Oregon/Washington Road Trip: Day 1

Who says you get to sleep in on vacation??  Our alarm went off at 4:30 this morning...yikes!  


We got up, grabbed a cup {or 6} of coffee, had breakfast and did all sort of last minute things, so we could leave by 7am.


Then we realized that our car is tiny and may not hold all of our luggage.  After some strategic planning, we packed the car {even the back seat}.

Yeah, we didn't actually hit the road until closer to 8.


But I was on vacation, so NO STRESSING {hubby told me that was a new rule...I never agreed to it, but I am playing along for now}.

About 2 hours in we stopped at Starbucks to get some caffeine in our systems.  Since I am determined to be healthy, even on vacation, I opted for an passion iced tea, and added my own Stevia.  


Yes.....


I am now one of those people that carry around their own sweetener.  Thanks for still being my friend!


It was delicious.  It had a spicy kick to it that I LOVED!!  


After another hour we were halfway there but Gary needed some more caffeine, so we stopped off at an AM/PM to buy him "cheapy" coffee.  Ummm...it was freaking yummy!  He got an XL cookies 'n' cream cappuccino for under $2.00.  We know where we are going when we want flavored coffee now.  It has the same crap in it that Starbucks has, and for half the price!!


We stopped at a rest area a little after noon and had the lunch I had packed for us - tri tip wraps.  I also made homemade mayo the day before for us to enjoy with the wraps....I'm such a domestic goddess...I know!  ;-)

See what happens when I take the wheel??  Gangsta Gary comes out!

After that, we made one more rest stop before heading to our hotel in Medford, Or. We stayed at Rodeway Inn, which is a smaller hotel chain for the frugal traveler {such as myself}, and the last time we stayed at one, it was horrible!  But, if you check it out on Trip Advisor it's rated #2 out of 30 hotels in Medford and gets 4.5 stars out of 169 reviews.  The room is somewhat small, but we are only staying here one night, and it is clean and quiet.


We checked into the hotel after 4 and wanted to have an early dinner, so I check out Yelp for some ideas.  We decided on Jaspers Cafe, where they make these gourmet burgers....yum!  I had the Hotel California with blue cheese in a lettuce wrap and split an order of sweet potato fries with Gary.

It's time to change into my sweats and go relax with my hubby a bit while it rains outside!

~~What's the best burger you ever had?~~

Keeping It In Check On The Road

Gary & I leave for our road trip this Saturday!  While I want to enjoy myself tremendously {especially when it comes to food - Oregon has soooo many cheese shops & wineries} I do NOT want to undo all the hard work I've put toward my health the past 7 weeks!

To accomplish this, I've come up with some guidelines for me to follow while on vacation.

• Stay active.  Sightseeing can burn lots of calories when you are doing a majority of it on foot!  On the days we will be doing more driving than exploring I will either hit up the hotel gym or do some cardio in our hotel room {I am bringing my workout clothes and some easy workout equipment}.  Even 20-30 minutes is better than nothing!
• Eat a hearty breakfast.  Personally, I do better throughout the day once I've eaten a good breakfast.  All the hotels we're staying at offer a free breakfast, hopefully offering more than just waffles & pastries.  Which leads to.....
• Bring our own food. All our hotels offer mini fridges & microwaves, so we are loading up a cooler full of healthy snacks to bring with us.  If all else fails and the breakfast sucks, we can enjoy a waffle with our own boiled eggs and kale chips.
• Limit Indulgences.  Yes, I want to try VooDoo Doughnut.  But I don't need to load the cooler full of them, so I can enjoy one for breakfast, lunch AND dinner!
• At times, just IGNORE my guidelines. I think this is the one I will struggle with the most because I tend to have a "do or die" attitude.  I need to remember that we are on vacation for 2 weeks.  I don't need to have a salad or a side of steamed broccoli for every meal {even though these are 2 things I truly love}.  I can stick to my food rules 100% of the time when I get back from vacation.  

***How do you handle eating when on vacation?  Do you stick to normal eating or have the belief "I'm on vacation; I deserve to eat what I want?"***

The Road To Reno

Sorry for the absence this week.  I got home from my school conference early Saturday morning after only 4 hours of sleep the night before and I have been fighting to catch up on sleep ever since.

Our drive to the conference in Reno was SNOWY!  Once we got there, I had a blast!  There was so much to absorb and figure out how to implement at my high school.

Here's a quick recap in pictures:

The drive was fine through Sacramento, so we stopped at this cute little diner in Auburn called MaryBelle's.  If you are ever in the area, eat there!  I had an omelette and it was so fresh and delicious.  Plus, the people working there were so friendly.

Good thing we stopped in Auburn because we went from this weather:

to THIS weather a little too quick for my liking:

And it just got worse!

Isn't it beautiful?!?!

After the long drive, we had to celebrate getting there safe with a drink!  ;-)

 View from our hotel room:

My beautiful henna tattoo {I love the design so much, I may want to get an actual one added on my back}:

 Look who I met!  hee hee

 Ready to party like it's 1969!!

All my goods ready to drive home!

Even though I had fun, I was so glad to be home!

I'll leave you with 2 more snow pictures...ENJOY and I will be back to regular blogging after this week!