Swim and swim again

I've been back to the grind since my first triathlon.  Results came in at 1:53 overall for a half mile swim (40 minutes), 15 mile bike ride (40 minutes) and 5K run (30 minutes).  I estimate my first transition was about two and a half minutes and my second a minute and a half; the bike mount/dismount including time to/from the ocean added about a little over a quarter mile onto my transition, but that seems typical.  As I said before, ugh on the swim. 

Amazingly, I plugged my info into a calories burned calculator and I burned over 1,200 calories!  In the weeks leading up to the triathlon I kept telling my husband I would be fine to hang out Sunday afternoon as we usually do...  I was deluded!  I was exhausted, cranky and it was all I could do to not fall asleep everytime I sat down. 

Of course, I took off Monday.  Not work, but working out.  I needed it sooo badly.  I wasn't sore, but I was really tired.

Tuesday, back at it.  I swam 1100 meters.

Wednesday I went on a leisurely 10 mile bike ride in the morning and a 3 mile run that evening.  The run was supposed to be a nice recovery jog, but the speed demon inside me (ok, it was really the "let's get this done" voice in my head) caught up and I hit an 8:22 pace.  That was another evening of exhuastion, but overall I felt good.

Took off Thursday and Friday, and Saturday did an easy 6 miles in sprinkling rain and cool temperatures.  It felt great and I felt really great, hitting a 9:45 pace.  This was actually more of a recovery run, which should not be about pace, see Active.com or Runner's World/Times, but I read that if you feel good and you're not out of breath, then you're ok.  I'll take what I can get at this point.

Sunday morning I was dreading.  It was my "rehearsal" for my August triathlon.  Don't get me wrong, I was really, really grateful to have the opportunity to see the course and practice more open water swimming, but I was scared.  In the end, it was fantastic.  What's nice is that this is a 'women only' triathlon and supposedly caters to beginners, which is why they do the rehearsal. Check it out -- I SAID WOMEN ONLY!!

Got up at 6am for an 8am start.  Had a cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter and banana and a small cup of coffee.  Took off around 7:30am and met the group at 8am.  We rode our bikes with our gear down to the beach and hooked up with a bunch of others. 

The event organizer did a little talk on organizing your gear and helped us visualize where the racks would be and the entrance/exit for the different legs.  Then, it was time to hit the water.

Here's what the beach looks like on a normal day (actual picture of the beach):

 

 

Here's what it looked like to me (actual picture of the beach during a storm):

 And here's what it really looked like when I was there:

 



 

The mind does amazing things.

 

The water was pretty cold, but very still.  Of course, the buoys weren't set up just yet, but there was a demarcated swimming zone that was about 1/3rd of the course.  Our group of 15 or so waded in hesitantly.  Most of the women wore wetsuits and looked like this (credit to all3sports.com):

 

Whereas I looked something like this (credit to amazon.com) note the pained smile on the model's face accurately reflects what I looked like:

 

It was a true dichotomy of triathlon wear.  I'm too cheap to buy a wetsuit and too lazy to have to bother with it, so I suck it up.

 

Oh yeah, the swim.  It went much better, and I chalk it up to a few things:

 

1.  The beach is protected by a series of islands, so the water was practically still vs. my last experience of choppy swells in true open water.

 

2.  I wore my tinted goggles vs. the last time when I wore clear goggles.  I usually use tinted goggles in the pool, but my husband gave me his pair of clear goggles, and I thought those would be more helpful the day of my triathlon because it was overcast.  The problem with clear goggles in the ocean?  You can't see anything anyway, so I think that freaked me out big time.  At least the effect was muted with the tinted goggles.

 

3.  I wasn't freaking out.  I swam slow and steady, sighted well, and managed to front crawl/freestyle the entire way.

 

I did it!  Now to repeat next Sunday...

 

What's even more awesome?  The bike is very nearly completely flat and the run is entirely flat.  Yay!

 

So, the training continues.

 

Tri 1 is done.

It was bad. 

