Celebrity Equinox reservations and shore excursions - update

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 - we arrive Ft Lauderdale via Houston on Southwest at about noon. We've booked the Embassy Suites Fort Lauderdale 17th Street through Celebrity for $233.09. 2 double beds, non-smoking. We'll be taking a shuttle to the port for the cruise.

Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - we board the Celebrity Equinox and set sail at 5 pm. We will be Concierge Class this time on resort deck #2147 with "traditional" dining at 8:30 pm.

Friday, December 25th, 2009 - At Sea on Christmas Day.

Saturday, December 26th, 2009 - Georgetown, Grand Cayman (0800-1700) . Celebrity's shore excursions are not yet available. Seth and I have been to this port before. Looks like we're going to just "wing it" in this port - probably walk around a bit and see if we can do some snorkeling because Seth really wants to snorkel with the kids,

Sunday, December 27th, 2009 - At sea.

Monday, December 28th, 2009 - Cartagena, Colombia (0700-1600). We've booked with Lee Miles aka "Mr Emerald" for a 5 hour tour with this itinerary:

8:00 to 8:15 Drive to San Felipe Fortress 0:15 H:Min
8:15 to 8:55 Visit San Felipe Fortress (*) 0:40 H:Min
8:55 to 9:10 Drive to Plaza Bolivar 0:15 H:Min
9:10 to 9:45 Precolumbian Gold Museum; walking Old City 0:35 H:Min
9:45 to 10:15 Visit Palace of the Inquisition (*) 0:30 H:Min
10:15 to 10:25 Walk to San Pedro Claver 0:10 H:Min
10:25 to 10:50 Visit San Pedro Claver Church&Monastery (*) 0:25 H:Min
10:50 to 11:05 Drive to New City and Pierino Gallo Center 0:15 H:Min
11:05 to 11:40 Shopping at Pierino Gallo Center 0:35 H:Min
11:40 to 11:50 Drive to La Olla Cartagenera 0:10 H:Min
11:50 to 13:00 Lunch at La Olla Cartagenera 1:10 H:Min
13:00 to 13:20 Drive to ship 0:20 H:Min

Lee recommended a traditional restaurant for lunch rather than the "pricier" restaurant if we want to taste local foods. Cost for this tour will be $70 pp for 6 passengers, $56 pp if there are 8 in the van. Lunch and tips will be extra.

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 - Cristobal Pier, Panama (0900-1900) - we've booked with My Friend Mario (Viajes Almiza).

Code: CL007
Chagres River + Waterfall + Embera Indian Village + Canal: Gatun Locks
Category: Natural adventure and Cultural experience
Departure time: 9:40am approx. (SHIP TIME)
Return: 5pm approx. (SHIP TIME)

"First, it will take us 20 minutes to go to the Canal, here you will enter the Gatun locks observation deck, the Panama Canal is recognized as one of the most significant engineering feats in the world, you will now see why it deserves this reputation. At the verbal presentation you will learn about the incredible engineering it took to build them, and there operational significance for international commerce during the last 90 years. You will see the awesome sight of 10,000+ ton vessels carrying there cargo to ports of call around the world. Second, we will take a 40 minutes traditional indian canoe ride through the Changres River to arrive at the village. During this time, you will feel as if you were transported to the year 1492. Here the indians will welcome you warmly, and speak to you about there fascinating culture and way of life that has remained literaly unchanged for centuries. Later you will have the opportunity to see an authentic indian dance that represents these peoples great respect and love for the animals and environment of their world. You will also learn other incredible facets of there way of life. Forth, we will journey by canoe for 30 minutes to a trail that takes us 20 minutes later to a majestic waterfall, where you can swim in a beautiful natural spring pool, and take in the awesome natural beauty of this unique region. Then, we will return to the village for lunch and you will have the opportunity to buy some traditionaly carved artcrafts, and later, we will travel back to the indian pier. Finally, you will return to your cruise to continue with your travel, and share with others your incredible cultural experience!"

We booked this tour as a more private tour than the 20+ busload of passengers originally described (23 passenger minibus). The minimum for our van is 4 passengers. We have 6 of us booked so far for $95 pp - $10 more pp than the larger group which will be well worth it, ime.

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 - Puerto Limon, Costa Rica (0700-1900). We booked our tour with Charlie Soto of Okey Dokey tours. The A-2 tour is described as:

"Canopy Tour - 7 hours
Brisas De La Jungla Zipline 13 platforms (extra charge)
Tortugero Canal Tour - See exotic birds and animals of the Costa Rican jungle, Banana Plantation - Fasinating tour of plantation and processing plant,Bonita Beach & Restaurant (Lunch) Limon's most beautiful beach and good food, Viewpoint of Limon and countryside and Supermarket visit for wonderful Costa Rican Coffee, Vanilla, and much more at great prices."

Charlie describes this tour as: "7 hrs touring w me for only $99 each adult and $89 each children include:1st country side,there we can hold a baby sloth, 2nd Bananas plantation , to see the process, 3rd the wonderful tortuguero canal , ( Jungle river cruise) 4th Jungle Breeze canopy & rain forest to do the zip line 10 plattforms, 5th Bonita beach , 6th view point for pictures, city for coffee, vanilla souvenirs etc, full air conditioned van,i provide you some diet & reg soda, water, costarican beers, fresh fruits and costarican lunch at the rain forest,( wood cooking ), no extra charge, you can pay me cash at the end of the tour, wear : t shirt, short pants, hat, sneakers or tennis shoes".

Again, we asked Charlie for a more private tour and he will do this tour for $99 pp with a minimum of 6 passengers.

