First 2 days in Vail

I hope no one gets sick of reading vacation recaps, because that is just about all that I have to talk about right now, so I'm drawing this out...

...We finally arrived in Vail on Sunday afternoon and immediately hit up the Vail farmer's market.

It was such a cool farmer's market!  Not only was there a lot of good food, but there were tons of artists with booth's set up.  There was SO much to look at!  We also went into a few stores and I bought the hat I'm wearing below, I love it- I just need to learn to wear hats more often.

It started to rain while we were walking around, so we took shelter at a Mexican restaurant and ordered a pitcher of margaritas, naturally.  That night we were still pretty tired from the drive, so we picked up some pizzas and hung out at the condo.  We stayed at the Arrowhead resort at the Country Club of the Rockies and it was SO nice!  I'm sure buying a place there is ridiculously expensive, but it has been added to the bucket list for sure.

The next morning we were up for a short and pretty run near this creek.  Running at high altitude sucks, but the scenery helps a lot!

Later that morning, we took the gondola up Vail mountain and started the hike around up there, eventually working our way back down to the base.  Hiking downhill is awesome, but it does not do awesome things to your calf muscles, ouch!  

Tree pose, obvs.  And my dad's tree pose with his walking sticks. 

As if our day hadn't already been active enough, we went golfing that afternoon.  We played Sonnenalp, which was gorgeous!!  It was also a course that much better suited my ability than the course we usually play at home too, so it was really fun.  

I hit some really good shots, and one of my drives actually landed a few feet from the hole, which NEVER happens to me.  Of course, I had to celebrate with an aperol spritz!

After golf, we went to another Mexican restaurant.  It's just a little hole in the wall in Edwards, but it's one of my dad's favorite places to eat.  There may have been another pitcher of margaritas.  That's all I'm going to say about that.

Boulder and Red Rocks

Mark and I were still on the road to vail on Sunday and had planned to drive through Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park on the way, but we decided that we'd rather get to  Vail earlier to catch the farmer's market.  So we drove through Boulder instead and looked around the University of Colorado campus a bit.

It was a pretty neat campus, I can definitely see why so many people I know have gone there (including my dad for 1 year before deciding it was "too fun").  My aunt and uncle used to live in Boulder, but I haven't been there for quite some time, so it was fun to see the town again.

We continued on our drive through Denver and stopped at Red Rocks to look around for about an hour.  It was gorgeous!  I would love to see a concert here someday, what a cool place!

There were SO MANY people working out there!  I didn't realize that it is basically like a huge outdoor gym for the locals.  As you can see, there was also a yoga class going on, so cool!

Obviously, I had to do some yoga of my own here!

After leaving Red Rocks, we continued on our way and finally made it to Vail!  Stay tuned :)

Our night in Fort Collins

Hello again!  We are back from our week in Vail and I am missing the mountains so much already!   We had a great time and I have so much to share, so I am just starting with our drive out and our night in Fort Collins.

We left on Friday afternoon for Omaha, where we spent the night after dropping Shay off with Mark's parents.  Definitely not the most exciting drive to make, but leaving for a road trip is always so much fun! Here is Omaha looking pretty as we rolled into town:

  

We could have definitely gotten further that night, but my legs were really sore from my run that morning.  Plus, Mark used to live in Omaha and wanted to take me to one of his old hangout spots.

We were on the road early the next morning and headed for Fort Collins.  We got in pretty early in the afternoon and had plenty of time to check out a few breweries.  We started with O'Dell which has a really laid-back tasting room with plenty of cool things to look at, good beer too!

After O'Dells we headed to New Belgium for the tour we had signed up for.  It was a 90 minute tour, which I thought seemed long, but it was one of the best brewery tours I've ever been on.  It was definitely more of a "production" than O'Dell, but really informative and down to earth.  We bought a growler of one of our favorites that we tasted, the Yuzu Berlinerweisse.  It was really yummy and I've never seen it around MN.  If you see it, tell me and then buy it!

We ended the night at Ft. Collins Brewery.  This was the perfect end to our day because in addition to their tasting room, they also serve food there.  We had a really good dinner and one of our favorite beers, Red Banshee.  We discovered this beer on our last trip to CO, and had been looking forward to having it again for a long time!

Fort Collins has lots of other breweries that we would have loved to check out, but these 3 are all in a row and are super convenient to visit all at once.  

After all that beer drinking, we were pretty worn out.  We hit the hay early and were up with the sun the next morning to finish the drive to Vail.

More to come later...

Decorah Weekend!

As expected, this weekend was amazing!  My friends and I all drove down to Iowa after work on Friday to spend the weekend in our college town, Decorah.  We had the best time and packed so much fun stuff into the weekend!

