Digger's Paleo Diet and Ultra Running Life

The Last Two Weeks Have Been Tuff, But Worth It.

2012-02-15T17:19:00.005-05:00

Fill with mingled cream and amber,
I will drain that glass again.
Such hilarious visions clamber
Through the chambers of my brain.
Quantist thoughts – queerest fancies,
Come to life and fade away:
What care I how time advances?
I am drinking ale today.
– Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allen Poe has always been my favourite author, and it's funny, he's one of "The Boy's" favourites too.

So, in the last 2 weeks, I ran 96 miles and had 0 (zero) beer. Also, cycled 3 hours. I also lost 10 lbs. That is kind of cooking the books though, I'm going from a post-cheat day weight of 176 lbs. to a pre-cheat weight today of 166lbs. But I'll take it. Portage is down 8lbs. from our adventure in Utah/Arizona/Nevada in November, but she doesn't have as far to go as me.

2:03 P.M. Sunday,February 12th. My first beer in 2 weeks

Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza.
-Dave Barry-

New Podium Shoes?

I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day.
-Frank Sinatra-
Of course I also like Dave Barry and Frank Sinatra.

Checking the old log book, I was 161 lbs in 2010 at this time of year, and 167 lbs in 2011. So I'm on track. If I can stay healthy, it should be a good year of kicking ass.
I just got off the treadmill after 15 miles and 2-1/2 hours. I watched "Tremors" and started to watch "Tremors II". I stunk of B.O. when I came upstairs and the girls let me know it. All I could think of was what my Grampa used to say. "If you're going to invite a dog to dinner, he's going to shit on the carpet". But I think he was probably talking about Madonna's halftime show at the Superbowl. Zing! Just kidding!
Great quotes from "Tremors"....

Valentine McKee:(Kevin Bacon to Fred Ward) I can't believe we said no to free beer!

Valentine McKee:(Kevin Bacon) What the hell's in those things, Burt?
Burt Gummer:(The Dad from "Family Ties" as he drops home made pipe bombs on the giant worms) "Just a few common household chemicals in the proper proportions. "
So true.

Anyhow, here are some photos from the paleo/non-paleo feast. Grass fed beef burgers fried in butter, served with fresh toppings including blue cheese and bacon.The bad stuff was copious amounts of beer, buns and French fries. And desserts coming out the wazoo.
First things first. Here's how to make perfect French fries. First, bring the peanut oil up to 280˚F. Lard is better, duck fat the best! But too costly!

First, set it for 280˚F

Of course you have to use Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, cut in french fry size pieces and soaked in ice water for 3 hours before cooking.I use a commercial french fry cutter.

So you have to remove the fries from the ice water, then gather enough for your first load. Nuke them in the microwave for 3 minutes so they don't cool the oil off too much. Cook them @ 280˚F for 6-8 minutes. remove them and drain the fries. I know they're not done ! Then repeat with the rest of the fries. Now that the fries are "parboiled", crank the oil up to 375˚F and finish them off for 3 minutes. Toss with salt. They will be awesome.

I got my recipe from here. It is a keeper.

Next up, deep fried dill pickles. I just mixed up some pancake batter......

I quartered some dills lengthways and deep fried for 8 minutes@ 325˚F. Helpful hint, put them in one at a time, and remove individually when golden brown.

Grass fed medium hamburger (ground chuck). Form 1/2 lb. patties, then it's time for another beer.

Lug Tread. The 2nd best beer I've ever tasted. Thanks, Kathy! Check out all their awards here.

Sizzling in butter.

Made a mess of the deep fried pickles. Next time, it's one at a time....They still tasted great.

Burger and fries.

This was awesome. I had to sleep after working my 24 hour shift, and when I woke up around 2:00pm, my friend the Red Tailed Hawk was in the tree outside the bedroom window. I snuck out of bed and got Portage to take a few photos of the big guy.

This is actually just a closeup from the shot above.

I'm no expert, but I'd say this is a young female. Pretty magnificent bird, she was only about 10 feet away and looked about 2 feet tall. In the USA, they call them "Chicken Hawks", even though they don't usually eat chickens.
Anyhoo, we Pylons have a 4 hour training run up on the Bruce Trail on Sunday, my longest one so far this year. It's gonna hurt. Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up beer.................

After Two Weeks on The Wagon-Quick Observations.

2012-02-11T21:08:00.008-05:00

Portage and I went into major weight loss mode 2 weeks ago, and that included eating Paleo (no cheating for me) as well as giving up all booze. It's the first time I've gone this long without alcohol since I don't know when. Even when I first went Paleo back in November 2008, I still had beer 2 times a week at curling. Since I am now retired from curlng, it allows me to go totally beer free. I'm pretty sure it's illegal in Canada to curl and not drink beer after.
So, some observations.
The fridge has a lot more room in it for food.
We only have half as many charges on the Visa and Debit cards as we usually do.
There seems to be more money in the bank account.
I have more time for things like cleaning up the workshop.
The belt and pants are feeling looser.
I keep waiting to hear of layoffs in the Old Milwaukee factory.
I'm impressed that I don't miss the beer as much as I thought I would, but I do miss it. No shaking though, which is nice.
I'm really really really looking forward to cheat day tomorrow.
I notice things are tightening up. Less flesh jiggling around on the runs.
I may even be putting on muscle, what with all the dead lifts and pushups. I even saw a vein in my forearm this morning.
Two weeks is a long time when you are counting the days one by one.

Typical dinner. Steak and sausage. We had some roasted broccoli as well.

A dusting of snow, finally. It was -25˚C in Toronto with the windchill this morning.

Too cold outside for the Wonder-Hound.

We will be swimming in there in a month and a half. Hard to believe.

The Weight Loss Chart
I weighed in at 166 lbs. on Saturday(today), one day early. Sunday is cheat day, and I'm curious to see how much I gain. Still on track for 150 lbs. (for now).

So tomorrow is cheat day and the plan is a 2 hour 30 minute run first thing, then a big brunch of fat and protein, like bacon and eggs. That should keep me full until dinner, which will be Butter Fried Burgers, Double fried French Fries, and lots of Old Milwaukee.We are having a bunch of friends over, so maybe I'll be too busy cooking to drink very much!
What could go wrong?

Porkzilla, Loafzilla and a Harsh Weight Loss Reality

2012-02-05T07:55:00.003-05:00

I was in the local grocery store and spotted a 16 lb. pork shoulder for $21.00. How could I resist? I had seen a recipe on tgipaleo for Pernil Al Horno, and it looked so good I decided to pretty much follow it exactly. Except I decided to wrap it in bacon. I also decided to smoke it and cook it slowly @ 200˚F for 8 hours.

The Gathering of the Ingredients

We used
a 16 lb. Pork Shoulder

8 Garlic Cloves

2 tbsp Sea Salt

1 tbsp Black Pepper

1 tbsp Chinese Five Spice

1 tbsp Cumin

1 tbsp Red Chili Powder

1 bottle Apple Cider

1 Spanish onion

2 lbs. Bacon

Mesquite Wood Chips (for smoking)

Cider and Onion in the bottom of the roasting pan

Cut slits in the fat and push in the garlic cloves. Fat side is always up.

Sprinkle all the spices on the top of the roast

Wood chips wrapped in tinfoil. Perforate the foil and place it on rack under the roast.

Wrap that rascal in bacon.

Bake at 200˚F for 6 hours. Then realize it's not cooking fast enough and cook for 2 more hours at 275˚F.

The wood chips were a waste of time, the oven never got hot enough to make them smoke. Oh well, live and learn. This thing was huge, and we have enough pork to last us for the rest of the year. The taste? Amazing. Also, the meat was very tender. And the Wonder-hound has been having a great time gnawing on the monster sized bone that was inside the roast.

My dinner plate. Pork, smashed cauliflower with chives, and some olives(stuffed with raw garlic cloves).

The next day, Meatloafzilla was created at work. The recipe is located here ... and it's primal.

So my training has been going well, no real long runs yet, but I've been on the bike a lot and working on losing weight. Some planks for my core, dead-lifts and squats.

Don't forget. the camera adds 0.2lbs.

Back on track. NEVER use the day after cheat day for a weigh-in !

So I learned that even though I am eating right during the week, a night of punching down meatball sliders, quesadillas, and chugging beer is still going to cost you. I can't drink unlimited amounts of beer even if I eat Paleo, and still lose weight. Who'd have thought? So that was the last beer I had, and I managed to lose all that weight and get back on track. So no cheat day this week, but next Sunday, February 12th, we are having friends over and I am making my famous burgers, fries and having lotsa beer! Then back on the wagon for 2 more weeks.
I better drop 5 lbs. this week.

Food, Fun, Fabulous Fifty and Weekly Weigh In (or not)

2012-02-01T16:16:00.005-05:00

Steaks + Fire = Nom Nom

So what have I been eating during my 2nd week of weight loss? Lots of steak and............

Home made pickled eggs.

Greek Omelettes. Made with 6 eggs, feta cheese, spinach , salt, pepper and some hot chorizo sausage.

Bacon Wrapped Pork Loin Roasts with Onions (made these at work).

Grass fed beef hamburgers from Cumbrae's, fried in butter. That's just salt pepper on top, along with some caramelizing onions.

Done medium rare. I saw this recipe on "No Reservations". I think I have perfected it.

So that's what I've been eating. I have decided to cease drinking beer for a while, the pounds just aren't coming off fast enough. I'll try it for 2 weeks and see how it goes. It will be tough, but Portage is giving up wine at the same time so it will be easier for me.
Weird day weather-wise on Tuesday, a big snowstorm hit the night before and the conditions were perfect for running in the ravine first thing the next morning.

Blazing the trail

The Blind Corner.

Someone crashed their GT Racer....

A not very good shot of the Red Tailed Hawk. Can you see it? Always cool to hear it screeching above you while it hunts.

Then the day started to heat up, and set an official new January 31st record of + 10˚C(50F). It actually felt warmer, and by the time I was done, most of the snow was gone. The thermometer on the Jeep said +12˚C later in the day.

On Saturday night (cheat night, by coincidence), our good friend Margaret joined the big "5-0" club. Actually, her birthday isn't until next month, but her sister Sue and husband Simon wanted to surprise her. He is a cabinet/furniture maker, and redid his huge workshop to look like Heathrow Airport in London.

