breath taking

I can’t even put into words the gorgeous views I have been taking in over the last couple of hours…literally took my breath away.  I was also running up and down a mountainside though, so that may have contributed a bit…

I set out to go on a 30-45 minute run and literally lost myself in the beauty of the landscape.  The time flew by, and if my playlist hadn’t ended I may have kept running forever.  I was just so caught up in the scenery, I felt on top of the world. 

Here’s the view of part of where I ran from our villa – see the brown stone wall way on the tippy top of the hill (zoomed in below).  Yeah, I was way up there!  Imagine what THOSE views were like…I can’t even put it into words.  Clear blue ocean and sky forever…

I so wish I had my camera on the run…but then, I was also dripping with salty, sunscreen-y sweat, which may not be so good for the camera. 

I jumped in the pool when I got home because I was freakin’ HOT…only to discover our pool was, like, 40 degrees.  Holy crap, I almost got frost bite!  I literally think I was in and out of the pool in less than 5 seconds! 

Post run snacks.

I L-O-V-E dried fruit, and these kiwis are totally rocking my world!

This was my first of several mugs of chocolate soymilk…I just didn’t see the point in taking multiple pics of the same thing. 

The rest of the day: reading, hot tubing, showering, reading, dinner.

 

Sorry this photo is SO horrible.  We went to a place called Mariscos Mazatlan for dinner, and it was just me and the parents (my sis flew home this afternoon).  I was so hungry by the time we got there, I was inhaling the chips by the handful, which is why taking a picture only occurred to me after the basket was nearly empty.  I think I may have had enough chips for all of 2009 on this vacation.  Seriously.

The size of the fish on this plate should have been enough of a warning…and yet, I cleaned my plate.  Bad news.  I’ll let you use your imagination, but it’s suffice to say I was running for the bathroom as soon as we got back home.  Pretty sure fish is also done for 2009.  My dad’s plate was even bigger, if you can believe it.

Back to snowy NYC tomorrow…so sad :(

a whale of a time

I heart being on vacation.  Doing nothing will never get old.

AM routine, same old same old (glass of lactose free milk, followed by a mug of cafe con “leche”).

With no real agenda for the day, we spent the morning lazing about on the sun deck and roof.  Later, my parents ditched us for a Costco shopping spree, so my sister and I headed to the beach.  I grabbed an apple for the road. 

Rather than get harassed by vendors every five seconds (like yesterday) on the public beach, we decided to go to our gated community’s private beach.  It’s also closer, which was a big selling point, since we were walking there.

Prior to leaving, we had a brilliant plan all laid out - walk to the beach, get some sun, hitch a ride home from the ‘rents (they said shopping would only take them a few hours).  I’m not sure how or why, but somewhere along the way the plan broke down (even though it was very clearly organized before they took the car in the first place).  Pretty soon it was 2:30 and there was still no trace of my parents…communication gap?  I think so!  I had to pee, my stomach was growling, my non-text savvy parents were MIA, but we were really trying desperately to avoid having to hike it back up the hill.   Eventually we had to accept the impending trek, so we packed everything up and up, up, and away we went.  Ugh.  No work out necessary after that. 

Yes, my parents were at home when we finally made it back…completely oblivious!  They made it up to us by taking us to Los Quesadillas for lunch. 

The obligatory chips and guacamole…YUM!

Since I was stuffed with guac I split and order of fish tacos with my sis.  The fish was battered and fried (not typically my cup of tea) but I’m on vacay, so what the hell.

Piled with refried beans, guac, and salsa = heavenly :)

Whale watching time!!!  In the afternoon/early evening we took a speedboat dinghy out to try and find some whales.

I can’t even put into words how cool this was.  We were SOOO close to them, and they are HUGE!!!  That’s the tail popping out of the water in the pic below.

Not to mention the sunset was pretty spectacular.  

I like this one because of the pirate ship in the background.  We were on a tiny speedboat, so we could follow the whales much easier than the other ships.  Plus, at times we were practically next to them.  There is no zoom on these pics, we were actually that close.  It was so so so cool. 

We got back home pretty late, but not too late for hot tubbing with some vino :)   Since my sis wanted to watch the Golden Globes, we decided to buy food and kick it at the villa for the night.

Pre-dinner apps.  The kiwi was the best part of the platter, so juicy and sweet.  I think I ate all but 2 of the slices!  Don’t worry, I did some serious damage to the chips and guac, too…

Some fish on the barby…

Our balcony dining set up.

I was in charge of the salad :)  Look how colorful!!!

On my plate is a bit of fish, wild rice, and salad.  I only had seconds of salad, and wine (times 3).

We chatted, played games, and watched the golden globes for the rest of the night.  No work out today, and I feel great!  I’m totally sore in all these weird places from yesterday’s jetskiing (mostly my inner thighs from squeezing my sister for dear life).  Time for zzzzzzz!

Planes, trains, and automobiles

A recap of my travel filled day:

Wake up call at 5 am, off to JFK at 6 am (I literally took 3 different forms of transportation to get to the airport, including the subway, the Long Island Rail Road, and the air tram)…quite the workout for the crack of dawn.  Needless to say, I was exhausted once I got to the airport, which is pretty pathetic, considering I haven’t worked in a week and have had 10+ hours of sleep every night.  I’m turning into a sloth apparently? 

Without a starbucks in sight, I was forced to settle for a sub-par cup of coffee from Europan (oh, the sacrifices I make!) and my strawberry pomegranate odwalla bar (see below).

JFK departure at 9:00 am

Plane eats:

I made myself a sando for the plane ride the night before with hummus (shock), mustard, smart deli “turkey” and lettuce (airports aren’t typically loaded with vegan options – at least not entrees, so I gotta be prepared).

