This year’s Wildflower triathlon was by far the best. This was my 4th year attending Wildflower, 3rd year racing, and 2nd year racing the Olympic distance. Meghan, Roxanne, and I drove up Friday night and ran into some of my old friends from the dorms. We ended up camping with them under this awesome huge oak tree. Tisha set us up with some VIP guest passes which allowed us to eat catered breakfast, lunch, and dinner down at the festival area. The food there was amazing. Saturday we hung out in the festival area watching Stilltime play on stage while having a few beers. We checked out the vendor booths and watched the long course and mountain bike course races for a bit. Sunday I raced the Olympic distance course which is a 1.5km open water swim in the lake, 40km bike on the road, and 10km run on road and dirt trails. The course is very challenging since the bike and run courses are both full of hills. I ended up shattering my time from last year by 13 min!

Meghan, Roxanne, and Shaba did the Olympic course as a relay team. Shaba did the swim leg then Roxanne did the bike leg and Meghan finished with the run leg. It was Meghan and Roxanne’s first experience participating in a triathlon and they did great. All in all we had an amazing time at the Wildflower and are already looking forward to next year.

Here’s Garret, Dan, and me after the Calpoly march warmup triathlon. We all did the sprint distance event which is a 700 yard swim, followed by a 14 mile bike, followed by a 5k run. I had a great time and felt pretty good the whole race. The lake water was freezing even with my wet suit. Here are my stats:

Tim held his 6th annual St. Patrick’s potluck at the Ludwick community center again. It was a blast. Lot’s of good and hardy Irish foods and drink. Tom and Ryan made shirts. All in all the craic was brilliant. Above is Gena, Rox, Meghan, and I.

Above is Meghan and I with the newlyweds at Hoscote House in Scotland. Ben and Andrea had the most laid back and low stress wedding. The ceremony was at 11 followed by a catered lunch and dinner. We had a great time staying at Hoscote House and were stoked to be a part of the wedding.

Yesterday most of our group drove up to Edinburgh for sightseeing. Meghan and I already toured Edinburgh for two days and have one more day there this Saturday so we decided to take a day trip to the town of Jedburgh just 11 miles east of us. I’m getting used to driving in the UK now and today was no problem negotiating the roundabouts in Hawick and narrow country roads. In Jedburgh the only main attraction open this time of year is the abbey. Jedburgh abbey is one of the “finest” abbeys in Scotland and I agree because it is the most intact abbey I’ve seen so far. We toured the abbey for a few hours and saw about 4 other people the entire time. It was so nice to take our time and not feel rushed by other tourists. Afterwards we had lunch at the Carters Rest Pub. We then walked around the gardens of the house where Mary, Queen of Scots lived. Unfortunately we couldn’t tour because it doesn’t open until early March. Having some time to kill we saw an ad for a cashmire outlet and walked across town to check it out. The cashmire, while 50% off, was still way expensive. 75 pounds = about $150. To our surprise the cashmire outlet had a whiskey shop with every Scotch imaginable. They had a tasting area and the attendant was very informative about the differences between the various single malt scotches. We tried a few scotches of different age, oak barrels, and distillation. I ended up buying a bottle of Auchentoshan to bring home which the attendant said is a good introductory scotch to start with. Tasting the scotch was strikingly similar to wine tasting and the attendent mentioned he wanted to go to California with his wife to tour the wine country. I recommended Paso Robles which he had never heard of.

We arrived at our lodgings for Ben and Andrea’s wedding safely late last night. Ben and Andrea met us at our B&B in Edinburgh and we went to rent my car just down the street. It was my first time driving in the UK and Ben rented a manual 6-speed Fiat for me to drive. Leaving the car rental we picked up Andrea’s little sister and boyfriend and then went to the airport to get Andrea’s parents and other little sister. Following Ben the airport was hectic. I hit at least two curbs, ran a red light (they’re super short yellow lights), and cut someone off in a roundabout while learning to shift with my left hand and drive of the left side of the road. Oh, and it was dark, pouring rain, and gusting wind. It sure was fun though!

Meghan and I made safely to Scotland. The photo of is of us near Princes St. in Edinburgh with the castle in the background. Our total flight time from SFO to Heathrow to Edinburgh was about 13 and a half hours. Everything went smoothly with our flights. Our luggage made it safe and sound. In Edinburgh we took a shuttle from the airport directly to our bed and breakfast just outside of the city center. Our room wasn’t ready yet but the nice couple who owns the bed and breakfast let us leave our baggage there so we could go explore the city. We walked through Princes St. and then took and audio tour of the Castle. We were both pretty tired towards the end of our audio tour and went back to the B&B for a quick nap. Later that night we had some amazing Indian food at a restaurant just down the street from where we were staying.

Changus came into town for work and  rallied me, Meghan, Rox, Liz, and Marshal to go wine tasting in Paso on Saturday.  I offered to drive since I had a cold and didn’t feel like tasting wine all day. We hit five wineries between 12 and 5:30: Malloy, Minassian - Young, Justin, Opolo, and Grey Wolf.  My favorite was Minassian - Young because of their well priced Zinfandel. At Justin we were able to barrel taste the 2006 Isosoles Zinfandel (see photo above) which wasn’t that impressive.  I think the Isosoles, at $62 a bottle, is overrated. On the way home we stopped at the Cayucos Tavern for a couple games of pool and shuffle board where Meghan and I dominated Changus and Rox.