06.14.13
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Some Housecleaning

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Picture of the Bean and the sky taken two years ago in Chicago in Millenium Park.

It was time to change to look of the blog. Overdue, really. The monochrome design had outlived its Sell-By date. This new theme is called Newsworthy.

There has also been some literal housecleaning around our home. My wife and I (with a big assist from my father) have painted several rooms in the house. This is in preparation for renting it out while we are in Istanbul.

This home improvement work has kept me busy. Plus, the kids are out of school for the summer. They need attention and stimulation and structure.

But now that the big home improvement stuff is done, I’ll have a little more time to finish a few posts about our trip to Cancun and some minor mishaps since returning.

So I promise to post a bit more often. Though as many of you know, I only post when I’ve got something to say. I dislike posting for the sake of posting. It feels like a chore. Blogging is something I do for fun. I have enough work offline to do. ;)

Have a great weekend!

06.10.13
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Running Is a Pain

There are times when running sucks. Those are the times when you’re running in pain or can’t run because you’re in pain. I’m in one of those periods right now.

The tendonitis in my left ankle I suffered from in the Fall has come back. The ankle pain started making my left calf muscle hurt during runs. The “soreness” in my right heel I’ve been trying to massage away has refused to go away.

I’ve iced. I’ve taken Ibuprofen. I’ve stretched. I’ve exercised. The pains my feet refuse to yield.

The frustrating thing about this is that I thought by now I’d be able to keep increasing my weekly mileage. Last week I ran 15 total miles in three runs. Only one run was pain-free. (In the future, I plan to break up my runs over four days. I’m wondering if that’s part of the problem.)

I’ve been running for well over a year and a half now. But there has been time off for a pulled groin muscle that took nearly four months to heal, then two and a half months off for the tendonitis in the ankle. Now more time off for what is clearly plantar fasciitis and more tendonitis.

Awhile back I signed up to run a 5K which takes place in less than two weeks. I think I might be able to run it slowly, if that. Truth is I might not be able to run it all. I have my heart set on the 15K that’s part of the Istanbul Marathon in November. It would be cool to run on the Boshporus Bridge. I don’t know when that opportunity will be available again.

In my short time as a runner I’ve come to realize that if you’re going to run, you’re going to get injured. If you want to keep running, you have to stop running to let the injuries heal.

It’s enough to make you wonder why you should even bother lacing up the shoes. Oddly, it’s heartening to see that so many (all) runners deal with injuries at some point. This goes for elites on down to us mere mortals. Desi Davila had to withdraw from the Olympic marathon in London and this year’s Boston Marathon. Ryan Hall has had to withdraw from several marathons because of injuries in the past year. The list goes on.

Put me in the Injured Runner category now. I’ll stop running for the short-term because I want to run across the Bosphorus in November.

06.03.13
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Since We’re Already on the Boat…

I had it in my head that we would take the ferry to La Isla Mujeres, rent bicycles, ride around the scenic island to a park, rent snorkel gear, and then snorkel along a reef.

Where I got this idyllic illusion I do not know. My wife would like to know. As far as I can tell you can’t just go and snorkel, unless you have your own boat.

My wife Stephanie and I took the public bus (8.5 pesos/per person or 1$ per person) from our hotel to Playa Tortugas and caught a ferry (17$/person roundtrip) to La Isla Mujeres.

This man stood on the top of the ferry, played guitar, and sang. He set out a cup for tips. We figured anyone who could play guitar and sing without losing their footing on the rocking, bumpy ferry ride deserved a few bucks.

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The ride gave us an opportunity to look over the waters with their many shades of blue.

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You could easily wile away an afternoon attempting to count and name each of the many shades of blue that the waters near Cancun display depending on the time of day and the cloud cover. There’s navy, powder blue, opal, azure, turquoise, cobalt….

At the ferry terminal on La Isla Mujeres, we waved off the tour hawkers and walked across the street to a bike rental shop. Told of our plan, the proprietor of the shop said we would need to hire a tour boat to snorkel, that we couldn’t ride our bikes somewhere on the island, rent snorkel gear, and go snorkeling.

