Well, here I go again…yet another post that is not about triathlons or training. I did say this blog was about training, racing, food, friends, and everything in between. Lately, I have just been enjoying more of everything in between 😉 Training and racing will come, I promise! Luckily my other interests keep me pretty active and outdoors as well.

One of the most amazing things about living in Southern California is that we are close to so many naturally beautiful places. This weekend my boyfriend suggested we make the most of that fact and drive out to Joshua Tree to do some hiking/rock hopping in the desert. It’s a 2 hour drive from our house and currently the perfect temps for hiking. We parked at the bottom of a valley and walked about a mile to a huge pile of rocks that haphazardly form a peak and started climbing. The rocks at the bottom are really course and fairly easy to climb, but it got a bit trickier as we got higher. There were sections in the middle where I got a little stuck, I couldn’t go over or around so ended up climbing through gaps underneath the huge boulders…eek! I got close to the very top and decided that was high enough for me since the rocks got really big and harder to navigate the further up you went. However, my mountain goat man kept going and gave me about 6 mini heart attacks watching him climb back down afterwards. While he was exploring the top section, I had a seat and enjoyed the view and blissful silence of the desert. The climb down was a bit sketchy, but we ended up making it home in one piece and got a pretty good workout too!

On Monday we had the day off for MLK day, so 2 of my co-workers and I decided to go snowboarding up in Big Bear (also a 2 hour drive from our house). After living in Aspen for 4 years I am a fairly decent snowboarder. However, my co-workers are newbies so I was the coach for the day…and now know that I am not a very good one lol. It is such a difficult thing to teach someone how to do, I had no idea! I lost my 1st student after 3 runs (the tail bone can only take so much), and the 2nd one stuck it out for 6 or 7 laps all on her heal edge before her legs finally gave in. Big Bear on a public holiday is probably not the best time to try and learn (along with the 3000 other people that had the same idea), but having it in our backyard is pretty amazing. All in all it was a fun, active day with friends minus the bruised tail bones.

California you spoil us 🙂