3 posts tagged “fun”
I suppose it could be my age, or maybe having kids. Whatever the cause, I'm finding myself eager to try all the things I told myself I would try as I grew up. One of those ambitious goals was set probably 15 years ago when I first went camping in the Columbia Gorge. I'm not even sure if I was in my teenage years yet, but I remember seeing the windsurfers around Hood River and being mesmerized. It was my first time seeing something like that, and it quite clearly showed a version of sailing that didn't strike me as so boring.
At the time then, and all subsequent trips, it just wasn't an option to learn to windsurf. I promptly forgot about my desire to learn how.
Last week, there was a ridiculously overpriced "Spend the Day with Thomas" event at Hood River. It was, as I mentioned, ridiculously overpriced. The benefit of going, aside from my son having a great time outside the expensive train, were two fold. First we consumed delicious ice cream products from Mike's Ice Cream. I also saw a huge group of people windsurfing and kite boarding.
My interest was immediately renewed and I immediately exclaimed my desire to learn how to windsurf. After a brief discussion with my wife, it was agreed upon. I shall learn.
After a google hunt, I have lessons scheduled for the Fourth of July weekend.
My first lesson was on the 4th, starting at 10am. The flags around the learning area clearly showed learning to harness the indefatigable power of the wind would be difficult, considering there was no wind. The dry land simulation worked as well as it could, without any wind a lot of it was made more difficult.
Entering the water I quickly found out how wobbly things are. My experience with snowboarding and slacklining was helpful, but the slipperiness of the board and shape made it difficult to find sure footing. As such, I fell rather frequently in the beginning.
The actual sailing aspect of it was very simple. You either turn upwind or downwind. You sail in a zig-zag line. I could tack effectively, and had at least one successful jibe.
All in all, I feel almost disappointed at how easy it is to understand the mechanics of sailing. It was much easier than expected. I'm at a point where I can understand the technique and what is supposed to be done, and just have to convince my bodily mechanics to make it happen. In other words, it's time for more practice.
So, off I go for day 2. Where I will be practicing jibing and have much stronger winds.
(Of note, I did have one rather "good fall" as the instructor put it. I stepped back and misjudged where my foot was and completely missed the board. The second amusing fall was when I was attempting a jibe, tripped over the mast and caught my foot between the sail and the board as I fell off. Good times)
My in-laws are in from Japan. Japan is an odd place, aside from being so incredibly tiny the average sized American can actually step across in no more than 5 steps they have exacted a sort of "perfect science" to all the motonous things that plague the rest of the world.
For population control, their fans can kill you. They outsource potty training, and have helpful videos to assist foreigners in understanding the culture behind Sushi.
Of the most meticulously cared for schedule, the train system is the benefactor of such planning. On a serious note, conductors have actually committed suicide because of being late. It's that precise, and that strict. It is totally insane, especially from a foreigners point of view. The nice thing is that the trains are on time. They are known. There are no known or unknown unknowns. There is only routine.
Then my in-laws come in. They flew into Seattle to watch a Mariner's game before coming down to see us, and it was decided that Amtrak was the way to do it. Being an American, my idea of a train is something that ships a great deal of hobos from point A to B, makes noise and separates the ghetto from the burbs. I'm still coming around to the idea that people buy tickets to ride trains.
After last night, I'm not sure why they do that.
Amtrak got off to a good start by sending an email out last week notifying us of a schedule change and then following up with a phone call just to be sure that we knew.
The train was to be 30 minutes late.
Last night we get a call from the mother-in-law, informing us that they got on the train but it hasn't actually left Seattle even though it was nearly an hour past departure time. No problem, still plenty of time to get down at a reasonable hour. I pull up the status on their site, and watch it periodically. Most amusingly is this bit at the top:
They show that the train left 57 minutes late. Eventually we get an update that the train will arrive in 37 minutes. Fantastic! 20 minutes shaved off."Trains often make up time en route. In many cases, recovery time that is built in to the schedule may result in the train arriving at or departing from the following stations on time. Please contact Amtrak at 1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245) for full details on arrival status."
We load up in the car, including the little'un since the train is due in at 9:26PM and it isn't too far past his bed time. We arrive at 9:25, and get a phone call from the MIL. Train due in 9:40pm, according to some random lady on the train. Not so bad.
Fast forward to many amusing jokes, criticisms and a whole half hour and the announcer finally says that the train should be arriving in 5 minutes. I make a joke about "should", and she repeats "The train will be arriving in 5 minutes." This is at 10:17.
At 10:22, I make a joke about them not telling us which 5 minutes and there was no guarantee they were contiguous minutes, only that she was specifically speaking of a total of 5 minutes.
At 10:40 it wasn't much of a joke anymore.
At 10:50 my in-laws finally got off the train. Luckily it was at the station or they were probably in violation of several laws designed to deter terrorists.
Then, to make all of it a complete picture of the train systems in America, the only road out of the Amtrak station was blocked by a 17 mile (er, sorry, 27.3 kilometers) train running at approximately 3 kilometers per hour. It took 16 minutes for the train to cross, and that is just the time we spent there.
All in all, we spent 2 hours at the Amtrak station.
Welcome to America, Indeed.
My parents segway rental business is a fun one. They're coming back through the area, so we had my mother in law hop on a Segway to give it a shot. After the instructions and a brief ride, my mom and I decided to be irresponsible have some fun. I learned that Segways have limits. I've been cautioned about this before, but haven't yet met those limits. There is no doubt that I would be the first to discover those limits, probably with some pain involved. I operate in two speeds: Fast and Injured. Often times simultaneously.
Well, I discovered the limit. When exceeding the 12.5mph limit of a Segway, it pushes back. It pushes back hard.
(Also, it didn't hit my toe, I bumped my knee into it so it wouldn't run my toe over. I have a decent bruise from that.)
