OOPS...

...I almost forgot

to all our friends running the

Cal International Marathon this Sunday.

Our friend Cindy Short is hoping to qualify for Boston 2008 :o)

RUN FAST MRS. CINDY, we'll be rooting for you.

WUUUTTT????

Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, rallied Friday in a central square and demanded the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Muhammad." read more here.

This is crazy, it was just a teddy bear :o( Remind me not to name my bears.

Lots has been going on in the R & C Reyes household. I am pooped and although we have a busy Saturday I am looking forward to relaxing a little on Sunday.

Monday we just stayed home and relaxed.

Tuesday was a LONG day since after work we headed out to look at cars after work. My hubby's Pathfinder needed thousands of dollars of repair so we went back and forth toying with the idea of buying a new car for him. It's also a huge gas guzzlor and these days there are smaller all wheel drive SUV's that aren't as bad on gas. Anyway, so we headed out car shopping on Tuesday night and came home with another crossover vehicle, the Nissan Rogue, it's Nissan's version of my Honda CR-V. It's very nice and will work great for us. Gas guzzling/Money Guzzling Pathfinder is gone to find a new home.

Wednesday was also another long day for us. Amy and I met after work and had our pedicures done in Walnut Creek and afterwards I headed home to meet my hubby so we could head to Daly City. My BIL's bday was on Sunday and we hadn't had a chance to celebrate so we did on Wednesday. We picked up Rocky's parents and then headed to a Chinese Restaurant that my BIL had picked out. OMG, it was way to authentic for me and I only liked about 2 things of the 7 they had ordered. We didn't order anything weird but they did have things like frogs, fungus and chicken feet on the menu. I also think things like whole chickens and ducks came with the head still attached, eeewww. I did try a little of everything but the only things I really liked were the noodles w/beef and the wonton soup. Then we headed out to Mel's Diner for some dessert. I had a chocolate covered macaroon...yumm! Happy Birthday Martin!

Yesterday I went home and did nothing after work. Rocky had band practice so after he left the doggies and I headed to bed, watched tv a little and then went to sleep.

I am very happy it's Friday, it's been pretty hectic here at work. I'm really counting down the days til we are off for the holidays.

This weekend we've got picture day with the doggies, going to see Kathy Griffin's show and christmas tree shopping.

I still haven't downloaded my pics :o( I'll try to get it done over the weekend.

Have a great weekend!

Less than 30 Days!

I just realized as I started to write this post that my ticker says we only have 28 days til Christmas. When did that happen? I know it's almost December but I think I'm refusing to accept it. I have no desire to go hit the malls with all the other bagillion people shopping. Last year I did a lot online but this year I'm behind on that....*SIGH*

Well the Thanksgiving Holiday/4 Day weekend was good for us. We ate a LOT of food, got to relax, hung out with friends and hung out with our dogggies.

Thursday morning I slept in pretty late because I was fighting off a cold which thankfully didn't develop into anything major and went away. I got up around noonish, YES NOON :o) and started preparing those yummy Jalapeno Thingies from Pioneer Women's site. YUM! Once those were done we started getting ready and headed out of the house around 3 to Daly City. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Rocky's parent's house and this year there were about 20 of us. We had food for about 100. There was the usual Thanksgiving spread, Filipino dishes and all kinds other stuff including some yummy desserts. I was stuffed like a piggie when we left there and even got a nice package of leftovers to take home. It was a nice mellow evening with the Reyes Family.

Friday, I slept in again but not too late. We had plans to meet my friend Debbie and her parents for lunch and then wine tasting in Livermore. We had lunch at a very cowboyish/westerney looking restaurant in Livermore which I can't remember the name of but was really good. We hit the wineries after that and I think we managed to make about 7 wineries. Some we just walked into and looked around and others we actually tasted at. One of the stops I wanted to make was at Concannon. We just opened up a bottle of their wine and really liked it so we wanted to buy some more. I also found a new place I liked, Tamas Estates, so we got a bottle there. Afterwards, we headed home to relax.

