I’m back home in St. Pete now and I’m in recovery mode. Fitbloggin’ was just as epic as I thought it would be. I was thinking that I would just do a condensed recap of the whole weekend, but then I looked through all the photos and I just wanted to share every second of it. Plus, it’s not like me to leave things out. I’m still uncomfortable with the fact that I didn’t actually blog ALL the photos from our trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in August of 2011. Dang, I still need to do that.

Anyway, I’m barely mobile today and you’ll understand why after I exhaustively blog everything that happened over the past three days. There are also 62 photos from the weekend that I Instagram ‘d, which fairly completely document my weekend. This blog post goes on forever and ever. You’re welcome.

Here was Friday’s agenda: 

As you can see, the first item on the agenda was a 6:00 a.m. yoga class.

If you saw my last blog post about Thursday night, day one of Fitbloggin’ events, you’ll know that many cocktails were consumed the night before, so getting out of bed at 5:30 a.m. to do some form of exercise was fairly painful.

Remind me never to make that face again.

(Click here to read the live-blog from the yoga session on the Fitbloggin’ website.)

But we did it and afterwards I felt much better. There is nothing like a little exercise to clear an alcohol-fogged head. After yoga Maggie and I went back to the room so I could put on a different t-shirt for the next workout. The sun was rising over the inner harbor…

Views from the elevator.

Next up was breakfast.

Endless photos of breakfast:

The Strawberry Whipped Cream Cheese Muesli, made with Weight Watchers cream cheese, was my favorite item from this breakfast.

In addition to Weight Watchers, the other sponsors and vendors were set up in a semi-circle around the buffet tables in an expo every morning and early afternoon. We had a steady supply of delicious Florida grapefruit juice.

My first breakfast. Yes, there were more than one.

McCormick, another sponsor, had all kinds of seasonings on every table in the room where we dined.

The sponsors were all very friendly and had fun give-away items. Sponsor parade:

Next item on the agenda was a Crossfit workout led by Reebok.

I was glad to get to meet Cynthia from It All Changes. She was so nice and fun to talk to.

Before the Crossfit smack-down, including sit-ups and burpees and squats, oh my:

(Click here to read the live-blog of the Crossfit session on the Fitbloggin’ website.)

After the Crossfit session, we took our extremely sweaty selves and breakfast #2…

into a presentation by Refuel with Chocolate Milk, where I met Monica from RunEatRepeat.

She and dietician Nancy Clark talked about how chocolate milk is the perfect post-workout nutrition.

(Click here for the live-blog from the Refuel with Chocolate Milk presentation on the Fitbloggin’ website.)

After breakfast #2 and that presentation, it was time for workout #3. This was a cardio-circuit workout with Cathe Friedrich.

This workout reminded me of old-school aerobics, but with some new-fangled equipment.

It was tough, but fun. Cathe’s energy was amazing.

(Click here for the live-blog from Cathe’s fitness class on the Fitbloggin’ website.)

In the hall, sponsor Eggland’s Best had set up a mid-morning snack for everyone.

We had lots of hard-boiled eggs over the weekend!

Finally, after yoga, Crossfit, and cardio-circuit, the sweating portion of the day was done. Maggie and I went up to our room to take showers and change clothes, then we returned to the conference for a discussion panel on the topic of Self-Acceptance and Weight Loss led by Shauna Reid, Karen Anderson, and Mara Glatzel.

(Click here for the live-blog of the Self-Acceptance discussion on the Fitbloggin’ website.)

There were many heartfelt and tear-jerking testimonials during this discussion. It was pretty overwhelming. Afterwards we drowned our emotions in food, as we are wont to do.

Lunch buffet pics:

My huge lunch:

There were 300 attendees at this conference, plus presenters, vendors/sponsors, and volunteers:

After lunch I attended another discussion panel, this time entitled Blogging – How much is too much? with Monica Olivas and Cynthia Crowsen.

It was a small group and we had an interesting discussion about the perennial blogger’s question of “How Much?” as it relates to both frequency and privacy issues. I am quoted by name in the live-blog several times.

(Click here for the live-blog of the “How much?” session from the Fitbloggin’ site.)

Next Maggie and I decided to skip the rest of the afternoon sessions (truants at heart) and explore some of Baltimore. It was such a gorgeous day and I was thoroughly enjoying Baltimore’s low humidity and cooler temperatures as compared to Florida’s endless summer.

