A Few Good Things, My Workouts of the Week, and Fireworks

A couple of weeks ago there was a Sunset Beach Social going on along Sunset Beach. We walked across the Burrard Bridge to check it out. Here's the view of the party tents from the bridge above:

After walking around the social for awhile, we putzed around downtown for a bit until it was nearly sunset, then made our way back over the Burrard Bridge as the sun set behind the mountains:

 

It was the night preceding the July 12th Super Moon, so even though it wasn't quite super, the moon was still pretty big that night:

By the way, that photo above was taken at sunset - so at about 9:15 at night. That's how bright the sky still is at 9:15 at night around here during the summer. Isn't that nuts?

Moving along, here are all my workouts from this past week. My calves have been sooooo sore from the Thursday lower body workout I did (see below). I guess upgrading to holding 25-pounds in each hand (versus 15-pounds) really makes a difference to my muscles!

7/21 (upper body)

5 mins elliptical

3x:  15 chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

3x:  12 rear flys, 7.5 lbs each hand

3x:  12 overhead press, 10 lbs each hand

3x:  12 deltoid flys, 7.5 lbs each hand

3x:  12 bent over rows each arm, 20 lbs

3x:  12 deltoid raises, 7.5 lbs each hand

3x:  15 close grip chest press on exercise ball, 12.5 lbs each hand

3x:  12 tricep extensions on exercise ball, 7.5 lbs each hand

7/22 (cardio and core)

20 mins biking

40 crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs

40 leg raises + reverse crunch

40 Russian get ups, holding 8 lbs

40 Brazilian crunches

40 weighted v-sit twists holding 15 lbs

80 side-to-side oblique crunch

40 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 8 lbs

40 plank knee to elbow

40 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

40 cobras

7/24 (lower body)

5 mins elliptical

3x:  12 squats, holding 30 lbs

3x:  40 diamond clamshells each leg

3x:  40 jump squats, alternating wide and close stance

3x:  40 calf raises, 25 lbs each hand

3x:  40 bridges

7/25 (core)

40 alternating weighted side bends, 20 lbs each hand

40 alternating bird dogs

40 Russian get ups, holding 8 lbs

40 Brazilian crunches

40 weighted v-sit twists, holding 15 lbs

40 leg raises + reverse crunch

40 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 8 lbs

80 side-to-side oblique crunch

40 crunches on exercise ball, holding 20 lbs
40 plank knee to elbow

The weather finally turned nice again this weekend, after a grey week. On Friday night after my core workout, I walked downtown to try to stretch out my sore calf muscles. While down there, I ended up grabbing dinner at a restaurant on Robson St. called Abode. Sitting out on their sidewalk patio and sipping on a sugar-rimmed cocktail called Summer Sandals...

.  summer sandals  .
.  vodka, grand marnier, raspberry liqueur, sparkling wine  .

... was a nice way to unwind after the work week. Unfortunately, the instant my pulled BBQ chicken sandwich was set down before me, an intrusive honey bee began dive-bombing my plate and my table till I was forced to say "uncle" while waving my white napkin and running inside to the dining room. No matter - they found me a nice booth inside their dining room next to a window, so my view was nearly identical anyway.

.  pulled chicken & slaw sandwich  .
.  slow roasted chicken, super slaw, fresh spinach on ciabatta  .

Yesterday I spent the morning getting some important things done around my apartment, and then headed out with a blanket and my iPod to catch some sunshine on the lawn at Kitsilano Beach for a bit. It's seriously so nice to have the sun back. It changes the vibe of the entire city.

.  mad peeps on the beach!  .

Speaking of the entire city, I got to check out the first night of the Celebration of Light fireworks last night, which was awesooooome... and it certainly seemed like the entire city was out for it. I was able to watch them right from my beach....

And there were so many people who came out for it! The fireworks were an awesome 25-minute display. Most of my pictures came out terribly, but this one was alright...

Well it's supposed to be another fabulous day today, so I hope to spend a good portion of my day outside. Have a great Sunday!!

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Dreaming of Beach Days

So last week was full of gorgeous sunny days, warm temperatures, blue skies and beach days... until Friday, when it turned grey and gloomy. It hasn't let up much since! "Reading a book on the beach" was LITERALLY on my list of things to do this weekend, and I wasn't able to do it once! Hey Mother Nature - WHAT GIVES, GIRL? It's July, you know. Not February. Let's get that sun back out here, pronto.

