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Maui Part 2 (Hike Maui)

August 16, 2012 · by Ari · 2 Comments

Want to know what my very favorite part of my honeymoon was???

LOOK AT ME!!!!! I SWAM TO THE WATERFALL IN FREEZING COLD OPEN WATER!!!! I’M BRAVE!!!!

The all day hike. DUH. Shocking, right? 😉 Well, the hiking part wasn’t all day. We did 2 hikes that totaled about 5 miles, so that was actually a pretty short amount the day, but the whole activity including the drive to Hana was all day. 6am-7:30pm of awesomeness.

If you’ve ever been to Maui, you’ve probably heard people talk about “The Road to Hana”. You don’t actually go to Hana, you do The Road to Hana. The road that includes 600 “hair pin turns” and 54 1 lane bridges. That’s why lots of people pay someone to drive them around. That didn’t interest me. I have a husband that gets zero driver anxiety. If I need to get somewhere, I bat my eyelashes and look cute (works every time). However, when I discovered we could do The Road to Hana, and participate in the most challenging hike the Hike Maui brochure offered, I was sold.

Most people spend their time in Maui on the west side of the Island. That’s where places like Lahaina are, and where people do all the touristy things. However, the east side of the island is like a completely different world! The west side looks kind of deserty. When you enter the east side, it’s like being transported into the most gorgeous tropical rainforest! Our guide Randy was incredibly knowledgeable, and in just the drive, I learned so much!

Painted Eucalyptus AKA “Tourist Tree” because they turn red and peel. Haha. Great joke, Maui.

WAVES!! I love the ocean. I’ve always found it to be the most calming, peaceful place.

For our first stop, we put on WATER SHOES!!! What??? We were told to get ready to hike through some mud! I wasn’t quite sure what I had gotten myself into, but I put on my shoes, and sucked it up. Actually, getting muddy was FUN. I used to be all “Wahhh I don’t like to get dirty” and annoying, but I’m branching out, people! The muddy hike was short and steep. It took us to a beautiful waterfall (see the top pic). Everyone started getting in the water and swimming across to it, but I was scared. It was cold. I couldn’t touch the bottom. I’ve never swam across open water (yes, in 27 years–I’m a wimp). Finally, I got the heck out of my own way, and swam to the waterfall, and it was AWESOME!!! I definitely would have regretted it if I’d skipped out.

Our next stop was the famous black sand beach! Soooo cool!

Finally we arrived on the east side of Haleakala, and began our longer hike.

These are the trees they used in Lost to hide from the smoke monster.

This is my I Made It To The Top I’m A Warrior face. I make it often. I like it because there’s no double chin. Randy got me with only 1 chin in every picture. I like that guy.

If you ever find yourself in Maui, I HIGHLY suggest hitting up Hike Maui, requesting Randy, and doing the all day thing. If I were to go back, I would even pay to do it a second time!

NYC Marathon Training Week 7

August 7, 2012 · by Ari · 1 Comment

AKA

Marathon Training: Vacation Edition

3/4 runs + 1 hike. Not too shabby for my honeymoon, right? I’m actually pretty proud of myself for getting it done. I didn’t follow my plan completely even on the 3 runs I completed (speed work, what speed work?), but I got my long run in, and that’s what I was the most concerned about. Let me tell you, it was NOT easy. First of all, I went from living with my running buddies, having a schedule, and being responsible to a group for getting up and running each day I said I would to running solo with just myself (and a weekly email to Coach Susan) to answer to. Also, running is way more fun with friends, in 65 degree temps, and in slightly hilly-flat terrain. You know what is less fun? Running alone in 70% humidity, feeling like every direction you go, you are climbing a mountain. What’s up with that, Maui? Huh??

Anyway, I definitely got discouraged my first 2 runs, but by the end, it got better. It always does. I know it will be the same thing coming back to Phoenix, and running in the 95 degree temperatures. It’s not going to be easy, and this week I might hate life a little, and feel discouraged, but it can only get better and easier from there. Here’s a look at how week 7 went down.

Tuesday–12 mile long run, 10:40 avg pace. I don’t remember the last time I wanted to give up on a run so badly. 3 miles in, I was sure I couldn’t finish. There seemed to be hills in every single direction. My body was literally dripping in sweat from every single pore; in fact, my running skirt looked like I had peed my pants because it was soaking wet. You’re welcome for that detail. I had to take a lot of “stretch” breaks. What? You don’t pause your garmin to “stretch” at the top of every hill you do? Oh. In all seriousness, that’s a bad habit I developed when I first started running, because I wanted to keep up to some imaginary “expected pace” of people who blogged about running. I was slow (well, still am), and I didn’t want to be, so I “stretched” a lot to catch my breath. I’ve been really good about breaking that habit ever since I started training for the Seattle half that never happened, but I was not good about it on this run. By the time I got back to our condo, I felt discouraged, frustrated, and totally lame. Then I plugged my garmin into my computer to see that I had climbed 1021 feet of elevation. Then I sat there and continued to drip sweat just sitting. I gave myself a little pep talk, and a mental break, and realized that, all things considered, I did pretty okay.

Friday–5 mile hike. I will write more about this when I get posts up about the trip itself, but I hiked in mud, rolled in mud, swam to a waterfall, and hiked through rainforest, and a bamboo forest to a 400 ft waterfall! It.Was.Awesome. My favorite part of the trip, hands down. I counted it as my 5 mile hilly run. Let’s just pretend it’s the same thing 😉

Saturday–3 mile run, 10:26 avg pace. There’s a reason there were 4 days between my first and second run. I may have given myself a mental break, but I was flat out discouraged by running in Napili Bay. This run, unfortunately, was no different. I felt ridiculously sluggish, tired, and just overall unhappy with it, but I did it because it needed to be done.

Sunday–3.1 mile run, 9:35 avg pace. So….there definitely was no track anywhere near me, and also no flat road for miles (is there ANY flat road on that island?!), so for “speed work”, I decided to run faster than the day before. Brilliant, right? And you know what? I DID! Not that the bar was set super high, but I ran significantly faster, and felt so much better! I don’t know if it’s that I ran the opposite (but equally hilly) direction, and maybe the inclines were less steep, or if it’s just that my body was finally getting used to it, but the run was awesome, and I almost kept going, but after 2 lame runs, I decided to just end it feeling good.

Now, I’m back to the 115 degree temps. This will be…interesting. I got back to Phoenix yesterday morning, and I haven’t run yet, but tomorrow is track day. I’m not gonna lie, I’m nervous to see how much the heat slows me down, and that I won’t be able to keep up with my teammates who’ve been running in these temps all summer, but I know all I can do is do my best to adjust, and wait for the summer to be over.

Steve’s 31st Birthday Getaway

April 10, 2012 · by Ari · 2 Comments

In case you didn’t notice by the return of actually good photography, Steve is finally back from LA!! Hooray!!! Just one week after he got back, it was already time to celebrate his birthday! He was awesome and decided to be born on Easter weekend which meant I actually had the whole weekend off to spend with him! That never happens, so I decided to take advantage of it, and I got in touch with my friend/best realtor ever, Kathy, and asked about renting the weekend at her cabin in Heber/Overgaard.

Friday afternoon, I ~~sneakily~~ packed our bags, got the puppies and asked Steve if we could go take pictures on a mountain. It was the best cover up ever. I should be in the CIA or something because I am the best at being sneaky and keeping secrets. He didn’t figure out where we were going until we were almost to Fountain Hills, so I couldn’t have done that bad! We decided to stop in Payson for dinner. I looked on yelp, and found the Buffalo Bar and Grill.

"SURPRISE!!!!! It's your birthday!!!!"

I absolutely loved this little place. They didn’t typically allow dogs, but they let us sit outside with Winston and Clementine, and then even brought them water! The food was delicious too. Steve got a green chile burger.

That potato salad was super delish. I always try his burgers and never really like the taste of ground beef, yet I keep tasting it...? I'm weird.

I got a grilled chicken sandwich with buffalo sauce…my faaaavorite. YUM. And my fav guilty pleasure–SWEET POTATO FRIES!!!

Running is worth it when sweet potato fries come at the end of the day.

"OMG, I find this food more almost as exciting as your birth!!!!"

As you can see from this picture, I am super classy and attractive. It’s obvious why Steve married me.

By the time we got to the cabin, it was pretty late (for us old people) so we hung out for a bit, then went to bed pretty early. The next morning we woke up at the ridiculous hour of 6am because we are incapable of sleeping in. We hung around for a bit with the puppies.

"Mom, it's 6am. This is ridiculous."

"Boy, that walk from the bedroom to the couch really wore me out! I think now is a great time for a nap."

I discovered the waffle maker and it was love at first waffle!

Why have I NEVER made waffles before?!?!?! And why do I not own one of this incredible contraptions that creates the waffles?! This is a serious problem.

Ummm, as soon as we got back on Sunday, I bought a waffle maker. Stay tuned for a whole slew of waffle recipes.

While I was discovering waffle amazingness, Clementine was discovering stairs.

"Okay, I made it up here, but how the heck do I get back down?!?!"

Have you ever watched a mini dachshund climb up and down stairs?? It’s pretty funny. Her legs are so short, and her body is so long! She definitely took a spill or two.

"Stairs aint got nothin' on me!"

"Yes mom, I'm long and cute and you get no credit for that. Even though we have the same body type (long body, short legs, big butt), you do not receive credit for my super cuteness."

Clementine has so much attitude. I am totally responsible for her cuteness. I mean, where else would she learn this?

I roll around on the carpet daily. Clementine tries to copy. Whatever. I started it.

After hanging out for a bit, we decided to go down to Payson. There’s pretty much nothing to do in Overgaard, so we went in search of something fun, and of course, coffee. Yelp took us to a place called Scoops which had coffee and ice cream. My two favorite things!

I asked the barista what he suggested for something fun to do in the area and he suggested a hike along Tonto Creek. Neither of us were really dressed for hiking, but we decided to head over and at least check out a little bit of it, and I was really glad we did! It was really easy and mostly flat. More like a nice walk along the creek than a hike. Winston and Clementine got to experience nature beyond the dog park!

On the way back to Overgaard, we stopped at a lookout on the 270.

Oh my gosh...TREES! We don't have those in Phoenix. Only the prickly kind.

They are so foreign, we must take pictures in case we can't remember what they look like when we get back to Phoenix!

The birthday boy. I like him 😉

We picked up some things for dinner, a couple movies from the red box, and stayed in for the night. I made a super impressive dinner that included hot dogs and a can of baked beans. I hate the name of this dish, so I refuse to use it, but Steve loves it and is always going on about it, so I made it for him. Plus some asparagus to pretend like I actually do eat healthy.

Totally does not look cute, but I have to admit, it was pretty yummy. I'll have to try it again, and make the beans myself and use turkey dogs instead of beef. Slim pickins up at the Overgaard market.

We tried a new beer I picked up from Whole Foods.

Yummmm. I would definitely buy this again!

Then we watched Like Crazy (I don’t really have an opinion–didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. It happened, I guess.) and Carnage which I LOVED. I know friends of mine who have seen/read the play, didn’t love the movie, but I still haven’t seen it, and I thought it was hilarious. Jodie Foster was a total nut and I loved every second of it. I can’t wait until I have the opportunity to see a professional theatre production!

And that was pretty much it. We’re kind of boring people, but we loved it and had a great time, and headed back pretty early Sunday morning for some more festivities that night.

Special thanks to Kathy for renting our her amazing cabin!! If you live in Arizona or you want to come out this way and are interested in getting away from the city for a bit, I highly recommend it! The cabin has 3 bedrooms, a full kitchen with cooking equipment (like WAFFLE MAKERS!), a gorgeous rustic feel, and lots more! I can’t wait until we are able to return!

Mac Visits: Day 3, Hiking Camelback

March 16, 2012 · by Ari · 4 Comments

When I decided to take Mac on a hike, I immediately consulted my amazing friend and hiking expert, Diana. Girl has done pretty much every hike in existence, and she gave me lots of great suggestions! Ultimately, I ended up choosing Camelback. It’s probably the most famous, it’s really pretty, and the one time I did it before, it totally kicked my butt.

This morning, we got an early start and begin our hike on the Echo Canyon Summit Trail.

"YAY, hiking!!!"

I’ve actually only been hiking a couple of times. It’s not something I would want to do solo, but I really enjoy it with friends, and we have tons of trails here in Arizona.

Summit Trail is well known for the beautiful views, as well as the challenging climb. There was lots of all fours action, and on the way down, I even chose to slide on my butt a time or two.

Mac was super popular on this hike! All the guys kept commenting on his Kentucky shirt.

We took lots of breaks to take pictures and enjoy the views.

Sipping from my camelback on Camelback.

Yeah, we climbed those.

"RAAAHHHH!!!!! I climbed a mountain!!!!"

That's me, and my butt. Climbing rocks.

The Summit Trail is also known for the panoramic view once you make it to the top. You overlook the entire city, and it is really beautiful. Being on the top of a mountain is a pretty freaking sweet feeling. I love looking down and seeing what I’ve accomplished!

Check us out! We are tough!

You know what I do not prefer? Going down the mountain. Seriously, I would rather go up twice than up and down.

The hike ended up taking us a little over two hours, which is a little slow, but fine by me. We certainly weren’t our for time. I only brought little Garmi around to keep track of mileage.

We promptly returned to my house (after stopping for coffee, obviously) for some Maple Bacon Buttermilk Pancakes and eggs which were devoured long before I even thought about taking any pictures. We were hungry!

Tonight we have big plans that include Barrio Cafe and margaritas! Have a great Friday everyone!

Blogger Meet Up @ Piestewa Peak & La Grande Orange

March 12, 2012 · by Ari · 5 Comments

Saturday after our bike ride of near death, Nicole, Carolyn and I met up with Diana, Marisa and Estela for a hike at Piestewa Peak. After the bike ride, I honestly was not really in the mood to hike anymore, but once we got going, I stopped being lame and started to enjoy myself. I’m no expert on hiking, but this one seemed…nice? You know, like a nice uphill walk with cacti 🙂 Haha, if you want to actually hear anything legit about hiking, you should just go to Diana’s blog because she’s basically an expert. In fact, she even knows all of these weird hiking rules–did you know there were rules??? Like she knew what to say to all the people we passed, and talked about things like right of way that I didn’t even know existed on a mountain!