My biggest takeaway:  I need to swim a lot more.  A LOT MORE.  The swim portion was far and away the most difficult thing I have ever done.  I have been through military bootcamp but that in no way compares to the half mile swim.  Or, should I say, doggie paddle / backstroke.  I was embarassed; I was tired; I was slow.  On the plus side, no one kicked me or swam over me.  There were multiple moments when waves washed over me and I felt like I was going to drown.  It was so bad that there was some 16 year old in a kayak floating alongside me and I convinced myself that he was recording me on his phone and posting to Youtube.  That's completely irrational, but that's where my emotions were in the moment.

I'm really not sure what happened.  I can swim a half mile in the pool, no stopping, without any problems.  I don't do it so quickly, but I can do it in 20 minutes (stop laughing, I never swam before February!).  At the triathlon I probably clocked in at 35 minutes?  My watch read about 25 minutes when I was near the last buoy, so I think that's pretty accurate given my overall time.

What really, really hurts my pride is that I KILLED the bike and the run.  I was not passed by a single person on the bike ride and only one person on the run.  My average biking speed exceeded 20 mph, and at one point I even hit 38 mph!  My average running pace was somewhere around 10 minutes per mile.

And the hill?



Nailed it.  I rode all the way to the top.  This was definitely the hardest part of the course for most of the participants.

So, I finished.  Yes, it was bad, but I finished.

On to the next one, August 18.  There's a run through this Sunday, and I think I will be hitting up the water BIG TIME with a leisurely bike ride and walk through on the run course - the run is a double loop.  Wish me luck and give me all your open water swimming tips.

It's the final countdown!

So the triathlon has come upon me quickly.  When I signed up in April I was convinced I had loads of time to prepare.  I was even successfully completing a training plan before I was derailed by severe knee pain in mid-January.  Well, unfortunately good intentions don't make for an accurate reality.

On the one hand, I've been swimming somewhat regularly since joining the local YMCA, but the biking portion has been a little... neglected.  I've gone out a few times to ride on the (very flat) paths at the beach with my husband and daughter.  I probably should have been the one pulling her around in the bike trailer, but I left that to my husband!  Good thing because the last time we went out I fell off my bike.  Oops.  In retrospect, it was sort of humorous.

Scene:  Me on my bike, biking shoes locked into the clipless pedals (sidenote - I'm not sure why they call it a clipless pedal since your shoes are clipped in?  I can't be bothered to Google).  Daughter is crying from inside the bike trailer because she accidentally turned off "the pad" and Mickey Mouse has ceased to stream.  We stop suddenly at the first cry thinking something is horribly wrong.  I turn/yank my right foot sideways to get it unclipped from the pedal.  In super slow motion I begin to tip to my left as I'm frantically yanking my left foot sideways.  I am convinced my toddler is greviously injured even though she is safely tucked away in the bike trailer with snacks galore and an ipad.  Crash.  I'm on the ground, in the dirt.  My left elbow was a little scratched, but luckily that was my only injury, other than the severe blow to my pride.  My daughter's immediate reaction, "Mommy fell off her bike."  She still tells people about it.  She even told her class during their Monday morning weekend review at preschool.  I'm a legend.

Flash forward to three weeks ago, I was in the local shop that runs in the triathlon.  What is this I spy?  A map of the course for the taking.  Yesssss.  I grab it and quickly scrutinize the route.  Doesn't look too bad, mostly through residential neighborhoods close to the beach, in fact, it goes right by my house.  Until... until...  I realize the last part of the route goes directly up a very, very steep hill.  My husband likes to tell a story about riding up said hill with his friend.  His friend puked at the top.  This friend was in pretty decent shape.  Ugh.

Monday morning I woke up at 5am.  I thought, "Self, now is a good day to ride some of the bike route."  I blindly grabbed my biking clothes in the dark, none of which match so I'm sure I looked AWESOME, and off I went.  Right as I begin my ride I see a light flashing behind me.  Some guy passes me on his bike and gives pleasant greetings, something like, "Good morning!"  To which I responded, "(pant, pant) hi (pant, pant)."  Again, this was at the beginning of my ride.  Fantastic.

