Weise's World

How does an Olympic silver medal look on Christian??
 


Yes, that is a real silver medal from the Olympics around his neck... This weekend as part of the Sierra Marlins he got to participate in an Open Water Clinic with Haley Anderson who took the Silver Medal in the Oympics and a Gold Medal in the World Championsips for Open Water Swimming. What a great end to his first week of practices with the Marlins!

 
 
 

 
    

Here's a new story that ran regarding the clinic (http://www.kcra.com/Gold-medal-winner-says-keep-it-fun/-/11798090/21732332/-/adq461z/-/index.html) --- if you watch in the backgroun you'll see a young man run from the right to the left --- that would be Christian... Then he returns in his speedo and plays in the water. So he got to wear an Olympic Medal and he got on the news --- in the same day!!
   

Steven Weise

01 September 2013

Christian is now a Sierra Marlin in the Black Group (thier first competitive group). What will happen next summer? Still don't know, will the allure of swimming Long Course (50m) meets win out swimming with all of his Sea Otter buddies? Only time will tell...

I did like the start to this weeks practices though - emphasizing the importance of praticing the right way. Christian is also going to learn to not take a breath on his breakouts (from starts/turns) the hardway -- if he keeps taking that breath that slows him down he'll be doing burpies   :)  Welcome to competitive swimming!
 

Steven Weise

27 August 2013

Throughout the summer months Christian spends most of his time swimming. We took the vacation to Idaho and he takes various field trips with his day care (some pretty good ones, like to Discovery Kingdom and Sunsplash). I always feel bad that we don’t do more and I don’t want him to regret swimming because he misses out on his vacation so after swim is over during the last week before heading back to school I try to give his summer vacation one last hurrah… In the past some last minute trips have included Circus-Circus in Reno and Discovery Kingdom.

This year, he had a blast his last week of vacation… It all started with grandma and grandpa on Monday taking him fishing at the pond here and then to the Sacramento Zoo followed by fishing and roller skating on Tuesday.

Now Wednesday I took Christian to do something I wanted him to experience --- horse riding. I wanted a true horse experience, not some pony ride. We heard about Equine Unlimited and it was perfect. A drop-in group lesson – my wishes were many to make this a complete experience, but my hopes and expectations were small. I’m glad to say that everything I was wishing this riding experience would be for Christian came true. Christian was introduced to Romeo and he was taught how to groom him before a ride and how to lead him around to the riding area. The instructors only gave instructions, they did not take charge of the horse – Christian (and the other kids) were in complete control. They quickly got on their horses, got some basic instructions on how to control the horse and then they walked around the arena. Christian did great, picked it up quickly and he moved into a larger arena where they started to teach him how to make the horse trot and stop. It was great when Christian rode his horse over toward me and I had to reach UP to hand him a drink of water while he sat proudly in the saddle. They finished the group lesson up with a short trail ride and as soon as Christian dismounted Romeo he asked if we could come back (and we have gone back already).

The fun doesn’t end on Wednesday though as on Thursday we got together with another buddy and after having Round Table for lunch we hit Surf XTreme to do some trampoline jumping, wake boarding and surfing… They had been there with their daycare and picked to return here to Surf rather than heading to Sky High. What fun!!

Finally we come to Friday/Saturday where we do an impromptu trip to the Santa Cruz area. It started as a Santa Cruz Beach/Beach Boardwalk trip, but Christian said he wanted to spend more time with me and didn’t want to ride a lot of rides (as noted, I’m not a rides person). So before we left we talked about changing the plans to include a shorter visit to the boardwalk and throw in a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium… Then while driving down to Santa Cruz I realized there was another place Christian talked about wanting to visit --- the Exploratorium. In the end we hit Exploratorium on our way down. A new location, parking is atrocious, same old Exploratorium. We arrived in the early afternoon, had lunch first and then went to get tickets from the back Kiosk. I guess not a lot of people do that as the employee had trouble logging in so we could make the purchase. In the end, he said it’s not our fault he’s having troubles, stamped our hands and let us in for free. Christian enjoyed all the hands on exhibits and had fun.

