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Southern California Hiking
TGIF! (2 posts this week? Maddness.)
Southern California doesn’t have “winter.” (One of the things I miss most since relocating to the mountains!) Our Christmas Day was sunny and 75, tank top weather. My little family was a bit untraditional this year and decided to make December 25th a beach day! We opened stockings and made a yummy breakfast before driving to the Newport coast. First we hiked the Crystal Cove State Park trails, about 8 miles of hills and canyons in the glorious heat.
I feel blessed for everything I have and had a hard time asking for anything in particular for Christmas this year. I just wanted great warm weather and some beautiful scenery. Crystal Cove did not disappoint.
Mom in her Fabletics gear!
When we planned our beach day, it wasn’t even a question of what we’d do for lunch: picnic on the beach. We made turkey sandwiches and sliced apples, and I found some adorable old-fashioned sodas in seasonal flavors to add :)
We definitely appreciated the warm weather, laid on our blanket for a bit and watched the waves roll back and forth. My mom would love to experience a “White Christmas” with a blanket of snow and a fire in the fireplace but I’m trying to thaw out before I head into single-digit degrees so an untraditional holiday was fine by me ;)
We had a similar day just before New Years as well. We met our friends in the San Diego area, Lake Poway to be specific. The trail begain around a lake where old men sat in little fishing boats and trees were still dark autumn colors even though it was almost January.
The path became narrow and steep QUICK. We zig-zagged up the switchbacks on Mt. Woodsen Trail for over an hour until we came to: Potato Chip Rock (I love that name!) Again, we packed a picnic. Walking straight uphill for over an hour requires a little nutritious re-charging at the top. I was hungry for our healthy snacks after about 4 miles. But not before we snapped a picture sitting on the edge of the thin rock….
Unbelievably enough, there was a huge line of hikers wrapped around the trail waiting to take the same picture. (Just search #potatochiprock on Instagram and you’ll see.) We would have been in line for easily over an hour….forget that! We were too hungry and tired to wait. :( Instead we had a picnic at the summit with a view of the ocean.
Aside from our hiking treks, I tried to run outside during my time here instead of at the gym. I’ll be getting plenty of treadmill time in the coming weeks as the temperatures hover around 20 and ice covers my trails.
My winter break is quickly coming to an end; classes start on Monday. My LAST FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. What?! Naturally my mom and I have to do some shopping this afternoon then ;) Shopping, lunch, gym time, and homemade pizza fill the agenda for the rest of the day. I’m also determined to finish the book I’m reading (American Wife, highly recommend) and download a few podcasts for the car tomorrow. Can’t wait to get back to my own little apartment and see what this next semester has in store <3
Let’s Start Again…
After 99 days, I’ve returned to blogging. :) I mean it this time! The first half of my senior year of college went very differently than I imagined. I could sugar-coat the year but honestly…..it blew. My schedule was so demanding that I had very little energy to put into anything creative and active.
But I won’t blame being “busy” on my hiatus. Through the fall (the first fall in 8 years that I was not participating in competitive cross country) I had to think of how I wanted to restructure my blog. “Student-athlete perspective on health and fitness” isn’t exactly appropriate anymore since A.) I’ll be graduating in 16 weeks and B.) my collegiate athlete days have come to an end. Reading back through a lot of my old posts, Strong Like My Coffee sometimes comes across like a “how-to” guide to being healthy. Well I’m not qualified to offer constant health and fitness advice, so I figured a little change in objectives was in order here.
This began as a platform for sharing workouts, recipes and health advice. Turns out you can find the same workouts on 63,783,564 sites in this world wide web. My recipes are simply copies or altered versions of other recipes. And as far as “advice”…..I just feel a little silly pouring out health and fitness tips as a 21-year old figuring it out myself.
Obviously my life will always be connected to health and running, but I’m not a health preacher or teacher. I don’t know it all! I would definitely say that a contributing factor to my lack of posts last semester was fear of looking like a hypocrite. Sharing the workouts and the smoothies and the salads without also sharing the frozen yogurt, the skipped run, or the extra peppermint mochas would seem deceiving. Like most bloggers, I can always share my own experiences with striking balance & a healthy lifestyle but I don’t see my blog as a guide or a “how-to” for health and fitness. Not a guru, just a girl who likes to run :)
So then I thought about quitting the blog altogether. I absolutely did NOT want this to become: a journal, diary, or place to brag, complain, vent, preach, or glamorize my life. It’s a tricky balance to create content that is entertaining and positive and focused around a theme. But I don’t like quitting. ;) So I’ve decided to expand my “theme” beyond straight health & fitness to all things domestic…
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned in the past two years of posts, but I am fascinated with the 1950’s and the housewife culture. I am, by no means, a feminist. Not that I judge anyone’s opinions on gender roles in the 21st century, but I personally like the Donna Reed era (It’s a Wonderful Life is one of my favorite movies). It’s emphasis on dressing feminine and classy (heels, skirts and bows), domestic duties like cooking, baking and cleaning, and maintaining discretion (AKA a little social-media-modesty) is refreshing.
