Unplanned

I had two events planned this week. A live shot with Chef Mike Collins from The Meritage Resort and Spa at Fox40 on Tuesday and the IABC/AMASV mixer at Lounge on 20, Wednesday night. It wasn't going to be too exciting, I was going to catch up on reading, relax, sleep lots and maybe get a few runs in over the weekend.

Thursday:
Plan = gym, work, home
Actual = gym, work, Jars of Clay concert at Bayside with Andrew Ripp and Dave Barnes, got email asking me to take over media relations for Convoy of Hope

Friday:
Plan = gym, work, watch a movie, read
Actual = gym, work, Convoy of Hope media outreach, trip to OMG Yogurt for pumpkin froyo, dinner at Burgers and Brew, Matt Nathanson concert at Ace of Spades

Saturday:
Plan = sleep in, clean house, run, church, read, watch TV
Actual = woke up early, did media outreach for Convoy of Hope, cleaned house (more than I thought), got $14.91 at Coin Star by trading in my pennies, nickels and dimes in, church, talked to neighbor, put out Halloween decor, watched TV

Sunday:
Plan = sleep in, go to the gym, run, read, watch TV, blog
Actual = went to my parent's church, grocery shopping, got a haircut, got gas, ran, read, wrote blog and will be watching TV shortly

Sometimes life doesn't go as planned and that's what makes it so amazing.

Fall Organization at the Bradley Lodge

First, the Bradley Lodge has changed management companies. It is now available to rent through Cedar Creek Realty. All you need to do is call them and they will personally book your stay. If you know my family or me, just contact us and we'll help too.

This weekend was my first time at the Bradley Lodge since the Fourth of July ... yes it had been more than three months! Normally we focus on the outside of the lodge: painting and staining, replacing the deck, clearing the property of pine needles, etc. This time we focused on the often unseen storage areas and the garage. These are the areas that we keep some of our stuff throughout the year that is not accessible to people that rent. There's nothing too exciting, so don't bother trying to break in. It was a great opportunity to throw away some boxes, get some of the holiday decorations better organized and we even made it easier to turn on and off the water, by removing a piece of wood, adding a step and most importantly adding an extra light.

Beyond work, we played dominoes (I won, scoring 200 points less than the person in second place), pinochle (I think we tied in wins/losses), went to the new doughnut shop, ate some great food and played lots of Words with Friends on my new iPhone 4s. To cap off the weekend and get ready for winter we also placed our new snow and rain gauge out on the deck. Now we can more accurately measure up to four feet of snow (we previously used a yard stick).


(snowshoes are in the bags hanging from the wall)

Happy Birthday

It's birthday week for the Bradley's. Natalie and Luke had their birthday's earlier this week and my dad's birthday is tomorrow. This weekend we celebrated and had a party for Luke.  He, his friends and family members from across the Western United States (California, Washington and Arizona) all headed to Safari Run in San Mateo for an afternoon of fun in their play structure and an amazing cake. We then headed to BJ's for an after party, pizza and a Pizooki.

Mountain Biking Adventure

After purchasing my first Living Social Adventure about a month ago, it was time to experience the adventure today. I got up early and headed up to Truckee, passing through some snow on the way. When I arrived in Truckee at Cycle Paths it was foggy and cold, but it quickly cleared up and we had bright sun and perfect temperatures for our entire ride. The ride was fantastic, the views were spectacular and the bikes that they supplied were amazing (they retail for around $3,600) with full-suspension and disc brakes. Everyone that we went with was at about the same skill level, so we got a long ride in (8-10 miles). The guides from Tahoe Mountain Guides were all very helpful too, even giving me a few pointers as I rode. Once we arrived back at the trail-head we were treated to lunch by Smokey's Kitchen and Catering. All-in-all a great experience and I look forward to not only going mountain biking again with Tahoe Mountain Guides, but to going on more Living Social Adventures. Just to prove I was there, I also decided to fall off my bike and draw some blood, luckily I now bike with first aid supplies.

The Roseville Galleria Re-Opens

It has been almost a year since the debacle that was the Galleria fire. There was the "Rebuilding Together" and "My Mall" campaigns (I still have my t-shirt and still wear it to the gym) and there was me helping to let everyone know that the mall was partially re-opening. Today, the Roseville Galleria "re-opened." I'm using quotes because as you can see by the photos there are still quite a few "coming soon" store fronts, which was a little disappointing. I hope they will all be able to open before the true start of the holiday shopping season.

