Gridley Vacations

Cathi's Birthday Marathon Vacation

2011-08-29T13:21:00.000-07:00

Last year I surprised Cathi with a trip to Ashton, ID and West Yellowstone and signed her up for the Mesa Falls Marathon. We had such a great time that I decided earlier this year that we would do it again!

Check out Lucy's face. She's interested,
but doesn't want to investigate
very closely. Especially with Austin
in control of it.

Thursday, August 25th
So we left on Thursday morning, and drove straight to Hebgen Lake, just north of West Yellowstone. Last year I swam one lap of across the lake and back. I did this last year in really windy and choppy conditions and at the time didn't feel all that safe. This year, we packed two kayaks and I also have a Swim Safety Device that I used. I had planned to swim two laps of across the lake and back (A total of 3 miles). As soon as we got to the beach, Austin had already found a very cool thing of interest: A Grasshopper with some sort of a spike sticking out of it's rear. I've never seen such a thing! It was probably two inches long and looked freaky! Everyone kept their distance and Austin had it on a extra T-shirt. He wouldn't even touch it with his hands.

Lucy was eager to try the kayak and this was her first time paddling by herself. I was totally amazed at how fast she picked up the technique and was able to keep up with me the whole time and stayed right by my side. Now I have a third support paddler in the family! I swam directly to the other side of the lake, offered Lucy a drink from my waterbottle that was stowed in my SSD. She was glad cause she was thirsty. Then I swam back and told her I would race her. She was ahead of me about 10 feet most of the way and then somehow lost focus and started to turn sharply left and I had caught up by the time she corrected her bearings.

When we arrived on the other side where the kids and Cathi were playing at the beach I beat her by about 25 yards. She complained of a blister of her hand so I had Cathi take her place for the second lap. I had Austin and Lucy babysit and keep a very close eye on the little ones and told them all to stay in water that was no higher than their knees. The wind was non existent this year and I trusted Austin, Jacob and Lucy to keep an eye on them. They did great. The kids just played in the shallows and actually found a couple of crayfish hiding under a log. They emptied out my large accessory case and filled it with water and used it as a fish tank for their new friends.

One of the Crayfish that Jacob caught.

Cathi paddled to the other side and a couple of waterskiers sped past a few hundred yards ahead of us. Last year there was only one boat because of the chop, but this year with it being pretty smooth out there it was a good move to have the kayaks. Just a couple weeks ago, Cathi sent me an article about a swimmer who was ran over by a boat out at pineview. She died on the scene and the boaters stopped to see if she was OK, but got scared and left her there to die. Here's that sad story. Many lakes and reservoirs have too many boaters for swimming safely, even with an SSD. But with a kayak, it's much safer. Cathi stayed close to me and the boaters were well aware of us. This lap was fun. I enjoyed breathing to the side and seeing my sweet lover off to the side of me paddling. She was so cute wearing her humongous sun hat with her fair white skin. She's such a beauty! It made me smile seeing her next to me.

When we arrived back to the shore with the kids, some serious clouds arrived and there was some thunder and lightning off in the distance. We quickly got our stuff together and headed back to our camp site (Baker's Hole campground) just north of West Yellowstone. We set up our tents and got changed. On the way in to the campsite there were signs up all over the place about bears and how they often frequent the camp. It reminded me of the Scout camp this summer. There were bear boxes for storing food. I was quite a bit more worried with this situation than with the scouts. The scouts I can explain the importance of not having food in the tent, but with little kids, they just don't get it. We had the discussion and I made sure that they didn't take ANYTHING in to the tent except what I had personally inspected.

We quickly changed into dry clothes and went directly to the Playmill Theatre where we had tickets to see the musical, "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat". The kids had a ball! It was very well done and very entertaining. Very expensive though! We were on the second row and Oliver got to dance with one of the girls during one of the scenes.
By the time the musical ended, it was past 8 o'clock and everyone was starving!

We went to a pizza place and ordered a few pizzas. It was delicious, but just like the musical, way overpriced. But that's how vacations go in tourist towns I guess. It was funny how they put us all in a separate little nook in the restaurant. I think they wanted to ensure that the other guests wouldn't be disturbed with all the kids. They were all very well behaved and I was proud of how non-disruptive we all were, but still had a good time together.

Joey is dumping all of his junk UNO
cards on Austin and everyone is
loving it!

Austin has enough of getting picked
on by Joey.

We then went to our campsite and it was pitch black outside at this point. I was so glad we had already setup the tents and got settled beforehand. We took our electric lantern into the big tent and played UNO for about an hour. The kids all had a blast! Jonas really enjoyed giving Austin Draw 4's and Skips. I could tell Cathi was burning this image into her mind and she took a ton of pictures of us playing games. It was very fun mostly because Austin was having fun. Typically teenagers don't like hanging out with their family, but Austin was really getting into this vacation and so far up to this point was really acting like a member of the family. This was turning into a perfect dream vacation!

We turned off the light and I attempted to tell everyone a scary story. It didn't go so well. I was getting really sleepy (I was the driver today and everyone was napping at various times so they were all still pretty alert) and the story that I was ad libing was turning into a disaster. Austin took over. I was out like a light. I woke up to a sound of pounding. I checked my watch: 1:30am. The pounding was coming from the bear boxes about 20 yards away. There were several other campers in the area and they may have used their own bear boxes. I could hear them being thumped on. You might ask, How do you know? I spent a week opening and closing those boxes at scout camp for lazy scouts and I know the sound they make. So either we had bears in camp, or some other campers were playing a very sick joke on everyone else. I was envisioning huge grizzlies in the area and them getting frustrated with the lack of access to yummy food, and opting for a young child inside a paper thin walled tent. I was mortified. I couldn't sleep! Jacob and Oliver were in the tent right next to us. I wasn't about to overreact though and get up and try to move anyone so I propped my head up on my pillow and my ears were on high alert! If any noise came whatsoever near our tent, I would be up and talking loudly trying to let the bear know that he was dealing with some alert people around and hopefully that would spook him. My heart rate was probably double the rest of the evening. I kept checking my watch and found that only 10-15 minutes had elapsed and I was praying this whole time for morning to come. That was probably the longest night of my life. I did manage to get probably an hour of sleep within those 5 hours of waiting for the sun to come up. Come 6:30am I was very glad when the sun came up and I didn't have to worry about anything bad happening in the night.

Friday, August 26th

When we woke up we all sang Happy Birthday to Cathi and Sam and I gave her a birthday kiss. Our plan for the day was to just head down to Ashton and check in to our campground down there and enjoy the day. On our way down I decided to take the family up to Sawtell peak. This can be seen from miles around because it has a big ball on top of the mountain. It used to be white, but now it is painted dark silver. It almost looks like a UFO on top of the mountain as you get closer to it. The road leading to the peak is on a very rough dirt/gravel road. It's very bumpy, and very steep as you get to the top. There are a bunch of switch backs on the road and as you get to the top, you can see off to the road the huge dropoff. There are no barriers on the side of the road and one moment of not paying attention, you can fall off the edge and that would not be good. I had both hands on the wheel at all times and was going at a very safe speed. The kids were amazed at how high we were. You could see for miles.

When we got to the top we walked around the edges and took pictures. They talked about this experience for a few days so they were really impressed. We drove back down to the highway and made our way to Ashton.

When we arrived at Jessen's Campground we setup the tents and Cathi was very kind enough to let me take a nap in the tent while the kids played in the small stream next to the campsite. Austin and Jacob took the kayaks and were going down the stream with it, getting out and then walking them back upstream some hundred yards or so and doing it all over again. They all had fun and I was catching up on some much needed Zzzz.

View Larger Map

When I woke up I was eager to get a swim in, so we headed to Warm River Campground Road, where there is easy access to a slow moving river that is only a couple feet deep. We took the kayaks and took turns letting 3-4 kids take the two kayaks downstream where I would go pick them up about a 1/2 mile downstream. They were in view nearly the whole time, and Austin, Jacob, Cathi or myself went on every trip. Everyone wore a PFD. We did about a dozen of these trips and they all had a blast! It was getting later in the afternoon and I still had not had a swim yet. So I convinced everyone to take a break and let me swim in place at the pick up point. The water was moving fast enough that I could swim upstream and nearly stay in one place. It was a little slower than my pace, so every couple minutes I'd stop and float back downstream to where Cathi had setup a chair and was watching while the kids explored near the shore.

