Running off my Dessert(s)

Sometimes I forget to tell y’all things and then when I reference them later, I cannot figure out why no one understands what I’m saying! If you follow me on Instagram, you probably already knew this, but I spent the past four days in San Diego, visiting Will and celebrating our early Valentine’s Day!

And you know what else I realized? My food consumption literally triples whenever I visit him! It began on Thursday night, immediately after my flight landed. He greeted me at the airport with some hot chocolate from Starbucks (winning! He knew I would be freezing from the plane ride!) and took me back to his house where he made one of my favorite Will-dinners: baked salmon with fennel. I seriously love this dish and could not fathom him making it any better, but then he followed it up with this beautiful dessert:

Um, yes. That would be a molten lava chocolate-something cake. With ice cream. Best dessert ever!

We followed that up by inviting a group of his friends over on Friday night. He agreed to make them dinner if they agreed to teach me how to play Settlers of Catan. I received this board game for Christmas and have been dying to learn how to play! Final verdict? Definitely a fun game, but I think I need to play it a few more times—it is intense! What happened to all of the easy word games like Catch Phrase and Taboo?! Not to worry though….Will kept me fed with some mahi mahi and turkey bacon wrapped trout, preceded by an epic cheese plate. Pretty sure cheese is the sole reason I could never go vegan!

I don’t want to continue to bore you with all the details of my food, but let me just mention that Will made both of these breakfasts for me….

…and then took me to The Marine Room for Valentine’s Dinner. The Marine Room is a beautiful restaurant in San Diego that is located right on the surf. We were lucky enough to score one of the best tables in the restaurant and had an amazing view of the ocean. I wasn’t able to make any decisions (since I was coming down with a death sickness) so Will ordered some amazing sashimi appetizers, cooked trout and lobster tail for dinner, and then naturally, the piece de resistance, DESSERT!

You can barely see it, but there is a chocolate something-or-other that is just peeking into the right side of the photo. That sucker with the gelato in the center quite literally rocked my world! My fever started to kick in during dinner so we had to cancel our plans afterwards, but you better believe that I finished off this dessert before we left the restaurant! (And yes, I also followed it up with Ben and Jerry’s back at his house—it made my throat feel better!)

We ended the weekend by heading to a surprise party for Will on Sunday night. He was in a fraternity in college (or frat, as I like to call it, which really makes him mad!) and he continued to work as the Alumni and Volunteer Corporation President for 8 years after he graduated. He recently decided to step down from the position, but he made such an impact that many of the former and current brothers decided to throw him a surprise thank-you party. They included me in the details a few weeks ago, but Will didn’t know a thing—and he was actually surprised! He knew it was cocktail attire, but even asked me if we were going to a “Grammy party” while getting ready!

So why do I share all of these delightful foods with you?! Because I have no shame, my friends. Additionally, I have started running again which makes all of these desserts much easier to justify!

Yup, you read that right! I am officially easing my way back into running, and I am really enjoying it! As of now, I’m capping myself at 2-3 runs/week, and I refuse to take my Garmin with me. I’m running for fun with zero regard to my pace or distance. If Tals wants to stop and sniff, we stop and sniff…..even if it happens 492 times! I was lucky enough to win a pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 16’s a few weeks back, so I’ve been enjoying trying them out.

I’ve only worn them twice now, so I’ll refrain from any legit review until I’ve established a solid opinion. However, I will say that it has been interesting going back to a fully-cushioned shoe after running in my Brooks Pure Cadence for such a long time!

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How do you feel about desserts—are you more of a salty or a sweet person? (Or an all-in person like me!)

Can you cook?!