California Winter 2025 - Part V - The Last Part of our Trip

Tuesday March 11

The weather today has been beautiful. Sunny and 60’s, the nicest day yet. But tomorrow another atmospheric river is headed this way. it’s quite possible that it will rain the rest of our trip. For that reason I did my marathon pace run this morning. I will run if it’s raining lightly but not if its pouring so we’ll just wait and see.

Last night we went out for pho. It kind of hit the spot. Lee finally bought some Robittusin so he is actually feeling better since he can sleep. Emi has been fun today. We went to the playground this morning and for a walk this afternoon so she got a good nap this morning and she’s still asleep now. We also played with her new water table in the back yard. She got wet and had a great time. We threw her clothes in the dryer so nbd. In just the time that we were gone she’s learned to shake her head “yes” (she already knew “no” of course!). She likes to play “bye-bye” where she grabs this pink basket and goes walking seriously around the playroom, then looks up and waves and smiles. “Hi Emi! hi!” Tomorrow she’ll go to daycare during the day and we’ll watch her at night, hopefully without a meltdown like last time!

Wednesday March 12

This morning I went for a run, knowing that an atmospheric river was coming and chances are it will be too wet to run on Thursday, and maybe on Friday too. The weather was good, windy but warmer (55F) and mostly dry. It stayed pretty nice all morning, but a little after noon the rain blew in. And blow it did! It was very gusty, so much so that the power went out for a while!

I went out to run some errands around 1:30. Right down the street a tree had fallen. That explained the power failure! It had hit a car too. Fortunately for me it blocked a street right in front of a school so I was able to bypass it by going through the school parking lot. Another large branch fell right in front of my car a little farther on. 

I stopped at a nail salon that Kelsey likes to buy her a gift card for her birthday. Their power was on but their online system was down. They said I could buy the gc online, but I may try again tomorrow. The rest of my errands were successful.

Dan went to get Emi from daycare around 4 pm. He gave her a bottle and then he and Kelsey left for their date. We played for a while and then Emi was ready for a nap, but it was too rainy and windy to go for a walk, so I walked her inside instead. It took a while but she finally fell asleep.

We’re getting carry out burgers for dinner and we will NOT rush the bath this time! Wish us luck!

Thursday March 13

Everything went smoothly last night except the burgers weren’t that great. We ordered them to be ready at 5:45 pm, but we placed the order at 5 and we think they made it then. Everything was cold. But we had a very successful time giving Emi her bath and putting her to sleep. We let her play a while in the bath before washing her and made getting out a game (peekaboo, where’s gramma? where’s Emi? There she is!). Lee made her bottle while I was doing the bath. Then I greased her up with her special eczema lotion (which made for a slippery baby!) put on her pjs and handed her off to Lee for her bottle. We read Goodnight Moon, sang Landslide (as best we could) and said goodnight. She was laying quietly in her crib but Dan and Kelsey came home right then so they had to do Goodnight Moon and Landslide again, lol.

In the morning we played for a while and then we took her to story time at the library. Her reaction was very different from when we went last fall. She was much more engaged, although she was still more interested in the other children and adults than in the actual story. She did like the songs and the actions that went with them. She really liked the babies in the audience! At one point she looked at me, pointed at a baby and said “baybee” with a big smile. That might have been the highlight of the visit for me!

She fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept for a good hour and a half.

After lunch we played some more and then around 3 we went for a walk and she fell asleep again. It's almost 4 and she’s still asleep.

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The next day
we went home. And here we are, once again. Spring is very slowly coming to Minnesota. I have someone to help me with yard work this year; if that isn't a sign of old age I don't know what is! In a couple of weeks we'll be traveling once again, meeting Dan, Kelsey and Emi in New York and Boston and helping out with Emi while we're there.  Stay tuned!

A 10 Mile Race

I ran Goldy’s Run this morning, a 10 mile race at the University of Minnesota campus, ending on the 50 yard line in the football stadium. It’s a nice race and a good way to kick off the spring running season. I ran it 2 years ago and enjoyed it so I decided to run it again.

But I’ve slowed down a lot since then. I don’t know exactly why, could be a lot of things, age, not running very much last year, lingering effects from a series of colds this winter. But I knew I wasn’t going to beat my time from 2 years ago, so I set a different goal, based on the last 10 miler I ran and used a shorter run/walk interval, 1:00/30 instead of 1:30/30. Told myself to focus on walking briskly and the running portion would take care of itself.