I measured the temperature of the water because it felt cold, sure enough it was only 61 degrees. That's cold considering I've been swimming in 70+ degree water over the summer in the valley. I got in up to my waist, but was hesitant to get my upper body under the water. I had lost my cold water acclimatization at this point. But once I got in fully, I was fine. I swam for about 10-15 minutes when I noticed a couple fish just ahead of me upstream in the water. I yelled out to Jacob, "There's fish in here!" He was in the water within a few seconds with goggles trying to find them.

Can you find the three fish that are
in this picture?

I kept swimming and also was enjoying trying to take pictures with my underwater camera of them. Unfortunately not many of them really turned out. The camera is a fish eye lens so you really have to get close to the subject of the picture for it to come out clear. You just have to be there to experience it. It is really unreal! I tried several times to touch the dozens of fish that I saw, but only got within 6 inches. I was in the water for 40 minutes, and the sun was started to hide behind a big tree. I was getting a little cold, and to be honest not getting that much of a workout. The water just wasn't moving fast enough and I was spending just as much time floating downstream to my sweet spot, than I was swimming upstream. The kids were throwing rocks and some were getting awfully close to me, so I decided 1 mile of swimming upstream (my average mile is just under 30 minutes, so 40 minutes should be a conservative guess at 1 mile) was good enough.

What I look like to a fish in the water.
Scary!

We then went back to camp and started a fire. We had tinfoil dinners. They were delicious. The kids all found sticks to carve points on for S'mores. I had two pocket knives and taught Jonas and Isaac how to carve with a knife safely. Jacob was there to make sure they kept everyone out of their "Blood Circle". There were some other campers nearby and Isaac started walking timidly over to them. Cathi mentioned "Isaac's got my genes". He invited them to come over for S'mores. There were two retired couples there who were touring the western US and was heading up to Yellowstone.

That night I slept SO MUCH BETTER knowing that we were far from bear territory. However I did set the alarm for 4am to take Cathi to her Marathon pickup. She woke me up around 1am and said she wasn't feeling well. I put my hand under her shirt on her back and she was HOT! I would guess she was over 100°. Cathi's not one for taking medicine, but I commanded her to take four ibuprofen which is good fore reducing fevers. She only gave in enough to take two. I gave her a blessing.

Cathi high-fives her support crew!

Saturday, August 27th
When the alarm went off at 4am, I felt her again, no fever. She said she felt much better and got her shoes on and ready to go. What a miracle! After that point, she never got that fever back again and she felt fine. Fortunately it was only a couple minutes to the school where the buses were all waiting. I went back to camp and fell asleep for 4 more hours. We woke up and the kids were really helpful in tearing down camp. We went out to cheer for Cathi. Mile 17-18 is uphill. I told Cathi we'd meet here there. She was over 30 minutes late. I was worried that she had given up and had taken one of the four wheeler escorts to the finish, or that she was really sick and was way behind. We finally saw her and apparently she wasn't sick. But had a small accident with her bowels only two miles into it. When that happens, chaffing is a real issue. That was the cause of her slowdown.

Oliver, Isaac and Jonas finish the
race with Mom!

Austin decided he was going to run with her for moral support. I thought he'd last maybe 1/4-1/2 mile at the most. That boy ran uphill with her for about 2 miles! He was awesome and Cathi was picking up her pace. Then at Mile 22 Jacob jumped out and and ran the rest of the way with her. I took the kids to the finish and waited. I had them positioned about 100 yards from the finish line ready to run the rest of the way in to the finish with her. She finished just under 5 hours. It actually was a miracle she finished.

She is a real example of determination! She had a major issue right from the start and stuck with it and finished! We were so proud of her!

We picked up some lunch and headed home. She stayed in the backseat laying down the whole time. She slept probably 80% of the time home from Ashton. I picked up a few 1 lb bags of M&Ms and we played texas hold'em the whole way home with everyone starting out with an equal amount of M&Ms. Austin ended up with them all by the time we got home. That kid has spent WAY too much time learning how to play online and has become a real expert at knowing when to fold and when to play. It was fun and everyone enjoyed the drive home which went so much faster than on the way up.

Here's a slideshow of all the pictures from our trip. Click the image to go to the site and see the pictures in full size, and see the caption that goes with the pictures. What a fantastic birthday it was for Cathi and a wonderful family vacation!

Spring Break trip to Moab

2011-04-09T17:20:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday afternoon, Cathi pulled up in the van at my work with all the kids and the trailer all loaded up with the Kayak. We drove to Moab and played games along the way. One where we earned points for spotting things along the side of the road such as:

Fedex truck - 3 points
Tree Trailered diesel - 3 points
Out of state License plate - 1 point
Motorcyclist - 1 point
Horseback rider - 2 points
Policeman - 1 point
Car broken down on side of road - 2 points
Schoolbus with kids in it - 3 points
and more... you get the point.

The kids had fun, but Cathi (who was also driving for most of the drive down), was really racking in the points and was winning! That troubled me. The driver shouldn't be winning a "spot it" game. They should be focused on the road! She was highly entertained.

When we got to our camp, it was 9:30 so we had to set up camp by lantern light. In the morning, the kids immediately wanted to go fishing, so we went down there and tried to catch something for the longest time! The sun was out and there were only a few small white clouds. It was a little breezy, but nothing major. I decided to hold off on my swim for the afternoon where it might be a little warmer. Waiting was a big mistake because it only got worse and cloudy, and more windy.

We made a fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner. It was good. We had a good time. When we went to bed, the wind had really picked up and it was really violent. In fact, I put water on the fire before going to bed, but a couple hours later it had restarted and half a log was on fire out of the firepit. I dumped alot more water on it and spread it out and that did it. Before going to bed I had tied the tend poles in three different sections to a post and that made the difference in our tent staying up all night (although it shook like crazy). I personally was a little worried that our tent and all of us inside would be blown away in a tornado it was that crazy! The next morning we had to really be careful when eating cereal not to have our bowls and cereal boxes get blown away.

Cathi mentioned the idea of going home early. We really came down for the marathon which she was going to do on Saturday. Going home on a Friday meant that we would miss her marathon. I suggested that instead we check her into a hotel and have her hook up with a couple of her running buddies that were also coming down for the marathon. She did that and stayed in a hostel where she had her very own tiny cabin to stay in. She walked to town to get her packet and then did some shopping on the way back. I'm sure she enjoyed the peace and quiet while I on the other hand had 7 rough kids to deal with on the way home and back at home.

Actually it went quite well at home. We all worked really hard for several hours to unpack, get the house cleaned well, and then celebrated Jonas' birthday at Classic skating. We had alot of fun! I also was able to get in a really long swim on Saturday morning which I didn't expect, so that was really nice!

Cathi called in and told me that she did her race in 4:20. She had to deal with a bit of wind at the end of the race, and also forgot her mp3 player so she instead carried on conversations with runners and so she wasn't in it to really push herself. She had a good time and we're going to think twice before going on a spring break vacation that involves camping. It's just too risky in counting on decent weather. But for the parts that didn't involve getting blown about, it was enjoyable being together and roughing it.

Disney World

2010-01-05T13:27:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, December 27th, 2009 we flew to Orlando for the start of our Disney world vacation. We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort. It was a nice place. They had shuttle buses to take us to any of the major resorts.

On Monday we went to the Magic Kingdom with Aunt Becky and Uncle Ben and Josh, Grandma and Grandpa Low, Cathi, Lucy, Jonas, Isaac, Sam and Oliver. Jacob and Austin went with the older cousins to the Hollywood Studios.

We quickly found the fast pass advantage as it was very busy.

