I wasn’t sure what to name this blog post because I didn’t want to be generic and say San Diego. That would be boring. So I thought about it and went hum. Petco Park and the Zoo. They are both animal places. Granted Petco park doesn’t really have any animals unless you consider baseball players animals but it is named after “the place where pets go.” We meet Blue Mews and Red the dog (mascots that walk around the park) and got a picture so I guess there are animals there.

DEN to SAN via SLC

Our venture from Denver to San Diego was uneventful but a little bumpy, as in turbulence. We had leaving Denver and landing in Salt Lake. And leave Salt Lake was really bad. Some of the worse I’ve experience. I’m not sure why the sun was shining and there were very few clouds. I’m not sure if it is because of the mountains?  We got to San Diego and hoped a shuttle to our hotel. Oh to be in San Diego again. I really do love this city, it is probably the only one in California I’d consider living in.

Kim & Eric 2, Padres 0

We didn’t have much time to relax at the hotel before the Twins game. We dumped our stuff and changed. Weather of course was dilemma again. It was about 60 degrees with that ocean breeze. For once I got my clothing right. I didn’t get cold until the 6^th inning but I brought my sweatshirt along so all was good. Our seats were pretty good, 4 rows from the field right by third base. Before the game started a few twins came over. Kubel held his daughter which was cute but refused to sign stuff…bad! Plouffe was really good about it he signed for everybody and took some pictures with people but that only lasted until Mauer came over and everybody ditch Plouffe. I wish I had a sharpie and ball because I would have gone down to Plouffe for a signature when everybody ditched him. I don’t care about Mauer…but that is for another blog post at a later date.

The Twins got on the board early with a Chris Parmalee home run. The cool thing about going to games in California is that almost half of the players are from here so that means family and friends are in the crowd. Parmalee had friends behind us…that was so cool. We talked a bit about him and his family and his baseball. You don’t get that at Target Field!

The other cool thing about going to away interleague games is watching your pitcher bat. It is hilarious. I know they have batted in the past but to watch them do it when it isn’t a regular occurrence is funny. Our pitchers didn’t do so hot batting.

The Twins lead most of the game but the Padre’s tied it up. Kurt (Clutch) Suzuki fixed that with an in-the-park home run. It was weird. We all thought it was out but they ruled in never went out because it rolled on the wall and came back in. That make sense since Kurt was flying around the bases and slide home. A very strange play. Perkins came in for the save and the Twins won 5-3. It was a fun game.

Animals are Calling

Yesterday we spend almost the entire day at the zoo, and I mean the entire day. We got on the 9:40 trolley from our hotel. We drove over the Coronado Bridge and saw some of the sites on the island including the $4.89 gas. The next stop was Balboa Park. This place is massive and has lots to see including the Zoo. We walked around the park and got to zoo and you could hear all the animals making noise. We covered almost the entire zoo, entirely on foot. No busses, no shuttles, no kangaroo express. All on foot. By the way my feet now hurt.

First stop was the reptile house for all the snakes, lizards and iguanas…Eric’s thing not mine. The Galapagos Turtles are awesome. A women standing next to me pointed at turtle number 5 and said that is Speedy. I rode him as a child and I’m 68 years old, he is over 150. That is so crazy to me. We saw Speedy get into a confrontation with another turtle for the water. They just raised their heads at each other and Speedy didn’t win. He got one foot in the water. 

Animals Galore

We saw a tiger during feeding time. He stalked the zoo worker, it was funny to watch. We saw the a walrus, pelicans and other birds, polar bears, panda bears, elephants, lions (both African and Asian), koala bears, rhinos, giraffes,  and so much more.

I wore the wrong sandals for the day and ended up with blisters. Stupid me, I know it was a lot of walking and steep terrain but I wore sandals. Doh!

After the zoo we hoped back on the trolley and was forced to stop at Old Town…think flea market with a Mexican flare. Yep, not really our cup of tea. We had to wait for the next trolley to take us back to our hotel. We stopped at Horton Plaza shopping center first for a new bag because we bought too much (again, we never learn to pack right). And finally made it back to the hotel by 5pm. A long successful day.

Rootbeer and Pizza Don’t Mix, Seriously!

We relaxed for a bit and took a swim in the heated pool and hot tub. The breeze off the ocean was cold! We changed clothes quickly and went to the Fox Sport’s Grill for dinner. This is where I spilled my entire glass of rootbeer on my flat bread pizza. That was gross. I managed to salvage a few pieces which was enough for me to eat (it was huge) but that was a major bummer. As a friend put on Facebook, “Dough!”

