Best Blogger Meet-Up Ever: Runninghood was in my 'Hood!

I know that sounds very Richard Scarry, but it wasn't very scary at all :P

Amanda@Runninghood was in my neck of the woods this past week. I didn't even realize it until I saw a picture of her feet with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. That picture must have been taken from a place about 15 or 20 minutes from my house... if there's no traffic, which is never. I knew I had to engineer a meet-up. She had actually proposed this a few weeks ago when I was in the throes of getting things together for our family's trip to France. And I totally spaced... which was the case with lots of important things that week.

Amanda's blog is one of my very favorites. She is very thoughtful and thought-provoking on every aspect of life... parenting, running, education, kitchen-renovation, you name it. Her posts are filled with feeling and intention. Some are very deep and some are almost frivolously funny, but they always resonate with me. Do check her out if you haven't already :)

In real life, Amanda is every bit as beautiful as she appears in print. Her smile just lights up the day. She radiates an intensity and an energy that I aspire to possess. Her sense of humor is awesome... that means she got and genuinely laughed at my jokes :) Her children are fun and engaged and engaging and just as lovely as their mama. Her husband is such a trooper for hanging in and keeping track of the kids while we chatted away. Thanks again, Amanda's husband!

We went to a playground in Golden Gate Park where the kids could just run and climb, climb, climb and swing and slide. They had a blast.

Miss C nevers fails to make use of a good training opportunity ;-)

Amanda's 4-year old daughter is such a sweet and sensitive spirit.

The three girls climbing.

Miss C always needs to test her limits.

Amanda's 6-year old loved these sliding parallel bars...

She is such an outgoing girl. She became instant friends with another girl at the park.

Going down the slide 'properly' for a change.

Here we are at the end of the visit...

The moms look better in the picture on her blog, but the kids look like they are having more fun in this shot... on hers they look like they are giving each other the 'stink eye'!

Thank you so much, Amanda, for letting me hang with you and your tribe for a couple of hours! And for laughing at my jokes ;-)

I'll keep my eyes open for one of those fancy blankets made from the hair of a yak's balls that are so popular down here in San Francisco... land of nannies and fancy strollers and Sophie the Giraffe. I know you want one ;-)

And I hope we get to meet again soon!  xoxoxo

Virtual racing... virtual training...

I think my virtual training for my real race is not working out as well as my real training for my virtual race did :P

I walked a tremendous amount while we were in Paris... and did a rigorous stairs workout at least 4 times every day, but I think it's time to start running again.

I wish I had Miss C's energy and dedication to the sport...

She managed to get a run in no matter where we were :)

Fontainebleau

Chateau de Fontainebleau

My husband kept pronouncing this "fountainbleu" like a fountain of bleu cheese. I had to correct him...

It's "Fontaineblow" ... like that line in Shanghai Knights.

We were going to go for the day... visit the palace AND the gardens AND the forest (which is a big deal on its own). But.... we left the house at about 1:30 in the afternoon, and it was a 90-minute drive... and we were all pretty spent before we even started.

Our hostess was awesome. She and her two kids accompanied us. The kids all had a pretty great time. The adults all felt pretty wiped from all the driving and agreed that it wasn't very much bang for the driving buck.

Fontainbleau is a very big historical deal in France. It is more important than Versailles... even though The Big V is a lot fancier. If you click on the link under the above picture, it will lead you to info about why... in case you want to know.

I took Big G, Baby X and our hostess' oldest son on the quickie tour. That is the tour for kids. You don't really stop and learn about much of anything, you just check out all the grandiosity and splendor and how big or small the beds are, how much gold there is on stuff, whether or not there are chandeliers or lots of naked lady statues... that sort of tour. The tour takes most people a good solid hour or more. We did it in 32 minutes.

Here are some highlights...

Battle Royale in the courtyard!

 Jumping down off of things we shouldn't have been climbing on!

Being extremely cute on statues we shouldn't sit on while daddy watches us in the garden and mommy races through the palace with older kids!

 Miss C getting her training run in...

 the girl is a running machine, I tell you!

Those were the guys outside.

We were the guys inside.

Baby X was really into the audioguided tour gizmo... I think she learned a lot.

 Napoleon's bed... she is right next to it. It is super short... like he was. I was surprised, but maybe he wanted a cozy little bed to snuggle into at night?

We saw several other rooms, but we were going so fast that I forgot to take pictures.

It was a quick tour.

I am not sure exactly how this happened...

it was the end of the day.

 The kids enjoyed some cookies...

 Q-Man expressed his 'done-ness' by curling up into a ball.

 And my big girl has some issues with her socks... there were no visible injuries that would appear to require makeshift bandaging, so it must have been a fashion statement.

 Miss C passed on the cookies (much to her dismay) but did find solace in a date.

Of course, no palace of great national importance and significance would be complete without

a pissing dog fountain.

Am I right?

Artemis with her peeing hound dogs... I remember that myth.

And check this out!

Traffic looks the same in France!

No special style or panache...

just lots of cars,

cranky people,

dirty air...