I just swam about two and a half miles. Rather than swimming back and forth from the shore to our raft and back, I decided to swim along the shore and see the sights. Among the interesting things I found: a tree trunk on the bottom about 200 yards from shore (how did it get there?), a clam that had obviously traveled along a circular path, circumscribing about three quarters of a circle about two feet in diameter (I'd never before seen a clam which had left a path behind it), a very old intact Coca-Cola bottle, and several small clumps of vegetation (i.e., seaweed). The 75 degree water may be much warmer than usual, but spending over an hour and a half in it still chills one. My subsequent hot shower felt very good. Now I'm wearing a rugby shirt. It is about 69 degrees now. The sun has peeked out from behind the clouds a few times today briefly, but it remains for the most part overcast and damp.

Dad and mom took the dreary day as an opportunity to go into Traverse City to visit my grandmother. My sister Soni took her family to see Gwen Frostic's store. Gwen Frostic is a very elderly lady who has been drawing trees and meadows and such for many years. Her art has been popular around here for quite some time. We have one of her prints above Rothiemay's fireplace.

Dad also took mom's car in to the local shop to have its belts changed. That leaves only one of the four cars in residence at present. I'm reluctant to take the remaining one into the gym because my sister Marie might have some sort of emergency with her progeny that might require transportation. Maybe I'll go to the gym later today.

I just read a short story by Rudyard Kipling called "The Finest Story in the World". Interestingly, the finest story in the world never ended up getting written -- due ultimately to the love of a woman.

My sister Soni took us all out to dinner at a local restaurant, the "Cabbage Shed". I had sautéed vegetables on linguini with tomato sauce. Interestingly, the proprietor was the entertainment, going from table to table with his guitar. For the first time in my life, I tried Borscht. It was pretty good.

Wednesday, August 4, 1999

Today is day eight of Eric's excellent vacation. After having breakfast (Wheaties & Multi-grain Cheerios with skim milk) and reading the paper (the Detroit Free Press), I went to the gym. I worked biceps, thighs, and calves. Then I did two hours on the exercise bike.

I've been doing all the shopping and cooking for the crowd this week. I like cooking a lot. The best thing about it is that it allows me to control what goes in my mouth! Also, it allows me to prove to others that it is possible to eat healthy fare that tastes good and is easy to prepare. Unfortunately, though, there is a fairly wide variety of preferences and food aversions in the large group here. So I have to make at least two versions of most entrees -- one that is very plain and bland and one that is more interesting (i.e., with spices and various non-traditional additions). But everything is pretty uniformly low in fat and basically healthful.

Everyone here except me seems to have gone out to visit the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I've been there before. Lots of sand. When I was about twelve or so, I went down the biggest dune, down to the lake (i.e., Lake Michigan). It was much fun going down, but NOT climbing back up! It was about a 500 foot climb up about a forty degree slope of sand. It seemed like for every three steps up, you sunk two steps back due to the shifting sand. My shoes filled up with sand and it was HOT that day too! Sand stuck to all exposed skin surfaces. I think that it must have taken about two hours or so to climb back up. Now they have a sign at the top warning people not to go down if they have heart problems and that sort of thing. I have no burning desire to repeat that experience.

Not much wind today, which precludes sailing. The weather at 4:00 pm is sunny and 76 degrees.

Both of my sisters are breast-feeding their respective infants at regular intervals. Which brings to mind a scene from a "Friends" episode. Several of the male characters are expressing discomfort at being around while Ross' son Ben is breastfed. Ross tells Joey and Chandler, "What's your problem? My son is having his lunch. This is one of the most beautiful things in all of nature." Joey responds, "Oh, I agree completely. But look, there's a baby sucking on it!"

I cooked dinner this evening (spaghetti ala Eric). For dessert, I made my fat-free pumpkin pie pudding. As an experiment, I added blueberries to a portion of it. The experiment was a success!

Dad and I are planning on tentatively waking up early tomorrow morning and swimming the three miles to Alligator Point, as I have done twice before, but not since '95, I think.

Thursday, August 5, 1999

Dad and I woke up at 6:30 am this morning to do the (three mile) Alligator point swim. We finally left the beach at about 8:00 am. I brought dad along to canoe beside me. I'm not really worried about not being able to make the distance, what I'm worried about is being hit by power boats who can't see me. I asked my father to just keep the canoe near me so that the power boaters will see him and avoid me. I didn't want to end up with propeller slices in my back (like so many Florida Manatees) or worse. The plan was to swim to Alligator point (about two hours), then dad and I would canoe back together (about an hour against the wind).

Well, when I got to Alligator point, I was feeling really strong. For the past six years or so, I'd had an ambition to swim the entire length of the lake (nine miles). I'd never really thought that it was possible for me to do, though. The first time I did the (three mile) swim to Alligator Point, I was very, very tired. But that was less than six months since I'd undergone major abdominal surgery to remove my left kidney. The second time I did the Alligator Point swim, two years later, I was less tired, but still pretty tired and cold. This time, I really felt good. I got to thinking, "when will the lake ever be so warm again (i.e., 75 degrees)?" Possibly never. "When will I ever be as well conditioned for swimming again?" Possibly never. "When will I ever find anybody to canoe next to me for over six hours again?" Possibly never. I made my decision -- I would make an assault on Beulah (Beulah is the tiny town on the east shore of the lake. Rothiemay is on the west shore of the lake. The distance is about nine miles).

I finally made it. Six hours and 26 minutes after I'd left Rothiemay. I had no interest in paddling back nine miles against a stiff wind, so we called my mother to come pick us up (especially the canoe). She indicated that they had been worried about us and sent my sister driving around the lake looking for our corpses! They had also involved our neighbor to search for our remains by sea with his powerboat. It is nice to know that people were concerned. We felt guilty for not letting the "home team" know our plans adequately, but there really was no way to do so once we had started off.

So I am now a pretty sore, tired guy. Dad is pretty tired too. I'm also somewhat sunburned despite using copious quantities of sunscreen beforehand.

The temperature was 62 when we started out this morning. Now (5:18 pm) it is 72.

This evening, since I was too tired to cook dinner, we went out to dinner at a local pizza place. Good pizza (it had pineapple on it -- the key to great pizza). On the way home, I stopped by the Frankfort mineral spring and had the obligatory taste. About a hundred years ago, people came from miles around to taste and bathe in the mineral water here. The sign on the well still says, "Water from this well is said to contain great health restoring properties". My mother thinks the water tastes awful. It does definitely have a taste. I wouldn't say it tastes bad, but I'm not anxious to fill up gallon containers to enjoy later either.

At 11:00 pm, the temperature is 68. I'm still a sore, tired, sunburned guy. I took ibuprofen to take some of the pain away.

Friday, August 6, 1999

Martin (my sister Soni's husband) left today. Dad and I sailed for about four and a half hours in his sailboat. It was perhaps the best sailing day since we've been here. Then we took it out of the water and made it ready for trailering to Camp Michigania tomorrow.

I'm still a sunburned guy, but, for the most part, no longer sore or tired. Today the temperature was a little cool. It is 68 now (8:40 pm).

Total bodies in residence: 9 (plus MacDuff).

Saturday, August 7, 1999

Today we all leave Rothiemay. My sister Marie and her family are heading home to the Detroit area, as is Mom. Dad, Soni, and her two children and I are going on to a week at Camp Michigania.

During my time at Rothiemay (i.e., 10 days), there were an average of 9.5 humans in residence here per day, with a high of 14 and a low of 6. Pretty good utilization.

I left with my sister Soni and her two kids (and MacDuff) at about 1:00 pm. We stopped by a kennel to drop off the pooch and made it to Camp at about 4:00 pm. It was great to get here. We are in cabin 2 South, unit A. Each cabin has three family units in it. It was raining much of the day. Dad showed up shortly thereafter.

Sunday, August 8, 1999

This morning I woke up at 6:20 am to shower and get the horses ready for their day. At 7:00, we let them in from the pasture, put them in their stables, and feed them their breakfast. Then I go off to the cafeteria to scarf down my own breakfast. The dining hall doesn't open until 7:45 and I need to be back at riding for morning grooming at 8:00, so I eat fast! At 8:00, I help brush down the horses, bring saddles out of the tack house, water them, and bring them out into the ring for the first class of the morning.

Then I helped dad rig his sailboat and launch it in the boating area. Over to the swimming area, I swam a mile, then had lunch. After lunch, dad and I went out on a 23 foot sailboat with six or so others for an "Admiral" checkout. This is to verify that we have adequate sailing knowledge and skill to handle some of the more "advanced" sailboats. It was fun. We sailed for about two hours in very heavy wind. It was pretty fun.

For the past two days, people have been coming up to me renewing acquaintances from years past. Since I've been coming the same week for the fourth consecutive year (the 8th of 11 possible camp weeks), and because many people do the same, There are many people whom I know here and many more people who know me (I'm not that good at remembering people). It is nice to catch up with acquaintances that I only see for one week a year. Many of them are quite interesting. The clientele here is pretty professional. Because you have to be a Michigan Alumni and because it is fairly expensive, the clientele tends to be families of doctors, dentists, lawyers, a few engineers, and little else.

