8 x 8 Petra and Jordan

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8 x 8 Nazareth and Galilee

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8 x 8 Dead Sea Jericho and Ramalla

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8 x 8 Bethlehem and Jerusalem

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Muddy Buddy June 6, 2010

Muddy Buddy was a blast!! It was the first time Cindi and I have done it.
Hani and I showed up at Cindi's house at 5:45 am, and to my surprise Cindi's cousins were all making costumes for us. We were going to be the teenage mutant ninja turtles.



The race started with a person biking, and a person running, and along the way there were many obstacles to go through.





One of which was the mud pit...these were Cindi's cousin's coming through!




Cindi had an "infection" on her leg so she said she could not go through the mud pit...




What a blast...and Cindi and I even podiumed, and got third place!!!

Central Coast Sprint Race Report May 16, 2010

Central Coast Adventure Race
Sunday May 16, 2010 my sister, Chrys Hawk, and I signed up for the Central Coast Adventure race in San Luis Obispo, Ca. Yishai Horowitz was the race organizer and he is known for putting on great races. The format of the race was, well, you do not really know until the morning of the race. So Sunday morning we get to the race and receive the race maps.


The first leg of the race was a kayak section. Choose three out of the five checkpoints. Some points were farther away than others so it was crucial that you choose the right points. I used a ruler to determine the shortest distance. Next we determined the direction of the wind, so we did not have to fight the wind on the way back, and whala... made a decision. Shortly after this the race was about to begin, so we grabbed a couple of life vests, and lined up at the race start.



We ran around the parking lot, and then jumped into the 'sit on top' kayak. We were third place, in the direction that we were going. Many other kayakers went off in the other direction. There were quite a few going our way too, so I felt good about that. We had the check point in site (ok, we actually just followed the two kayaks in front of us), and got to the first check point.




The first place kayak overshot the second checkpoint but I knew right away that they overshot the checkpoint and shot straight for the flag along with another set of speedy gals in front of us. When we got back to shore, we were fifth out of the water.
Out of the kayaks, there was a 'special challange' in which you had to fill up a tube with holes in it and get the ping pong ball out of the top of the tube. This was very tedious and my sister ended up getting multiple waves of water dumped into her face and body, trying to fill up the tube.
We finally got the ball to the top and started off on the bikes.




Chrys' derailer kept acting up, and I was suprised that it did not snap off!! We had to keep her bike in low gears, but we managed to get to the crazy steep first ascent of the bike. I say ascent because the hill was insane. Most everyone walked. Chrys had the heaviest bike in the world and it took two of us to push it up the hill. We got up to the bike checkpoint. Some guy at the top snapped his chain. I offered a chain tool, but he did not know how to use it, and I was not about to give a chain fixing clinic in the middle of a race. So the best advice I could give him was 'it's all downhill from here, just coast it down'.




Chrys and I bombed down the hill, passing some that kicked our ass on the hill climb...sucka!!
When we got to the second leg of the bike, the hills for Chrys were getting a bit tiring (with a 50 lb bike, that thing was a tank), but we kept on pedaling. We were back and forth with another pair of women, one of which was having bike trouble. I passed her in the grass because she would not pull over. Chrys attempted to pass her, and she ended up falling head first off a sleep ledge into a bushal of poison oak. A couple of girls following us, were super nice and pulled over to help her out of the bush. Thanks Gals!! Fortunately, Chrys was not hurt, and we finished off the bike without any other drama.



The trek was amazing. We spent a bunch of time trying to follow the pink tags, littered among the bushes as we ducked and crawled through shrubs. A few mens teams were lost and headed in the wrong direction (or just cheating), and other teams asked us if we knew where we were going. Looking at the map, I inclined to say, that we were still going in the right direction, and others followed us too.



We were right. We made it to the lake were someone had to swim across the stinky pond to get the the check point. Fortunately, Chrys was covered in poison oak, and she used it as a great opportunity to was off.





The last leg of the trek, we were climbing down rocks with stratigically places ropes, jumping into thigh deep pools of water, and swimming one more time in a river (unexpectedly).






Chrys was fatiguing, and her gracilis muscle (inner thigh muscle), started spasming, and we had to stop a few times to massage them out. Chrys was unsure if her legs were going to hold her up, but they did, and we ended up finding the road back to the finish!!!
And just when we thought we were done, we had to climb up and over a ropes section. I was glad that I did not fall off at the top....and finally the Vanderkittens finished!!!



