18 Feb: Lago Torre (ARG).

Today was the 1st day that we were hiking as a group. The gang seemed pretty prepared for all of the elements, so we knew we were amongst some experienced hikers.

Our guide, Muti, told us that he expected minimal rain today, which was a bonus. Then again, you never really know here in Patagonia because of the ever changing weather in the mountains. So we packed for different conditions.

We started out and one of the gentlemen on the trip, who could easily be the Dad of Marc and I with respect to his age, pretty much sprinted up to the top of the 1st lookout point. Marc and I kept pace and it was a nice way to get to know some of our other travelers since 6 out of the 10 were friends beforehand. By the end of the day, Marc and I felt that we could pass any name test that the group put to us.

The weather was mostly cloudy but visibility was good to see most of Cerro Torre and enjoy our lunch at Lago Torre. The walk was mostly fairly easy with some rolling hills here and there, but it was a good way for the group to get their legs stretched out and find their feet.

By the end of it, we had walked about 14 miles but felt ok. A few of us went to the local microbrewery aka 'cervezeria' in El Chalten. We had a nice dinner with the group and I continued reading my current book, "Ready Player One", which is a cross between sci-fi and thriller with a big focus on the 80s. I think Marc will like it once I pass it off to him.

We know we have a big hike in terms of difficulty tomorrow, so we just tried to rest up as much as we could. I believe I have done this hike before and if I remember correctly, it's a pretty challenging one although it is hard to tell because I was woefully out of shape when I was here in 1998. So we shall see.

17 Feb: Ushuaia --> El Calafate / El Chaltén

A welcome sleep past 8am, which is a luxury, followed by breakfast downstairs & packing for the airport. We took our first Aerolíneas Argentinas flight on the trip. It has been all LAN since we landed since we landed in Santiago. Jill was hoping we could get a LAN flight from Dallas to Santiago but, alas, we were stuck on American Airlines. LAN is better than either one but both are better than American although Aerolineas was marginally better than American.

We collected our bags and met Muti, our guide for the next 11 days in Patagonia, just outside of the baggage collection area. We also met the driver, Daniel. We then hung for lunch at the airport waiting for the remaining 10 folks we'll be joining to get to El Chaltén from Buenos Aires.

We met our group for the next 11 days as we got on a small bus to go to El Chaltén. They had all spent @ least a day together in Buenos Aires and several of them already knew each other from previous travel. So we were the "newcomers". They even split us up at dinner to (1) interrogate us and (2) force us to chat with new and different folks.

They all seem nice from what we can tell and several are very accomplished individuals. While we are the youngest, we are hoping we can keep up on the hikes.

16 Feb: Ushuaia (ARG) --> Faro del Fin du Mundo (ARG) --> Ushuaia (ARG).

Warning: We have a long one here - all for good reasons, we promise. And a pro travel tip towards the end.

We woke up to find that it had snowed on the glacier that we had hiked up yesterday. I know that most of our readers are in the Northern Hemisphere where snow is normal this time of year, but it is summer where we are. We were told that even though we are 600 short miles to Antarctica that this was abnormal.

Our schedule had us booked for a boat tour of the Beagle Channel. It was unseasonably cold and wet, plus the boat was late. Not a whole lot of reasons for optimism. About 30 minutes into the ride, the skies cleared to showcase clear blue with snowcapped Andes in the background. Score! What stunning landscape! Our guide for the boat trip spoke excellent English. I asked her where she learned the language and she said it was from watching the show "Friends". Whatever works because she was handling all sorts of questions without any problems.

We were cruising on the Beagle Channel, which splits up Chile and Argentina, while connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. Ushuaia is roughly halfway in the channel. One of our stops was to "Faro del Fin du Mundo", which translates to something like "the end of the world". Along the way, we saw sea lions, cormorants and kelp geese. Fun fact about the comorants is that if the female decides that she doesn't like her male mate that she "can fire him" while the male doesn't have that same option. Interesting concept.

It remained pretty clear as we headed back to town, so we have a ton of amazing pictures from the cruise. For lunch, I had more of the centolla but with a local preparation called 'Fuegian' which had paprika and bechamel. Yum! Lots of local seafood in Ushuaia, so I am taking advantage before we head back inland. After we lunch, we met our hiking guide for the afternoon in Tierra del Fuego (TdF) National Park.

Martin, our guide, has spent a few summers in Seattle. Small world, eh? He has done plenty of local hikes, told us about how he loves Walrus & Carpenter and El Gaucho. As we start hiking, he tells us about watching the Fremont Solistice Parade. Then Martin tells us that he got out of a parking ticket that he received at REI by explaining to the City of Seattle that he is from a small village in Argentina where penguins roam the streets. Apparently it worked. Marc and I were laughing a lot at this stage. We're clearly in the world of "You Can't Make This Stuff Up".

The border between Argentina and Chile is pretty tight in this area, so while we didn't venture into Chile, we learned that one side of Cerro Condor is in Argentina and the other is in Chile. We hiked up to the end of the Pan-American Highway, which starts in Alaska and goes almost 18000 kilometers! Guess we have to go to the other end at some point. Martin explained that the area of Tierra del Fuego started out as a prison colony for Argentina, similar to Tassie in Australia. That said, they never sold prison uniforms as souvenirs in Tassie as they did here. Weird.

As Marc mentioned yesterday, we weren't expecting a challenging hike yesterday and were caught a little flat footed without our trekking poles. I have new ones for this trip but 'Frick' and 'Frack' from the Australian Walkabout are back for fun and adventure. The new trekking poles have been christened 'Lucy' and 'Ethel'. You will be seeing them a bunch over the next 10-12 days.

The southern provinces in Argentina have a complicated history due to the Islas Malvnias conflict with Great Britain and the zig-zag border with Chile. Martin explained some of it as we traversed 6+ miles of the park. Then he starts talking about how early we eat dinner in Seattle. Basically his routine was eating dinner with friends at 6:30pm and then calling Pagliacci Pizza for a delivery at 10pm since they are the only ones who deliver "that late" in Seattle.

Given Marc's history as a Gaucho from UCSB, he has been very keen to hear more authentic stories about Argentine Gauchos. He asked Martin about it, who responds with telling us about a festival that is like a "Gaucho Lollapalooza". Ha! We hadn't heard that festival name in a LONG time (yep, we're old). More laughs. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Martin as we went off to dinner but promised to keep in touch in the event he is back in Seattle. I should have added that both of us tried the local Argentine bevvie of mate (mah-tay) today. Not bad but I prefer tea and Marc will probably stick to coffee.