So we returned to the ferry terminal where there were still plenty of tour operators offering snorkeling tours. We booked what we thought was a short excursion of two hours, with no lunch. We wanted to make it back to our resort in time to eat a late lunch or early dinner snack at the ceviche bar.

We were told to wait there at the terminal, that the boat was leaving at 11 o’clock. My wife looked for a place to change into her swimsuit. I had worn a white polo with my long red swim trunks. Many people on the ferry to the island were wearing their swimsuits.

I bought a few granola bars at a small snack shop in the terminal, just in case I needed them, and waited for my wife. Stephanie returned saying she couldn’t find a bathroom in which to change.

We saw a group of people get up and leave toward one of the piers. We waited. We looked at the time. It was 11 o’clock. We were wondering why no one had come to get us. So we asked at the desk where we had booked the tour. They said our boat was pulling away from the dock. We should be on it.

The tour people waved down the boat and the boat returned to the dock. We were able to get on the boat.

There were four American tourists, a pair of women who were friends and a young hetero couple, all from Connecticut. The crew consisted of Diego, the Pilot, and the Assistant. We introduced ourselves to the other tourists. The boat left the dock.

Diego spoke English and explained everything about the tour. The trip was going to last four hours and there was lunch. My wife and I were like, well, we’re already on the boat….

Stephanie went into the storage compartment and changed into her suit. Diego told us we could not put on sunscreen unless it was biodegradable because we were going to be swimming in protected areas. No sunscreen under the Cancun sun would eventually have the expected result.

One woman, was what you might call “water resistant.” The Water Resister had never been snorkeling before and wasn’t much into swimming. She had agreed to try snorkeling the night before with her friend, after having drunk several tequilas. Diego pulled her along while she held onto a life preserver. Diego would shout to us and point at something, and the Water Resister would dip her head into the water to see what the rest of us were seeing.

We snorkeled near some small reefs, seeing many different kinds of colorful fish, including Angelfish, barracudas (not the dangerous kind), and even a small squid. The current was strong and pushed us along. Swimming against it even with fins was hard.

We all climbed back into the boat and took off our snorkeling gear. The water Resister wanted to be let off the boat. Diego said he could drop her off at the restaurant where we would meet later for lunch. It was located on the beach between our first snorkeling stop and our second one. The boat crew were kind enough to stop at the long wooden pier and drop her off.

My wife Stephanie gets motion-sick very easily. We were on a boat. The waters were a bit choppy. Diego warned everyone that at the second stop the waters would be even more choppy. Stephanie asked to be let off so she wouldn’t thrown up. So she joined the Water Resister on the dock.

They were followed by the wife of the young couple who found that she, too, was getting motion-sick.

The three of them walked toward the restaurant where they sat and ordered drinks. This left me, the young husband, and the other woman. We sat on the prow of the boat. As the boat headed to the Underwater Art Museum and the waters became very choppy, I remarked to them that it was a good thing my wife got off the boat because I was sure she would have ended up puking. The woman was laying on her back, getting some sun. After a few hard bumps, she made me and the young man promise to dive in to get her if she was bounced from the boat.

The Underwater Art Museum near Manchones Reef was located in much choppier waters. We didn’t see the whole museum. We only saw the installation “Silent Evolution.” I wanted to get a closer view of the sculptures but the life jacket around my waist didn’t allow me to swim down.

I’m still not sure why we didn’t see the other sculptures. (Choppy water?) I’m still not sure why our tour was longer than two hours and included lunch, either. If we had to do it over again, we would have just taken a taxi from the Ferry terminal and gone to Garrafon Reef. I’m pretty sure this is where I got my idyllic vision of bike riding and snorkeling. Maybe next time.

We rode back to the dock where the women had been dropped off. We ordered drinks at the restaurant where my wife and the other two women were all sitting comfortably in the shade. Diego and the other two crew members went off to get lunch prepared. At this point my wife and I were concerned we would miss the 3:30 ferry back to Cancun. We said goodbye to the others, thanked Diego, explained we needed to get back to the ferry terminal, and went out front of the restaurant to catch a taxi.

On the narrow two-lane street there was no traffic. Stephanie and I weren’t sure we were going to be able to hail a taxi because there was so little traffic. Yet, within five minutes an empty taxi pulled up. We told the driver we wanted to return to downtown. He drove us right to the entrance to the ferry terminal; a dramaless taxi ride.

