TRIATHLON (For real this time)

JANNEY AND THE Y TRIATHLON @ NORTH PARK
2016/08/07

RESULTS

I tried to do a triathlon before when I was not as in shape as I am now and it was not the greatest experience. I did it though. What sucked was they had to cut the swimming part out because the pool at the PTHS was under construction. In the end it kind of really didn't count as a triathlon. I had to do another one to actually be able to say I did one. One day I looked online and found this one.
I was super anxious about doing this. I wanted to but my stupid brain kept coming up with things to be nervous about. I almost didn't sign up but Ale encouraged me so I decided I was going to give it a shot. I can't tell you how happy I was when we finally pulled in and they waved us into a parking spot. We were here.

I signed in and the lady gave me a little gift bag and an entire pack of swim caps. If anyone needs one I got em. I found my racing number in the transition area and set up then went to the pool and waited for my heat.

SWIMMING 700M
The few people that I talked to all hated the swimming part. I know this was going to be my worst event. I can't tell you the last time I went swimming. Luckily it was not over open water. I could always touch bottom if I got tired so that's something to keep in mind going forward if I do this kind of event again.
The pool itself was magnificent. I don't think I've ever seen a pool this grand. It is 50m across so 14 times down and back ugh
I tried to think of it as 7 up and backs
I was raising my hand and counting out loud for the 7 "laps" so I could stay on track

1. I was fine
2. Started stopping already
3. Powered through thinking if I can get to 4 I'm over half done
4. Would take a few strokes then run out of breath, I could tell I probably wasn't doing so great at this point
5. Followed guy who passed me. I was close behind him the whole time, He made some more distance but it wasn't a ton, I was keeping up so it made me feel not too bad.
6. Next to last one. Same pattern: 2 strokes, run out of breath, start hopping on one foot forward as I took a few breathes, repeat
7. Last one, I can still see others swimming, I'm not last

I got right out when I was done and asked the girl what time she wrote for me and I saw 45:31
I started the 2nd heat which was 25 min in. 1st heat went at 7:30am, I went at 7:55am so really I did 20:31.
Results say I took 25:34 for the first leg so I estimate it took me 5:03 to run out of the pool, around a cone at the back by the announcer lady then out to the transition area and then me getting dressed. I guess that sounds right, I did take a long time to make sure my feet were good.

BIKING 12M
I had to stop right away to put on my gloves because I just carried them with me. I think I went slow the first lap because I did not know where I was or how much I needed to pay attention to turns.
My first lap around I was following someone who was finishing and I wrongly started following them off the main course luckily I realized it and cut right back over. After that I was good.
The uphills really felt like they slowed me down and I was dragging. It seemed like the first half of the course was uphill. A lot of people passed me which I am not used to riding the bike trails by myself. There were some people with some all-pro bikes I tell you. I wish I had an extra $5K to buy one of those.
I made up good time on the down hills. That's where I passed the most people. It seemed like the back half of the course was downhill.
There was a marker thing to run over which I made sure to do every lap. I thought I saw people missing it so that threw me off but I keep doing it. That was good because there is a page on the results that show that information.
I also got confused with the exact distance and amount of laps. I knew we did 4 but I was trying to figure it with my GPS as I went and it didn't seem like it was going to add up. I ended up just figuring when I pass the end and I have a close miles ridden that's the time I should go in. (It was 5 laps)
It was also weird with the staggered starts because I could already see people running and people I saw when riding I couldn't tell how good I was doing at all.
I was looking for Ale when I got to the crowds but I never saw her which made me kind of sad.
I think I rolled in at 11.93m and back to my stall. I didn't need to change this time. Just take off my helmet and gloves.
Results say I took 52:21 for this leg.

RUNNING 5K
Again I was off kilter at the beginning because I wasn't sure where the trail was or anything. I wasn't that bad though. There seems like a nature trail winds all around the grounds of the park and that's where we were running. There were lots of white arrows painted on the ground and there were lots of girl folk pointing and cheering as you went by. The only thing that sucked about this trail was there were plenty of sections where there were nothing but big rocks and tree parts. It was not very conducive to running in my opinion. Mountain running maybe. I actually kicked a rock and bit it at one point. The next day I had a nice bump on it. I got right up but someone was behind me and saw it.
I think I stopped a few times when I started running but I think when I got over half way my last wind must have kicked in and I even went faster and finished good. Either the new socks were the bomb or the blister things worked because I had no trouble whatsoever with my feet. The last 3/4ths of a mile finally went on to the road and I motored pretty well. I passed one more guy and finished! Yay! There were ladies right at the finish line ripping your chip off immediately which was pretty funny. They really wanted them back.

I also must say in addition to the pool, the bath house is amazing too. It's huge and the showers were nice and hot.
This is one high quality park that I feel bad it's so far away because I would definitely take my family here again for a picnic or holiday.

Well I did it. It was hard but I did it anyway. Maybe I'll come back next year.

Done with Kennywood

I love roller coasters. I don't like waiting in line after line only to have the ride break and be shut down before I get my turn. That's the only way I can describe my most recent (and probably last) visit to Kennywood Park. I haven't gone for a long time anyway. I know I've taken the boy before but he was just an inch too short to ride anything good. He wanted to stand at the end of the Pittsburgh Plunge and get splashed all day that time anyway. We decided to go this time because Ale's parents we visiting and it seemed like a fun activity to do with them.