Apparently I didn't document this trip very well, but the pictures are here:

Long 15 mile Run through Falmouth with Cathi - then flying home

2009-04-23T17:05:00.000-07:00

I set the alarm for 7:30am so Cathi and I could go on a long run. The plan was to run 10 miles. We started off south on Gifford towards the beach and took the same route that we did two days ago, but instead of turning back in at 2.6 we kept going and going. We ended up running all the way to Woods hole which was 50 minutes. My GPS went in and out of satellite connection so the actual miles and time was spotty, but I got enough to track it and enter it into mapmyrun.com for getting actual distance. We ended up running back north on a bike path all the way back up to Brick Kiln Road. Then ran back to the hotel via brick kiln road. It was 2:21 of running. That almost doubles my last Personal Record! I don't think running a half marathon on Memorial Day is going to kill me. The distance was great. I felt like a machine and just kept going and going. I took a buzz bite at mile 6 and I think it gave me enough energy to just keep going. I was always about 10 - 100 yards ahead of Cathi the whole time. I turned around a couple times and ran back to her, so the map doesn't include those times. Here's the map of what we did:
Falmouth to Woods Hole Run 4/22/09
Find more Runs in Falmouth, Massachusetts

We then hurried to get our bags packed and loaded. We left the hotel at noon to get to the airport. The GPS that Bill got to go with the car when we picked him up sure has been fantastic. It sure beats having to use mine where it doesn't have the voice commands, and also zooms in when needed. I'm thinking about getting one. It was sure nice to have and made navigating around so easy. When we got to the airport we got settled and were sitting at the terminal 3 hours before the flight leaves.

We had such a wonderful time and so stress free. It has been so fun and such a privilege to run in the Boston Marathon and have my wife run it. She did so good and her parents are so kind in giving us this opportunity which we may never have again. So it has been a memorable vacation and one we will always cherish. Thanks Bill and Roceil!

Now back to normal life......

Another relaxing day in Falmouth

2009-04-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

Today is my "swim" day. Cathi went running this morning while I went to the office and made use of the free wireless internet to do some blogging and catching up on email, etc. Got back and Cathi had run something like 12 miles again. Then we went to go check out the beach for swimmability. It was even more windy and the waves were even crazier than yesterday. We went to a pond, but found that the beach to get in was privately owned and I wasn't feeling comfortable enough to ignore the no trespassing sign. So I made a few calls and found that there is a 25 yard pool at Sandwich High School which is 12 miles North East. I called and found that the lap time is from 6:30 - 8:30 pm so we planned on going there after dinner.

We went back to the hotel and told Bill and Roceil so we went to dinner a little early. We went to Artie's Cafe. It was a family owned restaurant where the parents and two small kids ran the whole thing. The kids were cute as they were trying to be helpful and take responsibility for serving the customers. I order clam chowder which was even better than the chowder at seafood sams. It was delicious and had lots of clams. The chowder at seafood sams I couldn't even taste one clam in it, but the flavor was good, but at Artie's it was perfect! I also order some Shrimp Alfredo pasta dish. It was a little too much for me, but I hate to waste food, so I ended up eating the whole thing. I was so full afterwards.

Bill, Roceil and Cathi again wanted to get some ice cream, so we stopped at the same "Ben and Bill's Chocolate Emporium" that we went to yesterday. Cathi wanted to buy some chocolates as a thank you for the people watching our kids so we walked across the street to the other chocolate place to compare, but the prices were higher so we went back to Ben and Bill's. Bill and Roceil already got their ice cream so I stayed and got in line to buy Cathi's ice cream while she and Roceil went shopping for sweatshirts down the road. I was in a hurry cause it was getting close to 6pm and I wanted to go swim really bad. So I bought the chocolates, and the ice cream for Cathi and met her just in time for her to come out of the sweatshirt shop loaded with goods.

We then dropped off Bill and Roceil at the hotel. Cathi and I then drove to Sandwich High School to go swim. I probably drove too aggressively and scared Cathi a bit. When we got there there was a sign on the door. "Pool Closed. Power Generator Testing. Sorry for the inconvenience". I was irate! I was really looking forward to a good swim today! Nothing was working out. I was pumped with frustration and negativity that I wanted to hit something. On the way home Cathi noticed a gym so we stopped.

They wanted $10 for me to lift. Whatever. I paid it and had one of the best 2 hour lifting sessions of my life. They had so many machines, and a ton of free weights. It was one of the best gyms I've ever been to. I lifted chest, shoulders and back. I didn't want to do anything legs because the plan is to do a long run with Cathi tomorrow. It was a great workout and I know I'm going to be ultra sore tomorrow.

Cathi made a deal with her Dad. This time instead of being focused on weight loss, it was a "no sweets deal". No ice cream, donuts, cake, pie, brownies, cookies, candy, chocolate, fried foods, etc.. Sugar is OK if added to oatmeal, or rice pudding, but the obvious stuff.

Fell asleep to Karate Kid.

Rainy Day in Falmouth

2009-04-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

This morning I got up and ran with Cathi down to the water. We ran this route.
It ended up being 6 miles. It was tough. I then showered and ate some oatmeal while Cathi continued on. She ended up running 15 miles. We then went to get some souvenir shopping. We had quite a few things to get for people who were watching our kids.

Ended up getting alot of shirts. I also picked up a really nice rain coat and a yellow hat to go with it. We then went to Green's Pond where they supposedly rent boats and hopefully go crabbing. It wasn't very far, but when we got there realized
that the kind of boats they rent are yachts, not little motor boats, nor do they supply bait and nets for crabbing. We went to the beach on the way back and
picked up some cool shells and some cool rocks. The wind was going pretty good, but the weather forecast says it will calm down a little better tomorrow with it being really nice on Friday. Hope so, cause tomorrow is my swimming day. We went back to the Hotel and took a "nap". Good times.

Later in the afternoon we all went out to eat at Seafood Sams, on Hwy 28. I
ordered some Clam Chowder and Salmon with rice and veggies. It was nice. We then stopped at a place where they had homemade ice cream. I got a single cone of fat free mint choc chip. It was delicious and sure didn't taste fat free. Came home and fell asleep to "Jaws".

Touring Harvard and Downtown Boston

2009-04-21T22:00:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up at 7:30am and while everyone was still sleeping went on a short run knowing it would really be short. It was a little cold outside and sprinkling off and on a little. It rained pretty bad last night. I did a small loop around Braintree and ended up walking and running about 3.5 miles.

When I got back Cathi was still sleeping and Bill had gone on his own walk. We got dressed and went out for breakfast at a nice little diner. Bill, Roceil and Cathi all gave the waitress great compliments and Cathi was trying to talk the waitress into running for fitness. It was funny how close they were getting to this stranger. I ordered oatmeal with fruit and raisin toast. It was delicious. Then we got on the train for Harvard.

We walked around Harvard square and over to the library building and through the dorms. We saw people rowing in the Charles River. We then walked over to the place where Bill and Roceil stayed when they were here going to Grad School. It was alot of walking. We went back to Downtown Crossing and took a "Duck Tour". This was a large bus type vehicle with a propeller in the back which converted into a boat. It was very cool. The driver told us about all the famous places and a history of the city, but there was so much to take in that I forgot most of it and it was trivial stuff anyway.

The most interesting thing he said was that there was a huge tank many years ago that stored molasses. The guys who designed the tank didn't do a very good job with the design and when it got hot it built up a huge amount of pressure and the tank blew up and it was a huge blast and made a massive mess. There was molasses everywhere.

The locals here recently had some scary stuff happen. A student from Boston University was just caught this week in connection with a couple of murders of prostitutes. Well that was big in the news this week where this guy was caught and charged with the murders.

After that we went to a huge mall downtown and went to a fast food place where I got the best salad! It really hit the spot. Cathi bought about 4 more cookies including the one that came with the meal. I also gave her mine, so she had plenty to snack on. She's going to need a deal at the rate she's going, but she's on vacation and she just ran a marathon so I'm not going to give her grief.

We made our way back to Braintree after which we then drove the car which we left at the Motel 6, down to Falmouth.

We then went to bed.

Running the Boston Marathon

2009-04-20T23:59:00.000-07:00

We got on the train at 6:10am and started our way up to Park St.

I transferred over to the Green line and went another 7 miles to Newton Center. I walked up about 1/2 mile from the station to Commonwealth Drive where the route was. It was like a ghost town. I could see the barriers on the side of the road ready to get setup, but nobody there. I was there 5 hours early though. The first runners wouldn't get to Mile 19 until probably 11 am. I walked up to the top of heartbreak hill. It was about a 2 something % grade so it wasn't terribly steep and only about a 1/2 mile long. Then I walked back down and continued on to mile 19 and found that Heartbreak consists of really two hills.

From Boston

It starts at mile 19 at Walnut Street where the John Kelley statue is. There is a hill that lasts about a 1/4 mile, then it flattens out for almost a mile, then another hill that lasts about a 1/2 mile. But after that its all downhill.

