Tag Archives: #vacation

Vacation Training

05 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by in Fitness

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Summer Vacation

I hope that you’ve seen my posts about planning for my summer vacation. If you have not, please check out my blog series, so far.

  • Part 1 on picking Where to Go and Picking Lodging
  • Part 2 on Food and Activities
  • Part 3 on Packing List
  • Part 4 on the Last Week To-Do’s

Lifting Weights / Resistance Training

As I hope you also know, I’ve also been posting a blog series about my Lifting Weights / Resistance Training.

Part 1 of Lifting Weights / Resistance Training post where I covered:

  • Why lifting weights is important to me
  • Misconceptions women make about lifting weights
  • Things to-do
  • Lifting program weeks 1 – 5

Part 2 of Lifting Weights / Resistance Training where I covered:

  • My workouts for weeks 6 – 10
  • Articles that discuss general guidelines about training and the menstrual cycle

Part 3 of Lifting Weights / Resistance Training where I covered:

  • My workouts for weeks 11 – 15
  • Switching-up Workout Style
  • Rest Week & Life

Part 4 of Lifting Weights / Resistance Training where I covered:

  • Life Happens
  • My workouts for weeks 16 – 21
  • Full Body Workouts – Mostly Large Compound Lifts

These two blog series converge at my vacation!

Vacation Training

I did research on local gyms around where we are going to be staying, however most of them are private clubs (personal training or group classes only) or Cross-fit Gyms. The couple of big-box-gyms I found are a little far from where we are staying.

This is a good time to switch things up for a week. Who wants to go on vacation and do the same types of movement and lifting as when they are at home? I’m loving the idea of breaking-up the monotony.

My plan for vacation is to continue to put forth a consistent effort to still get in movement each day by doing some hiking, swimming, and or kayaking.

I want to take this time to do a plug for a lady I love and follow on YouTube, Jen Heward, who has a Home Workout Kit that will also travel well. I’d love to purchase this to use while on vacation, but if I decide not to spend my money on this now, I will in the future for sure.

I’m still kicking around the idea of taking my traditional resistance bands with me. I’ve not decided yet.

I also have not decided how much or little I will train while on vacation. To be prepared, I have some body-weight circuit style workouts that are perfect for vacation or training at home.

6 Days of Body-Weight Workouts

Day 1 (Repeat 1 – 5x) 

Day 2 (Repeat 1 – 5x) 

  • 10-15 Push-ups
  • 12 (per leg) Walking Lunges
  • 15 Jumping Jacks
  • 30 sec. Plank
  • 8 Hand Walkouts
  • 15 Air Squats
  • 18 Slow Mountain Climbers
  • 10 Glute Bridge

Day 3 (Repeat 1 – 5x) 

Day 4 (Repeat 1 – 5x) 

Day 5 (Repeat 1 – 5x) 

  • Dips
  • 15 Air Squats
  • 15 Jumping Jacks
  • 15 Push-ups
  • 12 (per leg) Single Leg Deadlifts
  • 6 Side-to-Side Hand Walkouts
  • 12 (per leg) Alternating Reverse Lunges
  • 45 sec Plank
  • 12 Single-leg Glute Bridges

Day 6 (Repeat 1 – 5x) 

  • 12 Single-leg Glute Bridges
  • 45 secs of Jumping Jacks
  • 30 sec Side Plank
  • 15 (per leg) Forward Lunges
  • 10 Hand Walkouts
  • 20 Air Squats
  • 60 sec Plank
  • 15 Push-ups

When I return, I’ll be starting Weeks 23 – 27 of my regularly scheduled training; to be shared in Part 5 of Lifting Weights / Resistance Training coming in August.

 

Planning Our Summer Vacation 2018 – South Lake Tahoe (Part 2 of 5)

03 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Travel

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Check out Part 1 on picking where to go and picking lodging.

Now that the big things are chosen and booked, it is time to move on to the most fun part!

Food and Activities!

This is where Google and Trip Advisor will be your best friends.

First Stop Reno, NV

Since we land in Reno, NV just after noon Pacific Time and we can check-in to our lodging after 3:00p PT, I wanted to find us some lunch and something unique to Reno to see before we head south.

One of the first things that popped up on my search was the iconic Reno Arch (located at the intersection of Virginia St. and Commercial Row); selfie time, gotta do that!

We also need to get some lunch….I found a place called The Depot Craft Brewery Distillery that is in a building from 1910 that served “as the headquarters from the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway”.

Between my love of history and gin and my husband’s love of craft beers and bourbon, our quick Reno experience is going to be epic! I will post a review of the food, beverages, and experience here on my other site called: Restaurant Reviews – ByCandace.

Second Adventure

Being from Texas, I have been endlessly subjected to old western television shows like Bonanza and Ponderosa….well, if you didn’t know already….both were filmed on the land that stretches down the side of Lake Tahoe out to Carson City and between Reno and South Lake Tahoe. Which means….we will be driving through The Ponderosa!

How-to Scope-out All the Places!

