I Guess We Are There... Kind Of?

More gym equipment.

In one of the posts from last year, I posed the question “Mom & Dad, are we there yet?” in reference to getting through this phase of our lives known as COVID[-19]. It appears in Seattle and in most of the places Marc and I frequent, the answer is “yes”. We’ve been vaxxed, have been able to take a couple of trips via plane, resumed seeing people and I have been able to complete the rehab on my hip (still a little bit of work on the knee/calf, but that’s minor). My sister and a couple of close friends convinced us to buy a Peloton because as regular followers of this space know, the Becks’ need more gym equipment. All positives.

As for many, COVID took a toll on me mentally and emotionally. When I had a chance to look back, I realized it started last fall and it wasn’t until late winter that I really identified that I needed to take some steps to deal with it. True to form, I had to understand the who, what, where, when, why and how. This led to me seeking some professional help on the mental health front as I did not have the tools to figure it out.

Look at those crazy kids on Patmos in 2002.

Long time readers of this space know that I saw the 2nd plane hit the World Trade Center almost 20 years ago. At the time, I was working for a global investment bank which did not really tolerate “weakness”. Sure, they had counseling circles where employees could commiserate about the trauma they experienced, but no one actually trusted the system. We all likely thought that the facilitator would “rat us out” that we were “soft” and would get managed out of the firm. And especially as a ‘she/her’ on Wall Street, I was expected to “tough it out”. I did that and, by sheer luck, I ended up being ok and somehow met Marc less than a year later.

When I realized that I was feeling “off”, I realized that shame on me if I make the same mistake that I made all of those years ago knowing what I know now and not get some assistance. Fortunately seeking out mental health counseling does not have the same stigma as it used to have and I was able to find someone via referral to help figure things out.

I was going through my sessions and doing some homework via reading, etc. In the midst of all of this, Marc and I were able to go visit my family back in New York after not seeing them for 14 months. It was a wonderful weekend and really recharged me personally, which I was not expecting. [Random tangent: My Mom showed me this article, which made me laugh because my Rabbi used to give me these while I was prepping for my Bat Mitzvah back in the day.] That said, on the plane ride back home I had a sense of dread about returning to work that was more than the normal “ugh, it’s work tomorrow after being away.” In looking back, I realize that I had this feeling previously in the past few months but blocked it out because that was what I had always conditioned myself to do.

Hurricane Ridge - May, 2021.

The frustrating part was that I really liked the team I was on, enjoyed the work I was doing and had good leadership support behind me. It didn’t reconcile with the feelings I was experiencing. We were getting out for regular hikes, which I know has a positive impact on my mental health. I started examining my typical work day and seeing if I could identify any triggers. I was annoyed that I did not recognize this decline sooner so I could nip it in the bud. But that’s the thing - you’re living in the micro, and it is so easy to miss out on the macro things going on in your life.

What I was able to discern was that I switched roles in mid-October and that led to a steady cadence of 6am (sometimes earlier) meetings because the organization is more east-coast centric. By the time I would have dinner with Marc, I would be thrashed and was not good company because I had been working for 12+ hours. The schedule also made it more difficult for me to get my workouts in, which definitely impacts me mentally and physically. I also realized that I was pretty burnt out from doing 3 months of daily rehab from my hip surgery on top of my workouts and everything else. And I missed seeing my friends and having laughs in person.

My PT conjured up lots of games to keep me engaged with my rehab.

Right. OK. Fortunately more and more of our “people” were getting vaxxed so that was helpful in addressing the lack of social contact over the past 15+ months. The gatherings that I have been in have brought me true happiness. Hip rehab concluded in late April and I’m breaking records for mid-life career professionals hula hooping. Marc and I were able to resume a couple of traditions that had to be suspended due to COVID. That left addressing the proverbial elephant in the room - my current role, most of which I truly enjoyed except for the daily very early morning starts. That was the biggest issue out of all of it since it impacted my time with Marc.

With that, my last day at PwC is on Friday and I will miss the people I met at P-Dubs, who were generous with their knowledge and their time. They are smart and funny, and my last team, in particular, brought me tons of joy. I had the opportunity to influence many folks during my tenure at the firm in terms of teaching people about ‘product’ and mentoring a few people along the way on their career journeys.

Snowshoeing on Rainier - April, 2021.

I’ll be starting a new role at the end of next month, which I am really excited about. It also coincides with being back in the office in a hybrid capacity, which also makes me happy. More on that once I start up there with my new set of colleagues whom I am looking forward to learning from and partnering with to achieve great things.

And with that, onward!

Becoming Bionic and Being Thankful.

So you are working through a sports injury for a couple of months and in a matter of 3 days, you go from “hey, it is probably something that can be solved through cortisone shots” to “you need a total hip replacement”. Whaaa…..

The results came in before I had a chance to consult with the surgeon. I saw the MRIa (it’s a “special” MRI) report and while I couldn’t understand 50%+ of the words, any time you see the words ‘extreme’ and ‘severe’ in this context, it can’t be good. I decided to send it to 7 different medical professionals and they all independently came back with some form of “uh yeah, that’s a total hip replacement”.  Extra bonus for those professionals who were around me on a somewhat regular basis who made comments around the fact that I had no business functioning at the level I was in terms of hiking, weightlifting and cardio. Uhm, ok.

Lake Ollalie hike in between Christmas and New Year’s - 3 days before the news that I would be ‘becoming bionic’.

It took me about 12 hours to come to grips with this news, which included copious amounts of wine, frantic texts and manic web searches. I was fortunate to get an appointment with the person who is known as “THE” surgeon for hip replacements about a week later, and he was able to confirm that my hip was, in fact, in deep sh**. What was hysterical was that in the surgical consultation, he was trying to “sell me” on the replacement surgery with this gradual story and I just interrupted him to say “Hey, doc…. I’m already in. I talked to people and I know how bad it is. When can I go?”

[You can take the girl out of NYC….]

After some back and forth, I was able to get scheduled for surgery in 2 1/2 weeks. I am beyond fortunate that I work for an employer that was very supportive and has very established policies for taking time off for this kind of thing, and be fully compensated. So off to surgery we went and likely my inaugural step, in many to come, in “becoming bionic”. I did my research on devices - woohoo. I was fortunate to speak to a few people who had the surgery and I trusted. Two people in particular were a huge help. One is a cousin and one is a friend. Their feedback on the unwritten things was and continues to be so helpful. 

Torta Setteveli - if I only bought enough chocolate to cover the cake…. because enough chocolate wasn’t already included!

In between, we had to celebrate Marc’s birthday. I was trying to behave myself for 2 weeks in between the holidays and the surgery and that pretty much went to hell. Oh well, Marc’s birthWEEK celebration was fun and worth it, even with COVID - particularly on January 20th with a particular focus on the events of Washington, DC. PS - If you haven’t heard of Goldbelly, you should check it out. It’s not the same as going to that favorite restaurant for a special occasion, but it’s pretty awesome. I cooked and baked for Marc’s birthday knowing he was going to have to take care of me so here is my rendition of Prue Leith’s GBBO “Torta Settevelli.” Let’s give it up for finding a way to temper chocolate that didn’t make me insane.

January 20th - early am PT. If you don’t have anything nice to say….

Fortunately, no hiccups in any pre-op work (passed the COVID test) and I was rolled into the surgery suite where I saw lots of tools that you might see at a hardware store. They started “medicating” me pretty quickly so I didn’t have time to think about that…. Anyway they do the surgery and release you the same day. In between, they test you for walking and a few other basic life tasks. 

Enter stage left: Marc (aka Mr. WaterClown).

For the past month, Marc has been taking fabulous care of almost everything as I have recovered from surgery. And somehow I managed to NOT need to ring the literal cowbell to summon him to my beck and call (as opposed to ‘beckOn’) that we have from my running days. We were also so lucky to have a great support system to help the both of us - near and far with all sorts of “creative” gifts and food deliveries that made us laugh. Obviously with COVID, support is very different than under other circumstances. I put a strict no-chocolate/no sweets rule in place, but somehow that was circumvented because everyone figured Marc, the chocoholic, would need it since he was taking care of me. No comment.

One of the many crazy exercises that our Physical Therapist assigned me for rehab. Getting the left leg up is harder than it looks.

