San Francisco and Raglan

I (Cecil) went to San Fransisco for the American College of Osteopathic Emergency Medicine (ACOEP). This Is a meeting of all the osteopathic emergency medicine doctors in the USA. 

 

Hello San Francisco

 

 

Self explanatory

 

A lot of bikes for a city! Of course the cable cars are there. It felt like I was in Auckland!

 

 

 

Fresh oysters at Anchor Bar.

 

 

 

Chance meetup with Bill Lee and Dr. Risavi (right)

 

 

 

 

Fishermans wharf, which has some amazing seafood and restaurants.

 

 

 

I took a tour out to Golden Gate Bridge, it was windy, but awesome!

 

 

I went to the golden gate tea garden next, what an amazingly peaceful place.

 

 

 

How I know I am back in America

 

 

A really tall bridge in the gardens, I wonder if it is realistic!

 

 

 

The dragon gate at the entrance of the China town, the second biggest china town in the states

 

 

 

Sushi via boat. Yum yum.

 

 

Afterwards I met up with Saad (one of the guys I went to residency with for emergency medicine in Erie, Pennsylvania ) and went to dinner. It was also game 7 of the World Series and we were watching the game during dinner. Saad was watching it on his phone, and the people next to us wanted to watch too! So we moved closer and the one guy even gave Saad his laptop to charge his phone, which was down to 1%. The game was called for a rain delay and we finished dinner and went back to the hotel. There was a huge crowd in the lobby watching the 10th inning! 

 

 

Hanging out with Saad in China town

 

The conference went well so far, but after dinner at Pacino's pizzeria (which by the way was some amazing pizza). There are some really good restaurants in New Zealand, but pizza is not their strong suit, so it was great to eat some authentic Italian pizza. 

 

Warm, tasty pizza!

By the time dinner was over it was dark, and I went back through union square, which is a gathering place for people throughout the city. They already had their Christmas tree up and had lights everywhere! union Square is also the location for the biggest Macy's in the country, six stories high and spread across two buildings. They finished an ice skating rink, and Saad and I decided to go ice skating. Mind you I have never ice skated before but I decided to go for it. I only fell once, and I didn't hurt myself... bonus! The ice skating sessions were 1 1/2 hours long, but we only skated for about 35 minutes and boy did my ankles and feet were sore! 

 

Christmas time in Southern California

 

Because this year we have been trying new things, I decided to try ice skating in Union Square

  The next night after the conference Saad and and I went walking around the city at night to see a different side of the city. We saw some unique streetcars and went  to another amazing restaurant. The streetcars still run on a regular basis, the cables for the street cars that run under the street have to be replaced every month, and they still use authentic 1870's technology and use pine wood brakes that need to be replaced every 3 days!  The restaurant was a Mexican Korean fusion restaurant that was amazing. It was called Tacokorea and we had to wait 40 minutes to get into the door. I had a kimchi burrito, yup... pickled cabbage and tater tots in a burrito. Afterwards we kept on walking throughout the city and came across the Ghiardelli store that sold chocolate and ice cream, that was pretty tasty too. They even had hot fudge made from melted chocolate!

 

Old fashioned streetcar, you could smell the pine when it brakes! 

 

Saad and I after a great meal at Tacokorea

 

The Ghiardelli store

 

American size portions! This was a single scoop.  

