{Food, Food, and More Food!}

Why does it seem like all I ever do when I go home is eat? Not like that’s always a bad thing, especially when it contains a dinner like this! After kayaking and before Miss Saigon, we headed to a new brew pub in Roseville called Yard House. They had 170 beers on tap–Jeff was in heaven! I tried a pint from my favorite brewery, Deshutes, while Jeff sampled a few pale ales and reds. We thought about having dinner there, but ultimately decided to head into Sacramento to have dinner before the show.

We had a really really hard time picking out a restaurant, but ultimately decided on The Press, recently named the best new restaurant by Sacramento magazine. And seriously, this was the best food I’ve had in a long time. We started out with a few tapas before moving on to the main courses. I had the potato gnocchi with pesto, cherry tomatoes and garlic confit–I’m sighing just thinking about it!

The other great part about visiting home is getting to steal veggies from my parent’s garden–here was my loot this time!

{Music Circus}

The reason Jeff and I headed home this weekend (besides to visit family of course!) was to see Miss Saigon at Music Circus in Sacramento. Music Circus is summer stock theater located in the heart of downtown Sac. It used to be held in a big circus tent, hence the name, but recently moved into a more permanent and gorgeous structure. Ever since I can remember, I’ve always loved watching and performing musical theater. My parents took me to see my first shows at Music Circus–Annie and The Secret Garden–back when it was still in the tent and I still try to make it a show every few years or so. Despite the fact that shows only have 1 week runs, the theater always draws big talent with tons of broadway experience and the shows are always staged professionally.

While in London 2 years ago, I fell in love with Miss Saigon while taking a course on musical theater and have been looking for a live production to see ever since. So when I heard Music Circus was performing it this year, I told asked my parents to buy us some tickets! The show, written by the same team that wrote Les Mis, is so powerful yet horribly tragic–I’m so happy I finally got to see it performed!

Can’t wait till next summer!

{An Action Packed Saturday}

We may have taken last Saturday off from our usual adventures, but this Saturday definitely made up for it! Since we were only in town for 1 full day, we decided to pack in as much as possible. So after breakfast and a 3-mile walk, my parents and Jeff and I headed to Lake Natoma to go kayaking. I had gotten my parents a GroupOn for the Sacramento Aquatic Center for Christmas last year and 9 months later, we actually made it out to the lake to use it! It was an absolutely gorgeous day–perfect swimming temperature but not too hot out of the water–and we had a blast paddling around the lake for a few hours.

We rented 2 tandem kayaks which was great so I didn’t have to work as hard, though somehow I still managed to be sore Sunday!

Can’t you tell how hard I’m working?

After kayaking, we enjoyed a picnic lunch by the bike trail then headed back to shower and get ready for the rest of the day–beer tasting at Yard House, a little shopping, the best dinner ever in Midtown, and Miss Saigon at Music Circus–what a day!

Back to the normal schedule–can’t wait till the 3 day weekend!

How was your weekend?

{Yoga Sundays}

Every since I quit the gym, I’ve tried to create a more well-rounded approach to exercise. I try to run 5 days a week, “lift” (push-ups, squats, crunches) 3 days a week, do something active and outdoors on Saturdays, then end each week by doing yoga on Sundays. I must admit, I was not a big yoga fan at first. I’m used to my workouts being fast paced and strenuous like spin class or running. I started doing yoga at first as a way to stretch since I’ve always been horribly inflexible. We had a class called BodyFlow at my gym that I tried to go regularly to, but I just felt like I was wasting time when I could really be working out. But as my life has become more stressful and my body even more inflexible, I’ve really been able to appreciate the balance yoga brings to my workouts. So now, I try to do yoga every Sunday morning before work. I must admit that I am not always perfect at sticking to that schedule, but I do my best–I’m only human, right?

Do include yoga in your weekly workout routines?