Motivation Monday: The perfect birthday weekend

Today’s post is a bit late, and a bit abbreviated, but for a good reason—I’m playing catch-up after a fabulous, fun-filled birthday weekend. Here’s a brief glimpse of the (multiple!) events Steve planned to made the long weekend so special.

On Thursday, my actual birthday, my running group tackled its first trail run of the season. It was maybe the prettiest day of the whole year—sunny and warm, not too humid, with a the sky the kind of blue that makes it look like someone’s power-washed it. We hit Adega, our favorite wine bar and restaurant, after, and ended up closing the place down after a few too many bottles of wine for a school night.

The next day, I told everyone who would listen that I was simply too tired to go out the next night—Steve had instructed me to be ready for my birthday festivities at noon on Saturday, so I wanted to relax on Friday. That night, I was genuinely surprised when Steve led me into room full of the same running buddies from Thursday night, plus several other friends, for a surprise party.

My running buddies and I had lots of fun with the purple streamers decorating my party. Because turning 30 doesn't mean you can't act like you're 13.

Better yet, the birthday celebrations on Saturday weren’t a hoax to throw me off the trail of my surprise party—we left for the Shenandoah the next morning! Steve and I have long ogled the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club’s hike-to cabins, and he rented one for us! The plan called for us to hit some Virginia wineries on our way to the trailhead, then to hike a mile in to the cabin. The only problem: Weather forecasts called for downpours all night. We went anyway, because turning 30 doesn’t mean losing one’s sense of adventure!

We were undaunted by the drizzle on our drive to the trailhead.

The wineries were lovely, and the tastings (which Steve drove me to) were delicious. The heavy rain held off until we hiked in, and the foggy drizzle gave the hike a sense of mystery.

Prepping to hike to our cozy little cabin.

The rain pummeled the cabin all night, but we were safe and warm inside, and had the best night sleep we’d had in weeks. Better yet, the rain stopped just in time for us to hike around the area the next day.

Our cozy little cabin.

I offer the rest of our trip in pictures. I’m motivated by so many parts of last weekend’s festivities: the fact that I have such a lovely bunch of running buddies to help celebrate good times; the fact that I am in good enough health to pseudo-backpack a mile to my birthday party in the woods; and the fact that a hill workout on Sunday burned off the calories in my leftover cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream cake from Moorenko’s, the homemade ice cream shop around the corner from us.

Our tasty camping dinner.

My delicious lunch at the Thornton River Grille, my favorite post-camping restaurant.

This cake makes speed workouts worth doing. It also makes life worth living.