Wednesday, June 3
The day started super early, we had to leave the house around 4:00 AM in order to catch our super early flight. We had two flights to get there, the first one touched down in Denver, where we had about an hour or so before boarding the second flight that took us to Dulles International in Washington DC.

When we were outside to catch the shuttle to the hotel, a couple fat drops of rain started to fall. Unfortunately we arrived in DC just in time to hit rush hour traffic. So our shuttle ride was 2.5 hours! Ugh… While the shuttle was driving around, the heavens opened up and a massive downpour started. We definitely do not have rain like that here in the desert.

We finally made it to our hotel, The Liaison Capitol Hill, and we were starving at this point. Or at least, I was. I had to eat an emergency Luna Bar in the shuttle just because I was so famished. The rain had eased up for the moment, so we walked to Union Station to find some dinner. Based on crossing the time zones, we basically lost the whole day in the air. We were tired from traveling and wanted to try falling asleep at a normal time for the east coast, so we could hopefully switch to our new time zone quickly. So dinner was easy soup & salad at Au Bon Pain. By the time we finished that, the rain was falling again in full force. Thus we waited in a long line at the station and caught a cab back to our hotel.

Our cab driver told us that he was famous, more famous than many people in DC. This is due to the fact that at one point in his career somebody had left $22,000 cash in his cab and he returned it. I have no idea if that is a true story, but it was funny that he felt compelled to tell us that one.

Thursday, June 4
We had a breakfast meeting with the documentary director at 9:00 AM. Typically that would be kind of late in the day for me, but seeing as how that is the equivalent of 6:00 AM my time, that did mean a little bit of a rough waking period, but not too bad.

We met Paul, the director, at Art and Soul… the restaurant that was basically in the lobby of my hotel. The restaurant is owned by Art Smith who was Oprah’s personal chef for a long time and is still frequently in charge of her “events”. The meeting was mainly spent with Paul getting to know my mom and me, as well as learning more about our family history and story in terms of breast cancer and the Race for the Cure.

After our meeting we had some time to explore on our own. So we walked up to the Capitol and proceeded to make our way from there through the National Mall. We saw the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Korean War Memorial.

The day was overcast most of the time and of course, at the moment that we were thinking we should head back for an afternoon meeting with the documentary team and we were the furthest away from our hotel we got that day… the rain started again.

After rushing through the rain and then scrounging to find something to eat (we ate at the bar in the Hyatt across the street from our hotel because our hotel’s bar food in the middle of the day was too heavy for us), we had another meeting. This one was wardrobe and logistics. We had to pick out our wardrobe for the race and training run. We were given a whole wardrobe of New Balance clothes and shoes. Unfortunately I had given them the wrong size (I overestimated my size and told them I needed a bigger size than what I really needed), so they had to overnight new clothes for me. At the conclusion of the meeting we were invited to go out to dinner with the team. We had tickets to go up the Washington Monument that night, but it was raining anyway so I don’t feel too bad about missing that.

The dinner out was really good. We went to some steak/seafood place. I’m so glad I didn’t even have to look at the bill for that meal… the food was fairly expensive and with appetizers, desserts and the amount of booze and cocktails ordered at our table… I can only imagine how costly that was.

Friday, June 5
8:30 AM call time for a full day of shooting. We started out with hair and makeup. I really don’t like wearing that much makeup and they really caked it on thick. Then we went through a period of take after take of us: laying out our clothes, tying our shoes, pinning our race numbers on to our shirts. Often they wanted us to banter back and forth with each other. But the second we were asked to do that, our conversations became awkward and stilted. I don’t foresee an Academy Award in my future anytime soon.

We got to take a break midday because my mom had arranged for us to get at tour of the US Capitol through her congressman’s office. That was a really smart way to get in to see the building as we got to bypass the general wait line outside (in the rain).

It was cool to walk through the Capitol and see offices for people whom you often hear about on the news. And in the Statuary Room there is a really cool spot where you can whisper and that soft spoken word can be heard on the other side of the room, almost as if it’s going through a microphone.

Food was a challenging issue during this trip because it seemed like we had strange schedules and then it was hard to find places to eat. We fortunately stumbled on a little shop called Firehook Bakery where we were able to get sandwiches and cookies. Yummy cookies.

Post food we had to be back at the hotel to get in “costume” and meet our crew for a training run. This training run involved running stretches of a block over and over while they got different shots. And getting our makeup refreshed after each “run”. The rain had slowed at this point, but there were massive puddles everywhere and we spent a lot of time running on a trail, so it was pretty muddy.