We grabbed dinner at a highly recommended place called Kaupe and I tried a new fish called hake served ceviche style. Very tasty. Marc had a epic dessert by his standards, which of course involved dulce de leche. I agree - it was really good and I am not a caramel fan. We tasted our 1st Syrah from Zonda Valley and we also had a dessert wine made from Malbec grapes, which makes sense since we are in Argentina.

The restaurant summoned us a taxi and the lesson to be learned here is that when you are traveling in a region where you do not speak the local language, you should learn how locals pronounce the name of the hotel you are staying at. We went back and forth with our very nice taxi driver because we misplaced the stationery that had the hotel's name and address. Finally I pointed up the hill in the direction of the hotel and said the name again along with "ascenscio". Maybe that was a Harry Potter magic command? Who knows, but it worked. [Late update: it was - oops.] We were back at the hotel in under 10 minutes.

What a fun day all around.

15 Feb - Buenos Aires --> Ushuaia

On the seventh day, we (kind of) rested... 5am wakeup call... This was painful after being up past midnight for our final night in Buenos Aires. Ana met us in the morning and helped us get checked in then we parted and stood in line to check bags.

Once through security, Jill wandered around to find some post cards. She spoke in Spanish - at least for the pleasantries - to someone who worked at the shop. She will soon surpass me and I studied Spanish while she studied French. Hint: don't trust the US school system whatsoever regarding foreign language instruction.

He asked where she was from. She said Seattle. He said: Seattle Supersonics of the NBA? After some laughing she then had to try to explain to him that they have moved and no longer play in Seattle but rather OKC. She tried to geographically explain this. This goes down as today's "You can't make this stuff up."

The flight featured endless "Just for Laughs" Gags (Canadian) type of clips similar to Candid Camera and most were hilarious and needed no soundtrack to see the people set up and then laugh at themselves.

Our guide Gabriel picked us up at the airport and ran us by a place to get some sandwiches and then to the hotel. We changed in 20+ minutes and then went for a hike up Martial Glacier. He told us on the way to the hotel it was only a 3km hike, so we packed lightly. Then on the hike we realized it was 3km practically straight up from 1100 feet to 3000 feet to a glacier and we had the return hike too (another 3k down). In addition, it was COLD and blowing like crazy as well as sprinkling on us at about 40 degrees which neither of us really prepared for given the 3km "hike".

On the plus side, the views were outstanding. We also now know to prepare for anything down here so close to Antartica when it comes to weather and terrain.

We went to dinner just a 12 minute walk up the hill from our hotel. Jill had a Centolla Crab (King Crab of the Southern Hemi) and we both had "Chez Manu" items although Jill had the seafood version and I had the lamb (cordero) version. We sat next to an aquarium that had some great stuff in it including a huge crab and something they call a "Fish Frog" which was huge and goofy looking.

14 Feb: Buenos Aires (ARG).

We figured that BA would be one of the places that we could pick up some nephew/niece friendly gifts even if it means that we carry them around for another 2.5 weeks. Marc didn't feel like coming to CrossFit with me so he went shopping and I went to hear more "vamos!" 
All of the movements are in English even if the cues are in Spanish, so it is pretty easy to follow. The coaches and athletes were nice, and we talked about the Nisman craziness, Jason Khalipa and wineries to visit in Mendoza. I picked up a shirt with a Spanish saying 'Mas Fuertes Que Ayer'. Bonus points for anyone who can guess what that means.

Marc met me after the WOD and we went to lunch at a place recommended by the concierge. Wow. We went to La Rosa Nautica for ceviche (don't worry, Marc had items for him as well). The flavors were awesome and the food was wonderful. It turns out that this restaurant is very famous in Lima and they decided to open an outpost in Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires. We sat outside and they had Maroon 5's "Songs About Jane" playing on a repeat loop. We almost felt like Lisa and Jarrett were with us!

After lunch, we walked over to Museo del Bicentenario. The museum was actually built into the true terrain next to where the President's office is in Plaza de Mayo. Even though 95% of the content was in Spanish, the video editing was so good that you could get a sense of the stories that were being told about Argentina's tumultous history. They had a timelapse video going back 200+ years of how the city main gathering places have evolved over time. Bonus in that it was FREE!

The Obelisk had been passed by a number of times via taxi, but we hadn't caught a picture of that or the opera house, so we walked in that direction as we made our way up north. The architecture and grand avenues are definitely similar to Europe and it was great taking it all in. We made our way back up to Recoleta to our guide's favorite 'helato' place. Lots of dulce de leche and chocolate flavors. Someone was very happy.

We then had to pick up another gift related to the Boca Juniors and ended up having to hit 2 stores in completely different sections of town to finally get the right size. All in all, Marc and I walked 8.5 miles plus Marc walked another 2.5 miles shopping and I did the WOD earler. We were pretty beat, but had to get back to pack because of the early start the next day. But the walking should serve us well for all of the hiking we will be doing over the next 12-13 days.

Normally, Marc and I do not celebrate "Valentine's Day" as we think you should be in that frame of mind every day. But many of the restaurants were doing a special menu, so we went out and had drinks/dinner at another great restaurant called Aramburu. On the way back in a taxi, we witnessed what was our 2nd "near accident" because of a bus driver jumping red lights, etc.

Our visit to Buenos Aires has been brief, but we really enjoyed it. We hope they can get things sorted out economically for the citizens soon.

13 Feb - ¡Vamos! (y Gauchos, ¡Dios mío!)

Today Jill heard the word vamos repeatedly and I had 2 Gaucho encounters, but more on those things later.

We started with a tour of Buenos Aires with our guide named Ana. She took us to where Buenos Aires began in the Plaza de Mayo. We walked around and she informed us of what happened during the beginning. We also stepped into the church on this square that was run by the former archbishop of Buenos Aires who is now the Pope.

We learned that when Eva Perón (aka Evita) died, she was so revered that the memorial lasted 14 days and would have gone longer but the doctor/embalmer couldn't let it go any longer. The country also completely ran out of flowers and had to import some.

We learned that the coffee culture comes from all the Italian immigrants early on but here it is more about hanging out and not the coffee itself. Many cafes are in historic buildings and the government has paid for much restoration inside. Many have interesting art, remnants, stained glass, and more almost like a tourist destination themselves.

We entered a market or two in San Telmo and were told about how they drink mate (pronounced ma-tay). At this point, Ana mentioned Gauchos and both Jill and I laughed so I had some explaining to do. I told her the UC Santa Barbara mascot is a Gaucho. I had to explain the concept of mascots a bit.
Then Jill googled some images while we were in the car going to our next stop and showed them too her. She started laughing and not seeing much resemblance other than the mustache.

We then stopped at the Boca Juniors stadium where Diego Maradona played at one time. We then walked through "La Republica de La Boca" near the stadium that used to have a statue of Maradona in the balcony but now that the Pope is from Argentina he apparently is worthy enough to replace the soccer legend in the balcony. You can't make this stuff up.