After dinner, there was a staff show of skits, etc., which I skipped in favor of calling mom. At 9:00 pm, there was a "Faculty Forum". Every week here, there are (at least) two University of Michigan faculty who give two lectures in exchange for a free week at Camp for them and their family. Today's lecture was from a guy who has joint appointments in the U-M medical school (i.e., he's a doctor) and as a history professor. His specialty is history of medicine. He did a talk on the very unfortunate "Tuskegee Experiment", where the US Public Health Service deliberately denied medical care to several hundred poor black folks in Alabama who had syphilis in order to see if the long term untreated effects were any different than those for whites (already documented from the "Oslo Experiments"). A very sad chapter. I had to leave the lecture early to baby sit for my nephew while my sister goes to practice with the choral group that is forming here this week.

The temperature here is a bit nippy. It was down to 50 degrees at 10:00 pm.

Monday, August 9, 1999

Same horse routine this morning. I helped walk the 5-6 yr old kids around the ring in the first class of the morning. You have to be seven to ride a horse by yourself, so we walk the 5-6s around by a "lead line". Then I swam a mile and a half.

After lunch I did something that I'd never done before. I did three of the "high ropes course" challenges. It was pretty cool.

The first and most significant challenge was called "The leap of faith". You had to climb a telephone pole (easy, as there are lots of handholds and footholds installed for just that purpose. When you get to the top, you are supposed to climb up and stand on top of it! This is not easy, as there is nothing to hold on to. It is quite an act of balance to get up there to the point of standing. And the top of the pole only has a diameter of about seven inches or so -- very small! Then you are supposed to leap up and away to grab a trapeze bar sitting about eight feet away, about four feet higher than the top of the pole. You do all this with a safety harness so that if you should lose your balance, all that happens is that you get lowered gently to the ground. The first time I tried, I got up to the top of the pole (which was about seven inches in diameter), balanced there, leapt, and grabbed for the trapeze. I caught the trapeze in my fingers rather than the palm of my hand -- my fingers weren't strong enough, so I lost hold of the trapeze bar and fell. Then I tried it again, this time successfully.

The second challenge was called "The ladder". The idea is fairly simple. There are several (seven?) four-by-fours hanging one above the other, dangling by a wire on each end of it. The "rungs" of the ladder are spaced initially about 4.5 feet above each other. The higher you go, the more distance between them. At the top, there is about 6.5 feet between "rungs". You aren't allowed to touch the wires holding up the rungs. You do it with a partner, so you can help each other up and climb on each other and so forth. Very difficult and challenging. After successfully doing it once (which took 20-30 minutes), I did it a second time because another fellow wanted to do it and nobody else volunteered to do it with him. The second time was a little easier than the first. We used a somewhat different technique.

The third and last of this day was called "the heebie jeebie". You climb a telephone pole and there is a taut wire, about 18 feet long between it and another telephone pole. There is a (non-taught) rope attached to the pole you climb up and to the wire about 2/3 of the way to the other pole. There is a similar (non-taught) rope attached in the same manner to the opposite pole and to the wire about 1/3 of the way to the other pole. You can use the (non-taught) ropes for balance, but it gets less useful as you get near the middle of the wire (where you need it the most!). And you have to switch ropes in the middle. This was the easiest of the three, but fun none-the-less.

After the ropes course, I had to meet with my sister to take over looking after her two children (Dana, 9 and Colin, 11 months). She and dad were going on a steak ride. They ride horses along a trail and then have a cook-out.

The evening faculty forum was presented by a guy who is on the Univ Michigan communications faculty and who is apparently an expert on the cultural aspects of popular music. His presentation was on "Big Bands -- then and now". He played 30 to 60 second snippets of lots and lots of old jazz/big band songs. Great music!

Tuesday, August 10, 1999

This morning it was raining. I did the routine horse thing. One of the riding staff got bit by one of the horses. She was bit on her left breast. The same horse had bitten another staffer on her right breast about a week earlier. We're getting rid of that horse ...

I napped for an hour then swam a mile and a half.

After lunch, Dad and I attended a two hour long seminar/demonstration on hypnosis. Very interesting.

The "Michigania Family Olympics" was after dinner. I participated in the water balloon toss both with Dana and with Soni. In past years, I'd competed in things like the three legged race and the sack race relay, but decided not to do those any more. The last time I did the sack race, for example, I hurt myself diving over the finish line.

At 9:00 pm, all five of us participated in the square dance. Soni was carrying Colin on her back while dancing. After the square dance, I took over "baby duty" looking after Dana and Colin while Soni and dad went on the adult hayride.

Wednesday, August 11, 1999

I didn't do the daily morning horse chores this morning in favor of swimming across the lake and back at 6:45 am. It is allegedly about 3/4 of a mile each way, for a total of 1.5 miles. Perfect conditions -- the sun was hiding behind clouds (instead of shining directly into our eyes as we swam east) and the surface was glassy flat. 17 people did the swim (two only did the first half). The adrenaline from swimming with lots of others allowed me to swim about 1/3 faster than I normally do, completing the 1.5 miles in 40 minutes instead of my more common (and leisurely) 60 minutes.

I was hanging around the stables trying to make myself helpful when Soni showed up for an adult trail ride I hadn't planned on riding, but I suddenly had an impulse to join her. In order to go on this particular trail ride however, you had to have achieved "blue M" level certification. This is the second highest level of riding excellence available here ("gold M" is the highest). I asked for and was granted a quick blue M check out and joined her on the trail ride. I rode a horse known as "Apache". Unfortunately, the stirrups couldn't be adjusted long enough for my long legs, so I had to go without stirrups. This is basically doable. You squeeze your legs together to stay on the horse. That alone would tend to cause a sore groin. But also, as the horse walks, you are being bounced about, again on the groin. Result -- a very sore groin area for the next several days.

In the afternoon, dad and I went out on the ultra-fun sailboat, "Walloon 17". It has a trapeze and steers like a sports car. It also sports a weighted keel and an extremely narrow beam. It was extremely fun. After our 1:30-3:15 time period was up, the next two people signed up were supposed to use it, but only one showed up, so dad went ashore and I got to sail it until 4:30. Great fun. As Igor, a long-time staff member from Australia put it, "My gawd, thot's gawt to be the sexiest boat we've gawt. If I were a sailboat, you know that I'd have married her and we'd have six children."

After dinner, I competed for 1.5 hours in the men's camper-staff volleyball game. The staff won (as they almost always do), but it was close and much fun. Several people came up to me afterwards and complimented me on my play.

Then there was a 1.5 hour lecture titled "Frank Sinatra and the big bands." It was very interesting. Of course, the speaker again played many really great snippets from his early songs. The lecture got out at around 10:30 and I went to bed.

Today was a gorgeous day -- high of 80 and low of 60 and dry.

Thursday, August 12, 1999

Same morning horse routine as most days. There was a problem, though. One of the horses, "Eclipse", wasn't interested in eating. This is very odd. Usually, when we are feeding the horses in their stalls, all the horses are so excited that they are loudly whinnying and stomping their legs. Once they get their food, they eat ravenously. But Eclipse wasn't interested. We diagnosed him as having colic and called the vet. I walked him around the ring for about two hours after the normal grooming time was over. Horses with colic are walked to prevent their digestive system from wrapping itself up, thus killing the horse. The vet gave the horse a shot of a painkiller. I continued walking him and within five minutes, he was interested in eating grass! Within ten minutes, he was interested in some serious grazing! Also, the vet gave him a few gallons of mineral oil mixed with warm water. She inserted a 3/4" diameter plastic tube up his nostril into his stomach. He didn't seem to mind, which surprised me. She used a funnel to add the water/oil solution.

I showered before lunch. While I was in the shower, dad came in and stole my towel! I took a short nap. Dad came in with my towel and told me that he had caught a mouse at the archery range. He had it in my towel and he was bringing it to the cabin to show me. But as he tried to open the cabin's outside screen door, he inadvertently loosened the towel's hold on the mouse and it jumped down and scurried away. So dad just returned my (now mouse-free) towel.

After lunch was the regatta (i.e., sailboat race). There were two heats. Dad and I sailed our boat. We brought along a passenger, Phyllis. She is a dentist who was regretting not having gone sailing this week. I skippered the first heat (i.e., with dad as crew) and it went pretty well. I came in 5th of 13. In the second heat, dad skippered and he came in 5th of 7. There was almost no wind. It wasn't very exciting.

After dinner was the 12 and under softball game. I acted as coach. When my team was fielding, I stood out in the field with them and directed their actions. One child aged only three got a nice base hit on his first pitch.

After the kids' game was the adult softball game. I came prepared, with my glove, my (hot pink) baseball cap, and my cleats. It was fun. I played first base (I was going to play outfield, but my sore groin from yesterday's riding made me not want to run). I was three for three with singles each time and no errors.

At 9:00 pm was the last of the four faculty forum seminars. This one was on "Technology in Medicine". He mainly concentrated on the effects of the invention of the x-ray on medical care and the way society thought about it in the early part of the twentieth century. It was interesting. Afterwards, several of us sort of played a game similar to "Trivial Pursuit". We weren't really playing the game, just reading the questions and collectively trying to figure them out. I did pretty well.

Today was mostly pretty nice -- high of 80 and low of 60, but somewhat wet in the evening.

Friday, August 13, 1999

Same horse routine this morning. Eclipse is doing much better this morning. He is eating heartily. He did NOT want his medicine last night though. It was in the form a foul tasting paste. The way it was applied was kind of like with a caulking gun. You stick the caulking gun way up into his mouth and pump it in. He wasn't happy with that.

It will be sad leaving tomorrow, as always. However, I really am ready to go home. My body is sore. I need a vacation from my vacation.

