Gregory Vineyards

Phil, Lukas, Lauren and I travelled to Angier yesterday to go to Gregory Vineyards where they make muscadine wines. I don't know why but I love the sound of muscadine and scuppernong... They just sound so fun to say. 

I have been here several times once with Hay and once with Phil but it never seems to disappoint. The wines are a little but sweeter because of the muscadine grape but I love sweet wines and I ended up leaving with quite a few bottles to try at home. My favorites were the love-a- Rita which is a slushie shown above and the Bald Eagle which was a dry white wine.

Angier is quite a drive from Durham but I loved the tour which talked about the differences in grape types in North Carolina and sampling the wine. Hay and I went there in the summer when the vines were blooming but unfortunately in February the vines are not as pretty. I definitely would love to go back in the summer. The vineyard and tasting rooms are beautiful. Definitely worthy a try and it is locally owned with great deals and events happening all the time.

Website: http://www.gregoryvineyards.com

The Happiness Project Book Club

Last year I joined a Happiness Project book club off of meetup.com. The club talks about the book so titled by Gretchen Rubin. I went for a few months and loved the group. The stories, laughter, and warmth from the group was amazing. Very rarely have I met people especially complete strangers who I felt close enough to open up to. It was a great place. Then all of a student the group organizers didn't have the time anymore to put in to keep it running. So, the group stopped.

A few weeks ago I was lying in my bed just thinking and I looked at the book on the shelf and thought maybe this would be a good time to see if anyone wanted to start the club up and running again with new team organizers. So, I wrote on the Facebook group page and within a few minutes Kristin wrote back that she would love to get together. I was so excited. Kristin has this amazing calm aura about her that is warm and comforting. She is originally a northern girl like myself and used to be a teacher. Amazing! 

We met last weekend and I invited Caty along because we were going to the movies afterwards and everything seemed to fall into place. We didn't really get to talk a lot about the book but it was nice to be in company with people that wanted to move the group forward and hopefully we will be able to reach out to other people soon.

If you would like to join just let me know and I will invite you to the Facebook group.  :)

New Year's 2014

Phil and I had a few friends over for New Years and I made specialty drinks. They were pretty amazing. I bought two North Carolina alcohols: Top of the Hill and Mystic. TOPO is distilled in Chapel Hill. Phil an I went a few weeks ago to their tour. Their gin is amazing. It doesn't taste like pine trees. Yay! And, the whiskey from Mystic is distilled in the one and only Durham. Both very good products. I had such a great time with friends and celebrating the beginning of the year.

Hope everyone had a wonderful celebration!

Training this Week

Monday: Running in the evening: will be my first dedicated run. Yay!

Tuesday: Elliptical workout

Wednesday: Running with Adam in the evening

Thursday: Running in the morning.

Friday: optional day/no plans quite yet.

Saturday: Rest day. 

Sunday: 5 mile race at Bull City Race Fest. Meredith will be there and I am sure a few more runnerpeeps. :)

Chili Cook Off

Hay and I have entered ourselves into a chili cook off at work. She has an awesome recipe...which betting on her fabulous chicken parm recipe hopefully it will be a winner. However, I wanted to challenge us to make a chicken chili because it is much healthier than beef and because of my genetic mutation I don't eat a lot of red meat (red meat over time has been linked to increases of colon cancer). 

So, Hayleigh and I have been toying with this idea for a month and yesterday when we got together  we bought all of the ingredients and were on our way back to her place when I scrolled down and noticed we were going to need a food processor. Whoopsies. Hayleigh and I then decided due to our hunger and the fact that we had just been paid that we should dine out and try this recipe again later when we have all the necessary ingredients and equipment.

Hay and I have a long list of things that we say that we are going to do but haven't done everything to fruition. But, that is what makes us, us. 

The chili cooking (actual cooking) will continue on Monday. Stay tuned.

Any awesome chili recipes out there? 

