Spring Break or Bust

It's been pretty go-go-go since Friday, but so far my spring break has been awesome.  It was nice to see my family and celebrate my sister's birthday on Friday.  I got her this sweet gift:

She loves her electric blanket and her snuggie, so I couldn't resist getting her a heated snuggie!  I think she was excited about it, and she already tried it out and said it heats up really fast  

I don't need a heated blanket now, though, because I'm in warm and sunny DC!  Might not be a tropical spring break trip, but 70* and a blue sky feels pretty exotic to me right now.  I drove down on Saturday and had breakfast on the road:

Sorry for the blurry picture.

My sister gave up sweets for Lent and didn't even make an exception for her birthday!  So she requested fruit for dessert (and my mom also had angel food cake, so I had some of that as well as fresh fruit).  I packed up some leftover "dessert" to eat during my drive - pears, apples, strawberries, grapes, pineapple, and an unpictured banana.  So good!  

I'm embarrassed to even post this picture because you can see how ridiculously dirty my car is... but I just had to say that I love seeing windmills when I'm driving.  And it was a beautiful day out - the clear blue skies helped me stay awake and alert, which is always good.

So far I've had 2 lunches with really good friends, did some shopping, hung out at a park, and went to a DC staple:  Ben's Chili Bowl.  I hadn't been there in so long; love the vegetarian chili!  Here are some of the highlights:

Maryam and I went to Tysons Corner (my favorite mall ever) and decided to eat lunch at an awesome Japanese restaurant in the middle of the mall.  Everyone sits around this conveyor belt, and the chefs put the food they've prepared on the conveyor belt and you can just take what you want as it comes by you!  The plates are different colors which indicates the price, and there's a menu for you to cross-reference if you don't know what something is, or if you want to order something that you haven't seen go by.  

I tried something new which I was a little nervous about:  seaweed salad.  Verdict:  delicious!!  I really liked it and would definitely get it again.  It had a yummy sesame flavor.  I also had some vegetarian sushi and a funny little dessert called mochi which had a red bean paste filling.  

I did do some shopping while I was at the mall.

The jeans were planned - they're Levi's Curve ID jeans and I had wanted a pair for awhile, but couldn't find them near Cleveland, so I was excited to go to the Levi's store at Tysons.  The sandals were an impulse buy; they were only $10 at one of those cheap-o shoe stores.

After the mall, we went to my favorite park, Meridian Hill.  

They don't have the water in the fountains yet, but I still think it's gorgeous.  It reminds me a lot of European-style parks.  

Maryam and me.

There's always SO much going on at Meridian Hill.  There's a drum circle with people dancing/ hula-hooping, various sports (soccer, football, frisbee, lacrosse, bocce, etc.), juggling, tight-rope walking (!), picnics, people jogging/ bike-riding - pretty much anything you can think of.  

A soccer game.

Jugglers - so impressive!

We've done lots of walking, which has been great, especially with such nice weather.  

This morning I did 3 10-minute workout videos from FitSugar.com:  "Get A Bikini Body in Just 10 Minutes," "Victoria's Secret Model Workout: 10-Minute Fat Blasting Circuit," and "Get Madonna's Arms with this 10-Minute Workout."

I didn't have any free weights with me, so I just used two filled water bottles instead.  I could have used heavier weights for some of the moves, but these did the trick.  I really liked all of the videos, and I love that they're only 10 minutes so you can do them on their own or do a few back-to-back like I did this morning to get in a longer workout.  They got my heart rate up and made me sweat a little, and they were a great start to the day.

I've actually got to work on a writing assignment for school, so I'm off to do that for awhile.  Hope everyone is having a great start to the week!

Reader question:  Do you do any exercise while you're on a trip?  I'm not that concerned about it this week, and I know I'll be doing tons of walking, but since I had some extra time it was good to get a little cardio and toning in there, too.  


Song of the day:

"Islands" by The XX.  A mellow song for a mellow day.