Memorial Day in the Bay (part literal)

Posted by Rachel

After our excursion to New Orleans a couple of weeks ago, we decided to stay around home this weekend. Luckily since CA is amazing, that doesn't mean we had a lame weekend, at all!

On Saturday we did a 42ish mile ride up in Sonoma. You know it's a good start to your day when the following happens: After a 1.5 hour car ride, you go pee under a well-hidden tree that is in the middle of NOWHERE. You come back and tell the others (since everyone has to go) "that's a good spot to pee, it's really isolated back there". One of your fellow riders (a guy) who goes to do the same quickly returns, without peeing, and says "don't get creeped out... but there's a man in the tree". Sweet. Anyway, we all got a good laugh (except me) and when the man emerged from the tree it didn't look like he had any personal possessions, video cameras, etc; so no harm done I suppose.

So onto the ride. The distance and amount of climbing weren't anything out of the ordinary, but there was a 1.5 mile section that averaged > 10% grade (up to 20%, I hear) that was PAIN.FUL. Had I been moving any slower, I would have been going backwards. It was also about 90 degrees and the ride was very remote, so needless to say by the end we were all pretty tired, hot, and thirsty. This ride was called "The Geyers", and this was the rewarding view from the top(ish):

Panoramic views of somewhere in Sonoma County (I think). Either that or it's the county north of Sonoma County, directions aren't my strength.

Of course, after a huge bike ride in Sonoma followed by lunch, the logical thing to do is go wine tasting so we did a little of that as well.

The guys are a little tired after the bike ride

On Sunday, Sandi and I met up on a whim/unplanned and got in a nice 12 mile run on the Bay Trail while wearing the same outfit (also unplanned). Afterward we hit a couple of local wineries on bikes (on Saturday 50% of us had been DDs, so this was a little more fun). Then my neighbor invited us to a picnic on Lake Merritt, which seemed like a great idea!

Turns out there are things to do at Lake Merritt other than run!

The BBQ/picnic was really fun. You know it's a good party when it lasts into the night, and when you frequently hear the phrase "we should've brought more than 1 bottle of wine per person".

BBQ/wine on the Lake @ night

Then it was up early again this morning for an open water swim in Aquatic Park in SF (this explains why our Memorial Day weekend was in fact, part in the Bay). Co-blogger Sandi did her first open water swim here and did awesome- even though the water was cold and the current definitely wasn't fun! My swim was actually a little bit tougher than I expected based on how strong I've been feeling in the pool lately. Since my face was so cold I couldn't feel it, it's hard to evaluate whether a hangover had something to do with my struggles. This was a great chance to try out my Garmin 910XT in the open water (first time I've used it swimming) and it seems to work fairly well. The data (although slower than I'd like) is very believable, although the lines it draws on the map are a little off.

 I'm actually not THIS bad at sighting. Also, I'm fairly certain I started and stopped at the same buoy. Otherwise, the data seems reasonable.

Looks like I better practice this a little bit more before attempting to swim from Alcatraz. That's all for now- I hope everyone had a great weekend and happy birthday to my sister!