Year: 2015

We’re Flying on Air!

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As an almost-surprise gift this year, Darlene signed us up for a pair of “flights” at the indoor “skydiving” facility iFly in Union City, CA.  Glenn and Michele came down from Portland for the weekend to give it a try with us along with several friends in the area: Martha, Dave, and Greg as well as Darlene’s 79-year old aunt Betty and her two young charges, Travis and Dillon.

After a bit of instruction on how to hold your body, we each got two one-minute “flights” in the vertical wind tunnel with our iFly instructor, Charlie.  As beginners, we were all just learning how to hold a more-or-less steady hover in the 110-145 mph winds.  (They adjust the wind speed on-the-fly for the size of the person.)  Everybody had a blast and opted for the “fly high” option on our second flights where the instructor takes to the air with you and carries you aloft spinning up and down the shaft.

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Beginner’s Ride?

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Glenn and Michele came down from Portland this past weekend to try “iFly” with me and Darlene, but on Saturday they joined us for their first taste of mountain biking.  They rented some nice, new demo Trek Fuel EX bikes and we set out from the Epicenter bike shop in Santa Cruz to take them on a nice beginner’s course around the middle half of Wilder Ranch.

They took to it so quickly, picking up each new handling skill easily and conquering all the climbing and maneuvering, and always up for more.  So much so that we ended up climbing to the top of Wilder and on over to do some UCSC back campus trails before coming back by way of my favorite descent in Wilder.  So much for sticking to the beginner’s route!  But I think they enjoyed their first time out!

  

And… bonus!! A video of all of us belly-dancing (sort of) the night before at Menara’s, a Moroccan restaurant in San Jose:

 

Finally Rode Up Mt. Diablo

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It’s strange but I’ve lived in the Bay Area since 1988 and yet I had never been up Mt. Diablo. Neither had Darlene so, last Friday morning, we dusted off our road bikes and drove to Danville to start up.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly an ideal day to take in the tremendous views: it’s been weeks since we’ve had any sort of wind or rain to clear the air.  There was a smog advisory in effect but also an inversion layer in place holding much of it down to lower elevations.  A late morning Friday made for a nice quiet ride up what is typically a pretty busy road on the weekends and we could still see the Sierras off in the distance.

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