Love Hiking

A few months ago, we were having dinner with some friends and one of them thought of planning a Valentines Day Hike. Knowing that Valentines Day fell on a Saturday and the BF works on Saturdays, I accepted the invitation.


My BFF and I have actually spent every single Valentines Day together since 2007 so I invited her to keep up the tradition! We were very lucky that the weekend provided amazing weather! (it was pouring last weekend) We headed over to our rendezvous point and met up with 2 other couples, Bay and Patti LaBelle, a small yorkie, and another friend. Patti and Bubs never met each other and when she caught wind of a new dog, she lunged out at him like a growling torpedo as her introduction. I'm happy to say that Bubs was nice and didn't get mad at her for that. We were a 2 car caravan to Marin with Patti's dad leading us in his car while I drove mine. I had no idea where we were hiking and was told to just follow his car. We ended up taking a surprise scenic drive on Conzelman Drive in the Marin Headlands. Following the scenic drive, we headed further into Marin County and found that the exit to our trail was backed up. We stopped at a gas station and all decided to take the Rodeo Ave. trail.

We were able to take Bubs off of his leash and Bubs was complimented the entire day for his good behavior. (They had no idea that before we got home the day earlier, he had managed to jump into my shower, knocked over his 75% full bottle of dog shampoo, rolled around in it and spilled a lot of it on the toilet seat.)We started off leash and Patti kept running ahead and walking at the pace of strangers and Bay kept getting distracted and smelling stuff which left him far behind. Bubs stayed right with us.

smart boy! hiding in shadows to keep cool!

 We went off the main trail and climbed up some of the hills and Patti's dad warned us to check for ticks and I found one on Bubs back and flicked it off. Patti had a bunch on her face because of how low she was and Bay wasn't checked. We kept on and ended up at this great view.

Downtown SF can be seen if you look closely

 

we never did get a complete group photo but here are most of us

After we reached the top, we decided to turn around instead of heading down the other side of the mountain. We walked back on the main trail which ended up being longer than the small trail we took to get there. We ended up doing 5 miles which was great!

After the hike we did another final tick check before getting into the cars and Patti had a lot more on her face, Bay had a few burrowing into his ears, and Bubs had 2 more on his feet. I tried to get a group photo of the dogs, but never managed to get all of them to look at the same time.

 

Take 1 Bubs

Take 2 Patti

Take 3 Bay

Everybubs needs love

I've been busy and I feel terrible that I haven't been able to take Bubs out as much. My Lola (grandmother in Tagalog) is a hoarder and we had to go to her house and clean it out. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring Bubs with me because her house is infested with RATS x_x. I know that he loves to chase things and I didn't want him getting into anything in fear he'd get sick. I was able to go last weekend but that meant leaving him at home. I noticed since then he's been acting up (he pooped and peed in places he normally doesn't) so today I made time to take him on a new walk.

We went to San Mateo for the Bay trail off 3rd Ave. and he LOVED it! We walked on the paved trail on leash because of all the runners and bicyclists. We also happened to find a small beach area where there were some dogs playing fetch in the water. Too bad I wasn't prepared with a towel otherwise he would have went for a swim too. He did lay in the grass and watch the bigger dogs play in the water without fuss though. For some reason he hates skateboards (probably the sound) so he got all crazy when a guy passed by on one, but other than that he had fun.

Post Workout Nap

New Year More Hiking

On January 1, I had the day off so we went to Bub's favorite walk, Fort Funston. Since then we've been there two more times.

The BFF invited me on a hike at the Presidio. Did you know that leashed dogs are allowed EVERYWHERE that pedestrians are allowed within the Presidio? We took the Park Trail from 14th Avenue and walked to Inspiration point. Here are a few photos from that day.

Stairs to Cemetary

Bubs posing with our Veterans

Bubs and Suki

Hiking crew

Inspiration Point

warming up

on the showtime tv series "weeds" i learned the term "skinny-fat". i best describe a skinny fat as a person that does not exercise but still maintains a slim figure. let's face it, some people are just naturally slim; they can eat anything and not exercise but their size rarely flucuates (this does not necessarily mean they have muscle tone though). in contrast, there are people that are naturally thick; no matter the diet, it is a constant battle for them to get smaller without lots of exercise. and of course, there are the folks that maintain a healthy lifestyle with a balance diet and exercise.

i consider myself a skinny-fat; i never exercise regularly but i try to eat healthy besides the regular consumption of sweets. my bf on the other hand has always been lean and athletic; he eats tons of food and has always participated in sports and does Crossfit. 

i noticed that a number of former high school athletes have gained weight. this is not necessarily a bad thing, but an observation. it makes complete sense to me: when one participates in sports their body's metabolism is faster; they can consume tons of calories but it develops into energy and muscles. once activity ceases, their metabolism slows down and they often forget to lower their caloric consumption  which leads to weight gain. i have gained weight since high school, but since my body is not used to working out, my metabolism picks up when i do workout.

in 2009, i restarted my training in taekwondo and picked up at brown belt level where i had left off as a kid. i had to re-learn all that i had forgotten and trained about 3-4 times a week for 3 years until i finally earned my rank in August 2012. i was in the best shape of my life, but still had a lot of soft spots and weak core. i have stopped doing taekwondo and am back to not having any form of regular exercise. i have gained some weight but now that we have a dog, i am trying to put an effort in walking him so that he and i can both benefit from the exercise.

today, it was warm enough for me to throw on a pair of shorts, long sleeve t-shirt, and some tennis shoes and take him for a mile walk in the near by park. i hope that this trend will continue and that i can start being a little more active.