Malibu Half Marathon

So it's been a month since I ran the Malibu Half Marathon, and Angela has been on me to write a blog post about it (my first one!) so I finally did it. I had been running just to stay in shape for a while, but had been getting kind of bored ever since I ran the full marathon back in February of this year. With nothing really to train for or look forward to or strive to, the runs on the same old routes were getting tedious.

I signed up for the Malibu Half Marathon and started training. I wasn't exactly starting from scratch so the training was a bit easier this time around, although it had been a while since I had gone as far as 10 and 11 miles for training runs. I missed a few training runs and didn't have as great of times as I would have liked while doing it, so I was a little apprehensive going into the race. That and the fact that I played hockey at 11pm the night before I had to get up at 5:30am to drive to the course didn't make me too optimistic about my time.

The course was beautiful! The start was right next to the beach and the whole run was right along the ocean and through the hills of Malibu. This was much more hilly than the other races I had done, but I was able to pace myself pretty good on the uphills, and take advantage of the downhills. In the end, my time was only 30 seconds slower than the half marathon time I ran while training for my full marathon. I finished the Malibu Half Marathon in 2 hours 1 minute. Angela and Jules were also there at the finish line to cheer me on.

My time was much better than I expected, and I hope to do another race next year. Maybe another marathon at some point, although I think I might take a break from running for a bit at the end of this year. I have one more goal for this year - after I run 8 more miles, I'll have run for 500 total miles this year!

1st Friday - Food Trucks!

The first Friday of every month in Venice, the street virtually shuts down as Food Trucks from all over the city swarm on Abbott Kinney boulevard. All of the restaurants on the street have specials, art galleries are open late, there is live music, happy hours commence and people fill the streets. This past Friday, Paul and I decided to stop by with some friends and try some of the city's tasty treats. We stopped for tacos, lamb gyros and cheeseburger sushi from the Yatta food truck!

Hockey!

For the last few months, Paul has started playing hockey again. One of our neighbors who lives across the street plays in a league and after speaking to Paul about it off and on, Paul decided to join. They play at the Toyota Sports Center in Hawthorne, CA - only about 20 minutes southeast of our house. They play almost every weekend and a few weeks ago, Jason, Danielle and I went to watch Paul play.

Last week, Jason invited us to see the LA Kings play the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Staples Center! Although I am sure you thought this was the packed hockey game for Paul... BUT these are some pictures from how close we were to the ice at the Kings game at Staples!

Omi & Opa Visit LA!

This weekend - Omi and Opa came to visit! They arrived on Saturday morning and we relaxed on our patio and got to catch-up. It was the first time that they had seen any of our apartments or homes in LA so we showed them around and introduced them to Riley.

We decided to drive up to Venice to show them the Venice canals and go for a walk. We ended up getting gorgeous weather (after several days of rain) as we walked through all of the canals and showed Omi and Opa the houses.

After a long walk around the Venice canals, we drove to Playa Vista and had a light lunch at Piknic restaurant. We spent the early afternoon looking at wedding photos and hearing all about their recent travels from Germany to Philadelphia and of course how the family is doing back in Rochester and Syracuse.

Paul had always wanted to go to the Warehouse - which you may recognize from Meet the Fockers (the sequel to Meet the Parents). We had a great table outside to wind down the day, although the steaks were the biggest we had ever seen!

Whale Watching - Danielle's Birthday

Last weekend, we celebrated our friend Danielle's birthday by going Whale Watching in Redondo Beach, CA about 30 minutes south of our house. LA is extremely spread out, similar to San Francisco or even Boston, in that areas that are over 20 miles away from Downtown or Central Los Angeles, are still a part of Los Angeles County.

We have been whale watching before a few times and had gone in Dana Point with my parents a few years go. We have never seen whales! But we always see tons of dolphins, sea lions and spend the day out on the ocean which is always nice.

The boat took us out off the coast of Redondo Beach and then south towards Palos Verdes, where we saw lots of beautiful houses set into the cliffs. The afternoon was spent eating fish and drinking beer with our wonderful friends. Another beautiful weekend in Southern California!

Wedding Photos!

We've posted wedding photos on Facebook, but we wanted to also post a link to our Shutterfly page in case anyone wanted to order any pictures.

Enjoy!

Wedding Photos Link

2nd Weekend back in LA!

It is our 2nd weekend back in LA and things are finally seeming to return to normal after a little over 2 months of traveling off and on for family events and of course our wedding. Unfortunately, we've both had a very hectic return to work after the honeymoon - and last week was exceptionally busy as well. My company hosted our 2nd annual sales conference, bringing over 50 salespeople from around the globe to our LA office and Paul prepared for a large meeting with one of his clients - Boost Mobile. We also seem to have a full calendar through till mid-November, although all fun things - family visiting, friend's birthday's and beer gardens. We have a tough life. :)

This weekend and last weekend we wanted to have time to relax and catch up with our friends, so that is exactly what we did. On Friday night we discovered a new Mexican restaurant walking distance from our house and steps to the beach. We met friends there and spent the night out in Playa del Rey - which consists of lots of hole in the wall dive bars - but that's just what we love.

Saturday morning we took Riley on a long walk down the beach. Our house is up on a big hill, but we are about 10 minutes walking to the beach. We took Riley out for a while, but it got pretty hot - up to 80 degrees, so we went home to relax indoors for a while.

Saturday night we went to a concert with our friends Jason and Luke. We've been waiting for this show for a while, the bands were Passion Pit and Muse at the Staples Center downtown. Everytime I go to Staples Center I am surprised by how much downtown has been built up. There are skyscrapers and apartment buildings with lofts and tons of bars and restaurants. We parked at LA Live a new mall/entertainment complex across the street from Staples Center and were shocked at all there is to do. That is on our to do list for our next date.

Today was another gorgeous day - it finally feels like summer here, it had been unseasonably cool all summer - in the low 70s so it was nice to have a day where it was in the 80s. We took Riley to the Abbott Kinney Festival - it's in Venice, and we try to go every year. They shut down the whole street and it is lined with vendors, street performers, jewlers, artists, food trucks, etc. We walked around for about 2 hours and actually also came across a local dive shop that we're going to check out for our certification. We never knew but there are supposed to be huge kelp forests off the coast of LA - near to Catalina Island. Would be cool someday...

We'll close out the weekend sipping on some white wine and catching the last football games of the day. Tough weekend :) A few photos from the festival are below.

Welcome to our Blog!

One day several weeks ago while on our honeymoon, Paul turned to me and said - What if we made a blog? We are so far away from all of our East Coast friends and family - it may be cool to share what we're doing out here on the West Coast.

And so here we are - our very own blog. We will do our best to post frequently with updates from our adventures on the West Coast and life in general.

We've just returned from our honeymoon, so I've posted a few of those pictures here for your viewing pleasure. Stay tuned and welcome to our blog!

Angela