 

While the conference was really interesting, things were winding down. I had gotten a bunch of packages from amazon with socks, shirts and supplies of brands and items that we can't get in New Zealand. So I check out of the hotel and go to the airport at 1:30pm, I didn't get to the airport for 1 1/2 hours because of traffic from the San Fransisco marathon. I got to the airport so early for my 8:50 pm flight that. I couldn't check in! So I waited and read a book and people watched. After a few hours, I got my bags checked and got into the terminal and ate some of the best sushi I had in San Fran. I have never had to wait 40 minutes for food at a airport terminal but this place was worth it! I left on time on Nov 5th, and landed on Nov 7th in Auckland (I guess I didn't get to have a November 6th this year)

Really good sushi

While Cec was in San Fran, I (Karen) was still in NZ. Serendipitously, Brenn, Molly, Leina and I all had time on our hands and no guys so we decided to have a girls weekend! We went off to a tiny surfing town called Raglan. It was made famous by a surfing movie called "endless summer". Anyway, we headed out at 8am on the 2nd and drove up. We stopped a couple times for coffee, chips (meaning French fries) and avacodes in that order. Avacodes are now in season, which is great as they are expensive the other times of the year. We did have a bonding experience as we all had to pee in the middle of nowhere, as is common in NZ, and pulled off on a side road. I even got to use my fud (she wee feminine urinary device) which everyone was fascinated with. I also got the title "trip mom" as I had a trash bag and baby wipes that everyone used. Be prepared-right? Anyway, as we I get finished a car turned on to this deserted road which was good timing or he/she would have gotten a real surprise! We got to Raglan and checked into our batch, aka seaside house, and it was beautiful. All of us had a bedroom, a leather couch and two bathrooms. Beautiful seaside views too! 

 

Beautiful views!

 

Watching the tides

We headed into town and walked around looking for surfing lessons for the girls.... Found some too. We drove out and looked at the bay. We grabbed food, booze and then cooked in that first night. We played bananagrams thanks to Molly and watched endless summer, which is a hilarious old documentary about surfing. I fell asleep on the install comfy couches but it was good times.

 

Bay selfie!

 

We called ourselves the raglan social club even before getting there en this lol! Boo ya!

 

Messing around at the photo area in town.

 

 

Did I mention this place was beautiful??

 

Bananagrams!

The next day the girls got up super early to meet their instructor Manu and I slept in. I had gotten VERY sick the week before.  Chills/Fever/cough/mucus and I was still only at like 60%. I figure that sleeping in and not surfing, as I could not take a deep breath, was a better idea. It was glorious actually..... Slept 13 hours then had a tea and sat on huge comfy leather couches watching the tides. Granted surfing was probably more fun but with how I was feeling I made the right choice. The girls got be around 2 and we hung out with the surf instructor and had lunch at a cafe, then went back and got cleaned up. We went back out and shopped some cute boutique shops and had dinner watching the sunset. We even had some locals try to pick Molly up but Leina gave the eye off lol. During dinner we also watched the police try to find ju indies who thought it would be funny to light fireworks in the Main Street, # small town problems lol. Then we went back and drank and played games and watched a comedy at I don't remember the name of. Funny stuff.

 

Lunch with the surf instructor

 

Watching surfers

 

Low tide

 

Booze yeah!

Next morning we slept in and then cleaned before having to leave. Teamwork ftw! We picked up breakfast at a cute cafe and then shopped at bit before heading out of town. We stopped at a short was called bridal veil falls. Our Portuguese surf instruct friend made this even funnier as he thought it was bridal veal and could not understand why they would name the falls after a baby calf. This made us chuckle but the falls were impressive. We did cut the walk short as it started to pour. The car ride back was good times and fun talks. I'll miss these girls more than they know.

 

With our powers combined.... Error…We got friendship bracelets

 

Bridal veil falls

 

Messing around at the walk

 

I'll miss these girls

 

 So after Karen picks me up from the airport at Palmerston North, we stop at this quaint little restaurant we have been wanting to try for the past few months. It was a place called Viv's, and felt like a mid 60's diner. We had the famous cream horns too! And then it was back home to wanganui and a nap after the 12 hour flight.

 

What a good looking...pastry!