In the interim, I have been fastidious about rehab and rest, along with taking care of some Beck projects. I’m doing lots of cycling on the assault bike and making Rocky montage videos. (DRAGO!!!!!!!) OK, I have watched a ton of TV shows too, which is not a normal thing for me. But the comedy was a much needed relief for me so it was the right call (thanks, B(J)S, for keeping me on task there). We received so many well wishes along the way via text/email/DM from family, friends and colleagues — all of which were really appreciated. Some of the text threads have really kept me laughing in their absurdity… in a good way! We also have our outdoor COVID friendly set-up, which has helped a lot with people coming to say hi. 

I head to work on Tuesday with much to do from a rehab perspective, but THANKFUL that I was able to build a base on which to continue my progress from, as well as have the support of so many folks. Ups and downs will continue throughout the process. With respect to COVID, I hope that we are closer to the end than we are the beginning but if you know of someone going through a situation that would normally be helped with some hugs and human contact, also know that regular engagement also makes a huge difference when you can’t be together in person. Onward with a pic from a video that I recorded this evening for a good friend’s birthday.

Keeping it classy, as always.

Mom & Dad, Are We There Yet?

Me and/or my 2 siblings: Mom and Dad, are we there yet?

Mom and/or Dad (sometimes simultaneously): You ask me that one more time and I am turning this car around NOW! And I REALLY mean it this time!

When all of this started, I do not know what I envisioned but I am pretty sure that I was not planning on this lasting for as long as it has. This being COE-VID. [Side note: I have a friend who has somehow made it 2 words and she has hand gestures to go with it.] We are now coming up on 7 months into this very frustrating situation and I am guessing we have another year to go before things remotely get back to whatever “normal” will be “post-COE-VID”. It’s tempting to ask the question “are we there yet” or even “are we ALMOST there yet” but that seems to be a fruitless exercise at this stage for a variety of reasons. So off we go as life goes on….

I hope this finds all of you and your loved ones relatively happy, healthy (in all facets) and sane. If you are not in a good place for whatever reason, then PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME NOW and I WILL HELP! Remember that “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

How are we doing and managing COE-VID? As regular readers of this space know, we tend to be, uhm, very sports oriented and don’t get into episodic TV. Given that it took awhile for the respective professional sports leagues to figure out how they were going to manage player safety with competition, Marc and I needed to figure out a new post-dinner strategy. And I definitely needed to create a hard barrier between work and personal given the long-term work from home situation.

One day, Marc just compiled a list of shows that he thought might be interesting to check out. We came up with a plan where he would pick a show to watch and we would watch a season, I would pick a show and then we would jointly pick a show that we were interested in. Rotate through until we finished the series. It’s been entertaining as it’s been years since I cared about a show on an episode-by-episode basis. The plan has somewhat worked out.

Marc’s choices, which have actually all been very good, were Altered Carbon (I liked 1st season better than 2nd), The Umbrella Academy (I liked the 2nd season better than the 1st), The Americans (about to start season 5 and Keri Russell might be one of the more underrated actresses of our day), Veep (as much as I love and adore JLD, I had to stop as it was making me think of reality too much), Dear White People (overall very good) and I’m probably missing something else. Next up is Watchmen.

The ones we choose together tend to be cooking or travel related. We’ve watched Ugly Delicious, The Chef Show and Great British Bake Off. GBBO has LOADS of seasons so it is going to take awhile to get through all of them. But I actually like GBBO the best of all of the cooking shows that I have ever watched. The drama is purely about the end product and if the cake will collapse or not. It’s not about manufacturing BS between the competitors. We tried to get into Somebody Feed Phil and we both found it rather annoying. Loved Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat, but technically that was pre-COE-VID.

I’m still doing the podcast thing and I continue to suffer from having too many on my rotation. This one by Scott Galloway on “Algorithms and the Threat to Democracy” was a really good listen. The podcast subjects are mostly a mix of sports, entrepreneurship, fitness/health, tech/product, food and news. Many of them crossover into some of those other lanes. I’d say my faves are as follows:

• Sports (The Old Man & The Three with JJ Redick, Laughter Permitted with Julie Foudy, 30 for 30 from ESPN and Bill Simmons from The Ringer - the ‘Parent Corner’ segments are definitely humorous, especially to this non-parent)

• Entrepreneurship (How I Built This with Guy Raz and Founded & Funded from Madrona Venture Group)

• Fitness/Health (The Ready State with Juliet and Kelly Starrett, Doctor’s Farmacy with Mark Hyman and The Mind Muscle Project with Raph and Lach)

• Tech/Product (a16z from Andreessen Horowitz and Product Talk from Products That Count)

• Food (Eater’s Digest from Eater and Foodcast from Bon Appetit)

• News (Next Question with Katie Couric, Modern Ruhles with Stephanie Ruhle, The Prof G Show from Scott Galloway and Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway)

Most of the time, I am listening to pods while I am working out as long as I am not doing some intense cardio where I need to be laser focused on my pace and my timing like my OPEX “Pain/Gain/Sustain” style workouts. Those efforts, plus my weightlifting prescribed by our coach, have also been a savior for me on all fronts.

Other things (outside of work) that we have been doing to stay sane while not being able to entertain as much as we typically do is hike where possible, The recent smoke and fires over a good chunk of the month have been a real bummer as September is typically a nice weather month in the Pacific Northwest. Fortunately we have been getting out for hikes and walks here and there, so that has been helpful mentally and emotionally for me.

I’ve been trying some other things like taking a couple of online classes, which I’ll get into more detail about at a later date. I also attempted to bake, which is not something I typically do. Regular readers of this space know that the other Chez Beck household member tends to do those things and he does them REALLY, REALLY WELL! Too much GBBO, me thinks.

Bringing it all back to “Mom & Dad, are we there yet?”, I think we’re about 1/3 of the way through this. So that means being really focused on how I can ensure I get the right amount of sleep, not work too much and not stress too much about things beyond my control. Making that clean break from my office upstairs to downstairs to the kitchen and family room to relax definitely helps with me winding down before bed. Yes, I realize that I am lucky that I have that space. All of the above activities help with that. I’ll close out with, once again, if you are struggling and think you need help, please ask.

Fitness Routine Disrupted? Now What?

Out and about on a walkabout in the Pacific Northwest.

Given what has taken place with COVID-19, many people are unable to leverage their gym, athletic facilities (e.g., swimming pools, tennis courts) or other place for fitness. State and local governments have taken steps to keep critical businesses open, and fitness facilities do not qualify. I’m not saying it wasn’t the right call, but fitness is definitely a stress reliever for many and now folks are trying to figure out an alternative.

Some folks are lucky to have something at home, whether it is Peloton, treadmill, dumbbells, elliptical, etc. Marc and I are fortunate to have an ‘at home’ option. We do some of our own programming but also have help from our trainer, who is fabulous. Given the recent stretch of good weather in Seattle, I have been taking the opportunity to take a meeting or two per day while on a walk, which has helped my state of mind immensely.

Last Sunday and today, Marc and I were lucky to get out on a hike with enough space to do social distancing….. most of the time. If someone is coming up the trail and you’re coming down, and the path is narrow, that makes it a tad more challenging. But everyone has been positive and people are working through it.

I have received some questions for ideas on home workout pointers. I’ll certainly share a few things that I have done without having any equipment, but I’ll also recommend these articles on OPEX and on WSJ. If you’re able to pick up a pair of adjustable dumbbells (Bowflex makes a good pair and they take up very little room) and/or bands (Rogue makes great quality ones), your range of exercises increases exponentially.

My sister told me Peloton is giving away 90-day free trials to their app. I have heard great things about Aaptiv as an app to use. Our trainer just told us about Stryde, which is cycling-based. I’m guessing some of you know of other alternatives that people can try out. Post in the comments.

OK on to the workout ideas that I have done on the road (outside of going on a run). All you need is a watch that counts on seconds to do this or you can find an app (we use SmartWOD):

• Every minute on the minute, do 8 burpees for 20 minutes. The goal is to have a little bit of rest per minute before the next minute arrives. Trust me when I tell you that you will be sweating. You do not need any equipment, except a watch.

• For 20 minutes, do a continuous loop of 10 sit-ups, 10 push-ups, 10 air squats and 10 alternating lunges. If you’re struggling with your push-up, check out this link on how to build the strength to do them.

• Use the above movements and complete a “Grand Slam” tabata style workout. A tabata is 8 rounds of :20 seconds of work/:10 seconds of rest. After each tabata, do a plank (form counts). So your 1st tabata is sit-ups for 8 rounds and then a plank. Then you do 8 rounds of push-ups and then a plank. Continue on….

