Wicked Good Summah Vacation (Part 2: Rehearsal Dinnah, Jet Lag, Speech, and Pics)

I finally arrived back home around 2:00 or so after dropping the guys off at Mike's parents' place and had about an hour to relax.  The rehearsal dinnah was at 4:00 so I arrived promptly at that time and was introduced to the bridal party along with other friends and family that were present.  The rehearsal itself was pretty straight forward and quick and with no hiccups we got through it and started shoveling food in our bellies!

On the menu; pizza and beer!!!  Rehearsal dinners are always a great way to meet new people and get to know who is most important in both the bride and groom's lives.  Around 7 or so both Mike and Sara had to head off to hang out with her side of the family so I took off soon after that.  At this point I was toast!  I hadn't really slept at all since I left California and it was finally catching up to me.  I got home around 7:30 and went straight to bed.    This was almost around the time I'd be taking a quick nap after work.  I was sound asleep for a good 6+ hours when I woke up, wide awake with only one thing on my mind...the speech!

I had kept telling myself I'd have time to do it here and there but never got around to it.  The good thing is that this is a speech I've been writing in my head for a long time.  I wrote what I thought was a pretty decent rough draft at 3:00AM and by 5:00 or so I was back to sleep again.  I had told Mike that I would be at his place around noon in time for the 1:00PM limo that was taking the entire wedding party to where we would take pictures.  I didn't wake up until maybe 9:30 and of course I had to re-read my speech.  I emailed it to my sister to have her read it over and then we made some changes and it was good to go.

By 11:30 I was finally out of bed and had to light a fire under my butt to get ready.  I made it over by 12:45, threw my shirt, pants and tie on (ok Matt tied it for me) and was ready to go.  We hopped in the limo and went over to the Lowell Historical National Park for pictures.  This was a great taste of Lowell as we were in and amongst some old mills and plenty of locals!  Pictures took about an hour and a half in the hot sun and thankfully plenty of shade and then we jumped back in the limo, popped open a bottle of champagne, and were now ready for the ceremony!

Next Up: Mikey Linna's Wedding Celebration!

Wicked Good Summah Vacation (Part 1: Mikey's Bachelor Party)

I just recently returned back to Monterey after an 11-day vacation in Massachusetts and upstate New York.  I flew out of San Francisco on July 13th on the red-eye and arrived in Boston a little before 9AM on Thursday the 14th.  My flight was initially delayed due to the fog in SF but then further delayed because of a tire change needed on the plane.  Outside of the screaming baby (it really wasn't that bad) the flight was a typical 6 hour flight to Boston on Virgin America and as usual I couldn't sleep.

There were two monumental events bringing me back east; Mike Linehan (a best friend from college) was getting married on the 16th in Mass. and my cousin Alicia was getting married on the 23rd in NY.  The timing could not have been any more perfect.  Alicia had planned her wedding first so when Mikey was planning his July wedding I graciously asked for it to be either the week before or after Alicia's so that I could make it one big trip; so thanks Mike and Sara!

As one of the groomsman in Mike's wedding I was responsible for setting up the bachelor party.  If this wedding had happened about 6 years ago I think things may have been different but I took a more mature approach to it and didn't do anything too crazy.  Thursday afternoon was when the bachelor party was supposed to start, with lunch at the Beer Works in Lowell and then off to the driving range in Tyngsboro, MA.  I was going to pick up the guys at Mike's parent's place around noon and we'd head out.  Unfortunately with the flight delay, and the bus to train to home commute I didn't walk through the door until almost 11:00.

Dad had picked me up at the train station and of course wanted to catch up on everything that had happened over the last 7 months.  And I wish I had had the time right then to tell him all about it but I had to start getting ready to head out.  I ended up picking the guys up around 12:45 and after briefly saying hello to his 'rents we were off for lunch.  While looking over the menu Mike's friend Ben was telling us about how he'd been eating healthy and lost weight and yadda yadda but we told him it was Mikey's bachelor party so that he could ignore all that for one weekend!  And man did he EVER!  He ordered the DOWNTOWN CROSSING BURGER*

(TWO 10 oz. grilled Black Angus patties, topped with cheddar cheese, bacon & sautéed onions.⁾  I almost had a heart-attack just watching him eat it, but he destroyed it and we were all proudly disgusted!

Once lunch ended we headed up for Max's Golf in Tyngsboro to not only hit some balls but pick up our friend Erik who was getting dropped off around 3:00.  After exhausting our desires to become pro-golfers we took off for the big city of Boston.  We checked in at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel (not nearly as nice as I had expected) and then after cleaning up set off for a heck of a night.

We left the hotel around 6:00 with a 7:30 dinner reservation and hit up the first bar we could find along the way, Flashes Cocktails!  We are still unsure as to whether or not this was a gay bar, but there's definitely a good chance it was; either way we had a good time and GREAT service!  Off to dinner to we went and landed at Jacob Wirth's, one of the oldest establishments in the city.  With a pretty basic menu and cheap drinks we were able to accommodate everyone's tastes.  Once we were done stuffing our gullets and getting harassed by our waitress we started walking for our first Irish Bar called Solas (a recommendation of the waitress).

