It's Embassy Open House Time Again! Part 1

Part 1 Last Weekend
First stop - Australia:
In addition to food and wine tasting, they also had several lizards on loan from the National Aquarium (blue tongued skink shown):
And a traditional aborigine teaching how to throw a bomerang:
Second stop - Rwanda:
Iced coffee hit the spot since it was so hot out (yes, it was that hot that I drank coffee!)
Third stop - Columbia:
It was actually the Ambassador's house:
Amazing woodwork:
...in the dining room too:
Cool artwork:
Fourth stop - Indonesia:
Javanese Gamelan:
Beautiful stairway:
Dining room:
Fifth stop - Brazil:
Green and yellow in the flower displays to match the flag:
Sixth stop - Japan
They were giving out tickets to tour the Tea House, but they were all out by the time we arrived. So we got green tea instead:
Seventh stop - Korea
It was actually their Information Services building (and not the embassy):
They had musical instruments on display:
...and other items:
Eighth stop - Dominican Republic:
There wasn't much to see inside, but this window was pretty neat:
Ninth and final stop (shew, after four hours) - Croatia:My friends I went with are already planning their vacation to go to Croatia!

Red Sox Game

When in Rome...
So, we went to a Red Sox game when we were in Boston. Fenway Park!
And we're in!
It wasn't long before the storm rolled in though!We had awesome seats (thanks to the friend of a friend).
Watch the pitcher...
[Did you see where his foot ends up?]

Did I also mention that I love my new camera? I was able to actually get a picture of the ball even though it was going 80-90 mph (see it just left of the catcher's mitt?). Notice that the batter hasn't even started swinging the bat yet...needless to say, this was a strike
The sun eventually came out, kinda. Time to rake the field..."America's Most Beloved Ballpark"...that's right, b/c of Dunkin Donuts!
Okay, so there are lots of famous people on the Tampa Bay Rays team...
Dave Navarro's brother:
Cindy Crawford's brother:
Eva Longria's brother:
hahaha

Boston Marathon

A few weeks ago I headed to Boston to cheer on friends running the Boston Marathon (and also visited other friends along the way). Not to worry, it didn't make me want to run another marathon...but I had a lot of fun! Maybe I can just become a professional cheerer?

Our first cheerleading spot was between mile 7 and 8. Based on the lead runners time, I'm guessing we were about 1/2 way in between...yeah, they were booking it at sub 5:00 minute mile pace.
These are the world's elite afterall: left to right - Cheruiyot (KEN-finished 1st), Kigen (KEN), Hall (USA-4th, and the only white guy in the pack), Merga (ETH-3rd), and somewhere in that pack - Kebede (ETH-2nd), Keflezighi (USA-5th)
They went by so fast, I only got one good picture. There they go...
And here come the rest of the runners...
The road got more and more crowded...
Until it was basically full...
We were in an awesome cheering section - can't beat Santa Claus and his elves!
"Hey Santa, I want a new hip for Christmas!" "Santa, I want to run a 3:40"
Although, our Elmo was quite a big hit too!
Elmo got lots of high-fives!
And one runner even stopped and asked for her picture to be taken with Elmo. Now he's probably somewhere on someone else's blog too... My friend's favorite...the Free Hug people were cheering as well!
We only made it to one other spot, around mile24. Didn't take too many pictures...since I remember how I probably looked at this point in the race. But I thought it bad that the runners had to race the light rail...

My Running Idol

Okay, so I'm way behind in my posts...but wanted to make sure I blogged about this!

A few weeks ago, I got to meet my childhood running idol at the expo for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler - Joan Benoit Samuelson!! She won the first women's Olympic marathon in 1984, and has been the only U.S. woman to do so (to date).
She was supposed to give a talk about childhood obesity, but just had an open Q&A session instead. In answering my question I asked, I learned that she has 3 brothers just like me:) She did mention a great idea about how to help kids who need the most help, by taking the 'jocks' (those who already participate in a sport) out of high school gym classes, since they are already getting exercise elsewhere. That way the other kids won't be intimidated (or even picked on) by the jocks and might actually participate in class, getting much needed physical activity. Then the jocks can do their community service during that time, perhaps restoring running trails.
Meeting Joan (she's signing my race bib)