Friday night, we went to one of our favorite restaurants for burgers and ended up staying there for quite awhile.  We ran into a couple friends there who still live in the town and had a grand old time!

We were up Saturday morning for a little yoga class that I taught for the group.  We wanted to spend a little time on campus, so we ended up doing it on the library lawn, which was funny and so much fun!

We spent a few hours shopping around town, eating at our favorite pizza place, and getting some ice cream from our beloved Whippy Dip.

We spent the rest of the afternoon parked on the patio of the brewery in town, Toppling Goliath.  We brought Cards Against Humanity with us, which was hilarious.  It was such a great way to spend the afternoon!

We got ourselves spruced up for dinner and went out for a really good meal at one of the nicer restaurants in town.  It was so yummy and such a good time.  To be honest, the rest of the night is sort of a blur, but we had a total blast!

 

I'm so glad that we've been dedicated to making this trip every year, it's always one of my highlights of the summer!

Already looking forward to next year when we get to do it all again!

a BIG weekend!

YOU GUYS.  Today is my last day working at HCMC!  It feels so weird.  I keep thinking about how it's the last time parking in my ramp, getting coffee from the lobby coffee shop, sitting in rounds, ever interacting with most of these patients...weird.  I'll miss a few of my co-workers, definitely the doctors, and a couple patients.  I've been here for 3 years, and in the world of mental health, we have a lot of "frequent flyer" patients, so I know several of them really well at this point.  But I am so happy that I am moving on.  I am ready to dedicate my work to eating disorders and teaching yoga....so ready.

Speaking of which, I taught my first yoga class at my new studio yesterday!  But let's back up to Friday for a proper weekend recap, alright?

Friday evening consisted of one thing and one thing only- carbo loading.  It really is the best part of racing.  I made a big batch of spaghetti, meatballs, and garlic bread to enjoy for the pre-race dinner.  We laid low that evening and continued watching Harry Potter.  I think I was in bed around 9:30.

Saturday was the Minnesota Half Marathon!  I am planning on doing a full recap of that later in the week, so stay tuned.  I hope the race photos are posted soon, because I didn't take any until after the race!  I finished the race, not as fast as I had hoped, but I feel pretty good about it.  I may have pushed myself a bit harder if I didn't have to run 14 miles later this week.

As soon as the race finished, we stayed in St. Paul and headed to my friend Katie's house for her birthday celebration!  She decided to host a brunch and bloody Mary bar for her birthday- what a fun idea!!  It was great to see some of my good friends after running, but I felt terrible about showing up so sweaty and gross!

I tried to rest and took an epsom salt bath that afternoon to work out some of the soreness.  Mark and I headed out to Lake Minnetonka to get a burger at Lord Fletcher's for dinner.  There was a pretty good band playing and the weather was perfect to be on the lake.  I love going out to Lord Fletcher's and it will always be a special place for us since we had our rehearsal dinner there the night before our wedding!

Sunday morning was another early one for me, because I taught the 9:00 donation class at the Yoga Sanctuary!  I had 4 students in this class- 2 regular students, the studio owner, and a fellow teacher from the studio.  It was a little intimidating at first to be teaching 2 more experienced teachers, but the whole group was so friendly and welcoming.  They gave me great feedback at the end of class too, which made me feel great! The owner also asked me to sub for a class later this week, so I must have done alright :)  I got the best massage ever right afterward, which was so lovely!

Whew!  Well, I am tired just writing all of that.  Is it Friday yet?!

Strawberry Aperol Sorbet

I really can't take any credit for this recipe at all.  All I can say is that I discovered Aperol when we were in Austria, and it changed my life.  The second I read this recipe in the latest Martha Stewart Living, I knew I had to make it.

A little background on Aperol.  When Mark and I were in Salzburg, I noticed that virtually every woman was drinking the same thing, but it wasn't a drink that I could identify by looking at.  It looked sort of like orangey-iced tea in a wine glass.  After a few failed attempts at ordering drinks that I thought were the right one, I resorted to a totally normal solution.  Eavesdropping.  I made sure to listen to the ladies at the table next to me as they ordered, and I finally heard the magic words- APEROL SPRITZ.  I had no idea what aperol was, but I knew it was good.  Turns out its a bitter orange and rhubarb aperitif.  I should probably do an entire post on the aperol spritz cocktail, stay tuned lovelies.

Back to business.

Martha Stewart's recipe for Strawberry Aperol Sorbet is one of the best sorbets I've ever had.  It's so simple, 4 ingredients and super fast to make.  Make it now! Right now! Unless you're pregnant, in which case I am really sorry that you are missing this and I will personally make you some and deliver it to you upon the birth of your child.

