music, food trucks, and wine

I am going to have to break this past weekend up in a few parts. There is just too much goodness to share!

Our weekend started on Friday night, when Mike and I rushed home from work to change and head to Music on the Porch, an event that occurs twice a month during the summer in downtown Raleigh. I was pretty pumped about this event and knew it was considered family friendly, but boy were we surprised just how family friendly it really was! We were the ONLY people there without kids, which didn't really bother us, but it was kinda funny.

The sky was a little gnarly looking, but we actually didn't get any rain while we were out there. Here is the low-down... bring some chairs or a blanket, a bottle of wine or some beer, pack a picnic dinner (if you have time) or buy some food there, and relax while listening to some local music. Any event where I can bring my own wine and have an excuse to drink it out of a mason jar is a pure win in my book. :)

The event was close to a few restaurants, but they also had one food truck you could order from if you wanted. Mike and I definitely wanted to go that route, since I have an obsession with food trucks... and mason jars.

Klausie's Pizza

This isn't just regular pizza, either. It is deep dish, Chicago style pizza with some insane toppings and varieties. Of course I couldn't go with just a normal pepperoni pizza, I had to get something different, and I had to make Mike get something different too, 'cause that is how I roll.

The pizza on the left was called the Fire Belly, pineapple puree, ham, hot thai chili butter, sweet red onion, and sweet basil (grown on the dashboard of the truck). The pizza on the right had bbq sauce, red onion, and pulled pork. Both were amazeballs.

I think it is awesome that Raleigh has an event like this. It was cheap, it was fun, and it was really a great way to unwind after a long work week. I think we need to borrow some kids next time we go, but I would definitely go again.

Mike and I enjoyed the music for about 2 hours before heading out. The sky was freaking us out that we were going to get drenched.  Plus, we were out of wine. :)

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Saturday morning, we had planned on getting a long run in. Since we haven't been running much in the last few weeks, I don't know where we got the idea that we would be able to just get up and run 8-10 miles, but clearly we were mistaken. We didn't get started until almost 10 or 11 and it was pretty toasty out. I made it about 3 miles before I had to take a break. When Mike saw me walking, he decided he had had about enough as well, so we walked for 2 miles before calling it quits.

We did hit up a new trail, though, and I really liked it. This trail is actually part of the marathon that Mike will be running in November, so he wants to start running different pieces of it to get familiar with it. I loved all the rolling hills and pastures that we ran through, but boy was it hot out there.

Right when we got back to the car, Mike and I decided to do a sprint lap around a track that we came across.

Mike ran his lap in 1 minute and 30 seconds and I ran mine in 1 minute and 40 or 45 seconds, I can't remember. It was fun to end our work out with a sprint, but we were both about to die when we finished.

Sweaty, post run picture... check!

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We spent the rest of Saturday doing some things around the house and yard and making a ton of homemade foods for dinner and for the freezer. But, I will save that for the next post!

Before I forget, though, look what I saw on my run this morning!

Right as I turned a corner, I saw this guy just staring at me. He let me take a picture, but when I tried to get closer, he took off. I love seeing things like this while running! 

the crystal coast

I guess since I have to do a lot of real work lately, I will have to try to squeeze in my posts at home. :)

We decided to stay at home last Friday night before heading to the coast for the weekend. We just wanted a night to take our time getting our things packed and relax before a packed weekend.

While we packed and finished laundry, we made ourselves a delicious and easy dinner. We grilled some chicken on the grill in bbq sauce, chopped up a few veggies, and threw everything on tortillas and sandwich thins to make some small personal sized pizzas. They turned out super good.

Along with our pizzas, we enjoyed some white wine.

When we woke up on Saturday, we packed our things and headed to New Bern, where my mom and her boyfriend live. We hung with them for a while, enjoying the back patio and then heading to the riverfront for some lunch.

It was really windy on the patio of the restaurant we went to, but the weather was so nice, and the food was amazing. We had a few beers, so I decided to have Mother Earth's kolsch style beer, Endless River. It is made locally in Eastern N.C., and I really like it.

I went with the fish tacos and they were the best fish tacos I have ever had in my life. They tasted so good! The fish was perfectly seasoned and cooked, and I loved them.

The place we went to was called Persimmon's and I highly recommend it if you are ever in the New Bern area. It was so delicious and has such an awesome view.