As Solas got old we decided to head to Crossroads Irish Pub on Beacon St.  Here we got to play some beruit against some cocky college kids and see if the old men still had anything left.  Thankfully Mike's friend Matt and I did!  We almost won but due to my LeBron James' 4th Quarter impressionism we lost in the finals.  And even though Mike and Erik were knocked out pretty quickly it was a great time...I even got to catch up with my friends Lia and Jess, two very nice surprises that evening! 

It was a long night so the next morning we needed some serious fuel to get us through the rest of the day.  I had just the place in mind, The Breakfast Club!  I've talked about this place before (RE: Missing You) and it still delivered the best breakfast around.  The guys were very pleased with the way that morning began and how the bachelor party ended...and outside of the horrible traffic on the way home it was a really great time...and with that I'm retiring from planning bachelor parties!

Next up: Rehearsal Dinner and impending jet-lag!

Celeb Sighting!

Just saw Steve Young in the bathroom. That almost makes up for the delay but I highly doubt it is gonna make up for the infant in the seat next to me. 

Hatred for Flying

Right now my plane is having its tire changed. Are you kidding me? Its almost midnight here and I'm looking out the window at mechanics actually changing the tire on our plane. The original arrival of 7:20am is now pushed back until at least 9:00. Im guessing we wont get in till 10. Awesome...I love flying.

Boston You're My Home

Sitting in the airport in San Fran waiting to fly home to Beantown for 12 days.  I'm going home for a couple of weddings, possibly a dive in the Rockport/Gloucester area, and to catch up with a bunch of friends and family.  One of my best friends from college is getting married this coming Saturday, July 16th and my cousin Alicia is getting married the following weekend in upstate New York on the Finger Lakes.  I'm very happy for both couples and cannot wait to have a blast at both weddings!  I fly in at 7AM and then the festivities for the bachelor party begin at noon.  I'm going to be wiped by the end of the day but it'll be worth it.

After all of the wedding stuff this weekend I'm gonna be able to take it easy on Sunday then diving on Monday.  Tuesday I'm heading into Boston to meet up with some friends from the New England Aquarium and Wednesday night I'll be going to the Spinners game and then hopefully out in Lowell with some Bedfid Keds!  Thursday I head to New York and then Friday/Saturday is wedding stuff on the lake.  I have a feeling it's going to be hard to leave but not living there gives me a greater appreciation for everything I'm missing out on.  I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about because it will be a vacation filled with numerous adventures!

GO BOSTON!

Camping Voices!

I went camping this past weekend in Sequoia National Park and it was quite an adventure.  I went with my friend Megan who was invited by her friend who was with her husband who was with some other friends...so I was very much removed from this crew.

We left early Friday morning in order to get up to the campsite mid-afternoon.  It turned out to be a 5-hour drive through Fresno and into the campground.  We went through the park gates at 12:15, paid our $20 park fee and then made our way up to the campsite.  By 12:40 we were stuck in traffic.  The one and only road from the southern entrance only opened up on the hour due to construction, so we sat and waited for a good 20 minutes until they opened the road and we could continue our way to Dorst Creek.  We finally got up to the campsite around 1:30 and set up our tent (a 3-person REI steal!).

After getting everything settled and all of our food in the bear boxes (used to keep all food and scented items out of harms way from the local black bears) we ventured out to find the largest tree on the planet.  The General Sherman tree is 275 feet tall, 103 feet around at the base, weighs 1385 tons, 2200 years old and 52, 500 cubic feet making it not the tallest or widest, but largest by volume on the planet.

This was our only sightseeing adventure for the evening.  We came back to the campsite around 6:00 and some people from the group we were with were starting to arrive.  Everyone else was staying through till Sunday so they could afford to get in later in the evening.  That night we didn't do too much, just made a fire and ate some food.

Saturday morning was a day set up for hiking.  The guy in charge of setting this all up wanted to leave by 8:00am to head out on a 12-mile hike.  This meant we all had to get to bed early to be well rested for a long day.  After falling soundly asleep I was of course awaken by a couple of idiots that came into camp at 2:00AM and were not even trying to be quiet.  They were on the wrong campsite, they put their stuff in the wrong bear box, were swearing up a storm and had absolutely no consideration for the fact that other people were sleeping.  They were not campers.  They did not know what camping voices were and it was really annoying, but whatever it is what it is.

Then at 6:00 in the morning Megan's friends got up along with a few other people and again everyone was talking like it was 2:00 in the afternoon.  Absolutely no respect for the fact that everyone else except the five people outside were still trying to sleep in.  After trying to fight waking up for about an hour I finally said screw it and got up.  Everyone still thought the game plan was to leave at 8:00 so people were trying to make breakfast, eat, and get ready to go.

