http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/ en-us Copyright 2009 Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:14:14 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification
Jen lives two doors down from me.  She & I have been running together for about 3 years now.  Usually a 5K around the neighborhood,  but we've also done a half-marathon together. While training for the half-marathon last summer,  Jen decided she really wanted to do a triathlon, but she's not comfortable swimming, so she looked for and found one that allowed us to compete as a team. 

Suzy, who recently joined our book club (I'll have to do another post on that sometime) is a swimmer.  So that seemed perfect.  Suzy agreed to do the 1/2 mile swim in the lake.  Now all  Jen & I had to figure out who was running and who was biking. So after several biking outings we decided Jen was the stronger biker, and that was our team.

We entered the Hollidaysburg YMCA triathlon as the team "Sure, We'll Tri" and finished with an official time of 1:44:20.  I was a very, very humid day. So my own time on the 5K was not as good as I'd hoped for.  I really do wilt in humidity.  But Jen came through with a 50 minute bike ride and we were expecting closer to an hour, given the nasty hills on the course.  And Suzy's swim time was just about where we expected.  All in all, even though we came in 2nd out of the two teams in our age division, we were pleased with the day.  And most importantly we had a great time.  We're already trying to recruit even more people to get a bunch of teams of folks we know to give it a shot next year.


]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/08/sure-well-tri.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/08/sure-well-tri.html running triathlon Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:14:14 -0500
We also spent time at the Garden Railroad Convention, and got some ideas for a new garden railroad here at this house.  We planned to put one it shortly after moving (you can see photos of the old one on my personal website), but still haven't gotten around to it.

All in all, we loved the sightseeing and the time spent with relatives.



]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/royal-gorge-and-pikes-peak.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/royal-gorge-and-pikes-peak.html Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:07:56 -0500
Downtown Golden has a quilt museum.  This was a stop I wanted to make with my Mom, the quilter.  They did indeed have great quilts,  but I was amazed at how few there were.  I expected it to be bigger.  I think I've seen more quilts in little shops in PA than here at the "museum."

 


]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/more-around-golden.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/more-around-golden.html Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:54:15 -0500
With my parents we toured the Red Rocks Amphitheater, the Quilt museum in Golden, the Buffalo Bill Museum and Lookout Mountain.

Red Rocks Amphitheater is an amazing place,  and I really wanted to see a show while we were here in Colorado,  but it just didn't work out.  The only night that there was an event that we had free was the 4th of July.  Blues Traveler was playing for the 4th and I really like Blues Traveler.  Opening for them was Lewis Black.  I think he's one of the funniest comedians out there these days.  However,  I would have my teenage daughter along.  Now,  I know she knows the F-word,  and I don't usually think of myself as a prude --  but somehow paying for a show where I know she's going to here that word repeatedly,  and I do mean repeatedly (for those of you who've ever seen Lewis Black, you know what I'm talking about) just didn't feel right.  I guess you can never stop being a Mom!

But the theatre was cool in an of itself and Dad even walked all the stairs in the amphitheatre.  When we arrived there was a fitness class in progress and folks were running the stairs.  Inspired, I started to run to the top myself.  About 20 rows from the top though,  I gave out (I think there were about 80 rows).  I also gained a deep respect for the folks in that class!


]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/coors-brewery-rock-rocks.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/coors-brewery-rock-rocks.html Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:12:19 -0500 see my photos).  We walked around the park.  I got a note from a friend that she used to use the park trails as her running trails when she used to live out here.  How lucky!

There were rock climbers too.  Although after having climbed on granite the day before I was amazed that these people would want to trust the very soft sandstone for climbing. Clearly they were both more experienced and more trusting than I am.