From Boston

While waiting for Cathi at mile 19, I froze my butt off! The wind wasn't going too fast, but it was cold and really chilled me. There was a concession stand right there and while waiting for her to get there over the next 4 hours I must have bought 5 cups of hot chocolate. It was cold! I started getting text updates of her race and she was running a high 9 minute mile. That would get her here at about 1:45.

When I got the 30K text update (18.6 miles) I knew she would be there any minute. I started stretching at 1:30 and by the time I finished stretching the text came. I started looking for her brown shirt and saw her far off. I took video of her when we met. You can see it below.

From Boston

We ran up Heartbreak hill at a good pace and were passing people left and right. I felt guilty getting cheered on by all the spectators. I tried to zone them out cause they should direct their cheering for the real marathoners, not me, as a phony. I tried to be the carrot dangling in front of Cathi.

From Boston

I tried to keep in front of her just enough to push her, instead of being behind her. It was too crowded to run side by side for long. So I tried to pave a path for her to follow as we went in and around people.

From Boston

When we got to Mile 24 I texted to Roceil and she called saying they would be on the left side of the road at mile 25. I also took video when we saw them.

From Boston

I was planning on bailing out of the race when we saw Mom and Dad, but Cathi told me to just stay with her a little longer. So I stayed with her until 26. I found a small place to jump over the barrier and so I gave her a pat on the back and she continued on. Within a minute I got the last text message saying she just finished with a time of 4:10:31
Click the picture below to see video highlights.

She did so good and her pace kept improving throughout the entire race. Heartbreak Hill wasn't an issue at all for her. She's a tough lady and I'm proud of her. After the race I walked up to Boston Common where I thought the reunion would be, but no signs were up there and Bill and Roceil found the meeting place. They found her and eventually we met up. One thing I noticed is that they could have done a much better job with signage. They could have put signs up showing were to meet runners after they finished.

Anyhow we finally met up and then caught the train back to Braintree where Cathi showered at the Motel. I had made reservations for dinner at Plaza III, a steakouse at South Market at Fenueil Hall. It was a nice 3 course meal that was quite fancy. I saw an opportunity to buy Cathi one of those nice Boston Marathon runners jackets so I went over and bought one for her after we were seated. I had flowers delivered to our table and that was a surprise for her.
It was a very romantic evening and very enjoyable. It started to rain and were were prepared with umbrellas and walked through downtown Boston for a bit. We then went back to the motel for one more night in Braintree.

Staying in Falmouth, MA

2009-04-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

Cathi, Roceil and I arrived in Boston at 4:00 pm yesterday and drove down to Falmouth where we are staying at Briarwood. With the help of the GPS, it wasn't too tough to find.

We went to church this morning to the Cape Cod Branch and there were about 30 people there. It was nice to visit a small branch where the people seem so familiar with each other and tight knit.

Afterwards we went back to the resort. We discussed our options with Bill and decided to find a place closer to Boston so we didn't have to drive so far so early in the morning on Monday for Cathi's Marathon. So I quickly went over to the office and connected to the wireless internet and found a Motel 6 right next to the Braintree station which takes right in to the race. It was a great deal and worked out great.

We began the drive back to pick up Bill who stayed in SLC on Saturday to participate in Bill Jr's last thing for his Masters Degree. We picked up Bill and he decided to get the GPS that has voice commands. At first I thought it would just be as good as mine. But those voice commands, and the display how it zooms in when necessary and puts in arrows and turns sure was nice and made it much easier than mine. OK so I'm hooked. We drove down to the Motel 6 where we stayed and went to Chili's for dinner.

I'm eating healthy on this trip. I don't want to go back home and see that I've gained 10 pounds.

During our dinner at Chili's I told Roceil that I was setup to get text updated on my phone when Cathi reached 10K, 1/2 Marathon, 30K and finish. She was interested so I set her up to get the updates on her phone as well as how she could text people and receive texts. She tried it out by sending Bill Jr and text message. Bill responded and she send back a response which was just a blank message. We got a good laugh. Cathi and her were texting people a few times that night. Sheesh! Newbies!

We got back to the motel and Cathi started getting ready for the next morning. Braintree station to Park St Station is about 30 minutes and the buses leave Boston Common near the finish line for the Starting line from 6:45 - 7:30 so we planned on getting up there at 7:00 am.

Leaving for Paradise

2009-04-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Cathi had arranged all the kids clothes out so we could leave early Sunday morning. We got to my Mom's house and she took us to the airport. We checked out 4 bags and breezed through security. A couple days ago some guy tried to ignite a bomb on his leg and ended up setting himself on fire. So security has been vamped up a little, but nothing that has been noticeably more time consuming. Getting all the kids through went smoother than I thought.

We met at the gate about 1.5 hours before the flight so we had plenty of time. Meg and Steve were there. Our flight was at 10 am. The flight went well and we were in Florida at 5pm. We got to our resort and unloaded our stuff. By that time it was 9pm and I was beat. Went right to bed and slept great.

Last Day in Prague

2008-05-05T22:36:00.000-07:00

This morning Bill asked everyone to vote on whether we would travel by bus to Carlsbad which would be several hours on the bus, or to stay in Prague and do a river cruise and do our own thing. We all voted to stay and relax and separate for the day.

We did a one hour river cruise on the Moldova river and it was relaxing. I took some video of it here. The river was dirtier than the Danube in Budapest. Before the cruise Cathi and I went running. There was a rat next to a dumpster which was next to the sidewalk. It was a pretty goodsize rat. When I first saw it I was running about 15 feet in front of Cathi. We just came right up on it. It didn't look dead at first, but when it didn't move when I ran near it, I knew it was dead. Once I passed it I said in my head, "One One thousand, Two - One thousand" and then I heard Cathi scream out as she jumped over it. We did that block several times (St Charles Bridge around to the hotel and back around) and I made sure to get video of Cathi approaching it again. Sorry about the poor video quality, but here it is. I ran 6 miles according to the GPS, but Cathi kept going and she ran 12 miles.

One thing we noticed is that Vonda waited for the boat to leave the dock before going back to her hotel. She is very professional and concerned about the safety and enjoyment of our party. Everyone is growing fond of her.

After the cruise Cathi and I went down the St. Charles Bridge, which we crossed several times earlier in the day on our run. But now it was crowded with vendors selling magnets, post cards, bracelets, art, and other 'junk'. Cathi bought a few more magnets. Then we agreed to rent a rowboat down the river towards the hotel. That was alot of fun! I wanted to work up a sweat rowing so we decided to rent it for an hour and go around the small island in the middle of the river. Here is some video of me rowing with Cathi providing some discussion. Here is some video of Cathi rowing with my own dialogue. During the row, Cathi was getting frisky. She was extra "randy" in Prague and we had quite the time reliving our honeymoon if you know what I mean. Very good memory. I had to keep pushing Cathi off me cause she was making a scene and people were watching!

We went back to the hotel and enjoyed each other for a couple of hours and took a nap before going to dinner. Since the group disbursed everyone was supposed to take care of their own lunch. Cathi and I just fasted since we would eat a nice dinner in the hotel that night. Before going down for dinner I did a timed session of pushups. I did 89 pushups in 1 minute. One day I would like to do 100 in a minue.

We met downstairs on the main floor of the hotel for dinner. The dinner was very fancy! It was fantastic. After dinner Cathi, Becky, Bill and I walked 4 blocks to the Tessco. I bought some candy bars for Sylaja, David and Trevor at work.

We came back to the hotel and went to bed. We leave tomorrow for the USA. We miss the kids terribly and are eager to see them.

We had a great vacation! So many things to see. Just like all vacations I've had, it went too fast!

Full Day touring Prague

2008-05-04T23:47:00.000-07:00

No church today. Scott and Kris got the address but it was about 45 minutes to get there. Scott slept in and stayed in the hotel rather than join the rest of us to tour. We met “Katrina” who was our local Czech guide. We toured the Castle district, where the Defenestration of a couple of Hungarian policians were. We walked through some old building and my favorite was the Golden Lane. We were given 30 minutes to stroll and shop on our own. Cathi and I went into an armory which was fantastic. She quickly left me alone and went with the girls. I walked through this building which appeared to be an old castle. Inside was all sorts of armor and weapons that were simply amazing. You could buy some of it, but it was really expensive ($600 - $10,000) depending on what you were looking at). I could have stayed in there for hours, so much cool armor! But I had to hurry back to the meeting place. Check out the full photo album here.