• 5 rounds for time of 100m run, 10 jumping squats, 10 split jumps, 10 v-ups, 10 burpees. Rest 2 minutes after each round. Increase pace per round.

** NOTE: I am not a doctor, nor do I have any active certifications around fitness, so please check with your medical professional if you have not been exercising as of late before you try the above.

If you have suggestions, please post in the comments. We’re all in this together and just remember: you’ll never walk alone.

Day 2: Mexico City —> El Nevado de Toluca —> Mexico City.

Since we had the extra 36 hours before our friends arrived, I thought it would be fun to go for a hike to mix up the itinerary a bit. I checked out some websites on fun day hikes and settled on one that is ~2 hours outside of Mexico City that reminded me a bit of when we went to Crater Lake.

Marc was not really excited when I told him that our guide for our hike was picking us up at 6am this morning. But we managed to get up on time and Marc got his pastries for the ride out to our hike. Crisis averted. He also promised to return when we got back to try the chocolate cake.

Our guide, Carlos, was on time and ready to go. It was still dark for most of the ride out but as we got closer, we were able to see lots of fog over in the direction we were slated to hike at. Admittedly, I was also a tad nervous about the hike. The duration was fine, but I experienced some altitude sickness on a hike at a similar altitude during Operation Cincuenta. I wanted to be careful (see that, DAD!) and smart. Carlos gave us a couple of options, so we took the easier one that was ~3 hours of hiking and about 5 miles.

Off we went and we started at 13,500 feet to climb to a max of 14,500 feet. Doesn’t

seem like a ton of elevation gain, but at this altitude, you feel it quickly. We took our time and got to the top where we could see both lakes, although one of them was covered in fog at that particular moment. Then the fog quickly dissipated as we walked down to the lakes.

First up was Lago del Luna, the smaller of the lakes. As we approached, it started to get sunnier and sunnier so it was time to shed some layers. The lake started to show different colors, which was really pretty. We continued on to Lago del Sol, which allowed us to get a close-up of the summit of Nevado del Toluca. The fog was moving around rapidly, so we were trying to be efficient in getting photos. What was great was that we had the whole circuit to ourselves. No one else out there. Carlos said that on the weekends that this trail is packed.

We made our way to the other side of the lake and decided to eat a little before the climb out of the craters. Marc and I told Carlos about Crater Lake, which is still one of my favorite places that I have visited in my time in the PNW. He definitely wanted to learn more as we were trying to compare both locations. The fog started to roll back in as we made our way back up. It was a workout, for sure, and then I wanted to see if we could hike to a higher lookout point to get a better shot of Lago del Sol, which is obscured at the top of the official trail loop.

Fortunately Marc and Carlos were game, and we hiked up a bit more because we needed more elevation, right? The fog was pretty thick but since it wasn’t windy, we stayed up there for about 5 minutes and guess what, the fog moved out a bit. More photos. After that, we headed back to the car and started the ride back to Mexico City. Along the way we were held up by a traffic accident (no injuries) and then we saw a government car of some kind in a drainage ditch in the middle of a major highway with a bunch of police around. Hmmmm. You can’t make this stuff up. I wish we could have stuck around to find out what happened there!

All in all, Carlos was a fantastic guide and we were lucky to have him. We made it back, Marc got his afternoon pastries and we just chilled for a bit waiting for our friends to arrive.

While waiting for our friends to get settled, Marc got his 1st mezcal tasting in at the hotel bar. Honestly, it smelled absolutely revolting to me but Marc seemed to enjoy it, so that’s good. Him and Jason sampled another mezcal at dinner. I’m sure Marc will have more to say on this topic as the week progresses. Later on, we had a great meal at a local restaurant that included duck buñuelos (SO GOOD), pork tacos, chicken with mole negro, manchamanteles and escamoles (look this one up - we have precedent on this one from Operation Cincuenta). On the dessert front, Marc had a whole page on the menu dedicated to chocolate. All in all a good day.

PS - We will have a later blog post on food. Have no fear.

Day 21: Amazonas, Colombia.

 ‘Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.’

Marc and I woke up to blue’ish skies after last night’s rain. I had a hard time sleeping because it was so hot and humid. The temp might have dropped down to 80 degrees but the humidity remained the same. But I was excited for our hike in the Amacayacu National Park. We had a great breakfast and loaded up for our 11k walk in the jungle.

Ramiro was ready for us and brought along another guide, Hiro, who lives in a local indigenous village with his family and works for Calanoa (where we are staying) part-time. We definitely were happy to have him along. We went by boat, which had some technical difficulties, and were dropped off on the side of Matamata Creek, which was named after a pre-historic turtle in the area. Hiro was wielding his machete a fair amount on this “trail” that wasn’t exactly well-marked while Ramiro explained all of the different things we saw along the way.

As with anything in Colombia, it wouldn’t be a tour without a Pablo Escobar mention. Ramiro told us about a dude who was more evil than Pablo - Julio Cesar Arana. He killed indigenous people as opposed to politicians, which is whom Pablo went after. Julio was big in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and terrorized many. Anyway back to the walk, which was MUDDY. Our hiking boots would have been no match for this terrain. It was mud, mud and more mud. Calanoa loans a pair of wellies for every guest and you do need them. It was slick and I was glad I schlepped along my trekking poles for this part of the trip. 

The walk took about 3.5 hours and while it wasn’t hilly or at altitude, it was mentally taxing because of footing as well as some dicey crossings. This region is in transition from the dry season to the wet season, so many “rivers” are now being “created”. Plus we were warned about this area being more prone to mosquitoes than where we were staying (already significant). I had Deet plus long sleeves, long pants and a rain jacket. I was sweating bullets in 95 degree heat with 98% humidity. It’s like being in a steam room fully dressed without the eucalyptus and being constantly paranoid about slipping and falling into mud. 

Along the way, we saw a sloth who was doing a great job of living up to it’s name that was high up in the trees. Then we saw a Tamarin monkey and a Black Titi Monkey. Ramiro pointed out some other really cool things in the jungle here. He showed us a malaria antidote called ‘abuta’ that the locals use since they can’t handle our medicine, just like we can’t drink the local water. We learned about the ‘ice cream bean’, which is really a fruit (sorry, Lisa).

Then he showed us an ant that acts as a mosquito repellent called ‘ichichimy’. You put your hand on the tree where the ants are and they come on to your hand. Then you rub your hands together and the ants give off a scent that the mosquitoes don’t like. If I didn’t see it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it but it worked. We then saw these massive termite blobs on the side of trees but Ramiro didn’t have a Spanish translation for that. These blobs were 3 feet long on the side of a tree. Continuing on the ant theme, we saw ‘arrieras’ which were ants that were acting as farmers. We literally watched them carry leaves for farming and not for consuming.

I really enjoyed learning about the ‘walking trees’. Because the area is coming out of dry season, we can see the roots of lots of trees that are about 10 feet high. In about 3 months, the water level will rise another 10+ feet. It was fascinating to imagine this area with so much more water. Then we also saw a tree called a ‘capirona’ that peels itself to a nice and shiny coat. 

After the hike, we walked through an indigenous village called St. Martin, where about 700 people live. Hiro showed us his home and let us use soap to wash our hands. His family was very nice to let us clean up there a bit and have a snack before catching the boat back to Calanoa. The residents of this village live a very simple life and they are very happy. the drawings on the side were very cool. I’m just going to say that if you’re reading this blog, you’re in a very lucky place based on what Marc and I saw today.

We went back to the lodge for lunch, and showed Ramiro some of our pics from the Galapagos. Then we went out to search for pink dolphins. The sky was clear and being out on the boat made it seem relatively cooler. We didn’t see any pink dolphins but we saw some grey ones although they are hard to capture on camera. It was a really nice afternoon to be out on the water. When we returned from the dolphin expedition, Marc went to take some pics and ended up with 7 or 8 Tamarin monkeys just hanging out by the dining tent. IT. WAS. LOCO. Then we saw some in the trees. Very cool.

After catching a pretty sunset, we had dinner in the tent with the 2 other couples

who are also staying at the lodge. Both are really nice and very friendly. One couple is from England and one is from Colombia. And for being so remote, the food at Calanoa is pretty awesome. I have had some kind of catfish both nights and both were really good. Marc approved as well since they were so fresh. No night tour, so we went back and finished SOMM 2 before crashing. It was hotter than last night when we crashed so I took a 2nd shower to cool off (the one time when not having hot water can come in handy).

You can find more pics of our travels HERE.