After GotG, we headed to see Seven Falls (still in Colorado Springs).  Seven Falls is the 2nd highest waterfall in the U.S.  The highest being Yosemite Falls which we saw a few years ago.  It's acutally seven small falls one after the other to create one very high one. The coolest thing about this one was the stairs.   We've seen a lot of waterfalls over the years,  and each time we get to do something a little different.  At Niagra Falls, we took the Maid of the Mist boat and got sprayed,  at Cucumber Falls in PA,  the kids walked behind the falls,  in Yosemite they hiked right up to the base and played in the water, here was got to take stairs the entire length of the falls to the top.  That's what I said - stairs - 224 of them.  But worth every step.
]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/garden-of-the-gods-seven-falls.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/garden-of-the-gods-seven-falls.html Colorado Springs Garden of the Gods waterfalls Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:14:06 -0500
We can all now climb, belay, and rappel. Plenty of photos for you to look at.
]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/rock-climbing.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/rock-climbing.html Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:08:26 -0500
It is a beautiful old hotel, in the ballroom were two grand pianos,  Brandon sat down at one and just started playing.  He started to draw folks in, because he really is pretty good.  The dining room manager came over and pulled the door closed a bit so that people from the restaurant couldn't see into the ballroom.  He told me he hoped people would think it was a ghost playing the piano.  A ghost playing Coldplay, Five for Fighting, and Foreigner,  yeah right!

Brian hated the fact that the rooms weren't air conditioned, but I didn't find it too bad. I loved the wicker furniture on the expansive front porch, that overlooked the lake and had a great view of the mountains.  I spent most of the night just relaxing and reading on the porch.

Photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhallberg/sets/72157621234773173/
]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/estes-park-the-stanley-hotel.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/estes-park-the-stanley-hotel.html Brandon Estes Park piano playing Stanley hotel Steven King Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:51:49 -0500
After meeting my brother and sister-in-law, their granddaughters (my grand-nieces) and my sister-in-laws parents,  we all piled into two vehicles and left Denver headed for the mountains.  We crossed the continental divide at Berthold Pass and the kids threw snowballs at each other.

We spent the night at Shadow Mountain Lake/ Grand Lake.  the town of Grand Lake is a great little town. We went through the Kauffman museum in town.  I figured that this Ezra Kauffman may have been related to my Kauffman's back along the line.  (I'll have to look him up when I get back home). 

We all seem to like waterfalls a lot, so we took a short hike to Adams Falls on Monday, and I planned a longer hike (6.8 miles) on Tuesday to Cascade Falls in RMNP (elevation maybe 8500 ft.)  for just the four of us. (Greg's crew having gone back to Denver.) The falls were wonderful,  but hiking in the Rockies just isn't the same as hiking in PA.  The combination of altitude and a cold had Gretchen gasping for breath.  Poor kid,  but she's tough and she's a trooper.  However the 1 mile hike that I had planned for the day at 12,000 ft.  had to be cancelled.  We did at least get out of the car and took lots of photos.

As we drove up the mountain, Gretchen at first couldn't believe that the road went above the tree line.  Then when we got there she was very dismayed to see snow BELOW us.  "That's just not right."

In the park, we did get to see lots of wildlife.  We saw two moose while hiking to Cascade Falls, and many herds of elk along Trail Ridge Road.  We also saw marmots (sort of like a groundhog) and pikas (squirrel-like).  The only thing that I had hoped for but didn't get to see were bighorn sheep. 

Anyway, our trip through the park concluded at Estes Park.  More on Estes Park later....

Photos are on Flickr at : http://www.flickr.com/photos/nhallberg/sets/
]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/rocky-mountain-national-park.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/rocky-mountain-national-park.html Kids Travel altitude hiking kids Rocky Mountain National Park waterfalls Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:02:43 -0500
As I write this we're on vacation in Denver and have tickets to a Rockies game in a few days.  It used to be that I didn't like baseball at all but after 14 years of having at least one child playing ball,  I find the game is starting to grow on me.  However,  I think it's stil safe to say that I'll take a book along to the Rockies game on Monday.
]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/softballbaseball.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/07/softballbaseball.html Kids Sports baseball Colorado Rockies kids softball Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:52:11 -0500 View image

The perfect vacation for all involved.  Baseball for Brian & Brandon. Parasailing for Gretchen and Nancy and everyone enjoyed the beach.

