Cowboys Stadium

Dani and I went to Texas last week for my 10 year high school reunion, and to spend some time with the fam. While we were there though we decided to take a tour of Jerry World. It was amazing!

Weekend Update

SATURDAY

Ran the Mud Run at Camp Pendleton with Rocky, Mike, and Chris. It's a blast of a 10k with lots of obstacles like walls and mud pits and stuff. Finished it in 1:09, and we placed 12th out of 78 all male teams, and 16th out of all 428 civilian teams (male, female, and mixed). Not bad! I'm doing it again with work in 2 weeks, which people at work think I'm "insane" to do it twice, "within 2 weeks!"

For the afternoon, we grilled some dogs and invited some peeps to hang at our place and since there was an intense marine layer over the beaches this weekend, we decided to play some of our favorite game, Monopoly Deal.

Dani had purchased Groupon for a gift cert to Peppino's Italian restaurant so we went and had a nice romantic dinner on the patio overlooking Lake Mission Viejo. Very nice.

SUNDAY

We attended Mariners Mission Viejo once again, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then went back to our house with big plans of beaching or kayaking, but arrived back in San Clemente to the afore mentioned marine layer, and decided that didn't sound like fun anymore, so we called up our new neighbors in Ladera Ranch, Rocky and Jennifer, and went out on a hike with them. Snagged a few GeoCaches and then hit the pool. Multiple pools actually as we tooled around Ladera Ranch's many pools searching for just the right one for us. We had swimming races in the pool and discovered that Dani and I are very evenly matched when it comes to swimming, and we think we should explore that activity more often. Then they offered us giant steaks to eat, and you all know I cannot turn that down. Thanks JOCKY!

Weekend Update

So, its been over a year since my last post. I suppose life just got busy and this got pushed aside, but it's back after popular demand. At least I'm going to attempt to bring it back!

I realize it's Wednesday, but it was a long weekend. So here's the update.

FRIDAY

We went out on our 3rd whale watching attempt. We left for an evening cruise with Rocky and Jennifer out of Dana Point in hopes of seeing some Blue Whales, since it is the season for them, but alas, no blues, just a measly 40 foot Humpback!

Just caught the tail end!

SATURDAY

Dani had to work in the morning so I grabbed Mike and Nate and we hiked Mt. San Antonio, better known as Mt Baldy. Its the 3rd highest mountain in SoCal, and one I've wanted to hike for a while now. I scored a coveted permit to hike Mt. Whitney this summer, so I figure we better get some training hikes in. It was an awesome hike with some amazing views, but it was a windy day and we had to contend with 40 mph winds on the ridge line to the summit which was not fun at all.

San Antonio Falls

The Devil's Backbone

The Devil's Backbone with the Mojave Desert in the background.

The final route to the summit.

One view from the summit with Saddleback (highest peak in OC) in the distance.

Feeling Victorious!

We were a bit disheartened to see this little guy make it up there no problem.

This was partly to show the power of the wind, and partly to see how long I could get Mike to take off his jacket. Then we rested in our wind shelter before heading down.

Great Hike!

11 miles / 4,000+ ft elevation gain

SUNDAY

We decided that we would finally hunker down and do some spiffying up of the beach house since we don't have any plans to leave it in the foreseeable future. So we picked one room and attacked it! We chose to hit the office, and went at like those design on a dime shows you see on TV. A full day of work and an amazing $40 later, we had a much more inviting peaceful office to work in. I accidentally deleted the before pics somehow, but here's some after shots.

MONDAY

I finally got my first taste of the Zakaryan Wiffle Ball Day in Ladera Ranch. Had been invited the last few years, but each year we were busy backpacking in Yosemite or getting engaged in Sequoia to make it. I must say we have been missing out. It was quite fantastic, and way more official than I thought wiffle ball could ever be. And after we finished all 20 innings we had good times hanging out with everyone at the Z's abode.