Fourth of July Festivities

Hey everybody!  Okay, time for a blog...what to write about...let's see, we sold the Peoria house and closed on July 1st, which was magical, as we had a full price offer 2 days after putting it on the market (priced to sell, indeed).  We're currently about to close on a house in Long Beach, and we're just waiting for the Escrow Gods to shine their beaming light down upon us, which hopefully will happen by the end of next week (please all cross your collective fingers).  I'll share more on that later, including pictures of the new abode once we actually have keys to get inside (important, that).

In the meantime, here's a placeholder blog about our recent Fourth of July shenanigans!  Hooray, America!

Due to our theme of our 2014 Ragnar McDowell Mountain escapades, we already had plenty of red, white, and blue running gear, and I figured a Fourth of July 5K was a great way to kick off our day of ingesting way more calories than we would burn running 3.11 miles ('Merica!).

Just a quick reminder of the awesomeness
of Team Rag'Merica at McDowell.
Bernard, as always, is magic.

As can probably be expected, there were a fair number of 5Ks in the greater LA area on July 4th, and I ended up picking the one in Orange, just around the corner from Dad and Risa's house.  It started at a reasonable time, we could see them, and it also featured a 10K, which meant most of the faster, more serious runners would go for the longer distance, leaving a better potential for me to place in the shorter run (yes, really.  It truly does work.  Try it).  As it turned out, we were able to plan a full day of hanging out with Dad and Risa, and they were happy to accompany us to the race.

All decked out before the run.

If only our shoes followed the color scheme...

Technically, the race was called the
Orange Park Acres 5K.

This caused it to be abbreviated as the OPA 5K,
which given my childhood of growing up Greek-ish,
was much appreciated.

Loukoumades for everyone!

We claimed our gear bags and numbers, got Dad and Risa settled near the finish line, and watched the 10K'ers take off (theirs was partly a trail run, and there were some legitimate hills in the area).  We did a quick set of warm-up stretches, and then we were ready to go.  Overall, our runs went pretty well - I was only a few seconds off a PR (stupid untied shoe!), but I took 2nd place in my age group of 30-39 (plan achieved!).  I also beat Chris, which is obviously the most important thing.  Hee!

Coming in smiley!

Honey, rule number one of running
is always knowing where the race photogs are!

Since we had places to be and pancakes to eat, we didn't stay for the awards ceremony, but allegedly, the race will be mailing me my medal.  Just in case that doesn't pan out, I got a shot with the medal stand before we headed out.

Ta da!  Sock model extraordinaire!

We headed back to Dad and Risa's to freshen up, then we all headed down to Long Beach to their sailing club.  One of the Shoreline Yacht Club's (SYC from this point on) fundraisers seems to be their July 4th pancake breakfast, as regular ole folks could wander in off the street and consume carbs there for the morning, instead of being limited to just members.  We arrived, waited for a few other folks in our party, and then set to eating as many pancakes as humanly possible (I think I finished 3 - that's not that impressive, really).

After pancake time was over, we hopped on board the Onde Amo, Dad and Risa's boat, and went out on the water for an afternoon sail.  The breeze was blowing well, so once we cleared the slips, we turned off the motor and enjoyed a few hours of tacking back and forth along the coast under sail power.

Getting ready to set sail!

We also drank some beer, of course, and enjoyed delicious homemade pizzas from Susan and Danny, some of Dad and Risa's other friends joining us for the trip.

Blurry CA brews.
Check out the Queen Mary in the background.

Scotty (shown above), Dad, and Risa

did the actual work of sailing the boat.
The rest of us pretty much just ate and drank
and helped clean up afterward.

It seemed to work well for all parties.

Under sail, looking at Long Beach.

After a few hours, we headed back into harbor, tied up the boat and cleaned up all of our messes.  We headed out at that point, as we both had work the next day and wanted to make it back to the rental house and the kiddos before the fireworks started in earnest.  We closed out our evening by watching tv while in the A/C and seeing the larger displays of rockets red glaring going on around the house.  Thanks to Dad and Risa for a great day!

Later!

Amy