "lunch." Lets just say that I felt extra jiggly on our drive home, granted the freeways through LA are rather bumpy but geesh its amazing what a sloth you can feel like after one weekend of eating/drinking and not working out.

Back to reality! Well not fully, because I still have one full week of work off!!! I dusted my bike off last night (yes its true I have not been on the bike since Vineman) and got on my trainer for a spin session. I forgot how tough those are. Not sure if its all the hot yoga i've been doing but I am more of a sweater than before. I actually had a few sweat beads drip to the ground during the spin session. That never happens to me, but whenever I would look around during class people would have puddles under them. See, I am normal afterall!

My dad retired on Friday so he is coming out here Tuesday night to hang out with me for a bit of my last vacation! I am hoping that this hurricane that is hammering Mexico is not going to come up here (although we really need the rain) and give us our first rain in months and months, although LA could really use it.....

Back to training mode for me. I decided to train for the Silver Strand half marathon on November 15th in Coronado. It is perfectly timed and I am hoping some friends join me with training.