three day weekends

Well, the unofficial end of summer has come and gone. Another glorious, perfect, just-what-I-needed three-day weekend is in the books. It was filled with fun, (lots of) food, drinks, friends and great weather. While I refuse to believe that summer is coming to an end, we sure celebrated as if it were.

Friday started out with a 10 mile run before work. I finally found someone as ~~crazy~~ motivated as me to go out for a double digit run during a weekday. Don’t get me wrong – Nicole and I won’t be doing 10 milers every Friday, but a few here and there? Why not.

10mi

Friday night was pretty relaxing. B and I didn’t have concrete plans, so we opted for patio beers and pizza.

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So much meat on the pizza. (and so blurry)

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Saturday morning B and I opted for a 4 mile run, before relaxing with some coffee and a croissant before picking up our CSA. Oh yeah, there was cheese inside that croissant.

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And no Saturday would be complete without a trip to the West Side Market.

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Saturday afternoon we got a chance to hang out with our friend Eric, who was in town with his wife for a wedding. We went to Eric and Julia’s wedding earlier this summer, and it was great to see the newlyweds in Cleveland!

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Brian and Eric. They were roommates in Boston and Eric is seriously one of the nicest, most considerate guys I know.

Oh yeah and the last time Eric was in town? 2008 Labor Day Weekend when BC played Kent State at Browns Stadium. How’s this for a throwback photo?

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Anyway, dinner was at one of our old favorites – Noodlecat! We hadn’t been here in a while and feasted on steam buns and of course, noodles. noodlecat steam buns noodlecat noodles

Sunday morning, we invited Eric and Julia over for a champagne brunch in our apartment. We rarely do brunch so B was pretty pumped. He made some eggs and bacon from our CSA (farm-fresh bacon and eggs are pretty amazing) and I prepared an overnight french toast bake. I’m going to be sharing the recipe because it was super tasty, but also delicious.

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The rest of the day was pretty relaxing and productive. I got in a run, a cross training workout, some meal prep, some work and more.

Monday we had off. It was so nice to sleep in and go for a relaxing run with B and his sisters. We ended up doing around 4 1/2 throughout the flats, Tremont and a few other fun neighborhoods.

After our run, B and I met up with his brother and sister-in-law and our niece and nephew to watch the air show. Every Labor Day in Cleveland, the air show comes to town and people flock downtown to watch the planes. We had a great viewing spot and enjoyed part of a picnic with the kids. Then, we met up with some friends who have a rooftop to watch the Blue Angels. They put on a pretty good show and it was a gorgeous day.

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Monday evening, I was pumped to have enough time to cook dinner and dessert for a great end-of-weekend meal. We had gotten some great hot peppers at the market on Saturday, so (inspired by B) I made some homemade spicy tomato sauce. Using that, we had a meatless Monday dinner – stacked baked eggplant with spaghetti squash. And mini blueberry cakes for dessert. A perfect end to a perfect weekend.

eggplant stacks

Some questions for you:

How was your long weekend?
Do you like spaghetti squash?
Do you enjoy meatless Mondays? What’s your go-to dish?
If you had to choose – French toast or pancakes?

As I recently (okay and more often than once before have) professed, I love three-day weekends. There are so many great things about them and I find that they allow me to do everything I want to do – be productive (meal prep, catch up on work, laundry and clean), bake, work out, catch up on TV shows, meet up with friends, go out AND relax. For some reason, a two-day weekend just doesn’t come close and the extra day makes all the difference!

This past three-day weekend was the same. It was full of good (and maybe a little too much) food and drinks. Sunshine. The beach. Hanging out with B’s family for the Fourth. Catching an Indians game. A few runs with friends. Lots of Orange Is The New Black (slowly making our way through the 2nd season!) and almost finishing the book I’ve been reading for the past few months.

Here’s a little peek at all that we were able to cram into our three days off!

What would Fourth of July be without some red, white and blue goodies? Of course I couldn’t let a three-day weekend go by without some baking!

We enjoyed the Fourth of July and some fireworks with B’s family. They live right next to a park on the lake so we got to enjoy a BBQ and a great fireworks show on their front lawn! b and me on the fourth

I love BBQs as is evidenced by my plate. I ate everything on it minus the beans and the hot dog because I’m weird like that. My eyes were bigger than my stomach.

Saturday included a much needed relaxing beach day. I managed to get in some time on the elliptical before we headed to the beach with Dave and Anson and then back to their house for some pizza and beer on their porch. This time of year I really miss having a porch!

Sunday started out with a nice run with a friend that lives downtown. The weather cooled down during the run (started mid-70s and then got to low 70s) which made for a much more enjoyable run then the past few we’ve had together! Running in sunny, 80-90 degree temps < windy 70 degree temps

Then, B and I headed to the afternoon Indians game – and caught a win! We also had amazing club seats, which meant more good food (it’s all you can eat!) – as if my weekend needed it.And speaking of food, Sunday night included roasting a chicken (it’s the third chicken I’ve roasted – and this one was already cleaned and giblet free. I think I’m getting spoiled), prepping some lunches and other meals for the week and catching up on our TV shows. Meaning 24, Damages (we’re on season 3!) and Orange Is The New Black.

Yup, it really was the perfect weekend – great weather, food, friends, and more. Here’s to hopefully just as great a week!

Some questions for you:

How did you celebrate your Fourth of July holiday?
Do you like fireworks? Did you catch more than 1 show? Yes! I caught the free show downtown with the Orchestra earlier in the week and then the show at the park on the Fourth.
Do you like traditional summer bbq foods like hot dogs and burgers? Actually, I’m not a burger fan. Something about ground beef that gets to me every time. Yes, I tried a little piece of burger on Friday, but they’re still not for me!
If you had three days off, what would you do? Do you like to relax? Be productive? Go out? All three and more?