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POM FRIDAY . MITCHELL’S COVE BEACH
I have to rant for about a paragraph, then I’ll be done.
Yesterday I took Alfie to Mitchell’s Cove Beach in Santa Cruz, it’s an off leash dog beach that is quite secluded and safe for dogs to run around and not go back up to the main road. We were in the Santa Cruz area for a good couple of hours and I took a ton of footage on my “vlogging camera” (aka 8 year old pixelated canon that I really love but is such poor quality). 3 hours of editing, getting music right and finding free royalty-free music to use. It still won’t save. I guess I need to get out of the stone age and use something other than windows movie maker. I’m trying to keep up the vlogging every Monday and Wednesday. And if you’re new to the word vlog/vlogging, it basically means video-bloggging. Exactly what I’m doing here on spiffykerms but in video format. A more “follow me around” type of deal. You can check out my YouTube channel here if you want, there’s 3 videos that went live already.
Alright, let’s get into the fun stuff. Mitchell’s Cove Beach with Alfie!
After we spent an hour or so at Mitchell’s Cove dog beach, we drove up W. Cliff Drive for about a kilometer or so and went to the main boardwalk area. That’s when we scoped out some surfers!! I still can’t believe it, it’s so cool seeing them down in the water trying to catch some waves. Alfie and I arrived there around 10:30 in the morning, so I’m not sure if it was too early/too late but the surfers were waiting quite a bit for some waves. Hence the lack of fun surfing pictures.
The boardwalk area of Santa Cruz is quite popular with the tourists, myself included. There’s a seaside amusement park, which of course doesn’t allow pets – understandbaly. But we had a grand ol’ walk from edge to edge, and checked out one of the bridges. So you get a selfie of Alfie and I :)
About to head back up to the Bay Area. But first, I had to show you an adorable snap of Alfie hanging out the window (crying) for fear I was going to leave him. I was snappin’ shots of this Toyota Camry I have for reviewing purposes for about a week. Fun hey?! I’m wondering if all review cars from Toyota are going to be red?! ;)Â 
Enjoy your weekend. Go explore!
Our first American thanksgiving
We enjoyed our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, and our first Thanksgiving celebrated in the USA this weekend. We invited our other Canadian friends over to celebrate too, since they also recently moved to California. As Canadians, we were dyin’ for a bit of Thanksgiving grub as ours usually falls during the middle of October. We were overdue for a feast!
I had the chance to order food at no cost to me, thanks to Walmart Grocery once again, so I took full advantage of that and placed my order over a week ahead a time so we would be prepared. It was delivered last Wednesday and we had our Thanksgiving planned for Black Friday. Unfortunately my order was a bit of a flop, as chicken wings arrived in replacement of two whole chickens. Walmart assured me that I should always check the box that allows substitutions which in any case they run out of food, they will give you an upgrade. However, I’m thinkin’ chicken wings are a total downgrade from whole chickens. They also didn’t include my chicken stuffing for the birds. In a panic I had to rush out before any of the stores closed early due to Thanksgiving the next day. Not something I had planned to do! I was disappointed in that, and of course had to go on a wild goose chase to find fresh not frozen, chickens. In the end, it all worked out and everything else arrived perfectly fine. Just not those dang chickens and stuffing! While my delivery did have a mishap, I’m still really pleased with the service and still recommend it to people. Especially those who live a busy lifestyle, don’t want to grocery shop on their time off or those who have newborns at home. Imagine diapers being dropped off at your door at a moments notice! Perfect, right?
Since our friends have a young child, we had our Thanksgiving meal earlier in the evening since the lil’ bud had to go to bed at an early hour. We had a really nice evening with loads of good food and wine. I made two whole chickens, mashed potatoes, baked asparagus with feta, carrots and cauliflower puff (which I still have to post a recipe on).
Over the course of a few weeks, I picked up some decorations from all over, and put together a nice spread for ourselves, and our guests. The only true decorating I did was these fancy looking but super easy to recreate napkins that I saw on Pinterest. But I picked up some flame less candles for the table which I totally forgot to turn on, and I also made a Christmas Ball wreath from a coat hanger, which is more like a triangle wreath, but hey — it at least definitely looks homemade, haha!
Now, I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking :)
What are some of your Thanksgiving traditions?
What’s your favourite part about Thanksgiving?
Favourite: Turkey, Ham, Beef or Chicken?
I’m really looking forward to continuing these traditions over the course of the years.
Are you wanting to try out Walmart’s grocery delivery service? Your first order delivery is for free – and if you want an additional 15 bucks off you can use my referral link. Â I’ll get $15 for each friend who tries out their service, and YOU will save $15 too. Why not share, right?
Disclaimer: Walmart-to-go provided me with a gift card to try out their delivery service.
Fitness Recap: I swore during yoga class
Yeah, during Power Yoga last Thursday, with our intense Russian instructor, with an accent so thick she’s hard to understand. So I’m there looking around to see what everyone else is doing, then copy.
Does anyone else get their left and right’s mixed up during a yoga class? I really have to think about what I’m doing, to make sure I’m following along correctly.
At one point she had us doing handstands, which was fun for me, as I’m used to doing them (against a wall) at CrossFit. We did that for a bit, but then we switched for a forearm/headstand. It killed my brain, and felt like it was getting smooshed. I might have let out the f-word when I was falling down after a few attempts. I did manage to get up though, and was much more stable in that position, than the handstand. Score.
I feel like a lot of bloggers are getting into yoga lately. It’s a good thing! For any sport really. I remember thinking it was for hippies a few years ago, but man — I almost crave going.
I’ve only been doing yoga regularly since late May, and I’ve been noticing tremendous amount of change in my flexibility. I’m enjoying it! I usually go to a yoga class, and immediately follow through with an hour or so of bouldering. Which I feel makes me a stronger climber.
So much so, I’ve been working on this green V4 pinchy problem. Some of the holds suck, especially towards the bottom, but once you get to the top-ish, it’s okay. I cannot get the second last green hold. Your left foot is not stable at all on the under-hanging pinches. It’s awesome, and frustrating.
One more thing before I jump into the fitness recap. The Guy and I bought a family membership to a pool!
Let’s get to it:
Monday June 16: 90 minutes of bouldering, and 30 minute pool lane swim!
Tuesday June 17: 75 minutes of yin yoga, 90 minutes bouldering
Wednesday June 18: Off
Thursday June 19: 75 minutes of power yoga, 45 minutes bouldering, 35 minute lane swim
Friday June 20: 75 minutes of yin yoga, 3 hours of top rope climbing with Ellen
Saturday June 21: 3.6 mile run (outside) with The Guy
Sunday June 22: Off
Swimming pool selfie. Had to. Like I said earlier, I hadn’t been lane swimming since I was a teenager, training to be a lifeguard – which I failed. I can finally swim one length (25m) of the pool without stopping. Now I have to work on the breathing.
It’s going to sound cheesy, but I love it when Ellen and I go climbing together. For the most part, I do yoga and bouldering on my own. But about once a week, we get together and climb for hours. Literally, we are there for 3+ hours together, and while most of it is climbing, sometimes we just sit down on the cushiony carpet and just chat about anything and everything. I had to take a climbing shoe selfie of our feet the last time we were climbing together. Ha.
My Tone It Up gym bag is $24 off if any of you were interested in purchasing it. Gah. It’s still expensive.
When is the last time you went swimming?
How many times a week do you normally work out?
Are you watching any of the World Cup soccer games?
I honestly think world cup soccer players fall down easily because they want to catch their effing breath! No I’m not even joking!