Catchin' Waves

This past week was our big trip to Hawaii. We spent a total of four nights in Honolulu/Waikiki, and four nights on the North Shore if Oahu. We spent a lot of time walking and exploring the first day. We spent a lot of time trying to find a good, local place to eat, but were disappointed that most everything was a chain that we had at home. We ended up at Arancino for lunch and McGillyCuddy's for dinner. The next morning, we headed to the North Shore for surf camp.

Our first day surfing was good, but I'll admit i was a bit disappointed at how small the waves were. We took a hike our first day on the North shore. Once we reached the top, we had panoramic views of Sunset Beach and Pipeline. From our condo, we could walk to Turtle Bay, and caught the sunset as we walked along the reef.

The next day, I was able to catch two waves on my own while surfing, which was exciting since that was one of the things we worked on at our last surf camp in Costa Rica. We went stand up paddleboarding that evening with the sea turtles. I was amazed at how many there were and had to make quite an effort to stay the required six feet away.

I was able to try a smaller board for the rest of the week, and I enjoyed having the challenge. It was a bit more wobbly, but I felt more comfortable by the end of the week. That night we went on a sunset catamaran ride, and after the ride we ate in town at Haliewa Joe's.

The next day we went for an early stand up paddleboard trip in the ocean.

We also went to the weekly farmer's market and had the most amazing ice cream sandwiches. Mine was lilikoi (passion fruit) ice cream with orange zest cookies.

We ended the day listening to live music at Turtle Bay while watching the sunset and drinking a Mai Tai.

Throughout the week, we also spent a lot of time at the pool hanging out and reading. We took yoga twice and had our first real massages. There was a photographer in the water with us on our final day surfing, so we were able to get some close up pictures.

Our first day back in Honolulu, we started the day at Pearl Harbor.

We had the opportunity to take a boat out to the Arizona, which was pretty interesting.

We spent the afternoon snorkeling with fish and sea turtles. We agreed that this was a highlight of the trip. The turtles were so close and there were tons of fish.

We did a ton of walking the next day on our excursion to Leonard's Bakery and Diamond Head Crater. Leonard's is known for their Portuguese Malasadas. We couldn't decide what to get, so we ordered one of each!

Our hike up Diamond Head was much busier than I expected, but we did manage to get a few pictures at the top.

We ended our last full day at the Paradise Cove Luau.

Overall, it was a nice trip, and I'm glad we had the experience of going.

Eatin' Street Food

Yesterday we did a walking tour of street food in Denver. We visited five different locations, some of which we had never heard of. We took the W line light rail for the first time.

The first stop was Caveman Cafeteria. They specialize in Paleo food but do have several "Cheat Day" exceptions. Their target audience is Crossfit members, and they got their start with Kickstarter earlier this year.

Wagyu Beef Slider on a Pretzel Bun w/ Demiglaze

Bistro Steak w/ Mushrooms and Demiglaze

Our next stop was Basic Kneads Pizza. We have tried them before outside Prost Brewing Company and liked them so much we went back for a second pizza. My favorite that we tried on the tour was the Sweet Thai Chili Chicken. The 16th street setup is their newest and is equipped with a full wood burning oven. In order to accommodate the ovens, they build the trailers themselves in a backyard.

Pepperoni & Margherita Pizza

Next up was Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs. We've heard of them several times and seen them on several Food Network/Cooking Channel shows, but had never tried them. We tried four different types of sausages. My favorite was the wild boar with apricots and cranberry. I knew they had some unique menu items, but didn't expect to be eating rattlesnake.

Biker Jim's exotic menu.

The "Off the Menu Special"

Pheasant and Rattlesnake w/ Cream Cheese & Coca Cola Onions

Our dessert stop was Petey Bird Ice Cream Sandwiches. This is the company's first summer. It was interesting to hear the owner left his engineering job to pursue ice cream sandwiches and he designed the bike cooler himself. The original "mini" size sandwiches come two to a package, or you can upgrade to a large. I would love to go back and get two mini packages so we can have two different flavors.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Chocolate Chip Walnut and Banana

Our final stop was EVOO Marketplace where we sampled tons and tons of specialty olive oils and balsamic vinegars. The combinations were endless, but we ended up purchasing two we've had before due to their versatility. In the future, I might like to buy a fruitier balsamic.

