Up to my Neck

Today I woke up and headed out to the beach to go jump in the ocean. The current was rather strong, but I managed to only get unexpectedly sucked in by a wave once. That once was enough to get pretty waterlogged. For a few hours after my nose was randomly draining water. Regardless, it felt really good to be in the ocean for a bit.

Today was fully sunny for the first time since we got here, and as a result the beach was rather busy all day (it helps that it was a holiday).



We decided to stick around an extra day and head to the DC area tomorrow, so I grabbed breakfast with Stephen and then we met up with his friend Jessica to go do some geocaching at a nearby state park. It provided a much different atmosphere than the beach.



We ended up walking quite a ways in search of a cache we couldn't get to without crossing a marsh.



Along the way we stumbled across this diorama in a tree. The random assortment of assembled items was quite amusing.



On the back side of the park, we wound up at a beach that many locals utilize for boating and relaxing to avoid the tourists on the main beach.



After geocaching, I accompanied Stephen to Best Buy so he could look for the Kite Runner, the movie version of the book he just finished. While there, we noticed this peculiar label. Notice how it says iPhone 3GB. There is no such thing as a 3 gigabyte iPhone. You'd think a computer/electronics retailer would catch that one.



We went to a surf themed baja mexican/seafood grill for dinner. Afterwords, Nate enjoyed another Nerds Rope...

And Nate, Molly, Stephen and I played a game of hearts. Between the number of times Stephen had the 2 of clubs and the way my hands meshed with his in a really bad way, it was a very odd game. I ended the game by shooting the moon, which simply secured my 3rd place finish while putting Stephen out of his misery.

Up to my ankles

Yesterday was all about the expo.  It was a long day, and it was the busiest expo day I've seen on the tour so far.  I spent much of the day helping to sell shoes, restock shoes, and clean up our space from shoes left on the floor in addition to our normal marketing efforts.  It sounds like this will be more of the norm from here on out at the large marathon events.

We were unable to set up at the finish line yesterday because of the number of people on the boardwalk, so we got up before 4AM today instead.  We finished setup and got to watch the sun rise on the beach.

As finishers began to come in, the beach very quickly became crowded with people.  Stephen ran the race, so we were busy covering the register for him in addition to doing cheer signs and footbaths this morning.

The ice baths for feet were a huge hit.  We had close to 200 people utilize them today, which is great considering the next best event had about 30 footbaths.

The booth was also packed, and the walls were left looking a little bare when we packed up for the day.  Overall, our busiest event by far since I started the tour.

I had some afternoon back pain issues (even when consciously trying to lift with the legs, this job can take a toll) and spent much of the afternoon in bed napping and watching football while trying to relax my spine.  I'm feeling much better now.  One of the nice bonuses of being a sponsor/vendor is getting access to all the VIP areas.  That included tonight's concert VIP area, which had a tasty dinner and open bar.  

I headed down to the concert area with Molly and eventually met up with Stephen and Lyndsay.  The B-52s were the headlining band, and they weren't particularly exciting.  All their songs sounded the same, including "Love Shack".

We were also much closer to the pier they shoot fireworks off tonight.  The fireworks at 10:30PM seems to be a regular thing.  Overall, a good night.  I ended up walking back along the beach, which is highly relaxing and a great way to clear the mind.

Tomorrow we'll sleep in a bit (8 or 9 for me). I plan to jump in the ocean and swim around a bit in the morning, and then we'll probably end up in the DC area tomorrow night.  I'm excited to see Perry and Rhett, who are both in DC.  After that, we have a weekend off, and I'll be flying back to Utah for a bit to see my parents.

Unoriginal Spontineity

The expo looked like this:

I like the hanging Crocs sign. I didn't even know we had it until Nate pulled it out of the truck. I also played gopher for a bit during the expo by taking Stephen's rental car to go to a hardware store, the bank for change, and to grab food. It was interesting trying to drive an unfamiliar small car, navigate in an unfamiliar area, and read directions off my phone all while driving in fairly heavy traffic.

After the expo, I snapped this portrait of Nate. I'm pretty sure he thought I was just taking pictures of the ocean, but I thought it was a fitting shot and some what biographical. Not to mention the lighting was kind of interesting. I could have done better with a digital SLR.