First thing I noticed that I didn't like was that they changed the parking lot structure. Used to just be able park anywhere, not anymore. It's pay. The free spots are way way in the back and seemingly insufficient in volume. Now I walk so I would prefer to park in the back but when I see the pay lot is completely empty and idiots are parking on the hillside in the free lot then I think we have a problem.

Second thing I noticed was the entrance fee is back to one price only. You have to pay $41 to get in. That seems like a lot for a regular person. That seems like a whole lot for people that don't intend to ride anything. What happened to General Admission? Ale's mom and sister aren't going to ride anything. Why do they have to pay full price when they are just going to sit on a bench all day? Luckily Ale researched and found so coupons so we didn't get totally ripped off buying admission tickets.

So we are through security now (because that's totally necessary). You walk through that tunnel that takes you under the road and BAM! You're in! At least that is still fun. The boy couldn't reach the ceiling. I remember knowing I was growing the time when I was able to touch it. So they took the Turnpike ride out and put in the Sky Rocket. I say let's jump right in and get in line. So me, her dad and the boy get in line. We wait 35 min. We're at the part that goes up the stairs to the area where you board the cars. We hear an announcement. The ride is shut down for maintenance. Wow that sucks. Should we wait it out or come back later? We were close enough we could see that some guys came over and are working on the brakes on one of the cars. We waited 10 more minutes and then left the line. This wasn't going to be running again soon.

The boy wants to ride the Phantom so we head that way. On the way we did stop and get on the bumper cars so at least we got that first ride under our belts.

When we left that, across the way was the Cosmic Chaos which I have ridden and enjoyed before. The line didn't seem long so we queued up. After about 10 minutes we can tell we will be in the next batch of people to get on. The ride stops and the people get off clearing the way for us. Excitement! Wait what are they pointing at? Where are those employees going? I hear another announcement. Someone yakked on the ride and they are closing for maintenance. Wonderful! We are out of here.

The boy had enough at this point. He starts dragging me towards the Phantom. I see a sign: "Only one car running today. Sorry for the inconvenience". Oh really? I pretty much have no choice. We get in line. About 55 minutes later we are in the boarding area. At this point I can tell 2, 4, 6 people in front of us so that's 3 cars worth until our turn. I also notice in the one working car they have that 2 of the double seats on the cars are blocked off. Their one car isn't even capable of a full load. The boy is really excited. At least this ride is working huh Dad? Don't jinx us boy, I said. Finally we are next. The car pulls in and the people get off. Announcement. Temporarily closed for Maintenance. FFUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCK! I could see disappointment clouding up on the boys face. Someone asked what was wrong and the guy replied something back that didn't seem to serious. In fact, as we all stood there for what seemed like an eternity but was probably just 5-10 minutes, no one looked at anything that I could tell but then all of sudden we hear the 'please board carefully' message. Yay! We can ride now! The boy was fairly terrified but he did it. We even got this cool picture Ale paid $15 for. :|

After that success we walked around a little and saw the other parts of the park. I told them where everything used to be around the park. We rode the train ride. I noticed they have huge dryers outside the water rides now to bilk stupid people of money. We went into the arcade where I explained I spend plenty of time in my younger years. They had almost all of the exact same games, Rampage, Double Dragon, etc. That was kind of depressing. While that was a Golden Age of Arcades some good games have come out then you should probably have here. Did they do nothing but rearrange them every year since then? We wanted to get some food or something but I said I had to at least ride that new Black Widow ride before we left so I went over to get in line solo. You stand almost under it to wait in line and it seems pretty impressive for that vantage point. I was excited. Too bad that 2 rides into my wait they shut it down. That's it, I'm out. Everyone got out of line and I went to find my family by the Merry Go Round. I'm pissed. I want to go. If they new the rides weren't ready yet or whatever they could at least warn you and charge you half price or something. So we left and I had to apologize to her family. This isn't what I expected. This isn't a good impression to show a bunch of people who have never been here before.

It's because of this total bullshit that I will not come back to Kennywood.

2010 PT Fall Festival

This past weekend was the 4th Annual PT Fall Festival and of course Isaac and I went. We went last year and had probably one of the best times of our lives and when I heard midway through August when the dates for this year's was (Sept 17th & 18th) I immediately marked those off on my calendar. I don't think this year's was a super awesome as last year but that would have been difficult to achieve. We still had a blast, saw many of our friends and family and had an all around great time.

