Jason’s Bachelor Weekend
Jason’s Bachelor Weekend
This is a quick chronicle of my most recent trip to Baltimore, MD for Jason’s Bachelor weekend. The adventure started on Thursday morning when I left early for the airport only to find that my flight had been delayed and I would be getting Big B in the evening. Having ready access to my laptop allowed me to kill the time drafting reports for the office. When I arrived in Baltimore I quickly discovered that my luggage was still in Chicago and didn’t clear customs in time. The folks at United Airlines offered to deliver to Jason’s place on Friday afternoon or to ferry it out to Deep Creek Lake. I opted to wait at the airport until the next flight for Chicago dropped off my luggage. Jason met me and we headed over to Safeway to grab some food for the weekend. While cruising the aisles of Safeway, Jason found the ultimate in terms of subs, a Super-Sub. It was huge.
On Friday morning Jason’s dad picked us up and we headed towards western Maryland and stopped at Sideling Hill for lunch. The geology of the rock folding were cool. It would take the three of us to devour the sub. By mid-afternoon we were in Deep Creek Lake and headed over to a place I have always wanted to visit, Swallow Falls. It was under light rain that we hiked on both sides of Swallow Creek. Along the way we checked out Upper Muddy Creek which is the tallest fall in Maryland. A little before sunset we headed over to the house we rented in Deep Creek Lake. It was at time point we started what was to be one of the many highlights of the weekend, playing Kings. One word of advice is to pick your beverage wisely. After playing a couple of rounds of Kings we had burgers and beans for dinner. This was followed by a couple of more rounds of Kings. A couple of hours before sunrise we all headed to be.
We all started Saturday morning possibly a little tired and hung over. Breakfast took the form of strong coffee, scapple, sausages and scrambled eggs. Much of the day was spent taking it easy and we paused the day for a pizza lunch (three large pizzas) We would need some physical activity to work off the meal. Some of us watched while other played ladder ball which is a game where you throw two golf ball attached by a string over to a three rung ladder. We played a couple of rounds of kings as we waited for the steaks, potatoes and aspargus to cook on the barbeque. Once dinner was over we would played more rounds of kings until the wee hours of the morning.
On Sunday morning, I drank twice as much coffee as I did on Saturday morning possibly due to a hang over or most likely being tired. We checked out of the house at noon. Dom, Adam and Eddie headed back to Baltimore. Dave, Mark, Jason and I headed over to Swallow Falls for an afternoon of hiking. I’m really glad we made the second trip as the recent rain had transformed Swallow Falls, Tolliver Falls, and Upper Muddy Creek fall into a torrent of water. Another highlight of the weekend was the hike the Herrington Manor. Along the way Jason found his first geocache. I hope that this starts a tradition.We attempted to find another one near Herrington Manor but ran out of time as the GPS reception in the cedar was bad. A little before sunset we started our trek back to Baltimore and made a quick detour for dinner.
On Monday, Jason dropped off very close to his office. I took the light rail north to the REI store in Timmonium. Today would be a geocaching day. I headed in an easterly direction over to Loch Raven and found a couple of good geocaches. Late in the day, I attempted to find a geocache near Jason office which involved wading across a river but bailed due to time pressure but hope that I get another attempt at next time. I closed out the evening with some swing dancing.
I was up early on Tuesday morning with the goal of finding a couple of geocaches near the hotel. The two I found were in cemeteries which were easy to find and well presented. By mid-morning I checked out of the hotel and headed over to Jason place to chill before my flight. (Thanks again Jason!) At this point, I did something that I really had to do and that was to take a run which helped loosen up my back. It felt good to run along the Inner Harbor in a light misting rain. A little before rush hour I headed over to the Inner Harbor to catch my flight to Detroit.
It was an awesome weekend…
Hiking Old Rag
A little while ago, I achieved one of my goals for 2009 which was to hike Old Rag mountain in the Shenandoah National Park with Jason. Three years ago, we had hiked up Old Rag and set a personal speed record for reaching the summit. This year the circumstances were a little different as both Jason and I would be hiking after three nights and two day of intense swing dancing as part of Charm City Swing’s Lindy500 weekend. We would be hiking with tired and possibly sore legs. This was a good thing as it allowed us to have a more relaxing hike. The trip was made more special as we would be hiking with Jason’s parents, two of his sisters (Heather and Tracie), Bill, Heather’s friend and Jason and I. We all assembled at Jason’s place at 7:30 AM and were headed south a little after 8:00 AM. At around 11:30 AM, we started the hike from the upper parking lot and hiked for about an hour before stopping for lunch. The terrain is a gradual climb. Over the course of the hike, we would climb 2,286 feet and hike just under nine miles. For this trip, I decided to pack along some new technology which I am still experimenting with, a Garmin Forerunner 305. Every couple of seconds the watch would record a GPS reference point. The next two pictures are the route we took courtesy of the GPS watch.