Saturday morning, we actually got up fairly early and headed to Pt. Isabel with the doggies for their weekend stroll around the park. We ran into Petra & Domino so we chatted/walked with Petra for a bit before they took off. We finished off the loop and then it was bath time for the doggies. They always hate this part :o( We finished up there and then decided to go bike shopping. It was suppose to be window shopping but now there sits a pretty new bike in our house :o)

Last year I got a new bike to do the Triathlon and although it served it's purpose the bike is too big for me. It's the smallest that came in that model but it's still just a few inches to big so it makes riding it a bit uncomfortable. One of our running friends from the Summer Team is interested in buying my old one and is getting it fitted to see if it'll work for her, if it doesn't then I'll be selling it on craigslist. I can get a pretty good amount for it since it's only a year old and only has 200 miles on it. New, the bike is still quite pricey. Anyway, so we've been looking online for new ones and had picked 3 of them to go look at. I found one that I really liked and had components, fit me and was on sale. The bonus was that when were were finishing up paperwork the guy remembered we were with TNT so he gave us the TNT discount....woohooo...so we couldn't pass it up. I'll have to post pictures later, I haven't downloaded them off my camera.

While we were at the bike shop my BIL, SIL and niece & nephew met up with us so we could go out to dinner. We all drove out to Lafayette and met Rocky's cousin, Rodney, there. We had dinner at Bo's. The food was finger licking good :o) We will definitely be going back there again, but maybe not so soon. It was a lot off food and once again we had stuffed our bellies.

Noticing a trend here? Eat, Sleep, Repeat :o)

Sunday, we got up and headed out on the bikes. We went on an 11 mile bike ride on the Lafayette/Moraga Trail. It was super chilly so we froze and I wasn't feeling so hot from all the food we'd eaten the past few days. It was good to be out though and it was good to be on the new bike which I can tell is gonna make a huge difference in my comfort when riding.

Rocky and I have decided to do the Solvang Bike Ride. Since we aren't planning on a spring half marathon we figured we'd better find a new goal. Rocky is going to do the century and I'm going to do the 50 miler. We will be training on our own. If we joined the cycle team with Team in Training we'd have to raise about $4500 and we just finished fundraising for the run team so that won't work for us :o( I'm sure though we'll find some riding buddies and manage to get the training in on our own. My goal is to eventually complete a century but I think that'll have to wait til next year when I can join the team and fundraise again. It'll be nice though to go down there and see what doing a bike race is like. A few of our running buddies are on the team so we'll know people doing it as well. Should be fun.

My eating for the weekend finished off with a very good salami sandwich for lunch after the bike ride. Then we went home and plopped on the bed with the doggies and watched TV for the rest of the day. It was super cold in our house so we actually had to turn the heater on for the first time. It got nice and toasty to I fit in a nap and then watched more tv.

Monday was back to work and it's been pretty hectic. I've been a good girl as far as eating and plan to be at least until the Christmas festivities begin. I heard on the radio that the average American gains 6 lbs between November and Jauary....YIKES! That's not good!

I Heart My Girlfriends

A few weekendS ago we had a photo shoot with one of our summer tnt participants who's a photographer. She usually does kids but she agreed to take some pictures of our group of friends. We met at one of the beaches in Alameda, she did an amazing job and got some great shots.

Last year for Brandy's birthday I gave her a little plaque to hang and it really relates to our group of friends because life is life and we all get busy and don't always get to see each other but we know that we can just pick up the phone or type an eamil :o) and we are there for each other.

The plaque said:

GOOD FRIENDS ARE LIKE STARS.

YOU DON'T ALWAYS SEE THEM,

BUT YOU KNOW THEY'RE ALWAYS THERE

Birthday Cake & More Birthday Cake

The end of the week last week was a bit stressful because I had Ms. Daisy spayed :o( I had Patch neutered when he was about 8-10 months old but he was quite a bit bigger and I just didn't feel like I had much to worry about. He was in and out of there and recovered great. Ms. Daisy though barely weighs 5lb. I was told to wait to spay here until she was at least 5 or 6lbs and we did but in the last few weeks she has started teething so she hasn't been eating much. Of course we weigh her on surgery day and she's barely 5lbs, oops :O( Anyway, they did lab work to make sure her kidney's and liver could handle the anesthesia. They also hooked her up to an IV during surgery to keep her hydrated and to help with the flushing out of the anesthesia after surgery. She was given lots of pain meds as well. Does this sound like I'm talking about a human? haa, haa, it sure does but nope it was just my little Daisy. She did great during surgery and has been doing great recovering. Her dad allowed her to sleep in the bed for 3 days while she recovered but last night she went back in her crate. Thursday and Friday she was pretty sleepy and whiney but now she's doing good and back to horsing around with Patch. I think she was missing that.