It started on Friday night.
Isaac wanted to go the second I picked him up from Penn Pals but I knew we needed to hold off a bit. I did splurge and order some Pizza Hut pizza for us to eat that way we wouldn't be hungry and spend money when we were there. (Side Note: The new Big Italy pizza sucks. The Bigfoot was better. Don't waste your money) I waited until about 6:30 or so and we walked down. It wasn't exactly pumping yet but at least it was still light. We did see a few people we knew, Candy & Bob, Brandi, Walt, Becca so that was cool. I did find out in horror that the cost to ride the crappy rides had gone up considerably. $2 a ticket or $13 for a bracelet to ride everything. The bracelet did not cover both days. I was hesitant to spend that kind of money but I did make a deal with Isaac that since he has been doing good in school and following the rules that I had a 20 dollar bill that was pretty much his to spend as he pleased. I let him know that rides today equal no rides tomorrow and as you would expect he opted for rides now!! Did I mention the rides were crappy? I mean they were serviceable but not that thrilling in any sense of the word. He did ride the swings and the teacups and anything else they would let him on. I was making sure we got our moneys worth. He did freak out on the haunted house as he did back at the WM county fair so that was funny. He was terrified of someone stepping on the thing that activates the screaming noise.
It was starting to get dark and there were people streaming in from the football game going on across the street at the high school but we stuck around to play a few games first. He won a little dolphin stuffed thingy at the fishing pond, a whistle at the 'throw darts at balloons' game and a lollipop at the kids shoot basketball game so that made him feel accomplished I hope. We walked out of there happy and went home to go to bed. We had to get up early the next day!

And continued into Saturday
Although I gave Isaac the choice to sleep later and hurry or get up early and take our time I decided when I opened my eyes at 8:30am that it was time to get things moving. We got up, got dressed and I made some breakfast and we were out of there. We had to walk the whole way to Aunt Dee's to get our seats for the parade. (I found out via RunKeeper that it was exactly 1 mile from our house to Dee's) This year there was no Nicholas or Jed or Zippy but it was still fun. The parade was nice and we remembered to bring a bag to keep the horde of candy that was thrown his way. We chilled at Aunt Dee's for a bit after it was over and then headed down and checked out the classic car cruise that was there as we entered since Isaac loves those mighty machines! We met up with Stephanie and Allie at around 1pm and walked around with them for a while and went to the petting zoo. We saw Mary Jo and her daughter Kim there and then we went up to the Warrior Wonderland (or the 2 playgrounds as we call it). Anne met us there with Sean and Ella so that was nice. We walked back down to the fair and they were as outraged as I was about the ride cost. Luckily for us most of the ride operator's must have not been checking too closely because they let Isaac on with the bracelet from yesterday so that was good. We got some food after a bit and we did find the Walking Tacos that Isaac loves so much so that was also good. We got some ice cream and farted around a bit more having fun until about 4pm. I was sunburned at this point and everyone was casting off for other things they needed to do. Isaac and I walked home and took a much needed rest. Last year we went back for the fireworks but this time we didn't seem to care as much. We did see some of them through the trees from the front porch when it was time but we didn't fell like standing there in the dark getting eaten by bugs so we went back in to whatever we were doing at the time.

All in all a definite fun time that is going to be part of our yearly activities. I'm just kind of hoping to bring a special someone with us next year so I can enjoy it with someone rather than just Isaac.

2010 Labor Day Weekend

We've been having a lot of fun lately so I wanted to give a quick update on some of the stuff that has been going on.

Friday was the start of Labor Day weekend so I had the car packed and ready to go so when I left work I went straight to get Isaac and hit the road. My dad was moving this weekend so we had to check out and enjoy his resort one last time before we weren't allowed in here anymore. It's also hopefully the last time we have to take those twisty wine country roads that slow you down. I found a new route that is all highway that I can't wait to try out. On the way down we stopped at our usual Burger King that we always go to. It's our tradition. We got there late but still a good drive time and hung out for a little bit. The house was a wreck. Everyone was packing and moving stuff. This is where it was first hinted to me that I have been shanghaied. I thought we were coming for some pool and playgrounds but apparently I was one of the main work horses they were waiting for. That was okay I guess. I come down here and have fun all the time so the least I could do to help my family was help them move. Olivia's boyfriend Kyle was also here to help.

We woke up early on Saturday and went at it. We were hauling stuff out for the Uhaul at 8 in the morning. We completed our first load by 11:30 and thought we were having a good time. Until it was 8pm and we could barely life our arms anymore. We did 3 loads and although we did get most of the big things that needed moved, there was still stuff at the old house. We were all exhausted and La ordered way too much pizza. It was cool that we got to spent one night at the old house and one night at the new house, the first night anyone stayed there.

Speaking of the new house, it was great! It had very similar qualities to the old place but it was way bigger. It had a real finished basement instead of just dirt. The only drawback really was that it was not on the resort. I wonder what sorts of things will we do now when we come here to vacation?

At least on Sunday morning since most of the moving was done we got to take a break. After an awesome breakfast at my favorite place in the world IHOP (only 5 minutes from his house!!), we went up the road to a playground. It was pretty nice and there were some other kids there. Dad and I played some frisbee and he later told me how much he enjoyed that. I guess that's one activity we can do. I wanted to try and hit another park but dad had to go to work later so we decided it was time for pool. The resort put in a new pool area and we hadn't hit it yet so that was our destination. It was very nice two new huge pools and two hot tubs too. Dad didn't stick around but Isaac and I had a blast. We were very sad to drive out of there knowing that we were probably never going to be back.

We went home and packed up all our stuff (in the craziness of moving we did forgot some shoes) and gave everyone a hug good-bye. They were very grateful for our help and we happy to be there for them. We drove home and brought our stuff in. We still had a whole day of vacation to go!

