End of day 3…
After the rainy weather on January 8th washed out our plan of the timed mile and a half (darn…) and any other hopes of outdoor activities, we had to keep ourselves busy finding fun things to do around the house (aka the mansion). It was pretty obvious that bumming around was going to be the preferred activity so we watched a movie and played a game introduced to us by Norm, which we like to call “Xtreme Pictionary”. After laughing to the point where our stomachs hurt we hopped in the van and headed to Rosa’s Mexican Food Restaurant.
Boy was that delicious. Two hours, 12 food babies, and four margaritas (for the seniors) later we were back in the van and on our way back to the mansion singing along to the songs chosen by DJ Tara Fay. With a relaxing and fun filled afternoon and evening (Sweeney and Doug were beat 3-1 in pool by Liz and I…) it meant only one thing: tomorrow it was back to business and the dreaded mile and a half had to be completed along with a nice leisurely bike ride…or so we thought.
Day 4… JANUARY 9th. WHAT. A. DAY.
I don’t think there are enough adjectives to describe the events that transpired today, but I’ll give it a try. First we woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed with the timed mile and a half run looming over our heads. Once we finally got ourselves out the door – with plenty of procrastination and a little bit of complaining – we headed over to a neighborhood road scoped out by Tara.
Once there, the run was a breeze. Erika filmed us all on the GoPro and gave us words of encouragement and we were all done within four or five minutes. Yup, basically a bunch of Usain Bolts here…
After killing the timed run we headed back to the mansion and got ready for a bike ride.
We were told this bike ride would be about thirty miles – 15 there, 15 back – with a pit stop at a yummy diner where we would be having our “second breakfast”.
With a quick lesson on bike etiquette, how to start/stop, and where our destination was, we were on our way. Now I’m not going to lie, going into this whole 30 mile bike ride I was not exactly enthusiastic, but I really gained a new appreciation for it and it was actually fun…that is until about mile 18 when the muscle cramping ensued…and little did we know we were still 11 miles away from the diner.
SO, 30 miles later, after getting lost about five times, two flat tires (poor Courtney), a few falls and lots of hungry tummys we FINALLY made it to the diner!
Visions of omelets, bacon, sausage, waffles and French toast danced in our heads as we rolled up to the place Sweeney and Tara had told us so many good things about. Then we saw the sign on the door: CLOSED.
It’s safe to say I’ve never seen so many sad looking college students in my life. Just when we thought we were going to starve to death and be left as food for the Arizona Bark Scorpion, Sweeney and Tara came to the rescue with granola bars and told us there was a vending machine close by! With our stomachs full of Cheez-its, Doritos, Pop Tarts, Twizzlers and any of the other healthy options the vending machine had to offer, we were back on the bikes headed home.
FORTY-NINE miles, another flat tire, a couple more falls, and a lot of muscle cramping later we made it back to the mansion and the only things on our minds were food and the hot tub 
and the AMAZING sunset over the Catalina Mountains.
With a delicious meal of stuffed peppers and steaks on the grill prepared for us by Blaire we were full, tired and ready for a good night sleep.
So there you have it folks; day 4 in paradise was anything and everything but unexciting. But hey, you know what they say: “when in Arizona do as the Arizonans do.”
Love, Marissa & the rest of the XTREME DREAM TEAM