What a great adventure!!

The nephews

I have to say that it is so much fun watching my nephews grow up. Tamer loves it when I give him funny faces and it makes him laugh and laugh...it is so cute. He runs to me and holds my leg, and likes it when I play the "dropping" game with him...and he's got these cute little curls that I love. Jordan loves to play on my iphone and every time I come over the first thing he asks me is "Can I use your iphone?" He is only 4 years old but he can already navigate the applications and find the games that he wants. Jordan also loves to sing songs, and has an amazing memory. Rami is quitet the athlete and he is my little buddy. We'll sit and chat about TV, play cards, and make up games to play together. He loves to talk about sports and he is only seven. He also loves to read, especially the book series "The diary of a Wimpy Kid." He also started reading a Harry Potter book that is over 1000 pages!!

Washinton's Birthday Weekend (2)

Finally recovered from my illness, I was able to ride with Hani again this weekend. We started out at Burgess pool and went up foothill until it turned into Steven's Creek Reservoir. It dead ends in the Santa Cruz mountain and turns into a mountain bike path, as I saw plenty of bikers going to and from the trail. The sheeper group was on a time schedule so I made it to the sandbags (lots of flooding this year due to el nino), by 10:30 (1:20 minutes into the ride) and turned around to meet the group. We practiced descending today... Hani taught the group that when descending a hill, it is not like a motorcycle. You keep your body upright on the bike and push the bike into the turns.

Washinton's Birthday Weekend

This weekend we have had unexpected bad news. Hani's uncle passed away....My in-laws visited Isreal and Jordan for the past five months. They had been back for less than a month when they heard the news. He passed away in his sleep from a heart attack. Family rushed to my in-laws house in San Francisco to be with them, even postponing a skiing trip. At one point more than twenty people were in the house. Hani pulled out an old album and shared stories of the great man he was. He will be missed...

President's Day Weekend

This weekend was not what was expected but was a pleasant surprise. After battling a two week sickness, one of the worse in my life, I had to cancel my saturday Baarb Race (an eight hour race consisting of kayaking, navigating, moutain biking and trekking) and a snowboarding trip to tahoe. Instead, Hani and I opt for a 3 hour road bike ride over the Dumabarton bridge (they have a isolated bike lane) to Coyote Hills with his Sheeper group, and a Sunday Valentine Day orienteering meet, dinner and movie.

Saturday started on a bike with the team the Hani coaches. He currently coaches the Level 1 Sheeper group. It was a beautiful day, and this year has had the most snowfall and rainfall due to El nino. Flowers scoured the fields of Coyote Hills as we rode through the park.

Sunday, Valentine's Day, Hani and I decided to do a BAOC (bay area orienteering club), at Shell Ridge. Shell ridge is in Walnut Creek, and we decided to run the brown course (4.3 km 190 m climb 12 controls) We had the best run we have ever had and received 3rd place with a time of 1:32.27. Our usual races have been in the 2 hour range.

Hani took me to a Valentine's dinner at Divino, which had a fixed menu. It was delicious and food we had never tasted before. Hani started with the Tortino Di Baccala (Dried cod, potato, and artichoke), and I had a dish (Tellini??) roasted red peppers, squash, and goat cheese, served cold. For Dinner I had the Veal and Hani had the Sea Bass. It was delicious though it was food we had not been familar with.

We ended the night going to Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. The movie seemed like it cut out a lot of the story building leading up to climax of the movie. I would give it a B- when it comes to good movies. Two movies that I watched on video that I really liked were "This is it" and Tyler Perry's "I can do Bad all by myself". After Madea catches some children looting her home, she turns them over to their Aunt April, a nightclub singer who wants nothing to do with her late sister’s kids. But things begin to change when a handyman decides to rent a room in her basement. Now nothing will ever be the same as April finds love, faith, family--

Why I Blog

Greetings blogging world! Why start a Blog? Mostly, I'd like to start getting my thoughts and experiences on paper. I can never remember names of movies, places and experiences the way that I would like to remember them. I believe if I have a blog, I can put my thoughts on paper and possibly it would help me become a better conversationalist.