Thursday, December 31st, 2009 - At Sea. We booked dinner this evening at Murano with Wade and Charlie - the Equinox's fine dining restaurant. Unfortunately, though, none of the 3 specialty restaurants on board allow children under the age of 12. Even Wade calling the cruiseline did not change their minds - the rule is strictly enforced, for whatever reason. We're paying the extra $30 pp for this special treat and the kids will be "on their own" for dinner (which I assume will be room service and movie on the tv, lol).

January 1st, 2010 - Belize City, Belize (0900-1800). We're booked for an ATV jungle and Cave Tubing tour with cave-tubing.com.

ATV Jungle Tour

Our Exclusive ATV Jungle Tour is the perfect tour for those who love an adventure or a challenge. Anyone can do it, from the experienced ATV rider to the novice ATV rider. Children too young to ride on their own may ride with an adult. Adults too timid to ride on their own may ride with a partner. The trail is perfectly safe and the terrain is mostly flat. Our jungle trail is 5 miles of twists and turns through the Belize rain forest and offers loads of fun for everyone. Our ATV Jungle Tour property is located just five minutes (3 miles) before the Caves Branch Archaeological Reserve where you can also enjoy our very popular Belize Cave Tubing Tour.

Cave Tubing

Our Belize Cave Tubing tour is the most popular shore excursion in Belize. We offer you an unforgettable tour where you almost become one with nature while at the same time experiencing the mistry of the ancient Maya Underworld where the Mayas once performed many sacred rituals such as bloodletting and sacrifice to the gods.

Guided by our experienced Belizean tour guides, you will venture into the depths of the magical Belizean rainforest, tube down the refreshing Caves Branch River and through spectacular cave systems, which the Maya believed were the dwelling place of many Mayan gods known as the Lords of Death. This is an exciting adventure you'll never want to end and one you will never forget.

We'll be leaving for the 10:15 am tour and returning to the ship about 3:30-4 pm. The itinerary is:

1 hour drive to the site

1 hour coming back

45 mins to 1 hour ATV

1.5 hours at the cave tubing site

30 mins for changing rooms and refreshments.

The price for the ATV+cave tubing combo is $75us per person. Payment will be at the end of the tour.

January 2nd, 2010 - Cozumel, Mexico (0900-1800). This is the last port for me to research. Seth really wants to take the kids to the ruins.

January 3rd, 2010 - At sea.

January 4th, 2010 - Ft Lauderdale, arriving at 7 am. We catch a Southwest flight home at 12:10 pm arriving at about 4:30 pm.

Celebrity Equinox reservations and shore excursions - so far

Our cruise on the Celebrity Equinox will be departing from Fort Lauderdale. Due to very recent travel experiences, Seth and I decided that we would be arriving Ft Lauderdale the day before our cruise is to leave. It just seems as though this past year we've run into far more problems with cancelled flights than we have ever experienced in our relatively extensive history of travelling. So here are the plans we have so far:

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 - we arrive Ft Lauderdale via Houston on Southwest at about noon. We currently have an inquiry in with my TA about pre-cruise packages available through Celebrity. We'd like to stay at a hotel on the beach so the kids can "play" but I think it's going to be pretty cool with average temps that time of year in the 60's. We've never done a pre-cruise package before through the cruiseline but I like the idea of having all of our transportation taken care of between airport, hotel and hotel, cruise terminal.

Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - we board the Celebrity Equinox and set sail at 5 pm. We will be Concierge Class this time on resort deck #2147 with "traditional" dining at 8:30 pm.

Friday, December 25th, 2009 - At Sea on Christmas Day. Surely they'll have some special events this day. I'm particularly looking forward to having a "lite" Christmas this year with minimal gifting and decorations. I will, of course, be bringing some holiday lights and such with us to decorate our cabin with.

Saturday, December 26th, 2009 - Georgetown, Grand Cayman (0800-1700) . Celebrity's shore excursions are not yet available. Seth and I have been to this port before. We'll probably book something with Celebrity for this port.

Sunday, December 27th, 2009 - At sea. We're considering joining Wade and Charlie for dinner at the Asian specialty restaurant this evening.

Monday, December 28th, 2009 - Cartagena, Colombia (0700-1600). We've booked with Lee Miles aka "Mr Emerald" for a 5 hour tour with this itinerary:

8:00 to 8:15 Drive to San Felipe Fortress 0:15 H:Min
8:15 to 8:55 Visit San Felipe Fortress (*) 0:40 H:Min
8:55 to 9:10 Drive to Plaza Bolivar 0:15 H:Min
9:10 to 9:45 Precolumbian Gold Museum; walking Old City 0:35 H:Min
9:45 to 10:15 Visit Palace of the Inquisition (*) 0:30 H:Min
10:15 to 10:25 Walk to San Pedro Claver 0:10 H:Min
10:25 to 10:50 Visit San Pedro Claver Church&Monastery (*) 0:25 H:Min
10:50 to 11:05 Drive to New City and Pierino Gallo Center 0:15 H:Min
11:05 to 11:40 Shopping at Pierino Gallo Center 0:35 H:Min
11:40 to 11:50 Drive to La Olla Cartagenera 0:10 H:Min
11:50 to 13:00 Lunch at La Olla Cartagenera 1:10 H:Min
13:00 to 13:20 Drive to ship 0:20 H:Min

We're going to change our lunch plans and have Lee book us at a more "upscale" restaurant because we're all foodies. Cost for this tour will be $70 pp for 6 passengers, $56 pp if there are 8 in the van. Lunch and tips will be extra.

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 - Cristobal Pier, Panama (0900-1900) - we've booked with My Friend Mario (Viajes Almiza).