Jill found a great parrilla place for lunch - La Cabrera - that is insanely crazy about the steaks. We got a huge rib eye along with several side dishes and potato sticks with sautéed sweet onions all over them. It was delicious.

After lunch we walked through Palermo over to Recoleta where Eva Perón is buried and discovered this huge cemetery with insane mausoleums for a long way in all directions. We took some pictures and eventually found the Peron family one as well.

From here, we got in a taxi in a rush to get back to the hotel. Let's just say that getting a taxi where lots of tourists hang out may not be all that it is cracked up to be. The seat belts did not work, the interior (and likely exterior) was falling apart, and the meter ran far more quickly than the ones we've gotten at the hotel or after a meal. Very glad to get out of that thing and wash our hands (literally and figuratively).

When we got back to the hotel, Jill rushed off to REV Microcentro CrossFit while I went down to the pool to swim. I swam hard for 45 minutes and came up to shower. Upon Jill's return, she knocked and I asked who was there. "¡Vamos!" is all I am hearing on the other side. I inform her that means "Let's go!" as I open the door. She then informs me that she just did a tabata workout at the Crossfit and heard that word A LOT. Cracked me up.

For the evening, we went to a tango show at Gala Tango and got a front row seat that also happened to be the table that all the performers walked by as they got on the stage or walked off. Wow! The show was amazing and the athleticism / technical abilities of these folks is off the charts. I got my first Pisco Sour and it was good while Jill got an Argentine Mojito that she actually liked (she sticks to wine these days).

During the show, my second Gaucho encounter of the day occurred. One of the performers was classically dressed and danced with Gaucho balls (rope with a hard ball on one end) that he used to strike the floor in this amazing rhythm much like a drummer while he danced around and pointed these things at the audience. Very fun evening of entertainment.

12 Feb: San Pedro de Atacama (CHI) --> Santiago (CHI) --> Buenos Aires (ARG).

Today was mostly about travelling to Buenos Aires. We said farewell to Rocco and Alex, and caught our flight from remote Atacama to Santiago. We picked up the bags that we stored on Monday, checked in for our flight to BA and had plenty of time to grab lunch. Only we had basically 4 choices in the international terminal: Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, Subway and Ruby Tuesday's. A couple of local options existed but they were wine bars or pastry shops (not the good kind), so we settled on Ruby Tuesday's. The portions were absurd. Glad to know that the American influence is all over the place.

On the flight to BA, Marc somehow managed to telepathically inform the flight attendant that he is a chocoholic and snagged more "bon bons". A truly proud moment. As we were filling out the customs form, we were literally asked what kind of mobile phones we have along with any accessories. An odd request, but things became more clear later on. Our guide, Ana, was waiting for us after we cleared customs and we were off to the hotel.

As we head into Argentina, I'll share with you a couple of news stories that we are following. One is around the murder of Alberto Nisman, the lead prosecutor who was about to have the President of Argentina arrested for corruption. This is in relation to President Kirchner's alleged participation in a cover-up related to a bombing of a Israeli center in 1994. I just finished a spy thriller called "I Am Pilgrim" and let's just say that what is going on in relation to this murder investigation rivals the book I just read (which is fiction). And we have a winner for "you can't make this stuff up."

Another story that we need to keep tabs on is around the general economic situation of the country. Argentina is experiencing severe hyperinflation and a significant black market exists for currency exchange. Even in Argentine Pesos, much counterfeiting exists so we need to be careful. Lots of protests taking place in Buenos Aires these days around Nisman, Kirchner's regime and some of the bad blood still associated with the war with Great Britain over the Islas Malvinas in 1982.

I remember on my last visit thinking that BA struck me as a cross between Madrid and Paris with the layouts and the architecture. It still holds true. While the country may have some serious problems, BA still remains a beautiful city. Marc immediately noted that the lanes on the motorways are rarely, if ever, adhered to. Ana's response was that "well, it seems to work for us." Heh.

We checked into the hotel and had to clean up quickly for dinner. We went to Oviedo, which was in a neigborhood that reminded me of the West Village. It was an old school kind of place with exquisitely prepared food. They kept it simple in terms of ingredients and everything was just super high quality. To cap off the evening, I even ordered dessert wine in Spanish and was able to be understood. A proud moment for me since Marc is the "Spanish Speaker" on this trip.

For the oenophiles, we also learned of a new varietal - Torrontes. It has 3 types and I tasted the Rianjo version, which tasted like a Gewürztraminer. It was pretty good and I look forward to trying more of this.

As for why we were asked on the customs form for what kind of mobile phones we have, we later found out it is because smartphones are so expensive in Argentina and citizens typically buy them outside of the country to not pay the taxes associated with those purchases. For example, Apple doesn't even have a store in BA because of the costs associated with running the operation and the pain for consumers. All of their business is done via resellers.

A long day for the Becks, but we feel we should be set up pretty well for our stay in BA.

11 Feb - Valley of the Moon & Canyon Hike

We were up before sunrise again today although not as early because the drive was 15 min to a spot above the valley of the moon. We hadn't seen it yet and this would be our last full day here. Jill suggested to our guide that we see the sunrise here instead of the popular sunset. The weather here in the desert often clouds up and rains in the afternoon/evening.

We watched the sunrise from a cliff above the valley and it worked. There were perhaps a dozen folks watching with us. Apparently at sunset, this area can be packed and party central so I definitely liked our version of the cliff.

We then went to drive into the valley only to find it no longer opens at 8am - now 9:30. Lack of visitors in the morning or "laziness"... So we took a side hike up a canyon for just under an hour which was great.

We then got into the valley of the moon and it was remarkable. Stunningly beautiful! We stopped at a viewpoint that requires under 10 min walk and we were there by ourselves! This had views of two sides of a huge gray dune with salt flats on one side and interesting rock formations on both sides.

After this we did several more short walks in the valley before returning to the hotel to pack for the afternoon and bus into town from the hotel to eat lunch. Lunch was so good that we booked dinner for the evening @ the same place.

For the afternoon we got a new guide, Sandra, to walk with us. She loves this hike up through a canyon that generally has a trickle of water. Recent rains have washed the trail away in spots and ruined lots of plants. There was still plenty left to see and it was beautiful but we often had to improvise our own path. We climbed up and around several impassable spots as well as jumped or crossed the " river" by wading across. It should take at most 2 hours but it took us about 2:20 and we were going fast most of the time. I had fun but we both struggled on a few loose rocks along the way.

We were beat after this. Lots of hiking at altitude along with lack of sleep since we departed took a toll. We rested, packed a bit, and prepared to go into town to eat dinner. Dinner was excellent although we both got too much food. The salad itself was a meal but also very fresh and tasty. We hung for a while and nibbled at the mains.