Saturday I met my friend Debbie for lunch. She came over to the house to check it out, she's a busy girl so she hadn't made it over to our house since we've moved in. We went over to Samuri Sushi Boat for lunch and then back to my house to hang out. It was good seeing her.

We headed out around 3pm to meet Olivia in Emeryville so we could carpool over to Mill Valley for our first birthday celebration of the weekend, Ms. Brandy's 34th Birthday. Her BF lives in Mill Valley and she was hosting a birthday dinner at his house. We had some YUMMY Apple Martini's with appetizers and later when everyone had arrived we ate some yummy lasagna, salad, green beans she had made. It was a great evening with friends and yummy food. OH and I can't forget the delicious CHOCOLATE cake.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRANDY!

Sunday we headed out to Pt. Isabel to celebrate Patch's 2nd Birthday. His real bday is on Wednesday but we wanted to have something on the weekend with the other doggies. I ordered a cake from Annabelle's Dog Bakery in Walnut Creek, she made his cake last year, and we invited a few doggie friends and their parents to come out and join us. We did the cake first. That was pretty funny. Mr. Patch LOVES his cake and so did the other doggies. In fact Ms. Riley ate her cake, Patch's cake and Domino's cake. I had to serve seconds so the other doggies could actually eat a decent size piece. At one point some strange doggie came over and Patch about took his head off. He was an uninvited guest eating his doggie cake, he wasn't having it. Brycen & Abby showed up a little late so they got to take their pieces home and even got to take a piece home to their sibling, Jagger.

We had a great turnout with six doggies and their parents and even auntie Olivia made the drive out to celebrate.

Doggies: Riley, Domino, Abby, Brycen, Patch & Daisy

and their Parents: Brandon and his girlfriend Leticia, Petra, Rudy and his wife, Cheri, Rocky, myself and auntie Olivia.

Mind over Matter

Zoe Koplowitz finished the New York City Marathon in 28 hours and 45 minutes. NOPE I'm not kidding. She has MS and Diabetes but the 2007 NYC Marathon was her 20th. You can read a great article here about her day in NY. It's pretty darn amazing.

We actually had on our team a lady, Ida, who has MS and she was determined to finish a marathon. Her words, "I will not let MS take over my life". There were times that we would worry about her and didn't think she'd make it another step but she was always out there and always with a smile even if she wasn't feeling to great. She worked with Mama Lisa, our coach, on a schedule that would allow her to do the Nike Half Marathon and then the New York Marathon. SHE DID!

At some point during the race in NY I saw her and she was smiling and just walking along with her partner. She said she was doing great. I wasn't sure if she'd finished because her time wasn't posted but later in the week we found out she had finished in 10+ hours.

I saw her last night at our end of the season party and she just had a smile from ear to ear and showing off her medal.

Like Coach says, if you don't mind it don't matter. She has MS and it doesn't matter, she went out and did the damn thing and finished :O)

New York Marathon Race Report

I have got to admit the the race is a big blur to me. I was watching the race on TV the other day and there were so many parts of it that I couldn't remember going by. I think I was delirious :o( and the pain had taken over.

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, we arrived at the starting area at about 6:30am, all bundled up in many many layers of clothes and we all had brought blankies. We sat around, ate, went to the potty several times and just tried to relax, even though it was freezing, for quite a few hours.

We had heard that they wanted us to check in our bags by 9:15 and if you know me, you know I hate crowds and I hate waiting til the last minute to do things. At about 8:30 I started asking everyone if they wanted to go check in their stuff since the clothes that were keeping us warm we were throwing away anyway so why hold on to our bags. I got a few frowns cause everyone was so cold and didn't want to move so we waited a little longer. At 8:45 I decided that I would start heading over and just check in my stuff. I didn't need anything in the bag anyway.

OMG, it was the most horrible bag check ever. It was almost like the 45,000 people running this race were all at the bag check and not being nice at all :o( We were shoulder to shoulder and people were pushing and being mean. The way in was also the way out of that area so it was a mess. I being little do not do well in these situations and started to panic. I tend to get squashed and trampled on so I found a nook in the crowd that was coming out and I managed to little by little inch my way through. Next thing I know a man had jabbed his elbow into my chest, OUCH! I yelled at him and he wouldn't move his elbow and then proceeded to call me names because he said I wasn't being patient. YOU ARE RIGHT! I am not being patient because I am being crushed by all the darn people behind me and I'm little and it hurts so screw you Mr.!!! I inched on through and luckily my bus was the 3rd one, I checked my stuff in and then somehow manged to inch my way out of there :o( what a nightmare. They really need to redo that whole baggage area thing.