Welcome to Heathrow!

Home of the Marg-tini

Airport themed costumes.

Security was tight.

Those are real hand cuffs. Dave and Penny flew in for the party and got asked about them at the real airport.

The Stewardess' await the guest of honour

Gotcha!

The weather on Saturday night was crazy, which made it more fun. We cabbed it over, it took an hour to go 10 miles. Black ice everywhere. People were getting out of their cars and pushing the cars ahead of them if they were stuck. On the way back, things had cleared up and we made it home toots sweet.
A great time was had by all, I ate a few meatball sliders, many quesadillas, lots of other appetizers and I don't even want to say how many "Steam Whistles" I drank. A fabulous job of organizing by Simon and Sue, what a ton of work!

The girls and me.

The Mile-High Marg-tinis were lined up.

Tables in front of the band before the show. Lots of dancing later on.

Steam Whistle. How could I resist?

Getting my passport photo taken

The Birthday Girl. Happy 50th ,Margaret!

Undercover G-Man

Kevin's Band Was Awesome! Who knew our neighbour was so talented?

Portage, The Girl and me left around midnight, but the party apparently went on until 4:00a.m. I got on the scale the next morning (Sunday) for my weigh in. Not good. So that's why I'm skipping the weight loss report this week and will provide an update this Sunday, hopefully the Birthday Party Weight was just temporary. According to my chart, I should be down to 168 lbs. or less by then.
What could go wrong?

Winter Comes to Toronto, Finally. Sort Of. And 2012 Weigh In #1

2012-01-22T20:02:00.004-05:00

It looks like 2012 is shaping up to be a weird one. The race schedule is very tentative, every time I plan one and lock it in, something seems to come up and derail it. So far, we have the traditional Harry's Spring Runoff 8k to kick off the year, then a 50k Pylon Run in Pennsylvania. Then a 50 miler in Ontario. A 25k and a half-marathon back "2" back, and that seems to be it. But that only takes us to mid-June. Then the world's toughest 30K at the end of July.

Because of retiring and moving 3000 miles in November (that's the plan!), I imagine this October/November/December is going to be a total write-off, running wise.

Finally got the Khatoolas dirty.

It was -2˚C today, so I broke out the spikes and headed for 2 hours of fun in the ravine.

The Don River

I got the best of the day out on the trails.

That water looks cold.

I'm always careful on this bridge.

Can you say rickety? Sure. I knew that you could.

Someone stole a kids bike and dumped it here.

Stoopid Mountain Bikes!

Nice and muddy

The Beaver Pond

These ducks were lined up just before I took this pitcher. I could have put a great "Got my ducks in a row" pun on this, but noooo, they had to move.

Some brave varmit went out on the ice. A rabbit or a squirrel, most likely.

More tracks. Lucky the Red Tailed Hawk didn't see them.

This bike looks worth saving. Nah.

Getting dark. 3:00p.m.

See the CN Tower? 3:15 p.m.

The muddy Khatoolas, one of the best buys ever for trail running. Yak Trax just don't work on glare ice.

Hay, some varmit walked across our pool! Most likely the Wonder hound.

So it was weigh in day, and remember, the camera weighs .2 lbs, making me an even 171 lbs, a loss of 3 lbs the first week. Don't my ankles look thinner?

My hi-tech graph will track my progress.The straight line = 2 lbs./week.You can click on it and check out the amazing graphics in hi-def.

The dot at the top left below the straight line shows my actual 3 lb. loss on the graph for the first week. As long as I keep below the line, I'm doing well. I even had a cheat day on Friday, I hoovered 2 beers and some Mexican food.
Next up on Sunday, Jan. 29th, weight update # 2. Big party on Jan. 28th, DOH. And a preview of the Glacier Ridge 50K, which is shaping up as one of the Best Pylon Adventures Ever!

Fatty, Fatty 2X4 Can't Fit Through the Kitchen Door

2012-01-18T20:14:00.001-05:00

Not good. I had too much fun this off season and packed on a few pounds. Fourteen pounds, to be precise. I was reading Tim Ferriss' book, The 4 Hour Body, and he has a great idea. You put your commitment out there (such as on your blog) for all to see. That way, if you back out, you will look like a total failure, a wimp, and a loser of the highest order.
I'm going to spare everyone the "before" underwear shot, but I will post one in mid-April, when I hope to be 150lbs. of trail running coiled steel. Well, maybe not an underwear shot, more likely in running shorts. Also,I will provide a weight update every Sunday.
I'm not following Ferriss' weight loss plan (slow carb), I think I'll stick with primal. I lost 20lbs. in 2 months last time I stuck to it.
So, starting weight is 174lbs.(ugh). I was @ 160 lbs for my last "in shape" race on Dec. 4th, and I'd like to get down to 150lbs. for Glacier Ridge 50K in mid-April. So 8lbs/month or 2 lbs/week. Doesn't sound too bad......
Gonna miss this though, it's my weakness. No Old Mil, except for cheat day, of course.

Frank the Tank's Favourite.

I just hope this isn't too easy.

New Years Resolution - No Posting on the Internet after 10:00 p.m.

2012-01-02T17:15:00.010-05:00

"Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs, one step at a time."
Mark Twain

So I've got this bad habit of getting on the interweb (after everyone else is asleep), having a few beers, and getting all self-righteous and up in people's grills on topics I care about, like diet, beer and ultra running. It is not until I wake up in a cold sweat at 6:00 a.m., wondering if I really posted what I thought I did, that I have to slip downstairs (one step at a time) and check the computer. Then I have to see if anyone has read the slander/liable that I wrote (yes, we have ways) and hit the mega-delete button. On the off chance someone has read it, I often get emails saying"Why did you delete that? It was hilarious!"
I probably thought it was funny as well when I wrote it, but unfortunately it might also be at best insulting, or at worst, actionable.
So far so good. And thanks to all who have forgiven.
For a great example of others who have a similar problem, please visit Scott Dunlap's post on the PCTR debacle and read some of the 200+ comments. It appears that the majority of the after 10:00pm ones have been deleted. But trust me, you missed challenges to fights, threats of deportation, alcoholism, organ transplants, theft, infidelity, fraud, disloyalty, go back to Colorado where you came from taunts, and much, much more.Makes me feel like a choirboy.
I know they have a device for cars of convicted drunk drivers that you have to breathe into and pass before it starts. I have a million $$ idea, it's a computer with the same breathalyzer device. Blow over .08, and you can't post anything on the internet. I know Scott Dunlap is an IT guy. Maybe he and I can go 50/50 on a start-up?

Looking Back at 2011

2012-01-02T09:30:00.006-05:00

Well I can't say I'm totally satisfied the was 2011 went down, but I really shouldn't complain. The January highlight was the "Beer N' Beef" Curling Bonspeil. I have since hung up my broom, as it was pretty tough to curl after doing some long training runs. Some nights I could hardly get back up after throwing my rock. Last spring I decided to concentrate on running.
In February, I got a physical done and all is well. My blood work was stellar, showing no ill effects from all the hamburger, beef, sardines, bacon and eggs I've been consuming.

A Loaf of Meat

In March, absolutely nothing happened except my first "Yard Sale" crash.
In April, we had the Glacier Ridge 50K in Pennsylvania, a very tough course, but I felt I was running well for this early in the year. It was a fun family trip. The next week was supposed to be the Seaton Trail 50 miler, but I chickened out after seeing the horrible weather. Good choice though, only 47 started and there were 44 DNF's. I'm pretty sure I would have been # 45.

Good call on the DNS.

So feeling guilty, I went out the next day and had my worst fall ever, taking six weeks to recover from from what I'm pretty sure were broken ribs. They can't see them on x-rays, and there's nothing they can do for you anyway. After that, my running went downhill pretty fast.
In June I flew to PEI with the girl to check out the University. Nothing in July. In August, Portage and me flew to British Colombia the check out real estate. Portage had her 50th birthday party and the Pylons went to Michigan where I completed my first 50 Miler!
September was Awesome, I flew to Halifax with The Boy to get him settled at Dalhousie University. Epic run over the bridge from Halifax to Dartmouth. Then later, 'Tage and me flew to Italy for a fantastic 10 day holiday. Another setback for the running (and the diet).

Ate pasta for the first time in 2 years. Not Good for the diet, but the best I've ever had.

October highlights were volunteering at the women's only 10K, and passing my "One Year 'Till Retirement" date of October 31st.

November was the fantastic trip to Utah/Arizona/Las Vegas, where I ran the Mesquite Marathon and set a road marathon PB at age 53 of 3:47. Now that I look back at that, I'm sure I can beat that mark next year if I don't hurt myself again. Portage left her job after over 30 years at the same company and is now on permanent holidays.
December was the always fun Egg Nog Jog, my first race ever back in 1999. 12 years later, I only ran it 1 minute slower.
I fell a little short on the mileage goal this year, I ran 1545 miles (2486 kilometers), 24 miles less than 2010.So I ran the equivalent of Toronto to Denver. My rib injury, Italy trip and a piriformis twinge at the end of the year did me in. So in 2012, I'm gonna try for 1600 miles.
I'm at the unfortunate podium age of 54 next year. Oh well, as long as I lose my Christmas weight and don't hurt myself.............

Remember, carbs are the enemy.

The Hundred Beer Challenge

2011-12-28T23:17:00.002-05:00

I'm Gonna Have to get creative to beat some of these guys..... No promises.
It's The Hundred Beer Challenge!

I'm going to have to think about this one.

http://100beersin100places.blogspot.com/

Check it out!

Paleo Explained, One of my Favourite Photos Ever, and The Beer Hunter.

2011-12-26T14:53:00.005-05:00

What Can I Say?

My Cycling Hero. Michael Rasmussen. He was banned from professional cycling for 2 years after failing to show up for a doping test while leading the Tour De France in 2007.His nickname is "The Chicken."I read somewhere he was a little weight obsessed, counting grains of rice and eating cereal with water because he thought milk was too fattening.

I've Gotta Track This Beer Down! It Looks Like Crazy Ed's Chili Beer Has Some Competition. Check out Crazy Ed's Crazy Website!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T21:18:00.000-05:00

Have Yourself a White Trash Christmas!

Las Vegas

2011-12-14T16:06:00.003-05:00

Portage and I spent the last two days of our trip in "Lost Wages". We stayed right on the strip in a hotel called "New York, New York. It's across the road from the MGM Grand, where we stayed last time we were here.