Code: CL007
Chagres River + Waterfall + Embera Indian Village + Canal: Gatun Locks
Category: Natural adventure and Cultural experience
Departure time: 9:40am approx. (SHIP TIME)
Return: 5pm approx. (SHIP TIME)

"First, it will take us 20 minutes to go to the Canal, here you will enter the Gatun locks observation deck, the Panama Canal is recognized as one of the most significant engineering feats in the world, you will now see why it deserves this reputation. At the verbal presentation you will learn about the incredible engineering it took to build them, and there operational significance for international commerce during the last 90 years. You will see the awesome sight of 10,000+ ton vessels carrying there cargo to ports of call around the world. Second, we will take a 40 minutes traditional indian canoe ride through the Changres River to arrive at the village. During this time, you will feel as if you were transported to the year 1492. Here the indians will welcome you warmly, and speak to you about there fascinating culture and way of life that has remained literaly unchanged for centuries. Later you will have the opportunity to see an authentic indian dance that represents these peoples great respect and love for the animals and environment of their world. You will also learn other incredible facets of there way of life. Forth, we will journey by canoe for 30 minutes to a trail that takes us 20 minutes later to a majestic waterfall, where you can swim in a beautiful natural spring pool, and take in the awesome natural beauty of this unique region. Then, we will return to the village for lunch and you will have the opportunity to buy some traditionaly carved artcrafts, and later, we will travel back to the indian pier. Finally, you will return to your cruise to continue with your travel, and share with others your incredible cultural experience!"

We booked this tour as a more private tour than the 20+ busload of passengers originally described (23 passenger minibus). The minimum for our van is 4 passengers. We have 6 of us booked so far for $95 pp - $10 more pp than the larger group which will be well worth it, ime.

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 - Puerto Limon, Costa Rica (0700-1900). We booked our tour with Charlie Soto of Okey Dokey tours. The A-2 tour is described as:

"Canopy Tour - 7 hours
Brisas De La Jungla Zipline 13 platforms (extra charge)
Tortugero Canal Tour - See exotic birds and animals of the Costa Rican jungle, Banana Plantation - Fasinating tour of plantation and processing plant,Bonita Beach & Restaurant (Lunch) Limon's most beautiful beach and good food, Viewpoint of Limon and countryside and Supermarket visit for wonderful Costa Rican Coffee, Vanilla, and much more at great prices."

Charlie describes this tour as: "7 hrs touring w me for only $99 each adult and $89 each children include:1st country side,there we can hold a baby sloth, 2nd Bananas plantation , to see the process, 3rd the wonderful tortuguero canal , ( Jungle river cruise) 4th Jungle Breeze canopy & rain forest to do the zip line 10 plattforms, 5th Bonita beach , 6th view point for pictures, city for coffee, vanilla souvenirs etc, full air conditioned van,i provide you some diet & reg soda, water, costarican beers, fresh fruits and costarican lunch at the rain forest,( wood cooking ), no extra charge, you can pay me cash at the end of the tour, wear : t shirt, short pants, hat, sneakers or tennis shoes".

Again, we asked Charlie for a more private tour and he will do this tour for $99 pp with a minimum of 6 passengers.

Thursday, December 31st, 2009 - At Sea. We booked dinner this evening at Murano with Wade and Charlie - the Equinox's fine dining restaurant. Unfortunately, though, none of the 3 specialty restaurants on board allow children under the age of 12. Even Wade calling the cruiseline did not change their minds - the rule is strictly enforced, for whatever reason. We're paying the extra $30 pp for this special treat and the kids will be "on their own" for dinner (which I assume will be room service and movie on the tv, lol).

January 1st, 2010 - Belize City, Belize. We haven't booked anything for this port yet.

January 2nd, 2010 - Cozumel, Mexico. Seth and I have been to this port before. We'll probably look first to see what Celebrity is offering for tours.

January 3rd, 2010 - At sea.

January 4th, 2010 - Ft Lauderdale, arriving at 7 am. We catch a flight home arriving at about 4:30.

Celebrity Equinox 11-night Ultimate Caribbean Holiday Cruise

It's getting closer to our big family vacation this year - an 11-night Ultimate Caribbean cruise on Celebrity's brand new Equinox over Christmas and New Years' this winter. We booked this cruise last November after being invited by our Atlanta friends, Wade and Charlie, who we cruised with over Seth's birthday last August in the Mediterranean. We had such a fabulously great time we wanted to do it again but couldn't leave the kids behind this time so we're taking them with us!

The Equinox is the newest Solstice class ship for Celebrity - newly minted in August of this year. The ship is absolutely gorgeous: recent pictures ship details

The 11-night Ultimate Caribbean itinerary:

Thu, Dec 24 Fort Lauderdale, Florida depart 5 pm

Fri, Dec 25 At Sea

Sat, Dec 26 George Town, Grand Cayman Tendered
Arrive 8:00 AM Depart 5:00 PM

Sun, Dec 27 At Sea

Mon, Dec 28 Cartagena, Colombia Docked
Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 4:00 PM

Tue, Dec 29 Cristobal Pier, Panama Docked
Arrive 9:00 AM Depart 7:00 PM

Wed, Dec 30 Puerto Limon, Costa Rica Docked
Arrive 7:00 AM Depart 7:00 PM

Thu, Dec 31 At Sea

Fri, Jan 01 Belize City, Belize Tendered
Arrive 9:00 AM Depart 6:00 PM

Sat, Jan 02 Cozumel, Mexico Docked
Arrive 9:00 AM Depart 6:00 PM

Sun, Jan 03 At Sea

Mon, Jan 04 Fort Lauderdale, Florida Arrive 7:00 AM

...and so the planning begins....

