Transylvania County - Land of Waterfalls...and the Hunger Games

I have to admit, I'm a little embarrassed by my lack of knowledge about the geography of the Southeast. Actually, make that most places outside of the Northeast and West Coast. It's terrible. I mean, I knew that there were beautiful places to explore in North Carolina but I guess I wasn't expecting the incredible beauty. And the mountains! I knew that Asheville was near the Appalachian Mountains but the Great Smoky Mountains too? No clue.

We poked around online to find some good hikes for Sunday and came across a few options. You know how sometimes you find what sounds like a great hike online, the description gushing about waterfalls and incredible vistas, but only to find a trickle of water when you actually get there? Well, not this time.

Yes, my hot pink Reebok RealFlex Transitions & Oakleys made the trip with me. Yes, I am obsessed with both of them.

We set off to do a loop of three waterfalls in DuPont State Forest - Triple Falls, High Falls and Hooker Falls. We should have known that we were in for a treat when we passed a sign welcoming us to Transylvania County and the land of waterfalls (over 200 waterfalls in the county!). It was a pretty easy hike but the falls were spectacular, cascading down 120-150 feet. Along the side of the falls, there were large, flat slabs of rocks - perfect for resting, picnicking or dipping your toes in the water. 

What struck me most about our hike was the number of families that were out together - hiking, walking dogs and swimming in the numerous swimming holes that dotted the area. I loved that and it made me realize that our family doesn't get out of NYC and explore the outdoors nearly as much as we should.

Apparently, this area is also a popular movie location. Triple Falls was featured in the movie Last of the Mohicans. But, most recently, three major scenes from the Hunger Games were shot in DuPont State Recreational Forest!

Remember the scene in which Katniss is tracking Peeta when he is injured and she finds him hidden along the river bank camouflaged? Peeta was hidden in the rock surface below Triple Falls. Sadly, the cave where they take shelter doesn't actually exists. Believe me, I was tempted to look for it. We didn't get to see the site of the two other scenes but Bridal Veil Falls is the location where Katniss jumps in a pool of water after being burned and scenes with active burning and fireballs were also filmed nearby. They cleared the area of underbrush and installed "trees" made of steel pipes and pumped with gas. 

After our hike and a quick lunch, we decided to drive back along the Blue Ridge Parkway. As we pulled up onto the Parkway, I think that our jaws dropped. The views were ah-mazing. It looked fake. Kind of like the set of a play where you have one layer of landscape behind another except that these were real blue-grey mountains. As we pulled up to the first vista point, we saw a sign telling us the name of the mountain in the distance. Oh, Cold Mountain. You know, the Mountain that was made famous by the novel by Charles Frazier and later the 2003 movie with Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renee Zellweger. Who knew that our little outing would turn into an impromptu movie set tour?

I'm really glad that we had the chance to explore the area a bit. We both left with a greater appreciation and curiosity about the area. As we left, we were already planning our next adventure to the Smokey Mountains. I also left wanting to expose my city kids to the outdoors more - more than just the big old park or the little old park but the woods and big trees and rocks and waterfalls and bugs. OK, maybe not the bugs.

Have you explored this area? Do you take your kids hiking? Are you as geographically challenged as I am? Did you watch the Hunger Games??

Back on the water: Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP)

Asheville, North Carolina is known as one of the premier outdoor adventure destinations in the U.S. With rivers criss-crossing the area, including the Nantahala River which is known for its Class II-III rapids, it's also a great place for paddling - everything from whitewater rafting to tubing to kayaking. Naturally, as stand-up paddleboarding has gained in popularity, it also has made its way to the Asheville area.

I was so excited to try SUP. Not only is SUP on my Fitness Bucket List, but it was a great way to combine my interests with my friend's interests. You see, I'm a surfer and my friend is a sea kayaker. Surfing + kayaking = SUP. Best of all, SUP offered a less intense way for me to get back out on the water while I'm still rehabbing my knee. 

