Thanksgiving Turkey Trot in Orange County

It was a beautiful trip down to Orange County for Thanksgiving this year. Like always,  we headed out to the Turkey Trot to do our traditional calorie burn the morning of the big day. 

We all decided to walk this year, with my sister being 7 months pregnant and me still dealing with bad leg pain. Ed, unfortunately, caught a stomach bug and waited by the car for us while we were completing the 5k. 

The race was crowded like always, with fun costumes and serious runners mixed together, ready to enjoy the gorgeous course. 

There was a pretty large group of marines (?) were running along and chanting, which was and inspiring sight. 

The harbor matched the color of the sky. 

And the view out into the pacific was wonderful scenery during the course. 

 (and one last picture with my sister's oh so cute puppies)

Our First Visit to Point Reyes

Our first order after arriving in Point Reyes was finding something to eat. We were directed to the downtown, a short few blocks of stores and restaurants. 

We found a great place to eat, and sat outside in the beautiful sunshine, enjoying our continued luck with the weather. 

After lunch, we enjoyed walking up and down the street.

Finally, it was time to check in, so we headed back to the inn. It had a beautiful backyard; the perfect place to laze away the afternoon. 

We had brought a bottle of wine, expressly for the purpose of outside relaxing, and enjoyed reading. 

That evening, we went out to a delicious dinner at an Osteria. 

The next day, we had to take advantage of the beautiful area and go on a hike. We choose a nice loop that would take us to the ocean and back. 

Once we got to the beach, we walked along the surf for about a mile. It was such a wide, long beach, and we had the company of some fellow walkers. 

Finally, we turned up another trail and back into the hills. 

However, on the way up, we stumbled on a tree swing!

While the trail back to the car was, unfortunately, quite uphill, but still beautiful. 

Our trip to Point Reyes finished with a trip to Cowgirl Creamery for a delicious last meal of our trip. 

All in all, it was a lovely celebration of Ed's 30th birthday!

Playing Games

One of the best uses of our vacation time was game playing. We were gifted with the very wonderful game, Seven Wonders, 

that had been introduced to us by our friends, Bill and Jenny, and had a great time sharing this game with out families. 

After eating a delicious lunch out on the patio (in sunny 70 degree weather - loving Cambria winter weather), we spent another hour outside enjoying our new game. 

Ed's mom was especially up for playing this with us, and resoundingly beat us on her first attempt at the game. 

That evening, we got to try out Sabine's new game, Super Scrabble. This one ended up being a little less light-hearted, as the Geaneys/Olivers/Lyons are apparently a little competitive when it comes to word-play. 

Still, we certainly had some fun times playing. 

Games are certainly great presents!

2011 Running

As I mentioned, this year was my "return to running". Again, you say? Yes, I did return to running back in 2010 too, but totally fell off the wagon after our wedding and lost all my fitness.

This year, I finished strong! I can't even remember the last time I ran 100 miles in a month, and I'm hoping to only see these numbers climb.

You can see that October and November were a bit sub par with running, but hopefully I won't see months like that again. 

After March's Marathon, I am entertaining very small dreams of a summer 50k, but I can't really look farther than March right now, and hope all my training goes well. 

I'm still not entirely sure how 10 miler midweek runs will work, and how I'll balance running with everything else, but I'm just going to be optimistic. 

Happy Running!