As I snaked my way through the neighborhoods, it really wasn't too bad.  In fact, I was moving at a pretty quick clip.  If it hadn't been dark, I probably would have gone down the hills much faster, too.  I told myself when I got to the hill I would revert course and circle back home.  Well, that didn't happen.  I saw the hill and thought, "Self, you need to do this.  You need to prove you can get up that hill, otherwise you'll be the lame-o walking up the hill on Sunday."  Slowly, painfully I went up the hill.  I actually was a bit of a lame-o and I cut it short and went off on a side street.  Map my Run tells me the hill keeps going for another quarter of a mile, but supposedly the elevation change is minimal past the point I cut out. 

For some perspective, here is a view of the hill.  This is a view from the bottom; it curves left and keeps going. 

As proof I am not exaggerating the severity of this hill, here is an elevation chart with grade:

FYI, purple is no fun.

By contrast, my running hill is a 5% elevation grade.  That seems really, really silly in light of this particular hill.

In the end I did 75% of the course, and the only bit I didn't do was to/from the beach, which is entirely flat.  Though I previously broke my bike's computer, when I got home I calculated that I'd pedaled a 16 mph speed on the course.  I honestly have no idea if that's good or bad, but My Fitness Pal claims this speed is "vigorous."  Thank you downhill portions!

In any event, Wednesday morning I picked this up

Time to make it happen.

And the base keep runnin', runnin'

After doing some Jillian Michaels workouts earlier this week and again this morning, I took to the streets for a bit of cardio.  Not that the Ripped in 30 workouts are easy, but I've been following up with cardio to get me in the zone for my first triathlon next Sunday.  Sidenote - I'm definitely NOT ready.

My neighborhood is fairly hilly, which makes for some decent training runs, even though 82 degrees with 70%+ humidity does not make for an enjoyable run.  It's great, though, in that I have plenty of opportunities for hill training.  This is an endurance/speed technique that I'm (unfortunately) very familiar with given my high school cross country coach's undying love for the torture it inflicted upon us.  Basically, you run up a hill over and over and over.  Maybe you take a break, then you do it again.  It works, so stick with what you know, right?

Although I'd been on many runs throughout my neighborhood, I hadn't identified a hill that spoke to me for such a workout.  So after an easy half mile up and down some potential suitors streets, I came upon the hill...

Ok, so the "hill" looks pretty lame in Google Street View, but I swear it is a slowly sloping hill.  It's actually two sided, so if I were feeling ambitious I might double up and run up one side, down the other and back up (yeah right). 

What I love about this hill is that it's on a dead-end residential road, so there is very little traffic.  And, since I run early enough that very few people are out, save the paper delivery and trash collection services, I have the adjoining road and hill to myself.  Or so I thought.

Mid-way through my 10 hill repeats on Monday morning, off in the distance I see someone approaching me.  Another runner, nothing unusual here, step aside, step aside.  I continued with my sprints up the hill and slow recovery jog back toward the road, and as the runner draws closer I see it's a man running along hunched over.  Although he skipped my "hill," he did get close enough for me to take notice that he's probably in his late 80's.  I continued my repeats, up and down, up and down, and I see him cross back, hunched over, but moving at a pretty good clip.  THAT was inspiring.

I set out again this morning after some punishment from Jillian, and there he was.  As lame as I felt chasing the neighborhood bunnies up and down my "hill,"  I was moved to push through.  If he can do it, I can, too.

Long time, no blog(ging)

So... I'm back from my 3+ year hiatus.  In that time I had a baby, changed jobs and went on a bunch of awesome vacations with my fantastic family.  I'm sure I'll end up with little to nothing to blog about at some point in the future, so eventually you'll hear about it all.  My life isn't that interesting, ha, ha!

After I had the baby I was really, REALLY off the fitness bandwagon because I was not allowed to exercise during my pregnancy.  In fact, I was advised to gain weight before conceiving, just to up my BMI from underweight to low-normal.  I had/have a fairly muscular build, so I didn't look extremely thin or sickly, just slender. 