I woke up early on Monday and changed my oil. I was hoping to do that down in VA but that didn't work out. Mimi took us to get Isaac some school clothes at Kohl's and we both got new shoes so we were very happy about that. After that we hit the last 2 close playgrounds I had on our list and then I took Isaac to see the Scott Pilgrim movie (best movie ever) and he really enjoyed that. We went home and got some much needed down time after getting our clothes and lunches and backpacks ready for the next day. An awesome ending to a great weekend.

Another Wild Weekend

The father and son team of Isaac and Marc were at it again this weekend. Talk about a contented state of exhaustion. We were all over the place and saw tons of people and hung out with family and it was awesome. I'd just to highlight our adventures here so we can remember that this one is going to be tough to top.

It all started on Friday June 25th. Lisa had to go to work so she had to drop him off to me as soon as I got home. So I tried to be nice and get home as soon as possible to facilitate this. I needed to talk to Jim to get the key to his house off him because he was going away again for work and might not be there next weekend when Ale gets here to open the door for us. (We are staying at his house instead of a hotel for the #Alevacation) He wouldn't be home for a while so we chilled out and played some Red Dead Redemption. Isaac isn't that good at it because he doesn't care about doing the missions. All he wants to do is sometimes shoot a bunch of people but mainly chase down the train and ride it around. You do know he loves trains right? So we did that for a while until I got a text from Jim saying that he was home but he was going to cut the grass. I figured I could take Isaac out to eat and by the time we were done and drove over there Jim should be done with his chores so that was the plan we were going with.

We stopped at The Great Escape Clubhouse to have some dinner. This place is okay. It's a local place and the prices aren't too crazy. Isaac was excited because I guess when hanging out with his one friend Adam and his parents once they took the kids here. So he was familiar with it and he was telling me all the stuff they did. I grabbed some quarters from my car to let him play the games. I got a buffalo chicken sandwich and it was pretty good. After we were done I needed to stop at the state store next door and guess who I saw walking out? It was Aunt Dee and Aunt Mary Jo. They just came from a funeral home and they invited us to come over. I told them I had to meet my friend but that we would stop over later. From here we got in the car and went to Jim's.

I was glad to see that Jim was watching the NHL draft. For whatever stupid reason the place we were at had NBA draft coverage on and who the hell cares about that. I talked to Jim about what was going on and everything and he was really cool about it. He let me go upstairs and see the room and then told me if we were going to need an air conditioner that there was one in the basement we could use. I said no doubt we would need that and I went downstairs to get it. From there we started moving more things around. He needed a couch to go in the basement so we moved that. The futon bed that we were going to use needed hauled up to the room. That was a little harder to pull off but we that too. I asked him if he needed anything else but he said that was it for now. By around that time the draft was only on pick #12 or something but it was quarter to 9. How can it be that late already? My plan was to hang out until the Pens picked (#20) but if we were going to go to Blair's house we would have to leave now. Jim gave me the key, I thanked him for everything and we were off.

Last on our stop for today was Uncle Blair and Aunt Mary Jo's. It was fun to go over there and hang out. Mary Jo loved Isaac (cuz he's so cute) and since I haven't talked to those guys in a while it was nice to see them again. Isaac caught lightning bugs and Blair teased that he would give Isaac a dollar for every one he caught (He ended up not paying out :P). I got to run me and Ale's house idea past Dee to see what she thought. It was good getting additional input on that. I should write that up in a blog next. We didn't stay too long because it was late and getting dark and this was only the first day of our fun so we went home and pretty much went straight to bed.

Saturday June 26
I talked to my friend Anne this week and she invited us to go with her out to Keystone State Park today. Her boyfriend Ryan didn't get off work until 3 though so we wouldn't leave until shortly after. (Check out the band Ryan is in, The Boogie Hustlers, pretty awesome!!) That gave us some time to relax. I got my bills done and worked on backing up some of my videos and adding them to my tracking sheet. Isaac played more of the cowboy game (as he calls it). Around 3 we got our stuff ready and left. I told Anne we'd meet her at her house. When we got there and knocked on the door some dude I never seen answered. His name was Dan and apparently he lived there since April. Good job keeping me up to date on this stuff Anne. :| She texted me that she must have assumed she already told me she moved. Whatever. Not a problem. We just went back to my house and waited for them to come by and we followed them to the park.

This was another place I have not been in forever (see Father's Day 2010) but now I was sharing some time there with my son. He did mention that he was here before with Lisa and her cousin Katie. Not sure if that is true or not but hopefully so. At least she is doing some stuff with him. We picked out a spot on the beach and started playing and swimming. I warned Isaac about doing that gagging thing he does when he gets water in his mouth. He was pretty good about it today but he did puke once and I had to take him out of the water for a bit. I still don't understand that. I've never seen anybody else do what he does and it bothers me a bit. Besides that he played in the sand and with Ella and Sean. He made some new friends too. I took him out to the deepest parts a few times and let him go to see if he could swim and he did great. He's not a strong swimmer but he could probably stay afloat and save himself if he had to so I am proud of him for that. We may have got there late in the day but we stayed until dusk came so it was a good long time. I know I was exhausted. After we got dried off and changed we even fit in some playground time. There was a nice playground right there so I let him play around on that and got some more pics for 2010PlaygroundFest. I lit some of his fireworks when we got home since we really couldn't do that at the beach. Nothing spectacular since we are in lamo anti-fireworks PA but he still enjoyed it. The little neighbor kids even came over to check them out. I made us some food and we took showers and went to bed after that.


