I had put going to the Summer Ale Fest at the Philly Zoo on my Summer Fun List. It’s a nice night being out, walking around, trying lots of different beers. A beer garden with animals!
My husband and I were looking forward to this, so we wound up building the weekend around it. Someone needed to go get our daughter in Massachusetts, and normally my husband would have gone for the whole weekend to visit his brother, but because we had the zoo thing Saturday night, he decided to just go for the day Sunday (fly up, hang out, get her, fly back).
Well, cue the weather. The zoo claimed the event would be rain or shine, but they didn’t mean it. With thunderstorms forecast for the evening, they postponed to August to a date when I am out of the country and my husband has to take another kid to something. Boo. Then to add insult to injury, the storms hit and passed quickly, meaning that at around 7 p.m. when we would have gone the weather was perfect – cool and breezy. It did rain again later that night but more like a bring-an-umbrella or wear-a-rain-jacket type rain. I understand that the organizers wouldn’t want people out in a storm (and vendors might have backed out too) but it was all too bad.
But since our older kids had already agreed to babysit I made a reservation at a local place (The Choice) where we had a gift card (a thank you present from the choir for hosting the picnic). That wasn’t until 8:45, so the boys just had to put their little brother to bed, which they did quite nicely. So it was still a nice date night evening, but that little entry on the Summer Fun List won’t happen. Maybe I can still get to a beer garden at some point…
I did go to the beach however. On Sunday while my husband was off to Boston, I took the two little boys to the NJ shore. It was a fairly manageable trip — 1.5 hours there, we stayed on the beach for about 2 hours, got ice cream, and came home in time to watch as much of the World Cup finals as I was probably OK to watch (it was a long game…). The little boys were also mostly quite sweet, talking about what a nice time they had, and when the 6-year-old did something bratty the 11-year-old told him that he should appreciate how good he has it (with the 11-year-old noting how good he himself has it too – a nice touch of self-awareness). We ordered dinner from a place called “Hen Solo” which was surprisingly good for a chicken restaurant with a Star Wars theme (my 19-year-old knows his way around Grubhub…) and then went in the pool at night. So, all in all, a good summer day.
I’m trying to work out more regularly, so in the interest of accountability, here’s my past week of workouts.
Monday: Nada. On the train early to Boston. I did walk around a lot after getting there, though, so got close to 10,000 steps.
Tuesday: A morning run down to the river, along the trail for a bit, then across the Charles and back. This was fun to explore a new place. My phone says 3.6 miles. (I then walked around the Back Bay area a lot later in the day.)
Wednesday: After taking the train back to Philly, I ran on the treadmill around 4:15 p.m. I did a quick two miles, then did some strength work.
Thursday: Worked out with trainer virtually for 30 minutes (rescheduled – normally this would be Monday). I walked during my kid’s tennis lesson (and went to the bookstore) but it wasn’t exactly a swift walk in the heat/smoke.
Friday: Ran 2.5 miles on the treadmill in afternoon. I was not sure this would fit in as the day featured a dentist appointment AND my trip to the airport for my Global Entry interview. But I just basically didn’t do any work so that’s how it fit haha.
Saturday: Normally I would do an outdoor “long” run in the AM but it was still smoky. So I ran on the treadmill, doing a 29:46 5k, which is fast for me (9:35 pace). I then did 15 minutes of strength training to meet my 3x a week goal.
Sunday: Walked around Ocean Grove after parking to get to the beach, then get back to the car to drop our stuff, then walked to ice cream, then walked back to the car. I started watching the soccer game right after coming home but the air had finally cleared, so after ordering food and the soccer game ending (about 6 p.m.) I got dressed and ran outside for 25 minutes before the food showed up. Squeezing it in! I tried to run pretty fast but I’m not sure exactly how far it was. Probably 2 miles and just a bit of change.
My regular workouts have fallen by the wayside over the past week because I tripped and fell over a LARGE crack in the pavement at the Philadelphia Zoo while visiting with my kids and grandkids. Much bleeding ensued, and my right knee has a large bandage. However, we visited friends over the weekend and went on two long-ish walks. In other Summer fun list updates:
1. Strawberry picking: Never made it. June was too soggy.
2. Travel to Texas to attend the wedding of a dear friend’s son and do other Texas things. Yes! In 15 days, we managed to pack in the wedding, 2 major league baseball games, 2 presidential libraries (LBJ and the second President Bush), a jazz club, a rodeo, the Fort Worth longhorn cattle walk, wineries in the Hill country, great BBQ and Tex/Mex food, and a 1 hour trip to the Dallas Art Museum. ChatGPT came in handy for the Art Museum. I asked for a breakdown of museum highlights which I could see in one hour and it delivered.
3. Get a massage once a month. I got a massage in May and a facial in June. I need to book something for July and August.
4. Hit all of our local ice cream spots and find a new one to try. So far: three visited so we are a little behind.
5. Visit with close friends in Massachusetts in August. We went up this past weekend. We did something kind of offbeat-took a tour of an Amazon distribution center near the airport in Hartford. The logistics were fascinating. Apparently, they have tours in a number of states.
6. Do my annual solo day at the beach. Not yet due to a soggy June, Hopefully in September. I like to go when there are no crowds.
7. Go to at least one outdoor concert. Saw Sarah McLachlan at the Mann thanks to you. She was great despite the brief fly in the vocal cords.
8. Go on at least one hike/walk with the Outdoor Club of South Jersey. We have one scheduled for this week.
9. Get to the beach biweekly. Partial success. June was a washout, but we got down for 4th of July and saw the fireworks shot over the ocean. I also got to a friend’s house in Brigantine in July, and have an ocean beach and a lake beach day planned for August.
10. Find a new to us local brewery or winery to visit, or go to the winery a mile away from us on one of the Sundays that they have live music. Not yet, but summer isn’t over.