We had a connector in Cleveland, they had these cool mobiles hanging from the ceiling.

They looked like giant paper airplanes.

Colorado. Lots of snow already.

Flying over Lake Mead

First view of Vegas from the tarmac. Can't miss the MGM Grand.

Artsy shot.

The scene of my "Best Burger Ever".

Captain,Beaver,Meanie and moi.

"The Burger". Until the "Flying Monkey" it was tied for best burger ever.

New York, New York, Las Vegas.

Traffic Jam leaving Las Vegas.

Headed for Utah. Looks like someone building their dream home ran out of money.

The highway gets pretty interesting heading to St. George

Ooooohhhhhhh

Home of "Sister Wives!"

Stunning scenery.

OK, I forgot all these photos before. This is actually when we arrived in Vegas at the start of the holiday and left for Utah. Now here are the photos from when we headed back to Vegas the week after the marathon;

Men's Room at the rental car drop off

Ladies room

Chili's Jalapeno Burger is quite good!

Hotel beer

Our view from the 32nd floor

MGM Grand, where we stayed 15 years ago. New York, New York was being built, but wasn't open yet.

Cheap Eats and cheap beer, right down there.

This is the taxi stand where,2 years earlier, the Pylons waited in vain for a shuttle back to our hotel.We wound up walking 2 miles at 1:00a.m.

It was Thanksgiving Weekend in The States, and the Hotels all went over the top with their displays.

Water show at the Ballagio should not be missed. They synchronize the fountains with old Rat Pack tunes.

I Took The Blows, And Did It.....................MYYYYYYYYYY WAYYYYYYYYYYYYY !

Paris,Vegas with full moon

Hotel Cooler. Classy.

Italian food!

I am jealous, Beaver got to see the Heart Attack Grill. We were too far away to make it. Next time for sure.

This is actually a hotel burger. Man, it looks good.

Well no doubt Beaver couldn't finish that burger, I guess that's how he keeps that carved cheetah build of his. So that's it for 2011, up next,..........2012! One last thing;

Way to go Phantom!

Congratulations to Phantom, who paced 10th in his age group at the World Trail Running Championships in Hawaii on December 4th! Are you kidding me? Looks like a future Pylon Road Trip for sure.

We Interupt This Travel Blog for A Race Report. The 2011 Egg Nog Jog (10.8K)

2011-12-11T18:05:00.007-05:00

One last Dora in Utah photo ripoff.

So. The Egg Nog Jog. 10.8K of who knows what on any particular day. We've run it in snow, sleet, freezing rain and sunshine. Like today.
I had just worked a 24 hour shift , and Beaver volunteered to drive, which was nice. Man, it was fricken' cold walking home from work, all 4 blocks. It was at least -5˚C. My last tempo 10K on Friday was iffy, with some hamstring issues, so I had been stretching them for 2 days. This morning, they felt primed and ready to go.

Me and Beav. Why does he look taller? I'm way taller than he is.

What are these people thinking? They should not be at the front!

Atomic Wedgie? Check.

See the Pylon orange? Swiss dropped me at the start, we had a pact!

Action shot. Hey Swiss!

First uphill

Facebook shot. Win! Look at all the losers in Loserville behind me.

Vents brings it home!

Swiss hammers the 60+ category.

That elf is about to lose his/her job if she beats TMIR. ( The Man in Red).


Portage bringing it. She didn't have her fave pacer yelling at her this year.So, slower time than last year, but enjoyed the run more. BRING IT!!!!!!

"Casey The Dog"'s dad Scott Clark, me, and 'Tage .

Awards time. Where's Beaver?

Bingo. Podium again.

Pylons present and accounted for, Beav,Vents, Digger,Swiss and Portage

Where's the car? Oh, there it is.

They put my nickname on my race #. How cool.

So, again, final Pylon results were
Beaver- 45:29 3/31 age 45-49 21st overall out of 527
Digger- 50:45 4/39 (DOH) age 50-54* 63rd overall out of 527
Vents- 56:08
Swiss- 1:00:40
Portage- 1:16:51
All results are here.

4th again*? Are you kidding me? I've had about 4 - fourths this year. It wouldn't bother me if I wasn't such a podium slut. I'm gonna have to raise my game a bit next year.But I'm pretty sure I said that last year too. DOH!

Back to Zion and Ironman St. George?

2011-12-10T09:56:00.001-05:00

The next day, we headed back to Zion to see some new stuff. The first day was cloudy and we wanted to see it in the sun.

But first, I require some cash.

It's Deja Vu, all over again.

The 'Tage is starting to like this beer for breakfast thing.

A cool place we found, weeping rock.

Water moves through the rock in soft spots, and where it comes out it's like a hanging garden.

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz

Found this Garter Snake on the trail, catching some rays.

He tried to get inside my sleeve to keep warm.

At least he didn't poo on me

Stealing another Dora shot.

Holes where water can move through the rock.

The mighty Virgn River, near the Canyon entrance.

Sunset from the "Flying Monkey" parking lot.

Beaver and Meanie in "The Shot".

A hanging garden.

This is the start of Zion Canyon. Hard to believe how big it gets.

The reservoir where they have the swim for Ironman St. George looks great

The ramp out of the water to the bike racks

WTF?

Part of the bike course, a really long, steep uphill.

I thought the Ironman Canada bike course was difficult, what with Richter Pass and all. Well I'm guessing you could add an hour onto the Ironman St. George bike course time. And steep hills (up to 13% grade) on the St. George course usually end with a sharp turn, that if you miss, will either launch you into a into canyon or a rock wall. DOH. So I'm thinking Louisville, Kentucky in August 2013.

Training Log and Bryce Canyon

2011-12-04T17:37:00.002-05:00

Updated Training Log For 2011
Jan-120 miles
Feb-129 miles
March-204 miles
April-69 miles (rib injury)
May-117 miles(rib injury)
June-79 miles (achillies and knee injuries)
July-195 miles (finally feeling good!)
August-196 miles
September-72 miles (lost 10 days in Italy)
October-138 miles and feeling good. Just stoopid busy at work.
November-126 miles
1445 miles for the year so far, compared with 1525 miles in 2010.
I have to run 124 miles in December to match my total of 1569 miles from last year, and I plan on doing that, as well as cycling on my off days. That would be something, having missed 6 weeks this year with a rib injury. I did do a lot of cycling and swimming last year getting ready for Ironman Canada, and I know I was in better shape. So I plan to hit the bike again, do some weights, and try to get skinny again for next season. I've kind of let the 80/20 rule turn into the 50/50 rule with all the vacations this year. Last race of the year next weekend, the always fun Egg Nog Jog.

The first peek at Bryce Canyon from the Sunset Overlook.

Anyhoo, onto Bryce Canyon. We first saw it two years ago when we ran the 50K Moab Xterra. I knew I had to show Bryce to Portage, and she finally got to see it.The canyon is about a three hour drive from St. George.

On the highway from St. George to Bryce Canyon. Somewhere near.....

Beaver!

Bryce Canyon International Airport

We spotted this shoe tree on the way into Bryce.

This "Little Deuce Coupe" has been parked here for a while.

Lonely Tree

Blue sky.

At the bottom, looking up.

Late afternoon

Rainbow Point, just over 9,000 feet.

Me and 'Tage

A snowplow we found on the trail

Tough Switchbacks

Careful, Meanie.

Nice

Good deal on some petrified wood, $1.30/lb.There are a couple of Rock stores just before the entrance.

Various quartzites, $1.90/lb.

Sculpture at the rock store

Scenic Overlook.

Portage gets a cool shot

Inspiration Point. Isn't that where Fonzie used to take his dates?

Some of the white rock at Bryce.

I think they call this "Fairyland".

"The Wall"

Lots of dead trees that don't seem to fall over.

Tree Hugger

Nice. The parking lot is at the top.

Some of the formations have names, this one is "Thor's Hammer"

Sunset

We actually circumcised this whole area. It took us over 4 hours of hiking.

One last look. This is the switchback leading up to the parking lot.

Beautiful sunset on the drive home

We were all starving, and had a craving for steak. So we went to the Outback Steakhouse, and much to our surprise they had real beer!

The next day we went back to Zion (I already covered that) and so next up will be our last day in Utah. We drove the Ironman St. George course to see if we should do it in 2013. I'll let you know the answer in my next post.

The Pioneer Trail, Zion Canyon, Wildcat Willie's and OK-The Best Burger Ever at "The Flying Monkey"

2011-11-28T20:16:00.008-05:00

Driving the course............Check out the straightaway

The day after the marathon was Sunday, and in Utah that means they roll up the sidewalks and nobody goes anywhere or does anything. We decided to hike the Pioneer Rim Trail in downtown St. George, and then hit the hot tub.

A typical "cow pie" rock formation in St. George

A bit of a dry spell here

I went all the way to Utah to buy these Canadian K-Swiss shoes.Gotta get them dirty.

Desert vista

Tarantula hole. Or maybe a small desert tortoise?

Like in Old England, the women walk well behind the men. Maybe they just want to make sure there are no snakes.

Look what I found!

Beaver checks out the pool. It was 53˚F.

Captain found it perfect for a 10 minute post race ice bath.

The next day we felt a bit more energetic, and headed to Zion Canyon.

Meanie takes the wheel.

Meanie takes the wheel again!

Portage and meanie observe some low lying clouds

I have no comment on this photo.

Or this one............

Looks like Annapurna but it's in Zion Canyon.

OOOOooooooooohhhhhhhhh

This tunnel was blasted through the mountain in the 1930's, when cars weren't as wide as they are now. It can get dicey in there.

How is this tree even growing?

A fine looking group. Captain, Hoover, Portage, Digger, Meanie and The Beaver.

Love these signs

This deer was pretty tame

It's true.

The mighty Virgin River, which carved out Zion Canyon

The beer and wine menu at the Flying Monkey. When we came back two days later, they were sold out of most of this stuff, it was their last night open this year. The waiter told Portage, "You can have any kind of wine you like, as long as it's the Pinot Grigio."

OK-The Best Burger Ever

Not a speck left.

We found the spot where Dora took my favourite photo ever.

My favourite photo ever, taken 2 years ago.

Rock hounds. "How do we get those into our suitcases"?

