Wonderful Girl's Getaway

We headed out on our road trip Thursday morning and headed up to San Francisco and Napa by way of highway 5. After we came down the Grape Vine I started to notice something very strange! I didn't recall tract homes on the 5...we're they new??? Then to my horror I noticed that we were actually on the 99. I have done that drive a million times, how is that possible that I got on the wrong fwy and ended up in Bakersfield? After stopping off to get directions back as to the fastest way to 5, we were soon on the right track again. 4 1/2 hours later we were happily in SF at our hotel, the Galleria Park. We then met Nancy's sister, Marcia and her husband Walt for a delicious dinner at the Fog City Diner. The highlight for me in the city, however, was the trip to the open market at the Ferry Building on Saturday morning....Amazing! We were happy girls...especially when we got our tarts at the Frog Hollow Bakery. I am truly still dreaming of that place. Thank you, Nance!! After that awesome experience we headed up to Sonoma. We carbed out at a great local little Mexican place called the Hacienda right by our hotel in preparation for our 1/2 marathon the next morning.

Race day started out chilly....I hated having to part with my flimsy little jacket that I checked in before the start. But knew it would be long forgotten after the first extremely steep hill right at the beginning known as the "butt burner". The race was awesome. The Lord definitely shines his face down on that part of the world...beautiful. Needless to say,I ran the whole way stopping a few times to take a few sips of Gatorade. By mile 12 I was in serious pain....where the heck was that finish line???

We did it! What is quite comical is that not only do you get your finisher metal, but your commerative wine country 1/2 marathon wine glass and all the wine you want....after running 13.1 miles wine was the last thing I wanted, especially at 9:30 in the morning!! We opted instead for the free 10 minute leg and foot massage that we had to stand in line an hour for. That afternoon we hung by the pool, had awesome pedicures at the hotel, ate dinner in our room and watched a "chick flick" then it was lights out. The next morning was our long drive home. One perk to that was that we stopped in San Francisco and had breakfast with my long time friend, Steven Oliver, who I have known since my college days.

We had great weekend. We will most definitely do this race next year, and will have to add on another day to the trip.