Road to the 2009 Spring U12 Soccer Championships

What an exciting weekend! Amina's soccer team, the Wizards, played their tournament this weekend starting in 3rd position out of 4 teams. Their spring season was hot and cold before the tournament:

Team, Score, win/loss

Tempest 3-1 win
Cheetah Girls 2-3 loss
Lady Chaos 1-2 loss
Cheetah Girls 1-3 loss
Tempest 3-3 tie
Cheetah Girls 1-1 tie
Tempest 1-1 tie
Lady Chaos 1-0 win
Lady Chaos 1-2 loss

On Saturday morning, their first game was against the Cheetah Girls at 10:30 am - the team ranked 1st going into the tournament. The girls played a great game but Amina made an error and a hand ball in the box was called on her which allowed the Cheetah Girls to score a point and win with a shut out (1-0). We headed out to the school's golf tournament and had lunch then hung out for a little bit until her next game at 2:30 against the Tempest. The Wizards did a phenomenal job dominating the Tempest throughout the game and shut them out with a score of 3-0 earning them all 10 points (6 for the win, 1 for each point scored up to 3, and 1 for the shut out). Amina scored the final point for her team. The Cheetah Girls and Lady Chaos played as well and tied, each earning 4 points. The Lady Chaos had played the Tempest that morning and had won 4-2 earning 9 points.

By Sunday, the standings by points were:

Lady Chaos 13
Cheetah Girls 12
Wizards 10
Tempest 2

The Wizards had to win their game against the Lady Chaos to move on to the finals - a tie wouldn't do. We watched the end of the game between the Cheetah Girls and Tempest and found out that they had actually tied 2-2 so the Cheetah Girls were guaranteed a spot in the finals while the Tempest had been knocked out.

The game against the Lady Chaos went much better than expected. Interestingly, the Cheetah Girls stayed to watch the game cheering for the Wizards because they didn't want to play the Lady Chaos in the finals - the Lady Chaos was the only team so far that had beaten them in a game. The Wizards scored a point and then kept the Lady Chaos at bay for the remainder of the game winning 1-0 and advancing to the finals against the Cheetah Girls. Amina was elated just by making it to the finals when the Wizards weren't expected to get that far.

The girls on the team were pretty exhausted and overheated. It had been 90+ degrees during the game and only 9 players from their team played on the 2nd day of the tournament which meant there was only 1 person to sub. The ref was very nice during the earlier game allowing the teams to take an extra break about 10 minutes before the end of the game allowing them to rehydrate. After the earlier game, we had about 45 minutes before Amina had to be back on the field for the finals. We rushed home where Amina had a bagel and tried to rehydrate then Seth brought her back to the field.

The Finals were brutal. The Wizards scored first but shortly after that, they were penalized for a high kick in the box which allowed the Cheetah Girls to score on a penalty kick. Another penalty kick later in the game was saved by the Wizard goalie. By the end of the game, the score was still 1-1. The girls were allowed to rest and hydrate 5 minutes then played two 5-minute halves but the score remained 1-1. Amina was sidelined because she was not on the field when the game ended and could not play during overtime. The game then moved on from overtime to penalty kicks. The Wizards kicked first and then the penalty kicks alternated between teams with 5 members from each team taking a turn. The Wizards ended up scoring 3 points, the Cheetah Girls scored 2 with their last kicker blocked by our goalie at the very end. The game that had started at 5 pm finally concluded at 6:45 pm.

The girls were ecstatic. I had told Amina that if her team won the championships that we would throw a big pool party at our house so the girls were very excited about this as well. It was definitely a memorable weekend - the Wizards had significantly improved this season and were the only team during the tournament to score 10 points in one game and have 0 points scored on their defense.

(left to right) Michelle, Tyler, Rita, Amina, Emma, Emily, Maria, Sierra, Megan

(back row) Coach Andy

Amina with her loot (finally - after four 2nd place trophies and one 3rd place)

Tulsa Full Moon 5k

On a spur of the moment, I booked a quick trip to Tulsa for the weekend last week with 2 excuses in mind: the Tulsa Full Moon 5k and Mother's Day. I received an email from Fleet Feet sports about the Full Moon 5k and thought it would be a great event for the 4 of us because there was no minimum pace, an ideal first 5k for the kids to try before the Expedition Everest Challenge in September (where there will be a 15 minute/mile minimum pace).

I googled and googled and finally settled on an overnight stay at the Embassy Suites hotel off I-44. We had already missed the online registration for the 5k. After doing a little more googling, I came up with a plan by Friday evening: Amina's soccer game at 9 am, leave for Tulsa after the game, stop at Fuddrucker's for lunch, catch the 1:30 showing of the new Star Trek movie at a theater right across the street (tickets bought online), check-in at the Embassy Suites, change into our race/running clothes, get to Veteran's Park to register for the race, find something light for dinner, then run the race at 8pm. We also had Mother's Day brunch reservations at the Brasserie (10 am) but had to cancel because of Amina's soccer game at 1 pm.

Fortunately, our 9 am soccer game was cancelled due to rain so we headed for Tulsa at 9:30 am. We had plenty of time for lunch at Fuddrucker's then headed to the Cinemark movie theater across the street about 45 minutes before the movie was to start. We waited in line for the theater doors to open even though we had purchased tickets online. This seemed a bit silly to me - the only movie in the whole theater where we were made to wait outside the theater until about 15 minutes before the movie started.

The new Star Trek movie was excellent - even the kids, who begged us to be allowed to see a different movie, enjoyed it. Seth and I chuckled at the classic lines in the movie - along with the other true Trek geeks in the theater. I was particularly impressed with how cleverly the movie completely re-invented a show that's been around for 40+ years leaving the door wide open for further episodes or movies to start, literally, from scratch. I'm looking forward to more movies with the new cast.