That is breakfast at Wildcat Willie's.

Wildcat Willie's and The Flying Monkey are both in Springdale, right at the entrance to Zion Canyon. Both are beyond excellent.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

The Mighty Virgin

Crazy mountain climbers were everywhere on the steep walls. It took a bit of uphill hiking for me to get this shot.

My 2nd burger at the Flying Monkey. It was the day before thanksgiving, at closing time.I may have been served the last burger of 2011. Or maybe Beaver was, we both got the same thing.

Last night of operation this year for the Flying Monkey? Beaver prepares to chow down on a burger and a brewski. Do I sense a Paleo convert?

My 2nd burger and waffle fries bite the dust.

We were hugely impressed with The Flying Monkey, and are deeply in debt to Brownie for telling us about it. They make great beer, and also have a wood fired pizza oven. We all had different meals, but everyone agreed it was one of their best dinners ever. Derek, the young chef, is amazing. We ate there on Monday, and again on Wednesday, which was the night before Thanksgiving here in The States. The burger was better than The Hard Rock in Las Vegas, and better than the Elephant and Castle in Pennsylvania.

Had to get this shot.

A Polygamy Porter (why have just one?) and a Full Suspension Ale

'Tages Wood Fired Lasagna Pizza

Derek, the magic man, in front of his oven. The ladies liked what they saw. Note the Tennessee hat? Go Vols!

A Four wheel drive Mercedes Beer Wagon parked outside "The Monkey".

Clumsy people don't last long around here.

What am I awkwardly looking up at?

This!The view from the Emerald Pool.

I haven't the foggiest idea where this is. Somewhere in Zion.

A waterfall

The Emerald Pool. Can you see the water and the reflection?

Not a snake, but a tree root.They grow right out of the rocks.

The sun will come out, tomorrow. (And it did)

Next up, Bryce Canyon.

Mesquite Marathon 2011 Race Report

2011-11-26T01:37:00.028-05:00

Portage, Beaver, Meanie and I flew out to St. George, Utah to meet the Captain and Hoover (Mrs. Captain) and run the Mesquite Marathon. That is, Beaver, Captain and me were doing the marathon, Meanie the half-marathon and Portage the 5k. It was mostly downhill, and on roads, so we were all looking forward to crushing the course. What could go wrong?

Portage checks out the rental bus. We wanted a Jeep, but this Yukon worked out great.

We drove the course on Friday morning(yikes, way tougher than anticipated), and picked up our race kits later that night. Onto the host Casa Blanca Casino in Mesquite for the dinner, which featured a "Runner's Special". The "Runner's Special" was a pasta dinner, priced at only $7.99 for Mesquite Marathon participants. Note to runners and RD's. I asked for a menu because I don't eat pasta, and couldn't help noticing that the regular pasta dinner is only $6.99. We asked what the difference was. Nothing, except it costs a dollar more. WTF?
So Beaver, Meanie, Hoover (Captain's wife), and Portage all ordered the $6.99 pasta dinner from the menu. Captain ordered the "Runner's Special" just for a laugh to see if there was a difference. The only difference was that the Captain got less food for his extra dollar. He was actually the only one of us who could finish his meal, the rest of us got way too much food. As a matter of fact, other than the steak and ribs entrees, the "Runner's Special" was more expensive than almost anything else on the menu.
You can't make this stuff up.
Time Changes and Real Beer...
So we had an interesting situation. St. George Utah is in a different time zone than Mesquite Nevada. We arrived from Toronto, were staying in St.George, and the race started in Utah, went through Arizona and ended in Nevada. Toronto is 2 hours ahead of Utah, 3 hours ahead of Nevada. The time changes during the marathon, we gained an hour at the Arizona/Nevada border, which is cool but a bit of a logistical nightmare. For two days before the race we were saying "Utah time or Nevada time"?
While we were in Nevada, we picked up some real beer. The beer in Utah is a maximum of 3.2%, the beer in Nevada is 5%.So we had real beer after our visit to Nevada, which is nice.
The Marathon....
The alarm went off at 6:44 a.m. sharp Utah time, which is 5:44a.m. Nevada (race) time or 8:44 a.m. Toronto time. Portage dropped off me, Beaver and Captain at the marathon start. The she dropped off Meanie at the half marathon start. Then she drove herself and Hoover to the finish line and jumped on the bus for a ride back to the 5K start. Smooth as silk.
I was looking for a PB, and expected to get it easily. The only flaw in my plan was the trip to Italy, which left only 6 weeks for training. I sacrificed the tempo runs for more long slow runs, and it cost me.

The starting line

On your mark, get set,go! and we were off. I started well back, at a slow pace. Many people took off too fast, and I knew I'd be seeing them later. After 2 miles, I was somehow on pace for a 3:15 marathon. After 5 miles of pretty steady downhill running, we entered Arizona, and I was now on pace for a 3:30 marathon. The course had flattened out, and I still felt fresh. I tried to pick up the pace but couldn't. DOH. That's what happens when you don't do speed work. Oh well, I still felt good and just kept going as best I could. At one point, the scenery didn't change for well over an hour, something that doesn't happen on the trails. At the halfway mark, we got to do some uphill running, and it felt great. I caught lots of folks on the uphills. I counted 39 people I passed in the 2nd half, including a group of six on one short hill.Sweet.
Anyhow, I can't complain. The weather was perfect, the course was tougher than expected but still a PB course.I didn't have the speed, but like the Captain says, a PB is a PB!

Portage,me,Beaver,Meanie and Captain.

Before the marathon, almost everyone was in line for the port-a-potties. There are no trees to hide behind in the desert.

Beaver hops the barb-wire.

Captain gets nailed by a cactus. Owwwwwwch.

The Warriors Prepare for Battle.

And they're off..........

Only 23 miles to go.

Here comes the sheriff. Am I speeding?

The Never ending view

Welcome to Arizona...What time is it?

An hour later...

Never look back...No way is this guy catching me!

Under the overpass. Welcome to Nevada!

I pass this group on an uphill.

These cow grates were a little dangerous! You could lose a small child in there. We ran over 3 of them.

Water station lady. She kept re-appearing as the race went on. I kidded her she was a triplet.

One more turn and done.

That's the finish. Into the tent, then done.

Inside the tent.

Of course congrats go to Beaver for his big effort and cowbell win. Meanie, Portage and me all claimed a spot on the podium in our age groups, Captain knew it was not his day so he cruised in without wanting to chance injuring himself. Maybe that 7+ hour 50K 2 weeks earlier had something to do with it? He was swearing he would never run another road race, but then Hoover reminded him he has already signed up for the Las Vegas half marathon on December 4th. DOH. But after that, he is never running another road race.

Meanie shows off the hardware.

Hammer time for Beaver

Two thumbs up.

The 'Tage, after her 5K adventure race.

An Ultra? Where's my PBR?

Hoover cheers in the Captain

Beaver shows off the schwag with Meanie at his side.

As for me, I got a fever. And the only cure is....MORE COWBELL!
Someday, I'll prolly be back. Did I mention there is lots of free beer at the finish?
Great job by the RD's and volunteers, except for the policeman who didn't show up to direct runners at a sharp turn in the 5K until after the participants had all missed it. An aid station guy from one of the other distances had to chase them all down and tell them to turn around!

More to come on the blog from our trip, the 6 of us have been exploring the canyons of Utah for the past week, and we've also eaten some epic meals. Good times.
For Pylon results, see previous blog post. For full results, click here.
*Fun fact, the stoopid online registration wouldn't accept Canada as a place, so we had to sign up as Toronto, Utah, or Toronto, Nebraska. So I guess the RD's never knew they had 5 Canadians running in this race.
**Here's a SUPER fun fact. There IS a town of 5,000 named Toronto in Ohio, and get this. Two famous residents of Toronto, Ohio are:

Robert Urich - Famous actor most known for his great work in the shows "Vega$"(Magnum P.I. ripoff) and "Spenser For Hire", not to even mention "The Love Boat".
Bill Peterson - Former head coach at Florida State, Rice and with the Houston Oilers. He was Urich's football coach at FSU. Coincidence? I think not.
Wow. I've said it before, you can't make this stuff up.
Digger out.

Mesquite Marathon Priliminary Post

2011-11-20T10:25:00.007-05:00

Beaver Brought It!

This course was a quad killer, much tougher than expected. Some good hills near the end and a nice headwind for the last 6 miles. 187 runners in the marathon, 144 in the half-marathon and 45 in the 5K.

Beaver- 3:15 1st Male 45-50 and Cowbell Winner! 8th overall /out of 187.
Digger- 3:47 3rd Male 50-55 PB by 3 minutes . 38th overall
Captain- 4:31 (Tough Day)
Meanie- 2:00 half Marathon 3rd female 40-45
Portage- 33 minutes 5+K due to course problem. 2nd Female age 50-55. Every runner in the 5K went off course

The FAP's, dangerously close to being a good running club................

Cowbell!And it's Pylon Orange!

Full results here for all Mesquite events.

It's All Over But The Crying.

2011-11-16T13:47:00.004-05:00

Mesquite Marathon Age Group Winner's Prize

I did an easy 2 mile jog today, that's it. Training for the Mesquite Marathon has now ceased. I know This Guy and me both like short tapers, mine was just over one week. Doh. I had to rush it because of not running in Italy, and then getting sick and feeling like crap for a week after we returned. And not the good kind of sick where you vomit and have diarhhea and lose 10lbs., but the bad kind of sick where you have just enough energy to eat and drink but not do anything else.
Sooooo, I wanted to get at least four 20+ mile training runs in, and because of time constraints I needed one last long run on November 11th to do that. Then started the 8 day taper.
The weather on race day looks to be perfect, 58˚F and sunny. What could go wrong?
Portage and me are really looking forward to this trip, I can't wait to show her Bryce Canyon and Canyonlands National Park, both of which I've seen. We are also 'sposed to visit the In-N-Out Burger and the Heart Attack Grill, both in Las Vegas.

Bryce Canyon Looks Other Worldly.

Canyonlands National Park

I've got high hopes for Beaver, our #1 Pylon runner*, to bring home a Cowbell. He had some kind of weird virus a month or so ago, hopefully he has fully recovered. I'm not sure how the Captain is running, he just came off a tough 7 hour suffer-fest 50K at the end of October in Cave Creek Arizona. As for me, I'm pretty sure I will get a marathon PB, I only have to beat 3:51, done way back around 2004 when I was fat. Of course I was 7 years younger too. I would like to go sub 3:30, but having never come close to that before, I know many things can go wrong.