Sunday June 27
We woke up today and had one more awesome thing to do before the weekend was over. It was Allie's 4th birthday party!! She is my cousin Stephanie's kid. Aunt Dee called in the morning about this. I guess she was coming too so it would be a good idea to pick her up when we left. We ate breakfast and got our stuff ready to go. Zip was supposed to follow us over but he was not there. He had one of those inflatable jumping houses for kid's birthday parties and he was going to set it up for them. That was cool! We made a quick stop in Delmont at the Wal-Mart to pick up some presents and we were off. This is in an area I don't normally go so I had to use my phone's GPS to get there but we had no issues. I couldn't wait to see their new house.

There were already lots of people there when we arrived. Lots of older people that must have been Sam's (Stephanie's husband) relatives because I did not recognize them. I did see Elaine (her mom) but from what she told me most of the other relatives that I know from her side of the family were on a cruise in Alaska at this time and were not coming. I did see a girl that I went to high school with there and that was weird. We had a blast though! The house was amazing! I am so jealous. This is the kind of house that I could picture myself being happy with. It's big and there is a room for everything. Their property is very nice. A whole acre I think they said. I walked all around everywhere when I first got there and checked it out. You could say it's sort of close to Pittsburgh but it's still in a woodsy area which is nice. Their pool was awesome too!! I know Isaac loved it. I think my child is turning into a fish. We could not keep him out of it once we let him in. Everyone seemed to be apprehensive at first about going in except a few of us and then the pizza came so we had to get out to eat. We went back in for a bit but it started storming so we closed it but it stopped after 20 minutes so we opened it again. We had to get out again when it was cupcake and present time. The cupcake's she made were awesome. They were Oscar, Cookie Monster and Elmo cupcakes!! Allie loved all her presents. A lot of people left by that time but there were a few of us who stayed. We got back in the pool and played some volleyball for a while. They had flippers and I never used them before but I love them. It's amazing how dramatically they can improve your swimming skills. With those on I could motor across the pool in seconds. I kept them on for the rest of the day and my ankles were hurting later. We also got see and play with her new baby Jillian. She is so super cute. Actually the last 2 groups to leave were us and her mother. I got to talk to them seriously for a bit. I also told them the house thing and she was kind of bugged that my mom made excuses not to come. We also planned what we are doing to do next week when Ale comes because they want to meet her. I guess she gets some deal at this bowling alley nearby so we are going to do that. I hope to show their house to Ale so I can give her an idea what I dream of for us together.

We probably didn't leave until like 8. We stopped at Burger King to get some dinner and even after I was nice enough to put on a shirt the kid still gave me crap for not wearing shoes in the store. I was going to call and bitch the place out about him but whatever. As big of a total no-issue that was I guess he was just following rules. We took our food home and ate then took a shower. I put Isaac to bed because it was getting late and he needed some sleep after that weekend since he had to get up early with me this week to go to Penn Pals. I called Ale on Skype and pretty much fell right asleep after telling her about what all we did. I can't wait until she can come with us when we do those things. <3

2010 Playground Fest

INTRO
We started our 2010 Playground Fest today 05/16

I will log where we go and stuff. I decided to do this realizing that my mother makes awesome scrapbooks. What better way to give my son a lifelong memory then take him out a as many playgrounds around our area as possible, document it with pictures and turn it into a scrapbook? I thought it was a good idea so that's when I invented the whole #2010PlaygroundFest idea.

UPDATES
09/08 This might be it for Playground Fest. It's getting colder now and we about ran out of playgrounds to go to. I do know of a few places we could still go but they are very far away and not very close to each other. The next weekend Isaac is here is when the PT Fall Festival is on so we will definitely be there. By the time I get him again it will be October.

So in 114 days we went to 52 playgrounds. (actually half that because I only see him every other week)
So in 58 days we went to 52 playgrounds and got over 700+ pictures. That is crazy. Well I can say now that we did a lot of work. We know which playgrounds and parks are awesome and which ones to avoid. I guess we can start on the scrapbook now. I'll probably make a digital version out of this blog. I'll flesh out the descriptions and add pictures and get a verdict from Isaac on each other as well. We can be official 'Playground Critics' now. :D

08/23 I thought we had maxed it out last weekend but I guess I was wrong.
I got Isaac not soon after I got home and we took right off. The Westmoreland Fair was going on so instead of eating first I figure we'd go out and do our thing and when we ended up there we'd eat. So off we went I had plotted out Greensburg since that's where the fair was. We ended up hitting 6 that night including some good ones and probably the worst one yet. Then we went to the fair and rode some rides. They didn't have Walking Tacos which is what Isaac wanted though. :(
Saturday morning we woke up and took off early in the opposite direction. We went out far first and came back. My camera died right when it was time to eat so we stopped at Dairy Queen and got some food and took it home. We ate and watched 'The Secret Of NIHM' while the battery charged. I was prepared to call it a day at that point but I asked Isaac if he wanted to go back out and he said yes. So we hit the second part of the trip which was about 4 more before it started to rain. A total of 9 that day. We cleaned up a bit at went to Jim's to watch the Steelers game and Moddy got to meet Isaac. Needless to say she LOVED him!
Now on Sunday we were supposed to go clothes shopping for Isaac but my mom was too tired from whatever she did Saturday so that was off. I realized that after the past 2 days we had exhausted the list playgrounds I had. How could that even be? So in the morning I got on the computer and checked out some in an area we had yet to hit, Latrobe. I came up with about 9 more we could do and I didn't think we'd hit them all but I mapped it out anyway and we left. We did about 5 before we just became too exhausted to go on. We went home and called it a weekend. I think 20 playgrounds was enough for anyone. Next time he comes with me we're going to Virginia and hit a few more down there with Pappy! Summer is coming to an end and the 2010PlaygroundFest is almost over.