Day 18: Armenia, Salento, Cocora (Colombia)

Colombians eat/celebrate with family on Christmas Eve and open presents at midnight and often stay up all night drinking. Then they like to go out for lunch, dinner, movies etc to escape mess of a house on Christmas day. Many are also apparently severely hung over. So we started our full day a little early in an attempt to beat crowds by 11am and later.

While driving to Salento, we went by former house of Carlos Lehder Rivas and heard how he flew drugs over an island in the Caribbean then power boated it to Miami. And then when extradited to the US how he attempted to take down everyone including Pablo Escobar. And then the crazy stuff Escobar did to avoid extradition by offering to build his own prison to avoid being turned over to the United States.

We then learned about the Juan Valdez coffee character and how the first guy portraying a farmer from Colombia was neither a farmer nor a Colombian but rather a foreign actor.

We hired a Willys Jeep in Salento to take us to Cocora with our guide. Our Jeep was from 1954 and had the engine rebuilt once. The ones that have all original parts are worth over $30k because they are beloved.

Hike over 500 meters in altitude gain to Finca la Montaña ending at 2860M (9400ft) early enough in day to be ahead of the crowds and with some gorgeous weather with great view of Morogacho at the top across a valley. This view happens less than 5x per month. Then we hiked back down taking about 2.5 hours total for high altitude hike.

I told our guide, Guillermo, over lunch about eating ants and worms the other day in Bogota and he said he could not do that. I also told him about the Coloma coffee liqueur and he said that and one other one are good and he'd show me as we walked through town. So we went into a store while walking the main street toward Plaza Bolivar and he pointed it out. The proprietor offered a taste of another one that was sweeter but not as good in my mind. Then she offered Jill and I a small chocolate piece. Jill ate it to discover coffee bean inside and made the greatest face that had me and Guillermo laughing so hard.

During lunch our guide also told us about one of the great wonders of Colombia that nobody knows about that he wants to visit. It's the Caño Cristales - the river of five colors. It looks amazing but getting there isn't easy and only colorful part of the year (July-September). First you fly from Bogota to Villavicencio then another plane to La Macarena then a guide can potentially take you the rest of the way which might be multi-hour hike. But wow. Just read more about it.

We went to Jesus Martin coffee shop for coffee. This guy really started the good coffee revolution in Colombia for locals. The country was exporting basically everything and keeping the crap locally and he wanted Colombians to also enjoy the good stuff.

We had dinner with Kyra and her mom Adele who we spoke with this morning. I noticed last night that Kyra got up more than once to visit the chocolate table while we were still halfway through our meal. I was starting to think some chocolate needed to be saved for ME! So I told them this morning I was worried about the chocolate supply and found out that she lives in Gig Harbor (near Seattle). At the end of our meal just as we finished dessert, one of the candle torches by our table blew up and in slow motion I watched the fireball in the air flying toward Jill and I'm just thinking "don't land on Jill, don't land on Jill". It landed between her and the person at the table behind us. I was relieved there was no "stop, drop, roll" necessary. But we all got up and I moved us into the courtyard away from the other 5-8 candles. Staff even told us that this happens from time to time. Yikes!

Day 13: Galápagos Islands (Isla Genovesa), Ecuador.

Marc and I found out last night that today was going to be our final day to snorkel. We had a couple of less than awesome snorkel sessions so many of us had high hopes for our last session this morning. But first we had a walk on Isla Genovesa, which one can call a mecca for birds. 

We were on the 1st boat out to shore and the “dry landing” was definitely an adventure. Actually many of the “dry landings”, which mean your feet aren’t supposed to get wet, have been very adventurous with balancing the tide and where the boat is letting off folks. This could be a variation of the boat being a foot under the landing or a foot over the landing depending on the wind. Today we had to be ready to go at the perfect moment for someone to grab you and for you to jump on land. Fortunately no injuries getting out of and back on to the zodiac when we were done with the walk.

Marc and I saw short-eared owls, blue-footed boobies (yes, you read that correctly), red-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, mockingbirds, frigatebirds, hawks and plenty of other birds to make ornithology enthusiasts go wild after we climbed Prince Philip’s Steps. We saw a small chick being protected by the mother as well as eggs that have been laid but have not hatched as of yet. The bonus was seeing those owls as they really blend well into the habitat.

After the walk and returning to the boat, we had our final snorkel. As the floor was rocky

as opposed to sand, we were hoping the conditions were better for seeing some cool wildlife under water. We did see sea lions (fur and common types), but we also got to see a school of golden cownose rays whizz by us. That was pretty awesome and Marc captured some great video until he was literally kicked in the face multiple times by another snorkeler in the area.

Marc and I decided to opt out of the afternoon activity and just napped/read. It was nice. While we were chilling, one of our fellow passengers saw a ‘hammerhead shark’, which is what I have really wanted to see on this trip, but I was too late. Looks like I won’t see them on this adventure but it was fun being on the lookout. We had a nightly happy hour and then dinner on the boat. But more hijinks awaited....

It was karaoke night on the Xperience. We had musical talents spanning the gamut of decent to, eh....., not so much. Note that I fall in the latter category. Most of the people in the room did contribute on at least one song, which was fun, but I think our guide leading the session was happy when the clock struck 10pm and called it a night for everyone. 

More pics posted HERE.

Day 12: Isabela Island --> Bartolome & Santa Cruz Islands (Galápagos)

We sailed all night from the northwest part of Isabela Island over to Bartolomé Island. There is a short hike to a peak on this island with gorgeous views that happen to be photographed a lot. If you Google the Galápagos you probably see a photo from this lookout without looking very long.

There is a pinnacle rock visible from there that would become our morning snorkeling expedition once we returned to the ship for a quick change. We were on the first zodiac for snorkeling.

SHARK! I finally saw a shark on this one. It was white finned and perhaps 4-5 feet long but not huge in diameter. It was just cruising along and I turned on video and kicked with the fins to keep up. In person it was visible but barely since the section of shore I was closest to was sandy and the water was murkier than I'd like. The video does a poor job of revealing the shark despite following it for 10-15 seconds while recording. I'm going to have to get video from others on board and also perhaps see more sharks!

We ate lunch and chilled on the upper deck for a couple of hours after lunch. Mostly a nice breeze that helped induce a nap for me... All these activities are awesome but also energy draining.

We stopped near Las Bachas Beach on Santa Cruz Island and there was a beach walk with optional snorkel or swim or skip the walk and head to beach for snorkel, swim or beach time. I signed us up for the walk, but we switched to skip that. We were last group to the beach and the conditions weren't great for snorkeling. It was tough just doing a wet landing and getting out of the zodiac.

I went in with mask no snorkel but couldn't really see anything as the waves were churning sand too much. Nobody else came out as far as I did (past the break line) so I came back in and took off wetsuit and mask and just swam a bit. Fortunately they let us leave shortly thereafter as there was nothing visible other than birds and a marine iguana and we were originally going to stay for sunburn for 2 hours. We got first zodiac back to boat to clean up for the evening.

The walking tour that we skipped saw flamingos! That would have been better use of that time but the WaterClown in me wanted more water time when we skipped the walk.

The cocktail hour at 6 involved a ship circumnavigation of Daphne Island just north of Santa Cruz. It's a volcanic cone that has a crater floor that is an important breeding ground for Blue Footed Boobies. We have many pictures of these birds.

So we had another good evening at dinner on the boat. Then I saw a tray of dessert drinks delivered to a table that had the couple celebrating their 50th anniversary this week (Friday) and their kids and those that joined them. It looked amazing. I walked over to ask about it then ordered one for myself.

They called it KAB - Kahlua, Amaretto, Bailey's plus ice and an Oreo cookie. Wow! I don't know proportions and cannot look it up as I write this with no internet access, but yum! Great end of evening dessert.

We went up to top deck after dinner and hung out in cooler air chatting a bit. I learned a new phrase from some 60 year olds trying to make the best of everything. They know I'm turning 50 shortly and told me that your 60s are the "go go" decade, your 70s are the "slow go" decade, and your 80s are the "no go" decade. They didn't give me the 50s decade phrase so perhaps add several go's to the 60s phrase. So enjoy it now! Seems about right...

Day 11: Galápagos Islands (Isla Isabela), Ecuador.

Gosh. It was a full day even though the itinerary didn’t make it seem that way when we went through everything last night.

