We had a nice time this weekend up in Santa Barbara. It’s abit of an annual migration, as the third weekend in April marks the Chardonnay 10 Miler & 5K. We usually do the 10-miler, but this year I was a mere bystander (crutches, aircast and all) and Chuck did the 5K, being sensible in anticipation of his upcoming surgery. We went up with our friend Mary Button, a really good runner who owns RaceReady (blatant commercial plug). We met more friends up there: Barbara and her grand-nephew Michael, and later (on race day) Dave and Sylvia. Dave is a really good runner, too, so he and Mary planned on pushing each other along in the 10-miler. Friday we hacked around Santa Barbara and tried some wine at the Santa Barbara Winery. Saturday was race day, and Chuck and Michael ran the 5K together and pushed each other to good times, a 15 minute PR for Michael, in fact! Mary won her age division but Dave beat her, and Sylvia finished, so everybody was pretty happy. I had my first ever experience of sitting a race out, and spent my time making secret plans to kick everybody’s butt next year. The rest of the day we spent recovering then going to the Giessinger Winery. We bought some wine there (they had really awesome bottles with pretty labels, my two big requirements when it comes to wine). Later we all went to dinner at a fabulous restaurant called the Brown Pelican. We had a table with an ocean view, so got to watch the sunset. Wow!! Sunday morning we spent lolling around the motel and while having breakfast I discovered a new use for my aircast (and the whole point of this blog entry): cracking hard-boiled eggs!

Many exciting photos here.