After lunch, we headed further towards the coast to meet up with my brother and his family. We all hung out for the evening at a corn hole tournament before Mike and I went on to the house we were staying at. We were pretty tired, so we went to bed relatively early.

We woke up on Sunday and headed out for a run. We had wanted to get a long run in, but the weather was really humid and hot, even for 8 am, so we just did 3 miles. Luckily we got to run around water. :)

Mike and I were so hot and miserable, but I am glad we went. Considering we didn't run any more last weekend, it was the only amount of exercise we got.

My shin is still bothering me a little, but all in all, I think the break helped. I hope that when I go for my run in the morning it is feeling even better, but we will see.

We spent all of Sunday on the beach and we are paying for it now. Even with several applications of sunscreen, we both still got burnt quite a bit. :( I wish I had a picture of how we looked, but I forgot. Sorry, I wasn't really in blog mode down there.

The sun was HOT!! My family all met us down there and we just hung out and caught up. After the sun started to set, we headed in to have a cook out. It was a great day.

Since we were off on Monday, we had lunch with my brother and dad before driving back to Raleigh. I picked up a 4 hour shift at the hospital last night, since they always need help on holidays, so we had to head back kinda early.  It was a pretty easy and quick 4 hours, and I am glad to already have my shift over with for the week. When I got home after my shift, I was starving. I didn't really eat dinner because I was still full from lunch, but running around the hospital worked up my appetite.

I didn't want to eat a full meal when I got home, so I whipped up a little snack. This is my favorite bedtime snack after work. PB & J crackers with milk. :)

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend too!

G'night!

tour de eastern Virginia

No post yesterday, I know! Things are a little crazy over here, so it just didn't happen. Forgive me. :)

This past weekend was so busy, but a lot of fun. We headed to Newport News, VA on Friday after work to stay with some good friends, Cassie and Jay. Mike actually grew up there, so it was nice for him to go back to his hometown and catch up with some old friends. We got there pretty late on Friday, so we just walked to a nearby tavern for a few drinks.

Mike and Jay are planning to run in a marathon together later this year, so they decided they wanted to go for a longer run on Saturday morning. I had initially agreed to run 7 miles with them, but changed my mind when Cassie informed me it was a pretty tough course they planned to run. She and I went for our own run along the water and through a really pretty area of town.

We ran through the Mariner's Museum,

across the Lion's Bridge,

and even caught a boat race that was going on.

It was a really fun and relaxed run, and I always enjoy new scenery and entertaining distractions.

It was really overcast on Saturday, but the weather was still pretty warm with a nice cool breeze. Probably the most perfect running weather, but the pictures look pretty dark.

After getting a good work out in, we all got ready and headed to Colonial Williamsburg for the day. The weather had dropped even more and it started raining as soon as we arrived. One of Mike's (and everyone else) favorite place for lunch is called The Cheese Shop. They make awesome sandwiches and have a great wine and beer list. We got a bottle to split between 6 of us, and sat outside in the freezing cold rain, and enjoyed lunch.

Luckily, the rain let up a bit while we were eating, so we were able to continue our day in Williamsburg walking around and then heading to the outlets for a little shopping. Look at these gorgeous flowers they had planted all over the outlets! I want to plant these at my house!

Mike and I both racked up in the clothes department, so we are set for summer. Everyone was pretty exhausted after a long and busy day, but we wanted to go out for a good dinner, so we freshened up after shopping, and headed out.

my loot

We headed to a place in Hampton, VA called Conch and Bucket. It was a really cute place with really great food and wine. We started with a bottle of tempranillo and I got a bowl of soup to help warm me up.

This place had really weird lighting, so I couldn't use a flash, but it was a little too dark without, so I just had to make do. Sorry for the bad pictures.

The soup I ordered was poblano pepper soup with a big chunk of goat cheese in the middle. It was delicious. It was slightly spicy, but so creamy after stirring in the goat cheese.

For my entree, I ordered the mussels. I have only ever had mussels shared with others and never have ordered them just for myself, but I was so glad I did. These things were amazing. Of course they served some bread on the side, perfect for dipping.

After dinner, we sat around and talked for probably another hour. We were all pretty tired, so going somewhere else did not sound fun at all, but we were enjoying each others company too much to go home. It was a really fun night, with really great friends.