Because we have a decent amount to travel on the boat today, we got off to an early start with a walk around Urbina Bay on Isla Isabela to hopefully see some land iguanas and tortoises. Marc and I got out on the 1st boat so it meant we would be 1st on the trail before the other 3 boats. We had a wet landing for this morning’s walk, which means no dock, and while we were getting out of the zodiacs, we saw some more penguins and pelicans. 

Not 5 minutes into the walk, we see a tortoise come out of the brush. It was a “small” one and our guide guessed it weighed about 80 lbs. In last night’s briefing, they told us that if we see a tortoise on our walk that we needed to be very quiet so they didn’t get alarmed. But our guide was talking so loud because she was so excited, we were kind of worried that it would retreat. It actually kept it’s head out for a long time as we were standing there so we snapped a bunch of photos.

Along the way, Marc and I spotted a few land iguanas, which are more colorful than the marine iguanas. All in all, we ended up seeing about 10 of them on this hour long walk, which was pretty cool. Some of them were well camouflaged into the habitat so it was hard to get good pics of some of them. As we came around the bend, our guide saw a massive male tortoise walking away from us. She guessed that this one weighed about 400 lbs. 

This was one big dude. We knew we needed to get past the tortoise at some point to

finish our walk so we had to wait for an opportunity where we could pass on the side. Our guide was pretty stoked. We continued our walk, saw a couple more tortoises in the distance and then as we turned another corner we saw two tortoises walking towards each other - a huge male and a female. We didn’t know if this was going to be a mating thing or what, so we all were watching with a fair amount of anticipation.

As it turned out, the female wanted nothing to do with the male and just “scurried” past him. I didn’t know tortoises could move THAT fast but hey - we are learning. We definitely got lucky with how many tortoise sightings we had and our guide said that we were one short of her record. She was psyched at the different sizes of tortoises that we saw. It was really a great walk and it was only 9:30am when we returned to the boat.

After we got back, I decided to improv a workout on the top deck. Jumping rope on a moving ship is a bit of a challenge but I didn’t kill myself, so that’s a plus. Then they had a movie for us that is hard to explain called “The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came To Eden”, which is based on a book. Somehow Marc and I got sucked in and then it ended at a weird part, so now we are committed for part 2, which they are showing tomorrow. This movie definitely falls into the ‘you can’t make this stuff up’ bucket. 

After lunch, we had some time to relax so I finally started one of the books I downloaded to my Kindle - “The Bettencourt Affair”. So far, it has been an interesting read - it’s about the family who founded the L’Oreal company. Then we went out for a deep sea snorkel at Vincente Roca Point, where you jump in the water from the zodiac and not the beach. We saw more sea lions, turtles, penguins and tropical fish. Others saw sharks, but we didn’t see them unfortunately. Then we had a quick turnaround for a ride on the zodiac to see more wildlife. We were expecting to see more flamingos, marine iguanas, penguins, etc.

If we have an activity that mostly everyone opts into, we will have 4 zodiacs out on the water with a naturalist and a driver for each one. They do a great job at keeping us safe while ensuring that we have fun. As we are out on the water, they are typically communicating with each other in Spanish via walkie-talkie about timing, conditions, etc. It’s generally pretty measured in terms of tone..... until this afternoon.

All of a sudden, lots of loud chaos is coming over the radio and I’m trying to make it out since I was sitting right next to the naturalist. I thought I heard “orca” but I wasn’t sure but all I know is that in a few seconds that all 4 zodiacs were heading in the same direction past the boat. And then I saw why - we were in the vicinity of not just one killer orca whale, but two killer orca whales! 

The drivers of the boat did a great job getting us close, but “mostly” not too close. At one point, we were about 20 yards away from one of the orcas in some decent chop so it was not a dull 15 minutes by any stretch. We got some great pics and one of our fellow passengers captured an awesome video of a poor sea turtle and one of the killer orcas (watch carefully). 

Everyone was pretty much buzzing when we all got back to the boat after that whole

sequence of events! The way the guides were acting reminded me of this episode when we were in Tazzie on the Australian Walkabout in 2013. And we still had our official “Equator crossing”. Yep, we crossed over the Equator into the Southern Hemisphere before dinner and had the opportunity to watch it all from the bridge of the boat. Super cool. We had crossed the Equator a few times on this trip, but this time we were actually awake for it! After that, cocktails, wine, dinner, laughs and some more bevvies under some starry skies.

What a day. More pics posted here.

Day 10: Santiago Island --> Isabella & Fernandina Island (Galápagos)

The day began before 3am because we sailed all evening and overnight. Around 2:30am for at least 90 minutes we were going over some waves possibly going around the North end of Isabela Island and a drawer in the closet was opening and closing regularly along with hangers in the closet bumping the door. And we had a full day planned - both long walks and both wet entry snorkeling adventures.

We pulled into Tagus Cove right at breakfast time and dropped anchor. This cove has centuries of rock carved graffiti from boats who've been here long ago. We took the long hike option which went up part of a volcano for about 30 minutes passing above Darwin Lake along the way. The lake is extremely salty like the Dead Sea. We got some great views along the way and saw a Galápagos Hawk and ventured back down to the zodiac.

We thought we were going back to the boat because that was this option while the other was zooming around in zodiac looking for animals like penguins and turtles. But we were basically shown both sides of the bay too since we had time and we saw more penguins on rock rather than in the water than the boat designated for that assignment.

Sometimes better lucky than good.

It was a quick turnaround to a wet snorkeling expedition in which you just pop into the water from the zodiac rather than getting into wetsuit from shore. I prefer this method as it is less of a mess to clean when returning to the ship at the end. It's also just plain fun falling backwards off the zodiac into the water. The water over here in the West is colder but not too bad in the wetsuit.

We saw penguins swimming, lots of turtles, playful sea lions, and other fish. Some folks saw a shark but we missed it. I got some great photos and videos of all that we saw. Catching the penguin is tricky because it's so fast, but I got a great video keeping it on screen for 5-10 seconds.

As we ate lunch, the boat began the short journey over to Espinoza Point on Fernandina Island for the afternoon adventures that awaited.

We had another wet snorkeling expedition to start at 3:30. We got on second zodiac and by the time we got to drop area, the first group had been in for a few minutes and the overall team decided it was too choppy and difficult to navigate around a rocky outcrop with waves breaking over them. They were getting back into their zodiac.

So we went around that outcrop by boat and were dropped in calmer water. It was murkier than the morning but we still saw new stuff. I got good photos and videos but we actually got on the zodiac early since visibility was not as good as the morning snorkel. Still very enjoyable.

We got back to the main ship and had to quickly change into walking attire for the late afternoon adventure. That involved mostly marine iguanas. Lots and lots of them. And then even more. We also saw sea lions and cactus and other cool stuff but focus was marine iguanas. I've seen a lifetime worth in one afternoon.

We had 5+ minutes to shower for the day when we got back on the boat. We were still relatively early for drinks and dinner because basically everyone was showering too. So we got pictures and enjoyed dinner before learning more about tomorrow expeditions and the Galápagos in general.

The marine iguanas eat algae and they've evolved a gland that takes salt from their blood and allows them to spit it out rather than going through system. El Niño years are particularly bad for them so they've also evolved to shrink body mass by 20% or more to handle fact that the algae doesn't show up in those years and main food source simply isn't present.

Great day!

Day 9: Galápagos Islands (Isla Rábida and Isla Santiago), Ecuador.

I downloaded a bunch of books to my Kindle in anticipation for not having WiFi and having lots of downtime. A miscalculation on my part and I’m talking about the having lots of downtime. The boat serves breakfast at 7am on most mornings and then the last activity ends at roughly 10pm. Now none of these activities are mandatory, but most seem pretty interesting so why wouldn’t you try to maximize your time here?

Our boat has a max of 50 passengers and we are at 41. Everyone has been incredibly friendly and inclusive. We all seem to acknowledge that we may forget someone’s name and no one is going to care. Just be nice and positive, and no one is going to give a crap. With the exception of a lovely couple from Germany, everyone is American. The boat has a crew of 22 people, and they all seem to be very busy between keeping our rooms tidy, maintaining the boat, cooking us endless amounts of food and ensuring our safety. 

Other than the WiFi not working so we could ensure our photos are secured in the event we drop a phone/camera in the water, we don’t need much of anything. Note that when Marc and I went on a tour of the bridge of the boat, we saw a whole new satellite system that was supposed to rectify the WiFi problem. Honestly I just want my photos off of my local devices. Whomever really needs to get in touch with me has a way to do just that.