By early afternoon we would all reach the summit and it was time to rest our legs. As the hints of a sunset started to appear we took some pictures and started our descent. But before doing so Jason and I had to have a picture taken close to where we were photographed a couple of years back. It was good to record this moment. The descent was a little slower than the ascent as we were hiking with tired legs. By early evening we were back at the van. Bill, Heather, Jason’s mom and I headed down to the stream to dip our feet into the cold water. It felt refreshing. I’ll close this point with two pictures courtesy of the GPS.
Awesome weekend in Baltimore
pspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”I spent last weekend having an incredible great time in Baltimore. I arrived span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_0″on Friday afternoon/span and Jason met me at the airport. We headed over to Whole Foods for a late lunch as I was famished. After lunch we headed back to a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason/a’s place to chip away at a layer ofa href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247961858028694850″ cement in his bathroom/a as earlier in the week the span class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_1″bathroom tiles/span didn’t set properly. Having two hammers and chisels beaver away at the floor allowed us to nearly get the floor free of cement debris a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247961887688044562″1/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247961900507305986″2/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962202913047938″ /a. In the evening we headed south to Glen Echo, which is south-west of Washington for some swing dancing. Jam Cellar and Sac au Lait were hosting an outdoor dance in the old bummer car pavilion. It was a great venue and the music was good./span/span/p pspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_2″On Saturday/span, we headed back to Jason’s house and spent much of the morning a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962202913047938″scouring the bathroom floor/a of cement so that a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247961917531645746″Em could lay the tiles /ain the afternoon. In the afternoon a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247961937557762834″Jason grouting another bathroom/a and I was cool to act as a support person doing chores for Jason and Em. In the evening we headed over to span class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_3″a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962402529089538″Camden Yard/as/span to take in an Orioles game. It game started late as the “O’s” were playing a double-header. We had great seats and we watched a good game despite the fact that “O’s” lost. /span/span/p pspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”We started off Sunday with a large breakfast (home-made waffles) at Jason’s parents place. Jason gave me some tips on how to get a target=”_blank” href=”http://my.yahoo.com/”span class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_4″my Yahoo/span/a Mail on my iPhone/iPod Touch which was really good. Afterwards, we headed to REI as I had an order that needed to be picked up. I was able to buy two BPA free Nalgene bottles which was sweet. We next headed in a North-Western direction to the Catochin Mountains close to span style=”border-bottom: medium none; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_5″Thurmont, MD/span. Much of the day was spent hiking and doing some light climbing. I was happy to watch Jason scale some steep rock faces. (Note to self – I should have brought my span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_6″climbing shoes/span and harness.) (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962447391337314″Wolf Rock/a n39 38.042 w077 26.258) There was a little exciting when we were at Wolf Rock. I found a crevasse in the some rocks which allowed me toa href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962484508068962″ lay back a/and to take and get in some Ramp;R. Once Jason had climbed Wolf Rock he set his eyes on a more a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#5247962462154446386″ambitious goal of seeing his could climb through a rock face underneath me/a. He got very close to the surface only to find he couldn’t get his chest through a small crevasse. What to do? The only solution was to head back down the way he came. It was a hot day and the rocks were slippery. As he was heading down Jason lost his grips and fell 15 feet bouncing from one rock to another. It was a WOW moment. A little later we headed south back to Em’s place for an awesome lasagna dinner with family friends.br //span/span/ppbr /span lang=”en-us”/span/ppspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”a href=”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#”http://picasaweb.google.ca/moulec/Baltimore_Sept_2008#/abr //span/span/p pspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_7″On Monday/span, Scott, Jason and I headed over to span style=”border-bottom: medium none; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; cursor: pointer; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_8″Home Depot/span to get some Hardi-backer flooring boards. I had estimated that we would need 14 boards by measuring the area and adding in an error factor (15%). After lunch we laid down the cement, Hardi-backer boards, and screwed in 850 screws. Having three people working on the task meant that we always had a ready-supply