Now for the good ... the Disney Store is amazing, they have movies playing in the hallway, so you're welcome to park the kids (and I presume husband) there for awhile. The mall has two kid/family play areas, once again another place to park (or bribe) the non-shoppers. The mall seemed to be brighter than it used to and there were newly designed light fixtures hanging from the ceiling (I think, I really cannot remember what the lights looked like over a year ago). The outside of the Victoria's Secret store looked nice and the balloon trees were awesome. Another cool thing, they will have an ice rink for the winter (see photo).

The bad ... some stores are still opening soon. There was a Zumba class going on, that was just odd to me. There are also unconfirmed rumors that although the Galleria increased security during the reconstruction, they might be going back to pre-fire levels within the next few days. I hope this isn't true, tonight I saw a lot of security walking throughout the mall and Westfield staff was at every entrance handing out brochures and welcoming everyone back to the mall.

Two other things of note opened today. The new Terminal B at the Sacramento International Airport and on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, a 99 Cent Only Store opened in Roseville. To my knowledge the 99 Cent Store was the only one that had people camping out in-front of it for days (they were waiting for a $0.99 TV).

Here are some pictures from my trip to the mall earlier this evening.

The New Terminal B at Sacramento International Airport - SMF

For $1 billion I knew it was going to be amazing, I just didn't know what to expect. The new Terminal B at the Sacramento International Airport has been needed for decades and under-construction for a few years. Today they let the public come in and take a tour. The Central Terminal includes check-in, baggage claim, a few restaurants and a relaxation area with rocking chairs for people to watch  the airplanes go by. Oh, it also includes a giant red rabbit. Nothing says "Welcome to Sacramento" like a giant red rabbit, almost as good as the oddly colored Tower Bridge that spans the Sacramento River between Sacramento and West Sacramento. All of that said, the central terminal is beautiful, large, functional and seemed like it would be pretty relaxing and inviting for all air travelers.

Once you've checked-in, it's time to take the monorail/people mover to Terminal B. This is where you finally go through security (which was beautiful today ... there wasn't any ... although the TSA and Sac Sheriff were present). Terminal B is also home to many of Sacramento's favorite, locally owned restaurants including Esquire Grill, Burgers and Brew, and Cafeteria 15L. One of my favorite parts of the new space, many of the seating areas include outlets to charge laptops, iPads, phones and other devices. Outlets are normally almost impossible to find in airports. For more information on The Big Build, check out The Sacramento Bee.

Although not every airline will be flying out of the new Terminal B, Terminal A is still pretty nice and I like the giant stack of luggage in baggage claim.

Some fun facts:
3,000,000+ labor hours were used to construct the Terminal and Concourse (725,000 square feet)
68,000 board feet of reclaimed redwood was used in the terminal ceiling
6 acres of terrazzo flooring and 2 acres of stainless steel roofing make up The Big Build
14,000+ light fixtures illuminate the terminal
44 seconds - time it takes to go 900 feet from the Terminal to the Concourse on the monorail

Visiting with Family and Taking a Trip to the Farm

The family converged on Lodi for a mini reunion on Saturday and Sunday. My dad's brother and his wife from Georgia are in California for two weeks traveling around with my parents. Last week they were at a house in Jenner and then on the beach in Capitola, this week they are at the Bradley Lodge. Knowing this, we all met in Lodi at my grandma's for an amazing time of talking, hanging out with the kids and being together to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary (side note: My parent's celebrated their 40th anniversary in Napa a few weeks ago too. They stayed at The Meritage, enjoyed dinner at Siena and my brother and I gave them the gift of a couples massage at Spa Terra. They also spent a night at The Napa River Inn). We got a picture of three generations of brothers, ate some tri-tip and of course had my semi-famous brownies and my sister-in-law made some tasty red-velvet cake.  On Sunday, my grandma, brother's family and I all headed to Phillips Farm (also home of Michael David Winery - think Seven Deadly Zins), to check out their pumpkin patch. Although it wasn't 100 percent open yet, we walked through their corn maze, took pictures on an old tractor, chased the ducks and picked out some pumpkins. Everyone had a great time and enjoyed the sunshine.