Ghosts and Yoga

On our last day in Sisters, we pulled our sore bodies out of bed and walked down to the Lodge restaurant for breakfast. Thankfully, the only thing that hurt on my body was my calves. They were insanely sore–like almost too sore to even touch. All that up-hill snowshoeing did them in. My knees felt tight but not painful, so that’s good.

My breakfast was another winner! It was leek risotto with pancetta and a fried egg on top. I never think of risotto as a breakfast food but everything went together perfectly. The risotto was creamy and the pancetta was salty and chewy. The fried egg went so perfectly on top. It also came with a homemade biscuit.

I ate the biscuit and egg and about 1/3 of the risotto. I saved the rest for later (and ended up eating it for dinner that night). We packed up the car and checked out of the Lodge. I was sad to leave such a beautiful place.

Michael drove us to Bend where we spent the day. Bend is only about 35 miles from Sisters and it’s an easy drive on the highway. The views of all the surrounding mountains are pretty nice to see. The first stop was to the Boneyard Brewery.

Boneyard Beer is my absolute favorite. Their IPA is my favorite beer of ANY beer I’ve ever had. I was so glad we were able to get it in a growler to take home! We also sampled their beer that is infused with a ghost pepper. Ghost peppers are apparently the hottest peppers on earth and boy did that beer burn. It was very spicy and it lasted a long time–long after we left the brewery my mouth still felt “spicy.” It wasn’t a bad thing, just odd.

The next stop was lunch:

Michael and I split a sandwich and we both got the Deschutes Inversion IPA. It’s pretty good but no Boneyard. I got the tall skinny one (it’s a half pint). We spent a few hours after lunch just walking around enjoying the sunshine. It was 56 degrees! We definitely didn’t need our jackets. I did a little shopping and sight-seeing, Michael spent an obscene amount of time in the records store (I didn’t think people still bought records!) and eventually it was time to head home.

Thankfully, there weren’t any scary moments on our drive over Mt. Hood. We made it home with no incidents or harrowing moments.

It was nice to spend the weekend somewhere different and to get away from everything. I’d been under so much stress leading up to our weekend getaway that I’d broken out in hives one night. What a fun night that was! Benadryl and anti-itch cream. Ugh. But playing in the snow and staying in a romantic lodge in the forest felt like a different world. It was very, very needed at that point.

The day after we got back I headed to yoga after work. My poor body needed it. I’d planned on just skipping the gym and taking an extra rest day this week but I thought yoga might help.  My calves were as tight as they’ve ever been and sore to the touch. I wore my compression socks to work all day. 🙂 Yoga definitely helped a lot. It’s been way too long since I’ve gone to a class, and I believe it was one of my goals for January–if not, it should have been. Struggling as much as I did to hold the poses reminded me yet again how much I really do need to go to the class! I think I need to reinstate the Sunday morning yoga classes.

Finally, I am so glad the person who was sent home on Top Chef this week is gone. I couldn’t take it much longer. 😉

QUESTION: Does yoga help your ailments?