Canada and then some.

The following events took place from 11/27-12/3 As I mentioned previously, the Hubby and I took a (notso) little road trip to Toronto, Canada back in November. Why? Well why not?! Calebs cousins, Laura and Jordan from California had asked us earlier in the year if we would be interested in going to Tornoto with them, and we saw no reason not to. So early Wednesday morning (which happened to be the 4 year anniversary of our first date fyi) we packed up my parents mini-van and hit the road, well, that is after we went to the bank and then back to our apartment because hubby forgot something. But we were in no rush so off we went.

Its about a 9 hour trip by car, so we loaded up on snacks, red bull and 5 hour energy bottles and made our way about 4-5 hours into New York and stopped at a cute little diner called Crazy Ottos Empire Diner.

We had an amazing breakfast and met a few cool people there and we were back on the road again. It had been raining all night into the morning so I was thrilled when it stopped and finally saw some snow. We were told we were going to be driving into a bad storm but we had nothing of the sort happen, which let me say, we were super happy about. When we were almost at the boarder we saw our first Tim Hortons of many and stopped by the Duty Free store to get some supplies.

While we were there we made our goodbye texts/calls because our phones would no longer work unless we had WIFI. We got ahold of his cousins who were supposed to be arriving at 6:30, turns out the airline messed up their flights and they wouldnt be arriving until 9:30, which was a bummer, since that also meant we couldn't get into our hotel until we had them. I was excited because I got to be the one to drive through into Canada and talk to the customs officer, who was super nice.

And we were there! MPH turned into KM/hr and I had to remember that 80 was really my 65. Our GPS took us some crazy coastal road into Toronto instead of the highway, it took us a whole lot longer to get there, but it was very beautiful I will say. Once we made it into the city we found our hotel, and double checked whether or not they would let us in, they would not, so we found a cute little place for dinner and some drinks to kill time until their flight arrived. This is where it starts to get good. My husband drives us to this airport in Toronto, and to me it looks a little small, but he tells me that the plains fly in on the island, and then all the passengers are brought over on a ferry, so i think nothing of it. The whole parking lot was under construction, so instead of paying $20 to park for a half hour we drove around. Whenever a flight landed the attendants would let you drive around this circle and pick people up. We did this about 10 times and still no cousins. I go inside to wait, and looking at the arrivals screen i notice there are only local flights coming in, so i go back to my husband as ask him, " Are you sure this is the airport?" "This is the Toronto airport babe" "Are you sure there isnt another one? Like an international airport?" Sure enough after a little investigation, we see that there is another airport, 20 min away from us, which is the one they came into. However at this point it was 11:30. I suggested going to the hotel to see if they were there, which is what we did, they had not come to the hotel, yet. While I am sitting in the car I manage to get WIFI and I have missed messages from them asking where we were. Meanwhile a crazy scary homeless man is knocking at my window and begging, a taxi pulls us behind us and he moves on to those poor souls. Caleb was about to drive away when I say let me go in and try calling them. When i get a message "We are at the hotel, where are you?" I reply with "At the hotel" I turn the corner and there they are! We explained the whole debaucal to them and after a drink or two we all have a laugh about it. The poor things had their luggage lost too! It was quite the crazy day, and after a random Pizza Pizza adventure from the boys we all went to bed and got ready for the next day. Thursday, We spent the day wandering   around the city looking for different cute places, coffee shops, pubs, stores and the like. Jordan was on the hunt for some good poutine, if you've never had or heard of poutine it is basically gravy and cheese on fries only way more involved,Caleb took us way off course, and we landed in a few places that were not so great, but eventually, after a half hour on yelp in a random Starbucks mooching off their WIFI we landed in a pub that I had chosen we we walked by it earlier. It was called Elephant & Castle, when we walked in they told us about their $4 shot specail called the Burt Reynolds, it was a special for Movember, made of Sailor Jerry and Butterscotch, and we were sold.

