What I did on my summer vacation pt 1

I completed an Olympic distance triathlon!!

Brent's Gazebo - Hanover, New Hampshire

I'll begin this blog post with a simple question: How many gazebos do you have?
If you answered 0, then HA! my boyfriend has you beat!
If you answered 1 or more, I'll rephrase the question:
How many gazebos do you have that have been erected on the campus of a prestigious Ivy League college at your request? 
Is it zero?  Would you say you have exactly zero ivy league gazebos? 
Yeah, that's what I thought.  Basically, don't test Brent's gazebo having abilities, because, although you wouldn't know it by visiting his house, Brent can completely annihilate you in a gazebo brag-a-thon. "How?" you might be asking yourself....

 

Well, the legend goes that in the year 2000, Brent Knopf, a gazebo-loving senior at Dartmouth, was fed up with the lack of shaded outdoor spaces available to students.  There was nowhere on campus where one could sit and study outside without having to purchase a coffee beverage or pastry.  So Brent approached the Dartmouth administration and pleaded the case for a gazebo on campus.   Brent's winning idea cut right through the red tape and bureaucracy usually involved when proposals cross the desks of university administrators, and 3 months later, a gazebo was erected behind the senior apartments.  Brent's very own gazebo dream had become a reality almost as beautiful as it was in his imagination.   I could hardly believe this fairy tale, until I saw the gazebo with my own eyes.

Please enjoy this series of photos I took with Brent, upon returning to visit his gazebo 11 years after its erection.   Oh, um, I mean construction.

 The 'This is my gazebo, bitch!' pose

 The 'Check out my gazebo' jig (part 1)

 The 'Check out my gazebo' jig (part 2) 

 Welcome to my lovely gazebo

Woolly Monster Attacks Chicago!

If I'd learned anything from Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, and Dolly the cloned sheep*, I would have never released this human-made creature into the wild!




*Dolly disaster pending

Aerial Yoga

This weekend, Brent and I decided to try something different, so we headed to Unnata Aerial Yoga in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The class was paced slowly and definitely good for beginners who are unaccustomed to hanging out upside-down.

We began class by learning to find our plumb line directly below the connection point where the hammock meets the ceiling. We learned to back bend into the fabric, and give our weight to the hammocks. Once we found our balance, we moved on to an upside-down straddle position. It felt really good to just hang out upside-down for awhile, without having to do all of the arm balancing work of a traditional yoga inversion.

From the straddle, we learned to wrap one foot around the fabric and let the other leg hang down. The teacher called this position an upside-down pigeon pose. It felt a lot nicer than sitting in pigeon, though. Plus it looks way cooler! Remember, Brent and I are both first timers.

After inverting, we learned to do a floating baddha konasana pose, where gravity helps you to open up your hip flexors, and lets your knees sink closer to the floor.

From here, we could bend forward slowly to invert the baddha konasana pose.

It was really fun to try something new with Brent. We both felt a bit hazy and relaxed after class. What an excellent way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Hiking the Kalalau Trail - Kauai, HI

Before we left for Hawaii, Brent said that he really wanted us to get some exercise on vacation. I really wanted to go on an adventure. I decided the best way to fulfill both requests was to plan a short backpacking trip along one of the hardest and most spectacular hiking trails in the world, the Kalalau Trail.



The Kalalau trail begins where Kauai's main road ends, at Ke'e beach. It traverses the majestic razor's edge cliffs and spires of the Na Pali coast, and ends at the stupendously secluded Kalalau beach. In the summer, you can kayak through the ocean to the beach, but in the winter, Kalalau beach is only accessible via the difficult and sometimes dangerous 11 mile trail.

Best viewpoint of the trail at the 10 mile marker

Here is a video that chronicles our intense 22 mile journey...

Over the 11 miles of the Kalalau trail, there are 5,000 ft of elevation gain and loss. This is the view from the one mile marker, 600 ft up.

Looking westward from the 1 mile mark

Mile 2 - Hanakapi'ai Beach

A sea cave at Hanakapi'ai Beach

Mile 3- The amazing, above-ground roots of the Pandanus tree

Mile 8- View of the cliffs we hiked through



Mile 11 - Kalalau beach at sunset. We made it!

Powered Hang Gliding in Kauai

This is my first in a series of posts about our recent trip to Kaua'i Hawaii! Brent spent all of January, and the first week of February producing a new record for the South Africa-based band, Dear Reader. The album turned out phenomenal, and we felt like we deserved a kick ass vacation! We embarked on a series of unforgettable adventures on the Garden Island, including a Powered Hang Gliding flight with Kauai Aerosports.



The owner and pilot, Steve, introduced us to the incredible, bird-like feeling of soaring through the clouds on an ultralight trike (that's the lingo for a powered hang glider). Even though you take off and land on a runway, the flying sensation feels entirely different than riding in a commercial airplane. Instead of an upward thrust motion, you feel almost like you are on a Disney ride, where the trike is being held by a robotic arm from above, and smoothly floating you from one amazing scene to the next.




