Sometimes you just need a break. And sometimes, things get crazy and you're forced into a break. Last week I had hoped to get in way more running than I actually did. We were up in Pennsylvania to visit friends and family, and I was looking forward taking advantage of the lower heat and humidity. And while we did get a nice break from the scorching Charleston weather, I didn't get to run as much as I intended.

Whenever we go home for visits, it's always a bit chaotic because we have so many family and friends we try to see and so many things we want to do, and we cram it into way too short of a time. We always come back more exhausted than when we left and this time was no different.

I also ended up feeling pretty yucky most of the week with a gross summer cold, and I'm still not feeling back to normal yet. I'm hoping it just stops at a cold and doesn't migrate to my lungs or anything.

So anyway, my weekly recap isn't as much about workouts as it is about what we did on our summer vacation, which did include a lot of running around, but also eating...lots of eating.

Workout recap

Last week's workouts

Monday: Off
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Hill repeats - 2.94 miles (8:55 pace)
Friday: Easy run - 3.02 miles (8:27 pace)
Saturday: Off (14 hours stuck in a car - ugh)
Sunday: Off (sick, tired, exhausted, blah)

Last week's totals

Running miles: 5.96 miles (oops)
Runs: 2
Total workouts: 2

Monday

After B's birthday party on Sunday, we were exhausted, but we were on vacation so that's par for the course! We packed up our stuff, headed out for breakfast, and then headed to Dutch Wonderland, an amusement park just for little kids. My mom came along as well as my friend Dianne and her granddaughter, J.

B wasn't so sure about most of the regular rides, but when he realized that Duke's Lagoon was a water park, his little face lit up and we couldn't get him away. He was, by far, the youngest kid climbing up the fishing net to the slides and going down them, but he wasn't phased. This kid is a water baby through and through.

Monday evening, we introduced B to one of our old Monday night traditions from when we lived in Lancaster: cheap pizza night at Alley Kat. And it was a hit with him.

Tuesday

Tuesday we had breakfast at the hotel with my mom, then we took B to D's parents house for the day/night so we had some kid-free time. We took advantage of that by heading downtown, doing some shopping at several boutiques and shops and having lunch. In the evening, we met up with friends for dinner and drinks and ended up being out until almost 1 a.m., which is about 5 hours past my bedtime. Holy crap, I was tired!

Wednesday & Thursday

These two days were slightly less eventful, but in true Lancaster, Pa-vacation style, we still crammed a bunch of stuff in.

Wednesday I managed to get out for a run. Yay! There was a steep(ish) hill about 1/10 of a mile long right outside the hotel, so I took advantage of that and did some hill repeats.

After that, we went to pick up B at grandma and grandpa's house, and then later on in the day we all went to dinner at Iron Hill Brewery. After dinner, we took B to one of our favorite city parks and let him play at the playground. This kid loves slides!

Thursday morning, we headed to Rachel's Cafe & Creperie. We never visit home without going here. It's one of my favorite Lancaster spots. We met my friend Laura and her daughter there and had a nice breakfast. I miss this place. It used to be our regular Saturday morning haunt for breakfast and coffee.

I had some work to do on Thursday afternoon and then in the evening we had family photos taken in downtown Lancaster. We had planned to have them taken in Musser Park, which is where we also had wedding pictures taken, but we no sooner got there and started shooting when a nasty thunderstorm moved in, so we headed to the train station instead. My hair looked ridiculous after being caught in the monsoon, but B loved the train station. The teaser pictures the photographer already sent us turned out nice, even if my hair was a total disaster.

Friday

Friday morning I got in a nice, easy lunch time run. Our hotel had lots of trails around it and connected to a local park, so that was nice. Normally we stay right downtown and I love running on the streets in the city, but this time we were at a hotel outside the city. I was concerned there wasn't going to be anywhere good to run, but these trails were beautiful and I didn't have to worry about traffic or the lack of sidewalks in the area.

Later in the day, my college roommate drove in from New Jersey with her kids and her mom for dinner and a ballgame. There was also a street festival going on in downtown Lancaster, so we walked around that for a bit.

It was a beautiful evening until a storm moved in just a few innings into the ballgame. There was a rain delay and by 9 pm, it was still raining, so we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel. But I'm glad I got to see my old roommate! We may not have spent the evening being wild and crazy at a bar or club like we did in our college days, but it's always good to catch up with her.

We had so much going on this time, we didn't even get to swim at the hotel pool at all, but at least we still got to do a lot of things around town and see a lot of people. And as usual, I didn't take enough (read: hardly any) pictures of us with all of those people. I always say I'm going to be better about that and then I never am. Next time, I'll be better about that!

Heading HOme - I think B speaks for both me and D when he says "ZZZZZZZZZ" — Heading HOme - I think B speaks for both me and D when he says "ZZZZZZZZZ"

I always love visits back home to PA, but they're always way too short. We're dreaming of the day when we can use the house we own up in Lancaster as an AirBnB rental so it's available for us to use for our vacations as well. It would be so nice to go up there for several weeks, take our dogs, and stay in our own home. Goals.

Speaking of goals...here are a few for the shorter term:

Next week's goals

For this coming week, I'm anxious to get back into my regular workout routine. In general, I'm anxious to get back into a regular routine with work, working out, and life.

Things have just been so chaotic and stressful for the past several months and it's just becoming too much. With D's work schedule, I need a little less crazy in my life so I don't lose my mind completely (I'm fairly certain it's already half gone). At least amidst the insanity, I've been able to hold on to somewhat of a routine with workouts.

Goal 1	4 runs
Goal 2	2 barre classes

And that's my wrap for this week - pretty simple recap instead of an attempt at reflection this week. I think in addition to my workouts taking an unintentional break this week, my brain also went on a vacation. Time to get back to it.

Do you work out on vacations, or do you just take a break?

PS - I've been linking up for the past several weeks with HoHoRuns and MissSippi Piddlin' for their Weekly Wrap post and I really love it. You can check out all of this week's posts here.