Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Cali Bound, Our First Tomato, Herb Garden Before & After

Before telling you my exciting 'travel' news, I have to share some other local, homegrown, exciting news. Austin grew our first tomato!

isn't it perfect?!
Seriously - the tomato plants are out of control with growth - AWESOME! Can't wait for more!

BEFORE
AFTER - yes, they're taller than me!
Another shot of Austin's bountiful harvest
So what to do with it? Well make a caprese - duh!

I guess i'd never had a fresh tomato. WOW. I never knew how crazy sweet they were. or how RED. I mean really - amazing.

So long story short, Austin's parents invited us to go to Napa Valley with them! Eee! They go each year and know their way around wineries, so i'm SO excited to go on this trip with them - can't WAIT! Well the more we talked to them and got to thinking, it made perfect sense to add in a trip to San Fran since it's right there. So we tacked two days in front of our three-day Napa trip to visit San Fran. Then, yes, it gets BETTER, my leadership program (the one who took me sailing) tells me we're going to LA for an offsite trip. GET THIS - it's 2 days prior to the San Fran/Napa trip! So here's how it works out:

Tuesday: I fly out with my co-workers to LA - we have from 2 p.m. until whenever on Tuesday to visit LA.
Wednesday: We get in a van to go to Irvine for our offsite event; get back at 5 p.m. and have the night in LA.
Thursday: We all go to the airport. My co-workers fly home and I fly down to San Francisco where I meet Austin! So we have all day in San Fran Thursday.
Friday: We have the day in San Fran until his parent pick us up (they're coming from Pebble Beach) and then we go to Napa!
Saturday, Sunday, Monday: Napa with the Martins!
Monday late night/redeye: back to Atlanta - land at 6 a.m., beat traffic home, sleep/rest/get pups/cook!

Talk about a week I couldn't have planned if I had tried! ONLY bad thing - i'm going to miss my fur babies -why oh why are they not flight-friendly? Sad. I know they'll be happy at their boarders who genuinely seem to love them but STILL thinking about it breaks my heart. Must focus on the positive - a great, fun-filled trip to Cali!! Other fun things - my friend Monica is out there for work to so I hope to meet up with her for at least a drink + photo op!

No, I've never been to California! Why? I have no idea - just haven't made it further west than Utah. And don't just the fact that I just googled 'U.S. World map to ensure that Utah was indeed further west than Arizona.

Q: Have you ever been to Cali? Where should I go near LAX and/or in San Fran?!

Quick backtrack - Monday I got up early and went to the gym for another cardio mix up:
  • Treadmill: 1/8 mile walk, 1.25-mile run, 1/8 mile walk
  • Stair Climber: 1 mile in 11 minutes
  • Spin: 4 songs
HRM said: 40 minutes, 310 calories, 10 fat-burning minutes, 30 fitness minutes, Avg HR 149; Max HR 177. Good stuff! After my workout I had a working lunch at Goldfish - I got the grouper. YUM! Then I stopped by the library and found 5 books on my to-read list - yay! So I checked them all out and plan to start with Sheryl Anderson's Killer Heels. Then I just worked more before heading home to my family!

Q: Have you ever had a fresh tomato?

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