turkey trotting

a few months ago, the old lady and i scored a sweet deal via living social for the turkey trot l.a. - a 5K through downtown los angeles on thanksgiving morning.  it's not my first time at this race, although i missed it last year.  and this time around, the old lady was in perfect health and ready to run with me.

after a bit of a snafu with the prepaid parking - aka us driving around in circles trying to get to the one lot that the prepayment worked at, only to find that all the surrounding streets were closed and ending with us parking at another lot after forking over another $10 - we made it to the start line.

although i was rocking my super awesome running vest (because it was 50 degrees and this so cal girl doesn't function too well in those temperatures without proper attire), i still managed to rep team superhero.  kind of like clark kent, only without the glasses.

hey, a news van!

we took a quick look around at the vendor tents.

and then we took a photo with gayle anderson, one of the reporters from local station KTLA.  it was fun to meet her and she let everyone hold her microphone in all of their pictures.

you know i can't ever pass up a photo op.

at the booth for the new year's race, i ran into one of fellow team superheroes.

and then after the national anthem was played, the gun went off and we finally got that show on the road.  we jogged along, weaving around and through other runners and walkers, and kept up a fairly decent pace...until we hit the first hill.

it was a gorgeous day.  also, i've still never been to the walt disney concert hall.  hmmm.  must remedy that someday soon.

i saw the first mile marker when we came up on it, but there were way too many people in front of me to get a shot of it.  instead, i got the other two:

almost done!

and then...it was over.  i ended up coming in 48th out of 152 women in my age division, she was #62 out of 118 in hers.  and there were over 2,500 total runners in the 5K.  not terrible, right?

we collected our bling, grabbed bottles of water and bounced outta there.

after all, it was thanksgiving day and we'd just burned a bunch of calories.  no better way to prep for a full day of eating, amirite?

gobble gobble!

happy thanksgiving from my little butter-making pilgrim to you!

hope you eat lots of delicious food...slathered with fresh butter.  that hopefully didn't take 45 minutes to make.

peace and love!

a coupla space cadets

because it wouldn't be us not to be GO GO GO over the weekends, as soon as we got ourselves cleaned up from that 5K it was back in the car for a field trip to the california science center.  we were meeting up with the girls from the bean's math/science class, and although i was exhausted i didn't want her to miss out on the fun.  after all, i could sleep later...right?

i love looking up at this.

and the kids were excited to see each other.  although they're all in our girl scout troop, only the bean had done the sleepover and so they hadn't quite gotten their fill of bonding time.

our instructor had an itinerary all mapped out for our visit.  the first thing on the agenda was an IMAX movie that wasn't scheduled to start for another half hour, so we headed into the museum to do a little exploring first.

the movie was actually really interesting.  it gave us an overview of the space shuttle program over the years and showed what the world is doing to prepare for sending astronauts to mars.  plus, it was in 3D, which is always fun.

when it was over, we headed back into the museum to check out the accompanying "journey into space" exhibit.

inside, there were all sorts of displays and fun activities for kids of all ages.

this was a simulation of the international space station.  the video we watched as we waited to enter warned of possible queasiness or motion sickness, so we were all on our guard.

turns out that it was an optical illusion of sorts - you stood on the platform while the walls around you rotated to simulate the weightless feeling the astronauts live with while at the space station.

the fun continued with a display of the different kinds of freeze-dried foods that the astronauts get to eat while in space.

i liked reading the trivia questions.

space potty!  bathroom humor never gets old.

i mean, i don't understand how you wouldn't smirk at "purpose:  pooping in space."

 photo op!

and a display of peanut butter jars and how they would weigh differently on various planets.

we capped off the field trip with a visit to the space shuttle endeavour.

but first:  more space potty!

this exhibit really only takes a few minutes.  you go in, ooh and aah over the shuttle, and then there's really not much else to do.

i shared this on social media and most people thought it was the bean.  i hadn't realized that i'd dressed myself in what looked like a school uniform.  i blame sleep deprivation.

we barely got out of the parking lot before this happened.

and even after all that...the weekend wasn't over yet!