A two person band came and played maybe 3 songs and then asked if we wanted to buy music on disc or donate. We passed. It was tempting because I kept hearing the word "Zaya" in their lyrics.
On the shuttle back to the hotel, we encountered the first Americans in San Pedro de Atacama. It's clearly not on most people's radar in the states. They just arrived so we gave suggestions on what we enjoyed.

10 Feb: San Pedro de Atacama (CHI).

Gosh, that alarm going off at 0430 local time hurt. We're 5 hours ahead of Seattle, slept little on the plane & didn't get to bed until late. But we had to go meet our guide to watch the sunrise at El Tatio, the highest geyser field in the world at 14000+ feet.

The sky was full of stars until we crossed the cloud line at roughly 12000 feet. The 2 hour drive was all dirt road so pretty bumpy with no lights. A true adventure. Glad someone else was driving even if Rocco, our guide, thought stop signs were optional being from Italy and all.

Our intrepid efforts were rewarded with an epic sunrise over the Andes. Rocco picked a spot that was pretty quiet while all of the bigger vehicles went to the other side of the park. It was a balmy -1C so I chose to jump into the thermal pool after the sunrise. Seems crazy but I expected it to be colder!

That said, when you get out of the car to walk around at that altitude, you feel it. I didn't get sick but I did feel lightheaded. The geysers don't have the power of Old Faithful at Yellowstone, but it was still an impressive sight. We saw vicuñas roaming the area, which was an added bonus.

We had some brekkie and Rocco wanted to show us a more remote geyser field that is closed to the public (or at least the signs saying 'peligro' made me wonder). "Mud Geyser" lived up to its name. Beautiful, remote and muddy.

On the way back, we saw some llamas, local birds & flamingos walking around. We grabbed lunch, rested a bit, and then hit Salar de Atacama and Chaxa Lagoon for some more wildlife watching. 3 different types of flamingos were out flying around. They are differentiated by color.

Then we had a flashback to Australia when a herd of sheep randomly crossed the road in front of us. We also stopped by a neighboring village, which had a historic church with many artifacts brought over from Spain.

The weather was crappy in the evening for the 2nd night in a row, which was putting our visit to Valle de la Luna in jeopardy. This location was the main reason we ventured to Atacama! I suggested to the guys that since the morning weather has been clear that maybe we should go against convention & try for sunrise.

Rocco & Alex thought it was worth a shot so they agreed. After dinner, we ventured back & I stayed up way too late reading a book "I Am Pilgrim". Let's hope the lack of sleep & sunrise at Valle de la Luna work out for us on Wednesday!

9 Feb: "Equator" -> Santiago (CHI) -> San Pedro de Atacama (CHI)

We crossed into the southern hemisphere overnight. The plane liked to dance like a break dancer and I don't sleep much on a plane that is calm. We landed in Santiago and proceeded to stand in customs line for an hour. Once free from this we found our checked bags sitting beside the conveyor belt and they were likely there at least 30 min before us.

We then walked out into the insanity of signs for guides and fortunately found our Southwind representative. He helped us store the checked bags on site for the next four days so we could carry on for the next flight in under 3 hours.


We got through security for the Chilean flight and discovered that our best option for lunch was Starbucks. The flight went smoothly and we were met by Rocco (guide) and Alex (driver). Alex informed us that he loved Seattle and Nirvana.

We made a stop in Death Valley on the 90+ min ride to San Pedro de Atacama where we planned to spend 3 nights. We quickly discovered it can be referred to as San Pedro de Atacama due to ALL the dogs. We also discovered that our hotel had no record under our names. This took some sorting out but they put us up which was good given we had just spent 24 hours straight traveling.

We showered and had dinner at the hotel. I found that as the Spanish speaking representative of Chez Beck, we collectively are preschool level. Fortunately we could drink wine. Vino for these preschoolers.

8 Feb: SEA (US) --> DFW (US) --> "Equator".

Welcome to Marc and Jill's #patagoniacaminada!

This trip has been a few months in the making and it's good to be off! Marc and I are travelling to South America for a bit, focusing on Argentina and Chile. I have been to some of the areas that we are covering on this trip (December, 1998). As for Marc, it is his first trip to South America.

I should be sleeping but it has been a pretty choppy flight. Normally I snooze through this kind of thing but I feel like we are being thrown into a wash cycle every 20 minutes or so since we left U.S. airspace.

Right now, we are on leg #2 of 4 to get to our initial destination: The Atacama Desert. You can probably surmise from the name that it is one of the driest places on the planet. It is located in Chile and is situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes mountain range. As we see the sites, we will blog more about the specifics of the region.

Other places that we plan to cover on this trip include Buenos Aires, Tierra del Fuego, Southern Patagonia, Santiago and finally, Mendoza. The last place is in Argentina and is very popular wine region and is known for Malbec. We are looking forward to learning more about how wines are crafted in this corner of the world. Chile is also emerging as a premier wine producer, so as we did on the Australian Walkabout, we look forward to educating ourselves on this area.

By the time we get to our hotel in San Pedro de Atacama, we will have been travelling for 25+ hours. Bottom-line: South America, particularly Chile and Argentina, is a really long ways away from the U.S., let alone Seattle. In case you're wondering, I put the end point for today's activities at the Equator since it was around midnight Seattle time when we crossed it. I know, the picture could be better. As I said earlier, it was a turbulent flight from DFW to SCH.

Feel free to chime in with questions or comments as we progress through our latest adventure!

Wait, Jill Is Doing Yoga And Liking It?

Over the summer, I noticed a couple of my friends trying out the new yoga studio in the neighborhood. Now these friends are people that I workout with at CrossFit so I was intrigued. Yoga and CrossFit? Running too?

As a runner, I have always known that yoga could help me because I may be the most inflexible (hey now, I was talking physically!) person on the planet. But the one time I tried it in 2003 just made me feel like a loser with no hope of making progress due to my rheumatoid arthritis.

Last October, I asked my friend, Lissa, about it and stressed that "I wasn't into the whole kumbaya thing. I just wanted to stretch and stuff." As good friends typically do, she agreed to meet me at the studio one morning and she showed me the ropes.

The instructor that morning was one of the owners and was briefed on my very novice status. He was gracious and helpful, but made it easy for me to understand in a full room of participants. I sweated in class. I looked like I went swimming in my workout clothes. Rookie mistake was not bringing a change of clothes because it's hot yoga. But I was intrigued.

What if? What if I gave it a fair shake and tried to use it to get warmed up before a lifting session across the street at CrossFit? What would happen?