At the meeting place off to the side was an old dungeon and execution place. There was a sculpture of a guy kneeling down with a huge skull on his back. We waited at the wall next to the sculpture for the women to finish their shopping. Katrina gave us the “30 minute limit” to enable us to better stay on schedule for the tour. However Cathi, Becky and Roceil were stuck browsing and buying "junk" as Bill would tease them with. They ran out of money and had to go convince Bill to hand over his American Express. He did reluctantly ( or playfully) while they spent an additional 15 minutes getting some manger scenes for everyone. Katrina was obviously annoyed at the delay.

We continued on and had lunch in a nice restaurant. They served all sorts of cheese and roles, with cole slaw. Bill Jr seems to constantly turn his nose up at nearly half the stuff placed in front of him. Bill Sr. offered Bill Jr $100 to eat a slice of bleu cheese. My heck how tough is that! He ended up doing it only after taking a tiny nibble and then taking a bite of a roll or drinking some water. That made me laugh. Michele was trying to get a similar deal for a picture which was for sale on the wall, but Bill ran out of cash.

When desert came around everyone gobbled it down, in fact Cathi ate mine as well as somebody else’s who was trying to watch the deserts. Vonda cracked me up when she pointed out to Bill, “Hungry enough to eat the whole desert though huh?” Busted!

We continued touring and saw many buildings along the Moldova river. One of the most spectacular buildings was the Cathedral. I took a ton of pictures of it. The details outside were unbelievable! You need to check out the full photo album of Prague here.

We stopped at the Old Town Square were there was an astronomical clock. We were there at 20 minutes to the hour and waiting until the clock chimed at the top of the hour. There were figurines of the 12 apostles walking past the windows which opened at the top of the clock. It was built clear back in 1410. (When I got back and talked to Glenn Brown about the trip he told me about the myth about how the clock maker was blinded after making it). Don't know if I believe that. No entry in snopes, but it is definitely not confirmed.)

We then were given about an hour to walk around and shop. I was tired of walking and Cathi was still mad at me for being grumpy. I was grumpy cause I had to use the bathroom, but was unable to find one. So I just walked behind her like and let her look around and shop. She bought some more magnets. On the way back I could take no more. I had to poo so bad! Again, no free bathrooms. So I went into a McDonalds and bought Cathi a McFreeze so I could use the bathroom, but then discovered that they even make customers pay to use the restroom! I was so ticked. I went and got change for a coin and paid. I sat down in the stall and tried to figure out how to use the lock on the stall door. It was different from what I was used to. Nobody else was in there so I decided to just let it go.

That was a mistake because within a minute an old guy with a scruffy beard came in and opened my stall and saw me and quickly shut it and took off. I had to laugh. I be that gave him a good scare. I held the door handle to prevent it from opening until I was done.

When I met up with Cathi we started making our way back to the statue at the old town square. We got lost a little. The signs had the names of things in czech, with a small drawing of the landmark next to it. I recognized the drawing of the astronomical clock and we found our way back just in time to hit the time we were supposed to be there. We walked several blocks to our bus where we met with Zoly. We went back to the hotel and crashed.

For dinner we went to a pub/restaurant called the U Fleku Restaurant. There was an old guy there playing the accordian that sure made the evening fun. Here is some video of that.

Biking along the river in Salzburg and heading to Prague

2008-05-03T23:30:00.000-07:00

Got up at 0630 and rented a couple of bikes down by the river. These were definitely not fast bikes. They didn’t have gears, but came equipped with a very entertaining bell which we noticed is commonplace among bikers here. Yesterday when we were going down an alley, some biker came up behind us in our party and rang the bell so we could get out of the way. Here are a couple of videos of our bike ride -> video 1 and video 2

On the way north on the bikes, I almost ran over a huge snail! I stopped and took a video of it. The smell of the early morning air was misty, cool and the light was perfect. It was one of the best memories of the entire trip. We biked for 4 miles north and then Cathi had to take a pit stop. This was right under the West Autobahn. I took some video of her crouching in the midst of the bushes, but you can’t really see her in the video, she’s camouflaged really well. But she’s definitely in the video. She waved at the camera and smiled even.

We headed back and returned Cathi’s bike. It is free to use the bike for the first hour and then roughly a $1 per hour after that. She proceeded to run south while I biked ahead and turned around and came back to her. Here is some video of her running. I noticed that GPS is whacked! The links with the satellites must not be right because it said I was going 32 mph when I was going no faster than 10 mph. When we finished our bike ride/run which took us about 2 hours, it said we went 88 miles, which would have been great!

When we got back to the hotel we had breakfast in the hotel, which was a breakfast buffet. It was just as good, if not, better than at Peppers! Roceil came in and smiled at me and she obviously was showing me that she had lost one of her teeth. She was pretty humiliated over it. I felt bad for her. They called around to see if they could find a dentist to put it back in, but no luck.
After breakfast we got on the bus to head to Praque. We rode all day long. We talked some about Danny, his friends how have been influenced by him since his death. Some pretty miraculous things have happened to people since Danny died.

When we got to Prague, we stayed in the Riverside Hotel. It is more modern than the Bristol, but I think my favorite hotel so far even though I never thought I’d stay in a nicer place than the Bristol. The Riverside Hotel was about the same in luxury, but more to my style. Here is a video tour of the hotel. Prague seems much more dirty than Budapest and Salzburg. More vandalism, garbage, but more modern. There was a charming little park north of the hotel. We slept so good.

Leave Vienna for Salzburg

2008-05-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

Trained 10 minutes on stationary bike hard and then lifted tris.

Rode to Salzburg and saw tons of “Sound of Music” places. Took lots of pictures.

We are staying at the Hotel Bristol. It is an old building and very nice. Its like staying in a museum. Each room is different and named after different famous people. Cathi and I are in room 240 which is the “Verdi Room” named after Giuseppe Verde (1813-1901). Here is a video tour. There were a couple of plaques on the wall showing what he did. It was in German but I originally thought based on the pictures that he was a playwright or something. Come to find out he is an Italian Opera composer.

The Bristol hotel is so nice! It’s a 5 star place and so far the best hotel. The Marriott’s are nice, but this hotel is so unique and you can feel the history around it. The elevator looks like it was put in at the beginning of the 20th century.

There isn’t a fitness facility or a pool. The Von Trapp kids stayed here in this hotel once. We went on a tour of Salzburg with this very smiley short Blonde girl, “Sabrina”. She took us to the Building where they filmed the dance at the end and Maria and the Captain are out on the balcony. It is the same place where they now store the Veranda. But they locked it so nobody can go inside the glass doors because a while ago some 80 year old lady stumbled and broke her ankle trying to jump from one bench over to the other. Steven said “Leave it to Senior citizens to spoil it for everyone!”

Then we went to the pond where they were in canoes and they tipped over. Next to the pond is the alley where the kids were hanging from trees. Cathi tried to get Steve to climb one of them, but they were very tall and wide. Too big to climb without a ladder. Here is a picture of Cathi trying to get help climbing one.

We walked into one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever seen. I took some video here. I mentioned to Cathi that “This sure puts the [LDS] temples to shame”. The paintings and sculptures where simply awesome. I also realized why so many visitors are surprised when they aren’t allowed to go in the temple. That’s cause the Catholics let anybody go into their Basilicas and Cathedrals to take pictures and treat it like a landmark rather than a real place of worship.

We went to Mozart’s grave. It started to rain and we stopped there under some shelter for a minute. We noticed that there was some construction going on. These guys were putting up a finish line for a marathon which was to start on Sunday. Cathi and I were sure disappointed that we weren’t going to be in Salzburg on Sunday. That would have been fantastic! We took some pictures by a fountain that had horses spitting water out. We then proceeded on to a park where they had a life size chessboard. There was also a huge modern artpiece next to the chessboard of a huge golden ball with a boy on top. Here is some video of it. I had Cathi take a picture of me pretending to hold up the big golden ball.

We proceeded onto the Salzburg graveyard which had some really old graves (and new ones). It was next to a tall flat side of a mountain and there were what appeared to be crypts going into the mountain with gates protecting the crypts from people entering them.