On Saturday morning, we drove from our hotel in downtown Asheville out towards the French Broad River. We were scheduled to take lessons with Dave, the owner of Asheville Outdoor Center. Dave started this business 20 years ago. He's originally from the Northeast but you wouldn't know it from his relaxed demeanor and Southern charm. He's been leading SUP lessons and trips for the past three years.

Before we headed down to the river, he told us a bit about the boards, fins and paddles we would be using. Our boards were 11-foot foam-topped boards. He also showed up some inflatable SUPs which appeared just as solid and sturdy but are a great option for those of us who may not go paddling all the time or may not have storage space for a 11-foot SUP. When deflated, the inflatable boards fit into a what looks like a medium-to-large duffle bag.

Our boards had a three-fin set-up with short flexible fins that would bend in case we came into contact with rocks or the bottom of the river bed rather than causing a hard collision (and potentially throwing us from the board and into the water). If we were going out on the ocean, the boards would probably have a single long fin attached so as to allow for carving turns on waves.

Lastly, SUP paddles look like single blade kayak paddles except that the blade is turned at 15 degree. As you pull the paddle through the water from front to back, the slight turn in the blade provides more leverage to your stroke, allowing you to generate more power. 

After our lesson, we hopped on some bikes and pedaled a mile to our launch site. Dave took us out on the water for about 2 hours. A big part of paddling on a river is learning how to read the river - the currents, ripples, and eddys - so that you could work with the river's mechanics. We first paddled upstream up to the Biltmore Bridge before heading back downstream. In total, we paddled about 2.5 miles. 

It wasn't as hard to balance on the board as I expected. Once you are standing up, you're pretty stable when your legs are shoulder-width apart and you bend your knees to absorb any movements of the board. I will admit, there were a few times when I almost bit it and fell into the water. It was challenging trying to get the paddle technique right and to figure out how to maneuver the board in the direction that I wanted to go.

At the end of our lesson, Dave let us play around a bit on our boards. I tried to do some yoga poses but could only manage to lift one foot up a few inches. It was super hard to balance on one leg on the water! He then showed us how to do a pirouette - basically spinning your board around in a circle. Of course we both had to give it a try, which is what I'm doing in the picture above. You scoot back to the back of the board so that the nose lifts up out of the water. Then you paddle hard on one side and spin your board around. It was so.much.fun. Needless to say, I fell into the water at the end of this move.

It was super fun to try something new. It challenges me mentally and physically and I'm learning to embrace being a newbie. I know that I'm going to feel uncomfortable and make a fool of myself at times but I'm learning to be OK because these opportunities offer me a chance to experience new things and learn about something that I would typically shy away from. 

Thanks Dave and Asheville Outdoor Center for a super fun morning out on the water! This is seriously making me consider working SUP into my life somehow. It's a great workout but more than anything, an amazing way to spend time out on the water.

Have you tried SUP? Have you been paddling (e.g. kayaking, rafting) before?

Scenes from my weekend - Asheville

First of all, thank you so much for your incredible comments on my post on Friday. After a frustrating week like last week, I was so grateful to read your kind words and encouragement. I mean, I know that we all struggle with balance but to actually feel the support from everyone? Unbelievable. I think that people at the airport thought that I was crazy as I teared up several times as I read each comment as they came in. 

This weekend was just want I needed to reset. We've had so much fun exploring Asheville, NC. It's a charming place. Incredible beauty all around with lots of rivers, mountains and waterfalls to explore. Music pouring out of every other restaurant or bar and musicians strumming on street corners. It kind of reminded me of that episode of the Gilmore Girls when the Stars Hollow troubadour makes it big and leaves town and would-be troubadours invade the town to take his place. Idyllic. There's a prominent local food culture here too and we've been enjoying delicious meals (so much food!!). Best of all, we've had a chance to properly catch up and chat. I'll share some of our fun adventures from the weekend throughout the week.


