Shopping and I got…NOTHING!

Good afternoon and Happy Sunday 🙂

Were here back at the hotel in Indianapolis.   Another beautiful morning and afternoon.  A little chilly and cloudy in comparison to what we’re used to in Denver, but no complaints here!

So now that we have internet access (thanks Zach for needing to work :), I was able to post yesterday’s planned post as well as this afternoons.

Last night we ended up eating in the Bistro in the hotel.  The night began with drinks on the lake, but by the time our food had come we moved inside thanks to the wind and chill moving in with the sunset.

I didn’t get a picture of the food, but my chicken quesadilla absolutely hit the spot (along with plenty of Zach’s homemade chips).

We wrapped up the evening bringing another drink up to the room while switching back and forth between The Gladiator and Mission Impossible.

(no pictures of the food, but I did snap a pic of my glass of wine brought up to the room, just because I thought it was pretty sweet that we were able to do that!)

I crashed by about 1130 or 12, but Zach managed to stay up quite a bit later than I did, as I got to hear some pretty funny stories from the Moonshiners show he watched that I have absolutely NO memory of.

Due to his late night, Zach slept in (which he almost never does) while I got up and did a quick and easy 4 mile recovery run on the hotels treadmills.  I really wanted to get outside as I love running in new places, but there really isn’t much to run near us, and I do like to keep my recovery runs on the treadmill so I have less chance of doing something stupid! So…

Workout for the day:

40 minute recovery run — total about 4.2 miles (including walking once I hit 4 miles to wrap up 40 minutes).

When I got back up to the room, Zach was still out (Good for him!) but got moving quickly and threw out the idea of brunch in the town.  We don’t get to do brunch much, so I jumped on the opportunity.

We drove around Caramel for awhile until we found a  really cute bistro for brunch. Eggshell bistro (eggshellbistro.com).   AMAZING.  The meal started with honestly some of the best coffee we’ve ever had.

Zach trying his cappuccino:

And very happy with said cap 🙂

I had a cup of just black 3 africans coffee, and it was also wonderful.  For my meal, I ordered the quiche with the fruit cup, and it was AMAZING.

I couldn’t help it, I took a bite before I even thought to snap a picture.  Honestly the best brunch I’ve had in awhile.  The quiche was served warm, with perfectly crumbly but delicate crust and extremely fresh bacon, veggies and cheese.  The fruit was also actually a stand out – a mix of kiwi, strawberry, blueberry, pineapple and raspberries.

We left both satisfied, not completely stuffed and completely happy with out breakfast choice.

After breakfast, we drove back in the direction of our hotel but stopped at the shopping center near by so Zach could look at possible wedding shoes at Nordstoms.  The shopping center was actually huge, but unfortunately most of the stores were closed until noon.  It was about 1145 at this time, so we decided just to walk around a bit since it was only 15 minutes.  On that walk, we passed multiple tempting shops, including Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Restoration Hardware, and GODIVA.

One lap around the mall and stores began to open.  Zach went shopping in Nordstroms while I went on a mission.

Free sample with every visit to Sea’s Candy.  Yes please :).

Confession:  this was actually my second sample.  I got one while Zach shopped, then we walked back once he finished to get his free sample, and it just so happened that there was a new worker.  Score 2 for Ashley 🙂

We’re now hanging out in the room again.  It’s a little before 2 and we need to leave for the wedding shuttle around 430 so we’ve got some time to kill.

Zach’s working and I’m blogging/relaxing.  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.  Looking forward to celebrating the happy couple tonight!

PS: Quick update on Gusman (yes, we are those pet parents that call and check in daily).  The tech said he has been doing fine and nothing new to report about his silly face wound.  I must say, it’s always nice to get away for a bit and not have to worry about waking up and getting him out all day – but by tomorrow I will be very happy to see his silly face.

Welcome to Indy

Coming to you from the lovely Indianapolis for an old colleague of Zach’s wedding.  We’re actually really looking forward to it and can absolutely use a relaxing weekend away from the craziness of life and our own wedding in a little over a months time.  YIKES!

On tap for this morning was a long run which started out with me waking up before 6 AM to make sure I gave myself plenty of time to get up and out the door.  Which means there was some of this:

and this:

PS:  I did NOT like this LARABAR flavor.  I have LOVED all the other ALT bars I have tried (the apple cinnamon and peanut butter cookie flavors were great!).  Disappointing and I didn’t finish it all, but I must say, I felt strong all run so it did the trick if nothing else!

Overall this mornings run went great — I believe it was about 8.36 miles total — which is fine by me.  I went further up a hill into the Highlands neighborhood than I have in a LONG time (about 2 miles with steady incline, some pretty dang steep) and continued to keep well under 10 minute miles, which is good in my books for uphill.  I have just started integrating speed work into my routine, and I’m pretty hopeful that I will see some overall improvements in my times.  I guess having this blog and my dailymile will help show that :).

So:  Workout for the day

80 minute run :  about 8.36 miles total.

I didn’t take any pictures on my run — I had carrying things with me.  But once I get a nice point and click camera, I have a feeling I may have more pictures during my runs.  Especially on beautiful mornings like this — I got out around 615 this morning and it was peacefully full of sunrises views, quiet roads, and a sleepy downtown.  Ideal if you ask me 🙂

After my run, we had a little over an hour to shower up and get out to the airport, since we had to now integrate a Gusman drop off at medical boarding.

I should have gotten a picture of him before we left.  No matter how many visits that boy has to the VCA, he is ALWAYS excited.  Shows they are great people there and take great care of our fur babies.

(gratuitous Gus picture, just because he looks like he could be saying PLEASE DONT MOVE ME GUYS! 🙂

We made it to the airport with plenty of time, even including a stop by Whole Foods for wraps and a vegan everything cookie for me :).  Num num — delish!

Since we had so much time, we stopped at Rock Bottom (Literally one of two places in the concours you can drink…seems odd to me for an airport, but that’s Colorado for ya).  I enjoyed a Bloody Mary, which was actually perfect after my run.

After our drinks, we were pretty perfect with our timing and boarded our plane.  It was smooth sailing to Indy, as Zach watched Parks and Rec with the free Dish On Demand on today’s Southwest flight, while I enjoyed my half of a wrap and reading (still the same book (Where We Belong by Emily Griffith), but getting close to being done so I’ll definitely have a review soon).

It’s a beautiful afternoon here in the midwest —  we are currently hanging out in the room.  It’s 7 PM here but 5 PM our bellies times, so we’re trying to strike the balance.  Maybe going to head down to the lobby for some drinks and stretch dinner as long as we can?

Note:  we currently don’t have wireless in the hotel room…9.95 a day, WHAT?  I didn’t even know hotels charged for that these days!) so while I’ve written the post, it won’t actually publish until Zach needs to work tomorrow and we MUST pay the ridiculous wireless fee.  Whomp whomp!