For dinner, Cathi and I ate in the hotel restaurant with everyone else. We dressed up just a bit. I liked when we went on a cruise how there was a “formal night” and liked how you seem to appreciate the fancy stuff, when you dress the part rather than just go eat gourmet stuff in jeans and a t-shirt.

We both had corn and ham soup which was delicious and then for the main dish, some salmon. Went on a stroll through town and window shopped since it was 9pm and everything was closed. Man those boiled wool german jackets are so expensive! So there goes that possibility.

Found a place where Cathi and I could rent bicycles by the river so we will do that tomorrow morning instead of run. Just before going to bed I flipped through the channels and found a live table tennis match going on which appeared to be a major couple of players. I didn’t catch their names, but I recognized one of the main spectators. Not that I know his name though. I’m really not very good and knowing the world class players names/faces. It was fun to see this on TV, like you would see a basketball game in the US. Why can’t the US get with the table tennis program!

Thursday - Vienna tours

2008-05-01T23:59:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up at 0530 and went with Cathi across the street from the Marriott to Stadt Park. We ran laps around the park several times. I took the GPS and went 5 miles running. With short .10m intervals of walking every mile ran. Then I went into the weight room in the Marriott and did:

Tricep Extensions: 4 x 15 @ 30kg
DB Nose Crushers: 4 x 15 @ 12.5kg
Standing Cable Tricep Extensions: 5 x 15 @ 70 lb
Seated Close Grip Cable Pulldowns: 5 x 15 @ 100 lb
Bike: 20 minutes hard
Ab Machine: 4 x 15 @ 50 kg
DB Lateral Raises: 4 x 15 @ 15 kg
Wide Grip Pulldowns: 4 x 15 @ 50 kg
DB Overhead Press: 2 x 15 @ 20 kg

Showered and then had a quick breakfast buffet and met the bus for tour of summer palace of Maria Theresa who was the "Mother in law of all Europe" according to Walter. When he said that Vonda smiled and nodded. Apparently she was "King" of Hungary for a while too. She had children married off to royalty in many other kingdoms. We toured Schönbrunn Palace which was very cool. The gardens were even more impressive to me. Here is some video of the garden with Walter explaining things in the background.

We walked through much of Vienna and saw many places where Mozart performed, lived and died. For lunch we went to a traditional Austrian restaurant. The director of the restaurant looked very local. Good looking guy with a well trimmed mustache and a brown felt-like coat (which is boiled wool and the jacket is a Bavarian Trachten jacket) that had a traditional Austrian look to it. I was thinking that if I could take home one nice souvenir a jacket like that would be it! We walked through many shops later and found that they cost hundreds of EU. Way too much. But here is an ebay link to a store for much cheaper!

Walter took us to all over the place! We went to a unique building which was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The building was designed to be very organic in nature. The roofs were made into gardens. Walter explained that the architect wanted to "rent space to the trees". Some people would ask, how can a tree pay rent? He would answer, the tree pays back in beauty and providing a home to the birds". He wanted the building to be beautiful and not to have any straight lines because the human body doesn't have any straight lines. Here is some video of the building.

We walked past the Vienna city hall. We also walked around a huge Cathedral. Here is some video of Walter explaining details about it.

We ate dinner at another buffet. Lots of meat. Ate no desert.

Swam one mile again and went to bed. We are off to Salzburg tomorrow.

Wednesday - Leaving Budapest for Vienna

2008-04-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

Woke up at 0530 and lifted the following:

Wrist Curls: 5 x 15 @ 10kg
superset with
Cable Reverse Wrist Curls: 5 x 15 @ 6, 5 kg

Tricep Cable Extensions: 5 x 15 @ 41, 46, 50, 55 kg
superset with
Reverse Cable Crossovers: 5 x 15 @ 14, 18 kg

Close Grip Barbell Rows: 5 x 15 @ 30 kg
superset with
DB Shrugs: 5 x 12 @ 20kg

5 minutes Tread Climber
28 minutes Rebumbant Bike

Total time 1:45

Cathi ran while I lifted. Met in the hotel room and got ready for the day. Went down for Breakfast and at lots of fruit.

We started loading up and Cathi was still finishing her breakfast since she came down late. Roceil said something like "We better get Cathi cause we can't load until she's here." I kind of snapped at Roceil and said something like "No we don't, we can go ahead and I'll go get her when we're close to ready to go." My tone wasn't very kind I realized, and I felt guilty. I realized that I was being snippy and was quiet the rest of the day. Several times I've wanted to respond to the negative comments I've overheard, but have kept quiet.

We visited Győr on the way to Austria. Pleasant little place. Didn't see much before we moved on. Noticed that the bathroom visit we had to pay for had a guy taking the change. Then he handed the ladies the towels to wipe their hands. Each of them got two. Becky mentioned that she felt bad that they had to conserve so much and only used one. She sure is a sweet and thoughtful thing!

We stopped at the Benedictine Abbey in Pannonhalma and toured that facility. Very old church which was just like walking into a scene in Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It was very thrilling to be in such an old place with architecture that told volumes of the history. We visited the crypt in the church and the library which had thousands of old books. It was fantastic to see. Here is some video of the library.

We stopped at an old limestone cave near the end of our road trip. The tunnel going to the exit totally reminded me of some of the caves in Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Here is some video of the tunnel which comes out alot darker than in real life, but still very cool.

When we arrived near our hotel in Austria the driver had a hard time getting to the hotel because the GPS wasn't good at showing one way roads so we had to go in a big circle once. Everyone was tired of driving and hungry and lots of mumbling was going on. Becky however didn't say a negative thing the whole trip and was my favorite traveling companion other than Cathi.

When we arrived at our room in the hotel I could smell cigarette smoke, which is a big thing for me. I called the front desk to see if we could get a different room, which they said wasn't possible, but they sent someone up to spray while Cathi and I went to dinner which was a buffet in the hotel restaurant. They had all sorts of stuff. I ate tow full plates of fruit and some salmon, chicken, rice and pasta. There were alot of smokers in the restaurant and I was getting a headache.

I read that the hotel in Vienna had a pool so I decided to quit eating and go swim before it closed. I swam 4 sets of 8 minutes which I'm estimating was at least 500 yards each set. So I swam 2000 yards or so. The pool was only about 12 yards across so I only got three or four good strokes before doing another flip turn.

At 10pm the pool closed and I went to bed. Very tired.

Last Day in Budapest

2008-04-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

I got up at 0515 and lifted the following in the gym:

Military Smith Press: 4 x 10 @50kg, 2 x 10 @60kg, 2 x 8 @70 kg, 2 x 6 @80kg
superset with
Leg up Bench Press: 4 x 15 @ 60kg, 2 x 12 @70kg, 2 x 8 @80kg, 2 x 6 @90kg
and
Ab Crunch Machine: 4 x 15 @ 64kg, 2 x 12 @71kg, 2 x 10 @77kg, 2 x 8 @84kg

Bent Over Cable Flys: 8 x 10 @ 32kg
Floor DB Press: 4 x 10 @ 30kg
Reverse Flys: 10 @ 14kg, 3 x 10 @ 18kg

The whole workout lasted 2 hours. Cathi was out running the whole time and ran 4 times around Margaret Island (20 miles total). She's awesome.

We met Vonda at 0900 to head out to the Lazor Horse Ranch. The horseman wore traditional Hungarian Horseman outfits that would make American cowboys wet their chaps. They looked rather silly, and not very masculine, but that's a difference in culture. They cracked whips loudly in front of the crowd and did lots of tricks with the horses. The show was good, but not a highlight of the trip in my opinion.

After the show we all got in wagons and went on a 10 minute wagon ride. It looked like the ranch people were giving Vonda a hard time for something and made her get out of the wagon she was in. Perhaps she didn't get a ticket or something and they needed room for paying guests. Cathi and I squished together and yelled out for Vonda to jump in and squeeze in with us. She looked over and said in her cute accent, "Are you sure? Is there room?" When we said "Yes, please", her smile melted me. She said during the ride, that she loves the open air and the countryside. What a cute lady! Our whole party was falling in love with Vonda during this trip.

On the wagon, we met a family of three from Adelaide, Australia who were there on a "Holly". They were touring Europe for 6 weeks. That's the life.

After the show we had lunch at the ranch. They brought out huge trays full of various cuts of meat. I pigged out! Again there was gypsie music and alot of singing from Bill which was very entertaining. This meal was a hit with everyone since it had potatoes and alot of meat. Here is a video tour of the group during lunch that Cathi took. I overate a ton.