I'm also really excited about this idea that Melissa from Live, Love & Run had to start something called The Weekly Chase - about connecting bloggers with other bloggers to help each other reach our goals. Every week, bloggers will post one or more goals that they would like to chase down that week. The goal(s) can be anything that you want to achieve that week - fitness, nutrition/eating, home/organizing, etc. Won't you join us in The Weekly Chase?



My goals for the week are:

1. Finish off the Green Smoothie Challenge!
2. Go swimming at least once this week.
3. Do my physical therapy exercises EVERY DAY. Lately, I've had a hard time doing them lately and have been skipping them some (most?) days.

What are you goals for the week? What fun things did you do this weekend?

Traveling Thoughts

Missing NYC

Happy Wednesday! Oy, it's been a rough two weeks as I've been traveling for work  - Chicago last week and LA this week. I don't typically travel for work so having to travel two weeks in a row has been brutal. I'm not sure what day it is or what time zone I'm in.

Here are a few bits and tidbits about business travel that have been running through my head lately.

1. The hardest part. I think that one of the hardest things for me, aside from being away from my family, is trying to stay healthy and active while I'm away. I think that it's largely because my schedule is out of my control and my days are often long and filled with catered meals.

2. Hunger! For some reason, when I'm on an airplane, I'm constantly hungry. Maybe it's the weird cabin pressure? So, I try to pack snacks from home both for the journey and for the trip itself since I know that there will be catered food, cookies and candy at the office or that I will be tempted to buy a bag of chips at the airport. The problem is that I have a hard time finding good snacks to bring with me. I would love to bring Kind Bars or Larabar or even packets of peanut butter to spread on apples but I can't. I have a severe peanut/tree nut allergy which eliminates most of these snacks.

3. Working out. For some reason I will get up and at 6am and work out when I'm away but cannot for the life of me get up at that hour when I am home.

4. Air conditioning. Why does every hotel and office building have to be freezing?? Regardless of what part of the country I am traveling to, I have to pack a number of sweaters or wraps to bundle up in since the air conditioning is often turned all the way up.

5. Green Smoothie Challenge. As you may know, I'm in the midst of a 30 day green smoothie challenge. I was really worried about keeping up with the challenge while I was away from home. I guess it's a good thing that I'm in LA this week. There are almost as many juice/smoothie bars as there are Starbucks. Phews.

6. Health issues. It never fails that when I am away from home, I get sick or something happens that requires medical attention. OK, maybe not every time that I travel but often enough that it's no longer a surprise. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen a tweet yesterday morning saying that I spent the morning in the ER. Yup - true story. On the way to the client site, my right eye started becoming incredibly irritated. By the time we arrived, my right eye was red and angry. I couldn't open it and couldn't see. Luckily, there was an ER close by. Apparently, I have some small speckled scratches on my cornea. 14 hours later, it's better but still very irritated. Great way to make an impression on a client, no?

Do you travel for work? How do you maintain a healthy balance when you are away from home? Do you have any peanut/tree nut-free snack suggestions??

Summer Memories

How is it June already? I don't really know where the year has gone. I feel like I say this every year but every year, I seem to find myself thinking the same thing - it's summer already?!?!

I think that I feel most like a parent when it comes to summertime. It's funny to think back on my memories of summer and to see the shift from enjoying carefree summer days to being responsible for planning those carefree summer days for my little people.

Summer is definitely on my mind and I wanted to share some of my favorite memories.

1. Summers = pool. Growing up, we had a pool in the backyard and I pretty much spent every day swimming in the pool with my brother and sister. That Wonder Woman bathing suit? I LOVED it. That bowl cut? Not so much. The funny thing is that every summer I would "forget" how to swim and my Dad would have to teach me all over again.

2. Snake. One time, I remember running up from the pool to find my Mom because my swimmies/arm floats needed some air. As I got to the deck, she was coming out of the sliding door with a bowl of watermelon. As she stepped on the door mat, a snake slithered out from underneath. I turned right around and ran back to the pool.

3. Watermelon. Summer was all about watermelon. It still is. I've been known to hoard watermelon. Now, I have to share since my oldest son also loves it too.

