Night Running

One of the really great things about preparing for the Jerusalem half-marathon is that Zach and I have been discovering new paths and parts of our neighborhood as we search for more interesting running routes.  The other day we were stopped on one of our regular routes at the entrance to the beach by an army blockade including rolled barbed wire across the road!  This meant we had to quickly change plans and run in uncharted territory - hah.  But we discovered a really nice road that runs along the bluffs and then came back through a fancy neighborhood - all without getting lost :)

Yesterday was the first full thunderstorm we've had since last winter - yay!  The pouring rain and cool winds made the apartment smell sooo good - I love that stormy rain smell :)  The pictures below show some of the clouds around our apartment just before the storm came rolling in.

That night, after the storm was long gone we went out for a run and what a beautiful run it was!  The beach has a boardwalk from downtown Tel Aviv to our beach (and beyond...) and as we ran along it we could see the storm far out across the ocean with flashes of lightning lighting up the distant sky.  I wish I had a picture of it!  The boardwalk is also lit for a long time just by little lights along the ground so you still get the full effect of stars in the sky without the light pollution - it's amazing :) Stars, salty wind at your back, the fresh smell of rain and a distant thunderstorm over the ocean.  Love it.

 This picture is from one year ago - just after we moved here, on the boardwalk at the Port in Tel Aviv.  The storm from last night was not nearly as close as the one in the picture was!

Grande Prairie

It seems like I've been all over the place this past month!  I was just back in Canada again and got to spend a week with my family in Ontario, and then a week up in Grande Prairie!  Although it was amazing to see friends and family and spend more time in Canada, I have to say that spending 2 weeks half a world away from Zach was not so great!  Even though I live here and know full well that media totally misrepresents this part of the world (Israel) to North America, I still followed the news on Israel-Lebanon-Syria-Iran a lot more closely ... I guess I understand a bit more how our family, living so far away, can sometimes be concerned :)

But all that aside - what an amazing time we all had at Lindi's wedding!  I am so so happy that I was able to go - we even managed to have a reunion of the Pink Flamingos - seems like just yesterday we were all housemates in London! 

These are the details from Lindi and Russ's wedding - they are so crafty/artistic/talented!  It was a gorgeous rustic themed wedding - the weather was perfect too - sunny and warm, which is amazing considering that three days later it snowed!

 Coffee favours!  And look at those cute little owls :)

  And the pink flamingo traveled on to Grande Prairie... :)  

 Jen, Alyssa and I - it was such a gorgeous sunny day!

 Beautiful bride :)

Jen, Bronwen and I got to spend more time together on the way home!  Bronwen is such a little trooper - taking the long flights in stride.

Now it's back to work and training. Funny how even taking just two weeks off from running makes it hard to get back into it :)  We'll see what happens over Christmas holidays!