The first spot we visited after take off was Jurassic Park Falls. This is the same waterfall that was filmed for the arrival scene in original Jurassic Park movie. The falls are on private property, and can only be seen from a helicopter or trike. As we soared down near the falls, Steve played the Jurassic Park theme song through my headphones. I actually got a tear in my eye.

Then we headed to the crater inside Mt Wai Ale Ale. This is the spot from which the island of Kauai was born. It is also the wettest spot on Earth, receiving over 400 inches of rain per year. Beat that, Portland! Thanks to all the rain, there are myriad waterfalls spilling over the peak of the mountain, down into the lush green crater. It was a beautiful, breath-taking scene. As we flew close to the crater walls, we did what Steve called a "Pterodactyl turn" (a swooping u-turn that made me feel like I was riding on the back of a pterosaur). It was so fun!


Next we headed over Hanalei Bay, to the rugged spires of the Na Pali coast. The other-worldly environment made my chest tighten a bit, with the memory of hiking through the impossible landscape along the death-defying Kalalau Trail (look for a more in-depth post on this soon).


We glided over the Waimea Canyon (considered the Grand Canyon of the Pacific) on the way back to the Port Allen airport, but first Steve took us out over the ocean to learn how to fly the trike! There is a big silver bar, just like on a hang glider. If you slide it to the left, you go right. If you push the bar forward you go up a little and slow down. If you pull the bar back you go down at first and then level off and go faster . The trike tends to find a "sweet spot" in the sky, and basically flies itself along the ridge of air. It was a really cool experience to feel how the trike navigates.


After a safe landing, we relaxed with some juice and went off to the beach to enjoy a delicious lunch of Ahi Poke and seaweed salad. What an adventure! Thanks to Steve and Anna for being such excellent hosts in the Kauai sky!

Fun with Balloons

It all started off so simply. Brent and I took our friend Matt Sheehy out for a drink to celebrate the completion of his amazing solo album. Afterward, we popped into my office to play a little table tennis. The office was a bit trashed because we had hosted an annual Halloween extravaganza earlier that day, and the remnants of candy wrappers, balloons, and confetti still littered the corners of the immense atrium. Amidst the chaos of the party, the ping pong balls must have been stashed away, and we could only find a single ball that had a crack along the seam, causing pitiful and irregular bounces. If it hadn't been for this crappy ball, we might not have embarked on any of the following adventures.

We searched around the atrium for lose ping pong balls, and during the search, Brent came upon a helium balloon that was sitting gently on the ground, having just too little helium left to stay afloat. Matt and Brent wondered what would happen if we could create a balloon that was at equilibrium with the air around it. Would it hover? Since this balloon was just slightly too heavy to float, matt began slowly removing weight from the balloon. First we took off a bit of string. Then we removed the entire string. It was still too heavy. Next we removed a piece of plastic that was holding the string onto the balloon. The balloon still did not hover. Finally, Matt carefully cut off the rolled up ring of rubber from the bottom of the balloon, and BINGO! We had a balloon that was almost exactly in equilibrium with the air around it.

Brent demonstrates the beautiful hovering nature of our balloon!

We took the balloon outside and began a 2 hour experiment, testing our magical hovering balloon's properties! We found it is great for attracting strangers to interact with (and even better at attracting dirty looks from hipsters that think they are too cool to play with balloons, until they realize it is actually a super cool hovering balloon, in which case they still give you dirty looks because they weren't smart enough to invent it themselves).

Matt discovered you could balance the hovering balloon on the side of your head like a seal!

We also discovered you could wave your arms around the balloon (raver-dance style) and keep it afloat for a very long time! You could also put it on your back and walk quickly, and it would kind of stick to your back and walk with you.

We didn't want our wonderful night of balloon magic to end. Matt said he wished for an entire room full of hovering balloons. Imagine what fun we could have! But alas, it got very late, and we had to call it a night.

A few days later, we came home to find Brent's house filled with balloons! Our housemates Jeff and Risa had attended a birthday party for Jeff's Dad, and they must have had a lot of balloons left over. There were balloons everywhere! There were balloons in the bathroom, under each towel on the towel rack, balloons in all of the cupboards and dishwasher. There was even a balloon that popped out of the trash can! Jeff and Risa had decorated a lot of the balloons with pictures and messages (example: The balloon hidden under my towel in the bathroom said "peek-a-boo" on it). Brent and I were shocked at the coincidence! Suddenly our lives were intersecting with magical balloon experiences left and right.

Remembering Matt's wish to have a room full of balloons, I took this photo of Brent and emailed it to Matt so he could see what Jeff and Risa did.

Since Jeff and Risa were already asleep by the time we got home and discovered the balloons, Brent decided that we should prank them back. We gathered as many balloons as we could find and tied them together in an elaborate balloon wall. We used Brent's "pimp cane" from his Halloween costume (he was Roy of Siegfried + Roy, and I was the white tiger that attacked him) as the base, and knotted the balloons together at every intersection, so that it would be difficult to walk through them.


Then we placed the balloon wall in front of Jeff and Risa's door, so that they would be smacked in the face with their own balloons when they woke up in the morning. Mu Ah Ha Ha (evil laugh).



