Relaxation and other sundries

Mile 15 seems significant, it tallies up to 30 for the weekend and puts us up into a new stage of our training. We were all so excited for it during the week, but Saturday dawned early with a rainstorm that we knew would mean a long, cold day. Trails were muddy or flooded, and we were all exhausted before we even made a plan to get started.
We texted back and forth in the early hours of the morning nobody committing to a route or time, and all of us hemming and hawing over the weather. Finally Jo'l said "I'm cool with walking or taking the day off" and we jumped on it.
Plans to do a supply run were set, and later in the morning Carrie and I were headed up to Orange County to meet Jo'l for lunch and a run through REI, but we had to make a quick stop at the Irvine Spectrum first. While Carrie was in Tanzania last year she fell in love with leggings from a store that she'd never seen back home, but most people may be familiar with. We dropped into CottonOn and she showed us the joy of the sportswear that she'd been such a fan of.

From there we wandered off to lunch (because no day out is complete without food) and had a good time planning for our next stop. It should be noted that we're excellent leftover packers.

We went to REI and started our search for hiking pants and some travel essentials. Because it's REI we also spent plenty of extra time looking at absolutely everything. I walked out with a microfiber towel that's twice the size of the tiny one that I took to Thailand, but is still too small to actually be considered a bath towel, so it should pack up nicely. 

After leaving Orange County we chatted about Chris and how he's reached past his mid-thirties, so he can now be officially considered almost 40. Not willing to miss the opportunity for an occasion we showed up to the house with dinner plans and a balloon bouquet that fit the occasion. 

 We're back at it for Sunday, but so many times today we remarked that today was a good day. The training is so, so important if we want things to go smoothly when we get to Portugal, but taking some time off so that we're not only working and walking was really good.

 The only thing that we regret was not trying on the hammer pants at CottonOn and having the fantastic cashier take a photo.