4. Summer in Montana. I spent a month during the summer after Junior year in high school building a playground on the Northern Cheyenne reservation. It was also the first time I went backpacking, spending three days in the Bighorn National Forest. I formed some amazing friendships that summer.

5. Day trip to the Grand Canyon. Sometime during my freshman year in college, I became obsessed with the idea of visiting the Grand Canyon. That summer, I took a rode trip with two of my friends. We drove straight through from the Bay Area. We spent the night, hiked the next morning and then drove home.

6. Summer in Paraguay. I spent a summer in college working on a public health project in rural Paraguay. I credit that summer for changing my mind about going to Med School. However, the hardest part was that I was vegetarian at the time and in Paraguay, beef is a staple. There was meat at every meal, culminating in a huge asado dinner every Sunday.

7. Summer before graduate school. Ed and I traveled in Europe for three weeks and visited his family in Poland where I was forced to drink more vodka than I thought was humanly possible, all starting at 10am.

8. Running through Europe.  That same summer, Ed and I were training for our first marathon - the Chicago Marathon. We ran our way through Warsaw, Krakow, Vienna, Venice, and Florence. It was an incredible way to see the different cities, early in the morning and away from all the tourists.

9. Cousins. I have a lot of cousins. Growing up, I spent a lot of time with them. I feel badly that my kids don't get to spend as much time with their cousins since most of them live in California. However, last summer, for my Mom's 70th birthday, we all went on a cruise together. While it was mass chaos for a week, the kids had such a great time hanging out together and playing. I can't wait to watch their relationships continue to grow as they do.

10. Summer with the boys. Since the boys were born, our summers have focused on spending quality time together as a family. We try to spend a week or two outside of NYC so that the boys have a chance to run around in the woods and breath fresh air.

Tell me, what do you associate summer with? What are some of your favorite summer memories? Do you hoard watermelon like I do?

{Linking up with Stasha and Monday Listicles}

Daydreaming on Pinterest

I don't know about you but I've been daydreaming like crazy lately. With the weather warming up or rather, the continued mild weather from the winter, I've been daydreaming about travel, sandy beaches and breaking waves. A friend posted this morning that the sea temperature in NYC was in the 40s. Brrr!! Too cold to actually get in so I've been thinking about Medewi in Bali...

Source: baliwaves.com via Christine on Pinterest

Hawaii...

Source: instagr.am via Christine on Pinterest

And, of course, Playa Guiones in Costa Rica.

Source: surfsimply.com via Christine on Pinterest

At times like these, I've been turning to Pinterest - a virtual pinboard that allows you to "pin" images that you find on the Internet. I know, I know. Everyone is writing about either how Pinterest is social media's newest darling or how terrible it is. While I agree that there are several issues that the company needs to address around intellectual property, terms of use and the like, I have found that it's a great tool.

I'm a visual person and I like being able to gather images and other things and organize them in one place. Seriously, I am known to have 20+ tabs open in my browser or else a ridiculous running text file with links to articles, items, clothing, images - you name it - that I wanted to remember and revisit. Of course, that text file would be replaced by another and sit on my computer desktop only to be forgotten. Pinterest lets me keep track of them in one place. And I get to find other cool things based on what other people are pinning.

My Surf pinboard is by far my favorite. It reminds me of being back in high school when I would rip out pages from Surfer and Surfing Magazine and tape them to my bedroom walls. You can find my Pinterest boards here.

What about you? Do you use Pinterest? What are you daydreaming about lately? What's on your travel or surf bucket list?

Scenes from My Weekend - Aerial View

Flying over San Francisco. View of the Bay Bridge and you can just make out the Golden Gate Bridge in the upper portion of the picture.

Flying over the Sierra Nevadas. Bye Bye Lake Tahoe.

Flying into New York City with a view of Manhattan. That big rectangular square? Central Park.

Flying over the Rockaways as we make our way to JFK airport. 