I baby-sat for about an hour before lunch. After lunch, I had the best sail of my entire life. I went out with Boating staff member Melissa Mabley and camper Kathy "Cindy" (i.e., Crawford) Chiaravalli on the Walloon 17 at 2:00 pm. In the vicinity of camp, the winds were just mediocre, but a storm had just passed. Since the boat has a trapeze, I insisted that we bring along the two diapers (which are necessary in order to use the trapeze). Melissa suggested that we might not need them (i.e., because of light winds). We immediately headed out to the west branch of Walloon Lake (which you can't really see from Camp). There is always great wind there. When we got there, we found absolutely awesome conditions. We were heeling at about a 60 degree angle basically all the time. And that was with one crew member (either Cindy or I) "flying" out on the trapeze! The high winds and big (two foot) waves brought lots of water in over the bow. We were all soaked and loving it! It was an absolutely incredible feeling. Nature was dishing out enormous forces which we were harnessing in an exciting fashion for our own pleasure. It was a fair amount of work to handle the tiller and sheets against those strong forces.

At about 3:00, we headed back for home to pick up the next period's rider, Bruce Furman. I was going to go for another session. We found that in order to get out of the West branch of Walloon Lake, we had to Run. This means that we had to sail with the wind behind us. That is ordinarily OK. But if the wind shifts a little bit, it can get behind the main sail and violently throw it across the boat, possibly breaking the wires that hold the mast up. That is an accidental jibe. I was at the helm and was trying the best I could to make my way downwind towards the narrows that separate the west branch from the part of the lake that Camp is in, but we just weren't going to make it without running -- and risking accidental jibing and therefore potential demasting. As well as equipment problems, accidental jibes can hurt people too. When the boom violently is thrown from one side to the other, it can hit people in the head, possibly knocking them unconscious and/or out of the boat.

I told Melissa that I didn't really want to try doing this and that I'd be glad to turn it over to her (i.e., give her the helm) if she'd like. She said she wasn't any more comfortable with her at the helm than she was with me at the helm. I suggested that we drop our sails and call for help with the cell phone we'd brought along for that very purpose. Just as we were pondering that thought, Cindy noted that the mainsail was ripped -- there was a three foot rip which was getting bigger as we watched. We definitely needed to get the main sail down. The waves were still two feet or so with very heavy winds. The wind, waves, and the flapping of the ripped sail made it difficult to communicate. While I tried to turn us safely into the wind, Cindy and Melissa tried to lower the main. The main halyard is a wire which is winched. It is important to keep constant tension on it to prevent it becoming fouled. For whatever reason, the main halyard became fouled about two thirds of the way down.

Melissa used the cell phone to call the Camp office, per the Camp's emergency plan. She asked to be put through to the boating staff. Apparently nobody at boating answered the phone. Melissa called again. Paula Denton, the Camp's administrative assistant, answered the phone.

"Paula, this is Melissa again. We are in DIRE straights. You just tried to put me through to boating but nobody answered. If you need to, I need you to RUN down there (a five to ten minute or so walk) and tell them to send (boating director Michael) Loesel and (boating staffer Dan) Glasser here immediately!"

Somehow, the word was passed. We continued lowering the jib. I gave the helm to Cindy and tried unfouling the main halyard. I was successful and we finally got the main down all the way. Even with no sail, the boat was still violently pitching in the increasing winds and increasingly large waves.

Shortly thereafter, Michael and Dan showed up in one of the camp's three Whalers (a small powerboat made by the Boston Whaler company). We slowly towed in the Walloon 17 and our adventure had finally ended.

In hindsight, what we probably should have done is lower the mainsail and sail in on the jib (i.e., the smaller sail in the front of the boat). When sailing on the jib, you don't have to worry about accidental jibes, and the boat would sail down wind very well indeed. Hindsight is always 20-20 though.

As we went through the dinner line, we had to pay for any additional expenses we'd incurred during the week. For me, that amounted to about $80: $9 for a trail ride on the horses, and the rest from the camp store for miscellaneous memorabilia, postcards, and that sort of thing.

After dinner was the awards ceremony. I always find it interesting to find out all the interesting things that people have done during the week, many of which I may have been totally unaware of. I got five awards at the ceremony:

• "Flying Santanelli" - for successfully completing the "Leap of Faith" (see log from Aug 9 for more details)
• "Riding staff for a week" - for helping out with the horses all week
• "Braveheart" - for my adventures on the Walloon 17 earlier in the day, as described above
• "Lake Swimmer" - for swimming across the width of the lake and back on Aug 11
• "Swim & Stay Fit" - I got an award for swimming the farthest during the week -- my father and I tied at 6.75 miles. Actually, I only swam about 5.5 I think, but dad swam some more for me so that he and I could tie for the lead. I didn't swim the last two days of camp because I was trying to keep a wound on my left hand dry for faster healing.

I baby-sat for Dana and Colin all night. I started putting Colin to bed at 9:30 pm. I think I finally got him sleeping at 11:30 pm. Soni and Dad were at the "Keg & Coke" party. This is a party for adults. The campers put on skits and sing and that sort of thing. This particular week happened to have many very skillful performers. They adapted the lyrics of many songs from "Westside Story" to camp-related themes. They were practicing every day and I understand it really turned out to be a professional sounding presentation. I enjoyed listening to the 20-25 people involved practicing throughout the week.

Today was marvelous. The high was in the mid 70s and the low was in the high 40s -- a bit cool, but better being a bit cool than sweating in the swelter of home. Still shorts weather! I wore a Gore-Tex jacket this evening since it was sprinkling a bit in the evening.

Saturday, August 14, 1999

We slept in until 8:00 this morning. We did a little packing and then proceeded to breakfast -- our last meal here. Good-byes were liberally made to all acquaintances -- we won't see these friendly people we have come to know again until a year from now, if ever again. The interesting, friendly people are one of the things that makes Camp Michigania special. After breakfast, we finished packing, swept out our cabin, and returned our rented linen ($9 for the week) to the designated drop-off point. It is a beautiful day to start a vacation here. But alas, we are leaving.

Dad and I drove in his car and Soni, Dana, and Colin drove in their car. We stopped off at the kennel in Elk Rapids to pick up MacDuff. He seemed in good spirits. Soni tells me that this is a really, really good kennel. Supposedly, they have a site on the internet where you can see your pet in his area live! Every pet has a digital camera on them at all times (when they aren't outside getting walked or swum, that is), allowing concerned owners to check up on their dogs at any time. We continued on to Traverse City, where we picked up Soni's husband Martin at the airport. He flew in from Richmond to accompany Soni, Dana, Colin, and MacDuff on the long (about 17 hour) drive back to Richmond, VA. We all went to the nursing home where my (91-year old) grandmother lives and visited with her for a while.

Dad and I continued on to Detroit, where he dropped me off at Detroit Metro Airport for my trip back to the Wash DC area. My flight left at 9:15 pm. I got home at about 1:00 am on Sunday morning. It was a great vacation!

1999 Whistler/Blackcomb

In March, I had a client in Calgary who wanted me to go out there for two days. I took the opportunity to turn it into a ski vacation. My client was paying my airfare to Calgary and back. There are several good ski places near Calgary (e.g., Lake Louise, Banff, etc.). But my research found that the biggest mountain there only had 3000 feet of vertical rise. I found out that, for the same airfare cost, I could turn my round trip from DC-Calgary-DC to a three-leg endeavor which took me to the 5000 foot vertical rise of Whistler/Blackcomb Mountain near Vancouver. I also paid for my father to join me from his home in Michigan. Whistler/Blackcomb is incredible. Two mountains right next to each other, either of which by itself would be absolutely incredible. But together, WOW! They are the largest vertical rises of any ski place in North America.

I found a place to stay on the Internet. It cost $140 Canadian per day for the two of us. It was an "efficiency" apartment, basically. It had a pull out couch to sleep on. The bed wasn't very comfortable, but it was inexpensive and there wasn't much else available when I made my reservations about a week and a half before the fact. The first day of skiing, it was very warm. We skied without gloves most of the day! The snow was nice and it was just wonderful. Dad was holding me back for the first three hours that we skied, though. He was a very slow skier in the first place, and he kept wanting to take breaks. I'd tried to get him into some sort of skiing condition by urging him for the three weeks or so previous to do several hundred quarter-knee bends each day. I was hoping that this would get his thighs into shape so that he wouldn't have to rest them so much. Anyway, I left him after lunch and we didn't really ski together the rest of the four ski days, which was fine. I brought along food from home for us to eat on the slopes: I packed each of us a zip-lock bag with a selection of the following: dried mango slices, dried apple slices, dried apricots, dried figs, and dried persimmon slices. It was an excellent food for eating on the slopes -- it tasted great, was calorie-dense for energy and it was essentially fat-free (and sulfur free).