Well I started enjoying that I had to totally focus when executing poses. I liked that the instructors would come over & subtly give me a modification to help me get more out of a pose. I am still adjusting to the non-verbal interaction in the practice (aka class) so I need to remember questions to ask afterwards.

Oh, I started to lift more weight. I crushed 6 previous PRs at CrossFit that I had trouble working through in 2014.

And then some of the yoga instructors would talk trash before/after class even though they are Canadian (that's for you, CP).

I never thought I would be a person who would look forward to the silence & focus of yoga, but here I am. I'm one of those people. But I still love running with my friends and I still love lifting weights. It's fitting it all in that is the problem!!!

Next week, Marc and I are off on another adventure. It won't be as long as the Australian Walkabout but we're hoping it will be just as fun! We're fortunate enough to do these things every once in awhile. It's also the reason for dusting off the blog. I'm trying a new tool for blogging from the iPad.

Go try something new & test yourself. You may not love it. That's fine. At least you could say you tried it. Then again, you never know what you can get out of it if you give it a go.

Nah-mah-stay.

"Trying to Get That Feeling Again"....

Yes, yes. I am talking about the Barry Manilow song released almost 40 years ago. Barry creeped back into my head after I heard that at my 25 year high school reunion, some of my former classmates were doing some karaoke to one or two of this songs. Where was Lola? Was she a showgirl?

I couldn't make the timing work to attend the reunion back on Long Island, but fortunately Facebook has provided me with some laughs at the goofiness and good-natured fun that seems to have taken place over the 2 day event. 

As the regulars of this blog know, I have been running regularly since 2008 (started in late 2004). Going back to the 1st quarter of 2014, I was still working with my awesome running coach, Teresa, but I was struggling with getting my workouts in. The Upower launch and everything associated with that was getting in the way of following a regimented training plan. And yes, Upower is going really, really well thanks to the commitment and the passion of our great team.

Teresa was understanding about "life getting in the way" but ultimately I just kept feeling worse about not hitting my plan on any level. So I dropped coaching back in April, which was a tough but necessary realization. Teresa couldn't have been more gracious. But I did "break up" with running and training for races.

I thought of the song in today's blog post title because I participated in Ragnar NW Passage this past weekend. It had been a couple of years since running it with my friends and last year I needed to take off after not being able to train because of the "unexpected broken hand" thing, etc.

Lissa, our good friend, always runs a great team and I knew the gang had been short because of an injury. I finally volunteered a month ago with the disclaimer that I wasn't doing much on the running front as opposed to '11 and '12. [Translation: SLOW] She didn't care and the gang accepted me back with open arms. 

I knew that I needed to give myself a chance not to get injured by building up on the mileage front. My regular friends and running buds were happy to have me back on their weekend runs. I was happy to be back with Tricia, PNak, Caryn and Molly. So I threw in some regular runs over the past month with the hope I wouldn't embarrass myself on the course.

I had about 16 miles between my 3 legs. I'd say that the 1st 2 were pretty easy. I wasn't overly concerned other than the timing of the 2nd one and limited van support for that leg. The 3rd one had some hills and of course had the extra "lack of sleep and completely exhausted" factor thrown in. Oy. 

I ran my 1st leg exactly as I wanted to. Used the downhill to recover and not go crazy, and then kept things steady in other parts of the run. I knew I had 2 legs to go, so I needed to save myself. Mission accomplished. 8:20 pace for 6 miles. Very happy with that. Felt good about sticking to my plan and still giving a strong effort.

I ran my 2nd leg like a sprint, which was sort of my plan. I just didn't feel safe running at night with a few random people walking around at night. Part of the leg didn't have van support and we were the 7th team in, so I didn't have other runners around me. 8:41 pace for 2.8 miles. My time wasn't "fast", but I ran as fast as could without causing myself to puke after. And I made it safely to hand-off. Success.

As with every Ragnar, you can't expect to sleep any meaningful amount overnight (unless you are a doctor who is used to cat naps). Our van slowly got ourselves together around 5:30am to wait for our other 6 teammates to come in. I felt exhausted. Legs, brain, you name it. And I still had my toughest leg ahead. 

My original plan had me just taking it easy on the uphills, recover on the downhills, and then see how it all went. I was targeting a 9:15 pace for the 6.8 miles. Paps, one of my teammates and probably the strongest runner out of all of us, came flying in and handed the wristband off to me. I was off and slightly nervous.

Everyone in the van and on the team as a whole had been running well. Darn. What if I had to walk because I just wasn't trained up enough? Anyway, I trudged up the first hill at a steady pace. Everything felt hard and I was hitting my pace. Started telling myself to "just get up the hill, Jill." Knee hurt, plantar hurt. 

I knew the boys (my 5 van mates were all guys) would be waiting for me at 2.5 miles in and they already came by with the cowbell. Just told myself to get to them and sort it out there. I made it to the top of the hill at mile 2 and then I saw something better than my guys. 

I saw another runner ahead. Hmmm. Hello "roadkill" possibility. :-) I had to then remind myself to not get ahead of myself and speed up. I had much more work to do, including more hill work. So I followed their pace to see if I was getting closer even at my reduced pace. I was. I know Teresa is smiling reading this.

I stuck to my plan and things got easier. Not easy, but easier. At mile 4 exactly, I got my roadkill. I was pumped. I continued to stay with my plan. I came in at a 9:12 pace. I was absolutely elated! The guys were psyched and I knew I ran well. It was my slowest run of the bunch, but I was proud of pushing through doubts/aches, getting a little fired up and sticking to my overall strategy for Ragnar, however misguided.

Not sure where I am with my running and my training, but I know that I am in a better place than I was 72 hours ago. And that's a good step. But hopefully we're closer to getting back that feeling again.

The other awesome thing that happened is that our team agreed to wear Upower shirts to help us get the word out about our "soon-to-be" running program. It was a wonderful gesture from the team and even better when they announced us as "Team Clif Bar and Upower" as we crossed the finish together.

Bringing 2013 To A Close (Oh, and Becks Are Now Employed).

It is amazing that 2013 is almost done. Fortunately for Marc and I, it was mostly a pretty phenomenal year and we are incredibly grateful for that.

We had the Australian Walkabout for 3+ months, which was an awesome experience and way more worthwhile than we ever could have hoped for.

We watched our parents get healthier and defy their respective ages. We also made our brother-in-law a CrossFit convert after he resisted for so long. :-)

We hosted another successful "Open That Bottle Night" (after we did one in Australia!!!) and JDRF dinner, and we had "Beck The Halls" storm back into our lives with a vengeance! Our families and our friends continue to make us chuckle and to be supportive of our endeavors.

We had visitors from all over, including 4 of our nephews and nieces. We got to spend Thanksgiving in NY and Christmas in SoCal, both of which were so much fun.

