europe trip 2001

Well, I just got back in contact with my long lost friend Ruth, who I met while backpacking in 2001 around Europe, so I'm using my blog to post some pix of us on that trip that she never saw. I hope everyone else enjoys them too.

For those of you who don't know the story, I'll tell you.

Sandy, a friend from my program at UGA and I after graduating embarked on a tour of Europe, to put off working just a little while longer. With no set itinerary, just a list of places we wanted to see, some guidebooks, and a map, we headed off to Europe. While travelling through Spain, Cordoba to be exact, we found ourselves sharing a room with a cool British girl named Ruth. She had about a week before returning to England, so decided to join us after we left Cordoba and headed to Sevilla. We spent a couple of sweltering days in Sevilla (staying at pretty much the worst 'hotel' imaginable, I use the term hotel very loosely) and then said our good byes as she headed back home.

Well about a week or so later when Sandy and I were in Barcelona we got an email from Ruth saying that the weather in England was too dreary, that she was bored so could she join back up with us. We were so excited, and a few days later I picked her up at the airport in Nice, France! The three of us travelled together the whole rest of the trip; through France, italy, Switzerland, and Prague. We had so much fun together. Such good times! We said a very tearful goodbye in Prague, and Sandy and I headed back to Paris for a few days before heading back to the U.S. I missed her all the more when Ryan surprised me at Sacre Couer in Paris by proposing. If she hadn't been swindled out of money in Rome she would have been there to share in that moment.

So that's the story of Ruthie!

Sevilla, Spain (oh, so hot!)

Sevilla, Spain (A night of flamenco that we never actually saw)

Riomaggiore, Italy

Vernazza, Italy
Florence, Italy We each spent our food budget for the day on these $15 gelatos!!!!Scammed!!

Sorrento, Italy (a night dressed up for a change!)Isle of Capri, Italy

The Forum in Rome, Italy with Grant

Paragliding in Interlaken, Switzerland

Oh, lovely Gimmelwald, Switzerland

Prague

Ryan's surprise proposal! 4 star hotel room, here I come!

dog days of summer

Here are some more pictures from last weekend taken at Normanskill farm, which as you can see has a river where dogs can swim as well as miles of hiking trails and a dog park. The best part about it is it's proximity to our house, about 2 miles! Needless to say this is Zoe's favorite place to go on the weekends, and I'd be lying if I said we didn't enjoy it as well.

Yep, Zoe is still obsessed with the frisbee!

This is Zoe's boyfriend Buster (Nikki and Dan's labradoodle). She likes her men to be young and fixed!
The Bressler 2007 family portrait

free music at empire plaza

This time of year in Albany is great! The weather is mild (knock on wood) and there is a ton of free music! Every Monday and Thursday there are free concerts, and Grease (the muscial) is playing in the park for free.

Well, Saturday afternoon Ryan and I headed down to Empire Plaza for a free Alternative Music Festival with Garreth, Nikki and Dan, and Brian (Garreth, Dan, and Brian are all in school with Ryan). The bands included The Fratelli's, Cracker, The Lemonheads, and a few other bands that we missed earlier in the day. The entertainment on stage was just half of the excitement of the day, however.

Well, we soon discovered that maybe there is no such thing as "free music". We were definitely paying a price! The price was this image that will be forever ingrained in our minds:
This picture is tame compared to some of the things that this couple subjected us to throughout the day. Not even the New York State Police could prevent them from showing their "spirit", both for the bands and for each other!
Here is our tribute to our lovely friends and their thumbs:




And here are some more pictures:

(I had to take this one b/c of the fact that there is no way I'll have another chance to see these two beer snobs drink Miller light)

Bald Peak

Keith (aka-Earnest P. Higgonbotham) decided at the last minute to come up from Jersey this weekend to do some hiking and drinking (Ryan saved the last of his homebrewed Rye Pale Ale's for Keith to try), regardless of back pain that rendered him immobile only days earlier. What a recovery that was, Earnest, I mean Keith! We decided to head north again to the High Peaks in the Adirondacks Saturday morning. The weather was in the 70's, close to perfect. Our goal this weekend was up and over Blueberry Cobbles to Bald Peak, a round trip total of 7.8 miles.