This race has some pretty big hills, both up and down. It crosses over the Mississippi twice. I knew I would walk part of the uphills, they’re just too long and steep to power through. But I could also run the downhills so it probably evens out.

The race went ok. The weather was beautiful, sunny, not much wind, 30’s. Two years ago I ran it in 2 hours. Today I ran it in 2 hours 6 minutes. I’m satisfied with my time. I came in third in my age group (out of 3 women, haha). I was the 2nd oldest woman in the race. The two women that beat me ran really good times, 1 hour 20 minutes and 1 hour 30 minutes. That translates to 8 and 9 minute miles, respectively, something I’ve never done, even for a 5k. Kuddos to them!

But I have a bone to pick with the race this year. Some of the organizational aspects were faulty.

1. They ran out of water at a couple of the water stops toward the end. And there were several hundred people behind me.
2. At the finish line the toddler race was running over the finish line at the same time as the slower 10 milers. Just all over the line, not on one side or anything like that. They were adorable but distracting and how the hell are you supposed to get a decent finish pic with little kids (and their parents) clogging up the works?
3. At most races there are volunteers right after the finish line handing out medals. Not this time. I didn’t even realize that I didn’t get a medal until I was on my way back to my car.
4. They had run out of finisher snacks as well, except for water bottles. I was bummed.

I’m going to complain to the race management. This race is run by Run Minnesota, a big organization. I’ve run a lot of their races and have never had problems like this before.

The final snafu was totally my fault. When I got out of the stadium I could not remember where I parked my car! I was starting to freak out, stopped some people and told them I was lost. I told them I had taken a picture of my parking spot. “Well then”, they told me, “Go to your photos and you can bring that picture up on a map!” So for future reference, bring up a photo, swipe up halfway, and a map pops up with your picture on it! Wow!

So I get to the parking garage. Its many leveled, with no logic that I can find to the space designation. I finally found my car but it wasn’t easy. THEN I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the damn thing! I got to one exit with green arrows but it was backwards. I just kept following the exit signs until finally one of them worked.

By the time I got home it was almost 12:30. The poor dogs had been cooped up inside since 7 am this morning. They were very glad to see me! Once they had gone potty a couple of times and had lunch, and followed me around for a while to make sure I wasn’t going to leave again, they finally relaxed. Now they’re napping.

Because of the hiccups at the finish line I don’t know if I will run this race again. Now it’s on to The Get in Gear Half Marathon at the end of April, and then the Grandma’s Half Marathon in Duluth in June. Then I’ll mostly focus on biking for the rest of the summer.

Epilogue:

Well today I got an email from the Run Minnesota apologizing for the hiccups at the finish line. It wasn’t just me, they ran out of medals AND food for the last couple of hundred runners in the race. So they are sending me a medal, and as an apology they are also sending me a code for a free race entry for one of their other races this year. So that mollifies me to a certain extent. 

Also, on the Monday after the race I was sore, but just regular post-race soreness. But Monday night my right hip started hurting. It was very sore all day Tuesday. I took a lot of Acetomycin and by Tuesday night it was much better, and today (Wednesday) it’s fine. Who knows what that was! I took a Pilates class today and I was ok, so tomorrow I’ll go for a run and see how it goes.

I also made a decision. I transferred out of the Get in Gear Half and signed up for the Get in Gear 10k instead. There’s no point in running the risk of injury by running at extra half, when the half I really care about is Grandma’s in June. Wise choice! 

California Winter 2025 - Part IV Stinson Beach

Friday March 7th Cont.

When I left off we were on our way to Stinson Beach, up in Marin County north of San Francisco. First we wanted to stop at the roasted chicken place we went to a couple of years ago, Sol Food, a Puerto Rican Restaurant. Only problem was there are a few different locations and the first one we tried was their carryout place. Then we went to the right place, which is in San Rafael. It was as good as we remembered, but the chicken plate was awfully big, a half chicken with salad, rice, beans and fries (last time I got plantains but even though I love bananas I’m not crazy about plantains so I got fries instead). Then we drove to Stinson Beach which is wayyyy off the beaten path. I’m all for just hanging out here for 3 days, but I think Lee may get restless. There’s a small grocery store and a few restaurants and a beautiful beach.