We mostly remained injury-free to pursue our fitness activities around swimming, running and CrossFit.

The decision to close Purple Teeth Cellars. Yes, this is a positive thing because we were able to close the business down on our terms so we can focus on other projects going forward.

We both found jobs that we are excited about (more below). It was worth taking the time off and then taking our time to find opportunities that we are passionate about.

And most importantly, we are both healthy and very thankful for that.

Some of the "not so great" things in 2013 include:

The broken hand and recovery with the "purple claw".

3 of our close friends being diagnosed with some form of breast cancer. Fortunately they all seem on the road to recovery. But HUGE dislike here.

The Yankees and the New York Giants 2013 campaigns (ok, this only negatively impacts one of us for this one and truthfully - not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things).

So in reality, it was a very good year for the Becks.

I'll let Marc decide if he wants to talk about his role, but he is happy and excited which is all that matters to me.

About 3+ months ago, I asked a close friend if she wanted to move forward on an idea that we had only talked about in passing. She said yes pretty quickly, which was pretty exciting but a little scary.

Reason it was a little scary was that this is a completely new space for me. We have created a non-profit called "uPower" that will focus on getting underprivileged kids in Seattle to after-school fitness activities. My role is "Executive Director" - aka the "GSD" person. The initial emphasis will be working with local CrossFits here in Seattle and pairing up with local schools.

It's been a busy few months trying to get this off of the ground, but we have made a ton of progress. You won't find a website yet as that is still in development, but behind-the-scenes... trust me, I have been busy working with my co-founder on building the best infrastructure we can so we are hopefully in a position to scale this concept properly. 

I am fortunate to have an awesome Board of Directors to help me out so we can move this concept forward. We are lucky to have a network of people who can connect us with experts as we get more educated on a myriad of topics. And yes, it's a whole new subject matter for me but I am embracing the challenges ahead.

So with that, onward to next year. Hoping for all of you to have a wonderful 2014!

Purple Teeth Cellars Update.

[NOTE: This post was entitled "All Good Things Must Come To An End" on the Purple Teeth Cellars website.]

When you have something special to you, it seems as though the most important thing is knowing when to move on to the next chapter. And with mixed emotions, we're announcing that we have completed the process of closing down Purple Teeth Cellars.

Words cannot express how much this venture has taught us. When we started this in late 2006, we wanted to make wine that we would want to drink. And we succeeded. We also went into this project knowing this WAS NOT going to be our exit strategy from our "day jobs" because we wanted to have fun. We achieved that.

When we started promoting our wine to our family and friends in different channels, we quickly realized that we were becoming a resource for many who were just learning about wine.

We resolved to stay true to the advice we would have given if we weren't making and selling wine. We did that and strongly encouraged folks to "drink what YOU like", not what the experts TELL you to like. Hopefully we accomplished that in your eyes.

We had the opportunity to understand what being an entrepreneur really means with our names essentially being "on the letterhead". We also learned how incredibly hard it is to make high quality wine in meaningful quantities year-in and year-out. We were able to donate some of our revenues to JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), which is a non-profit that we strongly support. And we had the "pleasure" of selling wine during a recession where plenty of supply was available. Fortunately we were able to sell all of the wine that we wanted to sell. Obviously we held some back for ourselves.

We would like to thank folks like "Z", Kian and Gifford for their tireless efforts in getting Purple Teeth Cellars off of the ground. You always answered our "dumb questions" and really understood the meaning of customer service whether or not the problem was in your job description. In what is no surprise to us, "Z" went to university with some of the best winemakers in Australia and thanks to him, we were able to meet many of them on our recent trip there.

We would like to thank our family and friends who provided feedback to us as we were starting off, particularly as we were struggling with our logo. Special thanks to Jill's former manager, Chris, who gave us the most value-added and direct piece of feedback on the logo. This then led to Jill's sister coming up with an idea that we were then able to pass off to cousin Andrea to play with.

We would like to thank the countless industry professionals who were very supportive of our venture, but still provided very constructive feedback on our offering and how we could improve what we were doing. The time, energy and passion that they spent on Purple Teeth Cellars was incredibly instrumental in some of the decisions we made.

And most of all, we would like to thank our customers who bought from us time and time again. Without you, we wouldn't have been able to learn as much as we did. Your business, your feedback and your support really is what made this experience worthwhile.

Closing this chapter enables us to focus on new adventures, one of which was a wonderful 3+ month trip around Australia. No need to fret or be sad for us. 

And please don't forget to flaunt your PURPLE TEETH!

Thanks again and happy holidays.

-- Marc and Jill Beck

"Green" by R.E.M. is 25 Years Old.... Wha????

Yes, that awesome album/CD/tape (whatever format you had when it came out) is now 25 years old. How the heck did THAT happen? Wow. It's 5 o'clock somewhere, right? Of course I will age myself some more and indicate that this brings me back to the years of Massapequa High School... Oy!

Many of our regular readers are baseball fans. And almost every baseball fan complains about how absurd the scheduling is for their respective team. Great little "30 for 30" on the husband and wife team who did the scheduling by hand.

I wouldn't say that I am a huge NBA fan. I lost interest in the Knicks thanks to the idiocy of James Dolan and his blind loyalty to Isiah Thomas. I know some of the players, particularly the ones on the marquee teams, like the Miami Heat. I was pleasantly surprised to come across this article by Chris Bosh in WIRED about the virtues of being able to write code. He also mentioned an interesting non-profit called 'code.org', which has some really interesting ideas about incorporating programming into education. Check it out.

Remember the adage "don't run 1/2 marathons on back-to-back weekends"? You don't? That's probably because most people do not need someone to tell them that. They just are smart enough not to do it! Unlike moi. Yep, ran the Snohomish River Run the week after the Nike 1/2 Marathon and let's just say it was a fight the whole way. Legs had no mojo and missed my PR by ~40 seconds. A bit disappointing, but given that I was sick for most of October and the hard 13.1 the previous week (even though it wasn't race pace), I can't complain too much.

Final races for the year seem to be a 5K in about a week and a 4-miler about a week later. Then I think I will be good. I look forward to spending some time building up at CrossFit and working on a project that has been in the works for a few weeks.

We have been doing some fun things on the home cooking front. Picked up a new cookbook from "Gramercy Tavern", a long time favorite of mine in New York. Then I do some experimenting with a cookbook from a wonderful place in Sydney that we ate at called "Quay". 

One of the birthday gifts that Marc picked up for me was "Modernist Cuisine At Home". Interesting take on cooking because it is written as if cooking is more about the science as opposed to some of the art involved. I like a little bit of both. We actually went to an exhibit currently showing at the Pacific Science Center showcasing some of the photography used in the book. Definitely unique.