After breakfast, we went on a walk on Isla Rábida where we saw lava lizards, flamingoes, sea lions (no, they are NOT seals) and a couple of marine iguanas. It’s pretty warm but I would say that even though we are hovering right near the Equator that it is not excessively hot - that whole being on the water thing. Then we went on our 1st snorkeling expedition from the beach. We saw some colorful schools of fish, a spotted eagle ray, and starfish. It was pretty cool. 

After lunch, we went to Isla Isla Santiago for a little hike. Marc and I had the opportunity to see more Sally Lightfoot Crabs, a few more marine iguanas and a number of unique birds. Plus more sea lions. It was super cool. Those crabs have a red color, which really stands out against the black lava rocks.

Marine iguanas didn’t always know how to swim. They learned to swim in order to survive. They are vegetarians and learned to hold their breath for an hour so they can graze on seaweed, since the Galápagos didn’t have much vegetation for them to graze on. Too much seaweed for the iguanas leads to another issue - too much salt. So they have massive “sneezing” salt capabilities. FROM. THEIR. BLOOD. Yes, you read that correctly. 

We came back, showered, ate with the group and then had the overview of activities for the next day so we could choose our activities. Then they showed us a video on the animals of the Galápagos. By the time we went to our room, it was 10pm. Something tells me I won’t be making much progress on my reading list.

You can find more photos on Dropbox here. Note: We have already have A LOT from the Galápagos chapter. You have been warned.

Day 7: Quito, Ecuador.

Today Marc and I got off to an early start because we were going to be heading south of Quito to Cotopaxi National Park to hike near the Cotopaxi Volcano. For context, Quito is situated at an altitude of 9350 feet so that’s pretty high for the Becks’. Our travel medicine clinic advised us to bring altitude sickness pills for this part of the trip and a future part of the trip. Due to some of the other meds we will be taking (i.e., malaria pills at a minimum), we were hoping that because our stay in Quito is relatively brief that we could skip them for this component of the trip. 

Marc and I met our guide, Carlos (wearing a Yankees hat so I knew we would get on just fine), at the park entrance and he took us to a few sites along the way to head up to where we would do our walk. The weather definitely improved from a viewing perspective as the morning progressed. We saw other volcanoes such as Rumiñawi and Sincholagua, as well as Laguna Limpiopungo. You can still see lava rocks from the 1877 eruption along the way to Cotopaxi.

Cotopaxi tops out at 19,347 feet and is the tallest active volcano in the world. It is part of the Andes mountain range. For comparison, Rainier tops out at 14,411 feet. The parking lot for the Cotopaxi Volcano itself is at ~15,000 feet. Maybe the highest altitude I had hiked previously was around 10,000+ feet.

Given how high the summit is, people who are climbing to the top generally get to the park a few days early to acclimatize themselves. We did not have that option. Our goal was to hike to the refugio from the parking lot. This refugio is the last point hikers can take shelter before they attempt to summit Cotopaxi. The hike was less than a mile and went up 1000+ feet.

The only catch for what seemed to be a short hike was that we were starting at 14,765 feet and hiking to 15,960 feet where the Refugio Jose Rivas was located. It was cold. I still had a decent amount of layers and felt slightly “Michelin-man” like. Truthfully, were not as properly prepared as we should have been from a clothing perspective. That added to the challenge of being at such a high altitude. 

I took lots of breaks, and did a fair amount of huffing and puffing but we made it there in roughly 50 minutes. I was gassed and I definitely felt the altitude. Of course, I forgot the aforementioned altitude sickness pills and left them at the hotel. DUH! Lonely Planet called this hike a ‘lung buster’ and, yeah, that would be an accurate way to describe it!

Fortunately we took plenty of pics on the way up because as we were coming down, Cotopaxi definitely started to hide behind some clouds. I also saw a guide with a Red Sox hat - glad he wasn’t our guide! We decided that we were going to skip lunch and have our driver, Mario, take us from Cotopaxi straight to the “Old Town” area of Quito. 

As Marc mentioned yesterday, traffic in Quito (and in Lima, for that matter) is pretty bad during the day, especially at rush hour. Since both cities do not have any kind of real mass transit, everyone drives or takes a taxi, which is essentially the same as driving. You also get to breathe in lots of toxic fumes while sitting in traffic. So we timed our return to Quito for the middle of the day to avoid traffic, which still was pretty bad by US standards (yes, even Seattle standards). 

Mario walked us around “Old Town”, which had some impressive architecture. We started at Plaza Grande, which has the Presidential Palace and the Metropolitan Cathedral. We then walked to the Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus, which had some pretty jaw dropping designs on the ceilings and the walls. Construction on the church began in 1605 and didn’t finish until almost 1800. We also walked through the Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco.

Then we checked out Casa del Alabado. The focus of this place is around pre-Columbian

(not Colombian) artifacts. Some of them were made as far back as 4000 BC! The artistry and handiwork on these items really blew us away, especially the detail on the really small pieces (think the size of your thumb). We have all of the pics, along with some descriptions on Dropbox here.

Walking back to the car in the public garage, we kept hearing car alarms going off. I don’t even know if people really pay attention to car alarms anymore. I feel like 20 years ago (when I was living in NYC), they went off so much that people just were desensitized to them. But they go off constantly. As a matter of fact, we had car alarms going off constantly near our hotel until about 3am last night!

On the way back to the hotel with Mario, I observed that Quito has their own version of “squeegee guys” - anyone who lived in NYC in the 80s/early 90s knows what I am talking about. We saw lots of people selling various things like fruit and water along the side of the road, but then we saw one guy who was juggling machetes in a “very liberal way”, which was a Marc quote. Go figure. 

We did some laundry (yay for upgrades that have a washer/dryer in the room), packed and had dinner at Zazu. Excellent local ingredients that were well prepared and great service. Tried some wine from Ecuador, which was good and a first for us. I submitted my football picks for the next 2 weeks and hope that the lack of a working injury report won’t kill me any more than when I do have one to reference in my “pick’em pool”.

Marc and I are ready to head off to the next phase of our adventure, which is the main event for Operation Cincuenta - the Galapagos. We may have internet. We may not. In the event we don’t post for the next week, we will stockpile our posts and upload them when we are back on land. 

Day 1: Seattle —> LAX —> Lima.

This post won’t win any awards for excitement as it was a travel day but I’ll lay the ground work for this latest iteration of ‘Marc and Jill take on a different geographic location’.

Marc and I got up at 3:30am (PT) to catch the 1st leg of our trip to LAX. Other than having to check a bag for the first time in almost 2 years, it was pretty uneventful. LAX is an adventure on a good day when you need to transfer, and it was good we had plenty of time. We landed in a “satellite terminal” and took off from a different “satellite terminal”. In that time, Marc really prepped for the long haul flight by finding all of the chocolate in the lounge. I’m guessing no one is shocked by this behavior.

The flight to Lima was just under 8.5 hours and landed on time, which was amazing based on previous flight history (yay internet!). Then I figured landing at midnight, going through Immigration, picking up checked bags (did they make it?), passing Customs and finding our car service would be a goat rodeo on to its own. I couldn’t have been more wrong. From when we landed until when we were in the car, it took 30 minutes. WHICH. WAS. AMAZING.

We got to the hotel, scored an upgrade with great views and pretty much crashed..... after Marc had some more chocolate that the hotel left for us as a welcome gift. Oh, and we were informed last night that no alcohol is allowed to be served anywhere in the country through Monday morning because of national elections happening on Sunday (tomorrow). Uh, what? This is a thing?

So we will be in Lima through Thursday, and then off to Quito for a couple of days before heading off to the Galápagos Islands for a week. Then we head to Colombia where we will be hitting Bogota, the Coffee Region and the Amazonas province. We’re going to have a little bit of everything on this trip in terms of scenery, culture, food, beverage, climate, etc. We’ll be doing some hiking and hopefully meetIng up with friends in Bogota. That said, the goal is to come back with most of the meds that comprise the “walking pharmacy” in my pack.

Thanks for tuning in. And we have discovered the hard way that Google hasn’t made any significant updates to Blogger in years, so updates from the road will be a challenge.... looking at app options now.

Operation Cincuenta

"Where do you want to go for your 50th birthday?" Jill asked me almost a year ago. We may have come up with some travel interest lists before she asked this question.

My list has some cold places like Alaska and Canada (Banff, Jasper National Park, more) which are better in the summer. So I think I mentioned a couple of finalists including Mt Kilimanjaro and Galápagos.

Then I know I looked more into the Galápagos and found this National Geographic Expedition and the swimmer in me had my birthday spot! We aren't going on that particular boat, but we are going to do well over here on Celebrity Cruises on one of their boats.