After the movie, we checked into the Embassy Suites and thanked our lucky stars that the kids wouldn't have the time to swim in the hotel's pool - it was obscenely crowded with children - many were obviously attending other sporting events. We changed clothes and hung out for a bit before driving to Veterans Park. Race day registration was $30 but we were given vouchers for race t-shirts to be picked up after the middle of June or so at the Fleet Feet store in Tulsa. We pinned our race bibs on and attached the racing chips to our shoes then got back in the car and drove to Utica Square to do some shopping.

The kids did some last minute Mother's Day shopping at Williams-Sonoma and then we stopped at Petty's Fine Foods for some energy bars and sushi before driving back to find a parking spot near Veterans Park. We stretched before the race and watched the people who were doing the 1 mile fun run at 7:30 then made our way towards the back of the 5k crowd. We had decided that the kids' goal finish time would be under 45 minutes.

At the start of the race, the kids both did pretty well keeping a 10 to 10:30 pace but after not quite a mile, Rhys needed to stop and walk. Amina and Seth continued on without us. Rhys and I jogged and walked the rest of the way with a sprint in the last 1/10 of a mile or so. Amina and Seth's final time was 37:28 and our final time was 41:02. We should be in good shape for our race in September and now the kids have PRs to work on. We drank some water after the race then decided to go for dinner and stopped at the Cracker Barrel near the hotel. The following morning, Mother's Day, we went back to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast before heading back to Enid in time for Amina's 1 pm game. During breakfast, I received a mini-burger press and a cherry/olive pitter for Mother's Day.

2009 Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

Thankfully, this extremely busy weekend turned out to be "not quite" as busy. I left on Thursday afternoon for Tulsa to attend a board meeting of the Oklahoma AAP chapter. I arrived in Tulsa with enough time to stop by the Fleet Feet store and bought a pair of New Balance running shoes to replace my current NB shoes which probably have about 300 miles on them and were really starting to hurt my feet. I'm really bad about remembering to replace my shoes until the shoes (or, rather, my feet) remind me. The sales clerk mentioned a pasta party the night before the marathon so I signed up for myself as well as my running partner, Deborah. I squeezed in a 3 mile run that afternoon around a park near the hotel and then spent the next 1.5 days in Tulsa at my conference.

The original plan was to return to Enid on Saturday morning to make Amina's 11 am soccer game, a 3 pm Enid Symphony rehearsal, play in a concert at the ballpark on Saturday evening, then drive to OKC to spend the night at the Crowne Plaza. As luck would have it, Amina decided to go to a Girl Scout jamboree instead and the rehearsal/concert was rescheduled for June. So instead of heading back to Enid, I stayed in Tulsa for the rest of the conference on Saturday morning then drove straight to OKC with plenty of time to check-in, relax for a bit, then head to the Health & Fitness Expo at the Cox Center for packet pickup.

When I arrived at the Cox Convention center, the line to enter the expo was out the door and way down the hall. Luckily, the line moved quickly. It was about 4:30 and the packet pickup area was extremely congested.

After picking up a packet with race bib and chip, participants were directed to "chip check" where a volunteer scanned your chip to confirm your name/division. We were finally directed to t-shirt pickup where you also received your clear plastic gear bag with "goodies" (a lot of paper, a sample of pistachios and aquaphor, and some coupons).

This year's event was reportedly 18-20,000 participants. The relay was already sold out before the Expo started then, as the weekend progressed, the 5k walk also sold out, and eventually all of the events sold out.

I had time to look around and do some shopping before Deborah got to the conference center. I bought a 2009 memorial marathon cap (black this year) and an official pin; a Brooks shirt on sale; a "13.1" car magnet; and a pair of running sunglasses. I also spotted a new woodworking project for Seth...I definitely need one of these for Mother's Day:

I met up with Deborah who picked up her packet/tshirt and did some shopping. The expo ended at 6 pm so we dropped our stuff off at my car then walked to Bricktown for the pasta party at the Skky lounge above Mickey Mantle's steakhouse. The cost was $12 and I was a little surprised at how many people attended. Unfortunately, the pasta was cold and we decided that next time we would skip the pasta party and go, instead, to a nice restaurant for dinner.

When we returned to the Crowne Plaza, we got ready for the 6:30 am start time and I received a text message from a friend asking if everything was ok. At this point, we weren't even paying attention to the news or the weather so we turned the tv to the news and saw the storm cells moving towards Enid. The county was under a tornado warning so Deborah and I started calling our houses to find out if everyone was safe. Seth said it was raining heavily - Rhys was in bed already. I told him that they were under a tornado warning and needed to move to the safe room. He hadn't heard the tornado sirens going off yet. As the tv news progressed, they started mentioning streets nearby to my house: Purdue, highway 81, Phillips road, and Carrier - all within 5 miles of the house. We then started hearing about a tornado that had touched down near the Expo center. I called Seth back - the power was out at this point but he hadn't moved into the safe room yet - Rhys was still asleep in his room. He woke Rhys up and they moved over to the safe room where they spent most of the night as other storm cells made their way through from Fairview through Lahoma and right into Enid. Only north Enid was affected by the tornado.

I sat glued to the tv news until almost 11 pm but had to get some sleep before the race. Our alarm and wakeup call was set for 4:30 am so we could catch the 5 am shuttle to the race.

When the alarm went off, we quickly got ready for the race. I had already planned on taking 2 endurolytes and 1 anti-fatigue pill about an hour before the race and then again at miles 5 and 10 - I put these in a velcro wrist pouch. I put one packet of Luna Moons and 1 packet of Energy Beans in each pocket of my racing shorts. I was wearing the Brooks shirt that I had bought at the Expo the day before, my racing shorts, new running shoes, 2009 Memorial marathon cap, and my Garmin Forerunner GPS watch. I did decide to take my iPod Touch along as well.

