Pining for the Fjords

In several past blog posts, I’ve talked about running and in several others, I’ve talked about trying new breweries and other beer-related events.  In this one, let’s mash them all up together (mash – there’s some brewer humor for you there) and see what happens! On a moderately chilly recent Saturday morning (I mean, the east coast was under 2 feet of snow at this point, so “moderately chilly” it is), I accompanied Chris to Estrella Mountain Park on the southwest side of town to crew while he ran Aravaipa Running’s Coldwater Rumble 20K course. Putting on his race number in the truck. It is moderately chilly, after all. A 20K is around 12.44 miles (quick conversion math: a 5K is 3.11 miles, thus a 20K is 4 times that - this equals 12.44 miles), and this one would be run entirely on the trails of the park.  While some of the distances looped back through the start/finish area, the 20K was not one of those; thus, I knew that I’d end up seeing Chris for 5 minutes as

Last weekend, I took part in one of the Valley’s largest annual runs, the Rock and Roll series of events sponsored by PF Chang’s.  This event started a number of years ago as a half marathon and marathon, and over time, they’ve added other distances, including a “mini marathon.”  The “mini marathon” was actually a 10K, which they started calling a 10K a few years back, thank goodness (“mini marathon,” my foot; let’s call a 10K a 10K, people).  Anywhoo, the event also added a 5K last year, which runs on Saturday as opposed to the other events, all running on Sunday.  This allowed the Rock and Roll folks to start offering what they call their “Remix” medal series, where you run the 5K on Saturday, one of the longer events on Sunday, and then collect an extra medal for doing both. As in previous years, my work also allowed runners to join our Apollo team, and in turn, we received discounted pricing on the races (plus nifty tech shirts – they were really nice this year).  Th

Need to get caught up on the story?  Click here: My Birthday , ChristmasEve Christmas morning found me again waking up before Chris and making good use of the bathtub in our room at Aria (first, using it as a reading spot and then actually taking a peaceful bath within it).  He woke up to the sound of me closing up a bag of Frito’s and wisely decided it was time to take his hungry wife to breakfast.  Since we’d eaten at the Aria Café the day before, we decided to wander a little bit and ended up at the Café Bellagio; the food was just okay (the biscuits were like little hockey pucks), but thankfully, the café happens to be right next to the Conservatory within the Bellagio, always one of my favorite stops on the Strip.  It’s completely free, it’s all decked out in a seasonal theme, and it’s generally gorgeous.  This time of the year, the theme was logically a winter wonderland, complete with all of my favorite things, including penguins in sweaters and Christmas trees. Merr

Need to get caught up on the story?  Click here: My Birthday On Christmas Eve, our first morning in Vegas, I woke up (per normal) exceptionally early and proceeded to hide out in the bathroom while Chris continued to sleep.  Thankfully, the bathroom in our room at Aria was spacious and lovely, boasting both a full sized tub AND a rainfall shower head (it also had one of those super magnified makeup mirrors, great for plucking eyebrows – hooray).  I had plenty of things to keep me occupied!  Eventually, Chris woke up and we headed out to breakfast at the Aria Café, to use another resort credit and the voucher for two free breakfast drinks I’d previously acquired.  Breakfast was pretty darn good, and the café itself is a lovely place to sit and dine – quiet, overall, with a view of the back entrance to the casino and the sculptures there. After breakfast, it was out to the car to drive toward the western fringes of the city and visit Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.