of cement, some putting in the screws while someone else was measuring the next board. In the evening we headed to the Austin Grill for some swing dancing. I head a great time dancing while many folks that I had danced with before. We close out the evening doing something quite memorable and that is playing wordabble on our span class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_9″ipod/span Touch/iPhone./span/span/p pspan lang=”en-us”span style=”font-family:Times New Roman;”span style=”border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;” class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_10″On Tuesday/span, we had a leisurely morning which was great. We exchanged gifts and I’m pleased with my JetBoil. For lunch we headed to Rosina’s which is a sort of tradition. In the early afternoon I headed back to Ottawa by way of span class=”yshortcuts” id=”lw_1222021563_11″Philadelphia/span./span/span/p
Swing dancing–Solomon Doulglas Swingtet
The Ottawa swing dancing scene will have a special guest on Friday night the a href=”http://solomondouglas.com/”Solomon Douglas swingtet/a. I bought my ticket a couple of weeks ago as when we have a live band the tickets always sell out. I wasn’t too sure who these performers were so I decided to check out their website and found a really useful and helpful a href=”http://solomondouglas.com/beginner_lindy.html”nugget/a. It is a play list of songs that Solomon uses for teaching the Lindy Hop. It was a sweet find.br /br /I had an incredible past couple of days in Baltimore swing dancing and taking in dancing workshop at a href=”http://www.jhu.edu/”John Hopkins University/a. a href=”http://www.charmcityswing.com/”Charm City Swing/a(CCS) organized the event had a beginner/intermediate tract as well as an advanced. I took the beginner tract and was able to develop a basic grounding in the a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_Hop”lindy hop/a which I can now start building on. I really liked the depth that the instructors took to making sure we understood the basics. For example, at the end of the first triple step your body should be at a 90 degree angle from where you started the move, and at the end the first step it should be 135 degrees relative to your starting position and the final triple step is completed 180 degrees from where you started the move. It is details like this that allowed me to visualize and remember where my body needs to be at a certain point in time. The dancing weekend closed out with an hour long blues dancing lessons which was a lot of fun and quite intimate. I learned an enormous amount about swing dancing and how I can improve on the main things I already know. I would like to thank a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason /aand all the folks at CCS and the many local and imported teachers for a great weekend.br /br /I’m in the midst of drafting a blog of the weekend and will post it later in the week.
Bouldering and climbing
Over the past couple of days, I have climbed twice and bouldered once. My first climbing attempt was made in a href=”http://www.dnr.state.md.us/publiclands/central/rocks.html”Rocks State Park/a which about an hour’s drive north of Baltimore. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason/a, Dave, Emily and I arrived at the climbing site mid-afternoon which allowed each of us to get in at least one climb. There was a bit of excitement on the way to the area as Dave’s water bottle went ajar and formed a leak in the bottom but was still a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121691468407654450″usable/a. Before we could start climbing Jason climbed up to adjust the location of the top rope. (a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121691412573079490″p1/a, a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121691455522752546″p2/a, a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121691408278112178″p3/a) Once the rope was in place, a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121691386803275666″Emily /awas the first to climb. Jason gave the climb a 5.6 rating. a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121692529264576658″Dave /awas the next to climb. As the sun was starting to set, I attempted to climb the rock face but got stuck at an a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/jasonplancaster/ClimbingAtRocksStatePark1014/photo#5121692774077712658″outcrop /awhich I couldn’t climb over. The rock face will have to wait until next time.br /br /On Tuesday night we went over to EarthTreks and I completed my first bouldering problem which was the “intro” problem. I tried a slightly more advanced “red” problem and nearly finished it. But since I failed to touch the final mount with both hands the climb was invalid. I spent the remainder of my bouldering working on the beginner problem trying to pause between each stage. Later in the evening, I top-rope climbed four/five problems that got successively more challenging. Having readily available chalk and my new climbing shoes were a great help in climbing a couple of 5.4 and 5.5s (I think).
Another good workout…
The weather in Ottawa has been unseasonable warm during the day we are still get high 70s which is great for training. The warm conditions are good preparation for the half-marathon. Tonight’s workout along the canal took the form of a four mile warmup and 3x 2 miles on 30 seconds rest. Afterwards, we did 8 x 1 minute hard running followed by 1 minute of recovery jogging. My legs feel warm and fuzzy which means they have had a good workout. Race day: 10 days away and counting.
