The Pacific NW

Over Labor Day Weekend Rudy and I went to the Pacific Northwest for a getaway with his friends. 

Robby was going up for the whole week and invited the rest of us to come up for the weekend. He is from Washington, however, right outside of Portland. Needless to say I was confused all weekend. 

Are we in Oregon or Washington? Was a common phrase.
We flew in Friday night and drove straight to Robby's parents house.

Saturday. 

We went on a beautiful hike in the morning outside of... Portland {I think}. Although I was not prepared for a hike at all. 

How funny that boys do not communicate what to pack for trips. 

So I got a whole new outfit for our trip! 

{Brendan, Rudy, Robby, Brian}

{Rudy & Brian decided to jump off the cliff into the river. I was terrified but they got quite the crown gathered to watch them}

{and then he walked around like this cause his shorts were so wet, we had to listen to him scream "mens rights" the whole walk back}

We explored Portland at night. Walking downtown, hitting up a popular bookstore, getting dinner and then making the required Portland stop at Voodoo Donuts.

{This place was huge. I could have stayed there all night}

{The line was out of control and sadly not worth it. They taste like donuts}

Sunday.
We took off with Brian, Brendan and Austin {Rudy's mission friend who lives in OR} to our day trip to Seattle. Its about a 3 hour drive from Portland to Seattle and I got the luxury of sitting back middle seat between Brian and Rudy. How fun!
The drive wasn't too bad and I knitted most of the way.
We went straight to Pike Place Market and got killer parking.

The other boys had all been to Seattle before so they were good tour guides for us.
The Marked is unreal. No wonder its such a hot spot! So many things to look at and buy. I could have been there all day.

 

We had lunch at Pike Place Chowder. Rudy loves Clam Chowder and he was not disappointed.

Of course, the gum wall.

Then off to the Mariners game. The stadium was right in downtown we got prime parking once again.
Going to a Mariners game was absolutely perfect. Checked another stadium off the list, had great weather, great seats, and great company. And they won!

Next up we went to the Space Needle.

 {Rudy was really excited that he was "on" the Space Needle}

Gas Works Park.

We decided to drive back to Portland and get dinner. Our drive was pretty entertaining as we played Heads Up on the way back. Playing with those boys was out of control fun.

{Saw Mt. Rainer in the distance as we stopped at a gas station on the way back}
Monday.
We made the drive back to SLC with Robby. It was a long drive but kinda fun since neither Rudy or I have driven through that part of the country.
The first part of the drive was lined with trees and then we followed the real Oregon Trail. We stopped in either Idaho Falls or Twin Falls, can't keep those cities straight to see this phenomenal bridge over the gorge. And saw some crazies bridge jumping.

It was such a fun trip. Although it was quick I felt like we were able to see soooo much! We were constantly busy. I am so grateful for Rudy's friends. Those guys have such a great friendship and I am glad I get to hang out with them a lot too. 

#swiftliketaylor

As I am still on major blog catch up, lets rehash more of June. 

Two weeks after the wedding my dear husband already let me leave him for two nights to run Ragnar. 

{in reality, I gave him no choice. I was running. We may have even fought over wedding dates cause I was not giving up Ragnar}

I ran on a team that Nick Lombardo put together. It was with a lot of the same team members from when I ran Napa with him but this time I recruited AubDawg to run it with us.

I love Ragnars but always get a lot of anxiety about it the night before and always.always.always. am second guessing my decision to be doing this insane running game.
I was in Van 2 this time which always makes for a different running game.

I was runner 11 this time and so I felt like I always had a lot of time until I had to run, which I didn't really like.

Wasatch Back is absolutely beautiful to run through. It was tons of tiny little towns with the big mountains right along side of us. It was pretty scenic the entire time. The bad thing about these towns was that they were not built to accommodate hundreds of vans. We got stuck in traffic a lot and made us late to a couple of the exchanges. Everyone had hilly routes at Ragnar. Which obviously makes sense since we were running through the mountains half the time. But it was so so pretty.

We signed up for Ragnar right around the time I was running my marathon last year. So I think Nick assigned me to the toughest routes. Which at the time I was pumped for. But I didn't realize that after my marathon I would be burned out of running, planning a wedding, buying a house and then never finding the time to run. And like I have mentioned previously, I never ran in preparation for any of my summer races.
That being said, I think I did decently well for not running. And wasn't even that sore Sunday morning.

Leg 1: 7.7 miles. Straight up hill, one mile downhill, then back uphill again. 

Leg 2: 5.5 miles. Rolling hills 

Leg 3: 9.8 miles. Now this one. This was suppose to be mostly downhill which I figured I could handle. It started off with a big hill, then went downhill then another HUGE uphill. Everyone walked it. More downhill. Then we got to the base of Park City resort and had to go back another uphill. Everyone was so mad. Then a downhill through a ravine full of huge rocks. Almost fell twice. And then don't forget the stairs I had to run down then the slight uphill to get to the exchange. 

It was so gruesome. Half way through this run I realized that it was like 5pm and I never ate lunch and I forgot my gummys in the van. So not only was it really tough considering the leg and my two previous legs but I was running on empty. I came into the exchange and wanted to die. It was the most difficult thing I have ever run. 

In all I clocked in 23 miles. The most of anyone on the team. 

Some things to remember from Swift Like Taylor:

Our Van never being able to decide on what to eat and how to get there

Taking a mini shower in the Wal-Mart bathroom and feeling homeless

Always showing up late to my exchange.

Aurby threatening me if I was going to be late to the last one. 

Van 1 taking forever to run

The really cold night that non of us were prepared for

Everyone asking us if we were big Taylor Swift fans, and their disappointment when we told them we weren't

Parker checking out every girl while running

Everyones long running being like 6 miles, and that was my "easy one"

Aubry always screaming about her straight uphill run

Our team being so behind that we asked if we could send our 7th runner before our Van 1got to the exchange. 

Then sending Parker before Lynsday got there and being sneaky about it

And then we still finished Ragnar at like 8pm

This was my 4th Ragnar. And at this moment I was way done running Ragnar. I felt awful. 

But looking back at it, I think I can always be convinced to do it again.