much needed vacation time

jim and i took a mini-vacation this weekend. we needed it desperately. we spent saturday, sunday, and monday in asheville. jim's friend, luke (and his wife, lucinda) live in a sweet little house there, adjacent to downtown asheville. the house has a 'cabin' built onto the back - with a bedroom, bathroom, small kitchenette, and living area. it was like staying in a condo. we had a relaxed and fun 3 days. we went kayaking on saturday. my first time in a kayak on a river. it was a little scary - but i had a great time. 4 hours floating down through the gorge on the pigeon river. the rapids were 2+ - and i only flipped once. it was my own fault, i wanted to surf in a hole - and i got into the hole okay - but then i got turned sideways and flipped. other than that, i did pretty well. the gorge was beautiful and we had so much fun. that night, we went out for mexican, then walked around downtown asheville. sunday, we got up moderately early and had a ridiculously good breakfast at a place called sunny pointe cafe. i had french toast stuffed with almond cream cheese and covered with strawberries and jam. i've never had anything that good and RICH for breakfast. we then drove to shiprock, NC and went climbing. it was a flawless day and really cool in the mountains (low 70s).

monday was a low key day - walking around downtown asheville, visiting several art galleries, window shopping, and ice cream.

all in all, it was a GREAT 3 days. it made me feel like i was 20 again - when jim and i used to camp and climb all the time. back when we had no responsibilities and jim still lived with his parents. those were fun times. spending the last 3 days with jim like that reminded me of all the reasons i fell in love with him. we're going to make a concerted effort to spend more time doing the things we used to do together. keeps the relationship thriving. i think some people (including us) lose sight of that idea, especially when daily responsibilities, pets, bills, and everything else starts to weigh on one's soul. it's so easy to forget the good things in life and why you were attracted to each other in the first place.

we got back at around 9:30 last night, threw on our 'athletic' gear - and went for a run along lake loudon (in front of the vet school). that's where the fireball 5K is going to be, so i figured it was a good place to start running outdoors. it was a bit different than running on a treadmill. harder, i thought - though jim always argues that treadmills are harder (read - boring). i only ran 1.1 miles. i was a little disappointed in myself - even though i told myself the first time i ran outdoors, i would only run a mile - allow myself to acclimate. i wanted to go at least 2 last night. but i didn't pace myself very well - it was windy - and the course is a slow, mild uphill for the first half. at any rate, it was a nice run and a beautiful night (72 degrees). i'm looking forward to doing it again tonight. the fireball 5K is a night run - at 9pm, so i'm pretty excited about it. i have to get up to 3.1 miles pretty fast though, the race is july 3rd.

at any rate, that's about all to say here