You can see all the images at my Flickr site. 

The whole family went to a Pirates vs. Red Sox game in Bradenton. I seem to have a special ability to make baseball games go into extra innings. Probably because I don't really enjoy baseball. You see, the only thing I enjoy about baseball is sitting outside on a lovely day.  So... I'm willing to take a book, and sit and read while my family watches the game.  This extra inning knack of mine, though, has become legend in my family.  Brian has season tickets to the Spikes and I go to only one or two baseball games per year--always extra innings. This game was no exception. Final score 15-14 in 10 innings. So I had to sit at yet another prolonged game while my family just laughed.

Brian & Brandon went to a Phillies game later in the week.  Gretchen and I took a pass and spent more time on the beach. I wasn't going to risk extra innnings again so quickly!
]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/03/st-pete-beach.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/03/st-pete-beach.html parasailing spring training baseball St. Pete Beach Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:00:24 -0500
And so begins my story of flying to Tampa and back for spring break. I happily booked my flights through a website. Of course, the web site gave a a few choices, but for the best price/time combination I chose Harrisburg, PA to Chicago and Chicago to Tampa, FL.   This is a route no self-respecting bird would ever take.  I can just imagine the kind of Hitchcockian revolt by "the birds" to any navigator that would lead them on such a circuitous route. So despite being some 800 miles out of the way, I booked my flights and was ready to go. 

Since the flight left at 6:30 a.m., we spent the night in a hotel near the airport, got up at 4 a.m. to be at the airport at 5:00 -- must leave time to get through security, etc... Arrive and have smooth sailing through security, by 5:20 we're at the gate with an hour to kill. By 5:45, they are begin to post delays for our flight. The traveler beside us, a woman with clearly negative opinions about this airline in the first place, asks how you can be delayed already first thing in the morning.  My answer,  two things - weather or mechanical problems and the weather is fine.  So,  I believe I'll wait for them to fix the plane, thanks. We have some time before our connection, the 45 minute delay posted will make it tight but still no worries. Then comes the announcement that the plane needs a new tire,  and there isn't one at the airport, they must have one driven up from Washington, DC.  The new estimated time for the flight to leave is 10:00 a.m.

At this point, several things go through my mind.  1)  There isn't another tire to fit this airplane any closer than Washington?  Are you kidding me?  2) You ARE an airline, surely you could get one here flying faster than driving,  and most importantly 3) this means we will miss our connection entirely,  we need to be re-booked.  The best United can do is offer us a Harrisburg to Charlotte, NC - Charlotte to Tampa flight on US Airways that gets us there at 5:00 p.m.(four hours later than originally planned).  Washed away are my hopes of spending the afternoon on the beach; but at least the completely southern flight path appeals to my aesthetic sense.

Our new plane to Charlotte doesn't depart until noon.  I'm so glad I got up at 4 a.m. to spend 7 hours in the Harrisburg airport! So Gretchen watches a DVD of The Dark Knight, Brian pulls out magazines, Brandon & I pull out books, and we wait.  The new flight that's supposed to leave at noon starts posting delayed.  We cringe. We finally depart 45 minutes late, this cuts our one-hour layover in Charlotte to 15 minutes.  By the time we de-plane in Charlotte, we have 10 minutes to get - you guessed it - to the other end of the airport.  So we begin our 1970's -style OJ run through the airport.  (For those of you who need some background here - OJ Simpson before running from the law made a famous commercial for Hertz that had him running through an airport hurdling luggage to make a flight). I'm the next to last person to board,  the guy behind me clearly hadn't run a marathon recently.

And at last arrival in Tampa.  Since we barely made the plane in Charlotte, I figure it's a given that the checked baggage did not. Correct. Luckily, most of what we needed was in the carry-ons.  Beach towels and beach gear were in the checked luggage, but what the hell, we'd missed the afternoon at the beach anyway. The luggage arrived at the hotel just before midnight -  hours after we'd all fallen asleep from such a long day.

