Burke

I was going a little stir crazy not being able to walk as much as in NZ. So when I got to northern Virginia mom and I headed to burke lake. 

We knew there would be snow, but didn't really realize it would be like walking through soft sand on the beach...for 7.5 miles....

It was a beautiful day. 

Hard to believe daylight savings time starts in 2 weeks...

I haven't seen the lake so frozen before. 

We were happy to finish before sunset...

After the walk I headed to anne and dans to play with the kids and enjoy some Charlotte brews. With the new coozie fro

Evms. 

In my quest to run no matter what, I had some creative running routes.

 At least the sun was out tuesday. 

Anne and I also went to glory days, the oldest bar in burke.

Before leaving burke, my parents and I headed to yard house. I had a great ipa sampler and I got carded! Cheers!

Charlotte

After a night in northern Virginia I headed down to Charlotte. Despite a brief blizzard on the way, I was able to make it. I had a lovely hotel in the city and did a frigid in over to noda. 

The sunsets are still good!  As is the beer.   :)

The following night I also headed to run club, this time at triple c. No pictures but it was another cold but good night. I also enjoyed catching up with so many people from cmc.

For my Third night and third brewery, I headed to heist. I took the scenic route along little sugar creek greenway. Having a car means it's a lot harder to get a decent number of steps in a day! 

The greenway was cold but pretty. Unfortunately no so safe to walk back after dark. But in the light of day, came close enough to auckland safety. 

Beautiful blue skies.  Hard to tell it was 20 something Fahrenheit. 

Alexander park. 

I made it to heist and enjoyed great beers and friends. By far the best was one of my good friends own brew, folie du ware. 

I planned to go back to nova on Saturday, but snow had other plans. It worked out well, as I was able to visit Christina and Brian in wake forest. And enjoy more cheap and good brews! 

I was in shock at the selection and the prices!  Great nc trip. Looking forward to the next one being warmer...

Unexpected visit to San Francisco

I landed at sfo and cheerily made my way thru customs with the aid of global entry. I dropped my bags off at the transfer spot and then got wifi as I was walking to the terminal to go to my next gate. And it turns out my flight was cancelled. Good news is I was in sfo and not lax. And My cousin Adam lives in Berkeley! 

I checked in to the Hyatt downtown because all I wanted in life was a shower promptly. It was great. I got to check in early, they dealt with my 70kg of luggage with no problem. And then I took the Bart (metro) over to Berkeley to meet Adam. Above is the clock tower first built in 1840 or something. 

The campus is very beautiful. Despite massive expansion they have maintained lots of tree and creeks and what not. The trees above looked like ginger root to me. Apparently in the summer they are quite pretty 

We went up the tower and got great views. Can just see San Fran in the fog in the distance. 

We walked to adams house in a gorgeous sunset. 

View from his back porch. He has an amazing house!

With a real yard. 

I took a walk through the neighborhood and admired the diverse and interesting architecture. 

I then found a brewery (as I do). Great beers and also super cheap compared to NZ prices! Great surprise trip. It really felt like I hadn't left auckland (except for the prices). And also, auckland is super clean, which I didn't really notice until I came to a normal city!  Cheers! (Which all the Americans thought I was a wee bit odd for saying at the end of every interaction) 

Running in San Fran

Tuesday morning I went for a little run around the city. I split it into two parts as I took a pause at the marina on the beach to check out the Golden Gate Bridge. Sam Francisco has even more hills than auckland!  Particularly on my way back I think I went up the steepest one in the city. (Note my markedly increased min per km time!)

Though cloudy, the bridge was visible and the beach area quite nice. 

The entertaining thing about my run was my inability to cross streets when the cross walk go light came on, because there wasn't an associated noise. All the crosswalks in NZ and australia had a beeping noise that changed to indicate "go". I often just stood at the cross walks on my run until I noted others were crossing! 

As was the marina. 

Divisadero street. While I know for a fact I walked up the steepest street in the world in dunedin, this was a close second. And a bit longer. And I was running (or moving my legs in that general manner!). 

I'm now on my virgin american flight (yah gogoinflight!