I dabbled a bit after my daughter was born and I was given the all clear, mostly long walks and light jogging on our treadmill while she was napping, but I nursed her and it was generally uncomfortable for me.  In the interest of full disclosure, my boobs were huge, constantly felt squashed and I was paranoid I would lose the bounciness of my twenty year-old self if I exercised as I had previously.  I even went so far as to invest in a Moving Comfort Fiona sports bra, but I just couldn't bring myself to really get back in the swing of things until we were done nursing.

Cue March 2012.

She was well past her first birthday and was drinking cow's milk at school, but we were still nursing mornings and evenings.  I'm not sure what possessed me, but I became convinced I needed to be healthier, so I started having smoothies for dinner.  My milk supply tanked, my boobs shriveled up and (surprise, surprise), my daughter was no longer interested in nursing.  I continued the smoothie kick for a week or so until this happened, at which time I FREAKED OUT that I was irreparably damaging my daughter (first time Mom guilt) and I quit my smoothies.  It didn't help, I/we were done.

At that point I thought to myself, "something has to change."  That "something" was exercise.  Mind you, I was only 2-5 pounds heavier than I was when I became pregnant, so it was really more about toning up and building a muscle base.  As fate would have it, a few days later a Groupon caught my eye for a bootcamp-style personal training group that met at 5:30am at a gymnastics center just minutes from my house.  For $30 it promised me a meal plan and three weeks of unlimited training sessions.  "Sure!" I thought, "I went through real bootcamp, so could this really be so bad?"

Cue May 2012.

"Oh no, my Groupon expires at the end of this month and we're going on vacation soon!  How could I have waited so long...?!"

I managed to get in just under the deadline, and thus began my fitness journey with Reshape.

how to make a rabbi

Another how-to (and digression, I REALLY want to get to the wedding reception/afterparty). Today I had the privilege of attending the rabbinical ordination of a dear teacher and (hopefully!) lifelong friend. We met through the synagogue my husband and I attend, and she's been with me on this amazing journey of conversion and b'nai mitzvah. For the past five years she has been preparing for this moment, and today marked the culmination of her studies and training as she was conferred the title "rabbi."

The actual ordination process took place in a ceremony somewhat similar to a graduation, except instead of caps and gowns there were yarmulkes and tallit (and plenty of blessings). Although the service was a bit longer than I expected, it was worth every second. I suspected it might be a bit long when I inspected the service program...


Not only were HUC (Hebrew Union College) rabbinical students ordained, but the cantorial students also received their investiture. And, I would like to point out, that the cantorial students also spend a good amount of time in study, sometimes just as long as a rabbinical student.

Each student had a paragraph blurb about their pre-HUC studies and work (one woman had been a social worker since the 70's!), a few sentences about the many and varied Jewish organizations and congregations they interned with during their period of study, and sometimes a bit about their family (hi Mom! just kidding, they were all serious). Each students' bio was remarkable - an Air Force chaplain, a thirteenth (or fourteenth?) generation rabbi and a few almost-rabbis who were married, or soon to be married, to other rabbis.

Since my first shout out went to the new Rabbi G., my next shout out goes to Temple Emanu-El of Manhattan. Never have I been in such a space that felt so "Jewishly" sacred. I think I am somewhat swayed by my Christian background, and the fact that I haven't made aliyah to Israel, but MAN this place is gorgeous.

Here's the rose window that faces Central Park.
This place literally felt 5-6 stories tall.

More stained glass windows. My favorite had a unicorn...didn't get a picture of it.



The ceiling was also gorgeous. The wooden rafters were carved and painted. Simply incredible.

You get a sneak peek of the bimah above. The pillars are alternating colors of marble and the surrounding arches were inlaid tile mosaic. A choir sat in the black area behind the pillars. Their voices literally came out of nowhere and filled the entire synagogue, which BTW, was HUGE. This place can easily fit 500+.