We went to dinner at a restaurant near the hotel, and I had the crabcake platter, which was really a basket and not a platter, but it was good anyway. Not Legal Seafood in Boston good, but good nonetheless. After that, Lyndsay bought me ice cream to pay me back for lunch, and Stephen alerted us to the fireworks being shot off the pier.

And then he took my picture from 3 rooms over off the balcony.

"My gut is telling me no. But my gut is also very hungry."

Sweet and Salty, with a side of Pain

Today started off fairly early with a  4 mile run on the beach (and in the ocean from time to time, though not always intentionally).  It was really pleasant and a refreshing way to start the day.  My calves and ankles are sore as a result.  Good pain.  I thought about an ocean swim, but the lifeguard stands had red flags flying, so that was a no-go.  Plus it started raining.  Of course, the rain started right when Nate and I decided to walk to breakfast.  And then stopped as soon as we got to breakfast.

We set up our booth at the expo for this week's Rock and Roll half marathon (the post-race entertainment is headlined by the B-52s), which didn't go quite as smoothly as normal.  The highlight (if you can call it that) was unexpectedly having all 7 display walls fall on me - a crushing weight that I couldn't hold up.  I got pinned against the wall of the truck (I was the only person at the trucks at that time), managed to lift the walls briefly to regain my ability to breathe, only to get my leg stuck under them twisted backwards.  At this point I made an astoundingly calm phone call to Molly asking for some help, and in the mean time managed to twist my leg free of the walls (though I left one of my sandals pinned under the pile).  Stephen showed up and helped me pull the walls out of the truck, and all was good.

Except that I hurt.  Besides already being sore from arm, core, and beach running workouts in the last three days, now my knee hurts and I think I bruised a rib or two (I was worried at first I'd cracked a rib, but the pain isn't particularly centralized).  It's still not fun to cough, laugh, touch my right side, or bend over.  Hopefully tomorrow will bring less soreness.

After set-up, I headed to the mall with Lyndsay and Molly, and I ended up watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 with Molly.  I'm not sure I'll live that down with Nate or Stephen anytime soon, but it was enjoyable and worth it, or will be, or something.

On the way back to the hotel, we got stuck in random road construction traffic and were delayed an hour and a half.  Conveniently enough, we had a conference call scheduled and got that out of the way, but I still can't believe how bad the traffic was to average less than a mile an hour.

For dinner we went to the Coyote Cantina, where I had a BBQ chicken burrito, which surprisingly was one of the tastiest meals I've had the entire trip.  After returning to the hotel, Nate and I wanted salt water taffy, so I went and got some.  I had a dollar, and Nate gave me 75 cents.  Nate must have had a psychic moment, because I picked out about how much I thought I could afford on our modest budget, and when it was rung out it came to exactly $1.75 after tax.

It was pretty tasty.  We watched Obama's speech at the DNC, and then I talked to my parents for a bit while walking on the beach.

Today had numerous highs and lows, but overall was a really good day.  Tomorrow is a new day, hopefully including better weather and less pain.

Room with a View

We started the day with a rainy drive through the Appalachians in West Virginia (pretty much the entire day's drive was rainy).

We stopped for lunch at a Subway/gas station combo, and the highlight there was watching Nate eat a Nerds Rope.  I wish I had a picture.

Driving into Virginia Beach, the scenery changed quite dramatically, as would be expected when nearing the ocean.  I hadn't really thought much about the fact that we're relatively near where I lived in Virginia for less than a year at a very young age.

The western side of our Best Western hotel doesn't give much of a view...

but perhaps it would be more aptly named the Best Eastern hotel, as our room's balcony look out across the Atlantic Ocean.

Nate and I grabbed some Mexican for dinner, and on the way back we got to see many of the bars and souvenir shops that line Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach.

We watched coverage of the Democratic National Convention for a while, which included listening to this guy, or more like being too distracted by looking at him to absorb what he had to say.

Finally, I ended the night with a brief stroll along the beach and in the water.  I was very conscious of the iPhone in my pocket the whole time and paid close attention to the waves coming in.  The water is warm, so even if the weather doesn't cooperate (it's not supposed to) at least the water is pleasant.