Cooper River Bridge Run 2009!

This past weekend Ben and I ran the Cooper River Bridge Run with my mom and 83 year-old grandfather for 2nd year. Honestly, I was not really looking forward to it given the past few weeks events. I had not really run consistently since before Christmas and once we found out I was pregnant I really took it easy and did more walking and than running. Prior to the race on Saturday I had not ran in over 3 weeks!

I had high hopes of finishing better than my time last year and somehow I was able to shave off 7 minutes…over a minute per mile. I finished in 1:07:03 and Ben finished in 57:52!! I could not believe my time and I almost beat my personal record for a 10k I set back in November at the Old Reliable Run in Raleigh. Not too bad given the past few weeks and no training!

Over 31,000 people ready to run/walk 6.2 miles!

I’d say the theme song for my run was the 5th Dimension Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine. The weather was beautiful despite the chilly temps at 6am when we lined up for the shuttle bus to Mt. Pleasant. It’s an amazing experience to run alongside 31,000 other runners as loved ones cheer you on as your come down the final mile of Meeting and King Street.

The Kenyan’s running twice as fast as the rest of us!

Ben and I after the race.My mom and Papaw…he finished 1st in his Age Group!!

It was kind of bittersweet to think we might not be able to run next year…if we have another little one on the way! :)

After the race we all showered and headed out to T-Bonz for our traditional lunch and celebratory beers. No trip to any city is complete without finding the nearest beer store…we made it to the Beer Exchange without doing too much damage. We were so tired we decided to head to the beach house for pizza and early night in bed!

Enjoying a Nut Brown Ale and Raspberry Wheat post race!

Running this race was another weekend that Ben and I really needed. It’s been nice to get back to reality and do some of the things we both love! I’m so glad everything worked out for us to still enjoy the weekend in Charleston.

Lazy Sundays on the Beach

The last full day of our Adult Spring Break was spent on the beach. It was a beautiful day, although slightly chilly due to the wind coming off the water. By 11am we packed up the cooler…it could have been the most expensive selection of beach beer we’ve ever taken out to the beach! We decided to bring a few of the beers we bought the day before on a surprise shopping spree at the Piggly Wiggly of all places.

Our Relaxed Beach Beer Tasting:

Terrapin Side Project #2: Roggenrauchbeir

Flying Dog Wild Dog Collaborator Doppelbock

Weyerbacher Blasphemy Quad Belgian

Well’s Banana Bread

Sam Adam’s Blackberry Witbier

In between beer tastings we went across the street to our favorite pizzeria at the beach…Basil’s. Other than eating and drinking we spent the afternoon wrapped up in towels while reading, chatting and taking walks. Tara and I were not exactly smart when it came to remembering that the sun was quite strong and we ended up with a nasty sunburn on our feet. So we headed back to the beach house and set out for ingredients for dinner.

We threw together the most amazing dinner of grilled scallops, NY strips, chipotle lime shrimp, asparagus and the last of the Beecher’s Mac & Cheese. AMAZING!! Dinner was followed by more beer tasting!! Hitachino Nest Espresso Stout, De Struise Black Albert, Dogfish Head Immort Ale, Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout and Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout. Our last day at the beach was exactly what we needed…it was so nice to do nothing and no one cared that we did that!

Myrtle Beach Beer Fest

Our long weekend at the beach was centered around the Myrtle Beach Beer Fest. Even though it was cloudy and we had a round of spinkly rain, the beer fest was really fun. This was the first year it was held. We’ve been to several other Beer Fests and while this was smaller, it was also less crowded and much more relaxing and enjoyable. Despite a lot of your typical domestic beers, we were able to try a few local brews as well as others we just have not had the chance to try for one reason or another. It was also a great way to try different styles that I don’t normally like such as IPAs. Tara and I were the talk of the festival with our Foothills Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout shirts! Rick decided to the be the oddball and wear and Dogfish Head t-shirt.

