Weekend Contender

Back in August I had a post about the best weekend in California. This past weekend was a challenger. For now: the best winter weekend in California. Theme: Excessive craziness.
After last weeks big storm I checked the snow report: 41-55 inches of new snow?! Mt. High. Now. Stephen and I had reduced tickets from Snow Jam and they were early/late season passes, expiring on Friday. Mt. High. Now. Closing 3 autos in a week at work: sick day required on Friday. Mt. High. Now.
As my co-worker put it:
Lift ticket: $13
Burger: $9
Gas: $10
Spending your day getting paid shredding on fresh powder when your boss thinks you are praying to the porcelain gods: priceless So Friday Stephen, Anatoly, Vineet, John and I were out of Solana Beach by 7am heading up to the mountain. I think we were on the lift at 11am. Boarded till 7pm. It was pretty warm at the bottom, yet the lift rides up were a bit chilly. After the sun set we added another layer and were fine. Speaking of, the sunset was gorgeous! It was great to get back on the snow! The halfpipe was pretty powdery which for most wouldn’t be fun but was awesome for landings! None of that ice crap! Of course, I brought my camera, but the battery died as I’m taking a picture of Joshua Trees covered in snow! Thankfully, Stephen got a couple on his phone.
After an exhausting day, the craziness inside woke us up at 6:10am on Saturday morning for Rachel’s ride. (not me)
Quick overview:
4 Starbucks hot chocolates: $18
3 Pieces of Pie: $9
1 Large Pizza Port pizza: $26
Spending 83 miles on your bike with a great friend: crazy
We rode to Vons by the 56 hwy. It was the wrong Vons. It was 41°. F-it! Where’s the Starbucks?! Two stores down, two hours, and four hot chocolates later we were warm enough and on our way for our own ride. We ended up doing the Swami’s loop. At mile 51 (close to home) Stephen mentioned pie. We both had this crazy thought about a PIES sign along the 101. So we kept riding north. Dropped this other couple (sweet!) and were blazing along…searching out this darn PIES sign. Well, we made it to Carlsbad, no sign of the sign. Stopped to google pies on the phone, found one! (not on the 101) I had a delicious piece of cherry pie and pickles! Stephen had a piece of chocolate and Dutch apple. We decided to take it easy on the way back…yeah right! I think the last 20 miles we averaged 20mph. It was insane. He wants me to remind him not to eat pie during his Ironman.

Total trip: 83.2 miles. 5 hours 12 min of actual biking time. Longest ride of my life. Remembering back to the first 80+ mile ride with bob I’m happy to say my body responded unexpectedly better. I didn’t have the hip flexor pain. I wasn’t about to collapse at the end. I felt surprisingly amazing. Sweet! Did someone say large Pizza Port veggie pizza with pepperoni and Canadian bacon on whole wheat crust? Yes. Enjoying the pizza while watching the sunset. Amazing. Only in California in December.

Sunday we let our bodies sleep in (after a late night of Bond watching). Made yummy pancakes and bacon and decided to enjoy the beautiful day. We went to Torrey Pines High School in search of tennis courts. Played for a couple hours and then “enjoyed” some Golden Spoon fro-yo. My least favorite by far. We went to the new Bond at the theater in Oceanside and then out for yummy sushi at Harney Sushi to complete the amazing weekend. It was weird to have all non-Asian white dudes behind the bar, but I would actually recommend this place.

Winter in San Diego has been great. However, the Christmas Spirit isn’t as strong as it normally was back in MN, but I’ll live. I’ve forced myself into “wintery” situations (skating, snowboarding, christmas shopping, present wrapping) but it still hasn’t hit. Tonight we are going to look at the Garrison block Christmas light craziness. I have to say, the house lights don’t sparkle quite as nice without the snow reflections. Christmas eve, my brother, sister and I typically sleep in the same room. We set our alarm for an undisclosed time to get up to see what Santa brought. (We got sabotaged one year by disclosing our wakeup time too loudly. Santa came after we went back to bed disapointed.) This year will be different. I will be spending Christmas eve with my sister (in her bed in Arizona). We decided we are calling Robby (unbenounced to him) at 3am and making him wake up to see what Santa brought. Also, Meg has been slaving away baking and grocery shopping for our amazing Christmas Dinner. Okay, I’ve typed Christmas now six times in this paragraph. I think I’m feeling the spirit.