Day 3 - more paddling, more touristing...

The third day of vacation brought more paddling and chillier temps... Instead of trying to venture back into the ocean for another round of paddling with the dogs, we decided we would try the sound side this time. We paddled for about an hour and a half into the wind. Oakley rode on my board for the first half and then when I got tired paddling her lazy bum against the wind, I kicked her off... Plus we were away from people and the rode so I wasn't worried that she would annoy anyone. We stopped in a little cove and rested and let the dogs rest. Then we paddled back. Nate literally took his shirt and put both arms in it, held the shirt over his head, and used it as a sail! It took us about 30 min to get back to the car. We packed up the boards, heading home, cleaned up and headed for another adventure.

When we drove in, I had looked up Steak 'n' Shake on yelp and thought there was one in Kitty Hawk. If you were not aware, Steak 'n' Shake started in my hometown so if there is one easy to get to, I make Nate go! So we started driving north... Being the smart girl, I decided to double check that there was a Steak 'n' Shake and was very saddened to find out there was not one... So next in the list... Mexican!!!! We ended up getting lunch at the Bad Bean Taqueria in Kill Devil Hills and it was DELISH!!! I highly recommend if you are ever in that area. I got a special pork quesadilla and it was so very yummy!!!

We were then going to check out the Wright brother stuff but when we pulled into the parking lot and realized we needed to pay for it, we turned around. We then drove to Jockey's Ridge State Park. It is a monster sand dune where you can hang glide off the top. Being cheap bastards, we just walked around the dunes with the dogs. Here are some pics from the park:

My two cute boys!! :)

Nate and I self portrait:

Oakley was jealous and wanted her own self portrait! 

Nate doing front flips and back flips on the dunes!!! 

On our second day of vacay, my true love came to me... :)

Tuesday of vacation started off with a bang... well, not really... Oakley seemed to be better with some running and a good night sleep.

We decided we would try a second attempt at paddle boarding with the dogs. The winds were howling again, so we walked a mile or so down the beach so we could just sort of float back to where our housemates were. I got our long leash and leashed the two dogs to each other and then made sure that that we knew were the other end was. :) I put Oakley on my board and was going to let Scout swim. I think the water was just a bit too cold for Scout so he quickly jumped up on the board too. So, I was paddling around with the two dogs on my big board. Nate was on his board just keeping an eye out for us making sure everything was going ok. As we were paddling back towards our housemates, we saw a pod of dolphins approaching us. I was sooo very excited. I started paddling towards where they were coming, but in my head was thinking that I didn't want to get tooo close. As we kept paddling, the dolphins got closer and closer. Then as they were about to swim by us, two of them turned and started swimming towards my board with the two dogs on it. I looked at Nate and was like, 'They are swimming towards me! This is awesome!' and then looked down and saw the two dogs and thought, 'oh.... this is NOT awesome!' I started paddling back towards the beach sorta quickly. I was putting together different scenarios in my head... If the dolphins come up and nudge the board and we all fall off, how do I get the dogs back on the board quickly enough that I can go off and swim with the dolphins!!! Thankfully, the dolphins just came to inspect us and left us alone. But it was exciting...

After the dolphin excitement, Scout decided he was done sitting on a board. He kept jumping off my board so Nate would go and fetch him up and put him on his board. Then he would jump off Nate's board and I would put him on my board. Then he would jump off my board and Nate would put him on his board and then Nate had enough of his craziness so Nate kept his hand on Scout's float coat so that Scout couldn't jump off his board and we decided that it was enough. We paddled back to the beach.

Once we got back to the beach, we hung out with our housemates on the beach. One of our housemates was a fisherman and had all of his fishing stuff with him. While he was there, he caught at least 3 skates... I am not sure if he caught any fish. Here are some pictures of Nate helping getting the skate back in the water so it would survive:

After we hung out on the beach for a bit, we decided to head back to the house to eat lunch. We then decided to head south and check out some of the surf spots. We drove to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse to see if there was any surf there. Then we touristed it up a bit and checked out the lighthouse:

We then drove further south to Frisco. We saw what a terrible bi-atch that Irene was:

We also saw some dead jellyfish on the beach:

But there was no surf... We did decide to stop in at a local surf shop and ran into a guy wearing a Molly shirt. We talked about Buck and how much of a cool cat that he is. We then headed back to the house, rested up, made dinner and then Nate and I took a stroll on the beach.

