Rebuttal to Milam

Fellow Swimmers--Senor Milam is such a font of disinformation that he should work for the CIA. Having said that:

I actually missed a personal best in the 50 free by 1/100th of a second, swimming 29.32. The rest of my times were slower than my younger years (pre-Stanford SCY at UCLA). But it was the 50 free in which I swam in the wrong lane. It was worse than Chuck made it out to be. The poor woman who belonged in my lane physically touched my arm to get my attention, but the starter blew the whistle at the same time for Swimmers Up, and I stayed up. I was DQ'd. The meet was run extraordinarily well, including placing the displaced swimmer in another heat so she could get a time. Only I was DQ'd.

Not to say anything nice about Chuck, but I can't help myself--he gets the good sport award. While Dan and Jen ran off to hang out with their SCAQ buddies, and while Mike remained unaffiliated, Chuck stayed with the three pitiful Magnums who showed up--Pat, Sue and me. The result--well, yes, Chuck is right, our medley relay team got a blue ribbon. And, in fairness, at least some of the teams in our heat were all men, and certainly they were all much younger. But here's what happened:

We designated Chuck our freestyle anchor. By the time we other three finished our 50's, the other teams had finished their entire relays. There stood Chuck, forlorn and alone on the block, still dry. I suggested to him that this might be a good time for all of us to slink away. But no, before a packed house of onlookers, this former USC All-American took off from the block and treated the audience to his lonely 50-yard sprint. The theretofore vocal and enthusiastic announcer tried to describe the action, but quickly gave up, leaving Chuck to swim in silence. It was a moment to remember.

Hallett's Horror

Before Marilyn and I left for our three-week tour to visit the lost INCA ruins and Royal Buildings called Machu Picchu, discovered in 1911, with steep terraces overlooking a u shaped river below, Jim explained to me that his hike up to the top of the mountain pictured below, the INCA Kings' Sacred Peak, Huayna Picchu, was the most terrifying hike of his life. He added that he had not hiked very far up the trail before absolute panic set in and he was forced to crawl down the rest of the way on his knees; it was so steep, narrow and slippery. This being said, I gave the mountain a lot of respect and, fortunately (for me) the wait in line to do the hike was far more time than our tour group had in our morning after visit (we did climb to the Sun Gate on the opposite side of Machu Picchu). The ruins were magical and mysterious to view.










Trail veers off to the right in the upper right portion of the pictures above and below, or two-thirds of the way to the top of the mountain.

Hallett's Delight

Following our visit to Machu Pichhu, we visited The Galapagos Islands, near the Equator and part of the country of Equador. It was on several of the islands that we were able to view Hallett's Delight, his favorite bird (did you know Jim is a Bird Watcher?), the Blue footed Boobie pictured below:






Feeding time: