Like the names? They are our stage names...
Race day came pretty early, and my race report is below. After the race we dressed up and went to a nice dinner at a restaurant callled John Ash & Co. The food was pretty good and the place was nice, but the service was awful. Oh well.
Sunday morning was super exciting for me because they had cocoa puffs at the DoubleTree breakfast. And lots of other stuff. I ate a lot, all without shame! We then got ready for our tour and the limo picked us up at 10. The weather was much cooler again on Sunday which was nice. We had a little trouble at first finding a place that opened at 10 instead of 11, but we finally ended up at the La Crema Tasting room for our first stop. Our next stop was Armida which had beautiful views and some fun wine. After that, we went to Lambert Bridge, on the recommendation of our otherwise mute limo driver. He did one thing right because Lambert Bridge was really neat. Our guide was from the Houston area originally and was very entertaining. Also, when I first opened the door to walk in, I had to step over a huge yellow lab lying on the door mat! His name is Gus. I mostly played with Gus while Shellie and Luke drank wine...I guess some things never change.
We headed back to our hotel after that and spent a relaxing hour or two by the pool. Ah, heaven...my happy place. It was so nice to be by a pool and not absolutely dynig of heat exhaustion. We had plans for another nice dinner, but were all too tired to try and ended up at a nearby restaurant that still wasn't too bad.
Monday was a bunch of laziness in the morning, but then a fun road trip back to the airport. Luke took us through San Francisco on the way back. We went over the Golden Gate Bridge and then drove down along the bay. Poor Shellie is scared to death of bridges and Luke took her over 3 huge ones during the trip. She was a trooper though.
Preparations for our trip began last Wednesday when Luke and I went to Tri On the Run to get the HRTC bike boxes and pack up our bikes. I didn't bring my camera and I'm still kicking myself. We had bike parts spread across the entire fitness center and a spin class as an audience. We quickly learned who the mechanically inclined one was, but I'll leave that to you to guess. After about an hour we were finally set with our bikes completely dismantled and packed in nice little boxes with wheels. We put them in my apartment for early loading Friday morning.
Friday morning came a bit early at 5 when it was time to start loading my car to head to the airport. Our flight was at 7:20 which sounded great because we'd get to Oakland by 10:30, but it still made for a very early day. We arrived in Oakland and packed up the cool minivan without any problems. I was immediately unimpressed with California traffic though. It was bad all the way to Rohnert Park, where we stayed. Our first task was to put our bikes back together to make sure we could do it without any major issues. If we did have issues we wanted time to get to a bike shop before it closed on Friday.
We successfully put our bikes back together and headed up to Windsor for packet pickup and to set up our T2 stuff. The navigator told the driver where to exit and then proceeded to rest her eyes. This lead to us missing the exit not by just a few miles, but probably 10-15 miles. Oh well. That meant we drove half of the bike course on the way back to where we were supposed to be. Windsor High School is unbelievable. It looks almost like a resort. We got our packets and set up our T2 stuff without much issue and then headed back to the hotel. After a nice dinner and getting the rest of our stuff ready for the race, we headed to bed.
We successfully put our bikes back together and headed up to Windsor for packet pickup and to set up our T2 stuff. The navigator told the driver where to exit and then proceeded to rest her eyes. This lead to us missing the exit not by just a few miles, but probably 10-15 miles. Oh well. That meant we drove half of the bike course on the way back to where we were supposed to be. Windsor High School is unbelievable. It looks almost like a resort. We got our packets and set up our T2 stuff without much issue and then headed back to the hotel. After a nice dinner and getting the rest of our stuff ready for the race, we headed to bed.
Ta da!
Race day came pretty early, and my race report is below. After the race we dressed up and went to a nice dinner at a restaurant callled John Ash & Co. The food was pretty good and the place was nice, but the service was awful. Oh well.Sunday morning was super exciting for me because they had cocoa puffs at the DoubleTree breakfast. And lots of other stuff. I ate a lot, all without shame! We then got ready for our tour and the limo picked us up at 10. The weather was much cooler again on Sunday which was nice. We had a little trouble at first finding a place that opened at 10 instead of 11, but we finally ended up at the La Crema Tasting room for our first stop. Our next stop was Armida which had beautiful views and some fun wine. After that, we went to Lambert Bridge, on the recommendation of our otherwise mute limo driver. He did one thing right because Lambert Bridge was really neat. Our guide was from the Houston area originally and was very entertaining. Also, when I first opened the door to walk in, I had to step over a huge yellow lab lying on the door mat! His name is Gus. I mostly played with Gus while Shellie and Luke drank wine...I guess some things never change.
The start of our adventure!
Armida Winery
Gus, at Lambert Bridge
Lambert Bridge
Lambert Bridge
After Lambert Bridge, we headed to the Dry Creek General Store for lunch. The place was built in 1881 and was really neat. They had all sorts of old bottled sodas and great lunch food. We sat outside at a picnic table and enjoyed the awesome weather and a huge rice crispie treat.
I don't remember where all we went after lunch - maybe just the family wineries and Bella. Maybe one more, but who knows. The family wineries were 5 wineries all in one little area. They were nothing super great to me, but they did have a very nice view! Bella was pretty neat beacuse it was built into the side of a mountain, so the tasting room was in a "cave." They had a beautiful lawn with live music so we just sat out there and drank a glass of wine and once again enjoyed the weather. They had hula hoops to play with on the lawn, but no one would play with me, so I didn't get to hula hoop. Oh well.
Bella Winery
We headed back to our hotel after that and spent a relaxing hour or two by the pool. Ah, heaven...my happy place. It was so nice to be by a pool and not absolutely dynig of heat exhaustion. We had plans for another nice dinner, but were all too tired to try and ended up at a nearby restaurant that still wasn't too bad. Monday was a bunch of laziness in the morning, but then a fun road trip back to the airport. Luke took us through San Francisco on the way back. We went over the Golden Gate Bridge and then drove down along the bay. Poor Shellie is scared to death of bridges and Luke took her over 3 huge ones during the trip. She was a trooper though.Someone trying to be funny with my pillow and blanket...
Golden Gate Bridge
Shellie and me after driving over the Golden Gate Bridge - we were freeeezing!
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