After this, Jill took over and basically booked everything including some stuff before and after the islands "while we are over there" (South America).

She has dubbed this whole thing "Operation Cincuenta" -- so come back for more in the next several weeks to learn about the before, after, and in-between adventures.

Making Some Changes

As followers of this feed know, Marc and I have been going to CrossFit for almost 8 years. It seems hard to believe that it has been that long, but it has. Over those years, we have had the opportunity to make new friends, challenge ourselves and have much fun. When I was burnt out during endurance training for half-marathons and marathons, CrossFit was a welcome respite. And who knew minions could do box jumps!?!

Honestly, CrossFit was the first place I ever worked out in that had a positive and an inclusive atmosphere. No gym I ever went to prior had anything remotely close to that. I love how it is normal in every local to cheer on the last person finishing the workout. Keep in mind that each location is individually owned so no mandate exists to adhere to a "code".


It was awesome that we would travel to so many places and do a workout, and walk out with a bunch of local recos on how to spend our time in that region. Our family and friends tagged us as part of the "cult", yet a number of them soon followed and become even more "devoted members of the cult". That was entertaining, but it was also fun seeing them challenge themselves to do things they didn't think were possible for themselves. The phenomenon known as 'Harvelicious' is still the stuff of legend.

Over those same years, Marc and I have had some events happen plus, you know, we're getting older. So we recently decided that we needed to change things. Our interests have changed over that time. Marc still swims, but I run less and we do more hiking together. I definitely still run on occasion plus I practice yoga, but little things kind of kept creeping in making us wonder if we needed to change other aspects of our training to meet our goals.

Enter the 'Delaying Decrepitude' room. The 'No Excuses' room is still around, but is definitely used for more stretching, rolling, etc. But the "D Squared" room has some pretty cool things that will allow us to take our high intensity and strength training to the next level that is more inline with our individual goals. Marc has his goals and I have mine, and some of them do not overlap.

We are excited for this next phase and what it will bring. Obviously no change comes without risk. But you can't grow if you're not willing to adapt and adjust. It will require some adjustments to our routine and more planning on our end, but overall we think this will help us achieve our goals. I have no doubt that we will continue to drop in at local CrossFits when we travel, but for now, it's time to focus on 'Delaying Decrepitude'. Stay tuned.

Walk of a Lifetime...

About 2 years ago, I had heard about an area called 'The Enchantments' in central Washington. As we started to hike more and more last year, I became more intrigued with the 20+ mile "thru hike" as I learned more about it. I'm not a camper so I didn't have any concerns about winning the lottery, but figuring out how to day hike different parts of it became an interest of mine.

We wanted to hike to Colchuck Lake for my birthday last year, but unfortunately forest fires engulfed the area so that didn't happen. A couple of weeks after, Marc and I hiked 8 of the 20+ mile trail, and turned around at Upper Snow Lake. The hike was a grind with a ton of switchbacks and not very picturesque until you get to Nada Lake, which is almost 5 miles in. Lower and Upper Snow Lakes followed soon after. 

Then about a month later, some unseasonably warm and sunny weather were on tap. So Marc and I decided to do a day trip to Leavenworth and hike to Colchuck Lake. It lived up to the hype in terms of beauty and views. It was about 5 miles of the 20+ mile trail. It was a steady climb up but lots of nice things to look at along the way. We had such a great day but it was a long day with the 5 hours of driving to go along with the hike. I saw Aasgard Pass from the base of Colchuck and said to Marc that we have to try that next year.

I convinced Marc to do Aasgard Pass as a goal for 2018. Then I talked to one of the coaches at our CrossFit who said that we shouldn't just do Aasgard Pass, see a few of the lakes at the top in the 'Core Enchantments', and then turnaround, which was my plan. The 'thru hike' is a legendary hike here in WA state and if we're fit enough to get up Aasgard, we could and should do the whole thing. Plus Aasgard is supposedly hell to descend. So we did the 1st 5 miles and the last 8 miles of the 'thru hike'. Now we just had to throw in the middle 7'ish miles.

Easy, right? Well I figured we needed some level of training, which involved a fair amount of hiking to get us set with our gear, fitness, etc. Then I figured lots of leg work would be helpful. That same coach came up with a training plan for me, which involved lots of leg cranks (and swearing at this same coach). Yoga helped a great deal. We did some great hikes when we could, while managing avalanche risks throughout the shoulder season. My favorite was getting up to Hurricane Ridge, which is in Olympic National Park and can see from our house. We lucked out with an epic weather day when we decided to head up there.

I was doing a fair amount of stalking of reported trail conditions on the WTA site. Trying to find the optimal week to do this required triangulating amount of daylight, how much snow was on the trail, and decent weather. We also were concerned about the risk of forest fires shutting down the trail, which is a constant threat for this time of year. I booked a few different sets of rooms over July and August so we had options if the snow pack wasn't melting as quickly as expected, etc. But we were hoping to do July to take advantage of as much daylight as possible. 

Things started to align for doing this in the 1st half of July, and we somehow managed to convince one of our friends to come along, which eliminated that whole "how are we going to get the car at the start" problem since it's a point-to-point hike. To say it was great having this person join us is an understatement as Marc and I relied on him quite a bit during the actual hike. 

We had a plan, well because we are planners. Timeline, what to bring, what to wear, maps, etc. I told Marc that we should treat this as I treated race week for when I ran long'ish distances - focus on sleep the week before, hydrate, a little extra salt with meals, etc. The day finally arrived and we started before 4am so we could be on the trail hiking by 5am. It was light enough where we didn't need headlamps. It was pretty warm also for being at a bit of altitude so we were in short sleeves to start. 

Made it to Colchuck on schedule, ate some more, saw some goats who like to hang around humans before we started the climb up Aasgard. So I've been talking about Aasgard without saying why it is such a beast. You go up 1900 feet in about a mile. That is one freaking steep grade to make your way up. We had done some training hikes that would somewhat mimic that, but until you see the real thing.... we knew Aasgard had a couple of false fronts, so we had to keep focused and not get demoralized when we thought we were at the top and were not. 

Aasgard was hard - no doubt about it. It wasn't so much the ascent but the terrain. Loose dirt and loose rocks, which made it hard to get your footing. I kept my poles on my pack so I could use my hands on the boulders. It's a push on whether you should use poles or not. We saw another couple using poles and they were cranking. Others were using their hands. After 2+ hours, we made it to the top and fortunately were able to avoid the sun beating down on us for 80% of the climb, which was a bonus.

We made it to the top and the views were as advertised. Not many people, snow capped mountains, glacial lakes slowly melting, more mountain goats, and blue skies. We had a clear view of Mount Baker in the distance, which was a treat. When you looked down at Colchuck, it was definitely a sense of accomplishment in terms of how far we had climbed. 

It was surprisingly warm once you moved out of the breeze. More bugs than we were expecting up in the "Upper Enchantments". I was a bit wobbly towards the end of the climb so I needed to get some calories in me ASAP. We filled up water bottles in one of the lakes and just soaked in the beauty as we walked through. 


We did have a schedule to keep to because even though we hit the highest point of the hike elevation-wise, we still had 14 miles to go. So we needed to keep moving along. But we were enjoying the views of Dragontail and Colchuck Peaks, as well as Isolation and Tranquil Lakes. It sounds so cliche, but you really did feel isolated from everyone and tranquility was definitely something I was feeling.

My sports medicine doctor had advised of a couple of possible side treks to take but we didn't have a ton of time so we opted to stay on the main trail as much as possible. It still had snow fields to traverse in various places, but the whole time up there, you just knew it was special in the best way possible. We saw the various lakes and the well known Little Annapurna as the trail started to gradually descend. Lots of pics being snapped because it was JUST. SO. DARNED. GORGEOUS. 

We made our way to the 'Middle Enchantments' and saw Inspiration and Perfection Lakes. Plus we had a close-up of Prusik Peak. Sprite Lake was breathtaking. More awesomeness. t was bittersweet because it was so amazing up there, yet I knew our time was limited before we had to head down. Plus the likelihood of doing this hike again is slim.

The descent started to get a bit steeper as we hit the 'Lower Enchantments'. Leprechaun Lake, McClellan Peak and Viviane Lake continued to impress with their beauty. The trail was definitely more muddy at this stage so unlike wiping out in the snow, wiping out here would be less fun. We definitely had some "wet crossings" over rivers to cross that were also unstable for footing. My feet definitely went in the water a few times but it was so warm that my boots and socks dried quickly. 