Overall, it was a good day and I'm glad I bought the deal. I was feeling a bit guilty for skipping kickboxing, but I think it's more because I enjoy going and missed it. It may have also been because I was on a great workout streak and hadn't missed a day in July. I'm still not sure if I'll go again since I won't be going for the next three weeks and it was only a ten week deal. We finished off the evening running some last minute errands for our Hawaii trip. It's almost here!

Movin' Dirt

This was a successful weekend working on the yard. Because of the holiday, we had four full days to work and accomplished a ton. Eric had fun driving the Bobcat to level the yard. I even had a turn and moved a few strips of dirt. I'm not too happy about having to take down the fence to get the Bobcat in, but I am realizing it was the only way for us to level the yard.

Me having fun driving the Bobcat.

I hope the fence goes back up soon.

We underestimated the amount of dirt we had and ended up needing to order a dumpster. We moved approximately eight tons of dirt into the dumpster, along with some miscellaneous items we've been meaning to get rid of.

We moved about two-thirds of this pile into the dumpster.

That's a lot of dirt!

We spent the rest of the weekend measuring and digging a trench for the retaining wall. It won't happen before we leave on vacation, but I'm hoping we will be able to put the wall in soon after returning. Eric had to dig out the old sprinkler system, so we also have those trenches.

I also researched and contacted a few companies to look at redoing the deck. After spending so much time around it, we are noticing it is much more unstable than we realized. I think it will be good to do everything at once. I was concerned that having the lower part of our yard look really nice would emphasize how bad the deck looks. Even though we are nowhere close to being finished, it feels good to accomplish something. Not only are we saving money, but it's easy to get in a workout everyday.

I am thinking this would be a good project to showcase in my classroom this year to show how math can be used in the real world. I think I'll post some of the in progress pictures along with open ended questions, just to get the kids thinking and to perhaps realize that math can be applied in real life.

I finished booking the last of our Hawaii activities, and am really looking forward to my extended trip in Washington. In addition to surf camp, we will visit Pearl Harbor, attend a luau, and snorkel. I also feel good about the list of free activities I found that we can fit in whenever we would like. There's something about the anticipation beforehand that really adds to the fun of going on vacation.

What Was I Thinkin'?

This week's lesson: WEAR SUNSCREEN! I joined a few friends at the pool earlier this week. While I enjoyed their company, I made a colossal mistake and forgot to put on sunscreen. After about three and a half hours, I had the worst sunburn I think I've ever had in my life. It has been incredibly painful, and wearing a shirt has been a struggle. It's day five of the sunburn, and I'm now completely blistered and still having a hard time sleeping because of it. This has also greatly interfered with my workouts for the week. I'm totally bummed because I felt like I was doing so well with working out most everyday and eating well.

I have now missed three consecutive days of working out. I suffered through my workouts the first two days, but I think the heat and sweat was making it worse, and now that I'm blistered, I don't want to risk them popping and scarring. I wasn't completely inactive though. On my three days off from working out I took my nephew to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science & Civic Center Eats, I attempted to go kickboxing, but the instructor didn't show up, and I then helped Eric's parents move. I'm hoping I'll be back in my workout routine by tomorrow because even though it's a lot of work, I feel good about myself for doing it.

The OG Burger Food Truck we ate off at Civic Center Eats. The BBQ Bacon Burger was awesome!

The back yard is now officially torn up. It's looking pretty pathetic and brown. I continue to be a bit nervous that we (Eric) will be able to complete it without professional help. He's planning to continue working on it over the holiday weekend coming up and is now talking about renting a Bobcat and a giant dumpster. I'm hoping he makes good progress since we will be leaving for Hawaii the week after.

Our torn up yard.

This is the start of the trench where the retaining wall and garden will go. The entire yard will need to be leveled first.

Keep it Goin'

This past week was a good week for kickboxing. Wednesday night was especially great. I was feeling much more comfortable with the combinations on the bag and was receiving a ton of positive feedback both from my trainer and the other students in the class. At one point I was told that I work out like a 21 year old. Definitely a major confidence boost! My kicks are feeling stronger and I'm punching the bag much harder.