After the ranch we went to a church out in the boonies which also had a crypt for some famous people and I can just kick myself for not remembering who. But it wasn't really BIG famous people cause it was in the middle of the boonies. Found a nice secluded foresty type area to pee again to avoid getting charged a quarter.

We also toured the Summer palace in Budapest. They had some fancy chocolate cake after the tour as well which I passed up again! Cathi got two. That girl is gonna gain some serious weight! Then again, if I ran 20 miles I could probably eat whatever I wanted too. Went back to the hotel for a 2 hour nap which was much needed!

We then had dinner which involved smaller portions, yet tasty. Can't remember the name of it. Went back to the hotel and packed for tomorrow. We leave for Austria. Sad to leave Budapest! For all the pictures and videos taken in Budapest check this out!

Monday

2008-04-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

Got up at 0500 and ran with Cathi to Margaret Island. The Margaret Island we found out is accessible by going to the Margaret Bridge (which is about 1.5 miles north of the Marriott) and getting on the island halfway across the bridge. It's about 3 miles along the outside of the island is a runners track which is a red trail that is on a rubber mat making for easy running. Along the eastern side of the island are alot of abandoned tennis courts. It was very interesting and made me imagine how crowded and exciting it must have been at one time when they were all filled up with people playing. Here is some video of the eastern side. A majority of the island is like a big park and it was so nice. Definitely a must see for anyone visiting Budapest. Here is more video of the park on the north east side.

The western side of the island had many swimming pools which were empty and also a building which appeared to have old amusement park rides inside. I saw bumper cars in the window of one building. There was also a soccer (football) stadium. I saw a guy sleeping against one of the buildings under some cardboard. Made me wish we had one of the blankets Cathi brought to give him. Here is some video of the empty pools on the west side of the island. I went around the island once and told Cathi I was going to go home. I walked about half the total route. I made it pretty good until half way down the west side of the island (about 4 mile mark) and then lost energy. The whole route I took was 7.5 miles. I took the GPS to track the distance. Cathi went around the island two more times for a total of 12 miles.

Went to breakfast again down at Peppers! This time didn't have any meat, just grains and fruit and yogurt. Still ate a ton though.

We went to Esztergom Basilica today. Here is the google placemark for it. It was beautiful. Vonda told us that Hungary doesn't have any cathedrals, but the next level below that is a Basilica which is what is in Esztergom. There was the most beautiful statue ever there. Here is video of it. When we entered I needed to go, but I didn't have any coins so I was ticked at the "pay to pee" custom at this point. Decided to hold it till I could find a seclusive tree.

We went inside the basilica and it was cold! No lights inside, but enough light to see coming through the windows. The ceiling and organ pipes and art was really great. Here is some video. You can hear Vonda in the background giving us some history. There was so much to take, that it was hard to comprehend it all. More video.

We then walked North of the Basilica to the river and saw the Istvan Statue and the "Danube Bend". On the other side of the bend is Slovakia. Pretty views. Here is some video.

On the way back to the bus, Stephen and I sneaked away from the group and found a private ruin of a building on the north end of the Basilica grounds and took a pee among the broken bottles and rubbish.

We then went to Visegrád for lunch and ate at a "hunting style restaurant". Again more gypsies and more food. Ate a ton. Funny to watch alot of people ask as soon as something is placed in front of them "What is that." Then watch them hesitate to try it. C'mon people, don't ask, or think. Just eat! I can tell you now Vonda wouldn't poison us. The restaurant was nice, even the bathroom was immaculate. Gotta pee in every restaurant cause you never know when you might have to pay to use a yucky one.

After lunch we went to the Visegrad Citadel which was very cool! It was along a cliff where we could see the Danube and I took a bunch of panoramic shots. The citadel is very old castle with cool old armor and weapons. We had some nice chats with Vonda afterwards as we waited for Bill and Shirley. We then got on the bus and went to Szentendre. This place had a museum that had sculptures made out of Chocolate. Actually Marzipan. There was Michael Jackson, fairy tale scenes, etc. Then we walked around the town and did a little shopping. Cathi, Bill and Bill Jr ate some ice cream at shop on the way back to the bus.

Bought some swords/shields for the youngest boys, some magnets for Lucy, a slingshot for Austin, a hidden key box for Jacob, and for me... a Rosenrot T-shirt. I saw Steve with the shirt and about freaked. I panicked cause we had to leave soon and was hoping to quickly go get one. It was 10 yards from the bus!

Zoly drove us back to the hotel, where we freshened up and went to Borkatakomba Restaurant. It was a restaurant in a cave that is a wine cellar. There was some traditional Hungarian dancing going on. I took lots of video. In fact I ran out of space, just as they invited Steve to go up and challenge dance with them. I quickly took Bill and Roceil's camera to video it. I still need to get a copy of it! The girls also let Becky and Michele balance a wine bottle on their head. Good thing they held still, that could've been messy.

After we got back home I went and checked out the weight room at the Marriott. It was really late so I only did one lift.

DB Alternating Curls: 4 x 12 @ 15 kg

Sunday

2008-04-27T23:59:00.000-07:00

Got up @ 7:30am, got ready for church.

Had buffet breakfast down in Peppers! Restaurant and ate sausages, fruit and yogurt, mini pancakes.

Church was all in Hungarian. There was a girl there who would translate but she would whisper so only those immediately around her could hear. I was too far away. There were three speakers. I was rather bored. The music though was cool. Sang High on a Mountain Top and others that I knew, but again it was in Hungarian so I just hummed. A woman behind me tried talking to me in English. She was very smiley and happy, but I couldn't understand her English very well at all so I just smiled back and nodded like a fool. I gave her one of the king size candybars that Cathi brought with her.

We did alot of tours:

The Parliament Building - we ran by this building the night before. We waited shortly outside while Vonda gave us some history of the building. We had a special tour and it was very beautiful inside. There was a model of the building inside, which we were told was made out of matchsticks. Then the stairs going up to the main hall was very extravagant. Here is a video of the model and stairs. We had to go through a security checkpoint and had to wear these bracelet things with a metal tag on it. We went up the Grand Stairwell and took video of the awesome hall. The tour guide said that during WWII the stained glass windows were removed and put in the basement to preserve them from possible bombings. Here is video of the main hall. The video doesn't really represent how magnificent it was. It was breathtaking!

Then we went into the main rotunda where there were lots of "No Flash" signs. Apparently flash on a camera can degrade the quality of certain items. The royal crown of Hungary was displayed. There was a guard there in full traditional uniform as well. Here is some video of the crown, although the lighting was bad, and obviously couldn't use flash to lighten it up. The statues of the kings were around the crown looking at it, except one king who was looking at one of the women. The party behind us had someone who took a picture of the crown, but apparently forgot to turn the flash off and got nasty looks from everyone and the tour guides all said "no flash in this room!"

After we left the rotunda I whispered to Becky and Cathi, "Did you see the cameraman after he took the flash? He jumped!" I told them that the bracelets were to shock anyone taking forbidden flash pictures. They both thought I was serious until I started laughing. Not a bad idea though.

Then we went into the North Wing which was where politicians would vote on things. I can't remember the branch that met here, but the branch of government was disolved (Senate maybe?), and the wing is empty and can actually be rented out for special conferences. Here is video of the voting room..

Then we went to the North East portion of the Northern wing and waited in the Hall for the rest of the tour parties and left. We sat on these old benches in the hall.

When we left the building we had to hand in the bracelet things and some Low people were slow exiting so the party got mixed in with the non-english speaking people. When we left someone from the other party was taking pictures where someone was sitting on top of the old Ice powered Air-Conditioning blocks that were on the grounds outside the building on the North side. After they left, Bill Jr. started walking up there to take pictures when immediately one of the tour hosts tried getting Bill's attention. "Sir, Sir! Hey! You! Halt!" He then yelled at Bill to get him away from the Air Conditioning structure. Back in the day when the Parliament building was built, they didn't have electrical air conditioning, they had to use ice. Which would flow through ducts. The ice was put into these structures that were then lowered down into the ground. Kind of like a well I guess. Anyhow, they're old and I guess not to be climbed on. Too bad he didn't catch the first people though. It is in a pretty part of the garden and I think Bill thought it was a good picture.