We caught the ferry back to the mainland, took the bus back to the hotel and headed straight to the Sea Corner restaurant at the resort where they served seafood tacos and ceviche. An iguana joined us.

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We did not share our ceviche with him or her.

05.28.13
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To Chichen Itza and Back – Part Two

After walking around the sun-drenched ruins at Chichen Itza, our tour group ate lunch at a restaurant outside the park. Lunch was a buffet of fresh fruit, tamales, rice, beans, chicken, and one of my favorite Mexican dishes, cochinita pibil. The latter is the Yucatecan version of slow-cooked, shredded pork. It is delicious even when it is not the best version of itself.

Once our stomachs were full, we shopped for souvenirs at a bazaar of Mexican-made items. The line at the register was long and because of that Stephanie and I were the last ones on the bus; a few minutes after our scheduled three o’clock departure time. Yes, we got razzed by Carlos for being late.

Then it was a short bus ride to the Ik-Kil Cenote. What’s a “cenote?” A sinkhole filled with groundwater. There are hundreds of them throughout the Yucatan peninsula. These natural wonders provided fresh water for the Maya.

The Ik-Kil Cenote is round, a seemingly perfect circle, located over 80 feet below the ground. The top is surrounded by thick vegetation, the hung over the hole.

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After waiting in line to rent a storage locker, you change into your bathing suit, put your clothes and personal belongings in the locker, shower, then walk down the slippery stone steps to the water. There is no elevator, so climbing down (and back up) is only for the most able-bodied.

We were warned that the water was very cold. There is a set of ladders for climbing into the water and a set of ladders for climbing out of the water, I opted to not climb in. I thought, if it’s cold, then I might as well jump in. I chose the second highest point and jumped in.

Here I am leaping off the platform into the water.

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It was cold but not freezing cold. After several hours in the Yucatan heat, it felt refreshing and invigorating to swim and tread in the clear water.

You could see all the fish swimming below you. You could try to reach out and touch them, but they would swim away just as you moved your hand.

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The view from the water up at the sky is stunning.

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Stephanie and I swam a bit. Then we got out and went up to the platforms and leaped off at the same time. We were so excited to be jumping into and swimming in that crisp, cool water, underground. We swam away from where most of the other people were congregating near the ladders, and towards the center of the sinkhole. We kissed in the water, relishing the long moment of exhilaration.

I really didn’t want to leave the water. Can you tell?

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This not-wanting-to-leave also made us, once again, the last people on the bus. I changed in the men’s locker room and waited outside the women’s locker room for my wife. I waited. And waited some more. Looking at my phone, seeing that it was getting closer to 4pm (the time Carlos told us all that the bus was leaving to return to Cancun) and then 4pm, wondering what was taking my wife so long.

Turns out my wife and had changed into her clothes and gone straight to the bus. She came back to get me after realizing I was probably waiting for her.

We arrived at the bus a few minutes after four. With a smile, Carlos said, “You guys are always last!”

To float in that water for just one more minute….

05.23.13
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To Chichen Itza and Back – Part One

Two of the things my wife Stephanie and I wanted to do on our recent trip to Cancun, Mexico was to see the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza and swim in a cenote. We managed to accomplish both in one day.

Carlos the tour guide insisted that our day-long bus trip from Cancun to Chichen Itza, to a Cenote, through Valladolid, and back to Cancun was not going to be run on “Mexican Time.” This was the Tour of Definite Stops at a Definite Time, unlike a previous day-long tour in another country….He stated that if he told us a time to be back on the bus, we had to be back on the bus by that time because taxis from Chichen Itza to Cancun were very expensive.

My wife and I were picked up from our hotel at 7:30 on Sunday morning in a small shuttle bus and dropped off at a collection point where we boarded a full-sized tourist bus.

While the bus was driven on a highway cut through flat savannah of low trees on white and light gray, rocky soil, another of the guides, Tony, gave us all a lecture on Mayan history. He told us, in both English and Spanish, about the rise and fall of the Mayan civilization, the locations of their settlements (in what is now El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize and Mexico), their numbering system, their pictographic alphabet, the accuracy of their calendar, and their amazing feats of engineering, and how they merged with the Toltecs around 1000 AD.