In my clear check-in bag, I put one of those black shopping bags (so nobody could see what was actually in my bag) and added my phone, wallet, GoLean crunchy bar, a banana, 2 bottles of Powerade, my camera, and the race guide. Later, as we were waiting for the shuttle, I came back to the room to get my jacket. It was already 70 degrees but the wind was blowing and it was still cool. At least it wasn't raining.

We went downstairs to the lobby and there were probably about 30 people there already waiting for the shuttle. We got down there just past 5 am. As we waited, more and more people came downstairs and, at one point, there were probably 100 people waiting for the shuttle. 15 minutes came and went quickly - the schedule that the shuttles were supposed to be running on.

As 30 minutes dragged on to 45, people started getting nervous and some decided to drive themselves. Someone called a cab which the rest of us thought was a good idea so the poor hotel front desk started calling multiple cabs. As we waited for a cab, a group of four 1/2 marathoners had room in the front seat of their cab and offered it to us so Deborah and I, with the taxi cab driver's permission, both squeezed into the front seat.

As we were driven downtown, we passed a car accident involving what looked like several race participants just shy of the downtown exits.

The taxi dropped us off near 5th and Hudson and I hurriedly paid the $25 fare + tip ($30 total) as I was practically sitting in the driver's lap anyways. Deborah chipped in $5 but the other 4 passengers only chipped in $10 total but it was already 6:15 am and we had to hurry to get our gear checked and use the bathroom so we didn't quibble about it.

We jogged to gear check following a couple of guys who were also running late, then headed to the porta potty, waited in line for about 5 minutes listening to the National Anthem being sung, then made our way to the start corral. We couldn't even get into the corral - it was already packed full of people. When the gun went off, it was over 7 minutes later that we actually crossed the start line.

The weather prediction was for a high in the 70's but the wind was predicted to be 20-30 mph. It was humid but not overtly hot and the wind actually helped during the race cooling us off and being at our backs as the race got started. After we crossed the start line, we moved with the mass of people at a slow 11+ minute/mile pace: marathoners, half-marathoners, relay people, and people walking the 1/2 marathon. We made good time after the first mile or so and slowly made our way forward eventually catching up and passing the 2:30 pacer.

I skipped drinking at the first station - it had only been just over a mile. I did grab some powerade at the next 2 water stations then started having a mixture of water and powerade at all of the next water stations. By mile 5, we were slowing down at the water stations and, perhaps, in too much of a rush to get going, were still wearing about as much water as getting to drink it. I took my next 2 endurolytes and 1 anti-fatigue pill at the water station after mile 5 and started to eat some Luna Moons - sharing some with Deborah. The Luna Moons were softer than what I was expecting - maybe after being warmed up in my pocket for the past 5 miles. At one point, Deborah turned to me to ask if we had gone 3 miles yet...I replied that we were at 5.7 and asked where she had been this whole time. LOL.

The next few miles went smoothly but I could definitely feel some fatigue in my legs around mile 7. We had been keeping a 9:30-10:30 min/mile pace for most of the race so far except right at the start. Almost exactly at mile 10, the cramping started in my right calf. I went on for about 1/2 a mile then dropped back suddenly when it hit my left calf. I signalled for Deborah to keep going and not wait for me. From that point on through about mile 12.5, the cramping moved from calf to calf, down to the my left foot, up to my quads, and eventually to both hamstrings. When I stopped to stretch one muscle, another would start cramping. It was really frustrating because I had the energy and stamina to keep going but my legs were just not cooperating. I realized how much time I was losing when the 2:30 pacer went by. I did a combination of walking, brief stretches, and slow jogs for over 2 miles hoping at some point that the water, powerade, and electrolytes I had been taking would start to "kick in". Even through the last 1/2 mile of the course, some muscle in my leg was cramping. I finally decided that I was going to give the last 1/2 mile my all and increased my pace to under 9 min/mi determined to finish in under 2:30. At just before the finish line, my Garmin recorded a 6:51 min/mi pace. My final time was 2:27.11 with an overall pace of 11:15/mile. Deborah ran a great race with a final time of 2:18.37 with a pace of 10:35/mile.

After the race, we checked out the massage tent but the lines were long. We then visited the OKC Memorial before catching the shuttle back to the hotel.

Overall, I'm happy with my time for a first 1/2 marathon. I think without the cramping issues, my time would have been much closer to 2:15. I need to analyze my run some more and figure out a better strategy to minimize cramping. I have several theories at this point. I'm going to try and cut back on the Powerade and go with more straight water. I think I'm also going to try to increase my potassium and magnesium intake during a long run. I definitely could have eaten more the night before and probably should have increased my sodium consumption at least 1-2 days beforehand. I'm not a big fan of salty food and maybe that had something to do with it. I need to sit down sometime and add up how much electrolytes I think I got in before/during the race. I guess it's possible that I was a little overhydrated but I just don't think that's what it was. It's going to take some trial and error to figure this one out.

I was really disappointed at the shuttle service to the race. We had heard from other racers on our way back to the hotel via shuttle that the number of racers this year probably overwhelmed the shuttles which were supposed to run a circuit between each hotel. I'm guessing that the shuttles filled quickly "upstream" so they never made it to the Crowne Plaza. In the future, I hope they have just one bus per hotel to accomodate for so many out-of-town racers staying in the hotels. I also LOVE the Brooks shirt that I got the day before. By the time we finished, my shirt was almost completely dry despite sweating and inadvertantly (and on purpose, of course) dumping water and powerade all over it. I have to get online and order more of these shirts.