We realized a mile and half into the ascent of Blueberry Cobbles, why it was named so. Wild blueberries everywhere! We snacked along the way, occasionally stumbling upon wild raspberries too. The blueberries were yummy, but the far more rare, perfectly ripened raspberry, was a definite treat!

Tiny and slightly tart!

View from Blueberry Cobbles

Blueberry Cobbles overlook

With the peak of Blueberry Cobbles behind us it was down and then back up a small ridge, then down the ridge and finally up to Bald Peak. It really stinks, hiking down knowing that every step down means even more to climb uphill! Although, we did get to climb up some fun rocky areas that to get down I had to do the crab crawl. The closer we got to the summit the more rock there was to climb (hence the name Bald Peak) and the top because of the open summit allowed for 360 degree views! It also allowed for lots of wind!

View looking east, Lake Champlain in the distance

View looking west toward the High Peaks

We ate lunch enjoying the views, looked at our map to locate other peaks, took some pictures, and then realized that dark clouds were quickly approaching from the north. Us being on a bald peak and all, we decided that maybe we should hightail it down to the treeline, before we became one of those 5:00 news stories. I try not to be a news headline as much as possible, unless it's winning the Lotto jackpot, I'd take that headline I guess.

Wow, look what Keith built!

Gotta love the hair...on both of us!

The hike back to the trailhead was pretty uneventful, luckily it never did rain. My legs did get pretty tired and my knee brace didn't seem to be doing a thing to help. Needless to say, I was glad to be back to the car. First things first - shoes and knee brace off, Crocs on!

This picture is a definite sign that I am getting old!

After getting home and showering it was out to dinner at one of our favorite places, Brown's Brewery in Troy, for some great beer and pub food on the patio overlooking the Hudson. Good times!

a 7 miler

I completed week 2 of my training program with a 7 miler Sunday morning! Yesterday was a hot one here in Albany with a high in the 90's, so I left the house before 8 am to try to beat the heat. It was still a little too hot for my liking and a bit hotter than most of my runs up until now, but I finished pretty strong regardless. Afterwards I scarfed down some pancakes w/ maple syrup, which I decided is going to become routine after my Sunday long runs! It'll give me something to look forward to when I pass a Dunkin Donuts at mile 5 and feel the urge to stop!

Week 3: I go up to 4 miles on my Wednesday run, but my long run is back down to 5!

Doing a marathon..or two!

Well I'm officially announcing that I am training for another marathon! Some of you know that I have been getting back into shape to put myself in the position to train, but I wasn't certain until recently that I could do it.

This is week 2 of my 18 week training program. I have been getting back into shape for several months now, which in the beginning was a lot harder than anticipated. My knees were hurting a lot in the beginning and every run seemed to be a struggle. But about 3 weeks ago it started getting better, and after 2 longish runs (6 miles) I feel great! This Sunday I go up to 7 miles for my longish run. I say long-ish because in marathoning a long run is connsidered 18+ miles. (So if you're only running 17 miles at a time, consider yourself a slacker!)hehe

I've decided to blog about my training in hopes that putting it out there (wherever there actually is) will motivate me more. Until the last week my motivation hasn't been like it was while training for my first two marathons, so I've been a bit worried. Any words of encouragement will be genuinely appreciated, especially as the weeks progress.

So here's my dilema. The timing of my program allows me to be ready for the Cape Cod Marathon October 28th, so I'm definitely planning on doing that one. But, I really want to do the Hudson Mohawk Marathon here in Albany (which is supposed to be a nice easy course) which is Oct 7th. I am thinking that'll I run the one here on the 7th anyway because that is my longest run week (20/22 miles), so why not run a few more miles and complete a marathon. This just means I'll have to alter my training program a little to be ready. After a marathon you should take it easy for several weeks for your body to recover, so just about the time my muscles and joint are recovered, I'd be doing another one! Am I being overly ambitious?

A Sunday to Remember

Okay, picture this. A beautiful clear sky day in the Adirondacks with a high temp of 72 degrees. Sitting in a canoe with your wonderful husband while enjoying this relaxing day. Fishing for a few hours in a cove before paddling over to an island for a picnic lunch. After munching on strawberries and cherries bought at a farmer's market the day before you read for a while in the sun, because you serioulsy need a little color on your pale skin. You then decide to get back into the canoe to fish some more, catching several fish with your brand new fishing pole. After a long...relaxing...beautiful day you slowly paddle back to the marina not wanting this wonderful day to end. (insert tires screeching loadly here)

Reality check.....This was not my Sunday!