Tony also told us how 300 years ago a zealous Spanish missionary burned nearly every Mayan book/codex that the Conquistadors could find. “Burn first, ask questions centuries later” is a fantastic way to set a monumental standard for ignorance and fear. Four of these Mayan books remain. Three reside in Europe. Only one resides in Mexico.

A dozen or so people sitting in the back of the bus slept through the entire ride and all of the lecture. Clearly, they were catching up on the sleep they lost the night before, maybe because they were out at a club or seeing a “show and disco” like Coco Bongo. Tony called them the “Sleeping Beauties.” For the record, most of the sleeping tourists were female and younger than 35.

At the end of his’s lecture, when we were approaching the entrance to Chichen Itza, Tony told a story. It went like this:

“When my daughter was little and had trouble sleeping, I would go into her room and ask her what was wrong. She would say that she couldn’t sleep. I would ask her what I could do to help her sleep, and she would say, ‘Daddy, tell me about Mayans.’”

Inside the park, Tony led us English speakers on a tour through the grounds. It was hot and the sun stung hard, so we made sure we drank water and wore sunscreen, and stood in the shade of the trees whenever possible.

One thing to keep in mind while looking at these pictures is that the Mayans built all of these structures without metal tools of any kind or the use of wheels of any kind.

Here’s the Kukulkan Pyramid, aka “El Castillo.”

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During both the Spring and Fall equinoxes a shadow falls on the side of the steps of the pyramid in the shape of a snake. This is not an accident. “Kukulkan” means “feathered serpent.” There are 365 steps on the pyramid: 91 on each of the four sides with one at the top for the temple. The Mayans devised a 365 day yearly calendar and were able to predict eclipses.

While we were getting a closer look at the pyramid, I took a picture of the Thousand Columns nearby.

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Notice the guy in the foreground. He was doing yoga, pulling off all kinds of intense, pretzel-like poses with smooth precision. My wife, who also does yoga, was amazed at his ability. She said that there are many yoga practitioners who like to do yoga on sacred grounds like those at Chichen Itza. Here’s Stephanie doing tree pose in front of the pyramid.

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Note: People are no longer allowed to climb on the structures. The thousands who came to see the structures and walked on them were damaging the structures over time. Tony also told us that he had seen four people fall from the pyramid while climbing up the steps and that three of them had died.

We also saw the Ball Court. Teams of seven would play against each other using every part of their bodies (with the exception of hands) to hit a rubber ball through a stone hole.

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The hole is pretty high up the side of the court.

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Contrary to popular belief, the losers were not killed. The captain of the winning team was sacrificed to their gods. Why? Because if you’re going to sacrifice someone to your gods, you don’t sacrifice your worst players. You offer someone worthy of the gods’ respect. At least, that was the logic.

When I saw this, I turned to my wife and whispered, “I see dead people.”

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The Wall of Skulls was where the heads of sacrificial victims were put. Apparently, in the 1800s the French blew up one of these skull platforms with dynamite, looking for gold. They didn’t find any gold. But they made a lot of rubble.

In between many areas of the site were places selling T-shirts, skirts, and all kinds of artisanal “Mexican” and “Mayan” objects. What caught my eye was this:

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Mayan chess sets. I didn’t see anyone buy one.

The Astronomical Observatory was built for observing the movements of the stars. Inside is a spiral staircase leading to the top.

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After this walking history lesson, I was hungry. Conveniently, there was a small snack shop set in the shade, away from the observatory.

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They didn’t have the Dove-bar type ice cream I am pointing to in the picture above, so I ate a four-dollar ice cream sandwich instead. (I could have bought a whole box of them for that price at the local Kroger here in Michigan, but there, under the Yucatan sun, I paid the Archeological Site Premium Price.) I ate it quickly and then we all walked back to the bus to head to the restaurant for lunch.

05.15.13
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Our Next Big Adventure (Plus an Indulgence)

This is the Sulemaniye Mosque as seen from Istanbul University.

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Three years ago my wife and son visited Istanbul, staying with friends we met when we were living in L.A. It was part fun, part work. My wife even set up a blog to document the fun of their trip: Henry in Turkey.