I really, really wish that they would come out with a camera that could just be a part of your brain so that when you forgot your camera at the house, there would be photographic evidence of what you saw... When Nate and I got to the beach, we fired up the head lamps and much to our surprise, saw something scurry towards the water. We both looked at each other and then looked back down and something else scurried to the beach. We immediately said, "crabs, sweet!!!!" so the next one we came up to, we inspected it closer. Then scout came over and inspected closer. The minute scout put his nose to the crab, the crab positioned itself in its defensive pose. Then scout continued to sniff at it... Then scout picked it ... Then the crab snapped at scout... Then scout flung it at me... Then I screamed like a girl... Then scout picked it up again but instead of gently picking it up, he gnashed into it and killed it and ate it. Then we didn't laugh anymore because that happened at least 10 more times, less the flinging and the screaming. At first, Oakley was terrified of the crabs but saw how much scout was having with them so she started sniffing at them too. However, every time they moved when Oakley sniffed at them, she would jump away... Then she would try to sniff again and they would scurry to the water. It was quite amusing!!! Needless to say, Nate and I walked on the beach for about two hours that night watching the crabs and the dogs interacting with the crabs.

First day of vacation and my fat skinny dog eats her weight in dog food

Our friends rented a house in the Outerbanks for April vacation and had asked Nate and I if we wanted to go in with them. We waffled a bit but then when I found out that we could bring the dogs too, I was in. Going on a week long vacation and having someone take care of the pups is too stressful for anyone including me and boarding them for a week is TOO expensive so a vacation with the dogs is the best type of vacation for me!

We headed down Sunday and arrived Sunday night and was ready to roll first thing Monday morning. Monday morning, I got up and was just going to let the dogs out to pee. Then our friend came outside with his dog and was like, 'let's go to the beach'... ok... you twisted my arm! We walked to the beach with the dogs and my two were psyched!! Scout ran and ran and ran and chased every bird he could see for a mile and kept running and running. Oakley just followed behind. 

After we got back, I woke Nate up so that Nate and I could get breakfast and go grocery shopping. We found a little restaurant in Avon and were really excited to biscuits and gravy on the menu. So excited that Nate took a picture of it:

We went grocery shopping and then on our way back to the house, Nate wanted to check out a pier to see if there was any surf. He got out of the car and I stayed in the car with the dogs. Nate started waving at me to come look. I got out of the car to see what was the fuss. He pointed and said, "Look, dolphins"... I was in love!! :)

We got back to the house and decided to meet everyone at the beach. We took our paddleboards and the dogs to the beach. We were going to try and paddleboard with the dogs. Just getting the boards to the beach was a bit of a battle. Once we got to the beach and the winds were blowing at least 30 mph, we knew we were in for another battle. We walked the boards about a mile down the beach and attempted to get in. Scout typically just likes to swim along with us so we let him swim and I took scaredy cat Oakley on my board with me. For some reason, I decided to put her on the back of the board instead of putting her in front of me like how I usually do (probably because I got her on the board and she wasn't budging). I got on the board and went to get past the breakers. I hit one wave and she washed right off the board!! So she started following me and I paddled out past the breakers. I thought everything was good. I was trying to slow down to let the dogs catch up so that if they wanted to climb on the board, they could. However, the wind was whipping us so fast, that there was no slowing down. I was just sailing away from them. Nate saw that I was starting to freak out a little and he tried to paddle towards them. He was paddling against the wind and again, futile process. The dogs then just turned and went towards the beach, thankfully. We paddled towards the beach as well and were finally all reunited. The dogs must have been freaked out because within minutes of getting back to the beach, the dogs started to tussle. Poor little buddies!!