Saturday March 8

Our room at the Surf Lodge is just darling. It’s a very small place, I think 8 rooms. Each room is a little standalone cabin. Ours has a small living area, a king-size bed, a kitchenette and a bathroom. Not huge but plenty of room for us. For dinner last night we went to one of the 2 restaurants, Breakers Cafe, right across the road from us. We both got tortilla soup and margaritas because we just weren’t very hungry after our giant lunches. There’s a very nice patio with heaters but we were freezing so we ate inside.

In the morning we had a Nepresso coffee maker crisis. I could NOT figure out how to get it to work, despite watching the you tube video multiple times. Finally Lee noticed that the light on top was flashing green AND red instead of just green and looked up what that meant. The damn thing needed to be descaled! So my genius engineer found the you tube video for THAT and then we were on our way. It makes pretty good coffee once it’s working!

After breakfast and a shower we went for a walk along the beach. SO BEAUTIFUL! We walked north along the shore for about 2 miles and then turned around and walked back. Birds, dogs, people, kids, blue sky, fog in the distance, mountains to the east. It was chilly but not too bad. Afterwards we sat on a bench and watched the world go by Then we went back to the lodge to eat lunch . We ate some of our leftover chicken from yesterday, and I had an orange and a cookie too. I STILL have some chicken left! I think I’m going to throw it away, I’m getting suspicious of its edibility after sitting around for the afternoon in the car, even if we did put it in the fridge when we got here.

We are mostly relaxing this afternoon, with a break for an afternoon latte. We sat in the little park for a while. There are a lot of cyclists here today, most of them with very nice bikes, which you pretty much need if you are going to bike over these hills!

Sunday March 9

Around 5:40 we walked over to the beach to watch the sunset, which set promptly at 6:10. It was beautiful but not spectacular because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky! It’s novel to watch the sun set over the ocean because the sun drifts down and then just drops like a rock. In a minute it seems, it was gone.

Last night we ate at the Parkside Cafe. It gets mixed reviews, but not because of the food. Some people had bad service experiences but we did not. In fact it was pretty wonderful all around. The waitress was attentive and the food was great! I got the seafood stew and Lee got the chilled seafood platter which came with 3 gouterres (basically a savory cheese profiterole), one of which I ate. I also had some of his tuna poke and smoked salmon. It was all very very good!

Last night was the “spring forward” time change, so we lost an hour. I slept pretty late for me anyway. I woke up at 6:20 but went back to sleep and the next thing I knew it was 7:30! I guess I was tired. I’m actually going to set my alarm tonight because otherwise it will be very hard to get up in time to run because we babysit for Emi on Tuesday.

Lee caught another cold from Emi. He seems pretty miserable today, coughing and sneezing a lot. We hiked part of the Dipsea trail this morning. What a beautiful trail! A lot of elevation gain with gorgeous views as our reward. Lee made it about a mile and a half before his cold forced him to turn around. I went two and a half miles, far enough to make it over the next hill and see the view south along the coast. Amazing! The trail goes all the way to Muir Woods, about 9 miles one way. I did 5 miles total, with 1400 ft of elevation gain. I loved it!

The Famous Dipsea Steps, Maybe!

Views North on The Dipsea Trail

Redwoods Along the Dipsea Trail

Afterwards we got sandwiches and french fries at Parkside and sat outside in the little park. Now we’re basically being lazy, again. 

Tomorrow it’s back to Los Altos and Emi.

Monday March 10

Last night we got a carryout pizza from Parkside. We didn’t think it would be very polite to sit in a restaurant while Lee was coughing away. The pizza was good too. I set my alarm for 6 but it was still very hard to get up. I managed, but lazed around for a while before finally going on a short run. I was supposed to run 4 miles but it was really hard to find a decent place to run. The road I tried ended at a private resort so I cut over to the beach, but the sand was very squishy. I ran north on the beach until it petered out and then took a path along the shore back to town. I made it 3 miles and decided that was good enough.

My Run Attempt Petered Out Along the Beach

Highway One Snaking Back and Forth

Around 10:30 we headed up highway 1 back to Los Altos. Man that is a scary road! Lee drove and I’m glad. We stopped in San Mateo for dumplings at a little place called Town of Dumplings. Homemade dumplings. We got shanghai soup dumplings, pork dumplings, cucumber salad, scallion pancakes, and hot and sour soup. Way too much food and it was all really good! We plan on remembering this place. Very Chinese, they were all speaking Mandarin.