The work part has finally paid off: she has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship. She will be teaching at Istanbul University and doing research on sex-trafficking. It’s a phenomenal opportunity for her and for us as a family.

This means we are moving to Istanbul at the end of the summer. We will be there until May or June of 2014. The kids took it well. They felt better once we assured them that: 1) we would be living in an apartment and not a hotel (like in China last summer) and 2) that they would be attending a school with other kids who spoke English.

What am I going to do? Write and blog, of course. There is also the possibility of me working. I’ll be allowed to apply for a work permit.

Before we go, we have to fix a few things in the house in order to rent it out, get our visas, find a school for the kids, find a place to live, buy our plane tickets, pack, etc., etc., etc…thousands of things big and small. Oh, and learn to speak and read Turkish!

But before we get down to business with all of that, my wife and I are indulging ourselves and taking a vacation to Cancun, Mexico. Just us. My in-laws have agreed to watch the kids while we are away. It will be the first vacation we’ve taken without the kids since before the birth of our son.

We’re going to spend several days luxuriating in being languid under the sun, eating good food, seeing Chichen Itza, and snorkeling off La Isla Mujeres. Ahhhh.

04.27.13
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New Shoes and a Race for the Place 5K

Since I’d put over 300 miles on my pair of New Balance shoes it was time for a new pair. I drove over to Playmakers and went into the store and was greeted by two salesmen. I held up my well-worn New Balance Minimus shoes and said, “I want something with more cushioning than these.”

They both chuckled. One said just about everything has more cushioning than those.

I talked with one of the salesmen for a bit about my running, any issues/injuries I had. I told him about the tendinitis I had in the Fall and how my heel was starting to feel tight at times. He told me he wasn’t going to call it the dreaded “plantar fasciitis,” but he gave me a few ideas for dealing with the tightness. He examined my Minimus shoes and asked me how I liked them. I told him I was agnostic about minimalism. He looked at my feet, had me balance on each foot, measured my feet, and then brought out several different pairs of shoes.

After trying on a few pairs, including some Asics, I chose the Saucony Kinvara 3s. They felt the best. I’ve done several runs in them and they feel great. My feet feel more comfortable.

I think the Minimus were good for me to help me to start and stick with Good Form Running. But I felt more discomfort in my feet as my runs got longer. I’m not someone who ran cross country or track in high school. So I’ve learned how to run as an adult. I find this to be a big difference when it comes to seeking advice on running. Most runners take it up as an adult as a way to improve their health (like me) or to cross a Marathon off their Bucket List. But if you did it in high school, then you already know about form, choosing shoes, the types of workouts you need to do, and how to deal with injuries, etc.

About two weeks ago (the weekend before the Lansing Marathon), I wore my Kinvaras when I ran the Race for the Place 5K. The race raises money for a very important local organization: MSU Safe Place, “a program that addresses relationship violence and stalking.”

This was only my second race. It was cold, around 35 degrees Fahrenheit. While I was standing with the other runners, waiting to start the race, snow was falling. A couple of us looked up and wondered aloud what the hell we were thinking. One guy remarked that I was wearing shorts. I told him it was Spring dammit.

Then we took off.

I had a great run, setting a PR. Woo-hoo! 21:51.

More importantly, my eight-year-old son ran his first race ever: the Kids Mile. He had a blast. I was so happy for him. In the weeks before he went on a short runs, one with me and one with my wife. He really got into the idea of training for the race.

My sister was in-town with her family for that weekend. They cheered on both Henry and me. She’s been running much longer than me. Shortly after I bought the Kinvara 3s, I saw that they were on sale pretty much everywhere. I asked her what I should do. She said to buy an extra pair, that she often buys an extra pair of her favorite running shoes. The day after the race that’s what I did.

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From left to right: old pair of Minimus, new pair of Kinvara 3s from Playmakers, extra pair of Kinvara 3s from Zappos.

When I showed my wife the pair I bought from Zappos she asked, “Can you change the laces?”

“Yeah. But I’m not going to. I like them.”

“O-kay. They’re your shoes….”

One thing about running is that it’s a bit like golf in the fashion department; your shoes are a license to be ridiculous. Besides, when you’re running through the neighborhood, day or especially night, there is no value in not being seen.