Even with all of the science, I have been able to use the cookbook on a few recipes over the past couple of months and look forward to using it for a dish in celebration of a close friend's birthday. Lucky me!

Nike San Francisco Race Report.

Considering the "Australian Walkabout" and the subsequent "broken hand incident and recovery", my expectations for racing this year were pretty low. A friend asked me when I came back if I wanted to throw our names in the lottery for the Nike 1/2 in San Fran and for some reason, I said "sure, why not?" 

Yes, you get a Tiffany necklace at the end instead of a finisher's medal, and it is handed to you by a very handsome member of the SF Fire Department. BUT there are hills. And they are steep. Oh, the course is congested because 30,000+ people get accepted into this race. I thought that we are never getting in. Until. of course, we did in late June. OK, time to get real about training.

Training was going pretty well thanks to TN until late September when a cold/sore throat came and still hasn't completely left. This impacted some of my training so Coach and I made a call to make Nike SF a "training run" and use a local race the following week as my "A" race.

Thank goodness I met up with one friend running the race the day before as she informed me that the race started at 6:30am, not 7am. OK, now that would have sucked. But yeah, early start. Got up at 5am so I could chow a Kind bar and drink a bit of water. Always helpful being a 1/3 of a mile from the start. Easy walk over. Bit cool and dark since race started at 630am. Took a gel 5 mins before go time, sipped some water, etc. Had 2 water bottles with me, and the plan was to meet Marc at mile 7 for 2 more bottles. Had 3 more gels with me.

I've never not raced a race (double negative, I know) before, so I was curious to see how I would rise to this challenge. The goal was to run it, stay in z2 and work on some fueling, tactics, etc. Be conservative in those 1st 7 miles, recover on the downhills and don't skimp on the fueling. As a side note, when people asked me my goal, I said that if I got in under 1:55 that I would be ecstatic but 2 hours would be a solid effort. This is not a PR course by any stretch so getting that expectation out of my head was helpful.

CP and I started slow. It's a mob scene with 30000 other runners and the whole Team in Training thing makes things worse since they let slower runners go first. But we tried to stay conservative and not weave in/out. I made a conscious decision to go on feel, so I did not check my HR. 1st 4 miles were pretty easy. A couple of spurts here and there based on little climbs, etc. My splits seemed reasonable.

At the end of mile 4, CP slowed down as she had a plantar issue and I pressed on. Mile 5 was a bit quick since there was some subtle downhill, but I didn't feel like I pushed harder. Just tried to maintain effort. Popped in a gel a 30 minutes to prep for the hill.

At mile 5.84, the big climb started. Yes, I took note because I knew it was a mile of straight uphill. With about a 1/2 mile left of the climb, I started to walk a little. Popped in a gel. I tried not to pay attention to pace on the hill. CP caught me and I dropped her off with Marc, got 2 more bottles and went on. BTW it was foggy and the weather was really perfect for racing.

I got over the hill and saw my split was 9:55. I was pretty happy about that. To get through that with a walk break under 10 minutes was pretty darned good. I saw plenty of people going crazy on the downhill and thought "suckers".... they are going to get crushed in about 10 minutes. Yep, passed them later on. That advice about using the downhill to recover just like we practiced in track really paid off. I used the down time to start doing the math on getting in under 2 hours. Before I knew it, it was time to climb again through the rollers in a gorgeous neighborhood known as Sea Cliff. 

I kept pushing and again, on the final big hill, I took a walk break and popped in my final gel. Again back to the downhill, more steep, but I kept it under control. A tiny bit faster than the last one since the next uphill wasn't too bad, etc.  Sub 2 was definitely doable if I pushed a little on the next uphill. I knew I could pick off people in miles 11-12 as people were going to be tired, displeased about a subtle yet annoying hill and their legs were going to be pissed off from going nuts on the downhill. The last mile is mostly downhill, and I went in seeing if I could get in at 1:57. Ultimately, my calves cramped up at 12.5 so I just tried to remain steady and finish strong. I did that. I felt good from a cardio perspective in the last 3 miles, which I imagine was a result of the conservative 1st half and not being stupid on the downhills.

Official time: 1:58:19 -- a 14+ minute improvement from when I did this same race (same course) in 2008. Not bad for a tune-up race. And I placed pretty well. Hit 5% in my age group and 7% overall. Not bad, Beck.

And now I get to do it all over again in 6 days. Stretching will be my mantra this week.

Keeping Busy In San Francisco.

We just came back from a pretty busy weekend in San Francisco, which was filled with great times with family and friends. I also managed to squeeze in a half marathon, which we will cover in a separate post.

The plane ride and some recovery time after the race allowed me to read Wheelman: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever. Not sure I would recommend it because it just confirmed what I already thought of Lance Armstrong. That's not a knock on the authors from the WSJ, as it was meticulously researched, but it just provided more insight as to what a diabolical and selfish person he is. If you're interested in how pervasive the drug culture was in cycling and the extent to which Armstrong wanted to protect his legacy, read the book.

Our time in SF had us hitting some excellent restaurants. Coqueta, which focuses on Spanish cuisine, was the standout. We went to Frances to celebrate the 1/2 marathon finish, which was also excellent. Great service too. Rich Table had so much hype, so it was slightly disappointing that it didn't knock your socks off. That said, it was very good and even better to catch up with some of the SF cousins.

We went and visited with a former neighbor of mine from Massapequa, who is now a paramedic with the SFFD. It was really fun catching up with him, and he told us of a museum we never heard of called 'The Disney Museum'. It's historical artifacts from the Disney family about how Walt Disney & Co. became the massive entertainment company that it is today. Not really for kids, but for those of you who grew up with Disney as they grew up, you'll appreciate it.

Marc is a huge fan of Neil Gaiman and it just so happened that the Cartoon Art Museum is showcasing an exhibit on some of the drawings used in 'The Sandman' series. It was interesting, but unfortunately they had some other kind of festival going on that made things very loud and chaotic in there, which took away from wanting to read more about the drawings.

It wasn't what we would call an awesome sports weekend by Beck standards. The Broncos lost and the Red Sox advanced to the World Series. The New York Giants are about to kick off for MNF, so no news on if they will put their 2014 1st draft pick status in jeopardy.

And yeah, Congress and Obama finally got their act together.... until we get to do this again in January-February, 2014. Good job, elected officials! Idiots - all of them. But props to Chris Christie for giving up the fight against same-sex marriage in New Jersey - progress for my friends who live there!

All in all, a fun and a busy weekend in SF catching up with a bunch of people. Now back in Seattle to face reality and the Giants playing on Monday Night Football.

'Schmuckitude'!

[NOTE: Given that this is mostly a political post, it should be noted that this only represents the thoughts of Jill. Marc's thoughts will remain his, unless he chooses to share.]