I would like to keep my apartment organized and decorated, prepare and cook all of my (mostly healthy) meals, make a mean mojito or manhattan, send thank you notes, read more books, make more phone calls, write and blog, watch the news, take walks outside, curl my hair, paint my nails, and learn to host a cocktail party (sans red solo cups). So why not blog about that (there’s only so many running recaps and protein smoothies you can take anyways, right?!)
More Memories, Less Selfies.
I even created a “Domesticated” Pinterest board with more elaborate and hearty recipes for when I cook for other people (because apparently not everybody craves arugala and fennel.)
So what are my New Year’s Resolutions?
I HAVE NONE.
January 1st just felt like another day, not an impending deadline to come up with new goals. Plus 2015 is full of big moments (graduating college!!!!) and the unknown (finding a job???) that I would rather take as it comes. :)
Christmas on the beach, only in So Cal :)
I’m optimistically thinking my upcoming semester will be significantly better than the previous. But instead of promising that I’ll start posting more, I’ll just prove it to you. ;)
-Love Kenzie
Hosting Thanksgiving (I’m still here!)
So that was quite a hiatus…I’ll admit that blogging is not a priority among the senior year scramble. Honestly I haven’t even read some of my favorite blogs in months! (PBFingers and Simply Taralynn withdrawals.)
The semester wraps up in about a week and that little light at the end of the tunnel has me fired up to get back to HOBBIES like reading that stack of books I bought over the summer, trying some of the recipes I pinned, and maybe even updating this little site here and there :) I’m honestly surprised to see that so many of you stuck around during my drought of posting. I missed you!
Back to normal, I’ll recap my *healthified* Thanksgiving. We deviated from tradition this year….my parents came to ME. For my first three years of college, I took the overnight train home for Thanksgiving two weeks before finals. It was always a little hectic and rushed. My new apartment this year is comfortable enough to have guests over (I feel so grown up!) so I invited my parents and Missy to spend the holiday weekend with me.
Before they arrived, I tried to make the apartment as festive as possible. I have an addiction to candles, so I started saving the empty glasses to refill with tea lights and festive fillers. Yay for recycling!
I was CONVINCED that I would cook the entire Thanksgiving meal all by myself…….until I realized (or someone pointed out to me) that in order to cook a turkey, one must use their hands to remove the giblets and guts from the inside.
Well that’s not happening.
Next option?
A pre-cooked ham ;) glad we can be flexible! Our meal was rounded out with my lightened-up sweet potato casserole (no marshmallows allowed), roasted broccoli and brussels, and a corn bread stuffing that my parents brought.
I’ll admit it isn’t as impressive-looking as last year’s Thanksgiving, but for a first attempt I’d say not bad :) Most important part was spending the day with my family! Aside from a malfunctioning can-opener, we avoided any major catastrophes. What more can you ask for.
I have to say, I was most proud of my bartending skills. I’ve discovered the simple perfection that is sangria this year. An apple cranberry sangria was a perfect afternoon cocktail for my mom and I, but I knew my dad wouldn’t be so appreciative of fruity wine to go with his football game. My mason jars were perfect for the “Fire Jolly Rancher” – sparkling apple cider with Fireball whiskey, over ice sprinkled with brown sugar. It’s a sipper!
The night was rounded out by homemade praline pumpkin pie (and coffee, duh) with a good ole’ family movie night.
Obviously we couldn’t be sedentary too long after THAT meal so we took to the trails the next day for a hike in the gorgeous fall weather. I love that my family is as happy going on outdoor explorations as I am. Black Friday has nothing on these views:
Hosting Thanksgiving was so much fun, I felt like I was playing “housewife” ;) Until reality kicked in that I have three final presentations, two research papers, and a couple finals exams in these last 7 days of school. But I missed this little online scrapbook. I’ve had so many workouts, recipes, adventures and stories that I’ve “wanted to post” and didn’t have the time. Hopefully I can play catch up over the coming winter break!
So I can’t promise that I’m back with the usual posts, but I can promise that I’m not done forever (though I thought I was for a bit.) And you know I have no shortage of cute Missy pictures: 
As if there are any that aren’t cute… ;)