During the actual ordination, the President of the College said a blessing over each new rabbi in front of the open ark of Torah scrolls. In special circumstances where the students had a relation to a rabbi or cantor, that family member came up to say another blessing. What was both good and bad about this portion of the service was that the audience cannot hear what's being said, which, again, is both good and bad. We could see there were lots of tears.

Here is the new Rabbi G. (the IInd!) receiving a blessing from Rabbi G. (the Ist).

And here are the 22 rabbis and 9 cantors.

I actually cheated - this picture was taken at the beginning of the service.

So, mazel tov to Rabbi G.! You've worked so long for this moment - savor it and never forget.

how to say 'i do' in spanish

I know it's been painful, dear reader, but my journey now brings us to the wedding ceremony (finally). As we learned earlier in the day, the ceremony would be entirely in Spanish. We weren't too concerned, as the wedding is truly about the bride and groom, and we were sure we could follow along. However, turns out this was a problem for the groom - he had no idea how to say "I do" in Spanish. Everyone thought this was hilarious, I mean, this guy grew up speaking Spanish exclusively at home and among his friends. As he would explain, though, he knew how to say "I do," but he wasn't sure how to say it appropriately in the context of the ceremony.

As is customary with most weddings, the invites and the couple's wedding website were very clear about the schedule, "ceremony starts at 5:30pm sharp." Well, that certainly wasn't the case as the husband rushed me along and we arrived a bit late to find we were the only ones. I mean, the coordinator wasn't even present! So much for being punctual.

We didn't have to hang around too long before our friends showed up. As we chatted one of them casually mentioned that they didn't think the wedding would start for awhile, not due to the lack of coordinator, but due to the fact that (as they pointed out from where we were standing), the groom and his bridal party were hanging out in undershirts on their balcony. Oy...

Eventually the coordinator made an appearance along with these guys who entertained us until the wedding started - SO awesome.

They brought some dancers too.

The ceremony started about 20 minutes later. Remember the all-Spanish ceremony? Well, it wasn't really a problem for us guests because we couldn't hear anything. Everyone was mic-d up, but there was an uninvited guest that made a big showing, THE WIND. I kid you not, it was CRAZY WINDY.

You can't really tell in the picture below, but one of the bridesmaids is holding the bride's veil to the ground (out of the picture, I try not to take unflattering photos as I would wish the same for pictures of me).

Here's a view of the ocean during the ceremony. See the palm tree and white caps on the water? Told you it was windy.

As the ceremony ended we were in for another treat. The band kicked up again and the dancers lined the walkway with sparklers.

It was really neat and the perfect segue into the awesome party that would follow.

And the "I do"? Not a problem, I'm pretty sure they're married. : )

how does your garden grow

It's really cold here. Not too cold for my little seedlings which I hope will give me delicious pumpkins, tomatoes and squash. Last year's garden was a failure. This is about all we got out of it -

One measly deformed pepper.

Ok, we actually got about six small eggplants, one jalapeno and a measly deformed pepper, but that's about it. Grow little seedings, I have high hopes for you!

Back in Cartagena

Since a happy husband means a happy life, I gave in to the husband and chatted up the reception at the "wedding" hotel. Turns out they had some rooms available for the night of the wedding, so we decided to make a switch in the afternoon before the ceremony. What was nice, too, was that they would be willing to honor the block rate negotiated by the bride and groom. What was not nice was the price, which runs about $300-350 for the base-level room. A happy husband means a happy life. I kept repeating this in my head, also when I opened my credit card bill, and also when I paid said bill. Yuck. It was only one night, and in a way we looked at it as our anniversary celebration since it was close enough to our actual anniversary.

So, without further ado, I give you the Sofitel Santa Clara.

Story goes that the hotel was used as a convent back in the day. Considering it was built sometime after 1620, I'm sure it's had many transformations since then. It definitely has some great details.

The hotel is one square block, with the original structure surrounding an open courtyard and fountain. Not the best picture of the courtyard, but you get an idea.