We all met back up in the area we had been sitting and then walked over to our corral. Luckily it was about a half hour wait maybe before the start of the race. It took us about 15 minutes cross the finish line and once we did we were on our way up the Verazano-Narrows Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn.



I decided to stay with Lindsay and Monica, they had decided to do a 5:3 run/walk and that sounded good to me. Monica and I walk pretty fast so staying with them was fine. Although I was able to do this I could just tell that my body did not really feel like running and I was feeling good but not great, it was weird.

We kept this pace for quite a while but soon Lindsay and I started feeling pretty icky. I think we both over did it on the water and were really starting to feel the effects of it. We both added some salt by eating pretzels and me drinking gatorade and salt tablets. After a little while we both felt better except now it felt much better to walk than to run so we kept a steady pace and kept on moving.

We knew that our families/friends would be at mile 16 so I think the main goal became to just get to that point and we did.

that is the Queensboro Bridge where we came off of

Rocky, Phil, Carol Lee & Lakshman at Mile 16

Rocky bathing me in Biofreeze and putting on my ankle bandage

I had a hard time though because somewhere around mile 14ish my ankle really started to hurt :o( I knew Rocky had the Biofreeze & ankle bandage ready for me but it was hurting really bad. I think it was around this time that Monica and Lindsay started talking to a guy who was walking next to us. We introduced ourselves and found out that he was an ING employee and this was his first race. He looked younger than me and very much in shape, like he should be at mile 20 something at an 8 minute mile not here at mile 14 walking with us. I guess he had a really bad IT band injury and his knee was hurting so he was only able to run 3 miles and had been walking the rest of the way. Anyway, he decided we were fun and motivating so he stayed with us. Plus we had Biofreeze :o) and he needed it.

We were finally on the Queensboro Bridge and it seemed to take forever to get off it. Rocky, Phil, Lakshman, Carol Lee & Kieren were all waiting for us at the bottom of the bridge. The bridge was super quiet but as we got closer to the bottom you could hear all the cheers and I managed to get some energy and run down the bridge to where Rocky was. That's when the tears came. As soon as I saw my hubby I started crying and told him I didn't want to do the race anymore. My ankle hurt and at this point so did my knees and I was ready to quit. He told me to put the bandage on, lather up with Biofreeze and that I would be fine and to be on my way. FINE! I did and on my way I went.

Lindsay and Monica decided to start running. Lindsay was also starting to hurt pretty bad in the back of her knees and said running felt better, I could not run so I stayed back and found that the girls had left me with Andrew. We went miles and miles walking and walking and walking. For a long time no words were said we would just ask each other every few miles if the other one was okay and just keep on going. I think we both felt better knowing someone was there even though we didn't know each other and we were both hurting. Rocky & Phil would be at mile 23 and this now became my goal, GET TO MILE 23!

From 16-23 it looks like we kept from a 15-16 1/2 minute mile. I felt like I was doing 30 minute miles and was never going to get there but I guess we were moving along. I had a moment of panic and anxiety when we made it to 23 and Rocky was not there. We also had the fire trucks/police escorts right on our tail. I gathered myself and just kept going and next thing I know at around 23.5 there was Rocky and Phil were waiting for me. At this point my back was killing me, my hips, my knees and my ankle but now I had them with me and there was no way I was quitting here. They made sure that Andrew and I were okay and they stayed with us. It was cold and very dark by this time, it felt like it was midnight and the race people were starting to tear down the barriers.....YIKES! but we still had a lot of time before the 8 hour cutoff so we knew we'd be okay.

with my new friend at mile 24ish, it's only like 4:30ish but it looks like it's midnight :o( and he's in space blankie because it had gotten super cold. they handed out space blankets at the aid stations. I luckily had kept my long sleeve top and had my hands tucked into it.

Keep on Walking, Walking, Walking!

The boys pushed me along and eventually we split from Andrew. I think he was really having a hard time walking at this point and I had somehow found a little burst of energy to make me move faster through that last mile. I know it was Rocky, Phil and the spectators. Phil was carrying the signs he had made for us so as I walked along Central Park he held up the signs and the few spectators that were left cheered for me. It felt awesome.

When I saw that I only had about 200 yards to go I decided to run in. I finished in 6:59:48.

