Tuesday: Home for Good

In an amazing feat of jet setting, I came home from Spain on Saturday and boarded a plane to San Francisco (with my child) on Tuesday.  I actually was not suffering from any jet lag, and having been separated from Ivan for a week beforehand, the trip out was a bit like a honeymoon for us.  Everyone seemed well behaved. There were celebratory happy meals in the Dallas airport, and Ivan took great joy in his airplane cocktails and watching the plane go up and down from his window.  It was really a pretty nice day-long trip out west through some seriously large airports.  Yes, the portable DVD player broke on our first flight, but all was not lost.

Once in San Francisco, we jaunted over to see family at dinner and settled ourselves back inside our lovely borrowed home for the week.  The house where we stayed was in walking distance of the beach and a playground, and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.  We walked down to the beach every morning that we were there, took long naps and had great dinners.  This year in San Francisco, I had the luxury of a babysitter for a couple of nights so that I could go for great dinners and not feel quite so cloistered.  Ivan jumped into the water, and we visited the Aquarium where he petted skate and starfish.

We did not watch much TV, but by the end of the week, in a city with so much amazing fresh food, my eating habits began to spiral negatively.  There was a small macaroni and cheese issue which led to an Apple Jacks issue, which turned tragically into a pop-tart issue.  There was, at one point a chocolate issue, and in a final low point, half a loaf of french bread with butter. I knew things were bad when on Sunday night, I was calling the vegetables on my pizza a salad.  By the end of the week, it was showing in my face.

This prompted me to order a detox book, The Beauty Detox Solution, which encourages me to drink all sorts of juiced kale and bitter greens.  It is pretty hardcore, but has a few elements that I can incorporate into my daily routine.  I have to hit Whole Foods tomorrow for some watercress, and I will for sure grab a kale juice with an added beet.

ANYWAY, San Francisco was the greatest, and I ended to week with a great swim session in the bay.  After my last year's disasterous swim from Alcatraz, I was excited to sign up for a bay swimming clinic.  The water was 53 degrees, so I wore a full wetsuit, bonnet, wetsuit socks and gloves.  As per usual when swimming in cold water, I peed my wetsuit for added warmth.  It helps so much, as the urine cuts the cold of the water touching your zipper when you are first getting in.

I was very comfortable in the water, though I could feel the fatigue of the cold by the time that we had been in for about an hour and 15 minutes.  I worked on sighting and keeping my stroke from flailing though I was tired, and the wetsuit accoutrements felt as if they were affecting my stroke by the end.  All in all, it restored my confidence in swimming the bay and I feel that I will be back at it next year.

The trip home from San Francisco was less blissful.  In the airport as we were boarding the plane, Ivan held up two toys that his Aunt had given him, one was a train and the other was her CAR KEYS.  Oooh, the drama.  There was much fedexing and overnighting to be had when we arrived home.  Ivan sprinted away in the Dallas airport, he had difficulty with the people that sat in front of him on the plane and he cried for a good bit of the journey.  Once we touched down in Nashville, Ivan was happy and we arrived home in one piece to began our normal lives.

Things went pretty smoothly with a good night's sleep, a day of detox eating and a nice run in the evening. Double swim tomorrow, starting back to work, and blogging regularly!!  Never traveling without my computer again.