CHILLY Roadbiking thoughts

Since arriving in Mammoth, I have been on a road biking mission! A mission to explore and find pretty places...  I checked out a map (unfortunately it was not topographical...) and chose a lake and biked to it!  

And so, a LONG WHILE later after an AGGRESSIVE hill climb, I arrived at Lake Mary, elevation 8910.

And, to my disappointment, it was just a snow covered lake.  I think it's another sign that I'm absolutely ready for the summer to arrive.  Riding along the snow corridor'd road to get to "Lake Mary" was depressing after having ridden through the flowery fruit filled streets of Santa Barbara only a week ago.

Maybe my senses are totally out of whack after the beauty of Santa Barbara and the CRAZINESS of San Francisco.  I have a case of Sensory OVERLOAD!  Since knee surgery I have been visualizing warm beaches and waves crashing!! Even though it was a cool (both sweet and freezing) ride, I think I will stick to the lower altitudes for the rest of the week!!  I definitely can't complain about being able to FINALLY get out on my road bike and enjoy the chilly spring weather. 

I will leave you with this picture and this thought!

The world is a rose; smell it and pass it to your friends.

Persian Proverb

Passing along some of the beauty found in Marco's backyard!

San Francisco and the Bay to Breakers!

WHat a CRAZY weekend!!

Liz celebrated her 30th with SERIOUS style!!

It all started on Saturday with a Giants game!! And they won! 

Our original trio...

Cool stadium with pretty balloons flying...!

contrasts.... 

After the game we walked all the way to Fisherman's Wharf.  We stopped for some photo-ops at this park!

Pretty.

Jumpy.

It was fun to check out Fisherman's Wharf and look at the sea lions...

AND then EARLY the next morning (7oclock) we all dressed up, drank some coffee, and hit the road for the Bay to Breakers race/parade!

Leprechauns and rainbows!

Aggressive walking to get to the parade.

Aggressive costumes.

CRAZY.  That is all I have to say about it!

It was a Fun ridiculous weekend!! Now back to training!

arts and crafts and baking!

The fridge would have been crowded with all these photo's if I hadn't found this crazy funky big frame for eight dollars at the thrift store!  This afternoon, after getting back from the gym, I brewed a massive cup of coffee, heated up my glue gun, and got CRAFTY! 

I am obsessed with photos and decorating Marco's place with pictures of all the fun adventures we have had over the last couple of years.  This was another perfect opportunity to make a wall of memories!  PLUS we had collected so much sea glass and so many shells, I needed an excuse to put them on display.

Once my "masterpiece" was mounted on the wall, I hit up the kitchen and got down to some serious BANANA BREAD BAKING!  It's my mom's recipe with a TWIST....
My mom's is super healthy, this is not.

It's my present for Liz's dirty 30! She brought a disgustingly delicious peanut butter pie to Marco's dirty thirty party, so for her party I am bringing this "banana bread" that is the alter-ego of my normally healthy loaf.   I dumped a bag of chocolate chips into the batter, covered the loaf with icing, and topped it off with a bag of gummy bears!  DEEEEEE-LISH! (I hope...)
 We are about to hop in the car and head to San Fran for Liz's 30th birthday weekend full of baseball and "bay to breakers" marathoning ridiculousness!!

Bay to Breakers!

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT WE ARE???

We did a test run of our BAY TO BREAKERS costumes this afternoon..... 

We are going to be a whole group dressed as LEPRECHAUNS!!   Chelsea is the rainbow...Marco is the leprechaun who is following the rainbow to ME! The POT of GOLD!  

Testing out some different "pot of GOld and the end of the RAINBOW" poses....

THE CRAZY LEPRECHAUN IS TRYING TO FIND MEEEEEEEE

Just look for the RAINBOW

SO if anyone happens to watch the San Francisco Bay to Breakers marathon thing this weekend, we will be the crazy group of leprechauns, rainbows and pots of gold, lagging behind having a good time!

what is this SNOW?

Truckee today....

We left the sunny sunshine in Santa Barbara and arrived into a snowy snowstorm in Truckee...

Truckee flowers vs. Santa Barbara flowers....

The new little green buds were almost ready to open up!!!

And maybe make something like this?

I was biking this sunny warm roads 2 days ago....

And NOW I am back on the Kettler spinning it out and catching up on tv shows!

The siblings enjoying the ocean view....

AND the boat, wishing for an ocean view! haha (its that snowy thing in the driveway...)

Oh well, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in the sun, and hopefully the snow will melt off in the next few days and we can get back on our bikes and feel some wind on our faces!!

Our BIKER GANG has been halted for a few days....  :(

But at least I've got some Sweet juggling skills with freshly picked avocado's!

Either way, it's nice to be back despite the snow!  Baking, cooking, and sipping tea by the fire never seems like a bad thing! Where's marco???

snowy footprints!

From what I've heard, we aren't the only ones who are experiencing random snow storms!! They're a good excuse to hit the gym and watch the HABS BEAT THE PENS??? maybe?? we'll see!!

Big Blog

Like I mentioned, Marco, Chelsea and I headed to Santa Barbara for 4 days last week!  It was awesome to finally take a mini break and hit up some sun and sand! We did a bunch of bike rides, boogy boarding excursions, and beach walks.  Huge thanks to Trevor and his family for letting us take over their place for a few days!!

And, the real deal: ACTION SHOTS!

Where's Marco?? Getting eaten by a wave.

ha ha he he ho ho  hu hu  hi hi hah aha

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

ha. priceless. 

we are pros. obviously.

ha haha ha ah ha he he ho ho h o hi hi hi  heeee haaaa hahahahaha. opaihdgoadjklnv

AND, the sweet part is that from far, we look like real surfers! 

Juice break: squeezing limes, lemons, oranges, blood oranges and grapefruit to make these deliciously beautiful drinks!!! The fresh fruit growing everywhere totally baffled me! Seeing avocados and oranges hanging off trees onto the roads I was biking was definitely a new experience!

Once our juice was ready and the tide had risen, we headed out to watch the "real pros" (Tim) surf the "real waves..."

and then we posed! Chelsea's silhouette!

Waves Crashin'

looks magical. like Harry Potter style.

Looking out towards the coast

Looking in on the House.

ANother amazing day at the beach.  Yesterday before driving home we hit up the farmer's market and got a bunch of goodies!!!  Most definitely the coolest farmer's market I've ever seen.  So much fresh food, so many delicious smells, and pretty flowers everywhere.

We are back in Truckee, and back into our gym, physio, cardio routine.  I think I needed a break after such a long rehab stint since surgery, but I am really happy to be back into the groove of getting better.

We have our first team camp next week which I will not be attending.  Since I am not anywhere near the rest of the girls in terms of working out and lifting weights (because of my rehab)  I am going to stay here and hammer down for  4 more weeks and be ready for the next camp!  We have a "new team" in a way which they announced here.  They've eliminated the development team and added to the world cup team.  I think it will work out really well, we are gonna have a crazy good slalom team and it will be really exciting!