They had AMAZING poutine and great drinks and all in all it was a success. 

We stayed there until we had to go pick up the other couple who was staying with is Zach and Aubrey. I honestly don't remember what happened after they got there but it consisted of chillin in our hotel and having a few drinks. Also the boys went out to buy us poutine, when they came home full and empty handed none of us were surprised. We still yelled at them anyway.   Friday, The boys were so excited and half the reason behind going to Canada was to go to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

We got to see a lot of cool things in there and they had some virtural hockey to play and we all got a picture of us with the Stanley Cup.

From there we went to a fancy little restraunt for lunch where we got beer samplers and fondue and some delicious fries and sandwiches.

From there we ran into another pub and since there was no where to sit we had did an irish car bomb and went to the next place.

Another ICB and a pitcher of beer later, we were back at the hotel.

The boys went out to buy beer and the girls went to the rooftop hot tub, which was beautiful but we got chloriened to death in the hot tub. We spent the night playing hockey in the living room and we went to bed because the next day we were going to Niagara! Saturday, The 6 of us piled into the van and we were off to Niagara  Falls.

Made the hour and a half trip go by fast by playing catch phrase in the car. If you have never heard of it, here is the description "Think fast! The SCRABBLE Electronic CATCHPHRASE game challenges you to come up with words and then pass the game fast so you don’t get caught holding the bag! Give your teammates clues so they can guess the word or phrase on the game unit’s screen. But no rhyming, first letters or parts of the word, or the other team gets a point! Once your team has guessed it, pass the unit fast to the other team. When the buzzer goes off, whoever has the unit loses a point to the other side, so move fast! When your team gets to 7 points, you win!" Important information for later on. We got to Niagara Falls, and it was beautiful, it wasnt to stupidly cold outside so we all got to enjoy looking at all of the scenery.

From there we drove a little under an hour to Niagara on the Lake a adorable wine town. We got some snacks at a place that had crepes and flatbread pizzas which were amazing. Did a small wine tasting at a shop.

Found a fancy pub and had a few drinks and then on our walk back to the car found a cute shop full of jellys, jams, sauses, dips etc. Everything there was delicious. Aubry and I made a kitty friend, and then we drove back to Niagara to see it lit up, which was beautiful, then back to toronto, playing catch phrase the whole way.

It was early enough in the night that we went to find dinner. Jordan had had his heart set on going to this restraunt owned by an Iron Chef called Lee. Well the only problem was when we got there the power was out. Which worked out because people werent showing up to their reservations because of it, so were were able to get a table at 11:30. While we waited though, we found a neat pub that had guiness, jenga, and the best steamers i've ever eaten.

Lee was interesting, it was asian fusion and tapas style.

Sunday, our last day in Canada. We spent some time driving around, and then eventually parked and did a lot of walking around, again on the quest for food. We stopped at a place for a small lunch and then it all ended with Caleb, Laura and Jordan eating at a smelly Vietnamese sandwich place and Zach, Aubrey and I having shots and a beer back at Elephant & Castle before we had to bring them to their hotel. One last round of catch phrase and we said our goodbyes, and the rest of us were off to Buffalo,NY, on the hunt for the orignal buffalo wings. We stopped first at Anchor Bar, where the wings were invented, super sketchy place but decent wings.

The boys ordered wings at their rival bar, whose name i cannot rememeber and we back on the road, destination Cleveland. We arrived at our hotel around 2am, and quickly made friends with the valet and receptionist, and then finally made it to bed. Monday, We were up and out the door in search for coffee found a cute little hipster coffee shop and walked around some more and ended up at a pub (surprise surprise) the boys were happy to finally have affordable whiskey again. 

Side note, in Canada they only give you one ounce pours. So if you are a whiskey drinker it'll cost you a lot of money to get a decent drink. 

From there we walked to the rock and roll hall of fame which was the highlight of celevland for me.