The new portion of the hotel is built within the pre-existing walls. Our room was on the 2nd floor and over looked the pool. That and some plush bathrobes = BEST EVAR.

The original walls are on the right with the walkway and rooms on the left.

The view from our room to the balcony/pool.

And for ultimate awesomeness, if the impeccable service doesn't win you over (seriously, the service was grade-A prime, but what else would I expect from a Sofitel), they had in-house TOUCANS!

I give you Lucas. There were three or four toucans total, but I think Lucas was the most feisty. The picture below captures him after he bit an unsuspecting passerby. I think Lucas is pretty proud of himself.

And yes, he TALKS. Nice distraction from the price I'm paying to stay there.

Tim Burton and...naked people?

We went to MOMA yesterday to see the Tim Burton exhibit before it closes on Tuesday.

Our friend generously lent us his membership passes (which we bought for his birthday a few months back, perhaps this was planned in anticipation of the Tim Burton exhibit? I'll let you be the judge). The passes were awesome; the husband said he felt like a star, "I just flash my pass and I'm in - no waiting with the rest of these peons!" Even better, we didn't need timed tickets to the Burton exhibition because members can get in anytime. Even, even better, the museum was open until 8:45pm, so we took our sweet time running errands and taking care of business before heading to the city. This was a great thing because there were no timed tickets to be had.

The exhibition was a bit different than I expected, mostly the layout. The gallery was really small for the amount of artwork, props and costumes from Burton's movies, making everything feel crowded together. With so many people jammed in to the space, this certainly didn't help. Perhaps this was intentional, but it did not appeal to me.

Here was one of my favorites...yes, pictures were not allowed, but everyone else was doing it, and I didn't use flash -

They also had a huge Tim Burton blowup in the gallery entrance/atrium.

Rising Currents: Projects for the New York Waterfront was the most interesting and probably my favorite exhibit of the visit. We questioned going in, but it was really enjoyable and had some cool models.

A shifting light overlay of tidal patterns -

Of course, we hit up the rest of the galleries. As I later put it "The modern gallery was my favorite."

Modern furniture and textiles was disappointing because there wasn't enough for me. I guess I can go to the Cooper-Hewitt for these things.

Let's play 'Spot the Calder mobile' -

A performance art exhibit was also going on, Maria Abramovic's The Artist is Present. She was sitting at a table in the upper level of the atrium with an empty chair opposite. Visitors were allowed to walk into the space to sit and face her. There was a twenty-something girl having some sort of staring contest with her as we arrived. Two seconds after our arrival the performance was over, everyone clapped, and she got up to leave. The actual exhibition has been quite controversial - see this Times article. We missed the naked portion of the exhibit because we arrived too late. Oh well, no interesting stories or photos from that.

Until next time, I'll be watching -

they call the wind mariah

The pirate ship was awesome, but soon enough we were back on land. As I said, we had interpreted the invitation to mean there would be some sort of dinner served, but we discovered that pirates only serve alcoholic beverages. There was a small buffet that consisted of: sliced bread, salami, meatballs, chicken skewers and omelette (no, not mini quiches, like a buffet tray of scrambled egg). By the time we had caught up with our friends and gotten around to the food, there were only a few servings left. So, when we returned to the dock, His friend Gumby (yes, that's what they call him) raved about Cafe del Mar for drinks, food and general partying.

This place is actually on top of a rampart on the fortified wall of the old city. Check it out -

The DJ booth was built into the rampart outpost.

Here's a canon with the ocean in the background.
It was seriously pitch black up there with all the tables, DJ, etc.

Not only was it pitch black, but it was loud and WINDY. I couldn't hear anyone and things were literally flying everywhere. We stayed about 45 minutes, but we didn't end up eating because the service wasn't great (see the aforelinked Tripadvisor review, I believe someone mentions the lack of attentive waitstaff). As we were settling the tab, His friend Snoopy - I kid you not, Gumby and Snoopy - lost the equivalent of $20-50 ripped out of his hands by the wind. I chased down the bill and rescued it to much applause. I really can't stress how windy it was.

