Monthly Archives: August 2012
Utah Kind Of Morning
Well HELLO from Utah!!!
You would think after arriving in Utah last night at 1am my time (11pm local time), I would have slept in this morning. BUT that was not the case, I woke up early and was ready to go!!!
Since my friend Samantha was still sleeping, I left her a nice note stating that I was taking off exploring and for her to text me when she woke up then I would head back.
When I stepped out side, the crisp air and beautiful scenery really took me a back. It was beyond gorgeous!
I trekked all around her neighborhood. Great little trails to wander around. I was fully enthralled with my exploring and completely lost track of time. My Endomondo stopped working while I was walking around so no idea how long I was gone for. After a while I decided to head back to see if Samantha was up. Only one problem, I had NO IDEA which apartment was hers. CRAP!!!!
So I went to the apartment I thought was her’s and turned the door knob, praying I had the right place. I slowly opened the door peaked my head inside and sighed a deep breath of relief. There was no one standing there with a shotgun telling me to get out of their place. WHEW!
When I walked upstairs Sam was up, so we chatted while we got ready to head out to breakfast.
I forgot to take a picture until I was half way done, I would be a horrible food blogger!!!!
Sorry for the short post, but there are mountains that require my hiking on them.
Happy Friday!!
T-Minus 20 Hours
That’s right, 20 hours from now I will be on a flight out to Utah for a fun girls weekend!!
This is what T-minus 20 hours looks like:
Typical
I pack best under pressure 
So much on the agenda so far. Hiking in the mountains to waterfalls, boating, stand-up paddle boarding, camping out of the back of an X-terra on night, Oktoberfest and various other things!
And most importantly, I get to sink my mouth into an In-n-Out Burger!! Its been almost 4 years since I have enjoyed the fine taste of the In-n-Out Burger. Way too long for anyone to not have one.
This trip just keeps getting better and better and I haven’t even left yet.
Hope everyone has a great and long Labor Day weekend!!!
Orange Sky
There really wasn’t an Orange Sky but it does sum up two things from my day. The Orange Theory Workout and the Sky from Isaac.
And on a side note, Orange Sky is a great song by Alexi Murdoch. If you haven’t heard of him, I highly recommend checking him out. Time Without Consequence is my favorite album by him. It has Orange Sky as well as my favorite All My Days.
Sooo back to the Monday lowdown!
With Isaac hanging out so close to us in the Gulf, we had rain on and off all throughout the day.Tampa was very lucky this storm!! Hopefully everyone else where Isaac does make landfall makes it through safely!
This is the radar from this morning.
Why Hello Isaac
Radar from tonight:
Here is what we experienced in Tampa from Isaac today:
What a sky!
Light rain
Heavier Rain
After work it was time to get my Orange Theory Fitness on! I made sure to stretch really well. Last time I was so sore for 2 days afterwards. I wasn’t able to run, hell, I wasn’t able to actually walk properly either.
Tonight the treadmill kicked my ass! I knew there was a reason I loved running outside more Great workout though!!!
ASS KICKER!!!!!!!!!!
Row machine, much more fun than the treadmill
Motorcycle, Pool, Beer and Rain
This weekend was low-key so to speak
Friday night was dinner and drinks with some friends. That dinner lead to the discovery of a Strawberry Mojito. One word: DELICIOUS!!!!
Saturday morning was the baby shower of one of my dearest friends. The theme was ready to “POP” so everything was pop related. Pop-tarts. Blow Pops, Ring Pops, Pop Rocks, etc.
I have never been a fan of baby showers but with so many of my friends having babies, I decided to get over it and start being present at the people close to me happy events! Not to mention, there were Pop Rocks and this resulted in me getting into a Pop Rock eating contest with a 13-year-old girl. I WON!!!
Watermelon artwork by one of the hostesses!
Saturday I decided to take off for a bit, this was the view while driving:
There is a storm coming!
An update on the storm is good news for Tampa, for now. With hurricanes, you never know what can happen. Hurricane Charley in 2004 was on one path, then at the last-minute made a sharp right and hit Florida hard.
So everyone is keeping an eye on it but for now we are just expecting lots of rain. For us Floridians, it is just a normal summer storm. Stayed tuned for Isaac updates!
Current Path For Isaac
(Source)
Sunday was, well I’ll show you in pictures:
Me and My girl took a nice ride
Went and bought her a new gift, Rear Padlock Stand
Met up with some friends for a couple of these and…
…some pool
Sailing Into First Place!
That’s right, FIRST PLACE!!!
A couple of us were wondering pre-race if there would be a repeat of last week and the lack of wind. Luckily though, it was not and it was RACE ON!!! Granted the wind wasn’t howling but we had enough to race.
While all the boats were cruising around in the bay waiting for the start of the race, we heard a loud BOOOOM!! We all turned to see what was going on and saw one of the tiny Fireball boats t-boned by one of the bigger boats. Thank god the two people on the Fireball were OK! There was some damage to their boat but they were able to race.
The Fireball that was rammed is my buddy that has been trying to get me out there on the Fireball with him 
He made a joke afterwards asking if I still wanted to come out sailing with him. I said “but of course, seems dangerous!!!”
During that same conversation, he told us that the guy that rammed them had his motor running. Even after he rammed into them, he still had his motor on!! Guess the guy had deer in the headlights look on his face so one of his crew members had to run and turn the motor off.
