Santa Cruz Haunted Tour

Last weekend, Kelly and I had an adventure.  We went on a Haunted Tour of Santa Cruz.

The adventure started when we saw an article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.  The article said that a new business was starting up, providing haunted tours of Santa Cruz.  It said the tours would be every Friday and Saturday night, originating on the Santa Cruz Wharf, on the deck behind the Ideal Bar and Grill.  The article also had a link to their website,  http://www.santacruzhauntedtours.com.

I went to the website and checked it out.   It turns out that the tour is a new business venture, started by a 16 year old girl, fascinated by history and stories of the macabre.  The more we read about the tour, the more excited we became.  We decided that come Friday, the first day of the tour, we should give it a try.

Friday night came around and both Kelly and I were tired.  I had just had a series of spinal epidural injections on Wednesday, and an MRI on Thursday.  It was cold outside, and neither of us really wanted to go into Santa Cruz.  We had both been so excited for this adventure that even though neither of us wanted to go, we both felt like we just  needed to go.  It turns out that we are really glad we went.

We parked the car and walked towards the Wharf.  We saw the little sandwich board sign and followed it to a young girl passing out handbills for the tour. She directed us to the starting point.  When we got there, there were not a lot of people.  It actually turns out that for the first tour, there was just Kelly and I, the girl who was handing out the handbills, the girl who started the business and her Mom and Dad.  We were joined shortly by out Tour Guide.

The Tour Guide was a young guy, maybe 20 years old, and obviously very nervous.  In all fairness, it was the first tour, so some nervous-nous was to be expected.  I explained that I was a little hard of hearing and asked him to speak loudly on the tour.  He welcomed us to the tour, promised to speak loudly, and off we went.

The tour walks down Front Street, then up Pacific Avenue, ending at the old Santa Cruz Mission.  Along the way, you hear spooky stories about the area.  You learn about murders, suicides, murder/suicides, tar and feathering, lynchings, and even stories from when Santa Cruz had several serial killers operating at the same time.  The stories are fun.  You don't even realize how far you are walking, as the tour stops for each story.

The only bad thing with the whole experience was at the end of the tour, you have to walk all the way back to wherever you left your car.  For us, that meant we had to walk from the Mission, all the way back to the Wharf, passing a lot of panhandlers, junkies and the shady characters that make Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz.  I don't worry too much about stuff like that, but I wouldn't want my wife to go by herself or with a couple of girlfriends. 

I would still have to give the Tour a big thumbs up!  It was fun, interesting, educational and did I say fun?  Check out their website, then give the Tour a try.  It is definitely a fun date.



 

The New Home Gym

Welcome to my new home gym.  I know it doesn't look super fancy, but let me tell youi about it......

When my fight gym closed, I was kind of bummed.  First we had gone from a cool converted warehouse to sharing space with a Karate school.  Finally, the fight gym closed.  I checked out a couple of  places around town, but nothing was clicking.  One of my training partners from the fight gym lives around the block from me.

One day, while walking the dog, I ran into him.  It turns out that his Uncle actually was the owner of the Karate school our fight gym had been sharing space with.  He said we should start hitting mits at the Karate school, a couple of times per week.  We started working out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, before Karate class.

That worked fine for a couple of months, but pretty soon, the Uncle decided we needed to start paying tuition to his school if we wanted to hit mits there.  Well, I couldn't see spending $60 per month to work out twice a week without any instruction. That's when my wife Kelly had a great idea.  She suggested I clean up the garage and we could train there for free.

Now I had never believed garages were made for cars.  Motorcycles, tools and fun guy stuff, yes, but never cars.  I pushed the bikes to the side (both bicycles and motorcycles), I moved some tools, I moved some boxes and pretty soon I had enough room that we could hit some mits.  Phase 1 was completed.

Phase 2 began almost immediately.  I need to start coming up with some other exercise stations.  I already had a heavy bag and I already had a personal boxing timer.  I also had a jump-rope, a carpet, a piece of memory foam, and some perfect push-up tools, and an old  milk crate.  From all this stuff, here is what I made.

Exercise station 1 - Jump Rope

Exercise station 2 - Push-ups using the perfect push-ups and the carpet

Exercise station 3 - Sit-ups on the memory foam (also leg lifts and toe touchers.)

Exercise station 4 - Box Jumps using the milk crate

Exercise station 5 - The heavy bag

Using these 5 stations, you can set the timer and rotate through these stations and get a great workout, at a great price.

Next Up - Phase 3.  Phase 3 will add some weights.  I keep checking Craigs List for either free or cheap weights.  I would like to add stations for Up-Right Rows, Dead Lifts and Military Press.  The way this is going, I may even give up my membership to Golds!

Now the invitation.  I'm looking for someone to train with me, a couple of days per week (not Tuesday or Thrusday) who would be willing to help me workout a good program.  If you want to give it a try, shoot me an e-mail or facebook me.  :-)

Happy New Year & The "Fight Gone Bad" Workout

Happy New Year! 

I'm sitting here on Sunday, January 2nd, contemplating  about going back to work tomorrow.  You see I've been off work since December 24th with a combination of Holiday and Furlough time.   As I stretch, I notice that the back of my thighs are still a little tight from a workout I did on Tuesday. 

On Tuesday, I went to visit Aaron.  Aaron was my Personal Trainer when I first had weight loss surgery.  He was also one of my Son's best friends, and actually like another one of my kids.  The guys is like a Son to me.  Earlier this year, Aaron and his wife opened up their own gym.  It'sa 4,500 square foot facility called Amity CrossFit and is located up in Palo Alto.

When  I got there I was just in time for their lunchtime class.  Today the workout was going to be the "Fight Gone Bad" workout.  Aaron tells the story about how the CEO of CrossFit was asked by  BJ Penn,  former UFC Lightweight Champion and UFC Welterweight Champion, to create a custom workout that would simulate a 3 round cage  fight.  Upon completion of this workout, the CEO asked  BJ how he felt.  The answer was it felt like " A Fight Gone Bad."

The workout consists of 3, 5 minute rounds.  Each round has 5 workstations.  1 minute rest between rounds.

Here is the workout:

Station 1 - 60 Seconds on the rowing machine
Station 2 - 2 Medicine Balls.  One placed on  the ground.  Start squatting above the ball, holding the other ball.  Stand up and shoot the medicine ball like a basketball against the wall.  Catch the ball.  Squat until you touch the ball on the ground.  Stand up and shoot the other ball.  Repeat for the 60 seconds.
Station 3 - Dead Lift up to an upright row.  With an Olympic bar and weights resting on the ground, do a dead lift.  Once the bar is at your waist, pull it up to your chin, keeping it close to your body.  Put the weight on the ground and repeat for the 60 seconds.
Station 4 - Jump Ups/Step Ups.  Standing in front of a 24" tall box.  Either Step up, one leg at a time then step down, or jump up onto the box and jump down.  Repeat for the full 60 seconds
Station 5 - Military Hybrid.  Using an Olympic bar resting on the ground, pick it up and do a military press.  Once you complete the first one continue cranking them out for the final 60 seconds.  Keep the bar close and use your legs to push the bar overhead.

Believe me, the workout is much harder than  it sounds.

If you are in the Palo Alto area and want a great workout, checkout Amity Crossfit,  Aaron will take good care of you, and be sure and tell him Uncle Rick sent  you!