Hyperspeed PB&J in NYC, CLT USNWC, and Stint at Home

I had a layover in Newark on my way home, so I visited my sister for a couple of hours.

We...

1. Cooked dinner (shrimp scampi over zucchini noodles)

2. Grabbed a geocache in Harlem

3. Shared a bottle of beer while watching Destinations on Netflix (a show about 2 guys who took a year off to travel the world.  It's interesting to hear about others' approach to traveling.  One guy embraced culture, tried to learn the language a bit, and he was trying to help this other guy, who was the opposite, to see the light)

 

 

4. Went to Times Square to catch the Midnight Moment, where they synch up several of the monitors to show something special and interactive.  This one was about a jungle, with inverted colors, so you had to look at it through your phone to change it back to normal colors.  It was pretty cool.  Also browsed/shopped at the M&M store, Disney Store, and Sanrio store.

 (we're suckers for cute things and for Disney)

5. Slept for a couple of hours

Sunday, April 17

I landed in Charlotte, where I went to the USNWC for SUP, rafting, and a 6.2 mi run.

The 40 min SUP session was relaxing and fun.  Rafting was better than I expected.  We got to do the loop a few times, which was more than I expected.  I did 6.2 in 10:20 average on the trail, a green one.  In the evening, it was beautiful there.  A section had something that looked like blue bonnet flowers, although they grew down from trees.  Different sections of the trail had different moods.  After 10 days in the metropolis of Tokyo, going back and forth from the tiny hotel room to the office, it was good to be back out in nature again.

That week, my parents visited, and we got to go to an advanced screening of the Huntsman: Winter's War, which exceeded my expectations and was great.  I will buy the DVD when it comes out.  I recommend it.

 Friday, April 22
7.6 in 1:05:33, 8:33 average.  Run at the park before my flight.  Relaxing to be outside again.  I did a Zombies run.  It was good for me to get a bit of speed in.  I can feel that my fitness has declined.  I haven't been too concerned, since I'm not really training for any goal races.  And it's good for the body to have periods of rest.  The run was long and was hard towards the end.  It felt good afterwards, though, and makes you wish you could do it every day.  My lungs feel so much more flexible afterwards.