08/09 Man we went a little crazy this weekend. I thought we were in for the night on Friday but Matt stopped by with Maddy and we decided to go over to McCullough to play. That turned out to be a great idea. As much as I love doing this, it's really for Isaac and when we go to these playgrounds where there are no kids, it's really not that fun. McCullough always has kids plus he was with his buddy Maddy so that was great. Plus Daddy and Matt got to shoot some hoops while we were there.
Then, which will ever go in history as Playground Day, we hit 8 playgrounds on Saturday. Yes you read that right, EIGHT. I didn't plan it like that, it just worked out. My main goal was to hit Twin Lakes and Mammoth and then fill in a few of the in-between ones but damn. Some were super fun, some there was nobody at and were pretty lame. Needless to say we were exhausted by the end of the day. As fun as that was I think 4-5 max in one day is good from here on out.

07/13 I had the idea for the scrapbook to have the schedule on the first page and have each playground written in different colors. That way when paging thru the book the backing of each photo will be the corresponding color. EH!!

I also thought to make a google map with a pin at each area and print that out and put that in there as well.
See it here - > http://bit.ly/a7IhEY

PLAYGROUND LOG
* * * * *
10/20 Eliot Company Playground : 5/10
While looking for Geo-caches we found another playground we didn't even know existed

09/06 Oak Hollow : 9/10
Always tons of kids, weird equipment but lots of it and fun, in a huge park w other things to do

09/06 Bushy Run American Legion playground : 5/10
Close to home but not that great, small equipment and a swing set. There are hoops though.

09/05 Gordon-Barbour Elementary : 8/10
Another one that separate's the big kids playground from the baby one, cool drum thing and a jeep on springy things, you can tell this place is older because it is faded.

09/04 Dad's personal playground : 3/10
At least it's close to home.

08/25 Harrison Park Elementary : 9/10
We finally hit Isaac's school! This is one of the better playgrounds. The best part is that daddy himself help build this for Isaac and all the other kids by volunteering his time.

08/22 Legion-Keener Park : 9/10
It's like Little Knights Kingdom!! 100% original awesomeness

08/22 Baggaley Elementary : 6/10
Standard stuff, nothing spectacular, one side of the school was the baby playground, the other side was the big kid version

08/22 Mt View Elementary : 9/10
Big, wooded area, nice standard stuff plus and lot of unique extras

08/22 Burger King playplace : 4/10
small area, can get food

08/22 Maxwell Elementary : 8/10
Standard stuff, nice area

08/21 Sheridan Terrace Elementary : 7/10
Standard equipment, nice and new also with a weird enclosing fence, I don't understand the purpose of that

08/21 North Irwin playground : 4/10
Merry go round and tire swing and that's about it

08/21 White Oak park : 6/10
Big area but spread thinly, most of the stuff was older, pluses for the merry go round and the train though

08/21 Stewartsville Elementary : 7/10
Standard equipment, nice and new in a weird enclosed area behind the school

08/21 Sunrise Elementary : 7/10
Standard equipment, big area, nice but was lacking something

08/21 Level Green Elementary playground : 8/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, big area, the old caterpillar thing from Harrison Park looks to have found his way here

08/21 Woodland playground : 8/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, a few things we've never seen, surprisingly better than we expected

08/21 Trafford Elementary : 8/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, big area

08/21 Monroeville Community Park : 7/10
Nice park, big area, lots of stuff, equipment was kind of weak, nice disc golf course (for beginners)

08/20 West Point Elementary : 9/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, tire swing, climbing wall, cool monkey bars, big area, everything seemed really nice

08/20 East Hempfield Elementary : 1/10
2 swings and a slide, worst playground ever, we pity the poor kids that have to go to this school

08/20 Amos K Hutchinson Elementary : 8/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, big area

08/20 Pearl Carroll Memorial playground : 5/10
Several mini-playgrounds strewn throughout the grounds, a few cool things but the main attraction here was the pool

08/20 Stanwood Elementary : 8/10
Standard equipment and some unique stuff as well, big area

08/20 Fort Allen Elementary : 7/10
Standard stuff, big area, other kids

08/12 Bovard Elementary playground : 6/10
Sliding thing was broke, standard stuff, nothing spectacular

08/12 Hawksworth Apts : 4/10
Unique stuff but old and beat up

08/09 Jack Town Park : 5/10
Small area, not much equipment

08/07 Norvelt Elementary playground : 5/10
Nice area, not much equipment although it is new, too far away

08/07 Mammoth Park : 10/10
Huge area, multiple mini playgrounds throughout, lots of kids, big slide, awesome merry go round, fun for all

