Open Class Pinewood Derby

Our Ward (church congregation) had an open-class pinewood derby last week.

That meant NO BSA rules and NO weight limits. Our hope was that everyone would have an enjoyable time together as families building their cars in whatever fashion they wanted. One car kit was given to each family along with a set of simple open-class rules:

1. No combustion or flames of any kind. 
2. No harmful, irritating or odorous gases or fumes.
3. Cannot damage or mar the track in any way.
4. May not impede an opponents car in any way.

Participants will have approximates 5 seconds to place the car on the track before going to the observation area. You may not physically touch the car once it is placed on the track. 

So basically...anything goes!

We also had a tailgate themed potluck dinner, so those who didn't want to make a car could still come, eat, watch and cheer!

Unfortunately, Adam and I were unable to assemble our vehicle during the weeks before the race. So we didn't have time to implement a strategy for adding extra thrust to our car like some of the other participants. But we ended up with a decent, gravity driven, double decker bus in the three hours before the event! (Adam assembled it and painted it red, and then I hastily added the details. We'd like to thank our sponsors, Liz Claiborne, Calvin Klein, and Cuisinart for helping us with the finishing touches.)

The weight of our double decker pushed our vehicle down the track, but the aerodynamics slowed it down on the straightway. So it was decent, not the slowest, not the fastest. CLICK HERE to see the vid.

All kinds of cars showed up. There were several with some kind of propellant attached. One went so fast it flew off the track and then exploded apart as it cartwheeled across the gym! It was AWESOME! There was a lot of cheering and clapping from all of us. Unfortunately, because the car was destroyed it could only race that one time. I talked to the family who built it, they were totally fine with the outcome and were excited about its performance and are already working on improvements.

There were other simple cars just like ours and it worked out alright. Everyone was a good sport and the kids enjoyed staying put and watching the races. There were no awards and no ultimate winner (This was HEAVILY debated during a meeting. But the decision was a good one—it made the event relaxed and FUN versus highly competitive and strict.)

Car registration was simply adding your name to a bowl. We drew three names at a time and those three raced. And then drew three more etc. When all the names were used, we put them back in the bowl and started again. So everyone had a chance to race their car three times. And because it was completely random, and no scores were kept, each time a car raced it had the opportunity to win. (In the future we will divide the car registrants into two groups (gravity propelled vs. unmodified propelled) so the opponents are better matched in speed.)

After that we opened up the track for call-outs. Anyone could call out any opponents to race them on the track. It was fun to see who decided to be rivals.

Marla and Lex made a car with a remote controlled propeller engine on top. CLICK HERE for a vid. See their car on the right.

Compressed air anyone? Lysha and Reed ordered 3-d printer parts to make their car work. CLICK HERE for the vid.

This one was propelled itself down the track quite nicely. (Sorry, due to unknown technical difficulties the vid wouldn't upload.) Well done friends, Ali and Jed, well done!

We took a vote later to see if this activity was successful enough to hold it again next year. And it looks like we will! I'm pleased—and relieved—that people enjoyed it and were all good sports.

I'm convinced now that everyone has seen what's possible, next year we'll have a larger number of vehicles enter the propelled driven category...and we'll probably need net at the end of the track to catch the ones that go flying off it!
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Staycation Anniversary

The NYLO Hotel is an industrial modern hotel Adam worked on when he first started out as an Assistant Project Manager. The building was completed in 2009 and we were excited to finally try it out this year for our anniversary.

Of course since Adam was involved—I was privy to all kinds of fun and overly detailed information. (For example...the brick walls arrived already stacked in panels and simply lifted into place. Hmm.)

We had a good time. The pool was nice. The beds were totally comfy and it was fun to stay in a different and instagramable kind of hotel. 

Happy Anniversary Adam, being married to you has been a total blast!

Above: Errrr....ummm.......I mean, what does one use if it's NOT an emergency?

We had plans to go to King Spa, for ya know, spa stuff and food but half the amenities were closed. We decided to go shopping (clothes, house interior, and rocks for landscaping) and then have our usual sushi instead. So things didn't quite go according to plan—but that's totally fine. As long as I'm with my One-and-Only life is good!

Cruise 2017

Ahhh...a much prettier ship this welcomed us year.

