Zumba on the river

While mountain biking and surfing are great workouts, sometimes there are no waves or time to get to the trail. Some of us (Amanda and Haley) resort to Zumba not only as a way to train, but also because it's FUN! Working out can be hard-but dancing is not.
This past weekend was National Dance Day. Amanda, who is now a certified Zumba instructor, had the privilege to join quite a few others, as they surprised innocent bystanders with a 2 song "Flash Mob". They basically showed up downtown by the river front, quietly set up a sound system and boogied for the crowd. Tourists and locals were treated to a killer show of Latin dance and before they could tell what hit them, the girls were gone...
Amanda will be teaching Zumba at the Coastal Tumblegym in Carolina Beach, Wed. Aug 8 and 15, 2012 @ 7pm, filling in for Zumba extraordinaire and her sensei Gina Graziani. Gina will be attending the National Zumba Convention in Florida, learning new moves and getting pumped for another year of fun! Thanks Gina for introducing so many to the wonderful world of Zumba - Eres muy chevere!!

Just a portion of the mob downtown

Some of Amanda's posse from Gina's class

Breakin' in down!

Go Haley!

Amanda's Zumba Instructor training 

Pisgah National Forest/Dupont Mountain Bike trip

So Bike Magazine decided to call our backyard "the new best ever Mountain bike destination in America.." or something along those lines. Funny how once the world acknowledges something we already know, we decide to love it even more...
To celebrate this renewed love we decided to go revisit the area. We spent 1 week in Asheville exploring some new trails as well as revisiting some old ones. The area has grown a lot, but so have the networks of trails. Mountain biking is huge around western North Carolina and the trails have been groomed to incorporate huge amounts of flow and technical features. God's version of a roller coaster, except the price of admission is sweat and sometimes, blood.

Just arrived at cabin

Time for a cool dip in a mountain stream

Fourth of July Marshmallow Roast

Waterfalls

These trails will beat your equipment up.  Lots of fine tuning went on throughout the week. 

  

High elevation hiking, this trail on top of Mt. Mitchell resembles Canadian forests and is the only one of it's kind on the East Coast.  Unfortunately no bikes allowed so we hiked it.  

This bad-boy was the size of my hand...and it had the face of a bunny on it's back!!??!

 

1 week in Pisgah with very little to no injuries, only to come home and hit the wrong tree on a leisurely after work ride...