This by far was the funnest race I've ever done because of all the spectators although at the end it did get lonely because people had gone home. I didn't get to experience a gagillion people cheering me on but that is okay, hey at least the finish line was still up :O)

It was also the toughest race I've ever done. Mentally it was draining and physically it was painful but I'm glad I did it and now I can say I'm one of the few that has gotten into and has finished the New York City Marathon.

NY Trip Report

Thursday

Thursday evening Rocky and I took the doggies to Daly City. They were going to be baby sat by my BIL & SIL (brother & sister in law). At the very last minute we made the decision to leave Daisy behind. Original plans were to take her to NY with us because she is still little and very attached to us but I had a panic moment on Thursday and decided it wasn’t a good trip for us to take her on. Plus she gets cold and the temperatures in NY were starting to drop. I called my SIL and she assured me things would be okay and to go ahead and leave her. So we did.

Fast forward to Tuesday when we picked them up, she did great. Both doggies were super spoiled and loved while we were gone :o) In fact my SIL’s mom wanted to keep Ms. Daisy. Very cute. We are glad that we left them together. It would have been way too hectic for us to bring her.

Friday – Travel & Pasta Dinner Day

Alarm clock went off at 5:30am. Rocky and I were all packed except for last minute stuff so all we had to do was get ready and throw those few things in the suitcase. Olivia and Bree were gonna meet us at our house at 6:30am so we could carpool to the airport. We arrived at Oakland Airport pretty fast, no traffic, checked the car in with the parking lot and got shuttled over to our terminal at Jet Blue. We grabbed a bit to eat and at 8:20ish boarded our plane bound for NY.

Plane ride was pretty uneventful. I did a little reading and watched tv. I brought my knitting stuff but didn’t get any done :o(

We arrived in NY at 5:00pm (NY time). Grabbed our suitcases and waited for the limo service to pick us up. We decided to get a limo because it was cheaper and easier for our big group. This was my first time in a limo so I was pretty excited.

Jeanette and Petra had arrived at different terminals. Jeanette walked over to our terminal and once the limo had us all settled we’d drive over and pick up Petra.

Let me just say that I HATED the whole limo thing. First of all limos have about the same amount of space in their trunk than a car, okay maybe just a tad bigger but NOT MUCH. How in the heck are you supposed to get luggage for 8 people in it? Our driver was acting like it was the first time he’d ever driven the darn limo and had never had to deal with the dilemma of getting the luggage in. We all had to help him. Our luggage ended up in the trunk, in the front seat and in the limo with us. It was not fun and at first it was just 7 of us we still had to pick up Petra :o( Picked Petra up and had to do the luggage rearrange thing and finally we were on our way.

I was sitting on the side part and ended up feeling super sick. I had to switch places with Amy so I could sit facing forward and next to the window. The limo ride was about an hour because of the traffic and when we finally arrived at the airport I was nauseas and had a massive headache :o( We all flew out of the limo and into our hotel, the Hilton. We checked in and put our luggage away, freshened up and then walked over to Carmine’s for our pasta dinner.

Dinner was super yummy. It was family style so we were able to try quite a few different plates. Thank god we had made reservations because the place was packed. The only bad thing was we weren’t able to all sit together. When I made the reservations a few months ago I was told that any groups over 14 had to use the banquet room and order off the banquet menu of $42 pp….YIKES! So instead we made two reservations, one under my name and one under Olivia’s with smaller groups. Olivia’s group was seated downstairs and mine upstairs :o( we all had a good time though and really enjoyed the food.

Dinner reservations were at 8pm so by the time we got out of there it was late and we were pooped. We headed back to the hotel to unpack and get settled and get some sleep.

Saturday – Expo & Pasta Dinner (again!) Day

We agreed to meet in the lobby at 8:00am on Saturday. It was an early day for us but we wanted to get the Expo thing out of the way early before EVERYONE hit the expo. We walked over to Starbucks to get some coffee and a bite to eat and then we were on our way.

When we arrived at the expo it was fairly mellow. We grabbed our goodie bags and then shopped around. OMG, did I shop :o) and my hubby spoiled me. Hey, it’s my last full marathon, I gotta go out in style :o) They had some very cute race swag so I stocked up. When we left the expo it was much more crowded. We are glad we went early.

Next stop, lunch. We went to Carnegie Deli, a very famous and yummy deli. Only bad thing was the portions are huge. It was crowded but they managed to fit us all in before the really big crowds came. It was a very yummy lunch and then afterwards we all wobbled on back to the hotel.

