For me, this is not a good time! Yet, it always happens! I started to bemoan the fact that vacation was flying by about mid way through. Yes, Halfway through my 11 days and I started to fret about going back to work. How sad is that?
Caledonia State Park
After our day hiking at Cowan’s Gap, where I had suffered issues with keeping my breathing regulated and then that panic attack on the steep trail, I was worried about how my legs were going to feel. (You can read about that here.) I didn’t know if I was going to pay the price for that strenuous trail. But surprisingly they didn’t feel too bad. So we grabbed the dog and headed to a very local state park, Caledonia. The dog is not the greatest hiker, yet. She tends to get super excited and it’s a lesson in patience and a battle of wills to keep her under control while we are out. In fairness, it IS getting easier. She settles down a lot more quickly and doesn’t pull quite as bad. (I can’t even imagine her on the steep trail at Cowan’s Gap! She would have handled it better than us, but she would have most definitely pulled one or both of us off our feet!). With this in mind, we decided to hike some of the easy trails near the visitor center. It was a good hike. The scenery was pretty and it was a nice easy hike, which in all fairness, I probably needed. We actually hiked more miles than the day before, but they were faster and flat!
Crystal Grotto
On Friday we woke up and Jason had a message from his boss. A part for a client had been left in Jason’s work van and he was trying to figure out how to get the part so that he would not have to cancel on the client. We offered to drop off the part. That put us about an hour south of where we live and we knew we would get into something. We decided to go to Crystal Grottos. We had gone to the Grand Cavern years ago when we were first dating and about a week ago Jason had mentioned that it had been a long time since he had been in a cave (almost 9 years) so I put it on the list of possible vacation ideas. Seemed like a perfect way to spend some time! The tour was about 45 minutes and it was informative. The tour though was a bit ‘campy’ with cringy jokes and a gazillion nicknames for the different formations. But it was still absolutely amazing to see these formations buried underground!
The Weekend
The weekend is now upon us and this gives us only two days of vacation left. As sad as it is, we knew that we kinda had to wrap up the vacation mode and get back to normal. We mutually decided to swing back into normal weekend routines. What does that mean for us? It means the normal life things like groceries, mowing, cleaning the bird cage, cleaning the house, making muffins for Jason’s breakfasts. I even plan on making a batch of baked ziti on Sunday to have for dinner on Monday night. I’m going to try to ease back into this work week routine as easy as possible. I am hopeful that we can rattle through these chores today (Saturday) and do something fun on Sunday. But only time will tell!
With the end of vacation comes the beginning of a new chapter in my efforts to lose weight. We had a few conversations and I have made a vow to give up my diet soda (Say it aint so!) I also had my eyes opened about my diminishing fitness level during this vacation and I have made a determination that I will be working out daily. The only way to halt the decline is to exercise….so that is what I will do! I am excited about getting started. I have been rereading old posts and I’m ready to do this once and for all. It is time!
