Whim Vacationing

Theming this month. I started this post on my way back from a great vacation that happened very last minute. I realize that my last post may have made people jealous or angry having done well with minimal training. However, I trained hard all winter. Got up on those dark cold mornings. And put in the time. My base had proved to be enough to carry me through for a month. Don't worry. It won't last forever.

Back to vacation. [don't be jealous! I work hard]

I had asked for last weekend off for a wedding. Luckily it was granted. We booked the hotel on Thursday. Frank and Karen headed out Friday morning and Chris and I were leaving after I got done with work around 7:00pm Friday night.

I quickly looked at the schedule for next week and noticed I had Monday and Tuesday off. What? Four day weekend unplanned?!

What to do. Complain about it or embrace the freedom. Came home and asked Chris if he wanted to head up to Mammoth after the wedding festivities on Sunday and ski/board Mon/Tues and head back Tuesday night. A big storm was rolling in and weather looked amazing with a ton of snow forecasted.

Sweet Chris was in. Call cousin Dana and they were glad to have us. Lodging "booked."

Epic vacation commenced. Packed up all the ski crap on top of bikes and wedding stuff and headed for Santa Barbara.

Got in late and took the bikes in after their bath [it rained a bit on the way up]. Saturday morning woke up and headed out for some tasty eats at Beachbreak Cafe. Then it was off for some pre-wedding wine tasting in downtown Santa Barbara. Yum. I have to admit I'd never been before. And it was a glorious idea. So many random adventures. Meeting Santa Clause on the street had to be the highlight. Frank spotted him across the street. In a wheelchair. He made us cross and of course made some off hand comment. The lady walking along said well he IS Santa. So we asked for our picture. And why he was wearing a cast with a bag on his foot. Apparently Rudolf stepped on his foot and broke it. Seriously we met Santa in Santa Barbara.

Off to the wedding at the beautiful very old and nicely refurbished court house. It's a very open aired hallways old Spanish feeling building with huge ceilings, ornate wall murals and amazing details.

Quick ceremony, yet personal and then we were off to dinner (amazing!) and drinks. Chris and I left the party and headed back to the hotel so we had a chance of waking up for the Sunday morning ride. Which was windy!! A slow 40 miles, shower, breakfast with the hungover wedding guests who I'm sure thought we were crazy and then we were off to Mammoth!

Got into town around 8:00 and Dana made us dinner. Woke up to a beautiful sunny day. With absolutely no wind. Such a great day on the mountain. Monday night a couple friends Ryan and Av came drove up and joined us for our Tuesday adventures.

Mid-week boarding is awesome. Monday was $5 Mai tais. Tuesday was $5 margaritas. And yeah the [lack of] lift lines aint bad either.

The last run of the day was ridiculous. Too much sun and no wind turns the snow to slush puppies. Super slow and catchy. Made it down and had some beers in the hot tub. For our 2nd time. Ate dinner and it was 8:30 before we knew it. 2:30am arrival time was not awesome. Especially with 2 swim lessons Wednesday morning.

Ryan and Av continued their adventure north with a stop at Bachelor in Oregon and then all the way to Canada for their Revelstoke trip. Backcountry for a week. Soo jealous.

Now I'm back and still trying to recover from an extended weekend lacking sleep. Today is day 6 in a row of working. Need to peel myself out of bed and do something. Bike racing this weekend on a local course I've never done. Should be interesting.

Thanks to Chris for all the driving and Dana and Adam [newly engaged!] for the lodging and lift tickets!!