Look! Nicole and I are hiking! And there's a mountain.

Marisa, Carolyn, Estela, Diana, Nicole & Me

**Hike photos courtesy of Marisa**

After the hike, we hopped back on our bikes and headed to La Grande Orange where we met up with Emily, Megan and Stacey. You better believe after a 30 mile bike ride I was ready for some wine! Emily and I split a bottle of pinot.

I have way too many pictures that look just like this...

As soon as we sat down, the manager sent out an appetizer for us to sample. Whooohooo, I think it was my first special foodie blogger treatment! And all thanks to Nicole for slipping that into an email to the manager 🙂

Guac, salsa, and pimento dip. All super delish!

Emily and I also split a salad with oranges, goat cheese and avocado (that I inhaled before it even occurred to me to snap a photo) and a pizza with goat cheese, tomatoes, roasted corn and avocado. Ummmm, yum.

OMG!!!! It's real pizza!!!! Probably my favorite food, but I very rarely eat it, unless it's at home and all skinnified. This was ahhhhmazing.

They even had gluten free crust!

Carolyn got the same pizza on the gf crust. I almost wished I would have ordered mine that way because I love a thin and crispy crust!

Then I insisted we take funny pictures. Naturally.

YAY!!! I got Emily to agree to a silly picture!!!

I also have a lot of pictures that look like this one.

I had such a great time with these girls! We have such an amazing group of AZ Bloggers!

Emly, Carolyn & Megan

Stacey & Nicole

Marisa & Me

Carolyn, Megan, Marisa, Stacey, Nicole, Emily & Me

**Photo courtesy of Marisa**

During dinner, Nicole and Emily announced that they have been hard at work at a super awesome new project!!!

The AZ Bloggers Network!!!

The Arizona Bloggers Network will be a place to organize, promote, and connect with other female Arizona bloggers. You don’t have to be a food/fitness blogger to join–just a woman who lives in Arizona and has a passion for blogging. You can head over and register your blog for free! So all you bloggers out there, come and join us! We like people!

After an amazing evening, Nicole’s husband Lance was kind enough to pick us (and our bikes) up @ LGO, and then we convinced him to that a Yogurtology stop was a necessity.

Husband of the year award--picking up his wife and her 2 crazy friends that were silly enough to bike from Mesa to PV.

Oatmeal cookie, salted caramel and butterfinger with graham cracker, butterfinger and nutella on top. I usually stay away from the candy toppings, but after the riding and the drinking I totally caved, haha.

fro yo shirt.”]fro yo shirt.”]Then we tried really hard to take jumping pictures…for a change.

SUCCESS!!!! Except, apparently Lance was zoned out during my lecture about how snapping a photo at any moment in time where it looks like I may have a double chin is unacceptable and grounds to end our friendship forever. Buuuuttt, we were all in the air, so I am posting my second and third chins for the world to see.

And my chins make an appearance here too, but this picture cracked me up. I don't know what I'm doing or why Nicole is a Charlie's Angel, but I find this picture to be pretty awesome.

I can’t say enough what an awesome time I had!! I’m so excited for the new AZ Bloggers Network, and thanks so much to Emily & Nicole for setting it up, and to Nicole especially for putting this whole meet up together!

Summit Trail

October 24, 2011 · by Ari · 1 Comment

Hi friends! This week is like the week of perfect scheduling when it comes to work outs. Kara and I have completely matching schedules conducive to stress free morning work outs! We left my house at 6:15 this morning and headed to Squaw Peak which they are I guess now calling Piestewa Peak? Weird. I dunno. Anyway, we went there for a morning hike! I haven’t done a ton of hiking, but I really enjoy it as a nice change to my normal work outs. We took the Summit Trail which is about 1.2 miles up and moderately steep. At the beginning it felt like cake, but very quickly turned into a challenge as I started huffing and puffing and felt my heart rate climbing.

Luckily, it was perfect weather and the trail was the perfect amount of challenging to push us and still be enjoyable! There were also some nice views along the way

It definitely got hardest towards the top!

It ended up taking us about 40 minutes to get up and we were glad to hang out up there for a little bit! “Yeah, I’m the badass that just conquered that mountain.”

“Hooray!! I climbed a mountain! Photos from above, please. There ain’t nothing cute about below angles.”

We made some friends at the top and asked them to take our picture together. I told them the rules, no double chins. They didn’t seem to judge me too much for my vanity.