After doing this for a while, we were released for the day. Good thing because we were getting pretty tired and had an early start for the next day!

Saturday, June 6
Call time for today was even earlier, 6:00 AM in the lobby. From there we were driven to the start line. We got to make a quick pass through the Survivor’s tent, which was nice. At these events they always have a tent just for breast cancer survivors and a guest. They provide some breakfast snacks and a gift to the survivors. My mom got a pink canvas bag, a pretty nice one at that.

Then it was back to being “the talent”. We had to do some light stretching and listen to the speakers while our camera crew recorded every moment. There were times when people would pause as they walked by and take our picture. I’m sure it was because they thought we were actually “somebody” since there were cameras following us.

Then the race started. We had two different cameras running with us at the beginning, as well as a production assistant running with us the whole time. This wasn’t a traditional “race” for me in any way. Usually my mom and I line up at the start together, once the gun fires and the race begins we say to each other, “See you at the end.” The producers wanted us to run the entire race together though. That’s fine, I feel I got to take in more of what was happening around me when I took a slower pace. Plus we had moments where we were supposed to “act” during the race. “Slow down here.” “Run 20 feet past the camera, then turn back and wave.” Those kinds of things, very different from the real way of doing things.

After we were ushered away for post-race interviews. The makeup artist kind of stabbed me in the eye with the brush while trying to cover up all of the variances in my complexion that make me a human being and dislodged my tear duct plug.

Once we were dismissed we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and hit some more sightseeing. We had lunch at the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian. They had a cool cafe where we got to sample yucca fries, chayote squash, pulled buffalo and pupusas. We took the metro to Arlington National Cemetery and then walked back from the cemetery when we realized it was only about 3 or 4 miles from the hotel. We found a little thai restaurant for dinner that evening too. It’s amazing how much you can cram into a day sometimes!

Sunday, June 7
The day started with a quick breakfast at Starbucks. We wanted to hit some spots at the Smithsonian before our long flight home.

It’s amazing how much you can cram into one day, especially when you have a plane flight going from east to west.

First stop was the National Archives. I wanted to feel like I was living in the movie National Treasure for a moment… or something like that. However, they make everyone stand in a line before letting them into the rotunda where the Declaration of Independence is kept, but once you’re in all bets are off. It made me angry that they didn’t just make a queue and send people around the most famous documents in an orderly manner. Then if people were interested in seeing the other documents around the room, those could be viewed at your own discretion. There were some people who wanted to analyze and read every bit of the documents and others who just wanted to shove in there, pose next to it and move on. There needed to be some kind of order. ORDER!!!

We also made a quick pass through the Natural History Museum to scope out the dinosaurs and the National Art Gallery. A return trip is definitely in order so we can take more time to view the various museums at the Smithsonian.

We had lunch before returning to the hotel and catching our shuttle back to the airport. And before we knew it, we had to board a plane for a 5 hour flight back to Vegas. My husband picked us up at the airport and life was returned to normal.

It was an amazing experience, something I will remember for the rest of my life. I’m so glad my mom shared the trip with me and that we got to experience this together. We both equally won the prize, even if I was “declared” the winner. I think it’s the combination of our stories that got us recognized.

You can view our contest entries on the New Balance site now.

Notable:
There was a character named Sand Saref in this… although it sounded like San Sarif. I kept waiting for other font-related characters.

Quote:
Toilets are always funny!

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of stylized violence and action, some sexual content and brief nudity.

* I’ve really gotta see a good show… there have been some real duds lately!

Notable:
I can’t… I just can’t. There’s a whole boatload of trivia about this film, all kinds of crazy minutae for people obsessed.

Quote:
But dying in place of someone I love, seems like a good way to go

Rating: PG-13 for some violence and a scene of sensuality

Notable:
Seeing Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd dressed up like members of the band KISS was hilarious.

Quote:
No, venti is twenty. Large is large. In fact, tall is large and grande is Spanish for large. Venti is the only one that doesn’t mean large. It’s also the only one that’s Italian. Congratulations, you’re stupid in three languages.

Rating: R for crude and sexual content, strong language and nudity

Notable:
Ryan Reynolds nearly completely naked… Oh, and Sandra Bullock too. For those who are interested. ;-)

Quote:
I can’t swim!
Hence, the boat

Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, nudity and language

FINALLY we got to meet in person. She cooked her infamous aebleskivers for us while Annalie gave me a tour of the house. Kevin received the tour from Mr. Actually, Troy.

