Laurel is sick!

Remember a week ago when Laurel did her triathlon. I think I mentioned that she was sick. Well, on Monday she actually got really sick and decided to go to the doctors. She has mononucleosis and is feeling very tired and her throat is very sore and white. So, now her claim to fame is that she did her first triathlon with mononucleosis. Please pray for a speedy recovery for her.

San Diego US Women's Sprint Triathlon

On October 19, 2008 five outstanding women did this Sprint Triathlon. These women in black are Laurel (my daughter), Erica (my neice), Jess (my daughter-in-law), Brit (Jess's sister-in-law) and Rachel (my niece). Laurel, Erica and Jess raised over $3000 for Ovarian Cancer Research. My sister Nancy died in 2005 from Ovarian Cancer, so this race had special meaning for all of us. This course included a 1/2 mile swim, 13 mile bike ride and a 3 mile run. I am so proud of all of these young ladies.Here is Jess with little Lucy before the race. It looks dark because it is very early in the morning and the sun has not come up yet.

Here is a picture of group 5 taking off on their swim. They started by age group.

Check out this image of Laurel. I think she is pleased to be finished with the swim part of the race.

Here are Jess and Britney just before the finish line for the final leg of the race. Go Girls!

Here is Laurel finishing her run.







Here is Rachel. She placed 150th out of 516 in her division. She is an amazing athlete.

Erica (on the right) smiles for all of us as we cheer her on.

Here is Jess. She did a great job. She didn't even ride a bicycle to prepare for the tri. She borrowed Erica's husband's bike which she just got the night before the race. What a woman!

Did you wonder what Grandma did during the race? Well, I had a very hard job that I love. I know I didn't swim, bike and run, but my arm got very tired. I know that you are really feeling sorry for me. Lucy slept durning most of the bike race. She is a sweetheart!

Pre-Triathlon Fun

I went down to Southern Cal so I could watch Lucy while Jess did her first Triathlon. We got to do some wonderful visiting while we were down there.

This first picture is of Lucy visitng her great grandmother. My Mother

Here is Lucy checking out Great Grandma apartment.
Katie, Steven and Megan came over for a visit . When I say they came over, I mean that they came over to Steve's house. He is always nice enough to let me stay and entertain at his house.

Here is Katie visitng with Jess and Lucy is checking out baby Megan. We had to have a water play session. Steven expects water play when Aunt Carol comes. Aren't these two way too cute.
I couldn't resist including this picture of Lucy as a fire chief. What a doll.
Pre-race registration

Here are Jess and Laurel checking out the start area for the swim. This is the day before the big event.

Boat Party

My Cousin Krystin and her husband Alex hosted a dinner for 11 of us the night before the race. Their keep their yacht in San Diego right by our hotel, so it was perfect. We had a blast. What a treat!

Here is Jess and Lucy with her brother Tom.

Everyone gathers around for

hors d'oeuvres and drinks.

Lakshmi visits & Blue Angels

Another San Francisco Adventure

My long time friend Lakshmi came to town and we had a wonderful time visiting, hiking, eating, going to movies and cooking together. We took an amazing hike starting at the Sutro Baths by the cliff house called Lands End Trail. It goes right along the coast to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a bit windy, but still really delightful. I strongly recommend this hike. Then we ran into a local that told us if we went all the way to 25th Ave, we could continue walking on Baker Beach and China Beach all the way to the GG Bridge. I will try that next time. What a another perfect day in San Francisco.

I just love to watch the blue angels fly over the City. I can't imagine a better place to see this amazing air show. This year is was really spectacular because Lakshmi was staying at her brother-in-laws place in the Marina. We arrived there about 10 minutes after the blue angels started flying. We went to the roof top (5th floor) thinking that we would have it to ourselves. We found it jam packed with lots of people from the building drinking beer and wine and having a grand time. Even though I felt like we were two mother's breaking up a party, we just joined in and had a great viewing of the air show. The pictures below speak for themselves. A perfect day in the city and a grand but noisy air show was really a lot of fun.

(Side note: The blue angels flew two days in a row. Today I went down to the dog park and saw them from the other side of the bay. It was probably 8 miles away as the crow flies. It was really amazing how different yet graceful precison it was from this side of the bay. I could see their entire formations instead of their close up and powerful performance. I actually like the close up better, but really appreciate what skill they exhibit.)

What would my blog be if I didn't include food. This was such a busy day that we really didn't eat lunch. At 4:30 we strolled over to Chestnut Street to Lakshmi's favorite Japanese restaurant and had an early dinner. Lakshmi ordered the rainbow roll. It was just so beautiful that I had to take a picture. My tempura tasted great too, but don't you love the presentation of the rainbow roll.

Favorite Fig Recipe

Here is a favorite fig recipe of mine that comes from Helen's daughter Karmina. Since figs are in season right now, you should give it a try. I'm posting this because Erica is doing an ingredient of the month on her blog and October is figs. Give this a try. It is easy, yummy and good for you.

Prosciutto Wrapped Figs with Goat Cheese

12 Figs
1 small package of mild goat cheese
1/4 pound prosciutto
honey

Remove stems from figs. Using a small sharp knife open up the fig from the top to about the middle with an X-cut. Place a small amount of goat's cheese into the opening. Wrap the fig with a piece of prosciutto and secure with a tooth pick. Place figs on a baking sheet, drizzle honey over them and put under the broiler just until prosciutto starts to sizzle. You only want to warm these up and melt the cheese just a bit. So easy and yummy!!

Mexico

You may have been wondering what we did on our 4 day cruise to Cabo. Mostly we got dressed up, ate a lot and took pictures of one another. Well, look at the pictures. We did a bit more, but it really did seem like we dressed, ate and took pictures. It was a great sister bonding time. Mary

Betty

Sue

Carol

Here are some pictures from our activities. I don't have a picture of us playing cards, but we really did a lot of that. Watch out for Mary, she is competitive and pretty good at cards. Well, maybe you could say that about all of us.

Here we are on the tender after tour Cabo in really hot and humid weather.

Here we are in the town square.
You can see these rocks from where our ship docked in Cabo. I tried to take pictures with my SLR and had problems with the humidity. So, most of these were taken with my pocket camera.
Well, I guess everyone needs to have their picture taken here. No, we didn't go inside.
Here is a hodgepodge of pictures. Cabo, on the ship, on the ship drinking and of course, taking pictures.

Miniature golf on the ship was fun. It didn't matter that I wasn't very good because it's hard to golf on a moving ship. Oh, did I mention that I did get a whole on one. It went down hill after that.
Getting ready to sail
Yes, Mary put a swimsuit on and got in the pool. Is that a first?

OK, it wouldn't be my blog if I didn't include food. This is the night (and the only night) that I actually had 3 desserts. The chocolate lava cake was my favorite. I had that every night. I just couldn't help myself. Also on this plate is black and white bread pudding (not bad) and black forest ice cream (rather ordinary).