Fisherman's Bastion - Cathi and I raced up the stairs. Stephen joined us in the race. There were alot of stairs. Stephen stopped (I think to wait for Cathi) while I finished the last set.
We saw the statue of King Stephen I, and the St. Mathias Church, which had beautiful stained glass windows on it. We took lots of pictures of the city from the towers of the Bastion wall. This album has all the pictures we took from that day. Too many to display here. One thing that we quickly learned is to time your "technical breaks" as Vonda would call it. It is rare to find a free bathroom (or WC, Watercloset). You have to pay a certain amount. So when you are close to having lunch or dinner, or going back to the hotel you get to pee for free.

We had lunch at a good restaurant, Restaurant Fekete Holló. It was goulash in a wheat bread bowl. It was yummy. There were a couple of musicians who played Gypsie music. The guitarist though was terrible. He was strumming like a newbie and didn't sound very experienced. The violinist did great though and quite animated. You can watch some video of the music here.

The violinist took some money out of his pocket and put it in the neck of his violin and gestured towards us that he wanted a tip. That ruined it for me. I realize this is a different culture and people are tipped all over the world, but I wish it weren't so. It would be much more pleasant if money wasn't the driving factor for everything. Bill gave him a tip of course, but many of us didn't have the appropriate currency yet (since it was Sunday) or in my case, didn't have an appropriate amount. I wasn't about to tip him with a huge bill. I needed to get some smaller bills.

Back to the subject of urinating. Cathi got up to use the restroom between courses when all of a sudden I hear her squeal "Oh Becky! Come look at this sign!", and she asked me for the camera and took pictures of the boy/girl bathroom signs.

Liberty monument - we then took the bus to the Liberty Monument and took lots of pictures. Very good view of Pest from that point. Steve and Bill took pictures next to the side statues. The thing about Bill's statue was that the guy is naked so coming from the backside, you see everything and the size of the statue's package is about the size of two softballs. Makes every man feel a little inadequate and question their tiny role in this big universe.

For dinner we ate at the Trófea Grill Restaurant which is a fancy buffet restaurant. It was so good! I ate lots of rice and veggies, Duck thigh, pasta.

When we got back to the hotel I felt so guilty about overeating. I still didn't have any desert although there was a huge desert selection, but I went for thirds on main course. I did 2 sets of 60 pushups and then 100 siteups. Looking forward to long run tomorrow and went to bed early (2100). Will get up at 0500 tomorrow and run with Cathi.

First day in Budapest - Saturday

2008-04-26T23:59:00.000-07:00

We arrived at the airport at 10:45. We met Bill and Roceil and our travel guide, Vonda. She's a very pleasant Hungarian woman who speaks good English with a very charming accent. Which to me sounds Italian.

We went to the Marriott Hotel (Google Earth link) in Budapest and by this time was Saturday around 1 pm.

We freshened up and went to the Great Market Hall in Budapest. We ate at one of the markets there. It's like a huge mall, except the shops are very small. In fact, its more like booths. There were all sorts of trinkets, shirts, Hungarian sourvenirs, etc. One scene that amused me was of George Bush and Osama Bin Laden side by side.

For lunch I ate some Beef Goulash on rice. Cathi went with Katie and Becky while I walked around with Bill Sr and Steve. Katie was hungry, but not enough to eat strange stuff, so her party went to Burger King for lunch. I met up with Cathi and Becky and we walked along the street with shops back to the Hotel. I noticed that both Cathi and Becky both would touch everything that caught their eye and say "So Cute!". A guy would say "cool" and move on. But they would caress the item gently for a second and then move on. Very entertaining watching women shop.

Went back to the hotel and looked for a way to get to the BVSC. The club play according to my email with Club manager, Iván Herendi started at 3:00pm. We asked the front desk at the Marriott about how to get to Szőnyi and he said it was several miles. Cathi asked about the Subway which she noticed on the way back from the Market. He gave us a map and said that Szőnyi was the last stop on the subway. We took it. We bought our tickets from the Marriott gift shop and she told us how to validate the ticket at the stop. Here is video of the subway ride with hungarian announcer in the background. Kind of scary being in a strange land using transportation for locals. Felt safe, but just a little unnerving not understanding the signs, or language.

When Cathi and I arrived there, we followed the map to the BVSC which was only about a half mile from the subway stop. We went to the front entrance of the BVSC which also has a pool and many other facilities. The front desk people didn't speak english and I showed her my email from Ivan and she pointed me to the another building at the other end of the block where I could find the table tennis building. We wound our way through the buildings and noticed signs with a table tennis paddle on it. We found the Table Tennis building and went inside. There were displays of Hungarian Table Tennis players and organizers. Apparently there is a very long history of table tennis in Hungary. Would have loved to learn more about it if it was in English or someone could speak with me.

I played with Australian guy "Chubba". He won two matches and I won one. He was from Sydney and was in an accident and was disabled. He still played great. I tried to buy a shirt with a BVSC logo on it, but they didn't have any, even though I saw a ton of players with them. I guess they either have to earn them, or they ran out.

Chubba and I talked about the Hungarian culture, and table tennis in Hungary for a bit, and then Cathi walked into another portion of the building where a tournament was going on! She told me I should check it out as they were playing at a level she had never seen before. My jaw dropped as I saw these kids play. Many of them were probably in the 2400 rating range. I took lots of video. Great players! You can check out the videos and pictures of BVSC here . The building they were playing in was really old. It reminded me of being in a Medal of Honor Game where the buildings are made of concrete and really plain. Very intriguing though.

Cathi and I made our way back to the subway. There was a bakery on the corner with a display of cookies that made our mouths water. I made a goal when we left to only half half a desert (split it with Cathi) whenever the opportunity arose.

We took the subway back and we ate at Peppers! The restaurant in the Marriott. For Dinner the Menu was:

Terrine of roe deer with mustard fruits and port wine marinated apricots

Star anis spiced carrot cream soup
Lemon-almond marzipan filled chicken breast on sage dressing and vegetable cous cous
Banana-passion fruit charlotte with pepper croquette

I didn't eat desert. I was feeling like I was going to need to be good on this trip. I ate every thing else. I was disappointed in Cathi. She didn't eat much of her main course and ate my desert. I noticed that not many others ate their dinners either. Why pay to go to a fancy restaurant only to be too chicken to eat it? Bill must be shaking his head.

After dinner Cathi and I prepared to go on a run. We ran along the Danube river and passed the Parliament building. Noticed armed guards around it. I took some video of it here. As I was taking video a bicyclist came up from behind me and almost hit me as I was turning around with the camera. Cathi yelled out from behind me "Gordon, Gordon!" Here is the video of that. The path along the Danube was awesome. It wasn't busy and it was nice to see Budapest all lit up. We ran past the Chain Bridge, past the Margaret Bridge and almost to the Arpad Bridge. We ran to this point at Robert Karoly Road, then ran back. The path along the Danube was well lit, the road we ended on was not well lit and we already had run over 3 miles.

Bill told us about Margaret Island but didn't know how to get there. We'll try going there tomorrow. We found out that to get there you have to actually take the Margaret Bridge. Cathi and I checked out the pool. It was only about 12 yards long. Will have to do a hundred laps to get in a decent workout. The weight room though was pretty good.

Today was a fun day!

Flight to Budapest

2008-04-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

Cathi and I woke up early and ran. I had knee problems and ended up walking after only 1/3 mile and Cathi left me ahead. It was really cold outside and I turned around after only .75 miles and came back.

Elayna took us to the Delta terminal and we left with all of Cathi's siblings (Except Becky) for New York. The flight went pretty quick and we met Becky in New York.

We then flew straight from New York to Budapest. During the flight I slept for a few hours and everyone in the party was taking turns taking candid sleeping shots. The flight took us overnight so we tried to get sleep on the plane. We landed in Budapest on Saturday morning around 10:30 am.

Going through customs in Hungary was a piece of cake. There were no forms to fill out, just a guy waving us through with our luggage.

Start of our vacation

2008-04-24T23:59:00.000-07:00

Cathi and I left Austin, Jacob, Lucy and Jonas at home to be watched by Mary Tanner. Isaac and Sam with Rose Mitchell, and Oliver with Jenny Thueson.

Cathi met me really late on Thursday evening at Elayna and Richard's where we spent the night.

Elayna Tivo'd Survivor for us and we enjoyed watching that.