08/07 St. Clair Park : 6/10
Not very big, not much stuff, at least it's close

08/07 Twin Lakes Park : 8/10
Huge area, multiple mini playgrounds throughout, lots of kids, digger, too many people with dogs

08/07 Thomas Lynch Field playground : 9/10
Huge area, lots of kids, lots of other stuff to do, equipment is very unusual though

08/07 Dr Robert F Nicely Elementary playground : 7/10
Nice sized, friendly environment, standard equipment

08/07 Hempfield Park : 7/10
Big area, multiple mini playgrounds throughout, lots of kids, ground always seems wet there though, must not be good irrigation

08/07 Pedora Park : 5/10
Not very big, not much stuff, too far out of the way

08/06 McCullough's Boundless Playground : 10/10
Big area, lots of kids, nice equipment, pretty standard but there is a lot and some of it is unique, sand pit w digger, close to home

07/28 Warrior Wonderland : 8/10
Big area, lots of kids, nice equipment, pretty standard but there is a lot, close to home

07/27 Wolfe Field playground : 2/10
Old and run down, no other kids, no swings on the swing-set

07/27 Jeannette McKee Elementary playground : 5/10
Dirty, lots of garbage, no other kids when we visited, seems like it was not put together properly

07/24 Chick-Fil-A playplace : 4/10
Small, other kids, can get food there

07/24 Boyce Park O'Block playground : 8/10
Nice, seemingly brand new equipment, other kids, seemed like most of the stuff was walkways to other parts, a little different than the standard stuff, also located in a huge park with other stuff to do

07/14 Penn Park : 8/10
Nice, newer standard equipment but there were a lot of unique things strewn about, ringing bells, race cars, other kids

07/14 Manor Park : 7/10
Standard stuff, big area, other kids

07/09 Adlai E Stevenson Elementary playground : 7/10
Nice equipment, no other kids at the time of visit, had a cool piano that really played so that was unique, cool looking climbing thing but playing on it was awkward

06/26 Keystone State Park playground : 8/10
Nice, newer equipment although it is the standard stuff, other kids, right by the beach and in a huge nature park

06/13 Irwin playground w Little Knights Kingdom : 10/10
Enormous area, tons of varied equipment, custom equipment, no cookie cutter playground here, tons of other kids, top notch playground!!

05/30 Romas playplace : 6/10
Small area, indoors, not much equipment but had coin operated machines, nice climbing wall, other kids, can order food there

05/30 Trevillains Elementary playground : 8/10
Huge area, tons of varied equipment, no kids there when we went

05/29 Shenandoah Crossing playground : 9/10
Big area, lots of different equipment, other kids to play with, digger and sand pit

05/16 Altman Park : 8/10
Nice equipment, other kids to play with, solid playground

05/16 Christian Fellowship Church playground : 4/10
Not much equipment, no other kids to play with, area was filled with crazy shredded tire stuff

* * * * *

Yet to hit

Metzgar Elementary School
New Derry Elementary School
Loyalhanna Elementary School

Blue Spruce Park and Playground

VA
Grace Adams Davis Memorial Playground
Washington Park

Revacation Part 2

2010/03/27

Someone must have reached across me and shut my window shade because when I woke up it was closed. That was a smart thing though because when I opened it, light blazed in. It was morning and I was almost at the airport (EZE). Nothing could stop me now!!

When we de-planed we walked down these awesome glass hallways that attached the planes to the terminal. Nothing like the retractable pieces of garbage at (PIT). I followed everyone down to Customs. We had to wait in line to show our passports and pay some kind of entry tax. Apparently you don't need a visa to visit Argentina from the US but the other way around, you do. Argentina recoops this cost to their citizens with this tax. Either way I could have used the $131 for other purposes but I knew about it ahead of time so I was prepared. After that I waited in line for another guy who stamped my passport and that was it. Get my bag and head out. Happiness!!

The area sort of funneled everyone towards a frosted glass double door that was the exit. I walked thru it and directly in front of me was a giant glass wall with hundreds of people staring at me with their faces pressed against it looking for their loved ones. Hi everyone that is staring at me. I am not the person you are looking for. Now I know how the monkey's at the zoo feel like. Where was my loved one? How was I supposed to find Alejandra in this mess? I started walking and saw the end where my area merged with the area all these people were. If I didn't see her by the time I got there what was I going to do? Ah I see her arm outstretched. I iz saved!! Hugs! Wow I'm here. You're here. This is slightly weird but not. I can't believe this. How was your trip? How long were you waiting? Where are we going now? Let's go to the hostel. Okay.

Outside a taxi man told us I couldn't bring my bags on a bus and that we should go with him. Ale said he was lying and we found and boarded the #8 bus after a few minutes with no problems. She sort of sat half on me and finally got to start enjoying each others company. We took our first picture together here. There was a rear view mirror on the ceiling in front of us for some reason and we could see ourselves in it. We did it! The revacation has started!