I don't think it is an actual word according to the Oxford University Press, but if 'physicality' can somehow become a word and be overused by every sports analyst, then 'schmuckitude' certainly has its place.

I would argue that basically any elected official, particularly the ones who spend at least part of their year residing in "the other Washington" deserve an "overachieve" in their 'schmuckitude', with a couple of notable exceptions. BTW since I live in Washington State folks, DC is "the other Washington". And it certainly seems appropriate given that I assign failing grades to both the executive (yes, Obama gets an 'F' for his bullying and temper tantrums) and the legislative branches for their lack of leadership and understanding of the woes of the average citizen. 

But Senator John McCain had a great quote today. He said, "Leadership, I must fully admit, was provided primarily by women in the Senate." And of course, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) deflected the compliments with saying it was "truly collaborative effort," adding that all in the group deserved "kudos" for working on the deal. McCain joked that he had won "a small side wager" from Collins in the course of their negotiations. Hmmm. Maybe more women are needed in positions of power. 

I was sad when Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) had decided not to run for re-election as she had been another common sense member of the Senate, but she had enough of the extreme partisanship that has taken over both parties in Congress. The good news is that she has been active on Twitter and on other social media trying to hammer home that Congress should use common sense for the good of the American people. I hope she is effective.

So goody. The Democrats say they won and the Republicans will bring up many of these issues in 3-4 months (sans Obamacare, which does nothing to solve the real problems with our healthcare system). We'll get to go through this again! Yeah, President Obama and Congress! Continue to embody 'schmuckitude'! Oh by the way, you all suck.

Speaking of women in positions of power, I enjoyed reading this interview with Condi Rice about her recently announced role with the selection committee of the new College Football Playoff System. Regardless of her politics, she seems just as qualified as anyone to be sitting at that table given her background, yet it is still sad about the sexism that exists regarding her selection.

Switching gears ever so slightly, this Q&A with Roger Federer cracked me up. Between this and this interaction with a fan a couple of months ago, he is my all-time favorite male tennis player.

Had a great time with friends over the past weekend. My awful golf game showed up (my good one never does), but I got to be outside, and laugh with Marc and friends. Life is good.

And finally, Mr. Rosen -- I also love David Burke Townhouse. Thanks for sharing your story and your humor with a wide audience. It brought a huge smile to my face reading about you.

One Word: Harvalicious.

Most of you know that my Dad, aka "Harvalicious", has been doing CrossFit for about a year now. The story of how it all started is somewhat random, and what makes it awesome.

We (my Mom, sister and I) have been trying to get Dad healthier for a long time. We have a history of heart trouble on that side of the family and he had a close call back in 1991, which took me awhile to recover from the shock of it all. In any event, we kept trying. Some yo-yo dieting took place and the net results were on the wrong side of being healthier.

After a close relative fell ill and was forced to live in assisted living, Harv finally reached out and said he was "ready to make a change". The call I have been waiting for... for years. But now what? I certainly wasn't expecting this call, but was overjoyed to receive it. I knew my Mom would be able to take care of the food part as she has been very successful of a very sustained period of time with Weight Watchers. So that left the other aspect - "getting moving".

I always envisioned that when Harv finally called me that I would hire a personal trainer. But that didn't seem right anymore. CrossFit entered my mind, but it freaked me out too. My sedentary Dad at CrossFit! That's for crazy people. But wait. It's scalable. This COULD work... maybe. At this point, Marc and I had been doing CrossFit for almost 2 years, and been to multiple boxes so we had a decent idea about things. One thing we knew: every CrossFit that we ever worked out at was full of super positive people who cheered on everyone.

When I told Marc and my sister my idea, they definitely didn't jump onboard. I said that we only had one shot at this and we had to strike while the iron was hot. They did agree that personal trainers can be expensive and not very consistent. OK, well call some CrossFit gyms in the area and see what you can find out.

Enter CrossFit Rapture. No email addresses on their website. But they did have a Facebook page. I got in touch and Coach Shane, one of the owners, texted me back so we could chat on the phone. I asked the owner what he would "do with a guy like Harv" and listed out the litany of physical issues. Shane had some ideas and I liked that he wasn't trying to "use my Dad as a resume builder". 

OK. Game on. We had to send Harv to get sneakers and then off he went to private morning sessions with Coach Ben. When we went to Disneyland in October, 2012, we put Harv through a mini-WOD. The pounds started coming off. He started to have more energy. Subtle changes in his mindset were taking place. Unfortunately we had a setback where Harv took a break.

Fortunately, with the help of my Mom, we were able to coax him back into the friendly confines of CrossFit Rapture. And he decided he wanted to go after work and be in class with everyone else. Things started to look up. Let's just say that Harv quickly acquired nicknames from his CrossFit buddies like "Harv the Legend", "H-Train", "Harvalicious" and now "Hollywood Harv". Harv also started to develop a "very proprietary nomenclature" to use for CrossFit. Kettles, anyone?
Harv proactively went to a workout at one of the local beaches. Did burpees in the sand. Who is this guy?! Maybe "Hard Core Harv"? Met more people in the CrossFit Rapture community. And then he got wind of "Barbells for Boobs", a fundraiser for people who cannot afford to pay for mammograms. So he decided to partake, with Mom, Lisa and I helping him to raise money for the cause. In return he had to do a workout called "Grace", which is 30 clean and jerks with a barbell. Trust me, it is not as easy as it sounds.

In parallel, I emailed some folks at CrossFit Journal about Harv's journey and they agreed that it was an awesome story to tell. I had the privilege of flying back to New York last week and working out with Harv, plus discussing how much his changes have meant to me and to the rest of our family. It was very powerful watching and hearing my Dad talk about his journey towards finally making the changes he needed to make. I finally had the chance to meet the community at CrossFit Rapture, including Coach Brad (another owner) that made me look so good by being so supportive of Harv. It was worth every penny and every minute of time to fly back for 36 hours. 

Harv is currently in 2nd place for his CrossFit Rapture fundraising efforts for Barbells for Boobs, but on Saturday he did do the workout "like a boss" as Coach Shane likes to say. I woke up to a video of him working hard and having fun with some family support there. The best was him in the large group picture at the end of the event with the rest of his CrossFit Rapture buddies. He is definitely a valued menu of the community there and our family is so thankful to them for so many reasons.

Harv still doesn't understand why people are inspired by what he does. I suppose it is easier for him to feel like that, but I know he has a huge fan club here in Seattle at our local CrossFit. Plus many of our family and friends cheer him on. Somewhere along the way, the nickname "Harvalicious" emerged. I like it a whole lot better than "Puff Daddy." And just remember, it is never too late to make positive changes in your life. Just ask Harv.