This weekend, we returned home to Brooklyn from our two week vacation in San Francisco and Lake Tahoe. While we were on the plane, Ed kept tapping my shoulder from the row behind me to ask for my phone so that he could take pictures out the window. When we travel with the boys on planes, since rarely can the four of us sit together, we usually get two seats together in one row and two seats together in the row behind. One of us usually sits with our younger son E in the back row since he's only two and a half and still kicks the seat in front of him. This way, he's kicking his brother's seat and not a stranger's seat. I was pretty amazed when I looked at the pictures that Ed took. It was an incredibly clear day. I particularly like the picture of the Rockaways. You can see the waves breaking along the beach.

After two weeks away from home, I'm super happy to be home. We spent all of Sunday unpacking. doing laundry and grocery shopping. The boys were so happy to be reunited with their toys.

Lessons from Ski School

I had my first ski lesson when I was four years old. It was a disaster. I remember that one ski boot kept unbuckling from my ski every time that I tried to move. I cried lots and lots of tears. After about a hour or so, my instructor lifted me up, hoisted me over his shoulder and skied down to the bottom of the bunny hill and returned me to my parents. Despite that first experience, I agreed to try again and ended up falling in love with skiing. 

My brother, sister and I grew up skiing in the mountains of Vermont and then Lake Tahoe. After we each had kids, we started talking about when we could get our kids up on skis. We questioned other parents and ski instructors. How early was too early? 18 months? 2 years? 4 years old? 

I have been so excited to share this sport with my sons and desperately want them to love it as much as I do. Since my husband doesn't downhill ski, I needed the boys on my side. Otherwise, how could I convince three non-skiers to head up to the mountains so that Mommy could ski while they hung out and waited for me in the lodge? At the same time, I was scared that my kids would have a first experience similar to my own and walk away hating the sport and never getting to experience the thrill of skiing down a mountain.

In particular, I was worried about my five year old son J. He has always been a cautious child, more comfortable sitting on the sidelines watching as his friends would dive head first into any new situation that presented itself. It takes him a while to warm up to new people and situations; he doesn't like to try things that he's not familiar with or good at. (No, it's not lost on me that he will not know if he is good at something until he actually tries it. I try this argument all the time. It doesn't work.) I signed him up for a tumbling class at 18 months and for 45 minutes for the first 4-5 weeks of class, he screamed and cried through the entire class while I held him and tried to pretend that crawling up and over different obstacles was SO MUCH FUN! 

Once we planned this trip to Lake Tahoe, I would occasionally mention the idea of skiing to which his response would be, "Never. I don't want to ski." When I brought up the topic again, I received the same response. I didn't have high hopes that he would try skiing on this trip but I resolved to let him make his own decision. I didn't want to push him to try it and then get upset with him when he would ultimately choose not to ski or worse, refuse to participate after I shelled out a $100+ for a lesson. Truthfully, I didn't want this to ruin our trip or my week of skiing.

Well, funny things happened on the way to Lake Tahoe. First, I injured myself which meant no skiing for me. Second, J decided that he wanted to try skiing. I tried really hard to play it cool and not to jump up and down with excitement when he delivered his decision. We agreed that he would try once. If he didn't like it, he didn't have to try again. I worried that while he agreed to these terms, he would balk when he saw the equipment and had to put on the big heavy ski boots. But he didn't. He went along with his cousins and ski instructor Marcel and learned to ski. 

As parents, it's often hard to disentangle our children's experience from our own expectations. We want so many things for our kids. But, do we end up pushing our kids to play certain sports because it makes us happy or offers a chance to live vicariously through them rather than because it's something that they truly enjoy? 

I asked J a couple times if he was having fun. He nodded yes. He had a blank look on his face so I wasn't sure if he was being completely honest with me. But then he turned around and told me how Marcel told him he "ripped." The biggest smile spread across his face. He then told me that it wasn't so hard - all he had to do was make french fries with his skis and then gently make a pizza, and then french fries and then gently make a pizza. He wanted to keep skiing after his lesson ended as well as that afternoon. Then I knew, he really did like it. 