Sailing…never a dull moment.
Since the wind wasn’t all that great the course was shorter than usual but it was still enjoyable. After the race, we secured the boat for Isaac just in case he hits Tampa. We had our usual post race rum and cokes then headed up to the club to grab some chicken wings. I left very, very full!! Those chicken wings never stood a chance
Such a great night!!!
Heading out to race
Sailing around waiting for the start
Race committee boat
Post Race
Amazing sunset
Back at the dock
Hurricane Is A Comin’
There are a couple of things heading to Tampa in the upcoming days.
Thing #1: The Republican National Convention (RNC)
According to the 2012 Host Committee website, The RNC is the “single largest media event in the world except for the Olympic Games“. With that being said, Tampa is about to be over ran with thousands upon thousands of people!
Thing #2 – Topical Storm Isaac
Thing #2 is a potential threat for Thing #1. So will be an interesting upcoming week!
As of right now, Topical Storm Isaac is expected to become a hurricane today or tomorrow. The forecast is saying it will hit Florida on Monday as either a Category 1 or 2 Hurricane. Tracks change all the time so hopefully Isaac decides to swing to the Eastern side and go play in the Atlantic and miss Florida all together!
Here is the most recent track I found of the storm path:
Ticket Is Booked!!!!!!
The countdown is officially on for UTAH!!!!!!
My friend extraordinaire, Samantha, moved out there a few months ago and I finally get to make my way out there to see her.
Booking a flight/trip always makes me giddy
Here are a couple of the pictures she has sent me. Looks kind of beautiful…perhaps I’ll just stay out there!
The Weekend Report – Sailing and Raining
My agenda for this past weekend was full! Dinners, birthday party, mountain biking, sailing, house/dog sitting!
There is a couple that I have been house/dog sitting for about 8 years now. This was one of the weekends they needed me so this was my view for the weekend:
Not a bad view
Saturday morning was supposed to be like this:
It ended up looking more like this:
I love doing things in the rain, especially mountain biking in the rain but I won’t go if there is lightning. So my Saturday morning of trial riding was cancelled
Sundays forecast was supposed to be pretty much the same as Saturdays. Luckily though, it wasn’t
Sailing was on!!!
Myself and a couple of my friends from sailing went out to the causeway to rent a trimaran for a couple of hours.
Windrider Trimaran 17′
These trimarans are made for tourist so they are super easy to use. We are all sailors but none of us had sailed a tri before so it was a fun learning experience.
We sailed around the causeway and Caladesi Island (I was there a couple of weeks ago to go kayaking). As we sailed around we came across a little island, so of course we had to sail up to it and explore all of it.
By all of it, I mean all 50 ft of it. Very small but perfect for a lunch time picnic or camping, not sure you can camp there but it would be great for it. Someone apparently agreed because the remains of their fire pit were there.
Beach camping/fire…already on the bucket list!!!
I don’t have any pics from out on the water since I only had my phone. Couldn’t risk losing that.
After the sail, we hit up the local brewery for some good eating and even better beer!!!
Not the one we rented but some of the ones you could
Post sail posing!
Apricot Beer!
No Wind, No Race, No Problem
The yacht club
As you all know, Thursdays are one of my most favorite days of the week!
Racing, sailing and rum, it makes for a fine way to spend an evening
Yesterday’s race was…well…there was no wind. No wind makes sailing quite challenging.
The boats that were racing all headed out into the bay with the hopes that some wind would fill in and we would be able to race. As you can see from the pic below, the water was complete glass. There was not even a hint of wind.
Luckily, we had rum and a dream.
NEED WIND!
Everyone “sailing” around waiting for wind
Eventually though, you have to know when it isn’t going to happen. Race committee ended up calling the race. So it was time to head back to the docks.
Since we are a big boat with a motor, and are very nice people, we did tow in a couple of Melges boats and a fireball since they lacked in the motor department.
Towing the motor-less boats back to the docks
The night wasn’t a total lost. Some of the crew ended up doing another night sail across the bay. I know what you are thinking, how did you sail across the bay if there was no wind!?!
We cheated and used the motor. It wasn’t a “bonafide” sail but we were on a boat, with the main up and it was beautiful out. The sky was clear and the stars were shining! Even saw a shooting star and yes, I made a wish!
Sunset cruise across the bay
Night sail!!
My Booty Is Officially Kicked!!
If you are ever in the mood to have your ass kicked, and not in the way that will result in a hospital visit, I highly recommend Orange Theory Fitness.
A girlfriend invited me to hit up a class with her tonight so I said why of course.
Since it was my first time there, I arrived 30 minutes early to fill out the paperwork, get the tour of how it works and set up with the Heart Rate Monitor (HRM).
There are 4 color zones Orange Theory uses to track your heart rate. During the hour-long class, everyone’s heart rate/color zone is shown up on the big screen TVs.
The goal is to have your heart rate in the orange or the red sections for at least 12-20 minutes of the class. As you can see below, I spent about 6 and 1/2 minutes in those zones. Not bad for a first timer but PLENTY of room for improvement!
You split half the time on the treadmill doing interval training. The other half is spent rotating between the rowing machine and free weights/abs/kettle ball.
I liked it so much that I signed up for one of their package deals! I’m paying them to kick my ass, something seems wrong with that.
Monday night I enjoyed a nice run along the water, it’s not so bad living so close to the water!
