WIAW #26: Sundaes on Saturday

August 5, 2015August 4, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 10 Comments

Happy What I Ate Wednesday, folks. It’s one of my favorite days of the week – seeing all the great eats that everyone has to share, plus sharing my own. AND today’s is an especially fun day of eats, because it was my SATURDAY eats. Which meant ice cream, kombucha, popcorn and more fun stuff. Are you ready?

The day started out with a nice 5k with B and myself. After the run, it started to get hot off and I was craving some fruit and something fresh. The cure? We stopped off at one of my favorite downtown breakfast spots, Restore for some avocado toast, a smoothie AND an acai bowl. Don’t worry, we split the three between us:

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After breakfast, we headed to the West Side Market to pick up groceries. I was still feeling in the mood for fruit so I grabbed this bad boy and some grapes to snack on during the day:

After the Market, we headed out to Hingetown, where B got coffee and I got – you guessed it – kombucha at Cleveland Tea Revival. I can’t get enough of this stuff! 20150718_105202

We had a relatively lazy afternoon after that and ended up going out to dinner, to the movies, and then out for dessert.

We had a gift card to Town Hall and enjoyed an appetizer of lettuce wraps (sorry, forgot to take a photo before … you can see some remnants below).

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And I got this massive kale, beet, goat cheese, almond and veggie burger salad for dinner. I ate leftovers for 2 days 🙂

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We then headed to the movies and saw Trainwreck. B got popcorn, and I had a few handfuls. NO – I did not take any pictures during the movie 🙂 But AFTER the movie, we went out for ice cream. Holy cow, was this sundae delicious. Salted caramel ice cream with toffee bits and a bit of B’s whipped cream and cherry. I had a long run planned for Sunday morning, so of course I had to count this as part of my cargo-loading 🙂

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That concluded my Saturday. Wow, looking at this, I want to go back! So much good eats in one day!

Some questions for you:

Do you tend to splurge more on weekends?
Do you like sweet/salty combo? Yes! Salted caramel ice cream – chocolate covered pretzels – i want it all!
Have you seen Trainwreck? What did you think?
Runners – do you have any go-to eats the night/day before a long run?

Don’t forget to click on the badge below to see what WIAW is all about.

Two Days in Mendocino and a Drive Up North

August 4, 2015July 30, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

(this is part two of a travel recap post – part one can be found here: A Day in Sonoma)

Last week, my family took a trip out to the West Coast to visit my brother. After spending time with family and a day in Sonoma, it was time for our next stop – Mendocino. The road to Mendocino was part of the trip in itself. Greg had helped planned us a route along highway one, with scenic views overlooking the Pacific coast. I’m so glad I was able to go – it was gorgeous, and we even got to stop for lunch in one of the small coastal towns along the way.

GREAT views along the ride.

We arrived in Mendocino just before our B&B’s happy hour, which was great. We stayed at the Inn at Cobbler’s Walk, which is part of Glendeven, and I’d definitely recommend it. The property isn’t too big, is close to a bunch of walking/hiking trails and even has llamas and 100s of chickens on site.

llamas on the property!

After enjoying the local wine and great cheese at the Inn for the complimentary happy hour, it was time for dinner in downtown Mendocino. It’s a small downtown with shops and restaurants, we enjoyed another dinner on a patio before taking a walk around the downtown as the sun was setting.

family selfie at happy hour

The next morning, I woke up relatively early and went for a walk, including to the beach, on a path just a few minutes away from our room.

beach front walk in the morning

We had breakfast served to our room at 9 a.m., which included a three-course meal – yogurt and granola, eggs and a scone. Sooo good!

the amazing meal

After breakfast, we checked out the rest of the grounds – the llamas and chickens and garden – and then headed to downtown Mendocino for a walk along the Headlands and lunch. It was such a gorgeous day!

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Our second night we stayed at a different place, this time with cabins and adjoining rooms so that we were all able to hang out and watch a movie – Beetlejuice – at night. This inn had goats this time.

Peanut Butter and Jelly, the goats!

We had a great dinner that night – we ended up wandering back downtown and hit up the MacCallum Inn. This week’s WIAW shares some of eats – wine, cheese, ratatouille and blackberry soufflé. SO good.

DESSERT.

The next morning, we took a short walk around the new inn, and then hit the road for breakfast in Fort Bragg followed by a drive through the Avenue of the Giants. It is SO cool to ride among those SUPER tall trees! We also had time to stop for a hike along one of the trails. I love a good, easy nature hike!

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What a great trip – I hope we can do it again soon!

Some questions for you:

Have you ever been to the Redwoods?
Do you like hiking? Nature? I enjoy hiking, but i’m not a HUGE nature fan. I’m scared of bugs, snakes, animals, etc.
Have you ever seen the movie Beetlejuice?

Picture Perfect Weekends.

August 3, 2015August 3, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / Leave a comment

It was a picture perfect weekend in Cleveland. Really – I have no complaints. We had sunshine, blue skies, warm weather, and everything just seemed to work out perfectly. See for yourself – I’ll be linking up with Running N Reading and Her Heartland Soul today again for this weekend update post!

Friday morning started out with 5 miles with Mary before work. It was great to get outside and run after my vacation- I took two days off and my legs were feeling great. Screenshot 2015-08-02 12.37.00

After work, B and I checked out the Asian Market. I went last month with my parents, and B hadn’t yet gotten a chance to enjoy it. It was great – so many people and great food. I love Snow Bros Shavery and they were there.

my vietnamese cabbage salad

shaved snow with mango whipped cream and boba…yum!

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Saturday morning, B and I got in an unplanned run – I had forgotten to sign up for the OROC 5k, so we did one on our own. I was pretty happy to have negative splits.

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After the run, we went to Restore for a feast. Seriously, a feast. We shared the avocado toast, a smoothie and an acai bowl. It was the perfect post-run, hot day treat!

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Then, per usual, we hit up the West Side Market for some groceries and spent the rest of the afternoon soaking up the sun at the beach! It was windy out, so a little too wavy in the water, but the wind kept us cool.

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We decide to make it a night out using our gift cards – For dinner, we had a gift card to Town Hall so enjoyed some patio dinner and drinks there. Next? Using a gift card to Cleveland Cinemas and seeing Trainwreck. If you haven’t seen it yet – you must. It is just TOOOOO good. Especially if you have a Cleveland connection.

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After the movie was dessert. A gift card to Sweet Moses meant B and I both got treats – I got salted caramel with toffee and B got and ice cream soda.

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SO SO GOOD.

Sunday started early. I had plans to run with Mary and my cousin-in-law, Meghan. We had 11 miles on the schedule, so I had plans to run to Mary’s, then run to Meghan’s, and then continue until we got to 11.

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It was hot, and I was tired, but we did it! Just a few more weeks until the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame half!

The rest of the afternoon was pretty lazy, but we did get to go to a pizza and pool party at B’s grandma’s house with his cousins and siblings. It was the perfect end to a warm weekend.