I'm huge into music so this place was amazing for me. If you ever are in Ohio check it out. After we finished there we made our way to a little place for some more poutine to hold is over till dinner. Then we went back to the hotel and got dressed for another fancy dinner at a top chef restraunt named Lola.

My aunt and a coworker met us there and we had an amazing dinner. We all shared a few dishes and it was not disappointing. That night we toon out bottle of ciroc and catch phrase down to the lobby and ended up playing the game with the valet and receptionist from the night before. If you can just imagine that all of us jumping around and yelling in a ghost town lobby of a hotel at 1:30 am. It was amazing. It was 2 when we finally made it to bed. 

Tuesday, 

Again we found a little spot for coffee and a bagel and then drove around the surrounding area looking for a cute town that I don't think existed and then we went to a place called Melt. It's a restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese sandwhiches. It was SUPER good. Then we brought Laura and Jordan to the airport and said our goodbyes, and Caleb and I were off to Canton, Ohio to the football hall of fame.

I've never seen my hubby so happy. I really enjoyed myself as well. When we closed the place we headed down to Wooster, Ohio to have dinner with my aunt and uncle, two of my favorite people in this world. We ate a cute little place with great pasta! We said our goodbyes around 8 and we decided to drive through the night back home. It takes just about 12 hours to get from Wooster, Ohio  to Webster, MA, and while the first 5 hours went by fairly quickly the last 7 were rough. The roads were so painfully foggy you could barely see anything and the only other drivers on the road were truckers. But at 8 am we had safely made it back to my parents house to drop off the van and pick up our cat.

When we finally made it back to our aparetment we were zombies and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed the only problem was there was a large bump in my bed.

When we got brave enough to pull back the covers we descovered a giant teddy bear.

Later we found out it was my husbands sister and brother in law who did it. 

Finally after packing and shipping all my eBay items I passed out and so did the hubby. Vacation was over, and while we were sad we were too tired to notice. 

Dirt And Glitter, Mud, Color and Beer.

I realize that I neglected my blog over the summer/fall. And there were 3 events that I feel need to be chronicled, namely the Warrior Dash, Color Me Rad, and Rugged Maniac.

To tell you about them I have to tell you about last year when we did Color Me Rad for the first time. 

I do not and have not ever claimed to be athletic, a runner, or to enjoy any sort of exercise in my life. Ever. So when a coworker told me about a 5k her children and her were going to do I really didn't give it a second thought. However when she kept bringing it up and showed me a video of what it was, my interest was peaked and I got it into my head to get a group of my friends, some who are big into exercise and health and others who just like me were novice to the whole running 5k thing. 

The premise of the race is for you to wear white, run a little over 3 miles and every kilometer you run though a paint station and get pelted with powdered (corn starch) paint, sprayed with colored water and generally have a great time getting messy with your friends. Sounded just like my kinda thing. And it so happened to be AWESOME. Some of us ran, a few of us "fast walked" the whole thing together, running through, rolling through, doing anything we could to get as colored as possible. After the race there is a big party of people throwing color bombs every 15 minutes or so. It's a big explosion of color and it's just amazing to experience. When we left we went back to our hotel room and destroyed the place trying to get clean. There was color in places I didn't know could get colored. All in all we were all glad at the end that we had done it and were all psyched to do it again.

(My hubby and I after the race. Notice the sea of colorful people behind us.)

Which leads us to this year. 

This year I was determined to get in shape, I wanted to start working out regularly and start feeling better about myself. I figured, if we had some goals it would keep us (my husband and i) motivated and on track. Needless to say, that didn't really work out so well, but that's not part of this story!