We hung out on the beach for awhile longer and then decided to go back to the house and get lunch. We ate lunch and then chilled out for awhile. The outerbanks are the mecca for the kite boarders so we decided to go check out people kite boarding on the sound side. It looks fun. Nothing special, but fun. The first place we went, they had a rail set up, but no one hit it. We went to another spot and Nate being the nice guy that he is, helped a few guys bring their kites down and helped them launch them. So sweet!! :) Again, we watched for a bit and then headed back to the house. Our housemates ordered some pizzas so Nate and I decided to order one ourselves and went with one of our housemates to pick them up...

And then the drama unfolded...

We got back to the house, and Nate and I went to our room to put our stuff away. I went and fed the dogs and Nate was on the deck. Oakley took about 2 bites of her food and walked away. I looked at Nate and was like, 'uh.....'. Nate is our food hound and NEVER EVER EVER would turn down a meal. Normally, she eats her dinner in 2.3 seconds! :) I went over and was going to pick her up to see if she was ok. (Yes, she's my baby and yes, I pick up my dogs because they are my babies... I admit it!!). When I grabbed her around her belly, she instantly started heaving. She threw up twice. I ran and got some paper towels to clean up her puke. I thought it might be sea water from our adventure paddleboarding so I was a little worried. I sat on the deck with her a few minutes and felt around. She started moaning and I noticed how big and tight her belly was. I was like, 'this isn't good...' We were trying to figure out whether or not this was vet worthy and I decided to clean up the puke. I looked at the puke, finally, and was like, 'uh... this isn't oakley's food. this is Newp's dog food'. We yelled upstairs to our housemate, Erin, to tell him that Oakley threw up Newp's food and then we walked into Erin and his wife's room.... there were ripped up plastic bags all over the floor.... 8 of them!! Erin and his wife put each meal into a bag so that they bring just enough food with them. They brought some extras (thank goodness) but not 4 days worth of extras!! So here we are on a dang island and my dog just ate 4 days worth of their dogs food!! I felt like such an a$$hole!!! As I was a little panicked that I was going to need to take my dog to the vet to get her stomach pumped, Nate once again, stepped up and said, 'I'll take her for a skate'. So he got the dogs all ready and went skating with them. She went to the bathroom and burned a bunch of calories so my panic-ness started to subside. We took them on a walk on the beach after the skate and she ran around more and went to the bathroom again. She took like a 2 pound dump later in the week and about a week later, she got her figure back so everything worked out in the end. She didn't learn her lesson... but on to the next adventure..

Oakley in all her bloated glory... Not a happy camper with a super full belly... 

A UK fan is not just any fan...

Sorry that I have gone silent since the last lame post. Life hasn't been very exciting... I haven't introduced a new baby like my friends Carrie, Jen or Amanda... I haven't got any fancy ultrasounds like my friend Kelli... Congratulations to all of you!!!!!!

I have gone mountain biking with Nate twice and a little after work ride with the pups on our local trail once. I took my road bike out twice when we had that nice warm spell. Back in January when we did do an epic ski run, I injured my hip again so I took some time off running and started swimming twice a week. I have since started running again and I'm still swimming twice a week and driving the masters coach batty!! I guess the biggest news to celebrate is that my alma mater won the national championship in basketball!! Heck yea, baby!!! Which brings me to why I am blogging today....

It's been an interesting month... Nate and I have lived together for almost 6 years and for every March, I pay attention to basketball. I'm not sure why Nate thought this year was different, but I had asked Nate if we could go to Lexington over the weekend of the final four and championship game. I'll give him credit (although I don't want to) but he never said no. He said that we should talk about it, which I took as a no. (Yes, that makes me a girl.) But when I asked him why he was hesitant, he said, "you have watched one game this year and you fell asleep". 1) we got rid of cable awhile ago so watching games on espn was not an option. 2) the only other game that I know they aired on tv was the Louisville game and we were in north Conway with Kelli and Doug at a restaurant. I was not about to subject Nate to sitting at a bar for an hour watching Kentucky basketball. I live in the land where professional sports rule and they don't air college sports very often. 3) I did download the espn app to my phone and got an alert every time Kentucky played. I wasn't a die-hard must watch every game because I will lose control if I don't type of fan, but I did pay attention and I knew they were good.