The second day, the mountains were really foggy. Dad was bragging about how he, as a private pilot, would cancel a planned flight under such conditions (I say bragging because he claimed that many pilots would be reluctant to do so if they had plans and passengers, etc.). He wanted to abort skiing for the entire day. I didn't want to give up that easily. I was hoping that, if I went high enough up the mountain, I could get above the fog. Well, I got about half way up the mountain and it was pretty much zero visibility. I overheard a mountain worker telling somebody that they just checked on conditions higher up the mountain by walkie-talkie and that it was fogged in there too. I decided to try an intermediate run on mid-mountain. With visibility anywhere from three feet to twenty feet, my first run down was EXTREMELY slow and tentative (imagine "feeling" your way down a mountain blindfolded). After one run, I decided to try the same run again. I did that same run basically all day. The fog never really went away. But I had found a pretty nice run that I was familiar with. I was afraid that if I went elsewhere, the visibility would be worse. There wasn't much variety that day, but it was OK skiing. On the walk back to our lodging, we stopped by the grocery store, an IGA. We found that the carts there had an interesting feature -- they were coin return carts. All the carts were basically chained together. In order to unchain one, you had to insert a quarter to a little box attached to the handle. Upon returning the cart and chaining it to the rest of the carts, your coin would be returned from the box. Dad and I saw this as an opportunity to make some spare change. So we scoured the parking lot and came up with five carts --- that's $1.25. Then, we'd loiter at the exit, waiting for unsuspecting shoppers with carts to exit and not return their carts. Amazingly, it seemed that about half of the people didn't return their carts and get their quarters back. Over the next two days, dad and I accumulated about six dollars in this manner.

The next day started foggy but turned out to be fabulous. Pretty much perfect. The last day was warm, but not warm enough to go gloveless. Unfortunately, four days of above freezing temperatures finally took their toll and the snow was starting to get mushy (a.k.a., "corn silk"). At the higher elevations, there were high winds (i.e., about 30-50 mph) blowing around little ice crystals. I really felt sorry for the poor souls up there who were skiing without face protection.

1998 Michigania

Saturday, Aug 8, 1998

I love Camp Michigania. When I was young, I used to really look forward to it. It is located in NW Michigan in an area of rolling hills. When I was young, the fact that we were going up and down big hills was the first sign that we were, in fact, approaching Camp. It caused great excitement. Then, about five miles from Camp, there begin to be signs on the road -- Wooden block M's painted either maize or blue (the Univ Mich school colors). After the excitement of being in the hills, the M's really got exciting. My siblings and I would have a competition to see who would be the first one to spot the first M sign! Then, we'd enter Camp. We'd see the big Michigan Rock on the right as we entered -- appropriately colored Maize and Blue with the Block M. Then, on the right we'd see Lake Forman, a cesspool named after the long-time director of the University of Michigan Alumni Association. On the right, we'd see the Camp's horses in the pasture (Sat is their only day off), followed by the stables, the archery range, and finally, welcome hill. On welcome hill there would be a kitchen fly set up with a few staff on duty to check in arriving campers.

It is now 4:40 pm EDT. I'm in dad's car heading for Camp. Dad and sis were real troopers about their long wait (I missed my connection in Chicago and couldn't get on the next flight, so my ride in Traverse City at the airport had to wait for me for about four and a half hours). We're heading north on US-31 from Traverse City to Camp. We'll get there at around 5:30, I think. We'll check in, unpack our vehicles at our cabin, park our cars in the parking lot (won't need them again for a week), and then zip off to dinner. We'll try to put the boat in the water immediately after dinner, if it isn't raining. Sadly, the forecast for the area is for rain today (not raining at the moment), tomorrow, and possibly Monday. However, I note that even this would be an improvement on the DC area forecast for the coming week, which seemed to forecast thunderstorms every day this coming week.

Sunday, Aug 9, 1998

Now it is 10:20 pm. Yesterday, after dinner dad and I put his sailboat in the water. While unpacking the car, I was walking along and heard some buzzing near my head and saw something out of the corner of my right eye. I made a mental note that a bee or something was landing on me and I thought nothing of it. But then I felt a sharp pain on my shoulder. YOW! I quickly reached inside the neck of my t-shirt and lifted it from my shoulder. I then was able to study a hornet, still sitting on the T-shirt, repeatedly jabbing his stinger into my T-shirt at a pace of roughly three times per second. I've never been stung before and don't know why I was stung this time. I wasn't consciously bothering this fellow. My theory is that he was sitting on the ground and I kicked him or something unknowingly.

This morning, I woke up early, at 6:30 am to shower and get to the cafeteria in time for the beginning of breakfast at 7:45 am. I skarfed down my breakfast in about five minutes and headed for the horse-back riding area, where I helped groom the horses, bring saddles out of the tack house, and bring horses out into the ring for the first class of the day. Then I headed over to the boating area, where I took and passed the "Skipper" test, which allows you to take out most of the camp's flotilla of 50 or so sailboats. Next, I headed to the swimming area, where I swam 2.25 miles. Then I went to lunch, which started at 12:00 and went through 1:30. It was pretty leisurely. At 1:45, dad and I had an "Admiral" checkout, which we both passed. This lets us check out six of the more advanced boats and lets us go (with a staff person) on the most advanced boat, the Walloon 17. Then it was back to swimming, where I swam another 1.25 miles. There was a cormorant in the swimming area. Sometimes, it was sitting on the dock. Sometimes it went diving for food. It could swim about 20 yards underwater. It was cute. Dinner started at 5:30 and lasted through 7:00. Afterwards, I skipped the staff show (skits and staff introductions) and read the paper instead. I went on a walk with my sister and now am contemplating embracing the arms of Morpheus.

Monday, Aug 10, 1998

Now it is 10:10 pm. This morning I groomed the horses after an early breakfast as usual. I assisted the riding staff with their first class, the 5 and 6 year olds. They are too young to ride by themselves, so they get walked around, led by an adult (e.g., me). Then I went to Boyne City (i.e., the BIG CITY) to run some errands. After lunch, I took a Hobie (catamaran) lesson and went out on a Hobie 16, which earned me the right to do it by myself later. I then headed over to swimming to get in a mile and a half. After dinner, I loitered around the riding area, waiting for the adult steak ride (including dad) to return to the stables. While I was waiting, I saw three deer grazing on the grass on the archery range. After the horses returned, I led them into the stables, helped unsaddle them, and then witnessed a great spectacle. All at once, we unhooked all the horses from their tethers. Now free for the night, you could see the glint of excitement in each horse's eye. All at once, they backed out of their stalls and galloped off, careening off each other in the process. It was really quite a sight.

Tuesday, Aug 11, 1998

It is 6:46 pm. Last night was the first night that we needed blankets. This morning, I woke up even earlier than normal to make the 6:45 am lake swim. We swam across the lake and back for a total of 1.5 miles. It took me 40 minutes, which is about 33 % faster than my normal leisurely pace. It was fairly nippy today -- high was in the low 70s with a nice breeze. Camp sweatshirts went like hot cakes in the camp store. After breakfast, dad and I grabbed a guy, Mark, to go sailing with us in our boat.

He was a novice sailor, but very smart and interesting. as we finished our sail, we approached the mooring. The fellow was on the foredeck with the painter. He ran the painter through the eye of the mooring and I told him to connect it back to our boat's bow eye (i.e., our painter was doubled up, with both ends connected to our boat). We dropped the main sail and dropped the jib. The fellow was still on the foredeck pulling down the lowering jib as dad noticed that we were floating away from the mooring! Apparently, he hadn't attached the end of the painter to our boat!! It was a very embarrassing situation, as we had to break out our paddles and paddle back to the mooring!

After lunch, dad and I walked along one of the camp's several nature trails. We saw a garter snake, several chipmunks, and a two foot tree that had obviously been chewed roughly a quarter through by a beaver (but no beaver lodges were in sight anywhere). Dad and I took an hour long nap and then swam for about 35 minutes, for another mile.

Tuesday, Aug 11, 1998, 9:34 pm

This evening after dinner we attended the "Camp Michigania Family Olympics", which consists of things like three legged races, sack races and such. The only event that I was interested in was the last one, the water balloon toss. My sister and I competed and dropped out after only three tosses.

Then, dad and I went over to the horse pasture and fed two horses some carrots, apples, and pears that we'd spirited from the cafeteria yesterday. They ate enthusiastically. On the way back to the cabin, we saw a deer at the archery range again. I just remembered that we saw a mink yesterday at the boating area walking across the beach. I'd seen them here at Camp before in prior years.

Wednesday, Aug 12, 1998, 9:55 am

This morning I woke up earlier than normal to bring the horses in from the pasture to the stable and feed them breakfast at 7:00 am. They eat Purina Sweetena in the stable (hay and grass in the pasture).

After breakfast, at 8:00 am, I again went back to groom them, saddle them, and bring them out for the first class.

No rain yet this week and none in the forecast! It is difficult to imagine more optimal weather conditions! I've been in shorts and t-shirt every day. I put on a chamois shirt for part of the day yesterday, though, for a little extra warmth.

Now it's 11:08 pm. I took a two hour nap this morning before lunch, which really felt good.

After lunch, dad and I went out with a staff member on the camp's Walloon 17, which is a super fast class of sailboat specifically designed for Walloon Lake. It is long -- about 20 feet or so, but with a very narrow beam -- about five feet and a weighted keel and trapeze. It was great fun and there was pretty good wind for it.

After an hour and a half of that, we grabbed some "marina rats" and took them for an hour and a half sail on our boat. Claus is a Mechanical Engineering professor at Michigan and his wife Wencke is a dentist/researcher with a Ph.D. in something or other. Both were from Denmark originally. Very lively conversation and great sail.

Dinner was the weekly cook out. I had veggie burgers with tomatoes and onions on top, a bit of beans in tomato sauce, a few celery sticks, and a few really yummy frosted brownies.

After dinner, I watched the women's volleyball game and then played in the men's volleyball game. My best play was on the first volley, where I made a dramatic block of a spike attempt.