So that's that. "The Tage" and me are NOT looking forward to the 3:30am wake-up call. I couldn't find any results for the half-marathon from years gone by, so I'm not sure if Meanie has a shot at a cowbell. When she is not busy being mean, she is a good runner.
Does Beaver have another sub 3:00 marathon in him? Will Captain take off like a rocket, then hang on? Can Digger qualify for Boston, and then not run it? Will someone be packing a cowbell in their luggage for the trip back to Canada? Tune in on Saturday night/Sunday morningish to find out!

Awww Yeah. Heart Attack Grill.

*Cyrus has a legitimate claim to being our #1 runner, but he's not coming to Utah.

Omelettes and Running

2011-11-08T17:12:00.008-04:00

My Famous Four Egger

No other food fits the primal lifestyle quite like eggs. Can't you just picture our hunter gatherer ancestors collecting eggs? Nature's perfect food, and it comes in it's own package. OOOhhhh but what about all that cholesterol!!! Don't believe it for a second. There's dietary cholesterol, and blood cholesterol. I don't believe eating foods high in cholesterol will raise your blood cholesterol. Well, maybe your good cholesterol. Then again, I've never had a heart attack, maybe if I had , I might think differently. Lots of people avoid eating cholesterol like the plague, and still have high levels in their blood. Conversely, how do you explain This Guy?
Anyhoo, I was watching my #1 Favourite Cooking Show, and a guest French Chef showed how to make a proper omelette. Man, was I ever doing it wrong. You take your four eggs, put them in a bowl, add chives, salt and pepper, and whip the crap out of them. This aerates the eggs, and results in a huge, fluffy omelette. That's my latest effort in the photo above.
My "go to" crash "ketogenic" diet is nothing but eggs, bacon, avocados and sardines for a week or two. Sardines come in many different flavours, my favourite is Jalepeno. Just make sure they don't add any sugar.

You'll get sick of these pretty fast.

You will be shopping for new clothes, 'cause you will drop weight very quickly! I actually eat less on this diet, because I get so sick of eating the same things I kind of lose my appetite. I don't feel hungry, so I just don't eat as much.
Losing weight makes everything more fun, especially running! The best time to do this is when you are not training hard, I will be doing it again in January or February.*
On another note, you have to enjoy life, so don't forget to cheat 20% of the time.

Danny Kassap, one of Canada's Best. 2:17 marathoner, died age 28. Running by this two or three times a week puts things in perspective. We both trained in the same cemetery where he is now buried.

Looks like 11 days until the Mesquite Marathon. I better start tapering.

Not the most scenic marathon. I think you can see the finish line from the start! I'm kidding, of course.

The winner in each age group gets a custom cowbell from cowbells.com. What a great prize, we all need more cowbell! Let's hope the fast 50+ year olds stay home. Beaver has the 45-50 category in the bag.

* I am not a doctor or even a dietitian, I just know what works for me. Don't even think about suing me if it doesn't work for you!

Training Log and Hallowe'en

2011-11-01T18:07:00.005-04:00

It's Hallowe'en!

Updated Training Log For 2011
Jan-120 miles
Feb-129 miles
March-204 miles
April-69 miles (rib injury)
May-117 miles(rib injury)
June-79 miles (achillies and knee injuries)
July-195 miles (finally feeling good!)
August-196 miles
September-72 miles (lost 10 days in Italy)
October-138 miles and feeling good. Just stoopid busy at work.
1319 miles for the year so far. I'm down over 100 miles from 2010, but with a good November and December, I should beat last year's total.
The 'Tage and me are looking forward to visiting Utah in a couple of weeks for the Mesquite Marathon. I finally get to show her where that cool photo at the top of my blog was taken.Captain tells me it was in Zion National Park.

Dora took What is maybe My Favourite Photo Ever. I asked her who was in it, and she said, "Why I believe that's you, Digger"!

Anyhow, I don't know how things are at your house, but we normally get between 400-500 kids at Hallowe'en. There used to be a family on our block that did a really great Haunted House, but they moved a few years ago. I guess word hasn't gotten around, because we still get bus loads of kids dropped at the end of our street. Two or three streets over, they might get 20 kids.
Here are some photos of our house and some guests.

The Girl carved the punkin on the left, Portage did the Martha Stuart one on the right.

The house at dusk. Very Scary.

The Wonderhound went out as a Bucking Bronco.

Genevieve's Punkin

Craw, what craw?

Best Costumes of the Night (except for"The Girls").

So "The Girl" got a cool costume as a gift from her brother. It is a shark suit with half a kids body hanging out of it's mouth. With the costume on, she is about 6'6" and scared the heck out of the little kids by coming out of the bushes and running at them. All in good fun.

That's gotta be six and a half feet of Great White. You're gonna need a bigger boat!

After she got bored with that, she just lay on the sidewalk, and when kids looked to see if there was anyone alive in there, she would jump at them. I'm sure there will be some nightmares about that!

The Girl waits in ambush mode.

Just before lights out.

So we had stuff left over. I even had some sweet and sour twizzlers, man are they good. I also may or may not have eaten all the mini O'Henry bars. Not Good.

At the end of the night, the Wonderhound was so tired she fell asleep with her costume on.

Women's Only 8K Race Report

2011-10-29T17:50:00.014-04:00

Portage and Aunt Eleanor entered the "Women's Only" 8K in Sunnybrook Park today. One of the aid stations is staffed by Firefighters, and Portage said she'd be thrilled if I volunteered as a "Water-boy". So I did!
The first bunch of us showed up at 8:30am to set up the water tables. It wasn't sunny yet, and it was pretty cold.The Jeep said 3˚C, but it sure didn't feel that warm. The race didn't start until 9:30. Luckily, the organizer dropped off 140 cups of coffee for the 10* of us. I didn't drink the coffee, I just wrapped my hands around the coffee cups to keep them warm. And then it got colder. Weird.
Once we had filled all 700 cups of water, the sun came up and it finally started to get comfortable. I realized I had my work gloves in my bunker pants and put them on. DOH. I wouldn't put those gloves anywhere near something people were going to drink, so I directed traffic instead.
The first lady went by at world record pace. And the second one as well, but they really didnt seem to be going that fast. As "The Girl" would say, WTF?
It seems that these two ladies had started 15 minutes too early. How do you do that in a run with 900 people in it? Eventually the real leader came by, and she was flying!I think she finished in 28 minutes.

The leader. She was being escorted by a guy on a bike, and was "bringing it" Pylon style.

The 2nd place runner was right behind her.

Lots of Hallow'een costumes

Here comes Portage

Ballerinas

Aunt Eleanor, on her way out........

This girl is not as old as the underwear I had on. But she was in 3rd.

The boys love spandex...........

Elvis?

Best pirate. She won an award for her costume.

Best chef costume, it's Paul Prudhomme!

Portage pounds back some quality H20. C'mon, Water sucks, Gatorade is better!

And Aunt Eleanor on her way back. She was on her way to an 8k P.B. as well as 3rd place in her age category. Nice work!

A kitty cat.

I have not gained 50lbs. , I just have about 4-5 layers of clothes on. That's me, on the bottom right with the shades, beside the good looking kid.Check out the Boxes of Tim Horton's Coffee on the bumper.

I can't remember the last time I had so many ladies yelling at me to take my shirt off, oh yes I can. It's never happened before. It must be the big red truck.

*4 more guys came just in time to hand out the water and get some hugs and phone numbers.
We had a guy at our hall we nicknamed "Blister", because he always showed up after the work was done.
Just kidding, guys.Thanks to all for showing up, I'm going to volunteer more often. Definitely good for the ego!

Aunt Eleanor shows off the age group hardware!

Portage's famous carrot soup

Olives, prosciutto, melon,hot peppers stuffed with feta, panchetta, salami, bread(ugh), duck confit and gherkins.

Fresh Figs and Brie. Also a Spanish cheese.

Prosecco. A sparkling white wine, kinda like Champagne.

Put it all together and add a hot tub. Nothing like a hot-tub after a frosty run. Prosecco, prosciutto, olives, pate, fresh figs, chianti, charcuterie, duck confit, carrot soup, geez, you'd think we were in Italy, or maybe France!

OK, one last shot from Venice..........

And on a very happy note, Monday Oct. 31st marks One Year Until Retirement!!!!

Final Impressions of Italy and Some Portage Photos

2011-10-24T18:27:00.006-04:00

Here is some interesting stuff we learned along the way on our trip. Sue Halsall, our guide in Italy, kept up a running commentary on the bus, some of this is information she passed along to us as we went from place to place. Also included are some of Portage's best photos, they are much nicer than mine.You can click on them for a closer look.

Window in Rome

a) In Italy they use the Euro, which we tended to think of as one dollar U.S. or Canadian. But a Euro is actually $1.40, so we were really paying 40% more than was registering in our brains.

Plant and shadow near the Coliseum

b) We had to use cash a lot, they don't like credit cards unless you're buying something big.

Stairs at the Coliseum

c) On our way to Florence, we passed by a cathedral on a hill called Monte Cassino. Italy has a long history of things being destroyed and rebuilt, Monte Cassino takes the cake. It was originally an alter to the Greek God Apollo. Around 540 A.D. it was converted into a Catholic Monastery by Pope Benedict I.
In 584 it was destroyed by the Lombards, invaders from Germany. In 718 it was rebuilt.
In 883 it was destroyed by the Saracens, invaders from Arabia. In 1050 it was rebuilt.
An earthquake in 1349. Rebuilt.
And in 1944, it was leveled by the Allies, who mistakenly thought it was full of German soldiers. And it was rebuilt. Other cathedrals, towers, city walls, feniculars, and towns have been destroyed and rebuilt many times as well.

Wine glasses before lunch in Rome

d) People from one part of Italy often despise people from other parts of Italy.
People from Anacapri (poor) don't like people from Capri (rich), and they are the only two towns on the Island. A house in Capri will cost you $20,000/sq.ft.
The people from the North of Italy think the south is lazy, people from the South think the Northerners are tight-asses who don't know how to enjoy life.