I watched all of the games. I even stayed up and watched one game by myself and had some lovely bounding with Oakley and Scout and chatted with my good friend Jen. Nate watched the final four game. That was the one where they were calling ridiculous charge calls on Kentucky. The first four were nuts but the fifth one was soooo not a charge and I called the BS call and Nate was all, "but he totally ran into him!" .... listen here buddy... Then the night of the championship game, Nate said the worst thing possible! He said "UK fans are just like red sox fans". I didn't lose it on him and didn't want to argue with him about it so I let it slide... However I have a blog so I'm going tell him how he is completely wrong... :-)

Reason #1 that UK fans are not like red sox fans: UK basketball players like other college basketball players are amateur athletes and they are essentially still kids. I know, I know... There are lots of arguments that college basketball and football players aren't exactly amateur but they are not paid athletes. They are not quite professional players and they don't quite have the mentality of a professional athlete. I still have a hard time fathoming how much professional athletes get paid to do what they are doing and that some of them have the balls to whine that they should get paid more or that they deserve more! Waaa!!! College basketball players are still coachable and the coaches and players still have a more father/son like relationship compared to pros. I'm not quite sure why there are coaches in the pros. Now that Phil Jackson has retired, I don't know a single NBA coach.

Reason #2 that UK fans are not like red sox fans: some of the UK fans went to school at the university and therefore are Wildcats themselves! Not many red sox fans can say "I was a Red sox". Granted, I get that is a little apples and oranges comparison... But still college sports have the college backing where professional sports have the backing from a bunch of corporations and millionaires!!

Reason #3 that this UK fan is not like red sox fans: this UK basketball fan and all of my team mates were not just wildcats but we were wildcat athletes! For four years, I lived, breathed, and drank wildcat pride. The first week of practice, we were handed university of Kentucky swimming and diving gear and we wore it with pride. We each might have chose the school for different reasons, but you couldn't help but love the colors blue and white and cheer "C-A-T-S cats cats cats" by the time we graduated. We went to "study hall" with the basketball players, football players, gymnasts, rifle team and tennis players. We shared the weight room with the softball and soccer players and the cheerleaders. I got to sit next to Tim Couch in the training room. We went to parties with Jules camara and Saul smith. It wasn't like the freak sighting of the red sox player at a fancy restaurant, we went to classes with these guys. And yes, they went to classes!!

To wrap this up... My goal for the next year is to some how get Nate to at least appreciate my pride in my college. I am dragging him back to lexington in the fall if any one is interested in a make-shift alumni weekend. I'm going to try and drag him to a Kentucky game at Madison square garden if Kentucky has a game there next year. I'm sure he'll make this difficult but I like challenges!! :-)

Unsolicited Gear Review

I was looking through the comments on this site recently and some unknown (and potentially spammer) said that my writing had gone downhill... Well, unknown person, let me tell you a little about myself. Winter is MY FAVORITE season and if you live in New England, you would see that there is NO WINTER this year!! This is making me very angry, bitter and sad!! I am trying not to put that into this blog but when I am writing about our adventures and I look around and see green or brown grass and no snow but caked on ice from days of melting and freezing and melting and freezing, it's hard NOT to put that anger, bitterness and sadness into all this writing so take your "I really liked your writing, but your blogs have become boring" comment and shove it into Mother Nature's behind where it belongs... and maybe that will make mother nature start dumping again... :)

Ahhhh... glad that I got that off my chest.... Moving on...

This is my completely unsolicited gear review! I am going to write about 3 of my favorite pieces of my "casual" cold weather gear - although the first piece is more technical! As I already said, I LOVE Winter! It's my favorite season!! I love when it's cold and I love when it snows. I love putting on all sorts of layers and going out to have fun. People all around me complain and complain about the cold, but I really think it's because they don't have the gear. Find some good gear, find some fun things to do in the snow, and I'm sure you can learn to love it too.

