Saturday, June 23, 2012

“So many things are possible just as long as you don't know they're impossible.”*

So, I'm off on my next adventure (man, after this trip, I'm definitely going to go through travel withdrawal...).

My trip did not start off that great.  My terminal in the Philly airport had no air conditioning (hi, it's over 100 degrees outside, how do you not have air conditioning?) so it was ridiculously hot.  Then, we get on the plane, and their auxiliary power wasn't working, which meant we had no air conditioning while sitting on the tarmac, and we sat there for about half an hour.  I dont like being hot.  Even after we took off, the plane was so hot, it never managed to completely cool down even when the A/C finally kicked in. 

I was kind of grumpy by the time we landed.

The second flight was a lot better.  Nice and air conditioned.  The people in my row were nice.  Only issue I had was when we landed and I went to stand up and my leg was numb again (stayed numb till the next morning).  Stupid sciatic nerve. 

So, that kind of cemented me not running the half marathon here.  Which made me sad.  I had gone to the Doctor and she strongly suggested I shouldn't run it.  I was still contemplating doing it anyway, and just kind of walking/running it slowly and not even care about the time.  But, I decided that was a bad idea with a numb leg and the fact I haven't been running for about a month now.  Sigh. 

So, I am just trying to be content with walking around the city. 

Yesterday we went to the race packet pick up (K is still walking in the race, and I figured I may as well pick up my packet just in case I changed my mind at the last second).  The expo was in the center next to their stadium.  I LOVE their stadium..



I couldn't get the whole thing in the picture.  It's huge.  (ahh, there is a joke just waiting to be made there...).

Then, we walked around in the rain and went to the Pike Place Market (if I lived here I'd be there EVERY FREAKING DAY, the fresh food is awesome).  I tried to take a picture of me overlooking the water.  Instead, I got a picture of me and the road below us right NEXT to the water.  



You can KIND of see the water in the upper left corner there.  It was rainy and wet out.  (Welcome to Seattle I guess?).  It was hard to smile for real when I was so wet. 

After walking in the rain for a few hours, we went to the Taphouse Grill which had 160 beers on tap. 


This terrible picture is only about half of the bar, maybe a third?  There was a lot of beer.  It was hard to choose just one.  So K and I both did a sampler and got to pick 4.  I tried a Scotch ale, a hefeweizen, a lager, and a pilsner.  They were all pretty fantastic. 

Then, we came back to the room and my friend, Seattle's Best, came by the room to say hey.  We hung out for a while before grabbing some dinner and going to bed early.  I was tired (only slept for about 4 hours the night before), and K needed to be up by 5 this morning for the race. 

All in all, it was a fun first day.

Today has consisted of me watching the race from outside the hotel, walking around downtown by the hotel, finding champagne and beer (harder than you'd think) for after the race, and being lazy in the hotel room.  Not quite the same as running the race, but not a bad morning either. 

Ready to head back to the Pike Place Market for lunch and explore the city some more later this afternoon :)

Hope everyone is having a fun weekend!

*The Phantom Tollbooth

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Thank you for being the best dad in the world.  I love you!! 

Last Pictures of the Trip! Budapest!

Yeah, I guess I disappeared there for a while...my bad.  I got busy and stuff. 

Anyways, I guess I'll finish up my last trip (just in time for me to leave for my next trip).

Budapest!


We took a boat tour on the Danube (yes, I voluntarily stepped foot on a boat and amazingly didn't get that seasick...maybe it was the free beer they served). 


This was a church that was actually carved into the cliffside of Buda.  It was amazing. 

Then, my favorite building (located on the Pest side).


This is their Parliament building.  Amazing.

The next day we just walked around the city.  Mostly the Buda side.  We took the funicula to see the Castle, the Cathedral, and I got to shoot a bow and arrow (I hit the target every time, but only one was near the bullseye). 






We also saw this awesome car:



Maybe I should do something similar? 

We left for the airport around 2 in the morning and flew back through Lisbon...so one last picture of our friend. 

The whole trip was just amazing.  I already want to return...