A bike in Orvietto

e) The people in Rome are very fit, they walk everywhere. Driving in Rome is insane, especially with all the suicidal scooters.

Stairs in The Leaning Tower of Pisa

f) Wine and beer is available everywhere, all the time. Yet we never saw a "local" drunk. As a rule, Italians only have wine with their meals. They don't just sit down with a glass of wine or beer.

A water fountain spout in Venice

g) We never saw anyone walking around in track pants, everyone dresses up, everyday. They say looking good makes them feel good. No "People of WalMart" in Rome!

Another window in Burano

h) Everyone we met seemed to speak English, which is nice. Of course we only dealt with store clerks, restaurant people and hotel people. A lot can speak French and German as well, which makes you feel a bit inadequate. I heard a girl in a store in Burano do 3 different languages in a row, effortlessly.

Another window

i) Their history makes our history look pretty sad. Quote-"The original bridge was destroyed by Barbarian invaders, this is the new bridge, built in 1146".

Pigeon in Assisi

j) A guide was telling us life was good in Naples until a big earthquake hit in 1997. Then, countries from all over the world donated money to help, and a lot of it wound up in the Mafia's pockets, making them very powerful again.

Are they firm?
Those are not giant lemons, they're a citrus called "Canaroni". From a stall in Pompeii.

k) Italians don't have a "personal space bubble" like we have in North America. If you are standing in a line and leave more than 4" between you and the next person, one or two Italians will sneak in there.

Pompeii

l)Late September is a great time to visit Italy, all the students are back in school and the weather is still amazing.

Sun dial in Pompeii

m)There were lots of "Illegals" in your face selling junk all over Italy. The only place we didn't see it was in Capri. Fake purses, novelty items, trinkets etc. They can't kick them out of the country because none of them have passports and the authorities don't know where they're from. Not too many panhandlers though.

An old urn in some shadows.

n) Portage threw out all our packages of dry pasta when we got home, she's only buying fresh from now on. None for me, though, I'm back on the Paleo Program.

Capri.

o) And the last thing? Italy was our first non-beach holiday, and Portage and me now have the travel bug. Yesterday, we bought 3 more suitcases.
So there you have it. Last post on Italy. Hope you enjoyed it! Portage will be putting all 1500 of her photos on the interweb, I'll tell you where once she gets done with that.
We now return to our running and diet blog, as we get ready to rumble in St. George, Utah next month.
Digger out, for now.

How to Speak Italian........ The "Family Guy" Way

2011-10-22T15:12:00.001-04:00

Day 10, Capri, Sorrento, and Back to Rome

2011-10-21T18:06:00.008-04:00

We saw another sunrise in Capri, then it was off to Sorrento for some power shopping. I bought The Boy a T-Shirt, and it was actually only the 2nd item I bought that you couldn't eat or drink. It was funny when we claimed our purchases at customs, $700 for Portage, $18 for Digger. My other buy was my "Italia" hat.

We see Capri for the last time.

Approaching Sorrento

A large Cactii Garden in Sorrento. Very interesting to Portage and me, as we have a huge collection of cactii at home.


Interesting use of English on this sign.

Fishermen on the rocks

Ellie gets another photo of an Italian guy.

A Street vendor. I think she was yelling, she may have just been asking how's it going.You just can't tell.

We had a wonderful farewell dinner. We were serenaded, and as usual, there was bottomless beer and wine.

This was our entertainment at the farewell dinner in Rome. I usually find these guys annoying, but, despite how he looks, he was really good. He brought tears to someone's eyes when he sang "Time to Say Goodbye". You know who you are. He did sing it very well.

I think that was his last song, and by the time he finished, we were all feeling melancholy. To hear "Time to say goodbye", click here.

The girls gave Rick and me their roses. What could we do?

After dinner, we drove to see St. Peter's square one last time. We all got out of the coach to take some farewell photos, and all of a sudden this convoy of police cars (lights and sirens) comes around the corner, followed by a big blue bus, and then more police cars. It's the Pope, going somewhere! How cool is that, we were within 20 feet of him. Total coincidence.

See those lights on the top floor? That's where the Pope's living Quarters are, and he is home! To the left of the two lights is his bathroom, the two lights are his bedroom lights.

Quick Flashback....As we drove by the Vatican on the way to dinner, there was a white helicopter coming in for a landing nearby. Someone said "That's the Pope's helicopter". And it was. He was returning to Italy from Germany. He may have even been at the controls, because (stolen from Internets).........

"Fun Fact about Pope Benedict XVI: Pope Benedict XVI has a pilot's license for the papal helicopter and likes to fly from the Vatican to the papal summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, but the pope does not have a driver's license as he never learned to drive a car."

The Vatican. Along with St. Peter's Basilica, it's the world's largest church, which is nice.

That was quite a way to finish off our 10 day trip. Thanks to Sue, our guide from Globus, and Oscar, our driver (who lives in Lake Como), we had a great trip. (Oscar actually crushed a little car in Rome with our large bus, and like an idiot, I didn't get any photos.)

We gathered at the hotel for one last drink, then off to bed for the last time in Italy. It took us at least a week to get out of vacation mode, and I think we are already planning for the next trip.

Next and last Italy post, my thoughts about some Italian things I think you need to know. I'll have to throw in some of Portage's best photos.

Then it's back to a running and diet blog, at least until the next big excursion. Daddy likes Spain, Greece and Portugal! Portage likes Newfoundland too. First up, in 4 weeks, we will be traveling to Utah to run in the Mesquite races, me, Captain and Beaver are doing the marathon, Meanie is doing the half-marathon and Portage is doing the 5K.Guess we better start training. DOH.

What English Sounds Like to Italians

2011-10-20T15:20:00.000-04:00

Day 8, 9, Capri !

2011-10-19T13:41:00.019-04:00

Capri is a rocky island just off the coast of Naples. The cliffs are incredibly steep, rising 1800 feet almost straight up from the ocean. It has been inhabited since the stone-age, as it was once attached to the mainland. Caesar Augustus and Tiberius vacationed here before Christ was born.
I had heard about Capri, but it still blew me away with it's beauty, it's food, and the fact that anyone would even think about settling there. There are actually two towns on the Island. Capri, the larger town with the harbour, and Anacapri, which is smaller and perched high above Capri. They are connected by the "Mama Mia" highway, one of the scariest roads I've ever been on, and I've been on some pretty bad roads.

The hotel bar. It was located beside the pool. Handy.

We apparently missed Leo DeCaprio by a week. His hotel was just down the street from ours, but our guide was saying one night there costs more than our entire holiday. We saw Georgio Armani's house, and also the (baby food famous) Gerber Family residence, which we could see from our hotel. This is the playground of the rich and famous. So we all felt right at home.

This is where Leonardo stays when he's in town.

There's a brass statue of a guy on top of that rock that welcomes you into Capri harbour.

Anacapri is where I had my only run of the trip, but more on that later.

This is us on the balcony of our hotel room. Sweet.

The girls got all dressed up for dinner .

A rare shot of me with a beer in my hand.

The guys are all dressed for dinner

A cruise ship passed by our hotel the first night.

The hotel pool. This place was incredible.This area was so nice we spent the afternoon of the second day just sitting around the pool chatting with our new friends, drinking beer/wine.

Sunrise in Capri. Frickin' great.

If you look carefully, you can see a road clinging to the side of the mountain. This is the "Mama Mia" highway. As you come around the corners going up, it's like 1500 feet, straight down.

The view from Anacapri

The streets are very narrow in Capri.....

......so this is what their street sweepers look like.

Church in Anacapri.

The floor of the church was covered in these weird frescos of animals with half human faces.

Mostly animal, a little bit human.What's up with that?

This is a Fenicular, a train that goes up the cliff from the harbour to the town.

Our second day in Capri was a full day. We took advantage by having a bus tour of Anacapri, (where I had my only run of the trip, but more on that later) followed by a boat tour around the entire Island.

This is us, getting on the tour boat for a circumcision of the island.

Before our water tour of the Island, Dario, our guide in Anacapri, told us we could bring food and drinks onto the boat. I was thirsty from my run in Anacapri (more, later) and took full advantage, Portage grabbed a couple of beauty sandwiches, and I picked up six Peronies for the 1 hour cruise. What could go wrong?

A grotto, visible from the water. If you look closely, you can see a walkway going past a stalagmite that people swear looks like the Virgin Mary.

That is some blue water.

Another shade of blue.

Inside the famous "Blue Grotto". We didn't go in, it was $20 euros for 5 minutes, and our local guide said the guys in the little boats that take you in expect a $5 euro tip. He said by the time your eyes get used to the dark, they are taking you back out.If we had gone in, this is what it would have looked like. I stole this photo from the interweb.

The "Tunnel of Love" The theory is, if you kiss your sweetie while passing through the tunnel, you will be together for at least 10 more days.

It works! As far as we know, Keith and Lenora are still together after 10 days.

Me, with a beer early in the day.

Three Amigos

One set of these feet are mine.(Hint, missing most of a big toenail).

Internets! And 2 more beers.

A cemetery in Anacapri. It is incredibly neat and clean. All the graves seemed to be tended to that morning.

Beware of dog, taken from Tiberius' house on Capri. It's over 2,000 years old.

This is the view from the bus window on the Mama Mia Highway!!! I don't think that little guardrail would help stop a bus if the brakes failed.

The Mama Mia highway, taken from Anacapri.

This dog had very strange eyes, I couldn't get him to look at me for a photo, though. When he did look at me, he was looking into my soul, freaking me out.

Trying to get organized for a group shot.

One of things is not like the others....................

I got this neat shot of some fishing boats.

Hi girls, I'll be down in a minute. I just have to finish my 10th beer or so.

Here's to Capri!

This was apparently my meal our second night in Capri. I think it's a darn good photo, considering I don't remember taking it.

Vinnie does the ciphering for the final bill. Those empty wine glasses must belong to me as well.

The Italians say you don't get a hangover when you drink good wine, and I must say I felt remarkably good the next morning.The Gerber Family house is on the left, just out of the pitcher.

This was the only way to get our bags down to the harbour, since the streets are so narrow.

We jumped back on the Funicular for the ride down to the harbour.
The song Funiculi Funicula was written in 1880, commemorating the grand opening of the funicular on Mt. Vesuvius. The Funicular was destroyed multiple times, but was never rebuilt after a big eruption in 1944. To hear the song (sung by Pavarotti and the Chieftons!), click here.
Or, you can watch Andrea Bocelli sing it the Collesium in Rome by clicking here.