Amy, Bree, Petra & I decided to go scope out the subway situation so we wouldn’t have to do it at 4am on Sunday. We went back to the hotel to put our things away and ask the concierge where the nearest subway line was to the Staten Island Ferry. We headed out to find it, check out the route and train we were suppose to be on and purchase tickets. We headed back and I made a quick trip with the girls to a knitting store, it was a pretty sad store so I bought nothing and headed back to the hotel with Amy & Bree. Pertra decided to keep on walking around but we really needed to get off our feet.

We headed back to our rooms and got all our race gear ready. Olivia came and hung out with Jeanette and I til it was time for dinner. We watched tv and I think even managed to doze off for a few minutes.

My hubby and Phil were out on their own adventure and were meeting us at dinner.

Dinner Saturday evening was at Angelo’s. It was right next to where the Late Show is taped and I guess it’s the restaurant that David Letterman sends his peeps to get pizza at. It too was pretty busy but we were seated right away since we had reservations. MORE PASTA and that was I think my last pasta meal for a long time. I’m sick of pasta although it was yet another yummy meal.


We headed back to the hotel and called it a night. Wake up call was scheduled for 3:30am :o(

Rocky and Phil went on another adventure, making cheering signs for us. THANK YOU!

Sunday – RACE DAY!

Alarm, cell phone, wake up call – 3:30am as scheduled. We got up, got dressed and had our first meal of the morning. Jeanette and I headed down and met Raji and Olivia in the lobby. Rocky and Lakshman took a few pics and on our way we went. We made it to the subway station in time to take the 5:00am train but after a bit of confusion we found out that the train we were looking for didn’t start running til 6:30…YIKES! Another runner waiting for the train told us which train to take and we were on our way. We missed the 5:30 ferry by just few minutes but were right up front in line for the next ferry at 6:00am.


On the ferry we were at 6:00am for a ride to Staten Island, then a bus to the start line. Then a LONG time of waiting for the race to start. Then, then, then, it was race time.



I will update on the race tomorrow :O)

After the race I wobbled on back to the hotel after another ride on the subway and a few more blocks of walking, ouchie, ouchie, ouchie. We had attempted to get a cab but by the time I finished, almost 7 hours later, it was packed in town and there were no empty cabs.

By the time we got back to the room Jeanette had finished her ice bath and had one ready for me. We had decided to order room service because neither Jeanette or I could take another step. I gave Rocky my order and then attempted to get in the ice bath….NOPE….wasn’t happening. I freaked out and mentally I could not take any more torture so I got out. I took a nice warm shower, put my jammies on and when dinner arrived I pigged out :o) It was the yummiest burger and beer I’ve ever had. Phil & Rocky were pretty pooped after their long day of spectating so we all turned in early. Phil went back up to his room and we went night, night.

Monday – Last Day in NY :o(

I was super duper sore and was moving slow but we met up with Jeanette, Olivia & Phil for breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant. After breakfast we checked out of our rooms and stored our luggage in the baggage closet. We said goodbye to Phil, he was headed to Boston, and then we headed to the Marathon Finishers Store at Tavern on the Green. There were some jackets we wanted to purchase but by the time we go to the store it was pretty much empty. Olivia and Jeanette bought the men’s jackets and I got a sweatshirt. Olivia’s parents were there too so we hooked up with them and then headed out to walk around.

Olivia's parent's took off to head back to their hotel and then to the airport. Then a little while later Jeanette parted ways and headed to the airport as well.

It was Olivia, Rocky and I left. Amy, Bree and Petra were on their own adventure shopping at all the knitting stores, they were going to meet us later at the hotel.


We walked around NY for hours and hours. I felt like we’d gone in a bagillion circles around town. We had lunch, managed to do more shopping at the Nike store, more walking, another trip to Carnegie Deli for some cheesecake and then finally made it back to the hotel around 5ish.



Limo was coming to pick us up at 6:30. Amy and Bree made it back to the hotel and we met them in the bar for a final NY cocktail, a very expensive one. We picked up our luggage and waited for limo man which happened to be a suburban man. Because of the luggage fiasco on Friday our limo service hired another limo service to come pick us up in a suburban. MUCH better.

Ride to the airport pretty uneventful. Plane ride also uneventful, our plane was pretty empty and we arrived in Oakland about 12:30.

Ahhhh, back home to my nice comfy bed.

The trip to NY with everyone was a lot of fun. Thank You everyone for making it such a fun time.