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES

Yesterday was the main event in Aurora, Matthew’s high school graduation. The day started out like the day before with a 4 mile run along the canal trail with Phil. Phil, of course, did 7 miles because he is a super star. LOL! The run felt better than the day before and I think that was mostly because I got used to being at 5,400 feet…I only felt like I was dying for the first ¼ mile instead of the first. And my second mile was my slowest and I got progressively better because Mile 4 was the second fastest. Not like yesterday were I got progressively worse.

The Pre-Graduation

We met up at Matt and Amy’s to carpool to the graduation. We took some before pictures as the rule with their school is they have immediately turn in their cap and gown to get their diploma signed so no after graduation pictures. So here are a few of those pre-graduation pictures.

600+

There were like 600 graduates so it was a long ceremony.  The one thing they did different, which I thought was cool was the Top 10 of the class each gave a one minute speech. So even though it was 10 minutes long it didn’t seem so. And why is it that the valedictorians are always so funny. The salutatorians are always boring reflective speeches but the vals are funny. Just something I noticed in the many graduations I have attended…and I have many more to go!

As usually we made fun of the names that were long or strange and let me tell you there were a lot of them in this class. The other smart thing they did was take pictures of people with fake diplomas before they got there so the flow went pretty well but it was still over an hour just listening to graduates names being called. It took longer for them to announce all the names than my entire graduation too.

No food or drink

So where the Rockies game let anything in, even drinks, the Ritchie Center was not. They made me empty my water and absolutely no food or drinks could be brought in. Another weird thing is I had to take my camera out and they measured my zoom. Are you for real?  How lame. But my small zoom was on so I felt like I was breaking the rules for having my big zoom but she didn’t check my bag that much to see it was hidden. It is a bit ridiculous. I got some nice shots though:

After graduation we made our way back to Matt and Amy’s. There was a little snafu after graduation as Amy’s parent’s vehicle got towed. Not the drama one wants on graduation day. We sat around for a while at Matt and Amy’s waiting for everybody to come back. Eventually everybody showed up and we had hot dogs and chips for dinner. And there was more talking until 10pm. It was a good day overall.  Today we head to San Diego. Very excited!

We are on day 3 of our vacation and so far so good. We had no issues getting here besides the long wait for security at MSP. We got here about 10:30 and luckily we were able to check in to our hotel that early so we dropped off our luggage and relax for a bit and then we went out to lunch with the family.

The Talking

After lunch we went back to Matt and Amy’s for a while and eventually ended up back at the hotel in Phil’s room. We were going shopping but you know those Williams boys they like to talk…and talk…and TALK! Our trip to the mall didn’t happen for over THREE hours! LOL! We eventually got the mall and we split up men and women. We had to find a swimming suit for Katelynn and I needed a new wallet because my clasp broke on mine at the airport and since the clasp is what keeps my phone from flying out in needed a new one. We meet everybody at the food court for dinner. Eric’s parents had come into town in the meantime and joined us. And the Williams boys talked and talked. Thankfully the mall closed at 9 so we only sat there for about 2 hours this time. LOL! We were all pretty much exhausted by that point so we actually got back to the hotel by 10.

Altitude, not Attitude

So yesterday morning I was up bright and early. Someday I’d like to be able to sleep in! It was about 6am and I was starving but the breakfast didn’t open until 7am. As soon as 7am hit I was down there and was happy to see they had Nutella…I was in heaven! Eric was up when I came back to the room and he had some breakfast too and after that we relaxed for a while before we headed out for a run. As we were leaving the hotel we ran into Phil and Katelynn. Phil had thought he wasn’t going to run but was very happy to see we were. So we waited for him to get ready at we headed down to the High Canal Trail. It was a very nice paved trail through the city. I struggle through 4 miles, Phil did 7. The first mile was fast but I felt like I was being suffocated. When you are used to running at 800 feet of elevation, 5,400 feet of elevation will kill you the first time out. But I did ok considering. My splits were around 13 minutes.

Triple Play

After a quick shower we headed to Matt and Amy to meet the rest of the family for the Rockies game. Our seats were awesome. Right behind 3 base, 9 rows up. Katianna and Matthew got some pictures with some of the Padre players so that was cool. Apparently a foul ball hit right in our section too but nobody got it. :(  For the first time in my life, we saw a triple play. It was cool. Eric and I ventured around and checked out all the sites like the center field feature with water falls and the water shuts up when there is a Rockies homerun. Way cool.

