Assateague Island Vacation 2008
The (mostly) annual Assateague camping trip of 2008 is officially over. I've just settled in after unpacking my luggage. This year Sarah joined Kyle, Kyle's cousin Jesse, and I on the trip. In addition, we usually go in August, but this year we went from June 9-13. The main difference to going earlier in the year is that there were less mosquitoes which made the trip much more enjoyable. Instead of running to and from the car, we were able to sit outside of the tent/screen room most of the time.
This year we had many plans, like riding bikes on the trail on Chincoteague Island, attending the free Air Show in Ocean City, MD, renting jet skis, swimming everyday in the ocean just over the sand dune from our campsite, and lighting fires on the beach each night. However, on the second day there, my nose sprung a leak and started bleeding uncontrollably. I've had nosebleeds all my life but I've never had one last 40 minutes like this one. This caused us to make a trip to the Atlantic General Hospital's ER Room. The nurse packed my left nostril and we were sent along. The rest of the day, we sat at the camp and I relaxed.
Since we didn't make the trip to the OCMD Air Show on Tuesday, we went on Wednesday. It was awesome, minus the bandaging on my face for my nosebleed.
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Despite this, we had a great time at the beach. Thursday, we were going to rent some jetskis but since I needed to rest, Sarah and I basically sat on the beach relaxing and reading all day (11am to about 6pm). When Kyle came out to get us, it was dinnertime and I hadn't realized where the time went. I really love the beach. For dinner, we went out to eat at an all you can eat crab restaurant near the entrance to the park. We spent about 3 hours eating dinner as Kyle and I got all you can eat crab dinners. Jesse passed the time by looking at some of his 11.2 gb of pictures that he took with his Canon XSI on his laptop.
Overall, this trip was great. It was so nice to relax after not really taking a vacation of substance in the past two years or so since I started my job in 4/07. I didn't get sunburn as bad as in the past either, so that was also a good thing. It was definitely great to have Sarah along this time.
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Redoing a flowerbed
Sarah and I spent most of today and yesterday weeding and redoing one of the many flowerbeds at my Dads house. In all, I spent about 10 hours working on this. We dug out all the plants, tilled the earth about 4 inches, raked out all the weeds, laid down some weed blocking fabric, replanted some of the plants we took out (minus many of the lilies that we dug out), and laid down mulch. Here are some pics, before and after, respectively (click for larger image):
Now my Dad is complaining that I gave alot of the lilies away. It's true, I did. But before it was too crowded and overgrown. Now it's simple, weedless, and nice to look at, in my opinion.
New bikes on a 22 mile ride
Kyle and I got new bikes from Bike Line.
Today, we decided to give them their first maiden voyage. We started in Oaks and went to Conshohocken. Google Maps says this trek is 13.2 miles each way. via car roadways. However, we figured we rode 11 miles each way by the markings on the bike trail. It took us from about 1215p to 105p to get to Conshohocken (with a 5 minute break) and from about 105p to 2p to get back to Oaks. It was so great. I got such a great workout on this trip.
I also got to use a hydration pack for the first time. This is basically a custom
ized back pack that has an integrated sack of water. You can drink from it via a water line that goes up past your shoulder and comes out near your mouth. The mouth piece restricts water flow until you bite on it. Very cool innovation.
On the last mile before we got back to Oaks, we were struggling. It was so hard. We were taking about 3 pedals and trying to get the most of a coasting motion until putting in another 3 pedals. However, the rest of the trip was pretty fast biking. We definitely got a good workout. I figured we were going an average speed of 13 mph (22 miles in 1.67 hours). Not bad.
Kitters… and my Dad
My Dad supposedly hates animals. Well, now that we have two animals, Petey and Kitters, he's pretty much proven himself wrong. My whole life we didn't have animals because my Dad didn't want any and didn't like them. Now that I'm old enough to make my own decisions, I just kinda pushed the decision to have animals onto my father. My Dad still grumbles about the animals to other people, but, behind closed doors, he loves them completely.
As a matter of fact, I caught one of these moments in a picture:
Got a membership to Gold’s Gym
I have been putting it off for long enough. I finally got a membership with Gold's Gym last Friday with Sarah and Charlie. Charlie was a huge motivating factor for me to join a gym. We ended up getting a pretty good deal when we all signed up. Its a pretty nice gym. The only thing wrong with it is that its 10 miles away. However, when I drive into the office, it's on my way home.
We went everyday since Friday and I'm pretty damn sore. It reminded me of those days in college when I started lifting again. I was easing into it and I'm still very, very sore. For instance, I woke up in the middle of the night (5:30am) last night and had excruciating pain in my arm. I had to wake Sarah up to give me an arm massage. I am very thankful for her being there or else I would have had to ram my arm into the wall a few times until the pain went away. Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to lifting weights and exercising. The facilities aren't as offering as the YMCA's (for example, they don't have a steam room among other things) but they are very nice for the price (it's budget compared to the YMCA). Well, I must consult with the Tylenol now 