My favorites were Clipper City Loose Cannon, Hook & Ladder Backdraft Brown, New Holland Poet Stout, Foothills Peoples Porter, RJ Rockers Buckwheat, Stone Smoked Porter, New South Nut Brown Ale and Thomas Creek Deepwater Dopplebock.

The festival was held in the new Market Street Commons. Afterwards, we ate at Gordon Biersch for a late lunch where I had the beer sampler, then walked around the shops. The trip was not complete without a beer-buying spree in the Piggly Wiggly of all places. What a great selection…we came out with Founder’s Kentucky Bourbon Stout, Southern Tier Java, Wild Dog Collaborator, New Holland Dragon’s Milk and Great Divide Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout!

We were pretty exhausted from beer tasting, so dinner consisted of leftovers and the most amazing Mac & Cheese from Beecher’s in Pike Place Market…all the way from Seattle. My sister in law, Julie sent it to us since it’s the best comfort food she knew of. We were instant fans and plan on ordering more. It’s shipped fresh and ready to bake! DELICOUS!

St. Patty’s Day at the Beach

As with year’s past we headed to the beach for St. Patrick’s Day Weekend and the annual St. Patrick’s Festival and Parade. Due to the weather, this year was not a great turnout, but regardless we had fun.

We relaxed most of the weekend, enjoyed dinner at T-Bonz and celebrated another round of Ben’s birthday. This time with a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake. We realized we forgot candles, so we made do with a tea-light! Ben also enjoyed a few homebrews.

First 5k of 2009

Yesterday we completed our first race of 2009! I love getting back out on the road and having a race on our calendar always provides enough motivation to keep our runs throughout the week.

My sister, Sara’s sorority at ECU held their 1st Annual Kappa Delta 5k For Kids in Greenville. Ben and I drove down after work on Friday for the Pasta Dinner, then went to Eddie and Lisa’s house to spend the night in New Bern. The morning came very early as we struggled to get out of bed and the temperature outside was in the 20’s! After a quick bowl of hot oatmeal we were on our way back to Greenville.

The race kicked off at 10am with a little over 100 people running. Most of the family participated and it ended up being a successful race. Ben completed the 5k in 26:01 and I came in at 32:24. Not too bad for our lack of training over the holidays and winter.

Next up: Cooper River Bridge Run 10! Just 7 more weeks!!! This is by far, my favorite race…40,000 people running in Charleston and many many more lining the streets cheering you on!

Our New Toy…

A Canon DSLR!! I’ve been wanting one forever and after a larger-than-expected bonus this year, we decided to splurge. We’ve got a couple of weddings, vacations and other exciting things coming up this year and thought a new camera would be perfect to capture those special memories.

The best part is all our older telephoto lenses from my old 35mm SLR are compatible. Now I just need to sit down with the manual and go through all the fun settings and actually learn what this camera can do! From straight out of the box, it takes amazing pictures and we couldn’t be more pleased with the quality.

I’m sure we’ll have plenty more “test” photos. In less than a day we took 100 pictures!

Foothills Brewing Company

Earlier this month we took a day trip to Foothills Brewing Company in Winston Salem with Tara and Rick. We were very fortunate enough to get 8 of 600 limited release bottles of their Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout…which equates to 1.3% of the World’s supply (yeah I’m a math dork).

You know we’re beer snobs when we wake up at 5am to make the drive to Winston Salem and stand in line for 3 hours just for one particular beer. It was definitely worth the trip and the fun times we had in line meeting other beer snobs. And beer snobs are always nice and hospitable – offering tastings of rare beers they brought, such as The Dark Lord Imperial Stout, Abyss, Cottonwood Hazelnut Stout, Highland Kashmir and Mikkellar Black Hole. After we purchased our 8 bottles of Sexual Chocolate, we enjoyed a glass on tap, lunch and a flight tasting of their other brews. Ben had an amazing Cuban sandwich with pulled pork, while I enjoyed a Buffalo Chicken Wrap. As far as their other beers we were all in agreement that Torch Pilsner was not good at all…most of the other beers are just ok, however the Total Eclipse Stout was pretty good too. Of course there is no disputing how great the Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout is. After lunch we took a short drive a few blocks down the street to City Beverage and bought even more beer. This was a great store with an amazing selection of beer. They had an in-house bar with 3 different beers on tap that you could try. Also, they have great deals on cases at rock bottom prices.