The Walk-Off

The game went into extras when former Minnesota Twins closer (from 2003), LaTroy Hawkins blew the save. When he was announced Eric and looked at each other (there were 10 seats between us) and both cracked up laughing. He is still pitched…that is amazing. At the bottom of the 10^th Justin Morneau came up…the Twins’ awesome former 1^st baseman and he hit a walk-off home run. What a fantastic way to end the game for us. I think everybody enjoyed the game, Phil said it was the best game he had ever seen and the seats helped!

After the game we meet at the Blake Tavern for food and more talking and eventually made or way back the hotel…after we witnessed a hit-and-run accident. It was crazy. The person ran the red light made a U-turn (on a one way street) and ran dragging their back tire going the wrong way!! It was seriously crazy. The poor guy that got hit was in shock, he said he was fine but he will feel it today. We stuck around because we witnessed it and we were the only vehicle in that entire intersection to do that! That is sad! That made our return kind of late. We went back to the hotel for some swimming at that capped off a great second day of vacation!

So I have 2 more days of work before our big trip and I have packing dilemmas. What to pack, what weather to plan for and should I take the scale. Yes, I said scale. I’m going to be away from home for many days and I don’t know if I can handle not know my weight for that long. I’m addicted to the scale. It isn’t just an easy yes or no question. I have put some thought into this. There are two ways of thinking.

Option 1 ~ Don’t take the scale

If I don’t take the scale, I will go willy-nilly and eat a ton of crap and gain 15 pounds…No I’m serious here. 15 pounds is what I estimated my weight gain will be over the next 3 weeks. I will be happy for the trip but very depressed when I get home and say the heck with this whole diet thing and stop counting calories and gain the 40 pounds back afterwards. I’m being very pessimistic here but I know me and that is something I’d do. Plus there is the added weight to the bag, my scale doesn’t weigh that much but it takes up a lot of space which means I either take less clothes or I take a bigger bag. We have almost a ½ mile walk to our hotel in San Francisco; do I really want an annoying bag to drag through the streets of San Francisco? Dilemma!!!

Option 2 ~ Take the scale

The other option is to pack the scale. This would require a bigger bag and one that is not as easy to maneuver around the streets. But it is only one city that would require me to walk around with it so is it really that much of a hassle? Having the scale with me won’t help me control my eating. I will probably still go willy-nilly but at least I’d be cognizant of how much I’m gaining and won’t be slammed with a huge weight gain at the end of the trip and get depressed and gain my 40 pounds back.

Decisions

I don’t know what to do. When I went to Branson with my Mom in November, I took the scale. I gained 4 pounds in the first 3 days and then leveled off. It don't make me eat any less or think about my eating and I was really only depressed the first couple days. Since that trip I haven't taken the scale with me but I was never away from home for more that 3 or 4 days. Can I handle 10 days with out? I don't know. :-(

Conversations had in DT Minneapolis

As I walked around the block of my building to get a little fresh air, a black man was walking towards me and said

Man: “Hello Beautiful.”

Me: “Hi” (as I walked past)

Man: (turns around) “You got a boyfriend?”

Me: “I’m married!”

Man: “He better keep you close because you are FINE!”

So that was a little awkward but flattering I guess.

Also in DT Minneapolis…

So this week before our trip is a crazy one as I’ve mentioned in the last blog. You know lots of eating out and not being able to work out. Well that changed on Tuesday!  We had a Twins game on Tuesday and Eric was going to put in some OT. My work isn’t really busy right now and I didn’t want to sit around here for hours waiting for Eric so I decided to RUN! I had my shoes and socks because I wanted to change before the game but I didn’t have any other running gear. I remembered I could use my phone to track the run (I don’t like running with my phone but it will do in a pinch). And I went to Target and bought running pants, a sports bra (on sale!) and a t-shirt and I went for a run. It felt amazing! I did 4 miles and I felt like I could do 4 more. It was the most awesome feeling. I ran across the Stone Arch bridge (St. Anthony Falls were really going!) and ran down St. Anthony Main, over to Nicollet Island, across the Hennepin Ave. bridge and down the West River Road to Gold Medal Park and back. I never walked and only stopped at stoplights but avoided them at all possible (which is why my map has so many turns on it!). I was so happy the entire time. I think I have a new tradition on game days! :)

Here is the map. Something is wrong with the splits because my total time for mile 1 was 12:30 and the little women in my head even said it but Nike+ online says it was almost 14. My total time at mile two was about 25:30 but it says it was almost 27 minutes but somehow the last 2 miles were very fast and I finished the last mile with a 12 minute pace. Not possible because I was sitting at stoplights a lot. Overall pace was 13:01.