To hold me over till the next showing of sun, here are some beachy pictures from last week. Just imagine me snapping these photos while lying leisurely on a blanket on the hot sand beside the water. That's what I'll be doing.

 

.  david in the water  .

.  that speck in the sky is a seaplane  .

Wishing you beach days this week as well!!

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Khatsahlano Street Party + My Workouts of the Week

Oh my god, guys. Yesterday was such a full day. The Khatsahlano Street Party, a street fest up on 4th Ave, dominated my neighborhood alllllll day long. And it was a perfect day for it!

Since it was going on in our neighborhood, we had the liberty to come and go as we pleased all day. So after waking up with some morning coffee at our apartment, Dave and I headed up to 4th Ave to check out the vendors, food trucks, and performances that were happening on the eastern stretch of the street party.

The party was just getting started, but there were plenty of people out there. We wandered around for awhile and I popped into the Salvation Army to exchange a dress that I bought last week (an amazing dress, by the way, just didn't fit right). After spending about an hour on 4th, we headed back down the hill, swung through Paradiso Italian Gelato to pick up some Vietnamese sandwiches, and took our sammies down to Kitsilano Beach for more sunshine.

.  as seen on instagram!  .

At the beach, we threw our football, swam a little, and lied out in the sun until we were too hot to stand it anymore. Then it was back home for a little teatime and rejuvenation in the shade for a couple of hours (with a random afternoon viewing of The Other Guys to kill some time). When we headed back out into the sun again around dinnertime, it was back up to 4th Ave to enjoy the rest of Khatsahlano. This time we decided to walk the whole length of the block party - from Burrard to MacDonald and back again...

We stopped at a food truck and got hot dogs for dinner on our walk west, followed by BeaverTails for dessert on our return walk east. If you've never had a BeaverTail, GIRRRRRRRL. You need one. They're like fried dough on sugar steroids - stretched, fried pastry topped with amazing things like chocolate hazelnut spread or Reeses Pieces or banana. I got the Oreo BeaverTail, which is topped with vanilla frosting, crumbled Oreos, and finished with a drizzle of chocolate sauce. Dave got the boring cinnamon and sugar option, but I'm sure it was still outstanding. The only problem with BeaverTails is that they're only available around Vancouver from a mobile food truck. So you need to find them to enjoy them!

After our BeaverTails, we continued walking to Burrard, where there was a main stage set up for the evening's final musical act. The band was sort of... old and boring. So we had our fill of them within about 12 minutes, I'd say. It was a good time to call it a night anyway because my feet were killlllling me from walking all day. But before we walked back home, we stopped at a final food truck for a 10" margherita pizza to enjoy on the curbside.

I ate so much crap yesterday that I should probably pencil in the gym today. It's just so nice outside again today that it might be hard for me to convince myself to head inside to sweat. I wish taking long walks was enough to keep me in great shape, because I am the queen of that shit.

Anyway, here are my workouts from this past week:

7/7 (lower body)

3:10 jumping jacks

2x:  15 sumo squats, holding 25 lbs

1:00 jumping jacks

2x:  60 alternating forward lunges

1:00 jumping jacks

2x:  40 calf raises, 20 lbs each hand

1:00 jumping jacks

2x:  60 bridges

1:00 jumping jacks

2x:  15 deadlifts, 20 lbs each hand

1:00 jumping jacks

2x:  40 side lunges + plyometric push-off each side

1:00 jumping jacks

7/8 (core)

30 crunches on exercise ball, holding 15 lbs

30 Brazilian crunches

30 Russian get ups, holding 8 lbs

30 plank knee to elbow

30 alternating weighted side bends, 15 lbs each hand

30 leg raise + reverse crunch

30 lying overhead raise + double crunch, holding 8 lbs

30 cobras

15 lat pulldowns, 30 lbs

15 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

15 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

10 mins biking

7/10 (full body)

1 hour paddleboarding

7/11 (upper body)

10 mins elliptical, 113 calories (.95 miles)

3x:  12 overhead press, 10 lbs each hand

3x:  15 bent over rows, 10 lbs

3x:  15 deltoid raises, 5 lbs each hand

3x:  15 tricep kickbacks, 5 lbs

3x:  12 chest press on exercise ball, 10 lbs each hand

3x:  15 deltoid flys, 5 lbs each hand

12 lat pulldowns, 40 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 50 lbs

12 lat pulldowns, 60 lbs

Ok, now enough computer time for right now. I've got to get out into that sunshine!

