Firefly

Last weekend I joined two of my closest DC friends and some of their friends and some of their friends' friends and several thousand other people in Dover, DE for Firefly, a three day music festival. We camped out so in order to have our sites next to each other we all met in Annapolis Thursday night. After 4 hours of sleep we got up at 4 am, finished loading the cars and headed to Dover. As soon as we hit the city limits we hit traffic and were at a standstill. Finally we moved a little and an hour later we were at camping registration and another hour later we finally had our campsite. We had four cars so we were able to set up a pretty big area.

The rest of the weekend consisted of getting up and ready early (that sun wakes you up!), hanging at camp till a little after noon, heading in to the festival, listening to 4 or so shows (some up close some way far back), eating, going to the THICKET (a silent disco in the woods), and crawling back in to the tent sometime after midnight.

Vampire Weekend

We we first arrived on Friday the crowds weren't bad at all, but people continued to roll in and with the addition of one day ticket holders on Saturday and Sunday the place got FULL. There was a line for everything, but mostly the lines went quickly.

Dispatch

My favorite shows were The Avett Brothers, Dispatch, Vampire Weekend, Foster the People, and Tom Petty. The sun got to me during the day, so night shows definitely had an advantage.

Father's Day 8K 2013

Its been a few days since Father's Day, but I wanted to wait for my photo before writing the recap. I know you've been waiting!

I signed up for this race last year because my sister, Kristen, was in town and wanted to do a race. I really liked it because of the small race field, the flat course, the afternoon start time, and the overall friendly atmosphere. I had a huge PR and I think Kristen got 4th in her age group. Overall we were both satisfied.

This year I signed up because I hadn't ran a race since the 1/2 marathon in April and I was itching to run a shorter distance. But I didn't train at all and have been running less. I set out fast. Like a 7:30 first and second mile... then I hit a wall and got a stomach cramp. I wasn't running on fresh legs either, I had ran the day before and played football earlier in the day. So my third mile was around 8:22, and finished with a strong forth and fifth in 9 somethings.

It was a really warm night and I wasn't feeling the best. The whole last mile I was chanting to myself "less than a mile to go". I thought the clock said 40 something, which I was pleased with, although I haven't broke 40 minutes yet. I forgot to stop my watch for a good minute so I had to wait till the official results came out before I knew my time.

I finished and had five cups of water and gatorade... and didn't try the cupcake. I was tired so I didn't stay for awards and rode my bike home. The next day I woke up to a results email saying that I won THIRD PLACE IN MY AGE DIVISION!

 Courtney   30 Washington DC        40:54     17   F30-39 3

I've placed in some tiny races, but never in a DC race. This race is a lot smaller than others in DC and my time was slower than last year and I've bumped up into an older age group, but I'm still pretty pumped. 

San Francisco

As we approached San Francisco we pulled over for a view of the Golden Gate, but this is all we saw:

Friday night we headed out to get seafood and enjoy some of the nightlife. I took Instagrams as bread crumbs to find our way home:

Saturday we were up early to see Alamo Park and the Painted Ladies (Full House anyone?):

Then to the wharf and our view of Alcatraz:

and SEA LIONS:

All over SF there were great murals on the sides of buildings, I especially loved this Peacock:

After spotting a naked bike ride, eating dim sum, and strolling Union Square we headed with the Car to Lombard Street and zig zagged our way down:

Gave one more attempt at the Golden Gate, this time we saw the bottom:

We headed the burbs for dinner at a nice steak house and drinks at an Irish pub with live music. Sunday most of the crew left, but I had the run of the city. I was a little tired but I made sure to stop by one of my favorite stores we don't have in DC (UNIQLO) and then caught a local play (Arcadia) before I made sure to take a ride on a street car:

And head back to the airport and back to DC after a great weekend with childhood friends:

Wine Country

To continue celebrating my entry into a new decade of life I flew across the country to meet up with three friends I've pretty much known my whole life (oh and a husband and another friend tagged along). Not only did we go to school K-12 together, but so did our siblings. We somehow decided on Napa Valley and San Francisco, which I was excited by because it was my first time. 

Our trip started out with a day of 5 wineries (three of which included tours) a fabulous driver and a gorgeous picnic above the vines. 

Day two we hit up one winery on our way to Sonoma and then another in Sonoma before lunch.

Tiffany was a master taster

We had a fantastic lunch on the main square in Sonoma. I had a delicious grilled cheese with bacon inside.

As we drove towards the coast we stopped in Petaluma to visit the Lagunitas Brewery. Oh and buy David sunglasses, he accidentally left his NAPA hat in Napa.

Soon we hit the ocean... only we couldn't see it. The fog was thick... so we drove on to San Francisco.

Baling hay

I made a quick trip home to Missouri for Memorial Day weekend. It was a relaxed weekend- coffee shop, workout with my sisters (which I won), pizza, Family BBQ, BISCUITS AND GRAVY, and most excitingly some hay baling.

dumping the round bale

my dad representing DC & Gretchen the co-pilot

tractor photo op (and how I got that huge bruise on my leg)