It is hard to believe...

That school is once again back in full swing! It is already five weeks into the quarter and we are coming up on midterms. Where is the time going?!

September was the best month! Michael and I had a great time in London and the Canary Islands. :) In London, Michael treated us to a two-day hired car tour of the city. We were so lucky to be able to see so much of the city, and experience parts of London that most tourists don't normally go to. For example, we went to St. Katharine Docks and incidentally met some of the local residents who invited us into the private slips to watch a barge race on the Thames while we were sipping coffee and tea! I also found my boat at the docks. :) We rode the London Eye, took a river tour of the Thames to see some of the bridges of London, visited Kensington Gardens, Westminster Abbey, and Windsor Castle. Here we are at St. George's Chapel out at Windsor Castle... What an amazing piece of history and architecture! We should have skipped the London Dungeon, and there were a few things we didn't get to do, but that just leaves us things to do for our next trip to London! :)

From London we flew to Gran Canaria, an island in the Canaries. It was SO amazing! Warm, but not hot and wonderfully relaxing. We packed a lot of activities into our week... Deep-sea dolphin watching (we had to go out 21 km on the ocean before we FINALLY saw them), a driving tour of the island with an awesomely funny tour guide, parasailing, and scuba diving! Here we are at Taurito Beach on our last day. We definitely did not want to leave and have decided that we will return to Gran Canaria again some day!

But, all good things must come to an end and we had to come home. School started again a few days after we came home and my birthday came and went pretty uneventfully.

I started the month of October out with a bang by running the San Jose Rock n' Roll 1/2 Marathon on the 2nd, achieving a PR of 1:45.44! I was pretty stoked considering I had only run 11 miles while on vacation, with no long runs in almost a month. Here I am celebrating the first race of my thirty-fourth year... I am now contemplating which 1/2 marathons I am going to run in 2012. I plan on two a year, but this coming year I may try for three! We'll see how it all works out. :) Other than that, I have been hitting the grind with school and just waiting to find out where I will be headed next... It is hard to believe that in 7 months we will be on the move again. :(

We'll see you again soon!

66HM5 out...