Scenes from the Weekend

Happy Monday, friends!  This is a short, 2-day week for me as we leave for Oregon on Wednesday morning. The weather forecast is looking pretty craptastic (rain and high winds) so I'm pretty bummed about that but I know that we'll have a great trip even in the weather isn't optimal. I am just hoping and praying that the rain holds off long enough for us to get at least 1 decent hike in!

Luckily, the weather was gorgeous here this weekend. The temperatures have definitely cooled off but we've had lots of sunshine and mild temperatures during the day.  Since I know that our nice days are numbered, I tried to spend as much time outdoors as I could.  Here's how I spent my weekend!

On Friday night, we had a card night with friends so I made this apple crisp recipe for dessert. It is not light in calories or sugar but sometimes you need an indulgent treat! While I was assembling the apple crisp, my sous chef Oscar kept me company. As I said in my photo caption on Instagram, I know some people are probably appalled that we let Oscar on the kitchen counter, but she stays away from the food and likes to be able to observe what is going on. And who can say no to this sweet face?

My sweet shadow

Saturday was a super full day. On Saturday morning, I had my sock knitting class at 10:30 am but before that I swung by the Farmer's Market to pick up the half-share of meat from a local organic farm that we'll be sharing with another friend. I feel good about the source of most of my food but meat was one area that I didn't feel great about, so I am glad we found a reasonably priced farm to purchase meat from!

The knitting class I went to was great. It's very tricky to knit 2 socks at the same time on 2 circular needles, so I am glad the class was small as the instructor was able to spend time getting each of us started. After the class, I went home and Phil instructed me to sit down and relax while he made lunch for us.  I followed his orders.  :)  The rest of Saturday afternoon was filled with things like cleaning out my garden, doing my running intervals, and going to church.

On Saturday evening, I made a special carb-loading meal for Phil since he was running a 10 mile race the next day. Since he loves loves (and I do, too!) I made this simple Pasta Puttanesca recipe (but left out the anchovy paste because I just can't get on board with anchovies). I served the pasta with a salad with more olives and other goodies like cucumbers from my garden and pepperoncini.

We were up bright and early on Sunday morning as Phil's race started at 7 am. I dropped him and his friend off at the start and then met up with my friend Amber. The marathon and 10 mile race end in St. Paul, so we biked over to St. Paul and had breakfast at French Meadow and did some planning for our trip to Spain! We got quite a bit of planning done before heading over to the 23.5 mile area of the marathon course on Summit Avenue. My friend Grace, who I know through blogging, was running the marathon. It was fun to cheer her on.  She looked great when we saw her and ran a super strong race, finishing in 3:12!!  I am in awe of people like her who can maintain that kind of pace (7:20 min/mile) for 26.2 miles!!  Unbelievable!!

After that, we biked back along the mighty Mississippi.  It was a cool morning but the skies were blue. I love biking along this stretch of the Mississippi as it's so picturesque with the skyline of Minneapolis in the background.

The leaves haven't changed as much as they normally would at this time of year, but you can see peaks of orange and red in the photos below.

Sunday afternoon was more slow-paced for me, which was such what I needed. I relaxed on the couch and did some reading. Later in the day, I picked up Grace and we grabbed coffee. I'm really glad we got a chance to chat in person after reading each others' blogs for many years. Plus, she had the same hip surgery as I did so it was nice to talk to someone who has been through the same surgery and has fully recovered.

On Sunday evening, Phil and I watched the debate together. Like all of the debates, it was kind of a train wreck in that it was painful to watch but I just couldn't look away. After that, we headed to bed as I was exhausted from my busy weekend and Phil was exhausted since he ran a strong race on Sunday morning (he finished the 10 mile race in 1:18!).

After my busy weekend, I'm sure glad I have a vacation to look forward to this week!  I'll be back with a vacation recap next week!

How did you fill your weekend?