After the volleyball game, I attended the "Faculty Forum", which was entitled "Medicine and art in Russia". It was a slide show and lecture of the experiences of a female cardiologist and her cardiologist husband who did a medical relief mission to Russia last year. It was absolutely fascinating.

The lecturer is fascinating in her own right. Both of them (the husband and wife) are cardiologists on the staff of the Univ of Michigan Medical School (which is a top medical school). They seem to be able to deal with their stressful jobs well, as both somehow also find time to be extremely competitive triathaletes. The woman has completed the Hawaii Ironman triathlon. She is in really, really great shape. They bicycled 42 miles this afternoon. I saw her finishing a six mile run two days ago and she looked totally fresh -- with a great stride and a great pace. They also seem to have time to have normal, healthy relationships with their two children (ages 5 and 7). They are about forty years old right now.

Thursday, Aug 13, 1998, 12:13 am

This morning I brought the horses in from pasture again at 7:00 am, then had breakfast at 7:45 (waffles, oatmeal, and orange juice), and helped groom the horses at 8:00. I also helped lead the 5 and 6 yr olds around the ring from 8:45 to 9:45.

Then I swam three miles before lunch.

Thursday, Aug 13, 1998, 10:50 pm

For lunch today had three black bean burgers with onions, tomatoes, and lettuce. This afternoon was the famous "Camp Michigania Classic Regatta". There were two heats and dad and I entered our boat in both. I skippered the first heat. I executed the starting maneuver that I'd developed here last year to perfection, again being the first to start, within two seconds of the gun. Unfortunately, we got unlucky as the wind shifted around (which it did more than I can ever recall). The wind direction was actually changing as much as 180 degrees several times! We finished somewhere in the middle of the pack. Dad skippered the second heat. We still had a good start (not a great one) and were still one of the first three boats across the line, starting within about 10 to 15 seconds of the gun. We again finished in the middle of the pack. It was fun.

For dinner, I had mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes, a piece of lean looking turkey, all topped with strawberries in juice (which was intended to be put over angel food cake for dessert). It was so yummy that I had two plates of the above.

After dinner, at 6:30 pm, I coached the 12 and under softball game. At 7:30, I played in the teen and adult softball game. Last year I had the best game of my life. This game was merely pretty good. At the plate, I hit three long balls to center that were caught. I also hit one long ball to right field that was a three run home run. I made several really good plays in the field with no errors. It was much fun.

Friday, August 14, 1998, 9:35 am

Last night I had a nightmare. I was being intimidated and threatened by the Mafia for something or other that a fictional male midget friend of mine had done. It was very scary.

Same morning routine this morning as past few. 7:00 bring in horses and feed them. 7:45 breakfast: pancakes, grits, fresh ginger bread, and orange juice. 8:00 grooming and saddling.

Today is the last full day of camp. It will be tough leaving, as always, because I love this place so much. But honestly, camp is really exhausting. I try to get the maximum experience I can here (to justify its VERY high cost). I'll need a vacation to recover from my vacation!

It is 11:48 am now. I just took an hour and a half nap. This afternoon, dad and I are doing one last sail on the Walloon 17 at 1:45. The awards ceremony is after dinner today.

Saturday, Aug 15, 1998, 10:30 am

After the last Walloon 17 ride yesterday, dad and I brought our sailboat out of the water and de-rigged it. At the awards ceremony, I received the following awards:

• Farthest swimming mileage (10.5 miles, more than twice the second place fellow's five miles)
• Successful Lake swimmer
• "Wanna be a riding staffer" (for helping out at horse area)

This morning, we packed and cleaned up our cabin, had breakfast at 9 am, and cleared out by 10 am. We drove by Traverse City to visit my grandmother on the way to Lansing, where my flight left (via Chicago). I made it home just now. It was a great vacation!

1998 Rothiemay

I went to Rothiemay and had a great time. It was very similar to those in the past. It wasn't hot, humid and 95 degrees like it was in DC -- the hottest it got was about 82, with a max 70 percent humidity. The water in Crystal Lake was much warmer than the usual 60 degrees or so -- it was about 70 to 75 degrees this year! I went to an orchestra concert (they weren't very good, but what do you expect for a small town band of amateurs) and an interesting choral thing called "Evensong", which turned out to be a choral group doing an Episcopalian mass -- interestingly, they did the whole mass -- the priest didn't do anything -- the choir did everything! There were an average of 9 people in residence during the time I was there. Bob and Geri Binion visited with their children Seth and Andrea.

1998 Hawaii

Wed, June 24: Today I arrived at about 10:30 am. It is just over ten years since I last was here in paradise. It was February, 1988, when I boarded the USS Tunny for its trip to Bremerton, Washington for a two year overhaul period. But anyway, here I am. I got my rental car, checked into my Hotel -- the Hale Koa in Waikiki, and got settled. I went swimming both in the Pacific (warm) and one of the Hale Koa's three outdoor pools (warmer). I walked along the Ala Wai canal, where my gym, the World Gym, used to be located (not there anymore). When I used to work out there, I used to occasionally see the outrigger war canoes paddling by, but I never paid much attention. Today, I walked along the canal and saw about 40-50 of these things actively practicing up and down the canal! It was quite a site! These things are huge, with each one having 5-6 paddlers paddling in unison.

Right now, I'm sitting on my lanai (Hawaiian word for balcony), which has a "partial ocean view", in other words, you can see the ocean kind of off to the side. The weather today was absolutely perfect. Not too hot, occasional very light rain, nice wind. Right now, I am sitting here, on the lanai, as I said, in my pajamas. The temperature is still perfect: warm but not humid, with a nice breeze. I'm gazing down at all the palm trees and native fauna -- breathtaking. The mountains inland are no longer visible, since it is nighttime, but they are similarly breathtaking during the day.

I've decided not to use the air conditioning in my room, in favor of leaving the door to my lanai open all night. Not too many stars out tonight, perhaps because of the city's bright lights.

Work begins tomorrow. I pick up mom at the airport after work, at about 6 pm.

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Thurs, June 25, 1998, day two

I checked in at Camp H.M. Smith and met the folks I'll be working with -- two very pleasant folks. After work, I went to the Airport to pick up mom. I stopped by the exchange to pick up a lei (which was very pretty and was on sale for $4!) on the way. Mom's plane was on time. We went by the rental car place to add her as an authorized driver, checked her into the hotel (she costs me an extra $2 a day at the hotel).

We then went out to the Benihana Japanese steak house for a meal at one of their "cooking tables", where eight people sit around a grill and a chef comes and cooks your meal right in front of you -- they try to make it a fancy production. We had teriyaki chicken, which was extremely yummy. One the way back to the hotel, we stopped by a local grocery store and picked up the next day's breakfast -- a loaf of King's Hawaiian sweet bread, a half gallon of orange juice, and two plates of fruit. Again, the weather was perfect yesterday -- and we left the lanai door open all night rather than use the air conditioning. I was surprised at how well mom did last night, since we didn't turn in until about 11 pm -- or FIVE AM by her internal body clock (since she had arrived that very day and she gained six hours).

In the morning, when I got out of the shower, I was surprised to notice that a white bird had decided to take advantage of my "open door" policy and was striding around the room like he owned the place -- I shooed him out. All the plants and birds are fabulously beautiful beyond belief. I like it here.

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Friday, June 26, 1998, day three.

After getting back from work, I noticed something that I had completely forgotten about Hawaii -- its magnificent rainbows. These aren't just rainbow fragments -- it is the entire rainbow you can see. And you can clearly distinguish the colors. At times, I drove right up next to the mythical "end of the rainbow" (really). Twice, I can now recall, I saw rare "double rainbows" here in HI. After returning home, I met mom in the room. She accompanied me to the gym where I had a biceps workout, then to the pool where I swam. We walked around Hilton Hawaiian Village and eventually walked around Waikiki to the local Subway shop. We both got Veggie 6" subs.

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Saturday, June 27, 1998, day four

Today, we drove around a bit on the way to the Polynesian cultural center. We stopped by the famous Pali lookout -- spectacular view and extremely windy there. We also stopped by the Kaneohe Marine air station to look around. We saw two unidentifiable creatures. I say the first was a feral cat -- mom swears otherwise. Nearby, we saw ssomething that was either a furry ferret-like creature or a monitor lizard -- we didn't see it well enough or long enough to tell. Then we got to the Polynesian Cultural Center at about 1 pm. We were there till ten pm. It is quite a production there. They have these authentic villages set up for each of several pacific island cultures: Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Maquesas, Tonga. Each was staffed by natives of that country. What was interesting was why they were there. Most, if not all of them, were attending college at the Brigham Young University campus in Hawaii. In exchange for working at the Polynesian Cultural Center (which the Mormon church owns) for twenty hours a week, they get a free college education. Then we saw an IMAX film on the ocean, had a sumptuous feast for dinner, and saw a 1.5 hour awesome stage show of dances, etc. from each of the island nations. It was quite a day.