I'm looking forward to 2010 and considering trying the Disney Coast-to-Coast Challenge which would be either the Disneyworld 1/2 marathon in January or the Princess 1/2 marathon in March AND the Disneyland 1/2 marathon in September. For the remainder of 2009, I'm looking forward to the Enid Great Land Run 5k in September and a trip to Disneyworld at the end of September for the Expedition Everest Challenge at Animal Kingdom where Rhys and Seth will be a team and Amina and I will be a team - the kids' first 5k race.

April Teddy Bear Picnic Bunco

April's Teddy Bear Picnic bunco was hosted by Beth and co-hosted by Karen. Our subs were: Nikki Johnston, Deborah Gungoll, Erica Taylor and Amina Switzer.

We snacked in our picnic wear on sandwiches, chips, fruit cups, teddy grahams, and gummy bears. We also had spiked lemonade (with vodka) and wine from the Las Vegas Bunco World Championships (Little Black Dress).

Players arrived with their favorite bears.

We had a bear audience during the game.

After the game, Beth awarded prizes to our bears:

Biggest Bear

Best Dressed Bear

Smallest Bear

Sweetest Face

Funniest Bear

Most Loved Bear

Game Stats

Most Buncos: Lisa and Erica each with TWO buncos had a roll-off and Erica won $20

Most Wins: Amina with TWELVE wins won $10

Most Losses: Evie, Connie, and Beth with ELEVEN losses had a roll-off and Connie won $10

Most Baby Buncos: Eve with EIGHT baby buncos won $10

Most Wipeouts: Nikki with THREE wipeouts won $5

Traveller: Evie, won $5

We added $15 to our bunco pot and currently have $314.00. Our next game will be on Tuesday, May 12th at Gwen's house. Gwen's co-host is Lisa. The theme will be "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".

2009 Bunco World Championships

For the 2nd year, I had the opportunity to attend the Bunco World Championships in Las Vegas. We had 7 women from our bunco group attend last year and we had a fabulously fun time. This year, I attended with 1 other friend from our bunco group, Lisa, and we took our husbands with us.

We left for Vegas on 6 March 2009 with Lisa and I arriving first on United airlines. We had booked Seth and Tim's flight separately (after ours were booked) and they would arrive about 2 hours after us. We picked up our luggage and our rental car from Alamo then made our way to Bally's hotel and casino where the championships would be held. After a brief detour to the Paris hotel and casino parking line (eg we made a wrong turn, lol), we arrived at Bally's valet line. The line in the lobby to check-in was long and by the time we got to our room, our luggage arrived, and I changed clothes, it was already past 5 pm. We headed down to the ballroom where registration began at 4 pm and were surprised by how many women were crowded in line waiting to register.

As best as we can tell, there were 3 lines but the lines were moving extremely slowly. There must have been several hundred women waiting to register. We waited in line for about 15 minutes but, getting nowhere, we decided to register in the morning and leave to pick up Seth and Tim from the airport. We had to pick them up, grab some dinner at the In & Out burger, then get to the Luxor to pick up our show tickets to see Carrot Top.

The next morning, I went downstairs around 8:15 am to find about 30 people in line by the door to the ballroom. I got in line and waited but the doors didn't open until almost 9 am even though registration was supposed to start at 8:30.

A few people were let in to the ballroom at a time then a volunteer was sent down the line taking players' names. When she reached me, I gave her my name and Lisa's name then told her that Lisa and I had purchased the VIP specialty player packages and suggested that we had paid a lot of money ($225.00 each) to be waiting in line. She told me that she was just a volunteer and would check with someone regarding VIPs. Soon, though, she did come back to me and pulled me out of line to go into the ballroom for immediate registration. Just after I got into the ballroom, Lisa arrived and we found out why the registration process was taking so long. There were hundreds of nametags spread out on multiple tables in no particular order. Volunteers were literally hunting for player's nametags and trying to print out ones that they could not find. Registration was pretty disorganized.

My nametag was found but Lisa's nametag was not and someone gave Lisa a handwritten nametag. We were introduced to Leslie, the president of the World Bunco Association who searched high and low for our welcome baskets that were a part of the package price that we had paid (we were promised a bunco flag, chocolates, a t-shirt, etc). Our baskets were nowhere to be found. Leslie promised to find them for us and invited us to help ourselves to some snacks in their lounge. We helped ourselves to some orange juice and bananas while Leslie looked for our baskets. Still unable to find them, Leslie promised to put something together for us and to check back with her later.

We were both assigned to play in heat 2 which was to start at 2 pm. The first heat was to start at 11 am but even at almost 10 am, players were still being registered. We came back to the ballroom to see players' costumes and hung around until about 11:30 pm but the heat had not yet started. Some of the costumes were so clever - all related to a jungle/safari theme - and I took pictures of many of them.

I also snuck into the game room before players were let in to play to snap some pictures.

We left to get some lunch (Sensi at the Bellagio hotel) then returned to our rooms to change and got back to the ballroom at about 1:30 in our costumes that Lisa had made by hand and accessorized for us both (thanks Lisa!!).

Quite a few people from heat 1 were still hanging around. We checked with Leslie and our gift baskets were still nowhere to be found but she did give us raffle tickets so that we could enter the drawings. There was quite a bit of confusion regarding the raffle tickets. VIP players were given raffle tickets as part of their package. Players who just paid the $45 player's fee had to purchase raffle tickets for $2 each. This didn't make the "regular" players very unhappy and we heard more grumbling about the organization of this year's game. There was also confusion amongst the volunteers who had set up 2 boxes to put tickets in labelling them $1000 and $500 when, in the end, all of the raffle tickets were put into a bag for the drawings. We hoped our raffle tickets made it into that bag but we were never really sure that happened.

