All Good Things…

…must come to an end. I’m blogging from my kitchen table instead of my parent’s balcony. Vacation is officially over and it’s time to get back to my normal routine. Although that routine has shifted slightly and I’m now forced to deal with it and not be distracted by travel. We’ll see how this goes. Luckily, I enjoy what I do so I don’t dread going back to work whatsoever! I actually can’t wait to see everyone. I just have to figure out the yoga piece of it. I really miss teaching.

I’ll share my last day of vacation with you before I make my way to the gym for work. My flight didn’t leave until 6:30 so I was able to spend most of the day relaxing. It was kind of like a bonus day of vacation!

Breakfast was overnight (more like 30 minutes) oats with Greek yogurt, old fashioned oats, skim milk, cinnamon, peaches and bananas. Topped with peanut butter and blackberry jam.

After breakfast and blogging I headed out to get a workout in. I decided to do a spin of the CrossFit WOD that Metro was doing back home.

The WOD was “Tumilson”

8 rounds for time 
200 meter run
11 dumbbell burpee deadlifts

I changed the run to 400 meters so that I would cover 2 miles total and went lighter than prescribed on the burpee deadlifts. I finished in 27:42. The way the burpee deadlifts work are that you hold the dumbbells by your side, keep them in your hands as you jump back for the burpee and then keep them by your side as you come  up (no clap overhead) and then perform a deadlift holding the dumbbells. Is that complicated? If so, I can do a quick video for you. I did this workout outside with a set of dumbbells I grabbed from the gym (only used 15 pounds!).

Remember that chocolate peanut butter donut? It didn’t stand a chance after I finished my workout. 😉

I got all showered, coated in sunblock and dressed for the beach. The second I arrived at the beach and set up my chair, it started to pour. My mom and I quickly packed up and headed back in.

I got caught up on some work emails and then it cleared up enough for us to head back out. I was determined to spend my last day at the beach, cloudy or not!

It was actually really beautiful after the storm. The water was so calm and the reflection of the sky and clouds on the ocean was very cool and almost mystical.

I’m tan but not this tan, I swear! This is a dark photo. I cross my heart that I wore SPF 30 the entire time and reapplied often!

Before long the clouds had all but cleared and the sun was shining. I soaked up a couple of hours of sun while finishing Richard Paul Evans’ latest novel, The Walk. It took me all of three hours to read and I was not super impressed. Apparently, it’s the start of a series of books about a man’s journey walking from Seattle to Key West but I can’t say I’ll be following along with the series.

I said farewell to the beach and then came in for a late lunch and to pack up. I made an open faced sandwich with sourdough, mayo, mustard, avocado, chipotle chicken and monterey jack.

My mom drove me to Pensacola to catch my flight. We said a tearful goodbye (I can never keep it together when I’m saying goodbye to my parents, especially at the airport!). The Pensacola airport is tiny and easy to navigate. I got there just 45 minutes before my flight, checked in and boarded quickly. The trip to Atlanta was relatively painless with the exception of having to circle for a little while because of weather in Atlanta…which would come back to haunt me later.

We arrived in Atlanta around 9 p.m. and my flight to Charlotte was scheduled to depart at 10:20. I checked the monitor and saw that it was delayed until 11:14 due to weather so I set off in search of food. I took one look at the Chili’s Express on my concourse and took the train over to another concourse for a sit down dinner at One Flew South. While the Atlanta Airport is huge and a pain to navigate sometimes, it is definitely the kind of place where you want to get stuck for dinner. I had a seaweed salad and a spicy tuna roll. Much better than a greasy sandwich and fries.

When I got back to my gate it was time to board. And then it was time to sit. Right when we boarded a severe thunderstorm rolled in and it was raining heavily, thundering and lightening. No one was going anywhere.

We were finally cleared for takeoff at midnight. I was tired of reading so I just listened to music and looked out the window. We were flying through thunderstorms for the majority of the flight and although it was striking to watch, it was a little unsettling.

I was so happy to land safely in Charlotte and I finally arrived home at 1:30 a.m. and collapsed into bed. I slept until about 8 this morning and I’m feeling rested and ready to go.