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Sunday, June 28, 1998, day five

Today was fairly eventful. We started off with a trip to Hanauma Bay. In the past, this is where I had fed the fish frozen peas and gazed at the hundreds of brilliantly colored fish of all varieties that would have a feeding frenzy right in front of me for those peas. Well, they don't allow you to feed them any more, but it was spectacular just the same. I rented a snorkel, mask, and fins and snorked around for a little over an hour. Then we had to hurry back to Waikiki for the submarine sightseeing tour. There are relatively small (by my standards) commercial submarines (hold 64 people) that, for a fee, take you down to over 100 feet to see the fish and stuff. The captain of the ship, interestingly enough, was known as "Captain Susan". Lots of big windows, kind of like on 20,000 leagues under the sea! Spectacular! We saw an (endangered) green sea turtle (about three or four feet long), a four foot long shark, some puffer fish, most of the same fish that I saw in Hanauma Bay earlier, and spectacular scenes. Fish included the Bright yellow tang, the spectacularly colored Bullethead Parrotfish and the Hawaii state fish, the "humu humu nuku nuku apua'a" (that's the real name of it!). The inside of the sub had no lights -- since it had lots of huge windows, it was lighted by ambient light. This caused some interesting results. I was never aware of this before, but the water selectively filters various colors of sunlight the deeper you go. According to the booklet they passed out, here's what happens: First, red starts to fade by the time you get to about 30 feet or so. Next, orange starts to break down and appears yellow. At 60 feet, yellow begins to break down and red is completely faded. At 90 feet, green breaks down and begins to look blue, and the color blue is more vibrant.

The result of all this is that, deep down, unless you introduce artificial lighting, which we did not have, most colors appear kind of grayish, regardless of their actual color. Likewise, inside the sub, the colors of our clothing similarly changed, because again, it was lit from the ambient light coming in the windows. This caused some interesting effects. I was wearing "aqua shoes" that have a lime green mesh top. Well, that, along with the green bracelet I was wearing, appeared brilliant yellow. My orange nylon swim trunks appeared brownish, but the orange threads in them appeared bright red! I took lots of pictures to prove it (in addition to the pictures I took from the Pali lookout and the Polynesian Cultural Center yesterday). When I got to the end of the roll and went to remove the film, I found that I had been taking all these pictures the past few days with no film in my camera!!

Then I went to the gym for a pec and shoulder workout and then swam about a mile in the ocean. I saw an interesting thing which I presume to have been a variety of sea cucumber. It was about a foot long, two inches in diameter, and basically cylindrical. It was covered with sand. When I rubbed the sand off, it was black. It was squishy too. It was not moving. I saw several, perhaps a dozen of these things. Then, I lounged in the (warmer) pool afterwards, and then went out for dinner. We went to the Subway, which mom likes. Then I had a dish called Miso Tofu Ramen at a Japanese fast food restaurant. And here I am now.

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Monday, June 29, 1998, day six

Today I had to hurry back from work, but was thwarted by the traffic. On the way home, I saw a rare double rainbow -- absolutely spectacular! I hadn't seen one in at least ten years!

I was rushing home for the Luau. There is a pretty good luau here at the Hale Koa (means "house of the warrior") hotel. They cooked a pig in the imu (fire pit -- it was in there, buried in the pit -- for about nine hours). As well as the pig, we also had teriyaki beef, shoyu chicken, fried banana (I skipped that), and grilled mahi mahi (a yummy fish). The salad included some extra yummy spiced seaweed, some cucumbers, and a mixture of tomatoes and salmon. Of course, there were also generous helpings of pineapple and poi (a purple paste-like substance with little flavor -- made from the roots of the taro plant -- this is supposedly a local staple and is loaded with nutrients). For desert, there was coconut cake and coconut Jell-O (I skipped those too). There was live entertainment -- hula dancers, a fire dancer, and a pretty good singer/emcee (he used to work for Don Ho). Here's a picture of mom and me with two models at the luau.

Mom and I have settled into a routine of King's Hawaiian Sweet Bread and Orange juice (OJ is pretty expensive here -- about twice continental prices) for breakfast every day. We have a little mini refrigerator in our room, but it doesn't cool very well and has a sign on it warning not to put dairy products in it overnight -- so we don't do the cereal and skim milk thing (though we do have a box of fat free rice crispies to munch on as a supplement).

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Tuesday, June 30, 1998, day seven

This morning on the way to work, I saw another double rainbow. It rains a lot here. Many times a day each and every day. But each time, it only rains for a few minutes. It is really just something of a minor nuisance. It has yet to rain enough to cause me to actually seek shelter or use an umbrella or anything.

I saw my first gecko in ten years this morning. He was about three inches long. He was brown with black diamonds on his back. He was in our bathroom, but scurried out. Geckos in your home are considered good luck here in Hawaii. They eat bugs and are very cute. Geckos are small cute lizards.

After work, we went to the magic show here at the hotel. It started with an all you can eat buffet. The highlight for me was the vegetarian spaghetti sauce, which I put over the steamed rice (their spaghetti was all cheesy -- fatty). Very yummy.

The magician was OK. The real highlight, though (besides the magician's very cute and fit wahine assistant), was an incredible juggler who also performed. He did lots of things that I've never seen jugglers do before.

For lunches, I eat at the Camp Smith cafeteria and usually get what they call a "Healthy Camp Smith". It consists of the following: A few scoops of steamed rice, some tuna fish with pieces of green bell pepper and onion mixed in (no Mayo!), and some lettuce with tomato pieces. Very yummy.

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Wednesday, July 1, 1998, day eight

I left work a little early today to go to the Navy clinic. My finger that I dislocated some two and a half weeks ago is still sore and swollen, so I was thinking that I may have injured it more than I thought. I had it X-Rayed and there are no broken bones -- it just takes a long time for the stretched/torn ligaments/tendons to stop being all swollen and all. The doc said that I should just be using it, which is what I have been doing -- fortunately, it turned out that my instincts on the matter were all correct.

After dinner (mom at subway, me again with the miso tofu ramen at the nearby Japanese restaurant), we walked along the Ala Wai canal (where I'd seen all the outrigger canoes practicing last Wednesday). Now we are back in our room. I only have two work days left -- today I had what will probably be the last of my ten or so interviews with people for fact finding purposes. I started typing out some of the things that I want to say in my report. I've got lots of work to do!!

The weather here is pretty much perfect. Highs are about 85 every day, with plenty of wind off the ocean to keep it from being unbearable. Lows are about 70 at night. The only beads of sweat that have dropped from my brow were in my Building at Camp Smith -- not because of the heat outside, but because the ventilation system in that room was screwed up.

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Thursday, July 2, 1998, day nine

After work, I went to the gym for a pretty good Triceps/back workout, then swam about a mile in the ocean. Contrary to my previous experience, I saw lots of life in the ocean here off Waikiki. I saw five fish, including a puffer fish. I also saw some sort of sea snake. It was brown, about three feet long and two inches in diameter, with black diamond-shaped markings. It was just laying there on the bottom. I also saw two big sea urchins. They were deep black, with a high density of thin black spines, about 8-10 inches in diameter. Then, mom and I went for the first time to one of the restaurants here in the hotel. They had pizzas there (one of my two exceptions to my otherwise strict dietary regimen, the other being chocolate), but, amazingly, they did not offer pineapple as a topping. I insisted on a pineapple topping anyway and they complied. It was OK -- not great, but OK. I guess the only thing that really makes a bad pizza is one that is too greasy and has too little pineapple on it.

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Friday, July 3, 1998, day ten

This morning, we slept in. Mom did a load of laundry. Then we set out for the Arizona Memorial. We had to wait around for about an hour before getting in to the film, after which they take you out (in a Navy boat) to the memorial, then they bring you back. During the wait, we looked around the book store and gift shop. Then we went to the nearby USS Bowfin, a WW II submarine that is now a museum. We walked around in there and checked out their museum too. Then, we went over to the submarine base and got a tour of the USS William H. Bates, an exact replica of the USS Tunny, my ship (which has since been decommissioned). Interestingly, even though the Tunny was decommissioned, they still have Tunny ballcaps in the exchange. Anyway, I gave mom a tour of the ship (after we got the duty officer's permission and he found a volunteer to chaperone us). It brought back memories. There also was an Australian, a Japanese, and a S Korean sub parked there. I was going to try to get tours on them too, but mom reminded me that we'd made a dinner appointment and had to hurry to make it. It was with my old buddy from the Tunny, Paul Skarpness, who stayed in the Navy and is living in Hawaii now (with his new wife, whom he met in Japan and who joined us). I hadn't seen Paul in seven years -- it was nice to see him again.

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Saturday, July 4, 1998, day eleven

We woke up early this morning to leave the hotel at 6:30 am. We spent the day touring the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the big island of Hawaii. First, we got a shuttle to the Airport, then a 7:45 Hawaiian airlines flight to the big Island. When we arrived, we boarded a tour bus and began our tour. I didn't exactly agree with all the stops that they arranged, but it was OK. We stopped by the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory, a water fall, an area where steam comes up out of the ground, and all the (old) lava flows that you could possibly imagine. The only flowing lava on the island at the moment was unreachable by car (it was stuff that flowed basically from below ground into the ocean -- you could see the resulting steam from a long way away). SOOOO much lava. A lifetime's worth. I also saw another endangered species, the nene (Hawaii's state bird, a.k.a., the Hawaiian Goose). Just got back from the airport at about 7:30. Exhausted due to having to wake up early this morning and from not sleeping soundly last night. I have a bit of a cold. If you can believe it, yesterday I lost my voice. All day today, I was whispering in mom's ear. It is starting to get a bit better.

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Sunday, July 5, 1998, day twelve

This morning we slept in, which really felt good. We went to Sea Life Park, which is a Sea World - type place. I got some great pics of a huma huma nuka nuka apua'a, some sea turtles, penguins, and other stuff. The highlight, though, was playing with the dolphins! I paid about $50 each above the base entry price to get their special good deal where you get to actually interact with the dolphins! I fed one, made it do tricks, and petted her all over -- very, very cool!! I have a picture of me and the dolphin interacting. There also was a rare Hawaiian Monk Seal, Humboldt Penguins, etc.