Breakfast was great, but the company was even better. I had so much fun with them and it was one of those great internet/blogger meetings where there isn’t any awkwardness at all. In fact, I had such a nice time I think I invited myself back to play again in the future. Probably a little bit of a social faux pas… but I think they’ll forgive me!

I plucked a couple lemons from their tree too. Now I need to make a lemon cake, because both Bethany and I love lemon cake. It only seems fitting to make that treat from those lemons.

Annalie was playing in the tub when it came time for us to leave, but she did manage to pull herself away to pose for pictures.

My pictures of Kevin and Troy didn’t turn out that well… I’ve really gotta LEARN the functions of my camera better so I’m guaranteed to get good shots that aren’t too dark or funny colors!

After meeting Family Actually, we had to start making our way home. But not before driving to Carlsbad for the farmers market. I wanted to get some fresh produce, specifically avocados. We grabbed a slice of pizza at a place called Pizza Port, a funky joint with good lunch deals. We each got a big slice of pizza, a huge salad and a drink for $10 TOTAL.

We also stopped for some sweets, but I feel the need to do a full review on the place we went… so stay tuned! :-)

On our drive home we stopped for gas in Victorville, CA. The gas pump ate our credit card. ATE IT! So when my husband went to complain, the attendant said that he couldn’t open the pump but if we left him our name, phone, address and any other bit of information we could, he’d get it out of the pump in a few days for us.

Yeah, right… we’re going to just leave our card behind with all of our information to let you steal from us!

So we canceled the card. My husband had read a tip in a magazine recently about programming the customer service line for your credit cards into your phone. That way if you do have a problem, you have ready access to get help.

Then we drove to a different gas station in town, where some weird gas station attendant came out and told me that I could use his “special employee” bathroom that he’d “just cleaned,” which is uber-creepy… makes you wonder if he’s got some kind of creepy camera set-up in there. Or maybe I’m just over-thinking that!

The drive home seemed to take about 4 times as long as it took to get to San Diego. I guess that’s because I was dreading coming back to my “regular” life. But it’s a necessary evil. I had a nice time while it lasted!

After I got cleaned up and we headed to The Eggery for breakfast, a recommendation from Kristin from Meringue Bake Shop. I got a yummy scramble, but I hate that the item that sounded the most appetizing to me was called “Doctor’s Choice.” Why couldn’t it have just been “Veggie Scramble with Whole Wheat English Muffin?” I would feel less dorky ordering that than I did saying the name “Doctor’s Choice.”

The next stop was the USS Midway tour. I had no idea what we were getting in to on this one, but when we walked up I was a little surprised that tickets were $17 a person.

We started the tour and I learned that everyone gets their own headset/audio box. Basically it’s a self-guided tour, there are signs with numbers printed on them at periodic stops around the ship. You enter that number into your audio box and a narrator tells you what you are seeing. There are small, tight spaces and it’s pretty amazing how much they cram into that ship. Yes, the ship is MASSIVE, but it’s still got a ton of little rooms packed in there. The tour took us nearly 4 hours. FOUR HOURS! I truly had no idea that we’d end up spending that much time there and I was starving. We didn’t even listen to the descriptions of all the planes on top of the ship because I was getting to the point where I was done with that tour.

Throughout the ship there are mannequins in place to mimic some of the actions that might take place in that spot. In the Post Office on the ship there was a man who’s job was to stand at the counter looking down at a letter in his hand. As we were walking by he looked up at me and said, “How are you today?” I just replied, “I’m fine,” then walked on. But then I paused and realized that he was supposed to be surprising unsuspecting people and my reaction (or non-reaction) was rather amusing to him. As we were looking at some of the other displays in that same area, we saw him do the same greeting to a boy who was about 13 and that kid SCREAMED like a little girl. Hilarious. The tour also had some hidden mannequins that were rather humorous.

When the tour was over we headed over to Ocean Beach to grab some burgers from Hodad’s. We went there nearly 2 years ago when we were in San Diego before. Yummy fries.

Then we decided to go to a movie theatre we saw and catch the first movie that was showing. We ended up seeing The Proposal. Post movie I needed a little “real food” before we got some frozen yogurt for dessert. So we stopped a Corner Bakery Cafe and grabbed a salad before heading to Yogurtland.

It felt like a pretty full day.

We saw lots of animals, I think we circled every area of the park several times. And we had to stop and “oooooh” and “aaaah” over the baby cheetahs several times. We ended up spending a lot more time at the park than I initially thought we might, simply because we had fun and were enjoying ourselves.

We did pause part way through the day when I learned through Twitter that Michael Jackson had passed away. It seemed so unbelievable that we had to sit on a bench and scroll through our iPhones to find out if it was true. But it apparently was… it took a little more time to figure out that Farrah Fawcett had passed away that morning too.