Who else was at Khatsahlano yesterday?
Any street/block parties going on in your neighborhood or city this summer?

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I'm Still Alive! So Here Are Some Pretty Pictures :)

Why hello there! DID YEW MISS ME?!

... I will interpret your silence as a "hell yes!" and just take this moment to console you and hope that my absence these past few weeks didn't take too much of a toll on your daily life and general morale.

I have finally returned to Vancouver after being away in New England since June 6, and it is good to be home! The travel between hither and yon is never (EVER) easy on me, and often stretches into two days of travel in each direction. On June 6 my day began with a 7:00 AM, 5.5-hour bus ride from Vancouver to Seattle, followed by a 2-hour wait in the SeaTac airport, followed by a 5-hour flight from Seattle to Boston which landed at around midnight EST. From there, my brother picked me up and brought me to his Danvers apartment (about 25 mins north of Boston), where I slept for the night before continuing my jaunt to Western Mass the next day. I didn't get into Pittsfield till about 2:00 PM on Saturday June 7.

Returning from Mass to Vancouver was, again, a 2-day process. I got a car service from Auburndale, MA to Boston's Logan Airport on Monday June 23, took a 1-hour flight from Boston to JFK, had a 2-hour layover there before a 6-hour flight from JFK to SeaTac. That got me into Seattle at around 9:30pm, which was too late for me to take a bus back to Vancouver, so I had a hotel room for the night in Seattle before another 7:00 AM, 5-hour bus ride back north to Vancouver... culminating in a cab ride back to my home. By the time I walked in the door, I was ready to kiss the carpet in my apartment and not move for the rest of the day.

But that was just the getting to/from nonsense. There was an AMAZING array of fun and joy and love and family and friends that were experienced in the time between!! Being with my besties and my family is rejuvenating, fo sho.

Rather than try to overwhelm you or myself with a recap of the trip just yet, I thought I'd ease back into my little blogging hobby with some photos that I snapped in Vancouver the week before leaving for my trip in early June. Enjoy!

I spent an inordinate amount of time perched above the following little scene... the colors all just seemed so lovely to me that I kept snapping away...

 

And yes, today is normally my nails day, but I'll post one of those for tomorrow instead. Stay tewnnnnned.

It's good to be back... and thanks for sticking around  :)

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It's Almost Summer Around Here!

The beautiful spring-turning-summer stuff that's happening around Vancouver lately is making me slightly bummed to be leaving the area for Massachusetts later this week. I mean, obviously I'm ultra psyched to be seeing my family and friends - but the weather in Vancouver has just been spoiling me rotten. The temperatures around here are almost always comfortable - even in the wintertime, generally. I've experienced less than a handful of thunderstorms since moving to the Pacific Northwest in January 2012. Massachusetts summers, on the other hand, are hot, humid, and peppered with thunder and lightning storms. Mostly I'm worried about the humidity... it can really make me a cranky (and sweaty) biatch.

All that to say that I've been soaking up the outdoors around Vancouver lately and really appreciating the beautiful area that I live in - perhaps more so because I know that it will be in my rearview in a week.

Last Sunday, in lieu of taking a hike (as I'd mentioned we might) Dave and I went for a nice long walk through Pacific Spirit Regional Park near his UBC campus. The park is a nature reserve on the west side of town, with miles and miles of trails and woods, but somehow it was my first time checking it out.

It was a grey day, but our 5-mile walking through the park's winding trails was full of lush, green trees.

The moss on many of the trees in the park had a distinctly mint-and-kelly green ombre effect, 

which I loved... 

There were some tallllllllllll trees in that park...

And we even ran into a few big-ass slugs along the way...

Another recent walk around my neighborhood revealed that the Kitsilano Public Pool is open and starting to see some action:

And elsewhere, I continue to randomly enjoy all of the plant-life surrounding me...

Yesterday was GORGEOUS outside - not a single complaint to be had. Spectacular blue sky and a light breeze that kept you from getting too hot in the sun. Dave and I spent an hour just lying out on a blanket on the Kits Beach lawn, soaking it in. Such a relaxing way to spend an hour.

Any signs of summer sprouting up around your hood?
What does summer weather feel like for you in your area?
Hope you're all breaking out your sunscreens!!!

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