If you have any appreciation of music, you will agree Pavarotti was in a league of his own. Such a powerful voice, it gives me chills at the end of the song. Nice try, Andrea. Good effort by the other two tenors. But there is only one "Pavarotti".

Ron had his eye on this nice 100 footer

Oh, about that run. We visited Villa San Michele, a famous Swedish doctor's house in Anacapri. They (strangely) had public washrooms. I had a backpack with our "very important documents" in it. I took it off and set it on the floor.
About half an hour later, I asked Portage if she had the backpack. No. DOH! So I remember what I did with it and start running towards the doctor's washroom, which is about a mile away, and to make things worse, our bus back to Capri was leaving in 10 minutes. I run about about 20 steps, and realize I will get hopelessly lost unless Portage comes with me. I have a terrible sense of direction, and Portage can find her way around anywhere. So off we go, Portage running in sandals and carrying her heavy camera. I finally see the doctor's house and sprint ahead. I find the stall I was in. I try the door. Dang, it's locked. So I wait a minute or two and bang on the door. "Scuse'a, Scuse'a, is there a back pack in there?" No reply. Not good. I wait a minute more, then look under the door. No one in there! I reef on the door and it opens. No backpack. Check the gift shop, no backpack. So I start running back towards Portage to tell her the bad news, and I see an office on the left. I stick my head in the door, and there's my backpack! I say to the guy, "hey, that's mine"! He says they found it and were going to send it back to our hotel. They knew which group we were with and which hotel we were in because I had our information in there. I thank him, run back to Portage, we sprint back to the bus with one minute to spare. I'm sweating like crazy, it's 90˚ out and I just did a six minute mile.
"Whew, we just made it", I say to our local guide Dario.
"We can't go yet", he says, "there's still 5 people missing. Oh, I see you got your backpack".
"How did you know about my backpack"?
"The Doctor's house called me to say they were sending it down to the hotel for you, so all that running was unnecessary."
Long pause.

"fungoo" (Under breath)

That stuff just doesn't happen where I'm from.
Fifteen minutes later, the 5 stragglers appear (you know who you are!) and the bus leaves down the Mama Mia highway.

Next up, Day 10. Capri, Sorrento and back to Rome for the farewell dinner.

Random Post about Bread and Breakfasts in Italy.

2011-10-17T13:08:00.011-04:00

Tuscan bread. Dry, salt less, tasteless.

Don't get me wrong, the dinners were awesome. Five courses of heaven, and bottomless wine and beer was usually included. I hope I don't sound like a spoiled North American "stronzo", but............
Before the trip to Italy, it had been almost 3 years since I had been a regular bread eater. I never had a problem with it, other than weight gain. But I do remember it being moist, chewy and delicious, especially when eaten with a thick layer of butter on it.

French Bread et Beurre

So what's the deal with the bread in Italy? Our usual "French" type bread back home has only 4 ingredients, salt, flour, water and yeast. Without salt, the yeast eats all the sugar in the dough, resulting in a dry, tasteless cardboard like bread. Italians love good food, so again, what's up with the dry bread?
Susan, or tour guide, explained that a couple of hundred years ago, there was a big tax on salt, so back then people used very little of it, and none when making bread. That tradition has carried on.
This dry bread also makes sense for another reason. Italians don't eat bread like we do over here in the "New World". We will have a piece on it's own as a snack before a meal while you're waiting for your real food to come. In Italy, the first course is usually pasta, and the bread doesn't even come out until after that. If an Italian saw you eating a piece of bread and butter on it's own, he would likely think you were nuts. Bread is eaten "with" food, not "as" food. They use it to sop up sauces, and also for cooking things like bruschetta. For that, it's perfect. If it's used in making sandwiches, the food is salty enough, and as we found, they often drench everything in olive oil, so the dry bread works here as well. I guess it's a disagreement over how bread is used, rather than which type bread is better than the other. You do want to have a good set of teeth if eating bread in Italy, the crusts are as tough as Kevlar®.

Breakfast
So I forgive them their bread. So what's up with the breakfasts?

Breakfast in Venice. The setting is gorgeous, but the food? Not so much.

It's like they don't have anyone in Italy who can cook breakfast. Everyone on the tour was laughing about it, saying we couldn't wait to eat scrambled eggs that weren't cold and watery, and to drink hot coffee again. Instead of sausage, they served warmed up cocktail weenies. So what's up with that?

Well, as explained to us, the Italians eat so late at night that they don't eat breakfast. Maybe a cup of coffee with a biscuit. So they are just preparing it for us tourists, and have really never developed good breakfast cooking skills because they don't eat it themselves.


Would you like a straw with those scrambled eggs? Voi gradicono una paglia per quelle uova rimescolate?

It was the one meal I appreciated though, because there was lots of prosciutto and melon, lots of meat (including wild boar sausage,yeech), and cheese. Good Primal Diet stuff to carry me over until lunch. Portage liked all the fresh fruit and plain yogurt, which was nice.

Some lovely prosciutto hanging in a sandwich shop in Capri.

Now don't get me started on the truck stop lunches!

Day 8 - Pompeii. Or.....You think You're Having a Bad Day?

2011-10-16T19:03:00.015-04:00

A "Cameo" carved into a conch shell in Pompeii. Pompeii is famous for it's conch shell cameos, among other things.

POMPEII

The tour company has to hire local guides as we move about Italy, and for the most part, this works very well. They are friendly and molto knowledgeable. They work for tips.
Pompeii was pretty cool, but the tour would have been better if we had been able to understand what our guide was saying. His English was not so good. We somehow managed to figure most of it out.
The ancient city of Pompeii (there is a new town called Pompei ((with just one i at the end) a mile away)) was buried by an eruption of Mt. Vesuvius August 24th 79 A.D. The discovery of Pompeii is important because there have been no additions or alterations to the city since this time, so we can see exactly how the people lived around the time of Christ.

Herculaneum, a nearby town, was discovered in 1738 by workmen digging the foundations of a summer palace for the Spanish King of Naples. This lead to the later discovery of Pompeii.

I bet you didn't know that they had slaves in Pompeii. Each family had 2 or 3, and these little honeycombs in the outside of the walls surrounding Pompeii are where they lived. They are about 4 feet wide and 2 feet tall. Not good.

Lots of areas blocked off for no apparent reason.

At the time of the eruption, the town had around 20,000 inhabitants, and was a holiday spot for wealthy Romans. Pompeii had a lot going on, there were 3 amphitheatres, the biggest one held 20,000 people. There was a farmer's market, a mill, a bar, restaurants, a gym, a hotel, public baths, a brothel and a bunch of outdoor fountains.

The farmers market. For sale, fish, wild boar, veggies etc.

The largest amphitheatre. It was designed for easy spectator traffic control entering and exiting.It constantly blew us away how advanced their thinking was. Man they were smart!

The inhabitants of Pompeii had long been used to minor earthquakes, but onFebruary 6th, 62 A.D., there was a big one which did considerable damage (Isn't it cool how they know the exact dates? Well they should, since they not only had calendars, they had clocks). Anyhow, that major quake was a hint the the volcano was building up pressure, but they didn't understand that. So they went about their business, and sure enough, 17 years later, "Bang!"

A sundial, dated from 2,000 years ago. see the time lines in the semi-circle?There is a little piece of wood, like a needle, in the top center, which made the shadow. We checked it at 4:00pm, and it was dead on accurate.What will they think of next?

Some unearthed ruins.

Damn tourists!

Can you guess what these 3 large stones in the roadway are for? And what about the grooves?

If you guessed this was a crosswalk, you would be correct. The streets were full of animal and human poop and pee, and these large stones were put there so people could cross the road without soiling their sandals. The grooves are for the wagon wheels, so that wagons passed over the stones without hitting them.

Stray dogs are conveniently located throughout the town. They don't move much.

Portage lines up a shot in the town square.

That's Mt. Vesuvius in the background. They think 400 meters were blown off the top in the big eruption.

Another stray.

Gotcha!

Hi, Louisiana!

You think you had a bad day? They found a guy, maybe this guy, in the crawl space of an attic, where he tried to hide from the volcanic ash. Scratched in the ceiling above him, he had written "Nothing lasts forever".

Hi, New Jersey!

What the hell did he say? No capiche.

Looks like this guy was caught on one of those Turkish toilets. Most of the inhabitants died from inhaling poison gasses.Then they got covered in ash.

This dog was found chained to a house.

The figures are all plaster because the human and animal bodies had all decomposed in the ash, leaving holes in their place. The Spaniards who excavated Pompeii realized what these holes were, so they filled the voids with plaster to make perfect casts of the bodies.I remember seeing a photo of this dog in "National Geographic" when I was a wee lad, so it was neat to see it in person.

Anthony from Pompeii is really not having a good day.

Looks like Ron, Judy and Keith are trying to decipher the guide by reading his lips..

A pomegranate tree. They are everywhere in Pompeii.

The Italians are very good at basketball, and perhaps the National Team was making a visit.

Stray dog # 3.

But the thing that really impressed me about Pompeii was that it was the birthplace of pornography. We didn't realize it at first, but then we went the "Cameo Store"mentioned at the top of this post, they had this painting above one of the stairways. You can click on it to get a closer look, but it is a nice example of 2,000 year old porn.

I did a double take, that looks like...........why it is!

Anyhow, that was just a taste of what we would see later. The stalls in the main part of town sold all kinds of local porn. It turns out the Pompeiians were heavily into the pleasures of the flesh.

That is a penis carved into a cobblestone on the main street. It "pointed" to what was the oldest brothel ever discovered.

This is what's left of the brothel today.

When Pompeii was rediscovered in 1748, the Spanish were so shocked by all the sexual tapestries, statues, and other objects d'art that they hid them, plastered over them, reburied them, or put them in a Secret Porn Museum in Naples! I'm not making this stuff up. They even had a God of Porn, Priapus. Click on his name, if you dare! Must be 18 years or older. From a fresco in Pompeii.


Even the buses have porno names. Look just above the license plate.