Oh yes, the weather. The few campers we did see were in tanks and shorts (the Parks Department has a very strict limit on the number of people allowed to camp in the park at any one time and slots are awarded by lottery every year). It was easily 70+ degrees, which is very warm for this elevation (7000-8000 feet) and you were completely exposed in the sun. So we were drinking lots of water and using water filtration tablets/pumps to get fresh water from the lakes along the way. 

The last lake in the 'Lower Enchantments' was Lake Viviane. Somehow we lost the trail as we came upon that lake. That cost us a bit of time and was the start of me using my rear end to get down some pretty steep areas. Side note: Being short is not helpful when hiking and longer legs/arms would be helpful traversing boulders, carrying gear, etc. I was carrying about 25 lbs worth of gear on my frame while Marc who is a foot taller than me had about 35 lbs worth of gear. We made it to the Viviane crossing, which marked the end of being in the 'Core Enchantments' and the start of the true descent down to Upper Snow Lake. Filled up on more water and had about 10 miles to go. 

These next two miles were the ones I was worried about. Not a ton of documentation existed on how you got down from Viviane to Upper Snow, plus going downhill is not my favorite thing due to gravity, having short arms/legs, etc. We had maps, GPS, etc., but in any event, we lost the trail again. These things happen on hikes and fortunately we prepared for this. I have to admit though that I was not in a great place mentally when I heard we had to climb back up some really steep rocks in the blazing sun mid-afternoon and make it across some dicey gaps (thanks, KvT, for saving me on multiple occasions). But I also resolved that when I looked back on this day that I was going to focus on the beauty that we had in the 1st half of the day.

We got back on the trail and I started to think about how similar the roller coaster of emotions I was experiencing were to the ones I had when running half-marathons and marathons. So I channeled that experience and got back to the task at hand since we had about 10 miles to go (if you're a marathon runner, you know about 'the wall' which can strike at any time after mile 16). The descent was as challenging mentally as the Aasgard ascent was physically. It was getting later so then it was just about can we get back before dark. Upper Snow Lake was starting to get closer and closer and we eventually hit the south end of the lake. YAY!

Since we had done that hike previously, we knew that it was a gentle decline to the trailhead except for a boulder field to traverse. Marc and I also knew it was a very boring slog from Upper Snow Lake to the trailhead. After we crossed Upper Snow Lake, Marc changed shoes and the three of us just kept on trekking. The trail had changed since we had been on it with the boulder field, which made it "quicker" but more challenging for me, so I wasn't psyched to say the least. Then we started cranking again. 

With about 4 miles left, I noticed Marc slowing down. He informed me that he rolled his ankle and that he was just battling to to keep walking. His knees hurt from the gradual downhill and his hips were not happy. Ugh. Not good. We just kept moving trying to stay in good spirits as daylight was fading. He was a trooper. We hit the final set of switchbacks (25, in case you are wondering) when some light was still out there. About halfway down, we had to get out our headlamps - thanks, REI, for the "10 Essentials List". We were hoping not to have to use them, but that's why you have those items in your pack.

We finally made it to the trailhead - 17 hours after we started. We were happy and exhausted. Probably more of the latter. It took about 2-3 hours longer than expected. Oh - and we had to go get the other car at the start. YAY! Another 30 minutes. BUT.... as I said earlier, I knew that once we got some sleep, iced Marc's ankle, and ate, that we would look at this day as an epic one. We're not back at full strength, but we're both looking back at the hike as one of our best in terms of pure beauty. I've only attached a small sample of pics from the day. They don't do it justice. Look at more here.

The celebratory dinner may have been delayed, but it is happening this week. Serious food and wine will be had. 

Trust The Plan.

Every year, I set goals for myself - both personal and professional. It generally requires putting together a plan on how I am going to achieve these goals with some interim milestones so I can stay on track. 

One of the goals I set for myself was to be able to execute some basic movements that I have eluded me at CrossFit and at yoga for some time. And while I do have rheumatoid arthritis, which puts some physical limitations on me, I have always tried to figure out a modification for a movement I cannot do. But sometimes that obfuscates other issues. 

As I started thinking about goals for 2018, I wanted to re-visit some of the struggles that I have at CrossFit and not worked through. Then make them goals for 2018. One of those things is around safely executing overhead squats. I can get my rear below parallel on front squats with a decent amount of weight but nada for the overhead ones. Another challenge I have is around my wrists and hands, and being able to stay in plank or 'downward dog' for awhile during yoga practice. 

I went to Dr. Paul Molina and Geneva Bender at Kinetic Sports Rehab in mid-December and told them that I wanted to build towards overhead squats and being able to stay in certain yoga poses for an extended period of time. We started on the latter and I have been doing the assigned exercises for 2+ months on my own focusing on my fingers, wrists, forearms, lats, thoracic spine, and shoulders.

I was getting frustrated because I could not notice any meaningful progress based on one of the exercises I was doing. Truthfully, it's hard to see progress when you are doing it every day. I felt a couple of things getting easier at yoga. I did PR a couple of movements at CrossFit this past month (105# clean and push press and 30# dumbbell snatches), but I was focused on those darned wrist rockers. But c'mon Jill, trust the work you have done!

I went in to see Dr. Paul for a check-in. He performed some quick tests on my hands/wrists and informed me that my extension passive range of motion increased around 25 to 35 degrees and my active range of motion increased by 10 degrees. WOW! I was pretty shocked but very happy that the work I was putting in to this was paying off. Dr. Paul also told me not to use the wrist rockers as a litmus test for my progress as it is just something that is hard for many people even without the issues I have. 

Point taken. I should have just trusted the plan I had in place for doing my exercises and had faith that the work I was doing would pay off. I need to come up with more helpful milestones that truly indicate where I am at. So now we are working on the mobility and flexibility issues related to overhead squats and I hope to progress on that as well. Making progress on that front should help my running and my hiking too. Stay tuned as I continue to work on achieving these goals. 

And I'll start trusting the plans I have in place for other aspects of my life.

[Side note: For my 2013 broken hand rehab from the Australian Walkabout, I found a physical therapist named Andrea Bulat. She spent a fair amount of time educating me on what my range of motion should be and to focus on it during my workouts. Andrea was an immense help to Team Beck on a number of fronts, and we were sorry to see her move to Portland. I made so much progress in understanding how I could be a stronger athlete for the long-term thanks to her. I probably never would have had the awareness to set these goals without her help. Same with our friend, Zack Finer, who moved to Boulder - uh oh, is there a trend here? Hmmmm.]

Contrary to Popular Belief, Napa and Sonoma Are Open For Business....

Some of you may be aware that Marc and I used to make wine under the name Purple Teeth Cellars. While we did shut it down to pursue other interests, we still value and cherish the relationships that we developed with winemakers, vineyard owners, restauranteurs, sommeliers, etc. 

In light of the recent fires in Napa and in Sonoma, Marc and I decided to take a quick jaunt down to the area. We knew the fires had hit during their busiest season of the year for tourists, and had read many of those businesses were hurting due to an unexpected loss in revenues both from visitors and from lost harvests.

Certain areas experienced devastation and the fires exacerbated an already fragile housing ecosystem in the area for residents, but businesses were definitely up and running. While we only visited a couple of wineries while we were in the area, most wineries were open for business. Same for the restaurants. We caught the end of the season of seeing colors on the vines, which was a pleasant surprise. It was actually quite picturesque in early December and the weather was perfect for a hike in the area. OK, I did squeeze in a visit to CrossFit as well [duh - have to burn off the amazing food and wine].

The main problem that we heard from local residents was that business was so slow, which was leading to restaurants laying off workers at times when they should have been throwing money in the bank - servers to meat cutters to dishwashers, as an example. By people canceling trips and not visiting the area, many SMALL businesses experienced an unfortunate trickle-down effect. People are not buying wine on visits because no one is visiting. Then tasting room staffs need to be let go. Things like that.

And while no one prompted me to post this, I'll just say that I believe that the people in Napa and in Sonoma would LOVE IT if you would consider visiting during their "off-season". When your small business is severely curtailed during the busiest season of the year, it can mean the difference between staying afloat and going under. The weather is still nicer than in most places in the US during this time of year and prices are going to be pretty reasonable to stay, to eat and to drink than during "high-season". 

So please consider a visit and I am sure you will be on the receiving end of some awesome hospitality and gratitude.

Happy Holidays!