At 8:00, Megan and I along with her friends were more than ready to go and had probably been ready for about 20 minutes now.  A good number of other people were also ready to go but of course the 'leader' of this trip was not even close.  They were still eating breakfast.  Megan wanted to go find some bears since we thought we'd be waiting a while so we walked up the hill (about 1/4 mi.) and as the shuttle to the hiking spot drove by us on its way into camp we passed on it because we thought there was NO way the rest of the group was ready.  As we realized that there were no bears in sight we turned around to go towards the shuttle stop.  As we are walking back we passed the shuttle yet again on its way out of the camp, now heading to the hiking spot and who do we see waving goodbye to us in the window but Megan's friends.  Yeah...we missed the shuttle...awesome.

As it turned out this worked out for the best and we ended up squeezing ever so tightly into some other peep's Prius.  We got to Wolverton at the base of the Lakes Trail where we proceeded to head off for Pearl Lake.  This was supposed to be a 6.2 mile hike in to the lake and was deemed EASY by some people in the group.  It definitely was not a difficult hike and after running the brutal half-marathon from the weekend before this was a cake-walk.

We passed through some incredible areas with large trees, creeks, and views of the snow-capped mountains. We got about 4 miles in and hit a big snow covered area...yes, that white stuff we usually only see in the winter at home.  This turned out to be quite the inconvenience for everyone because we couldn't find the trail...PANIC, PANIC, PANIC!!!  Oh my GOD we can't find the trail we HAVE to turn back!!!  OR maybe we could have just walked over the snow, found the trail, and then continued on for the last mile plus that we had.  But no, we spent the past two hours hiking up this mountain only to turn back 1 mile away from our goal.  Seriously???

Anyway we turned around, headed back and after briefly cooling off (icing my leg) in the brook we eventually made our way to the shuttle.  Megan and I had a long drive back to Monterey so we had to get to camp and pack everything up.  Overall it was a good time in a very scenic area but we didn't see even one bear, no lakes, no waterfalls...Sequoia 1 Payne 0.  Next time I'm going in a much smaller group and I'm finding some GD water!  This is a huge area and there was just too much to see in one day.  The views of the mountains though were spectacular and I will easily be persuaded to go back.

Sierra Azul Half Marathon

I can't remember if I have mentioned it before but in the summertime Monterey is covered by one big cloud.  It is supposedly very rare to have very hot, sunny summer-like days.  In order to experience a true summer you have to get off the peninsula and go inland.  This race was in Los Gatos which is located about 60 miles north of Monterey, making it one of those summer weather areas.

The temperature at race time, 8:30am was probably high 70s, low 80s with no breeze and everyone was sweating just standing around waiting for the start of the race.  This was one of the smallest races I have ever ran but it was also one of the toughest.  I had checked the course map before the race and I knew that it was going to be difficult.  The elevation started a bit under 1500 feet and the course topped out around 3000'.  

After running the Old Coast Road the week before everyone kept telling me that I would be ready because Old Coast was so hard.  None of these people had the chance to run this race.  The hills that lead the field up to the 6.2 mile mark at the peak of this course were straight up and every time you thought you were getting to the top the trail would turn and go even higher.  The trails would intermittently level off or even turn the other way and give us a breather on a downhill but basically the first 6 miles in the now 90 degree heat was one of the toughest parts of a race I've ever experienced.  

Again this was a small race, so small in fact that the water stations were just tables with water coolers and cups that we had to get ourselves.  There were full aid stations as well that had not only water but fruit, trail-mix, and other goodies.  There were probably only 15 of us running the half and it wasn't even a timed race.  It was like going out with a bunch of friends for a trail run...only I had to pay to do it.

It was a very humbling experience as I again realized how out of shape I am when it comes to hills.  Even though I can go out and run for 3-4 hours at a time when it comes to these insanely steep inclines I've got nothing to offer.  I was running with one guy for the first half of the race and we thought we were doing really well until out of nowhere this guy in a green shirt came trotting past us.  He was taking very small steps and was obviously a very experienced trail runner.  I couldn't make it up some of these hills without walking parts of them.  As for the downhills, which I normally love and take advantage of, there weren't as many as I had anticipated.  There were short steep hills and I think the longest downhill was about a mile or so but then they'd level off or even start back up again.  Anyways, by mile 11 I was toast and the miles just wouldn't go by fast enough.  I finally finished two hours later in 4th place unhappy and quite injured (achilles) but it just taught me that I need to train harder and keep hitting the [real] hills if I want to get better.

No races coming up until September 17th, the Tough Mudder in Tahoe.  I've gotta focus on getting healthy before I can start racing again.  I'll be taking the next month off from running since I can't really walk at the moment and then I'm going home for 11 days.  When I get back I'm going to start ocean swimming (just bought my wet suit!) and that'll help get my cardio back up before I start training again.  Easy training will start at the beginning of August and I'll pick things up depending on how the leg feels. 

Run every race like it's your last!