So we got quite an education as to how they lived in ancient Pompeii. The really weird thing is, they dug down below the Pompeii that was destroyed by the eruption in 79 A.D. and found 3 more Pompeiis below that! That means Pompeii has been destroyed at least 4 times, and rebuilt five times. And not only that, scientists say it's just a matter of time before Vesuvius blows again, and Pompeii and Naples will likely get wiped out. Mt.Vesuvius has an eruption every 20 years on average. The last one was in 1944. Just sayin'.

Artists rendering of Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Thanks to better volcano monitoring, they'll have some warning this time (Mt. St. Helens had a week or so), but Naples is the 3rd most densely populated area on earth, may of them dirt poor. We saw thousands of houses that looked like sheds (but almost every one of them had a satellite dish). From Pompeii, we drove back to the harbour in Napoli (Naples) and got aboard our "Jetfoil" to Capri. Not a coincidence that this was the last spot on the tour, it was a definite highlight.

The Jetfoil. It was a two beer trip from Naples to Capri.

Next up, Capri. The scariest bus ride ever, Digger loses his backpack with the very important documents, causing him to go for his only run of the trip.

Day 7- Dragged Kicking and Screaming From Venice, We Head To Assisi

2011-10-15T17:12:00.012-04:00

Ok, we spent two nights in Venice, but it wasn't enough.

Early morning on our last day in Venice. That guy on the left just picked up a load of goods from a boat and is delievering it. That's why everything is soooo expensive. Those are the "Duckwalks" piled up on the right, when Venice floods at high tide, they line these up on platforms for people to walk on so they don't get their feet wet.

I stole this from the interweb, but this is what walking in St. Mark's Square looks like when it's flooded.We walked on these same duckwalks, but didn't get a photo. DOH.

One last look at the Doges' Palace

The view from the Bridge of Sighs. It was many prisoner's last view of freedom.

Morning beer delivery. It was left unguarded, I guess you wouldn't get very far if you started running with it.

Random arch in Venice

Our taxi back to the mainland

A little choppy on the Grand Canal. Bye bye rich people!

Ron's looking to buy this baby.

The Leaning Tower of Venice

Sea Bass and Calamari.I had this in Burano.

Tour guide Sue pilots the boat. Vinnie is navigating.

Back on the mainland, we watch boatloads of cargo head back to Venice.

It's very busy on this little canal, and sometimes the boat driver's start cursing at each other. Even our gondoliers got into it.

Assisi

Still, we had more places to see. Up next was Assisi, a city located in Umbria, almost dead center in the middle of Italy. Birthplace to St. Francis. He was the Saint who talked to the animals.

St. Francis and Friends.

So we make it to Assisi, and the town is amazing. It had to be rebuilt after a big earthquake in 1997, but they did a great job.

The Rocca Maggiore , the fortress above Assisi. It was built to defend the town, and to give the Pope a place to stay while visiting. It was built in the 14th century.

Portage has a pizza break on some 2,000 year old steps in Assisi.

Thanks, whoever took this shot of Portage and me.

We saw these guys everywhere!

A hilly little town

Tunnel leading from one street to another.

The priests gather just before before we had an amazing experience.

So we were taking a tour of the church where St. Francis is buried. After we had seen it, our guide hustled us upstairs and sat us all down in the pews. The the doors opened and dozens of Priests came filing in, chanting. It was like a scene from a movie.They were celebrating St. Francis getting stigmata in September 1223. Or maybe the Feast of St. Francis. I can't remember.

Leaving the church after our religious experience.

Space is at a premium in Assisi. See the lady on her balcony watering her flowers?

These are the "cells" that the cloistered nuns lived in. They are known as "The Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration", named after St. Clare, a follower of St. Francis. Want to become a Poor Clare?
"The form of life he (St. Francis) established for St. Clare and the Poor Sisters was to observe the holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ by living in obedience, without anything of one's own, and in chastity. "

Have fun with that!

At least they had a great view for the years they spent not buying anything or talking to anyone.

Back at the hotel, they had the Canadian flag flying!

Public Restrooms in Italy
A quick word on public restrooms, or "toilets" as they're called in Italy. IF you are lucky enough to find one, it may cost you 50 euro thingies (we would call them cents, we never did find out what they called them. 100 euro thingies makes up 1 euro.) So, say you were lucky enough to find a public toilet and had the right change. There may or may not be an attendant in there that you have to tip. I assumed this was for keeping the washroom clean, and keeping the soap and toilet paper topped up. This is NOT the case.
Most public toilets don't have seats, some don't have soap. Some don't have paper (a painful lesson learned when I developed a bit of diaper rash), and some don't even have a toilet, just a hole in the floor (known as Turkish Style). But they do have an attendant! So bring pocket change, your own paper, and always carry wet wipes.You will be a hero to your traveling companions.

This is what they call a "Turkish Style" toilet. The "Pooping Experts" say it is healthier and more natural, since squatting lines up your intestines better and even prevents hemorrhoids. Kinda makes sense, we evolved squatting to poo, not sitting. OK, this is way too much information.

Now that I think about it, the hotel bathrooms all had bidets, but no shower curtains. I guess the idea was to conserve water, but the only use the bidets got was to soak tired feet in, and when we took a 20 minute shower, water went all over the floor.

Next up, Day 8, and we're off to Pompeii, Naples and Capri.

Italy, Day 6 .......Venice

2011-10-14T09:08:00.008-04:00

We arrived in Venice in style, aboard some old water taxis. I must say, Globus, our tour company, certainly pampered most of us most of the time. We stayed at the "Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal", and the little poster inside the room said it cost $505 euros/night, so around $700Cdn/night. Ouch.

We went to a glass blowing demonstration. The guy looked like a UFC fighter, not a glass blower.

I was going to make a standard glass blowing joke, but decided this guy could crush me like a grape.

What is he making?

It's a horse! And he finished it in about 1 minute.

We settled in our amazing hotel room, and headed out for the Sunset Champagne Gondola Serenade. It was great.

When the moooon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amorrrrrrreeee

Vooooh-larrrreeeeeh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, some car-eh? Woah-oh-oh-oh.
Ellie is clearly enjoying herself....

Gondolier Pose-down

Turning off the Main Canal onto a side canal

Nice street scape

The competition!

After the Gondolas, we ate a hearty dinner (I had the Sea Bass) and we spent the night drinking wine and beer in St. Marks Square with some of our new friends, watching the people go by. A surreal evening, we even managed to stay awake until 11:00p.m., which is 5:00 a.m. back home.

The 160 ' tall clock tower in St. Marks Square. It was built in 1514, and collapsed in 1902, killing a cat, nothing else. It was rebuilt exactly as it was over the next 10 years.

The Basilica, St Marks Square.

The Doges were the rulers of Venice, which was an independent city-state. The Doge was a rival of the Pope, with just as much power. The Doge protected Galileo when the Pope wanted him killed for saying the earth revolved around the sun.
Venice was a world power from 1200 to the 1500's. Once Columbus discovered America, it was over, they no longer controlled the world's trade routes. As an added kick in the ass, in 1630, the plague killed a third of Venice's 150,000 citizens.Not good.

Executions were held between the two pillars you can see.That's the Doges' Palace on the left.

We woke up at 7:00am (which is 1:00am back home) the next morning to the sound of the bells of St. Mark's Square. It was the latest we were allowed to sleep the whole 10 days! But like a friend pointed out, it was a trip, not a holiday. We packed in an awful lot, which was nice. Anyhow, after breakfast we had a guided tour of Venice. I can't do it justice or describe this spectacular city properly, so lets look at the pitchers.

Forgot this shot of Portage at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Now back to Venice.

Very expensive shops in Venice. We saw boots for $10,000 euros. Very nice boots, but boots.

A chandelier made of Venetian Glass. One of these goes for about $50,000US.

Later, we went by water taxi to Burano (a very colourful town that reminded us of Aruba), where we had a fresh fish lunch with lots of Prosecco, a local sparkling white wine. Then the womenfolk shopped, while the menfolk sat waterside and drank beer. Good times.

The men pass the time in Burano while the women shop.

Later on that afternoon, it was back to the Main Island and we sat in a waterfront cafe and watched the people go by (again). We were having another beer when Portage says"Look! It's our neighbours!"Sure enough, it's Tim and Heddy from just down our street in Toronto. They had walked right past us, so I jumped up and snuck up behind them."Can I take your picture?" I asked from behind them. Heddy didn't even turn around, she just said"I know that voice,?!?!"We couldn't believe what a small world it is. They had arrived from Zurich, and neither of us knew the other would be there.

Just before we spotted our neighbours from the 'hood.Looks like we're waiting for the first round.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Elton John's place is somewhere behind this church.

Low tide. At high tide, some of Venice, like St. Mark's Square, flood.

Later on, we headed back to St. Mark's Square for dinner, drinks, and people watching.

This was cool. St. Mark's after dark. That's Keith from Lloydminster Alberta on the right.

Dueling orchestras. One would stop, then another a few stores over would start.

The bells. They were amazing. More a bit later on this building.

Another Orchestra takes over.


The Clock Tower in St. Marks. Two moving statues on top hammer the bells every hour. And see the roman numerals halfway up? They tell you what time it is. This is taken at 8:40 am.

"This impressive clock was built between 1496 and 1506. "
The clocks workings were by Paolo and Carlo Rainieri, brothers from Reggio Emilia. It took them 3 years to complete. Local legend stated that other cities were so jealous of this fine clock, they circulated a rumour that the citizens of Venice tore out the eyes of the brothers to prevent them ever building a similar piece.
The clock doesn't just give an accurate time, but also shows the zodiac sign and latest lunar phase for the time. This is one of a few clocks in Venice that show a 24 hour clockface. The legend 'Horas non numero nisi serenas' is depicted, and translates as 'I only number happy hours'

Close up of the bell.

Night time bell, taken from our outdoor restaurant table..

Extreme close up

After a couple of hours, the final bill came. It was the most expensive dinner I've ever had. There is a cover charge of $6 euros just to sit down, and I'm guessing wine and beer were about $13 euros each. And we had some sandwiches, I don't even want to guess how much they were. But it was totally worth it. Portage wrote in her journal "What a wonderful night", and not only do I agree, I would do it again in a heartbeat!
Off to bed, an early start the next morning, leaving Venice for Assisi. Sad face.They don't call it the most beautiful city in the world for nothing.
Portage has lots of amazing photos that put mine to shame, but she's still getting them organized. Once she does, I'll put up the best of the best.