I literally could NOT keep my hunger at bay during the flight.  I ate my sandwich and apple at 10 am, and since my stomach was STILL growling, I polished off the dried fruit.  You would think this would tide me over for at least a couple of hours, but you’d be wrong!  WTF is wrong with me?!? (maybe I don’t want an answer to that…)  So after chugging down a bottle of water, I had my dried edamame and a cup of tea.  Ugh.  I was still hungry, and I’d eaten everything I’d packed…and then I started to get queasy, too.  Not good.  I forced myself to pass out for the remaining part of the flight, and when I landed in LAX my priority was food (STAT).

I arrived in LAX just before noon (3 hour time change) and found the first place to buy food.  BAH!  Options were scarce, so I went with a big packet of dried fruit and a bottle of water. 

My FIRST taste of dried kiwis!!!!!  OMG.  Love love love ‘em.  I can’t believe I’ve never seen these before (and even more bizarre, that LAX was where I was finally able to get my hands on them)!?  Anyways, the food helped me feel better immediately.  Man, I don’t know why I am so starvin’ marvin?  It’s not like I’m exerting myself at all…just sitting on a plane.  Whatevs.  Naturally, starbucks lured me in as well, I can’t resist that tricky siren.  So I grabbed a grande iced soy misto (which is $5 in the airport, inflation much?).  Sweet!

LAX departure at 2:30 pm, which I nearly missed because I thought it was a 3:30 flight…yeah, I was having a blonde moment, and that’s all I’m going to say about that!  Arrived in Cabo at 6 pm…but didn’t get to the villa until 8 pm.  Why, you ask?  There were many factors that contributed to my 2 hour (20 mile) commute.  Honorable mention to the shuttle service, which decided to drop me off last out of the group of 8 passengers.  But the real prize goes to the dark maze of a mountain upon which our house sits.  Since the community is gated, the security guards wouldn’t let the shuttle in, so I chilled for 10 minutes (luggage and all) at the entrance gate waiting for my sister to drive down the hill and pick me up…when 15 minutes passed, and she texted me asking why I wasn’t there, I realized we had problems.  To make a long (walkie-talkie filled) story short, I ended up getting a ride with a guard in a security cart to the villa (not without stopping once more at an another incorrect house on the way, though). 

DINNER!!  (This will be brief because I wanna hit the sack)

We went to an adorable place called Mi Casa.  The whole atmosphere was EXACTLY what I had hoped for.  So fun and festive.  I started the night off with a Pacifico – so refreshing!

Me and my sis.

Mom and Dad got massive margaritas.

Sister got black bean soup as an app (I tried a bite and I really wish I had gotten one too).  There were fun tortilla strips on the top…mmm!

Grilled red snapper with random veggies (there’s no way staying vegan will work out while I’m here, the options were crappy – and that’s no fun on vacation).

Massive plate of fresh guacamole (aka heaven).  Since we all got fish dishes, we got fresh tortillas for the table, and salsa and the works, and made some nice fajita/taco style plates.

I stopped photographing after this one…they got bigger and my hands got messier :)

I swear I only had one beer!!!

Work Holiday Party

The office x-mas (or holiday to be PC) party was at Cibo, which is a Zagat staple, and was named one of the best restaurants in NYC in 2001, having been called a "New American-Italian hotspot located in the landmark Daily News building, a neighborhood favorite for locals looking for inventive fare."

Immediately upon arriving, we both had drinks in our hands. Seriously, I had hardly checked my coat, and I was half a glass of wine into the night. 1, 2, 3 glasses later I was feeling prettyyyy toasty. As more and more people arrived, the party was getting really fun! They were perpetually bringing around drinks when my glass was still a few sips away, which really put the pressure on my drinking (not usually how I roll, but hey, it's free)! Open bar = amazing. They were also circling with hors d'oeuvres constantly, empanadas, spring rolls, won tons, etc. (I didn't have any since they weren't vegetarian, and likely fried in oil with animal fat). Kyle certainly enjoyed them though :) An hour or so later we headed to the dining area to reserve seats, since we didn't want to end up all split up. There were 5 big circle tables, a few smaller side booths, and then the big long rectangle table (for the important people, ie: the surgeons). We snagged a big circle table that seated 8, so I got to dine with my fave peeps.

Once we sat down, the waiters came around to take our orders. We got to choose an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert. For my app I got the organic tomato and cucumber salad with golden beets, and lemon herb balsamic vinaigrette. It was great! Very balsamic-y but the tomatoes were red and yellow, as were the beets! I'd never had a yellow beet, so I was excited and curious. It was def a good choice. I was very drunk, so I'm sure I could have savored it more, but oh well...I was socializing so much I wasn't concentrating on my food! For dinner there were no veggie options, so I did my usual veggie restaurant thing (order fish). It's not that I think fish aren't as important as other (land) animals, it's just they tend to be healthier and with less cruelty in the harvest. Plus, I like fish, and I don't really like other meat. I ended up getting the fennel crusted north atlantic salmon with scallion and celery root mashed potatoes, warmed grapes and caperberries. The best part of this dish was the grapes (enough said?). Caperberries will forever remind me of Bridget Jones' Diary, when she prepares her own birthday dinner, and makes caperberry stew, which looks like congealed green goop...what I'm trying to say is - I'm not exactly in a rush to try them. I was pretty drunk and (thus) not very hungry anyways. For dessert I ordered the flourless Valrhona chocolate soufflé with vanilla bean ice cream, which Kyle promptly stole (he did trade me his apple cinnamon raisin cobbler with vanilla ice cream though). The souffle looked good, but the cobbler was YUM! I only had a few bites and didn't have the ice cream (obvi), but it definitely came close to the perfection that is my mom's cobbler.