My Wave Shape performance is also improving. Thursday's session felt really strong and I was able to make it through every exercise without modifications or resting. There is only about a week and a half left before the 30 day challenge ends. I fit in all three sessions for last week, so hopefully I'll be able to do the same for this week.

I also went rollerblading, which is such a fun and relaxing way to work out. I'm not convinced it's as good of a workout as other activities, but I enjoy it. I'm also trying to be more conscious of what I'm eating and signed up for an account on WebMD to track my nutrition. With all the working out, I've been under my calorie goal for most days in the past week. I haven't been hungry, and I've felt like I've had plenty of energy, so I figure it's not too big of a problem. I've cut out alcohol for the week, but have still been enjoying dessert. Here are two of the salads I made this week:

Salmon w/ Mango Salsa

Steak w/ Roasted Corn, Grilled Onions, & Chimichurri Sauce

Today was the start of our backyard "remodel." We are hoping to level the yard, build a retaining wall with a gardening area, and build a patio where we can grill and eat. I spent about an hour pulling all the weeds in the yard, and then another few moving rock. Yuck! I am a bit nervous that this project is bigger than we can handle, but Eric seems somewhat more confident that we can do it. There are only about three weeks before we go on vacation, and Eric has already committed to helping his parents move next weekend. I just hope we're able to finish it to an acceptable stopping point before fall. I'm counting this as my workout for today. I don't think anyone will argue with me on that one. Below are some starting pictures of our backyard.

This is where our new patio and garden will be.

This is where we will have a retaining wall to hide the electrical boxes.

We're not doing anything to our deck (yet), but look at all those weeds I pulled!

Workin' Out!

This was a big week for working out. Our Hawaii trip (and my Washington trip) is in a month, so I have a big motivator for staying on track. I'm feeling incredibly sore, but accomplished.

I started Wave Shape on the first of the month. It's designed to get you in surfer shape, so I've really been trying to stay on schedule. It's associated with Calavera Swimwear, which is another motivator. I even created an Instagram and Twitter account so I can enter the weekly contests. (Big week for social media!) I did all three workouts the first week, but I only did two this week. I figure I did enough other workouts this week to justify missing one Wave Shape.

Eric and I started a kickboxing class last Friday at 303 Training Center. We've been four times now, and twice we've been the only two in the class which is almost like having a personal trainer. The classes have been mixed between boot camp style and bag work. I'm still feeling really awkward with the bag combinations, but I'm hoping I'll improve. I think I pulled a muscle on Monday, but I'm hoping it will heal quickly and not prevent me from continuing to work out. It was really hurting during tonight's class, especially during the right side kicks and ab work. I don't want a repeat of an injury like last year, especially before we leave on vacation.

I also started riding with clip-less pedals. We went on a big ride today up Lair O' the Bear. I started off exhausted and sore, but Eric kept me motivated and challenged me to try some technical sections I wouldn't have attempted otherwise. By the end, I was really dragging, but I kept pushing and finally made it. I will admit I felt a bit pathetic.

Last night, we went to Linger. We made reservations about six weeks ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The service was great and the food was awesome. We went a bit overboard and ordered five entrees and dessert. We also had a wine on recommendation of the wine guy. I brought home the bottle in case I ever follow through on putting decorative lights inside.

Miraval Rose Wine

“Devils on Horseback” / Applewood Smoked Bacon Wrapped Medjool Dates, Herbed Goat Cheese & Sambal Gastrique

Sesame BBQ Tacos / Kobe Short Rib, Napa Slaw, Radish, Avocado & Lime

Carrot & Lentil Falafel / Garbanzos, Cashews, Turkish Chile, Scallion, Zucchini Pickle, Tomato, Herbs & Lemon-Tahini Yogurt wrapped in Butter Lettuce

Mongolian BBQ Duck Bun / Scallions & Miso-Pickled Cucumbers

Wagyu Burger Sliders / Peppered Bacon, Aged Cheddar, Curried Sour Cream, Sweet Potato Waffle Fries & Chipotle Ketchup

Salted Butterscotch Pudding w/ Lemongrass Cotton Candy