When I say this is easy, I mean easy.  All you need to do is blend one pound of strawberries with 1/2 cup of sugar.

Stir in the zest from 1 orange and 1/3 cup of Aperol.  Confession- I used 1/2 cup.  Don't judge.  I also skipped the part of the recipe that told me to chill this all in a bowl for an hour before throwing it in the ice cream maker- I really didn't see the point.  Straight into the ice cream maker it went.  It only took about 15 minutes to reach the right consistency, but I had to "check" it several times, you know...just to make sure.

Pour the sorbet into a frozen loaf pan, cover, and store in the freezer.

Try to not eat it all in one sitting.  You're going to want to enjoy this for a few nights.  Trust me.

Try this recipe and all the other tasty meals and treats shared on Ashley and Jessica's link up!  Happy Taste of Tuesday everyone!

Torchlight 5k recap!

Happy Friday everyone!!  It's finally the weekend again and I couldn't be happier about that!  I am leaving work a little early today, so this is going to be short and sweet so I can get everything done!

I ran the Torchlight 5k in Minneapolis on Wednesday with these lovely ladies:

Kate (in the middle) also brought her husband to run this year.  My sister and her friend were there too, so we all met up at the start and then found each other after the race for the after-party.

It has been super hot here all week.  Before the race, my car said it was 95!  I think the official temperature was 93, but whatever it was, it was HOT! And really humid too!!  This is always a fun race to run though and I am glad that we went for it!  The Torchlight 5k is part of the Minneapolis Aquatennial celebration that happens every summer,  it takes place down the same streets at the Torchlight Parade, which starts right after the race.  It is sort of a logistical nightmare, but we had a good game plan and it all work out flawlessly! 

I am proud that I actually ran the whole way in this heat!  It would have been really easy to walk, but running with my running buddies and in a crowd always makes me push myself a little harder.  We started out at a pretty normal pace and were able to maintain that throughout the first 3 miles.  Once we were on the Stone Arch Bridge, we sped it up a little bit.  This race is always deceptive because you think the finish line is at the end of the bridge, but its actually quite a bit further down and around a corner.  It gets me everytime!

I finished right next to my friend Katie, and we both pretty much collapsed on the ground for a few minutes afterward.  Then we went in search of popsicles.  After the rest of our crew finished, we went in search of the good stuff...the free beer.

My time ended up being 29:05, which I thought was pretttty good for the heat!  I am actually quite inpressed that we did it in under 30 minutes!  Thanks for running with me, ladies!!

And as always, link up your weekly fitness report with Jen for Health and Fitness Friday!!

Reminder!

Hey everyone!  I just want to remind you to come to the MN Blogger yoga class that I am teaching this coming Sunday at 10am!  All of the info can be found here. 

Remember to bring water and a yoga mat!  If you don't have a yoga mat, let me know...I have a few extras.

I'll bring some tasty treats for after class...if you're lucky I'll even bake something myself! Probably muffins or something.

Don't worry if you have no experience.  There will be a lot of this:

And none of this:

See you on Sunday!!

Tropical Fruit Salad

When I say that I love the way Banana Boat sunscreen and tanning oil smells, who knows what I'm talking about?? If you know, then you will love this salad.  It tastes the way that Banana Boat should. By the way, no sunscreen tastes good.  I know this much.

This recipe for Tropical Fruit Salad is absolutely amazing!  I made it twice the other week...seriously.  And I ate it all SO FAST.  It is suuuuper simple too.   Especially because I bought prepackaged coconut flakes instead of cracking open my own coconut.  Ain't nobody got time for that. 

Also, who knows how to crack open a coconut.  I sure as heck don't.

Anywho, back to business.  In order to prepare this delicious little escape to the islands...do as I say and:

Cut open a papaya.  This has got to be the weirdest fruit ever and the seeds really gross me out, but these are actually super easy to cut up into little cubes.  Do that.

Same with the mango and the pineapple (which isn't pictured):

Rough chop some coconut flakes, I didn't measure, but this is the amount I used:

Cut up a some banana just before serving.  I brought this to work for lunch all week long and used 1 banana for each serving.

The only thing that could possibly make this salad better is some rum, the beach, and some more rum.  I can't picture anyone not liking this.  Unless they don't like fruit, that would be a problem.  Or coconut, in which case I would call them cocoNUTS- see what I did there?

Go make it, you won't be sorry!  Also, make sure you check out the other recipes that are posted for Taste of Tuesday!  They can all be found by visiting either Ashley or Jessica.