Fact #1: We were in the Adirondacks
Fact #2: We did go canoeing
Fact #3: We did have a picnic lunch (although not on an island) consisting of the previously mentioned fruits
Fact #4:Okay, so I couldn't think of a #4

But, seriously, this was how I had envisioned the day beforehand.

Where do I begin. Well, the forecast did say 72, but I guess that was without taking into consideration the 25+ mile/hr winds up in the mountains (Maybe next time we'll find out the boating conditions ahead of time). We rented a canoe from a marina in Bolton Landing on Lake George, and with our gear nestled between us we ventured out into the lake for a glorious (and much anticipated) day. Our plan was to head to the nearest group of islands 1 mile or two away and find a place where we could fish for a couple of hours. Having loaded up on fishing gear the day before we were absolutely convinced that we would be catching fish left and right. I mean I have a pretty red pole, what more could you ask for.(hehehe)

If you can imagine canoeing on the open seas in the middle of a storm you are imagining our reality Sunday afternoon. The wind was so severe that we made very little headway, so crossing one of the widest parts of the lake to get to the islands wasn't going to happen, we quickly abandoned plan A. The problem was we had no plan B. The waves were crashing over the front of the canoe, especially when a much larger boat came by, which meant all our stuff was getting wet in the bottom of the canoe (luckily I mistakenly left our camera at home). My toes qickly became prunes! I have to say that it was a little frightening for a while. So we hugged the shore back towards the marina to call it a day, grumpy, stressed out, wet, and cold. Before making all the back we did find a cove where the wind wasn't as strong so we decided to cast a few times in an attempt to catch atleast a fish. On my second cast I had a nibble and on my third I caught a small mouthed bass!! Well that was enough to keep us out for a while longer. While it wasn't as windy, it was still windy. So our routine was to cast a few times, long enough for the wind to have moved us significantly, and then row back to where we started. Not exactly the relaxing day of fishing that I had envisioned. So having paid for a full day we called it quits after a mere 3 hrs.

After that we drove north along the lake to explore a few small towns hoping to find a pier where Ryan could fish from and that I could hang out and read my book. That didn't happen. 0 for 2! But we did find a little fair where we indulged in a fried onion from a street vendor! Yummmmm! (you could fry pretty much anything and I would eat it.) From there we headed back to the highway to call it a day (a lousy day at that). On the 15 mile stretch back to the highway we stumbled across one pond (where I was convinced a bear lives who eats people) and Ryan fished and caught many lily pads! However no fish. At this point we were so cold that we opened a bag of clothes in the trunk going to the Goodwill (see it's good that I am a procrastinator), ripped it open, and layered on anything that fit. Ryan was wearing an old ugly scarf of mine, as well as a bright orange shirt that was about 2 sizes to small. If only I had a camera!! At one point a car of people pulled up so Ryan took the scarf off of his neck and wrapped it around his waist! As if that made him seem less creepy!!! We found out it was 53 degrees! Several months ago I would have given my pinky finger for 53 degrees, but not in July!!!!

So that was our lame, disappointing Sunday of fishing!

A visit from John and Lisa

Last weekend John and Lisa drove up from NYC for a visit to the cultural mecca that is Upstate NY. (That's a joke by the way and if you've ever visited Lake George Village you would undesatnd)

We headed out on the Mohican for a tour of Lake George saturday morning (yes, that would be #3 for me this year) sans a single camera between the four of us. Therefore you'll have to take my word that they visited, b/c I only have a single picture to post that was taken right before they left on Sunday. We missed an opportunity to play miniature golf at one of FHM magazines top rated courses, arriving 5 minutes too late (probably b/c of John's driving!). We're not sure what credentials FHM (a guy's magazine that features riveting articles such as "Hometown Hotties") has to rate miniature golf, but what can I say, we couldn't resist wacking a golf ball through Paul Bunyan's legs either.

For dinner that evening we ate at Limoncello in Saratoga which was quite tasty, a much better choice than our last two dinners there. We are now 1 for 3 in Saratoga, but with racing season arriving soon we'll have several more chances to better our percentage!

The only picture from the weekend!