Freezing and Scary - What Fun!

On Saturday I got up early and headed down to Monterey, to meet up with Satchel (and Conner, Dan, Hannah, Ari & Matthieu) at the Sea Otter Classic - one of the largest bike racing events in the world. It was nice weather in Fairfax, so even though I knew better, I didn't pack my wool hat, gloves, long underwear, and fleece pullover. I knew better, because I have frozen my behind off in Monterey at more than one bike race already.

Anyhow, I got there at about 9, found parking, got out of the car and it was... freezing! Icy wind, overcast skies... brrr! I headed off to find the family, who were hanging out by the downhill race course. This was Satchel and Conner's first downhill race, and they decided to start big by doing it at Sea Otter. I don't know how many participants they had in this race (only one of many races at Sea Otter), but they were starting the next person every 20 seconds, and had races from 10am until past 5. But subtract more than an hour from that if you're doing the math, because before Satchel did his race, they closed the course for more than an hour for a medical emergency - someone had to be helicoptered out. Yipes! This is really scary stuff! And did I mention it was freezing cold?

So there we sat for hours and hours, in the dusty cold freezing wind, while every 20 seconds someone came bombing down the trail past us, mostly not crashing their bike, about half taking the jumps, the other half going around them. As the hours passed, waiting for Satchel's turn (and then later, for Conner's), and the racers kept coming by, I started to understand why people like it when something exciting happens (e.g., a crash or near miss) - it's remarkably boring to watch otherwise! Maybe the most fun part of the day was when a guy who looked to be about 9 months pregnant snapped his bike in half just down the hill from us. (He was okay - I think he enjoyed the attention he got for it. And I'm sure the "baby" was fine too...)

But of course, Hannah and I were there saying "just come back in one piece," but that wasn't Satchel & Conner's goal - they were there to compete. Sigh. And more importantly, to compete with each other. Satchel was thrilled to beat Conner by 10 seconds, though Conner placed higher in his class than Satchel did in his, so I would say it was a victory of sorts to both. And a victory for me and Hannah, in that we didn't have to spend the rest of the day in the ER.

It's now Tuesday, and I think I've gotten the last of the grit out of my eyes from that freezing cold dusty wind. My fingers have thawed too...

Three for Me

It's been a rare and rather wonderful week - I've taken three days and done stuff that I really wanted to do, and wasn't just for my kids (though one was with a kid).

On Sunday, I took the ferry into the city, wandered around the embarcadero for a while, then went to an alumni seminar at a restaurant right on the waterfront. The book we had read was Henry V, which I've always loved - I'm very fond of the Olivier movie version, and recently saw the Branagh movie too which I thought was even better. Last summer I had also had the good luck to see both Henry IVs staged here in Marin, so it was especially fun to read the play and spend two hours discussing it with a bunch of fellow St. John's alumni. This was the second seminar I've attended this year, after about a 15 year hiatus. (The first one was on an essay called "Is God a Mathematician? The Meaning of Metabolism" by Hans Jonas, which was really difficult to read but also really fun to discuss.)

I don't know why I took so many years to come back to St. John's alumni seminars... I have such a good time doing them, and I enjoy the readings... I guess maybe hearing "mom" every few minutes just knocked a lot of ideas out of my head for a long time!


Then, on Wednesday, I went up to Sugar Bowl with my friend Lisa, and did a day of skiing - it was fabulous. Nice spring weather, but not too warm so only a little of the snow turned into mashed potatoes. I got a free pass from Lisa's husband Tony (it's good to have friends on the Ski Patrol!), and Satchel gave me a free rental that he'd received from his work. Then, as icing on the cake, there was a free women's ski clinic held by the LunaChix - we had excellent, nearly private lessons for the whole morning (our group was 3 instructors and 5 students- wow!). It was wonderful! I had spent most of my skiing for the last 10 years on bunny slopes with little boys, and was feeling like I'd turned into a mess of bad habits. It was great to get some top-notch instruction, hang out with women (doesn't happen much in MY house!), and just ski with no whining! I came home feeling like a much better skier than I had in a long time.


To top off my week, on Sunday Will and I left the house at 6:30 a.m., drove to Bolinas, and started hiking north from the Palomarin trailhead - we spent the day hiking up the coast - sometimes right by the water on the sand or on high cliffs, sometimes inland through forests and meadows. We passed still lakes, Alamere Falls (a waterfall off the cliffs right onto the beach), saw whales making their leisurely way northward, hiked through blue forests of blooming ceanothus, spent hours on trails with no-one else around - it was a truly glorious day.

After about 7 hours, we emerged onto the beach at the southern end of Limantour, where Geoff and Bev had come with the little guys and the dog to meet us. 7 1/2 hours, 15 or 16 miles. Woof! Today my legs are tired, but I think they've earned it! I just hope I didn't ruin Will for this Thursday's track meet! But then, any kid who can hike 16 miles, and then wrestle three little boys on the beach and still not get knocked over, can probably handle the hurdles...

The last time I had hiked from the Palomarin trailhead, I was a teenager - my dad had heard it was nice and took us there. There's a photo on my mom's desk of my in sunglasses, with this lake reflected in them, from that hike... next time I'll have to make it back in fewer than 25 years...

You can see all the photos. Most of the really good ones were taken by Will, naturally!