The first thing I do is pull up GoogleMap of the address where I am staying, I look around on the map for what is close by. The types of places I look for are: grocery stores, liquor stores, pharmacies, hospitals and emergency rooms, coffee shops, breakfast spots, lunch spots, dinner spots, breweries, wineries, happy hour spots, spas, and entertainment and activities. I create a Word document with a list of places for each category.

Since we have a kitchenette in our lodging we are going to keep some snacks, breakfast food, and stuff for morning coffee. We are a little bit of coffee snobs so we are probably going to pre-grind and food-saver our home coffee and pack it in our suit case to take with us. However, I did find a couple of breakfast spots near our place that we’ll probably try out a couple of mornings.

Over the years traveling, Trip Advisor has been my best and most reliable tool when it comes to restaurants. I typically start with their top 10 best rated restaurant list. Then I look up all the places that show up nearby on the GoogleMap. It is also fun to see if there are any nearby Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives spots.

As I’m looking through the places on Trip Advisor and Google under each category, I’m looking at the reviews, ratings, location, menus, and locations to determine if they are places I’d like to go. If they look appealing then they go on the list, including their name, address, phone number, webpage, hours of operation, affordability, type of food served, and any notes that I may have about the place.

The Word document is what I’ll use to make reservations for dinners and will email myself and husband so we have easy access from our phones to the address, phone numbers, and web-pages while we are there and on-the-go.

Activities

Again with the Google and the Trip Advisor…..

Depending on where you go, you can do targeted searches for specific activities (like fishing) as well as general searches (like top 5 things to do in Lake Tahoe in the summer). I did many searches of both types.

For the South Tahoe area, there are tons of activities to explore:

Once there is a list of activities identified, then you narrow them down to what interests you the most and what you can afford to do. Then I typically check out all the reviews of the companies so that I can pick the best one for the activity I want to do. I add the activities that I want to do, by category, to the Word document, including the name, address, phone number, webpage, and costs for each.

Some activities like fishing excursions for my husband and spa days will likely need to be booked in advance during a holiday week. While some things like renting a kayak a reservation probably won’t be needed.

Day Trips

It is always good to research what else is around the area you are visiting. While we want to experience all that South Lake Tahoe has to offer, we also want to be open to experiencing surrounding areas as well. During my Google searches I also found two places (Nevada City and Markleeville) not far from S.L.T. that might be worth visiting that offer something different (like Hot Springs) that we may decide to experience.

Making Reservations

This is where things can get tricky. Part of the fun of vacation is to not be overly scheduled so that it allows you the freedom to come and go and move around as you please at the time and mood strikes you. However, some things need to be reserved, particularly during a holiday week.

Since we are traveling to a popular area during a holiday week, we will make reservations for dinner for 4 of the 7 nights at the nicer places that it may be difficult to get into. If you can make reservations on OpenTable that is great, because you’ll earn points, but not all restaurants are on OpenTable. I’ve found some restaurants allow Yelp reservations now; I don’t like Yelp personally. We will for sure make reservations for my husband’s fishing excursions and the spa treatments and massages.

The key is to plan and reserve the activities you want to make sure you do and leave room in between to go with the flow and do what you feel like…..like hit the pool, beach, take a nap, go to a brewery, have lunch, or check out local shops.

The best way to do this is to spread things out so there is plenty of room in between activities. Use your calendars folks! For my example below, I’m going to list out the days.

Saturday:

  • Arrive @ 12:00p PT
  • Reno Arch & Lunch
  • Drive to S.L.T., Check-In
  • Go Check Stuff Out, Have Dinner, Hit Grocery Store

Sunday:

  • Exploration Day
  • Reservation for Dinner – Assign a Restaurant & Time

Monday:

  • Hike Eagle Falls – Lower hike is 30 mins
  • Reservation for Dinner – Assign a Restaurant & Time

Tuesday:

  • Husband to Fish AM / Me to Kayak AM
  • Reservation for Dinner – Assign a Restaurant & Time

Wednesday: Independence Day!

  • Spa Treatments/Massages
  • Casual Dinner

Fire Works!

Thursday:

  • Heavenly Resort Activities (Gondola, Zip Line, Hike)
  • Reservation for Dinner – Assign a Restaurant & Time

Friday:

  • Husband to Fish PM
  • Low Key Evening, Pack-up

Once you have an outline of what you want to schedule and on what days, then buy tickets and make reservations. Update the information to the Word document and to your calendar with time reminders, addresses, phone number, webpages etc. for easy information access.

It is also a good idea to print and take multiple copies of the Word document. One for the rental car and one to leave in the room. Then email the data from the Word document as well, so that it is accessible on your phones with clickable links and phone numbers. The document will have more information on it than what you’ll put in calendar invites, as the calendar will only have reservation information.

Part 3 on Packing Lists – Coming Soon!

Planning Our Summer Vacation 2018 – South Lake Tahoe (Part 1 of 5)

12 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by in Fun, Travel

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I am a planner by nature so planning vacations comes pretty natural to me. Some folks are not planners and have to work harder at it or they do not do it at all. I’m a bit biased towards planning and being prepared. Flying by the seat of my pants is not my style and tends to produce anxiety in me.