The rest of Asheville...and Western NC!

I wish we had at least one more day in Asheville. There is so much to do, nevermind relaxing in the cabin's hot tub and making delicious meals by the fire.

Saturday morning we woke up freezing in the cabin. We didn't realize the A/C unit was also the heat too and neither of us felt comfortable sleeping all night with gas logs on. We quickly warmed up with some hot coffee and I made Eggnog French Toast with mimosas. Ben loved this!!!

By 11am we were on our way into town. We did some shopping, walked around downtown and had lunch at Jack of the Wood with some Green Man beers. After lunch, we found a great little shop with some neat Christmas gifts for our family, then headed to the Chocolate Fetish I've heard so much about for truffles.

Since we did come to Asheville for the beer we stopped in Barley's for some good local brews. This was the best place for local stuff! While there we enjoyed:
~Catawba Valley King Don's Pumpkin Ale (tastes just like Pumpkin Pie)
~Catawba Valley Blackwater Uber Pale Ale (Excellent and very unexpected)
~Catawba Valley Hyper Monkey Java Stout (Delicious...like pure coffee)
~Pisgah Brewing Co Red Devil (Belgium fermented with a ton of cherries and raspberries)
~Highland Cold Mountain (a warm holiday spice brew)

This trip would not be complete with a huge shopping trip to Bruisin' Ales...the 2nd top rate beer store in the country! Ben was like a little kid in a candy store. After almost an hour of pondering and checking off the list Ben made of beers to look for, we checked out and took our case of special beers to the car!

We then headed to Thristy Monk's, which has a bar downstairs that serves only Belgian beer and one upstairs...we had a flight of 3 beers downstairs and shared a couple half pours upstairs with delicious peanuts on the side before heading back to the cabin.

Once back the cabin, I made a mushroom risotto and lemon scented asparagus while Ben grilled steaks. We decided to open a beer we've been saving for almost a year...Foothills Sexual Chocolate. It's one of the top rated beers in the country and world. Last February, Foothills made a limited release of 500 bottles. Our bottle was number 174...this was so good...to the very last drop. Hopefully they'll make this again and we can be lucky enough to get at least one bottle. If you love chocolate...you'll love this.

Sunday morning we woke up to dense fog and a chill in the air. Ben requested more Eggnog Frenchtoast for breakfas instead of the omlettes I'd been planning on making. After being lazy, we got packed, loaded up the cars and set out for Boone to get our Christmas tree.

It was literally a drive over the river and through the woods. I doubt there really isn't a great road to take across several mountains. Combine sharp winding roads with fog and cliffs...it was a little stressful and took us almost an extra hour to get to Boone. But we finally made it in 3 hours and had a delicious lunch at Macado's. It was such a treat, and just for a second, I thought I was in Blacksburg. I had my usual Johnny Dee (Grilled Chicken, Pepperoni, Provalone cheese, Lettuce, Tomato on a bagel with ranch dressing on the side).

The Christmas Tree farm was only 10 minutes away from downtown Boone, once there, it took us over an hour to find the perfect tree. There were so many choices and we kept losing track of our favorites, but we found it. It's an obscenly ginormous tree that's 9 ft tall! The guys on the top of the hill cut it down for us, bayled it and tied it down on top of the jeep. We set out for another 3 hours driving in the rain, but it didn't matter since we had just enjoyed one of the most relaxing weekends with each other and we had our perfect Christmas tree!