I got to see the country side of this strange land I was in while Ale filled me in on what was going on. The bus was empty when we got on it but the closer we got to the city the more and more people that boarded. Wow here we are, check this city out. Every block was packed with stores and there were signs and huge billboards everywhere. Wow there's a gas station, a sign to drink Coke, a soccer stadium, a train station, huge apartment buildings. This looks like normal familiar stuff but for some reason slightly strange to me. For blocks and blocks and blocks it just went on. NYC probably looks something like this but I have never been there. Ale showed me her bus schedule book. As big as this city was I was impressed she had studied this manual enough to know when and where to go. The bus wouldn't go directly to where we needed to go but we could get a taxi the rest of the way. 4 pesos for the bus but it would have been 40 pesos to get a taxi this far. I love that she knows things like that. We stopped and I dragged my stuff off the bus and into a taxi. Do these intersections lack signals? I think so. I don't know how many car accidents they have around here but from what I'm seeing it should be a lot. At least half the cars on the road are taxis and it doesn't seem to be mandatory to stay in your lane either.

Here at the hostel it is kind of weird. I had my first real interaction with someone that could not understand a word I was saying and vice versa. Luckily Ale took over and handled all this but it was neat to be right there and try to figure out what they were saying. They didn't clean our room yet or something but we could dump our stuff and by the time we came back it would be ready. Sounds like a good idea to me. My arms are killing me from hauling these bags around. There's only one remote for the air conditioners so we have to get the guy to come up here to turn it off and on. :/ Okay there's a bed and a dresser. Where is our bathroom? Oh it is the room next door. So we have to leave our room to go take a shower and stuff. :/ I got some shorts on and got my feet out of my big boots. It was cold in Pittsburgh but it's not here. We will go get a bite to eat and take a quick walk around while they finish doing whatever they are going to do to our room so we dumped our stuff and walked back out onto the street.

Right down the street from the hostel was a nice looking restaurant called Imperio's so we went in there and took a seat. Now I get to see how they do things down here. First thing I noticed, they don't give you free refills on drinks and everything is either con gas or sin gas (do you want it bubbly or not). It was fancy here. They had cloth napkins and the waiters were all dressed sharply but I could not read the menu. Yeah I see it says Pizza but what kinds are these? You don't have pepperoni down here? That is the most insane things I ever heard. Hmm since I don't know what this crap is I'm going to have to bite the bullet here and just trust you Ale to get me something I'll like. She ordered me 'Matambre con papas a la espanola'. It was awesome!!! :D Imagine a kind of regular personal pizza but instead of a bread crust that everything is on it's a big piece of meat. On top of that is ham. On top of that is a ton of melted cheese with spices and a few tomato slices. The whole thing is served with what we would call here potato wedges. It was awesome. I had a couple of 7ups with it, we took some pictures, I stole one of their classy cloth napkins and we were out.

It was a nice day for a walk. I remember seeing a block on the bus map that was in the shape of a circle. Apparently that was the park Ale wanted to show me so we went off in that direction. Watch where you step. There is dog poop all over the place. There is a burned out car filled with trash. Don't they clean up that stuff around here? Is this a foreign land thing or just a big city thing? I never figured that out. I started taking lots of atmosphere photos to remember how it felt to be there and pretty soon we were at the park. Around the outside were lots of vendors selling their stuff out of tents. Ale told me that most of the stuff there were selling was pirated America stuff. I guess it is marked up so bad in regular stores that no one buys it and almost everyone there has no qualms about buying their goods this way. That's just how it is. (I discovered this later when we found an electronic store and I looked at their PS3 stuff. Both the system and the games were about 4 times as expensive as if I would of bought them in a store back home.) There was a big pond in the middle of this park and there were a million pigeons flitting about. There were fountains in the water and cool statues around. We sat down and relaxed for a bit. We talked for a while and enjoyed each others company and the environment but there were some strong desires burning in the background. I think it's time to see if they finished our room.

I won't go into what happened next in too much detail. Let's just say the bed was insanely squeaky almost to the point of embarrassingly so. Now we can clean up and go back to meet her parents at her house and have dinner.

Wow this bathroom that we had to keep our clothes on to walk to doesn't even have a shower. Oh wait there is a hose in the sink. Oh we hook it to the faucet and hang it on the wall. How novel. :\ Wait the water pressure is so much that it keeps blowing it off the spigot. This sucks.

So we went to Ale's house and met her family. Her mom and dad and sister were all awesome I just wish I could understand them better. I got to see her house and her room. For some reason I never got the impression that her room was that small. They have a huge brick oven / grill thing in the middle of their house that is cool. Her dad grilled us all kinds of meat that we had for dinner. They kept testing things out on me to see if I'd eat it. Most things were ok. I mean meat is meat. Sure it tasted a bit different but as long as you don't tell me what it is until later I'll be okay. There was one kind of purple sausage that was all mushy and I didn't like. I found out later it was mixed with cow's blood so that was totally gross. Everything else was awesome. I gave her dad the headphones I bought for him (although for some reason Ale told him that she gave me the money to buy them. I'm not sure why. I thought he'd like me for giving him that present but if he thinks she bought it I won't have that going for me).

I also got to give Ale all the stuff I had been collecting for her. The Pens calendar, tons of American chocolate candy, a book on how to speak Pittsburghese and most importantly the less than 3 necklace. She really liked it which made me happy. When I saw it I knew it was the perfect gift since in all our chats we <3 each other. She says it's the best present she ever got and that she's never taking it off. That makes me feel good. We went back to the hostel and .. and slept. What a crazy first day!

TO BE CONTINUED