Love love love winter break.  Have spent this week lazing about at home, binge watching TV and just relaxing.  Today we finally stepped out for some fun or and about in Portland.

Lunch at Stoopid Burger food cart

Great burgers for a very reasonable price

A visit to OMSI and their Gingerbread House exhibition

More fun at Quarter World, our first visit to this arcade palace

Punch-Out! Piston Hurricane ended our one fight win streak

Lisa the Pinball wizard

Stopped into Jaciva's and scored an apple coffee cake for tomorrow morning

We saw a movie at my old neighborhood, the Laurelhurst, then had dinner at Incredible John's Pizza. Here is our after dinner work out playing video games

We ended the night by getting some materials at the Tigard Library and a little post Christmas clothes shopping at Ross.

After two weeks of battling a cold, I was finally feeling healthy enough today to do a work out.  The last time I worked out was when I did a one-mile run and shattered my personal record, from a 6:35 mile all the way down to a 6:22 mile.  Maybe that’s why I got sick — I pushed my body over its limit trying to break my record!  At any rate, I have not been feeling healthy or motivated to get back on track until today.

I went to 24-Hour Fitness, which I probably have only been to three or four time this year.  The great thing is that I only pay $20 a year for the membership, so I can be as lazy as I want and not feel badly about wasting my money.  So glad I signed up for the really expensive three-year prepay membership over ten years ago, because now my $20 a year membership is a no-brainer.

I first tried a class called ‘Will Body and Grace,’ which was different because class participants are barefoot.  We did a lot of balance exercises and a lot of squats.  Nothing was particular hard as far as getting a good cardio or strength training workout — mainly, it was challenging trying to hold the poses and staying balanced.  It didn’t give me quite the sweat I wanted, so I stayed around and did the next class, “Body Pump.”  This is the strength training class that I was most used to, so getting back into it was easy enough, but I just couldn’t quite figure out the best weights to use since I haven’t really worked out with weights in quite a while.

Once I finished that class, there was a thirty minute “CX Work” class that the Body Pump instructor suggested that people stick around for.  Hey, why not.  And I’m glad I did.  We used weight plates and tubes to do a variety of challenging core exercises.  My core is particularly weak, especially when it comes to sit ups and what not, so this class definitely kicked my butt.  But like I said, I’m glad I did it.  Now only if I can convince Lisa to join me one day.  But for now, I’ll bask in the satisfaction that I am finally healthy enough to actually work out and get my body moving!

We spent Saturday night enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of downtown Portland.

Dinner at DarSalam

Cuisine of Iraq, in a very cool space

Curried Cauliflower and beef kabobs

Shopping inside Pioneer Place Mall

The old Courthouse

9th annual Season of Lights concert inside First Congregational Church. We were moved by the song "Always Have A Song to Sing" performed by an older couple with memory loss.

We finished our stroll at the 10th Anniversary Party of the Living Room Theater