We stood around and snapped some more pictures and after an announcement by Leslie regarding when the raffle drawings would take place (after heat 2), we were eventually let into the game room where all of the VIPs were invited to sit at the head table. Here's where it really started to get weird. Lisa and I had each paid $225 to be "VIP specialty players" but some women had bought the top $350 VIP package. The top VIP players were supposed to sit at the head tables but Lisa and I both ended up sitting at the head tables as well. We compared notes with the other VIPs and some of them were upset that they were not receiving truly "VIP" treatment. I can't say that I blame them - we paid over $100 less than they did and were receiving the same "perks", so to speak. We met a group of women from the Cayman Islands, 2 women who were friends - Marie and Jessica (one from Georgia, and the other from Tennessee), as well as a first-time player named Katie and a woman from California whose husband bought her a VIP package for her birthday.

The game finally got underway nearly an hour late but despite the chaos of registration, the missing gift baskets, and the overall disorganized state of this year's championships, we still had a fabulously fun time playing. What made this year particularly fun was the group of women that we sat and played with - they were all the friendliest and most fun-loving women we could have hoped to meet. There was not one person in our group who was competitive, didn't cheer someone else on when they were on a roll, or celebrate with someone who rolled a bunco or won a set. Last year, most of us had people in our group that we would have rather not played with. I think that the extra VIP fee that we paid helped to select out for a really nice group of women.

This year's game was not put on by Proctor and Gamble (ie Prilosec) but, rather, by just the World Bunco Association. We had an MC named Daniel who was a talented singer and, instead of "Rocky", had Shawn the "tarzan boy" who turned out to be a family friend of the WBA's president, Leslie. We also learned that the WBA had a sponsor lined up that backed out at the last minute. Lisa and I also joked about the WBA's "security" to keep the players in line.

Neither Lisa nor I were particularly lucky this year. I did score one bunco this year which was exciting but was disappointed to find out that the wrist bands that we received for rolling a bunco had to be returned after the game was over. That just seemed cheap. After the game, Lisa and I went back upstairs to change and get ready for the dinner buffet. Apparently, after we had left, they drew some raffle tickets for the wildcard spots in tomorrow's game and for the $1000 prize. Neither of us were happy when we learned this later in the evening but then, neither of our numbers were drawn.

Dinner was amazing but not in a good way. Lisa had checked with Leslie about dinner and we were told that it would be a Mexican buffet which she stated would be safe for Lisa with her nut allergy. When we arrived, there were, again, no special arrangements made for the VIPs as was originally promised. We ended up pulling up tables and re-arranging chairs so we could sit with the other VIPs. When the food was uncovered, hordes of people immediately lined up and it became apparent that tonight's buffet made by "Bally's Executive Chefs" included beef/chicken tacos, nachos, and some pasta. Later, Leslie revealed to us that Bally's had charged the WBA $38,000 for the food at this year's game! We had even paid the extra $25 each for Seth and Tim to have dinner with us but the food choices were beyond disappointing. We had a little to eat and had some dessert but made plans to go elsewhere for dinner. To top it all off, the VIP drink tickets that the other players had received in their gift baskets were not being honored by the bartenders. After finding out that the drawings had already been held, we left the dinner and went to Hamada's Japanese restaurant down the street for a much nicer dinner.

The following morning, I wanted to go to the fitness center before the semi-finals got started but stopped by the ballroom first to find handwritten lists of people that would be moving on to the next game.

Lisa and I sat through the quarter-finals leaving at just before noon to have lunch with our husbands at Spago's located in Caesar's Palace. On Sunday, the VIPs were given special seating to watch the games and to cheer on teammates.

I wanted to buy some cute handmade bunco wine charms for $21 but Leslie happened to walk by and let us each have one for free. She still hadn't found our gift baskets yet.

We returned to the ballroom after lunch in time for the semi-finals, the finals, and then the final 4 roll-off. It took an enormous amount of time for the games to get underway let alone conclude. During one of the long waits for the next game to start, Lisa and I finally did get our gift baskets from Leslie and were very pleasantly surprised at what a nice bag of goodies we received: bottle of wine, one of the $350 VIP player custom limited t-shirts (I got one in medium but Leslie promised to send Lisa her t-shirt after the game), a bunco flag, some toffee, a necklace, a gift card for Girardelli's, and a gift certificate for See's candies. Leslie also asked us if we would be returning to play next year to which we both said we absolutely would. We thanked Leslie for all of her hard work - we could only imagine how difficult the last couple days had been for her with all the grumbling and complaining going on by other players. Leslie was extremely apologetic but assured us that the WBA had learned from this year's game and that next year's game would be different.

The final roll-off took about 1/2 an hour and we left the game at nearly 6 pm to make our 6:30 pm reservation at Le Cirque located in the Bellagio hotel.

Overall, I think Lisa and I both had a lot of FUN and do plan to go again next year with the hopes that the WBA makes a few changes to make the whole process and game go a little more smoothly. We really encouraged Leslie to offer VIP packages again next year. I think if we had not gone the VIP route, we would have seriously considered not attending next year. Fortunately, the other bunco players that we hung out with made the experience so much better and is what really persuaded us to want to attend again. We were disappointed that we never even had the time to do a little shopping on the strip because the different games and heats took so long and there was an excessive amount of waiting around with little to no entertainment. My husband was a bit put off by the amount of time I spent at the game rather than with him, too. Even with that said, though....a big thanks to Leslie and the WBA for taking on the tough task of putting together such a huge bunco game for everyone to enjoy.