I don't think that the dolphins would have been "in" to wrestling. However, they are very tactile critters and seem to enjoy being petted all over. Their top side feels like, well, a wet rubber innertube stretched over very hard foam (i.e., muscles). Their under side is the same stuff stretched over softer foam. Their fins are completely hard -- like hard plastic. I didn't get a chance to feel her snout. I wanted to get in and swim with them and maybe try wrestling with them, but they wouldn't let me. Touching the dolphins was one of the highlights of the trip (and it had better have been, at the prices I paid to do it!). Here's a picture of me with a dolphin.

Come to think of it, she was making a really cool clicking sound for a while, so I suppose she was "talking" with me.

Then, we went over to the sub-base again to try to get a tour of the Ausie submarine. On the way we stopped at the Pali lookout again for pics (this time WITH film in the camera). They said that it wasn't a good time -- to try again later.

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Monday, July 6, 1998, Day 13

After work today, I had to hurry home to pick up mom and get to the Pearl Harbor Subase theatre, where we saw Titanic. It was the best of the half dozen or so Titanic films that I've seen. Tomorrow is it. We leave. It will be tough to say goodbye to these beautiful islands. I'm tired. I'd probably be less tired if I wasn't feeling under the weather.

I will be more tired when I get home. I leave Honolulu tomorrow at ten pm, arrive Dulles, via LAX at 2:30 pm or so Wednesday.

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Tuesday, July 7, 1998, day 14

Today, my 34th birthday, is the last day in paradise.

Well, the last day here had to come sometime. Today was it. We slept in this morning. We went to the exchange at the hotel one last time, packed, and checked out. We went over to the Subase to try again to get a tour of the Ausie submarine, but again they were too busy to tour us around. We didn't try to get tours on the Japanese and Korean subs due to expected communication difficulties. We went to the Exchange at Hickam Air Force Base and looked around Hickam. I called two of my old friends and left messages for them. I had hoped to visit all my old friends this past weekend, but my lost voice precluded that. Even now I am marginal, talking-wise. I dropped off mom at the airport (her flight left four hours earlier than mine). I went to the Pearl Harbor Subway for dinner, took care of an administrative detail at the Pearl Harbor housing office, and then returned my rental car. I took the rental car shuttle to the airport and here I sit at the gate, waiting to be swept away from paradise.

Tonight will be tough -- flying all night. This flight lasts about five hours and pulls into LAX at about 0500 LA time. Then, at about 0630, I board another plane for Dulles. It lasts about five hours and arrives at about 1430 DC time. I'll probably get a few hours of sleep on the plane, but it won't be very restful sleep. I'll be pretty tired. There's a softball game, the last of the season, at 7 pm, but the combination of tonight's sleepless night and my marginally sick condition suggest skipping that in favor of sleep. We'll see how I feel.

1997 Rothiemay/Michigania

On Tuesday, 7/22, I left after work to fly into Traverse City, Michigan. My flight was cancelled, but I took a different flight which arrived just past Midnight. My father picked me up and drove me the 70 miles or so to Rothiemay. Rothiemay was the name that my great grandfather gave to our lovely cottage on Crystal Lake in Northwest Michigan when he bought it in 1924. He named it after the town in Scotland where some of his ancestors were from.

I stayed at Rothiemay for 11 days. The weather was perfect: highs in the high 70s and lows in the 60s. Only one day had more than 75% humidity. Unfortunately, four days had basically no wind, thus limiting the sailing time. I was able to sail for about 7.5 hours over those eleven days, though, in two different sail boats (a CL-16 and a Butterfly). I also averaged 4-5 hours per weekday working, which ensured that I wasn't ever bored.

I had a very embarrassing adventure sailing there. After pulling our Butterfly (about a 12 foot scow-hulled boat with a single sloop-rigged sail) out of the boat house, I proceeded to rig it in order to take the 8 and 11 year old daughters of my friend out for a sail. Unfortunately, the boat started exhibiting increasingly odd handling characteristics. I knew something was up when I was sailing along and noticed that the entire stern of the boat was about two inches under the water. "Hmm", I thought. "I must have gained a few pounds or something." I moved closer to the bow to compensate. The odd behavior continued. Handling became extremely sluggish. When I deliberately capsized (for the benefit of my passengers), I was unable to right the boat. Actually, I was able to right the boat, but it just went right back over the other way! Finally I realized that I had forgotten to verify that the hull drainage plug was installed (it was not). The plug is typically removed over the winter to ensure that the hull is dry for the winter. Let me tell you -- the boat handles VERY poorly when the hull is filled with several hundred pounds of water!!

Over those 11 days, there was an average of eight people staying at Rothiemay, with as many as 12 at a time. In addition to my parents, two of three siblings and their families, and myself, two of my friends visited with their families. It was really a very social occasion. Even with 12 people, Rothiemay was not crowded: it sleeps a total of 21 or so.

I went swimming every day in beautiful Crystal Lake. I bought a mask and snorkel and used them to explore the bottom (most of the bottom is beautiful sand, but there is a strange small collection of boulders just past the raft where many crayfish live). I had a vision that perhaps wearing the snorkel would make my desire to swim the nine mile length of the lake a reality. It turned out not to be the panacea I had hoped for. I'm not sure that I will ever make that swim. The lake was a very warm 70 degrees (absolutely tepid compared to the more typically invigorating 60 degrees last summer).

I also lifted weights at the local gym every day (my mother gave me a membership there as a birthday present). The local gym really was quite adequate. We twice traversed the 1/2 miles from Rothiemay to Lake Michigan to watch the sun set over the Lake. The second time was really, really awesome. My mother and I went to Traverse City to visit her mother (who owns Rothiemay) and in conjunction therewith saw a movie at a theater: "Air Force One". I consider it to be one of the greatest action movies of all time. I was absolutely at the edge of my seat for perhaps five minutes! It was extremely well done. The director was the same guy who directed the Oscar-winning "Das Boot" in the early 80s. Several of us also saw the Disney movie "Hercules" (which was not that great).

On August 2, my sister, her daughter, my friend Roscoe, his three kids (we picked up a fourth on the way), and myself, packed up to go to Camp Michigania. Michigania is a family camp (i.e., entire families go there together) owned by the University of Michigan Alumni Association and operated exclusively for the benefit of U-M alumni and their families. My family went there every summer from 1967 to 1980. My parents and I went again in 1990 and last year, my friend Roscoe and I went with his four kids. Michigania is located on beautiful Walloon Lake. Walloon Lake isn't quite as clean a lake as Crystal Lake, but it is no slouch in cleanliness, beauty, and atmosphere. Walloon Lake is somewhat known as being where Ernest Hemingway spent his summers as a child (Many of his "Nick Adams Stories" are autobiographical about his experiences there in his youth).

My sister hadn't really been there since she'd been on the Arts and Crafts staff there in the summer of 1979. I gave my father, my sister, and her daughter the vacation as Christmas/birthday presents.

Every day was pretty eventful. Every morning I would wake up early to catch the dining hall (excellent food -- cafeteria style) the moment they opened at 7:45 am. I'd have to scarf down food quickly in order to get over to the riding stables by 8 am. That was when the riding staff did their daily horse grooming. Every morning, I helped brush and water the horses before their work day.

After grooming the horses, I typically swam laps in the lake's swimming area. I averaged about 2.5 miles per day for most of the week, with less the last two days. On Tuesday and Friday, I woke up earlier yet to swim across the lake and back (1.5 miles total) before breakfast -- a great way to start the day! I got an award for swimming the farthest of any camper over the week (my 12 miles were more than twice the second-place person's distance).

After lunch, I would either swim, sail, or wander around the program areas (e.g. shoot trap, archery, watch the tennis tournament, participate in the bocce ball tournament, etc.). After dinner, there typically were activities as well. One night was the big volleyball match (the campers lost to the staff). There was a "family olympics" night which included things like sack races and other such sport. The big softball game was on Thursday night. It was the best game of my life. I played first base (because of an injured shoulder that limits my throwing ability at present), made no errors and even a few really good fielding plays. But at the plate was where I had a real blast. I had a single, a triple, and THREE HOME RUNS in five at-bats!!! All this with a pretty high level of play by the players (an order of magnitude better than in my normal co-ed league). One night featured square dancing and one night I sailed with my father.

On four of the nights, there was also a lecture from one of the two visiting University of Michigan faculty professors. Three of them were real snoozers, but one was a really good discussion of the proposed tobacco settlement by an Economist.

At Michigania, I sailed about 12 hours or so over the week. about 4.5 hours were on a really cool boat called a "Walloon 17". It is an extremely old class that was designed specifically for this lake. It is a sloop-rigged keel boat with a narrow (four foot) beam, a Spinnaker, and a Trapeze!! It was really, really cool sailing this Porsche of a sail boat. The responsiveness of the steering was incredible. As much fun as it was to skipper, though, it was more fun to crew because of the "trapeze" that allows you to actually climb out over the side of the hull, hanging from the "Trapeze" -- a wire attached to the mast designed for this purpose. Your feet are actually on the side of the hull while you are doing this -- it is really extremely invigorating -- a similar sensation to "flying". This also was the first time I ever flew a Spinnaker on a sailboat.