 

Road sign

 

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Auckland marathon

 

 

Earlier this year as Karen and I were working out pretty regularly, we started to write down our goals pretty regularly. So someone recommends a website where the main goal is to run 1,000 miles in one year. Initially I thought it would be a really lofty goal, but it broke down to 2.78 miles per day. So Karen suggested that while I was running 1,000 miles, I might as well sign up for a marathon. So I started looking and signed up for the Auckland marathon: the whole 26.2 miles. Yes, I had done 5-6 1/2 marathons, but the full marathon is a whole different beast, and I knew I would need to follow a regular training schedule. 

 

Fast forward 9 months and I had just crossed the 1,000 mile mark in October and coming up soon is the marathon! Karen is beyond relieved at this point because it is over an hour a day that I am away from the house excercising. We got all of our luggage together and packed up and took a group photo with our friends.

 

    last  training run in Wanganui for the marathon: a magic rainbow showing the end of training! 

 

Auckland sky tower     

marathon here I come!

 

Group photo time right before we left

So we get to Auckland, and the weather has been amazing. We have an extra day, and Karen and I have been trying 4 previous times to swim with dolphins. These aren't penned dolphins at sea world, these are wild dusky dolphins that live in the ocean. So this was attempt number five. We had to leave at 4:30am in order to drive the three hours to Tauranga. Needless to say we failed, ended up on the boat about an hour and the winds picked up… no dolphin swimming for us.

 

The dolphin boat

 

Some amazing views!

 

I was a bit tired from the drive from auckland

One of the towns that we had to go through was the town of Paeroa. This is town that is "world famous- in New Zealand" which is the motto for the kiwi soft drink called Lemon and Paeroa or L&P which is a lemon drink mixed with the local spring water. The kiwis also like building oversized tourist traps and we stopped and took some pictures and stopped at the local cafe.

 

My personal bottle of L&P

 

L&P ice cream!

So we got back to Auckland and spent the night in and prepared for the race. Karen was still feeling bad from her 24 hour flu so she wasn't sure if she wasn't going to run her 5k. I set up for my 3:30am wake up call- because I had to catch a 4:20am ferry over to the start of the marathon. 

 

 

Really early start!

 

 

How kiwi is this? You couldn't stop because I'd the birds.

 

The race itself was great! Couldn't have asked for better weather. My goal time was 4 hours 30 minutes.  My pace started out great,and I was easily keeping up with the 4:30 pacer. I passed them and saw the 4:15 pacer. I followed him for a few miles... but then he stopped suddenly and ran to the side of the road and started to throw up! He seemed fine and we ran a few more miles till he stopped and ran into a toilet! My pacer had gastroenteritis! So I kept on running and it was the 1/2 marathon mark, and I felt great. So I pushed my pace a bit and started to run faster. It was getting warmer out and the sun was starting to blaze. I was drinking every mile and I finally hit mile 20! Common marathon knowledge is that the 20 mile mark is when most runners hit "the wall". I didn't hit the wall at mile 20, I hit it at mile 22, mile 23, and mile 24! I started to cramp up badly, and I realized that my split times (my pace per mile) was slowly increasing! I stopped a few times just to ease the cramps, but I kept to a slow easy gate and crossed the finish line! It was as much of a mental challenge as it was a physical one, in some ways even more. I am glad that I did it, still considering whether I am going to run another one.

 

Some amazing views during the run!

 

Funny road signs

 

I got my marathon medal!

 

 

Karen ran her 5k

 

 

Later on that day, we went out to dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse on the waterfront, it was amazing!

 

The next day we got up, I was pretty sore, but was able to move and I hopped on a plane to San Francisco for a conference. We managed to get our three bags packed and checked in for the flight! Stage one of operation Texit complete! 

 

The flight to the USA went smoothly, air New Zealand was amazing. When I landed, we had signed up for the trusted traveler program and it saved me from standing in the customs line. I literally went over to a kiosk and then over to grab my bags and then out to the hotel. 

 

 

 

Karen went home to Wanganui and the prepped for her trip to the raglan coast with the Brenna, Lina, and Molly. Post coming soon!