A Trip to Phoenix and a run up a Mountain

At the start of the trail just after 5:00am

Last week I took a trip to Phoenix, AZ to visit family. It was a great time of enjoying each other's company, playing games and doing a little bit of working out. I did several runs while I was there. A seven mile on Thursday with my mom for the first mile. Got some new Saucony running shoes at Sole Sports in Tempe later that day. Friday, I did a three mile run with my stepdad Rob (followed by a 10 mile road bike ride, since he is a cyclist and beginning runner). But Saturday was the real kicker. Rob was going to ride the 7 mile road up South Mountain in Phoenix (check out this video to get an idea of this 'city park') with his riding partner. After some debate,  I decided to try and run it. I picked up a Nathan Elite One Plus water/nutrition pack the night before and hit the trail the next day with no real idea of what I was in for.

pushing hard

Originally I was going to run up, then have Rob ride back down and bring the truck up to get me at the peak.  What a scenic, beautiful, peaceful and awesome run. After the 1:30 minute climb (which included some 11% and 12% grade climbs), I still felt pretty good, so I decided to run back down. I didn't quite go all seven miles back to the start, but when it was all over I clocked 13.2 miles.in just a little over 2h 30m.

A beautiful morning to run up a mountain

That was a PR for distance. and with a total of 1700ft climb/fall it was certainly the most intense run I've ever done. But it was beautiful! That is for sure. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Completing a run of this intensity is really what gave me the encouragement to go ahead and sign up for the half marathon in the fall.

New fun Games for my Birthday!

In addition to everything else, I love to play a good a good board/strategy game. So here are 2 games that I got from my awesome wife and kids for my birthday. Star Fluxx and the Expansion "Inns and Cathedrals" for Carcassonne.

    

Star Fluxx is a stand alone card game, based on the Fluxx (Google Affiliate Ad) card game. But instead of common items, it uses Sci-Fi tropes as the theme. We played it and it's really fun and has some good dynamics that set it apart from the original. It's gonna get played a bunch I'm sure.

Inns and Cathedrals is an expansion pack for Rio Grande's Carcassonne (Google Affiliate Ad) which adds a coulpe new dynamics to the original game (which you need in order to use this pack). It made the game a bit more cutthroat. It was fun. It also makes it so that you can play 6 players instead of 5, which is always nice for game night. Carcassonne is a great game because it takes a little strategy, but even my 8 year old can play it and enjoy himself.

Start of Our Adoption Journey

Well, we got the news last week that we have been accepted by an Adoption agency to begin the process of adopting a child internationally. This is pretty exciting and hopefully in the next 12-18 months we will go to El Salvador and pick up our child. There is lots of paperwork and expenses to the dealt with between now and then and we are trying to get everything in order for it to happen. All told, it will probably end up costing somewhere between $15k-$20k dollars to complete the adoption process, but we are holding fund raisers and are being supported by our family to help cover the costs, but even still it is going to take a lot. If you or anyone you know wants to help by making a donation, send me an email johnny.matthews+adoption@gmail.com. If you can not help financially, that's fine, but we would appreciate your prayers as we follow this path.

The Happiest Place on Earth

Ok, so Me, my Wife and 4 kids piled into the minivan, drove 1000 miles and spent a week at Disney World. We had a great time. Let me give you the run down on what we did and my recommendations...

Dates

If you ever go to Disney on a non-peak week, you will never go at another time again. We went the week after labor day and never spent more than 15-20 minutes in any given line. Most waits were between 5 and 10 minutes. When you have small kids with you, this is tremendous!

Dining

Since September is a slow month for Disney, they were offering the Disney Dining Plan for free with certain packages. This plan gives each member of your group a Snack, a Counter Service Meal and a Table service meal every day of your visit. We tried our best to keep track and we totaled about $1000 worth of meals. So if you are going, check this out. It saved us a chunk of cash and allowed us to eat some meals that we probably would not have eaten. The $25 Prime Rib at Boatwrights was especially good. :) I also learned not to ask for Ketchup at the Wilderness Lodge resturant.

Magic Kingdom

I don't know how they do it, but the Magic Kingdom never ceases to amaze me. I really think it is Disney's attention to detail that really draws you into their parks. Every waiting queue for every attraction is in some way decorated so that you want to check it out.

Disney / MGM

3 things really stood out to me at MGM:

1: The Lights,Motors, Action Stunt show. This was a really cool car/motorcycle stunt show and was very impressive.

2: The Tower of Terror. I went on the ToT in 1997 and it was fun, but apparently there was an upgrade in 2004 that added random drops. That made it much better!

3: The Rockin' Roller Coaster. Ok, the lamest name ever, but the best thrill ride at Disney. A linear induction coaster goes from 0-70ish in 2.8 seconds, and sends you into 3 inversions including a really nice corkscrew, and all in the dark with some blacklight scenery and Aerosmith blasting in your ears the whole time. mmmm fun!

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was a nice park. The safari ride was cool, some nice views of the animals. The River Rapids ride was good, but really short. The best ride there is definitely The Everest Expidition. So good drops and some good speed and some backwards coasting as well. I was a little surpised about the "kiddie ride" area it felt almost like a midway at a county fair. Some of the rides seemed like they were assembled that day. Strange for Disney.

Epcot

Epcot was fun as always. They have done a lot of updating. The Test Track ride was pretty good, especially when it goes outside for the banked curves. I took my 7 year old on the tame version of Mission: Space. I would like to go on the intense version next time.

We saw the afternoon main street parade, the Spectralmagic parade, the Illuminations show and the "Wishes" fireworks display. I think sitting in front of the castle watching Wishes was a real high point for everyone.

So all in all, it was a great vacation. I can't wait to go back.