I decided to share my travel planning tips and suggestions with you, in hopes to make your next trip smooth and anxiety free.

Our last and first vacation was in the summer 2014 for our honeymoon. We went to Park City, UT. It was a great town; I highly recommend it. We decided early in the calendar year that we were going to make a vacation happen for us this year.

Step 1: Determine where you want to go

We want to stay in the states with easy and fast travel, to maximize our time away on the vacation part not the traveling part.

  • We live in south-east Texas so escaping to some place cooler during the summer is ideal for us.
  • We tend to travel during and around the 4th of July holiday week because I already get a day off work, my boss goes on vacation at this time too, it is close to my husband’s birthday, it’s not far from our wedding anniversary, and it is a good time to get out of the Texas heat.
  • We lean towards going to the mountains for vacation for all the aforementioned reasons.

When figuring out where to go, I make a list of activities I’d like to do or see. For this trip the draw is variety….which, as you know, is the spice of life!

  • Good Food – I don’t think I need to explain this one…..cause GOOD FOOD!
  • Breweries, Distilleries, and Wineries – Local brews, wines, and spirits are a fun way to meet people and experience the local culture.
  • Water Activities – Fishing (husband), Kayaking (me), Boating, Jet Skis, Parasailing, Swimming, Floating
  • Mountain Activities – Nearby hiking trails and natural wonders to experience.
  • Nice Spas – Relaxation

Initially we were looking to go to Washington state or Oregon and explore the beautiful mountains up there. After GoogleMapping (I don’t think this is a real word/verb), I realized that we’d fly into one of the major airports in the area and the have to drive 4-6 hours away to get to the beautiful mountains that were interested in seeing. Once we’d get there it is pretty desolate with not a ton of activities nor people around. I personally didn’t want to drive 4-6 hours somewhere…..seems like a bit of a waste of time. One day I will do that trip, but it didn’t sound very appealing to me for this year.

I then looked around the Yellow Stone area and Wyoming….same sorta thing, but a whole lot more expensive! So, that was a no (for now).

I thought about Colorado, but I spent many summers in Colorado growing up and really wanted to go somewhere I’ve not been before as an adult.

As I was drifting around the map I landed on Lake Tahoe. “YES!”, I thought….it has all the things we are looking for in a summer vacation location.

Step 2: Determine if you can afford to go there

This is where I’m really not the best. I’m not a travel bargain shopper. I’m sure this is my misfortune. I think that if I were trying to go to Europe, Hawaii, or Alaska or somewhere far, I’d be more apt to find deals, even at the expense of my convenience. Since I’m traveling close and I can cater to my convenience.

Keep in mind that things typically are more expensive when it is a holiday week.

Step 2.5: Settle on what days you will be traveling/stay for

The flights and lodging are typically the most costly part of any vacation.

United Airlines has a hub in the Houston, TX area and I determined that we could get a direct flight into Reno, NV. There is only 1 direct flight per day in to RNO from IAH and only 1 direct flight per day from RNO to IAH. Soooo that didn’t leave very much wiggle room; we’d need to book the flights right away to ensure that we can get back and forth on the days we want.

I checked our credit card points to see how much we could apply towards our flights. It wasn’t a lot this time because I kept using my points on Amazon for my dog, but every little bit helps. My Mom also hooked me up for my birthday….chipping in towards the costs of our flights (thanks Mom!).

I then started looking on VRBO.com and AirBNB for places to stay. I originally was looking at North Lake Tahoe, it was not super expensive, really close to Reno, BUT it was far from the mountains. Then I started checking South Lake Tahoe, which apparently is “the place to be”. I found a condo for rent that was within a reasonable price range per night.

Next was checking the rental car prices. Thankfully, I get a corporate discount through my company and it is going to be around $300 for 8 days.

The financial part was looking doable…..sooooo let’s do this!

Step 3: Picking & Securing Lodging

Do not drive yourself nuts with all of the millions of options. I made a board on both VRBO and AirBNB webpages and saved the most appealing ones to the boards. Once I felt like I had seen most of what was available in the area, I started narrowing them down based on the location and amenities that are important to me.

  • Location – Can I walk to things? How close to the water or mountains am I?
  • Kitchenette – Coffee, Snacks, Perhaps cook breakfast.
  • Laundry Facility Access – For an 8 day trip, this is important.
  • On-Site Pool and or Hot Tub (other/more amenities a plus)
  • Patio or Balcony
  • Size and Luxury

Once you have a list of what is important to you in lodging you can easily and quickly narrow down the options in each board. After I narrowed it down to 2 or 3 options, I provided them to my husband to obtain his preference. He chose the same one that I did, so just like that….bam! We had a place to stay.

I booked the room for the dates I had picked and immediately went online and booked our flights. Then immediately reserved a rental car, which will be a small SUV. All the big things are booked and paid for……..

Now the fun part of planning a trip really begins!

Part 2 on Food and Activities – Coming Soon!

I will re-cap our trip and experiences and I will review our lodging location.

I will do restaurant reviews and post them on my other site called: Restaurant Reviews – ByCandace