We always try to get our timing right so that we miss the spring break crowd. But this year, we unexpectedly hit Mexico's spring break! All announcements were in Spanish and English. All conversations around us were in Spanish and even the ship music was of our southern friends' taste. It gave us a very different experience than we were expecting.

Finally on the cruise ship, underway, and still answering work email? Silly Adam.

This ship had a couple of waterslides! I liked this one. It shot us out almost straight down. And then on our way up the wall we thought we were going to hit the edge with our feet. But no. It was quite a thrill!

On deck every day a server walked around with a fruity "Drink of the Day." You could either get it with a shot of alcohol (usually rum) or not. I loved it! I tried all of them. And the nice thing...the virgin version was inexpensive. A much better deal than the virgin drinks on Carnival. (Below: the Master Card drink...basically strawberry and mango.)

 First stop: The island of Roatan, Honduras.

We took a taxi to the other side of the island to spend some time on the beach—it was our only beach day. We had a great driver who took us to the least crowded part of the beach and he introduced us to his friend who took us out snorkeling for an hour at only $15 bucks a head. An excellent price that offered up GREAT snorkeling.

Below is our beach set-up.

 

From my photos you can't tell how awesome the snorkeling was. (No worries, the camera has officially been fired. For the third year I was sorely disappointed in the quality of images and even worse with the video. Gah! (Should a GoPro be on my list...? Surely. Surely it should.)

Have you seen these new snorkeling masks? Both Adam and Marla slapped down the money and tried them this year. Adam was VERY pleased with his. He said it makes snorkeling much easier and you never get water in your mouth.  Both he and Marla say it's worth the price and it took the anxiety of snorkeling completely out of the equation.

Below: As we swam passed these people I had a good chuckle. This is how NOT to snorkel.

Below is the view from our seats before the beach filled up with tourists and vendors. (Very close to Fosters West Bay.) Ugh, the vendors were extremely annoying here. I don't mind saying no to each person once. But I don't want to say no every single time the same person passes me throughout the day. No way.

 We walked down the beach until we couldn't go any further. This is Tabyana beach.

I didn't realize Belize was a tender port (the ship doesn't dock near shore so you have to take a tender in and spots are limited.) People who have scheduled excursions are first off the ship. We didn't do an excursion so we didn't get off the boat soon enough to find one within our timeframe. I was REALLY hoping to go cave tubing. But instead we took a tour through the city and into the jungle to feed wild monkeys. I don't recommend it. Belize is not a lovely city with a lot of drug related crime and the monkey thing was meh. But hey.

Above: Cashew and its fruit. (The fruit is above, the nut grows at the bottom.) We tasted the fruit, pretty good! Below: There's a tiny baby on this mama.

The monkey was cute! It wrapped it's tiny little hands around my fingers and pulled my hand up to its face so it could eat.

We took a short walk through the jungle, it was so hot! And I got bit several times in a neat little line on my tummy too, and by who knows what. How fun, I love souvenirs!

Back on the ship we played a lot of Farkle.

I'm always worried I'm going to loose my wedding ring at the beach—so I finally decided to go ahead and buy a vacation ring—talked the other girls into it too! I love it!

Next up Cozumel. This was our second time here—for our visit this time, we took a water taxi inland to see the ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum. I was excited and curious. I hadn't even made time to do any research so I had no expectations.

The campus was amazing! I wish we'd had more time to explore. To my disappointment we didn't have time to get close to many of the structures.

 Iguanas were to be seen EVERYWHERE.

We had a cute little tour guide. (He reminded me of my Grandpa C.) He came with a lot of information, was friendly, and was prepared with printed illustrations. The history of the people was interesting to hear, especially when combined with some context we get from the Book of Mormon (which also is a historical record a well as testament of Christ). Very cool.

I panned over the area with my camera, click here for a short view. Password: hellotulum

A lovely beach was just on the other side of the ruins. Alas...we ran out of time and didn't go down for a quick dip.

 And then...back to the boat.

We finished things off with fancy dinners, leisure time...

 ...and a movie on deck. Can you guess which one? Mom? This is the very beginning.

Again, it was a lovely, lovely trip!

I usually put together a slideshow including photos from our friends—then we all get together and watch it a week or so after getting back. It's always fun. A lot of the images are repeats from my post but if you'd like to see it anyway click here and enter the password: cruising2017