Piece #1: GoLite Running Tights - A few years ago, my mommy got me a pair of GoLite running tights for Christmas. I think I actually picked them out for her because I needed some tights that had ankle zips for snowboarding (the whole, don't have anything but your socks in your boots, concept) and so I picked them out from Title Nine or Athleta and my mom bought them and sent them to me. The first season, I used them exclusively for snowboarding, but then that summer, I started running with my dogs. Then I continued running through the winter and I found that the GoLite tights were A MAZ ING!!!! I coach in the winter as well and so I go run with the dogs at 5am. It's ALWAYS cold in the winter at 5am. These pants are perfect for the 15-30 degree mornings. They have a nice fleece layer that keeps you warm (none of the running pants that I have seen in the stores have that feature) and the outside are slightly windproof so those 30mph windy mornings, you can't tell. PLUS, they have ankle zips!!! You can see pics from the Turkey Trot from 2010. I have been scouring the world wide web for the same pair of pants so that I can buy a second pair and I haven't found the same pair. I'm assuming there was some exclusivity with Athleta or Title Nine and neither of them sell em anymore. These might be the same pants but they don't have the pretty reflective print on them (mine have a big hibiscus flower on the calf -- my favorite type of flower). So, I'm going to keep mine in really good shape so that I don't have to worry about replacing them soon.... but again, they are A MAZ ING!!!!

Piece #2: Last Winter, I was looking for some boots to wear in the snow. I wanted something that I could slip on quickly to take the dogs places or wear to work. I have these awesome pair of Sorels that I can slip on and they are uber duber warm, but I bought them at a sample sale for like $20 and they are slightly too big... Yeah, I can't really drive with them because I can't feel the pedals... Sort of a problem.... Three features that were a must: 1) Waterproof, 2) Slip On, 3) Warm!! So, you are probably thinking, "oh, she got a pair of Uggs"... Oh, no she didn't... :) Most girls models of uggs are missing the waterproof feature! At the time last year, there were a pair that were waterproof, but they were pushing the $200 mark and I do not pay that much for shoes or anything that will be worn casually. So, I scoured zappos and other shoe sites to see what I could find. I finally settled on a pair of Keens. Oh, look at that, more discontinued gear that Jenny loves... Awesome!! So, the boots are far from sexy and I have gotten teased at work for wearing them. But they are waterproof and they are super warm!! I can throw them on, trample through the snow, and my feet stay warm... EVERY TIME!!! For example, this Sunday, I went to the dog park with the little rascals and one of their friends. It was 17 degrees outside and I wanted to go to Target afterwards. So, I put the Keens on, took all the dogs to the park, lasted an hour and if I had on some warm pants, I probably would've lasted longer, and my feet stayed toasty warm the whole time!! Love toasty warm toes!!

Piece #3: Puffy coats from SteepandCheap. Prior to last winter, I used to tease Nate that puffy coats were not a requirement for winter. That was until he bought me one!! Now, it's like I have an addiction. I have 3 in 3 different styles. I have my long black fancy one that I wear to work and would wear out on the town if we went out on the town. It looks like this coat only it doesn't have the faux fur stuff and it's black... :-) Then this year, I bought this coat and another style that isn't on backcountry anymore. If you don't want to click on the link, the second style is a waist-length puffy that is 750 goose fill and it's so warm and the third style is a light weight puffy that has a big enough hood for a helmet, but is light enough that you wouldn't sweat your gonads off... All three purchased from SteepandCheap (because I love deals!) And I wonder why everything I love no longer exists... HA! :) And the bonus track of all three coats, they all fit my gorilla length arms!! The first coat even has thumb holes that I can wear with my gorilla length arms! Ahh... a little bit of heaven!!

I am becoming more and more of a gear head and I have a lot more awesome gear that I can share with you -- of course, I'm also a cheapskate and most of the gear no longer exists, but at least I am starting to know what to look for!! If you need any help with something to keep you warm (for next winter since I have officially given up on this winter) ask away and I can give you some suggestions! :)

Goal... Out the Window... Kinda like this Winter...