Our cute hosts!

We had such a great weekend with them and I am pretty excited that we get to see them again this coming weekend too!  A big group of us are heading to the beach to celebrate Mike's birthday and we are all so pumped about it. It is seriously TIME for a beach weekend, it just feels right.

On Sunday we packed up and headed to my sister in law's house in Virginia Beach to hang out for a bit. Then, we got to take my little baby cousin to lunch, which was a lot of fun. Isn't he so adorable? Can you believe I used to babysit him?? Wow... I am old.

After lunch we went to see our soon to be brother in law at work and got some really fun pictures since he is a firefighter.

Nerd alert...

It was a really great weekend, spent with some really great people. :)

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Needless to say, after an exhausting weekend, I didn't make it to the gym or out for a run yesterday. We worked all day, came home, made dinner, and then headed out to trivia night with our bible study crew. When we got back at 9 pm, Mike studied while I got ready for bed. 

Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Yesterday's Stats:
Calories (-) 278
Sodium (-) 183
Protein (-) 7

fun with food, family, friends, and flamingos

Haaaay! This past weekend was a blast, but boy was I tired! I slept for 12 hours last night, and I believe I could have slept longer if a certain puppy dog would have just laid down and kept quiet... oh well.

Where do I begin?


We actually arrived in D.C. at a reasonable time on Friday, right around 8:30 pm. We had planned to just pay for parking all weekend, because I have spent too many of my precious hours searching for parking in that city, that I will never, ever get back. But, as we were driving to the parking garage, there were several FREE spots along the road... SCORE!

We headed to my best friend's apartment and freshened up. Then we went just a block down from her place to get dinner. Didi (my friend) suggested Tortilla Coast, since it had good food and was really convenient to her place.

We started with the standard chips, salsa, and an order of their fresh made guacamole.

Didi and I also ordered some sparkling sangria, which was awesome.

I ended up getting the veggie enchiladas which were topped with avocado and full of sauteed squash, zuchinni, and beans.

After dinner, we headed to a nearby bar where we each had 1 drink before heading home. The bar we went to had an incredible beer list, so I got a brown ale, which was great.

My bff has always been in shape, but she has been doing yoga for a while now and this chick is seriously buff. She is hot stuff! I might need to start incorporating a little yoga into my life after seeing what it has done for her.

Saturday morning, Didi and I got up and did a running tour of her neighborhood in D.C. Mike wanted to join, but since he packed himself for the weekend, he had forgotten any running clothes, so he stayed behind and showered. The weather was the perfect temperature, but it was quite foggy. The run felt great, but my pictures only came out so so. I was just so glad for a change in scenery. I barely noticed that 3.5 miles had gone by, since I had so much to take in of my surroundings.

Of course we also ran by Didi's neighbor's house.. who happens to be Mr. Obama himself...

After our run, we came back to the apartment, showered and got ready for the day. Mike and I then headed to Northern Virginia, to my sister's house, where she was throwing an incredible party for a very handsome 2 year old.

My sister had made quite the food spread and everything was so adorable!

My other nephew was also there, and so was my little princess niece... always acting out some Rapunzel scene.

I had a plateful of the delicious party food, which was really tasty.

We could only stay at the party for a few hours, because we had to be back in DC for an engagement party for another friend of mine. I didn't get any pictures on my iPhone of the engagement party, but it was a lot of fun. We had a great night with friends, catching up and celebrating a very happy couple.

The entire party headed to get a casual dinner afterward, so I ended up having Mexican 2 days in a row. Luckily, the second night, Mike got me grilled veggie and chicken tacos, which I ended up just eating everything out of the taco shell. It just seemed to taste better that way.

We had a few more drinks, hung out with more friends, had a late night cheeseburger, and then finally headed to bed around 2 am. We slept in pretty late (gasp... 9 am) on Sunday, grabbed breakfast with my family and then headed home to our pups. We spent the entire afternoon and evening on the couch, until we made a spaghetti dinner and headed to bed very early. What a busy, but fun weekend.

When we woke up this morning, we saw that a flock of flamingos had made their way to our front yard. Our church does this every year, and you have the opportunity to buy "flamingo insurance" so that your house doesn't get hit, but we forgot to ever buy any. Which meant this:

I secretly sort of love them, and want to keep them. :)

Have a great week!