See the next post for the fabulous time we had once we actually arrived at our destination. 

This posting however, remember, is titled travel hell.  With one day of travel hell under our belts the return trip surely could only be as bad as, say, purgatory, right?  Wrong. Can you say repeat.  Long story short, initial flight delayed, connecting flight cancelled.  So, new airline, new route.  New intial flight now leaving 2 1/2 hours later than original.  AND the rebooked initial flight is also delayed, causing yet another run through yet another airport to try to make the tight connection.  Finally arrived home at about 2 a.m. this morning.

 




 


]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/03/travel-hell.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/03/travel-hell.html airline delays Florida trip travel Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:42:18 -0500
Gretchen is nearly done with her gymnastics season.  She's not done quite as well at Level 5 as she did last year as a Level 4 competitor, but she's qualified for sectionals, and we're quite proud of her.  You can catch some of her gymnastics photos on my Flickr site.


]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/03/spring-update.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2009/03/spring-update.html Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:32:30 -0500
Yesterday I and several friends ran the Philadelphia Marathon.  For Jeff & Allan's impressions you can listen to their Running with the Pack podcast. Stevie, Anita, & I all stayed together throughout the entire race. Out time was slow but we enjoyed ourselves. During the race,Stevie kept sending updates to twitter and photos to Flickr. I also sent a few texts and even had two phone conversations while on route.  Obviously, experience was our focus and not time.

I'd like to take a moment to thank the spouses, Anita's in-laws, and my aunt & uncle for being along the route to support us.  We had folks we knew cheering us in person at the start, mile 6, mile 9 1/2,  mile 13, mile 20 and the finish.  AND we had virtual cheerleaders in our pockets.  Seriously, the twitter community was terrific,  they kept sending tweets all throughout the race to encourage us.

Lastly,  I'd like to share my favorite story of the day, and tell Anita & Stevie that we set PW's yesterday. (What's a PW, read on...).  Jeff and Allan both set Personal Records yesterday, meaning their best race time ever and known as PR's in the running world.  When the text messages came in from Allan and Jeff with this news, we were at about mile 22 or 23.  And as Stevie and I were talking about how happy we were for our friend's PR, the man next to me who was definitely over 60, possibly over 70, said: "I won't get a PR today, but I'm going for a PW.  That's NOT a personal worst -- it's a personal WORTH!"


]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2008/11/philadelphia-marathon.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2008/11/philadelphia-marathon.html philadelphia marathon running Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:45:28 -0500 ]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2008/11/everybodys-got-a-scrapbook-dea.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2008/11/everybodys-got-a-scrapbook-dea.html cults hobbies scrapbook Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:09:50 -0500 And no, I'm not singing the song from Evita.  I'm talking about how I adored flying trapeze lessons.  Over the weekend Gretchen and I went into New York City and took lessons at the Trapeze School of New York.  While you can't really consider lessons a competition, Gretchen will be the first to point out that she "won."  Of course, she did.  The gymnast had good form, she could do all the skills nearly perfectly the first time, and she did the catch at the end.  I, on the other hand, had great difficulty - hurt my ribs, banged my shins, and wrenched my back.  Damn, it sucks, getting older!  I used to be able to do this stuff!  I remember swinging fly-away dismounts off the swingset trapeze as a kid.  Anyway, I managed the back tuck dismounts but was never able to set up for a catch. At least the swinging from on high and the back tucks were a lot of fun.

It was a nice mother-daughter day that turned into an all mothers-daughters day when I met up with my aunts and cousins later in the day.  We all shopped a bit, had dinner in the city and then everyone had to head back home.

]]> http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2008/11/high-flying-adored.html http://www.personal.psu.edu/ndw1/blogs/what_the_hallberg/2008/11/high-flying-adored.html mother-daughter New York City trapeze Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:58:35 -0500