My father and I entered both heats of the Regatta (sailboat race). He skippered one and I skippered one, with the non-skipper acting as crew. We got great starts in both heats (my start was brilliant, if I don't say so myself -- I started within a second or two of the starting pistol -- I used what I believe to be a pretty unique starting strategy that I'll tell you more about if you ask). Unfortunately, our finishes didn't go as well as our starts -- I'm not sure why -- we didn't make many mistakes -- perhaps we just got unlucky.

Weather at Michigania could hardly have been more perfect. Highs in the high 70s were warm enough (without excessive humidity) to always be wearing shorts and a T-shirt and I never had to put on a jacket, as the lows continued to be in the 60s. There was only a small amount of rain, which closed the swimming and boating areas for only about an hour and a half on Sunday or Monday. The lake was a nice temperature of 73 degrees.

Leaving Michigania on 8/9 morning was a very sad event. There was an exceptional time had by all. For me, I enjoyed it more than most, since it brought back great memories of time spent there as a kid in the 70s.

1996 Michigania

I just got back from Camp Michigania on beautiful Walloon Lake in NW Michigan (about 100 miles NE of Rothiemay). I camped there for a week. Camp Michigania is a family camp exclusively for the use of University of Michigan Alumni and their families. Walloon Lake is where Ernest Hemingway spent most of his summers as a child (and is the scene of most of the autobiographical material in his Nick Adams Stories). I went with a friend from college, Roscoe, and his four children, aged 4, 6, 10 and 12.

Previously, I had attended this place a a kid, with my own family, from 1969 through 1980, and again with just my parents in 1990. When I was a kid, I really loved the place (and still do!).

Every morning, I woke up early to groom and saddle the Camp's thirty or so horses. Other activities included:

Long Distance Swimming (I won the award for most distance swum during the week - 12 and a half miles, almost twice as muuch as the second place guy).

Archery

Rifle and Shotgun shooting

Sailing (did this quite a bit, and entered the two heats of the Regatta, where I had two of the best starts of my life, but didn't sail well after that and finished middle of the pack, principally because the twelve year old girl who was sailing with me insisted on handling the main sheets, which reduced the efficiency of our performance)

Sculling (hadn't done this in about 18 years!)

Volleyball

Softball

Arts and Crafts/Ceramics (I didn't really participate in this)

Bocce Ball (turned out to be more fun than I expected)

and lots more.

The food was great, served cafeteria style, with lots of selection and as much as you want. The best part about it (as though the selection, quantity and overall quality weren't enough) was that you didn't have to prepare it and didn't have to clean up afterwards!!

We stayed in rustic cabins. They are much improved from the way that they were when I was young. Now, they are insulated, and have hot water and showers (used to be uninsulated, no hot water, and to take a shower, you had to go to one of two or three shower houses located in the camp).

Each day was really exhausting, going from one activity to the next, while keeping track of the four children. There were two U-M faculty there who put on some guest lectures in their areas of expertise. One was from the History Department (his were pretty interesting) and the other was from the Orthopedics Dept (less interesting).

1996 Rothiemay

I've been sailing for four hours a day the past two days with my father. My first day here, Saturday, was too windy for sailing, but that made it perfect whether for using my brother's Polaris "Wave Runner". It allowed for quite a wild ride! Yesterday I had a pretty good workout at the local gym. It has lots of CYBEX equipment, which I really like. In particular, their "Pec-Dec" is the best I've ever used.

There are lots of Hummingbirds here that regularly come to dine at Rothiemay's Hummingbird feeder. Hummingbirds are really cool. Speaking of native wildlife, there is a new variety of wildflower here that non of us has ever seen before. It has a very strange looking, but extremely pretty yellow flower. The books we consulted identify it as a "Butter and Eggs" plant.

On that historical quality I think that I mentioned, I went digging through some old trunks and found a treasure trove full of old letters and such. I found letters that my great great grandfather wrote home from the Civil War, where he was wounded in the "Battle of Prairie View". I also found a letter from my great great great grandfather to my great grandfather, who was about 20 at that time (1881), telling him to continue his studies on his own and to "become a self-made man", which is exactly what he did, eventually becoming the Vice President of American Express, as mentioned earlier. I also found some pictures of my grandmother, who is now 88 years old, when she was an infant. Very cool stuff. The oldest letter I found was about two months shy of being 150 years old. I also found genealogical information on my great great great great grandfather (born in 1768), which is the second great great great great grandfather of which I am aware. I am currently scanning through the diaries and childhood scrapbooks of my great grandmother (1871-1945), who graduated from Wellesley.

From an advertisement for the area from 1896:

"1. Northern Michigan air and water -- nature's tonics -- build you up quickly -- big appetite and all that sort of thinng. Hay fever? Stops it at once.

2. Nearest Michigan resort to Chicago having that balsam air. Low fare and quick trip by boat or rail.

3. Most beautiful lake in America, Crystal Lake, 9 miles long, lies on the east, and grand Lake Michigan on the west: only half a mile apart. There we are, right between them : perfect temperature.

4. Bathing, boating and fishing, mineral springs and baths, lovely drives. You must run up there and enjoy them, if only for a week."

I have located and restored (for the first time in several decades) the sign over the front door that identifies this place as "Rothiemay".

Yes, the weather here is PERFECT. No humidity. I am wearing shorts all day and being extremely comfortable. Not sweating except at the gym.

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Now it's July 10, 1996.

Here's my promised synopsis of my Rothiemay endeavor. I went to the gym (a very good one) 6 times after buying a week long membership for $24 (which my parents got me as a b-day present). This exceeded the amount of gym time I'd accumulated in the previous 2 or 3 months! I ran about 30 miles (which exceeded the amount I'd run in past year of so). I sailed about 17 hours in two different sailboats (I hadn't sailed since last year at Rothiemay). I saw a wild turkey for the first time (last year I saw a great horned owl, the first owl I had ever seen). On Sunday, my birthday, we had Fat Free Chocolate Brownies, and fat-free chocolate Fudge Ice-Cream.

My Parents were there the entire time. My brother was there for the first weekend, and my Sister and Niece were there for the last week (i.e., the place was not crowded).

On the 4th, we all watched the Fireworks display over Lake Michigan at Frankfort.

The weather was highs of between 70 and 85, lows of 45 to 55. Maximum humidity was 70%. The water in Crystal Lake was an invigorating 65 degrees. It really felt great diving into it immediately after my morning runs with my father.

Another highlight was a new dock. It replaced one that was roughly 70-80 years old. The new one doesn't have as much "character" as the old one (it used to sway back and forth and deflect noticeably under your feet as you walked).

1996 Whistler/Blackcomb

In March, 1996, a client in Vancouver asked me to visit them. I saw this as my opportunity to do some "real skiing" for the first time in my life. Supposedly, Whistler/Blackcomb mountains are the biggest ski mountains in North America, each with over a 5000 foot rise. I skied there for four days of thigh numbing fun. The most interesting adventure is as follows:

One day on Whistler, I was going up one of the few T-bars on the mountain. There were big signs there indicating when you were supposed to let go of the T-Bar at the top. It was quite specific that you weren't supposed to let go until you were adjacent to the "bull gear" (the big "pulley" that drives the cable). The next day, I was on Blackcomb and found myself on another T-bar (the "Horstman T-Bar"). This one didn't have any signs telling you when to let go, but given my experience the day before, I was confident in knowing the lay of the land, so to speak. I was riding the T-Bar by myself. I say this to convey that it is somewhat difficult to stay on a T-Bar by yourself. Unless you put the bar between your legs (which you aren't supposed to do), the T-Bar is constantly trying to slip off your butt to the side, so you are constantly having to hold it from slipping off you. The T-bar started pulling me up a fairly steep slope (maybe 40 degrees). The steepness of the slope made it that much more difficult to keep the T-Bar from slipping. After perhaps 30 yards of this 40 degree slope it started pulling me up a more severe (perhaps 50 degrees) slope for about four feet. Then it actually went down about a 45 degree slope. There was a guy standing there on the side, but he didn't say anything. I noticed that I wasn't adjacent to the bull gear yet, so I kept hanging on. Then it pulled me up a 75 DEGREE SLOPE for about ten feet into the air! This is almost straight up, you know. It was really all I could do to hold on. I was thinking how poor a design this was -- most people probably wouldn't be able to hold on under these circumstances, I thought to myself. At the top of the ten foot rise was ... NOTHING! The rise was a wooden thing with snow on it and it had no top or back. So at the top of this ten foot thing I was suddenly thrust into space and went splatttt! I fell face down from ten feet up. I'm pretty fortunate not to hurt myself. But I did get the wind knocked out of me. Cursing the poor design of this T-bar, I suddenly realized that I'd better get myself together and scurry away from underneath this ten foot thing I got pulled up and dropped off. I didn't want the next guy to plop down on top of me! Eventually, I realized that the 45 degree down slope was where I was supposed to let go and ski off to the side. But there were no signs telling me to do so and the person standing there didn't tell me to do so. I felt very foolish indeed.

1995 Rothiemay

I just got back from a week and a half at the family cottage in NW Michigan. It was absolutely awesome. I swam across much of the lake (about a 3 mile swim) last Tuesday. I was going to swim the entire nine mile length of the lake, but the wind picked up and there were pretty big waves, which bothered my support boat (my father in a canoe). I also ran, lifted, and sailed a lot. I also water-skied and used my brother's jet-skis.

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