After a quick cab ride back it was the morning of the wedding. Breakfast at Hotel Zaguan was complimentary, and we enjoyed a tasty meal of coffee, fresh orangey-pineapple-whoknowswhat juice, bread, preserves, fresh papaya and watermelon, and scrambled egg with chunky salsa. The husband said this was the only thing he liked about the hotel, food - go figure.

Oops, this was all I got...

It was probably 9am or so, so we set out to do some exploring. And now I will subject you to the digital-age version of the vacation pictures slide-show.

This is called Las Bovedas

Back in the day it served as a prison, but has been converted to multiple shops that sell overpriced junk like t-shirts, ponchos and knick-knacks. There were a few nice things, but nothing I was particularly interested in purchasing. Except some fake Oakleys and a bottle of water...they got me. As you can see, we were "fortunate" to be sharing our sight-seeing adventure with several boatloads of cruise ship passengers.

Some nice Spanish colonial architecture.

There were new plazas around every corner.
Can't find my map to tell you who this is...

This is the interior of THE Cathedral.

A lesser cathedral. The couple in white at the altar were getting married.

And...
I like my chicken broasted. Alas I did not get a chance to try it.

Never judge a book

So, back to our hotel...

It looked pretty spiffy. But, as you might have noticed, I have not supplied a picture of the room. That's because it was literally a bed with a sheet on it, an ancient mini fridge, a patio chair and an old-school tv on a rickety table. I think there was a tv mounted to the wall at some point, but it fell off. Oh yeah, and the door to the room was of the same construction as the door to the closet in the room - it had a teensy lock that really served no purpose other than to keep the door closed. I say door, but what I really mean is screen/room divider. The saving grace was a/c, at least it had that. It wasn't on yet, so it was painfully hot and humid in the room. The husband was not impressed or amused. I don't think it helped that I hadn't stopped giggling at the situation (come on, this NEVER happens to us!) and his annoyance.

Personally, I could care less about the hotel. It was clean and relatively cheap given the circumstances. I'm really only bringing this up because the hotel isn't on Tripadvisor, so I couldn't write a review.

On a sidenote, the husband is crazy about reviews. Case in point, about three years ago he says "we need a fan." Ok, I have an Amazon.com credit of $25, so I pick out a fan within my $25 budget. I mean, it's free, so whatever. Fan comes, we turn it on, it works, we're good. Nay, we are not good. I am still berated to this day for not vetting my fan purchase. So the fan isn't great, but it works, it circulates air. BTW, here's the fan. And BTW, it does suck.

Back in reality, we had about two seconds to change - somehow the husband managed to get in a shower, which he complained about endlessly - then we trekked over to the "wedding" hotel to make our way with the rest of the group to the rehearsal dinner. There was no actual rehearsal (similar to our wedding), so it was really just a pre-party.

Here's where the "dinner" took place -

Nice...

Can you see where this is going?

...a galleon ship.

We had interpreted the invitation wording "rehearsal dinner" and "cruise" as "fancy schmancy hors d'oeuvres" and "yacht." We were both SUPER excited when we found out that the Phantom took it to the next level.

Pirates.

This pirate was in a bit of a hurry, but you get the idea.

TOTALLY unexpected, but really fun. And we got some great views of the newer areas of the city (we stayed in the "old city," which means within the fortified walls, the "new city" is a bunch of beach-front resorts, high rise hotels and offices).

I'm really proud of this picture, thank you trusty Canon Powershot, mostly because I took it in the pitch black on an unstable galleon ship.

At this point we had been in Cartagena for, oh, 5 hours. I love vacation.

P.S. Happy birthday to my husband.

We laugh together...

(is that guy flying in a beach chair?! He seriously had a fan propeller strapped to the back of it)

and laugh (cue seagull eating rotten fish head)...

...and laugh.

Yes, that is mule dung and a mule peeing. I'm glad we weren't the only ones who saw the humor in the situation.

I love you! : )