Luckily, we woke up before Jeff and Risa, and I managed to set up my camera in time to film the outcome of the prank...


Hooray! It turned out so great. Until Risa asked "Where did you guys get all the helium from?"

Whhhhaaaaaaa? Brent and I looked at each other, confused. "Wait, you guys didn't fill the house with balloons to prank us?" we asked Jeff and Risa. "No! We thought you filled the house with balloons to prank us." They replied. OMG. A magical elf had been in our house and filled it with balloons. Who could have done such a thing????

wait for it.......


Of COURSE! It was Matt Sheehy!


Matt fessed up, and sent this picture from the afternoon, when he planted the best surprise ever. But he was not alone. Matt made Brent and I guess who his co-conspirators were in the great balloon prank of 2010. I smelled Ramona Falls bass player, Dave Lowensohn all over it. Brent guessed Seth and Ali. We were both right. We are so lucky to have such incredible friends!

Let this story be a reminder that an openness to the unexpected possibilities in life can often lead to the most fun and rewarding, although unplanned, experiences. If we had found a normal ping pong ball, then none of these amazingly fun balloon adventures would have ever happened. Thank you, universe.

Rubik's Cube Genuis

My 13 year old cousin Matty solves a Rubik's Cube in about 30 seconds! Genius!

Cloudy with a chance of penis

My favorite forecast.

World's most Dino-rific restaurant: T-Rex

On my recent trip to Orlando, FL, my genius friend Andrea suggested that we hit up a little place called T Rex for dinner. Little did I know I was about to embark on a prehistoric journey of deliciously mind-blowing proportions.

Our expedition began with a greeting from T-Rex himself. Roarrrrrr!

We passed through the deep sea-themed bar, which featured beautiful sea monsters and jellyfish suspended from the ceiling. Colorful aquariums filled with real tropical fish served as dividers between the bar area and the restaurant. This section was extraordinary!

T Rex serves a drink called a Cotton-tini, which is basically a martini that is poured over a puff of cotton candy. I knew that I must try it. Even though it was incredibly sweet, I was delighted as I sipped the sugary concoction. It even came with a commemorative martini shaker!

From our table, we had a view of the Parasaurolophus and it's baby in front of the ice cave. Every 15 minutes, there was a reenactment of the great meteorite impact which killed the dinosaurs. Basically, the lights would dim, the ice cave would turn red, and all of the dinosaurs would begin growling and moving around in an animatronic displays of fear and hostility.

We could also see a Triceratops from our table. His body wrapped around the edge of the restaurant to form booths.

The menu consisted of typical American bar fare. We shared quesadillas, a cheesy flatbread, and some mushroom ravioli. It was tasty in a douced-in-saturated-fat sort of way. Basically, if you are a fan of cheese, you will not be disappointed.

Pterradaktyl soaring above the dining room.

Wooly Mammoth and baby in front of the ice cave.

T rex skeleton frozen in the ice cave.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!!

This weekend, I traveled to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Orlando, FL to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park!!! You enter the Harry Potter portion of the park through Hogsmead village. The Hogwarts express is right there!

It is really strange to see a snowy village on a 95º day in Orlando. The snow sparkled and glittered on the rooftops. There were even pine trees planted throughout the park!

Above is Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry. Housed within the school is one of the best rides I've ever been on! Part Disney's Haunted mansion, part simulator, and part roller coaster, this ride takes you on a flying bench through hogwarts, the dark forest, and a quiddich game, all while being chased by dragons and dementors! The line for the ride winds through the Defense Against the Dark arts classroom, the Herbology classroom, the Gryffindor common room, & Dumbledore's office. Every detail is immaculately reconstructed, including the talking/moving portraits on the walls. I almost wished the line moved slower once we got inside the school. There was so much to see!

Dervish and Banges store, featuring the hottest flying broomstick models.

Honeydukes candy store and Zonko's Joke shop

The Weasley's enchanted car

Owl Post, complete with fake owl poo

The dress shop, featuring Hermione's dress from the 4th movie.

We enjoyed some frozen butter beer at the Hogshead Bar and 3 Broomsticks restaurant. It tasted like cream soda with an ice cream foam topping. Delicious!

Catherine and I enjoying some pumpkin juice.

The Harry Potter park was very cool, but pretty small. The rest of the Islands of Adventure theme park seemed pretty outdated (although I did enjoy the Jurassic Park section). Hopefully they will tear down the Poseidon section and expand the Harry Potter section. There seems to be a lot of opportunities for other Harry Potter themed rides.

Unfortunately, it began to thunder, and Universal closed down EVERY RIDE in the entire park (including the indoor rides). It thundered the rest of the day, so we really did not get our money's worth. I never got to ride the flight of the Hippogriff ride, and the lines to get into the stores in Hogsmead were outrageously long. To top it off, Universal did not offer us any sort of refund or discount pass to come back another day. We were pretty disappointed with their customer service overall.

Nevertheless, it was really special to visit Hogwarts, and feel immersed in the magical world of Harry Potter. I would love to come back in about 5-10 years, once it is less popular, so I can really enjoy all of the nuances that went into this magnificent recreation.