They had a special exhibit at the park called “Dino Mountain”. It was filled with robotic dinosaurs and information on each type. A special activity for kids was set-up with a “passport” through the exhibit where you could collect stamps for each dino you saw. Well, I was a good little student and got all of my stamps.

It was funny watching some of the kids doing the assignment. Some kids were so meticulous to make sure their stamp matched up with the box exactly. Other kids stamped the spots in the book, not caring to put the right stamp in the right box. It was cracking me up to see how different personalities emerge. I would have been the meticulous kid.

We were exhausted by the end of the day from the heat, so we found an interesting little italian restaurant near our hotel. It’s basically in an old house and all the employees speak Italian. And our waiter… he was pretty dreamy. Kevin agreed… he’s one of those European cliches that you hear about on TV and books, with long hair and perfect skin and a lovely accent.

I fell asleep pretty earlier because I was so beat, plus I wanted to get up early to go running the next morning.

Kevin was supposed to be out of town for work this week, but that job got pushed back and suddenly he was free. So we decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Southern California.

We spent the day driving to California yesterday and boy, did I go into Twitter overdrive. I love that I can use Twitter to randomly spout off things that perhaps I could use to remember my trip. But also, it sure makes the time sitting in a car go by a lot quicker. I don’t recall having ever been that entertained while sitting in a moving vehicle for that long before. (I’m a very fidgety traveler, being in a car too long makes me ANTSY!)

The app Midomi for my iPhone especially provided me with a lot of fun. The app allows you to tap the screen, it will listen to a song playing and return the artist/song title information to you. The main premise is to help with those “What’s this song?” type inquiries. But I even use it on songs I know, just to perhaps find out a little bit more information (lyrics, year, etc.)

Yesterday we listened to a bunch of mix CD’s I made from ‘97-’99. My husband grabbed a stack of them for the trip and I had a lot of fun reliving the compilations I’d put together. And I also had a lot of fun using Midomi to see if it recognized the songs and to share the songs with people via Twitter. So much fun that the people behind the app started to follow me on Twitter AND sent me a message telling me that I was awarded the black belt for using their hashtag so much!

We took a small detour through Orange, CA to get an afternoon snack at Bliss Frozen Yogurt. Kristin, from Meringue Bake Shop, has mini-versions of her cupcakes on sale there so we sampled some of those and had some yogurt. Yogurt that my husband called “the most delicious frozen yogurt he’s ever had”. I loved the mini versions; I could get a little bit of cupcake, share multiple flavors with my husband and not feel like I’d over-indulged. We tried the red velvet cake and I must admit, I have missed the flavor of cream cheese frosting, haven’t had that for a long time. We also tried a watermelon cupcake and a cookies & cream-type cake. The frosting had a really nice, fluffy texture.

We went to the Rock Bottom Brewery in the Gaslamp district because some of Kevin’s colleagues from the San Diego office recommended it. I ordered a chicken wrap sandwich on really tasty flatbread with tasty avocado inside. I need to buy some california avocados here… kind of a “when in Rome” type thing. Is it their season now? In fact, I just want to find a farmer’s market. I love getting fresh produce and if there is one on Saturday I could hit it before we leave town!

After wandering for a bit we decided that we needed some more sweet to round out our day. I’m trying really hard to live by the rule that vacation eating means no guilt and anything goes. I’m always way too conservative. Anyway, a quick Googling suggested Extraordinary Desserts. Without learning much about it, we decided to just give it a shot. It’s a cute little place with a line out the door and all they serve is desserts. Tarts, pastries, cake, cookies, brownies… with a little dash of coffee and tea to accompany. We got a couple cookies to try. One was a chocolate tea cookie and the flavor was a little too strong. But the chocolate chunk/cherry cookie was delicious.

The day was long, but relaxing and enjoyable. Now we’re getting ready to go at it again. The husband is getting annoyed with me that I’m sitting on my computer with my hair all wet and not making any motions to get ready for breakfast. Guess I should get moving, huh?

Notable:
This is sooo Las Vegas, but it’s a tiny bit of a spoiler about content in the film, so skip this next bit if you don’t want anything given away.
According to Bradley Cooper, whilst giving a speech at a Toronto screening: “the people in Las Vegas never even noticed [a] movie was being filmed.” He said that he had tiger scratches on his neck, all bloodied, and Justin Bartha was beet red, and nobody noticed, or even stopped to double-take.

Quote:
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. Except herpes.

Rating: R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material