Our hotel was right on the Inner Harbor on the edge of downtown Baltimore. Lots of photos of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor:

Maggie spoke to a local friend of hers who recommended a picturesque walking route for us. We headed towards Federal Hill Park.

Federal Hill was built as a fort in the nineteenth century.

Those army guys built one big hill!

The views of the harbor from atop the hill were amazing.

I took our new Sony Cybershot DSC-RX100 point and shoot on this trip, and 99% of these photos were taken with it. The other 2% were taken with my phone. The Sony has this super cool auto-panoramic stitching feature, which created these amazing photos:

Click on them to see them full-size.

Maggie and I descended the hill and walked back around the harbor towards the Fells Point neighborhood, which her friend said would be very picturesque. She was right. Most of the route was along the water.

When we made it to Fells Point (about a mile an a half total) we sat in a little town square type of park and enjoyed the amazing weather for a little while.

Somebody asked us over the weekend if we were related. Do you think we look alike? Maggie is not my sister, but she is my soul-sister. That is so spiritual creepy and Maggie knows what I mean. She pretty much completely understands me. She knows all of my IRL secrets now. The stuff I don’t blog about. I probably should kill her but I love her too much. With great knowledge comes great responsibility, Maggie.

The square at Fells Point.

Our destination for dinner, as recommended by Maggie’s friend, was Eat Bertha’s Mussels.

Everything in Baltimore feels very colonial. It really reminded me of my one trip to Philadelphia for the NutriSystem photo shoot.

We were a little early for dinner and the restaurant was not very crowded. It had a very neighborhood pub sort of feel and also felt like it held a lot of history.

First order of business…margarita.

We ordered two things off of the specials board to share.

The Spicy Thai Mussels:

Jalapeno crab macaroni and cheese (OMG).

We also ordered a Maryland crab cake to share and each ordered salads.

The spicy Thai mussels were divine. The coconut milk curry sauce was addictive. The crab cake was perfect.

The macaroni and cheese was mind-blowing. Thank you for the recommendation, Maggie’s friend!

After we finished dinner and I finished my second margarita plus a shot, we walked back towards the hotel. Maggie and I both agreed that the second margarita and shot both tasted kind of like rumquila…or rum mixed with tequila…or weird rum…or maybe just really cheap tequila. It tasted funny in other words. I drank it anyway.

We had a mile and a half walk back to the hotel after dinner so I got to walk off some of the seafood and some of the rumquila. The sun was setting between the downtown skyscrapers. What is this called? Maggie said they have a term for it in New York City, but we couldn’t think of it.

See what I’m pointing to below?

South MEEEE Street.

Downtown Baltimore at sunset:

On the way back we realized we were kind of running late to get back before the Fibloggin’ Keynote which was an Ignite Fitness presentation. Maggie made me walk fast.

We realized when we got there that they were running a little late so we had time to go to the bar.

Of course I got another margarita with an extra shot, in other words a double.

In an Ignite presentation, multiple speakers give five minute slide-show presentations on a topic. All of the “sparks” at Fitbloggin’ were related to fitness journeys.

My friend Christie of Average Moms Wear Capes did an excellent presentation on “Couch to Triathlon”. After her spark we headed up to the bar for yet one more cocktail. They pretty much knew us up there by then, both the other barflies and the bartender. I was done with the sugary drinks so I just got a shot of Patron and water.

Yes, I realize that I had consumed a very large amount of alcohol by this point. Stop judging me. I was away from my children and had no where to drive, so shut up.

Christie showed up right behind us, ready for a drink after delivering her successful presentation. I tried to snap a picture of us walking back to the Keynote, but I am a blur. Here’s Christie:

Don’t worry…I have other, better pictures of Christie and me coming up soon.

Click here for the complete Ignite Fitness line-up from the Fitbloggin’ website. They don’t have a recap or videos of the “sparks” up yet, but I’m sure they will soon.

That’s all I have for day two. Was it enough? Days three and four still to come.

Click here for my post about Fitbloggin’ Day 1 (Thursday)

Click here for my post about Fitbloggin’ Day 3 (Saturday)

Click here for my post about Fitbloggin’ Day 4 (Sunday)