Climbing Shoes – Five Ten – Spire
Last week, I went bouldering and climbing at a href=”http://www.earthtreksclimbing.com/”Earth Treks /ain Timonium. As we were chilling Jason talked about how good climbing feels when you have proper climbing shoes. I was skeptical but rented a pair to see what they were like. As well, climbing in sneakers is not cool!! I was quickly convinced that how could I not be climbing in climbing shoes. I had fun trying my first bouldering problem. My climbing started out rough but got better as the session progressed. It was weird that even with a lot of chalk my hands wouldn’t stop perspiring. It could be, I hadn’t climbed in a while, seeing a tall climbing wall that scared me or a low energy balance. While at a href=”http://www.mec.ca/”MEC /atoday I bought a pair of a href=”http://www.fiveten.com/”Five Ten /a a href=”http://www.backcountry.com/store/FVT0003/Five-Ten-Spire-Climbing-Shoe.html”Spire climbing shoes/a. There is a climbing gym close to where I live, a href=”http://www.verticalreal.com/en/index.htm”Vertical Reality /aso I’ll head over to see if I can do more bouldering.
A week in review – Orioles and Stoli Doli’s
p class=”MsoNormal”Last week I had a really great and fun week in st1:place st=”on”st1:city st=”on”Baltimore/st1:City/st1:place. On Wednesday, I flew from st1:city st=”on”Ottawa/st1:City to st1:city st=”on”Chicago/st1:City and then to st1:place st=”on”st1:city st=”on”Baltimore/st1:City/st1:place. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason /amet me at the airport and dropped me back at the hotel. After a quick shower I walked into st1:place st=”on”st1:city st=”on”Canton/st1:City/st1:place to buy some sugar, fig newtons, and pretzel goldfish at a href=”http://www.safeway.com”Safeway/a. I headed over to a href=”http://www.starbucks.com”Starbucks /ato grab some tea and spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing at the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111326730440341106″st1:place st=”on”st1:city st=”on”Canton/st1:City/st1:place/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111326739030275714″harbor/a. I met Jason at his office and saw the Apple iPhone for the first time. Next, we headed over to Camden Yards to watch the Orioles play the LA Angels. It was not a good night for the a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327056857855650″Orioles/a. They committed four errors in the first 30 minutes which put them at a disadvantage for the rest of the game. We had really great seats for watching the game as well as catching fly balls. Early on in the game a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327065447790258″Jason caught a ball/a. We snacked on goldfish and had pulled pork and really great sauerkraut. The game went to the full nine inning and the Orioles lost 18-6. The game attendance was 15,136. On the way back to the car we took some pictures a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327069742757570″1/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327074037724882″2/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327082627659490″3/a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327477764650738″4/a./p p class=”MsoNormal”o:p/o:pbr /On Thursday morning, after a quick breakfast and we headed over to Jason’s new house. We spent most of the day a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327490649552658″framing /athe ceiling in one of the bedrooms. Jason’s mom helped us position the 2×4s. I took a picture of a a href=”http://picasaweb.google.com/moulec/BaltimoreSeptember2007/photo#5111327486354585346″sign /athat Jason has leading from his basement which I took note after hitting my head on the way up. I was really happy to celebrate a special day in st1:city st=”on”st1:place st=”on”Baltimore/st1:place/st1:City with Jason.br //pp class=”MsoNormal”In the evening, Em, Jason and I headed to the a href=”http://www.thecapitalgrille.com/Locations/Baltimore/Main.asp?Location=Baltimore”Capital Grille/a to celebrate all our birthdays which are close together. I had my first a href=”http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Stoli-Doli/Detail.aspx”Stoli Doli/a which I enjoyed drinking. The fruity pineapple taste prepares you for the slight burn you get from the vodka. I heeded Jason’s advice and enjoyed it over the course of the meal. /p
Stoli Doli
Over the next couple of days, I will experience something that I have been curious about for a little while and that is, what does a a href=”http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Stoli-Doli/Detail.aspx”Stoli Doli’s/a taste like. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com”Jason /a talked about them in a a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com/2007/07/27/weekend-in-florida/”post /a a little while ago and that sort of sparked my curiosity. I’ll consume the Stoli Doli on a special occasion which will make it even more memorable. I’m sure that I’ll post a blog describing the experience.