At the end of his two-hour lesson, Marcel took J on the chair lift. Watching J ski down the beginner trail, all by himself made my heart swell. It was one of the proudest moments I've experienced as a parent. It made up for the fact that I couldn't ski. Almost. Of course, my two-year old son wasn't one to be left out of all the action. He got his own pair of skis and raced down some gentle slopes. We couldn't get him off the mountain at the end of the day.

I learned a couple of things over the last two days. 

• It's a fine balance between encouraging children to try new things and allowing them to make their own decision. As they get older, it's important that it is their own decision.
• Introduce the new activity and let it be that - an introduction. They don't have to love it right away or commit to joining a team. If they enjoy it, great. If they don't, you can try again another time. Maybe the circumstances weren't right this time around.
• Different kids take to different activities and sports at different ages. Like I said, J is more reserved. There is no way I would have tried to get him on skis at 2.5 years like his younger brother.
• As hard as it is, don't push. We all know that kids have a sixth sense when it comes to things that Mom or Dad really want them to do. They will do the complete opposite.

I'm going to try my hardest to remember these lessons when I try to convince J to give surfing a go.

{This post is linked up to Pour Your Heart Out at Things I Can't Say and Wordful Wednesday}

Scenes From My Weekend - Lake Tahoe

Four of the five rascals

After spending the week in San Francisco, we headed up to Lake Tahoe on Saturday with my Sister and her daughter, my Brother and his family and my Mom. When we planned this trip months ago, we wanted the cousins - 5 of them between the ages of 1.5 years to 5 years old - to have some quality time together and to learn to ski! Typically, in February, there's a solid base of snow on the mountain and the ski conditions are great. However, there hasn't been as much snow in Tahoe this winter. I think that this is the first time that I remember seeing bare patches of dirt while riding up the gondola. Yet, the poor conditions didn't stop the kids from running around, ice skating, drinking hot chocolate, bouncing on the giant trampoline-bungee-jump-contraption, and learning to ski. More on that later.

I really love being in Tahoe. I used to come up here a couple times a year to ski with family and friends or to celebrate 4th of July or to go hiking. There really isn't anything like being in the mountains and I've been looking forward to sharing it with my kids. I'm excited that they are now getting to an age where they can remember and appreciate these experiences. We had so much fun on the mountain yesterday. The day was filled with giggles and belly laughs and silly faces and triumphs (and tears and tantrums too).

Here are some pictures from the weekend. What did you all do this weekend?

Scenes from My Weekend - San Francisco

It's hard not to laugh when I see this in my rear view mirror. He loves his cousins polka dot sunglasses and his "new" hat. And yes, that is a denim car seat cover. Don't judge.

The past week has been crazy. It's been a flurry of meetings and project plans for work projects that are starting to ramp up. As luck would have it, each of these projects seem to have the same deadline - roughly March 15. As a freelancer, it's often hard to turn down work when it's offered to you since you never know what the future holds - if work will continue to come your way or completely dry up. Oh, and we had contractors in our house for the better part of the past two weeks. Of course, the contractors originally said that they would be done in three to four days so when they returned for another week, I was sent to out of the house to find alternate places to work. When the contractors finally finished their job, they left a nice thick coat of dust across just about every surface in our house. 

It was also my younger son's half birthday. While we normally don't celebrate half birthdays, since his birthday is over the summer and he won't get to celebrate with his classmates then, his teachers asked that we celebrate his half birthday instead. That meant baking a batch of cupcakes, scrounging up some pictures to bring in and show his class and spending part of the afternoon with his class. Did I also mention that we were also traveling to California? Perfect timing...

We finally made it out to California on Saturday and have been enjoying the long weekend with my family. The boys love spending time with their cousins, Aunts, Uncle and Grandmother. The weather has been splendid. Minus some issues with jetlag i.e. 4am-5am wake-up calls from the boys, we're having a good time. I wanted to share some of the scenes from our weekend.