I've had a few friends who have done these mud races, where much like CMR, it is a 5k, only instead of getting colorful you get muddy and have to overcome different obsiticals. There was a groupon for the Rugged Maniac, which was scheduled for September, and we also signed up for the Warrior Dash in June, as well as CMR again the same weekend in September as rugged. I had started a personal trainer in March and thought I was well on my way to beasting it though the race. Well race day came and Caleb and I, with bffl Kate tagging along for moral support and to hold our stuff headed out to Barre,Ma to a farm where the race was to take place. The different heats (groups of people runnig the race) had started at 8am, we got there for about 2pm, so by the time we got into the course it was well muddy and trecked through by everyone else. I have to say I thought I was ready for it, but like I mentioned earlier, I do not run. At all. Now add to this, mud. Not just mud. No. MUD. Mud up to your kneecaps, in some places up to your mid thigh. Then imagine this, for a whole mile, in the woods, branches and roots and rocks all surrounded by, you guessed it, mud. About a mile in you a slanted wall that you have to climb up and over, there is no rope or plank to help you, just a mud covered slanted wall. After about 10 or so tries I got up and over it. Next 2 walls up to my chest that you have to jump up and over. Followed by tires to run through, hay to climb over, a 2 story wall with a rope to climb up and over (the only one I couldn't do) trenches to climb in, a cargo net wall to climb sideways, fire to jump over, all with mud to run through in between, another cargo net to climb up and over and lastly a giant mud trench to wade through underneath barbed wire. This is actually a great video of the whole thing if you wanna see it. We made it through, not as well as I had hoped, but we did it! And I am glad that we did. It was defiantly an awesome experience.

Our before and after photo. 

I forgot to mention, it was about 90 degrees that day, if not hotter. You get rewarded at the end with a medal (cool bottle opener on a ribbon) and a free beer, it was only a coors light but let me Tell you after an hour and a half of mud trecking it is the best beer I've ever had. 

After we finished the race I was not feeling very confident in myself when it came to doing Rugged later in the year, but as the summer went on I kept up with my training and tried to incorporate more cardio and running into my workout so I wouldn't totally fail at the race. Well September came, and on the 4th I came down with a extremely bad cold that turned into bronchitis/laryenitis, I lost my voice for 3 full days, and was totally out of commission for 2 full weeks. My respitory system took a huge hit, since whenever I get sick like that I have asthma and have to use an inhaler just when I walk up stairs never mind running 3 miles+. 

Race day one came, it was our 2nd time doing CMR. I was nervous as anything just hoping my lungs wouldn't give out. The race started off with a guy in a bunny costume who had t-shirts, and if you could catch the bunny you got to keep a shirt. Well, my husband ran as fast as he possibly could, and was the first person to catch the bunny and got a shirt for me, but in the process tore his hamstring. I tired running got a bit with my other bffl, Angelica. Well about 10 mintues into this, my lungs, were so unhappy with me, so I waited for Caleb to catch up with me and we walked the rest of the race. The color stations were not as crazy as last year and over all the vibe was different, and although we had a lot of fun, it did not compare to last years race. 

Epic finish line high five.

 So at this point, i was even MORE nervous for Rugged the next day, not only was it running again, but it was littered with obsiticals, where WD only had about 10 or so obsiticals to go over, RM had "more than 18" as the website stated. Check out this guys video of all the obsiticals, it was pretty awesome. I made it throught ALL the obsiticals! The only ones that made me nervous were the trench jumps and the balance beams, mostly because i did not want to fall into the 6 foot trenches. I got my finger ripped open in the tubes because my finger got caught under the rope, and someone crawling behind me yanked on it. Ooooo that hurt. While there was a lot of mud, it was not as much as WD, but believe me, there was plenty! We finished the race in about an hour, which for a bunch of people who had never done this before, a girl with bum lungs, and a guy with a torn quad, i would say we did pretty good! Once again it was one of the best experiences of my life, and we are definately going to do it again next year 100% At the end of the race we were rewareded again with a free beer.

 So if for nothing else, you should run the race for that. Just let me warn you, these events are not for the faint of heart, or anyone who is afraid of getting bruised, bloody, scraped and muddy. I will say though, if I can do it, anybody can, and it is totally worth it all. Till next time!