Laughter is an Instant Vacation

Do you remember this scene from National Lampoon's European Vacation where Audrey is dreaming about her upcoming vacation and all the wonderful foods that she'll eat?

Yep.  One of my fave scenes from that movie.

Audrey and I think so much alike.  

I especially thought this way when I was pre-band...AKA a "fatty."

Yep, that would be me...associating travel or vacation with  FABULOUS  horrible food choices.  

This is not a new struggle for me: VACATION = FOOD.

Speaking of vacations, I've just returned from a trip out of town (barely 48 hours!) to California, shall we discuss?

It was a mixed trip....business and fun.

...And I know that you'd rather hear about the FUN.

I scored an exit row seat on the plane! After reading about the airlines' expectations of me in sitting in this seat, I realized that I am now ACTUALLY fit enough to open and LIFT that 30 lb door hatch. Non-Scale Victory (NSV) alert!

I will totally rescue your ass.
You can count on me when the plane goes down.

Plenty of seat belt to go around me and crossed my legs sitting in the tiny airplane seat. Two more NSVs that never get old:

The next time a Southern Oregonian complains to me about the "traffic" here and how it took them ten whole minutes to go across town, I will show them this picture:

The wonderful thing about traffic is that it allows me time to think about things.

Here's a photo of the radio inside the rental car:

Here are the thoughts and questions that I pondered while sitting in some awesome Bay Area traffic:

• What kind of cats does one put in a "CAT FOLDER"?  
• Could I put Pemberley in this folder? 
• Would she like it in this folder?
• Why doesn't Enterprise Rent A Car wipe down the insides of their cars? Blech."

Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge:

There is not a Whole  Paycheck  Foods in my town so I of course had to hit up the Whole Foods on my visit. I am jealous of anyone who has a Whole Foods in their town.  

As I stood with a really clueless look on my face staring at the HUGE selection of protein bars, a Whole Foods employee walks up and asks: "Can I help you choose a bar?" I responded with "I'm looking for low cal, high protein." He pointed at a 410 calorie (!) bar and said, this one tastes good.  I nodded, thanked him, and DID NOT choose that bar. Yikes.  But I did find this one:

This bar was tasty! 20 proteins! Kinda like a Bit-O-Honey.

Back at the hotel and ready to go:

I never miss a full-length mirror opportunity.
Thank you Sheraton.
I really need to get one of these mirrors at home.

Whoever invented that phrase, "nothings tastes as good as 'thin' feels," never ate at In-N-Out Burger. Seriously.

Got my sweat on and worked out at the hotel gym. I am slowly making friends with Instagram if you haven't noticed:

I even squeezed in a fun visit with my really good friend Amy.  I've told you about Amy before.

Amy is the only person that I know that eats SLOWER than a Bandster (she is not banded, just eats slow naturally).  A rarity.

We had an amazing and delicious lunch and caught up on what's been going on in each others lives.

In the approximate 30 minutes that it took me to eat the insides of a fish taco, she ate half of her salad.

As we were leaving the restaurant later, Amy said to me, "I feel guilty not eating all of my salad and leaving so much on my plate."

I then said something like this to her, "I try not to feel guilty. That's how I know that I haven't eaten too much...when I can leave some food on my plate"

I went on and said "My usual goal with food portions when I eat out is to see if the server, after taking one look at the small amount of food that I ate, says 'Didn't you like your food?' or 'Can I bring you something else instead?'

She just laughed at me and then we walked into the ice cream shop next door.

Yum.

birthday cake with sprinkles flavored ice cream