For the last few weeks, the weather people have been bragging that it's the warmest winter we have had and "yeah, there is no snow"... Well, poo on you!!! There was talk of a snow storm for this weekend and I woke up Saturday morning hoping to see at least flurries... I got out of bed and took the dogs for a stroll to Echo lake and now only were there no flurries but it was warm out (32 is warm for this time of year). I was so bummed!! I went back to the house and thought of things that we can do. As much fun as hiking a mountain sounds right now, coming down does not sound like fun at all. Last weekend, there were parts of the Sherburne trail that were essentially bullet proof and with no snow and no groomers coming around to take care of it, it was only going to be worse this weekend. Heading to the east snowfields would be good except that I probably wouldn't be able to walk for 4 days after (hip achage) and we both put some good scratched in our gear from the last time we came down the Cog Railway side. So.... what to do... I looked at Nate and said, "Yup, this 100k idea... total waste!!!" We haven't given up yet, but we aren't going to force ourselves to do stuff just because... If we get snow, we'll go up north and have fun. But if we don't get snow, we aren't going to force ourselves to climb up some hill and pretend to enjoy coming down the hill and please oh please don't fall because hitting ice pack SUCKS!!!! So, there you have it!! I'm going to keep counting and hopefully, we can get to 50k but if not... Oh freaking well!!! :) There's always next year!!

So, in our dilemma to decide what to do, the dogs were jumping all over me and I decided I had to at least get out of the house. I started walking down the access road to go to the top of Cathedral Ledge. There are two slabs of ice that are pretty good to go for ice climbing and for the last few weeks, we have seen tons and tons of ice climbers hanging around these two slabs. As I was walking up to them, I saw this:

If you can't tell what it is, it's prosthetic boots for someone without feet. All morning, Nate and I have been b!tching and complaining that there is no snow and how we can't find anything to do... I saw that and my perspective starting changing a bit. I sent the pic to Nate and was like, "that's pretty sweet!" and kept walking up the access road. At the very least, I was going to climb to the top of Cathedral Ledge and yell down, "Make a decision already"... :) I walked up the access road and noticed how soft the snow was. I kept walking and was like, "wow, this feels like a groomer"... so I kept walking and was like, "well, why don't we just ride this?" The snowmobilers had essentially groomed the road and it was really nice. I texted Nate and was like, "Let's do laps on the access road. The snow is really soft and it's like a groomer". Since it did not require a $50 lift ticket, Nate was in! 

I walked back to the house, got some breakfast and my gear together. I got a new backpack and was totally psyched to try it out. Off we went: 

Nate and scout with cathedral ledge in the background. 

We skinned to the top, it took 30 minutes! :) We switched over our gear.... that took me 10 minutes... Nate 2... :) We went down! It was super nice and really awesome to just connect a whole lot of turns together. We decided to do another lap. This time on the way down, it was a lot more scratchy but still nice to connect a whole lot of turns! All in all, it was nice to get out. It was nice to practice just turning and it's nice not to have the pressure that we have to climb no matter what!

This winter sucks big hairy balls... so instead of being bummed about it, we are just going to make it up... I have done some things that I have never done and probably would not have done without giving ourselves a goal. I got to climb Mount Adams and I summited Mount Washington with hiking boots and then with my splitboard. I climbed a lot of other mountains that I have never heard of. There are a few more mountains that I would like to climb... not necessarily with downhill gear so if anyone is interested in going for a hike this spring... :) 

Our laps up Cathedral ledge brought in a whopping 1,161 feet. That puts us at 35,087 feet. 

Thank you young man for leaving your prosthetic boots out where we could see them. You probably have no idea how inspirational that was, but it was! 

Winter, where are you?

This winter has been the worst winter for snow since I've lived in New England... Top it off with my right hip flaring up again... Thus, this whole 100,000 feet of elevation has been pretty interesting... :)

Three weeks ago, we took a rest weekend. As I said above, my hip was flaring up and we were both exhausted and the lack of snow, we decided that a weekend at home to do stuff around the house, sleep in and just chill was much needed. So, last weekend, we decided we would head back up north and we would find something to do. We got a late start, it's becoming our motto and we skinned up Tuckerman's to hojos and then came back down the Sherburne trail. At the top, we saw 3, counting mine, split boards and I was happy and sad that it's getting big. Sad because I'm no longer the only kid on the block with a split board and that also means that there are a lot more yaa hoos that are trying to do backcountry... happy that it's starting to come along and with that means better equipment.

Here's the one picture that I got on that trip:

We were at 32,088... We added 1,838feet. Thus we are at 33,926feet.