Durham Bulls Game

A teacher at my school decided to ask around to see if anyone wanted to go to a Durham Bulls game together. I thought it would be a good time to rewind and relax with some coworkers. I am not a huge baseball fan but I do love baseball food and of course good company. It was a great time and they won! Yay!

Adventures of a Saturday!

This past Saturday, Phil and I decided to go to Duke Gardens and to the Durham Farmer's Market. The gardens were really nice and since it was slightly drizzly there was only a few people walking. We walked about 1.4 miles which definitely was not a lot but we did work up an appetite for the donut muffins.

The donut muffins from this stand called Savory is awesome. I bought a chocolate one which was really rich. I love chocolate but I was definitely thirsty when I was done. At the Farmer's Market there is also a few food trucks which are my favorite. We bought tator tots with comeback sauce for the Foster's truck. Then we picked up a slice of pizza from Pie Pushers which had an asparagus pizza with feta and mozzarella. They were both delicious choices! The asparagus is a great idea for pizza and the tots were awesome! Phil and I debated for a good 10 minutes about what the comeback sauce was and when we went to buy a drink another person asked what it was and Phil and I were off by a lot. But, oh well it was a lot of fun.

I also ran into one of my students which was a blast to see him. I am looking forward to going back and seeing my students!

Later we went to the Chatham Hill Winery to meet up with a few people (Hay, Beth, Adam, Lukas). We enjoyed the tour and learned a lot about the wine making process. Everyone but myself and Lukas (Phil's friend) enjoyed the dry wine tasting. I decided to try the sweet wines. Afterwards we split a bottle of Pinot Grigio and were able to catch up. Hay and I shared some funny stories about teaching. It was great just to sit and talk.

This was my last weekend before school gets started again and I am certainly ready to go back but it is always nice to share fun times with great people. I feel truly blessed! Much love!

Beach to Beacon 10k

I won the lottery to get into this race! I called my parents saying I had won the lottery and it sure felt like that a few months ago...not training for a weeks prior did not feel like winning the lottery on race day.

It was a cold day with lots of clouds in the sky which to me is perfect running weather so I at least had that going for me. My Uncle Fred and I shuttled from Hannaford parking lot to the race site. The most grueling part of the day...waiting in line for 45 minutes to use a port a potty. There is never enough of them at any race site. There were approximately 6,500 runners that day. The wheelchair group was first...they average 3:30 min./mile what awesome athleticism! Then we were off well....the elite athletes were off....approximately 7 minutes later my Uncle and I were off. 

Mile 1 was great. There was a slight sprinkle which felt great and a man running in a lighthouse outfit which was really interesting. The spectators were amazing for this entire race. Almost every corner had them which is good for me since I tend to push myself more when people are watching.

Around mile 3 I realized that I had not worn the right shorts and I was in quite a bit of pain but I stuck through it. At the half way point of that mile I saw my Uncle Pete and Dave as well as my Aunt Kim and Wendy. I was thrilled. They were screaming and taking photos which motivated me for a really long time. 

At mile 4 I was so surprised because I knew I was close. Surprised because I usually see mile 4 on half marathons and think nothing much of them but mile 4 was awesome. I knew I was getting there.

My Uncle had warned me of a large hill around mile 4 which was no where to be found until mile 5. This hill wasn't the worst hill I have attempted (Chapel Hill!) so it wasn't that bad at all. 

At mile 6, I was looking everywhere for my parents knowing that I should be running when I saw them pushed me more and more to keep with pace. Then right before I saw the gate I see a poster that said: "Way to go Steph!" The rest of my family was giving me high fives (Sara, Amy, Sydney, Uncle Steve, my Dad, Katie and my mom). It was awesome to have so much support coming in. The announcer called my name which my grandparents found to be very exciting.

The only 2 downsides to this race: after the finish there was no metal... And, to get to the food/event afterwards you have to climb a larger hill than was in the race... My hips were not happy.

Positives of the race: beautiful landscape, great expo: lots of free giveaways, and most importantly, my family was there! 

(Image: google images)