After the Exploratorium we hit the Santa Cruz area but it was too late to do anything. Continued on to Watsonville to find a hotel and everything was booked up!! Wow, we ended up finding one room available at the Holiday Inn Express Watersonville. More than I wanted to pay, but it was a room and it worked out well (included a pretty dang good continental breakfast).  

 Saturday, after breakfast, we hit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and, again, had a great time. We were there just two years ago but it’s still a fun place to visit. This time we saw the Penguin  feeding and the Open Water feeding (check out those sardines swarming in the picture!) amongst all the other exhibits… As we left Monterey and headed back up to Santa Cruz in the afternoon the fog lifted and the sun came so we finished the day by hanging out at the Santa Cruz Beach for a couple of hours, digging up sand crabs and playing football in the water and then hit the Beach Boardwalk for rides – including Double Shot, a 125 foot crazy fast frog jumper.

What a great way to finish up summer vacation!!

Steven Weise

18 August 2013

Decisions, decisions... That's what we have right now...

Christian had another great summer of swimming, he really loves the sport and he keeps improving. This was a down year with the Sea Otters as he was at the bottom of his age bracket (a 9-year old in the 9/10 age group) but he still swam well and I'm very proud of his improvments and on-going love for the sport. We also had some coaching issues this year, it was definitely a building year for the team and I believe things will get better next year.

Now the summer rec swim season is over and typically Christian swims in a Sierra Marlins clinic (the Marlins are a competitive year-round USA Swimming swim team that offers rec swimmers a clinic to give a small taste of what swimming on a USA Swimming team is like). This year when swimming was over and we discussed the clinic, Christian noted that sounds good, but can I swim MORE??
 
That led to discussions about JOINING the Marlins which led to his try-outs with the Marlins today. I'm proud to say they not only invited him to join the team they want him to consider signing up for the more competitive "Black" group... With soccer going on, we may not be able to commit to the Black group so we may have to join the Red group, we'll see. We've also discussed following a great coach to another year-round swim team that's about 30 minutes away, but I think Christian prefers swimming with the Marlins here in town.
 
Now we have choices to make for the Fall:
Marlins Clinic: Decent instruction, two swim meets - cost about $250
Marlins 2-day Red Group: Good instruction, better workout, 5 swim meets - initial cost about $450 (registration fee plus initial cost of equipment/apparel)   and on-going $85 per month
Marlins Black Group: Competitive swimming, good instruction, best workout, 5+ swim meets -  initial cost about $450 (registration fee plus initial cost of equipment/apparel)   and on-going $145 per month

One other big difference is the volunteer requirements... As a clinic swimmer you are not required to do volunteer shifts, though help is never turned away. I don't mind volunteering and do I my fair share with the Otters, but my work is mainly away from meets. I'm not sure that'll happen with the Marlins, I'll have to see how that'll work out.
 
For the first time he's not sure if he'll return to the Sea Otters next summer - he's always talked about swimming with them until he was 18, but I think he's growing as a swimmer and wants to improve and has taken notice that the coaching is better with the year-round teams. Depending on what we decide to do he'll have another big decision to make as February rolls around...

Ugh, change is good and this would be a good change I just don't know if I'm ready for truly competitve sports. And now he's talking about wanting to try competitive soccer next year too... I don't know that I can handle it all!!

 

Steven Weise

21 August 2013

Our main vacation this year took us up to Idaho to join friends at a house in Hope, Idaho along Lake Pend Oreille. Over 1,000 miles to get there travelling north through California and Oregon (9 hours), then heading east along the Columbia River (3 hours) and then north to Spokane (2.5 hours) and then cutting over to Idaho (2 hours)… The trip was nice for the first 10 hours and the last 2.5 hours --- but those 4 hours in the high plains region of Oregon and Washington --- UGH! Of course, we didn’t drive it all in one day, we took 2.5 days getting there (we left the evening after a swim meet!!) and two days coming back home. But if you know me then you know I don’t like any areas that have the words “grade” or “pass” or “summit” when combined with “elevation” signs and I don’t like areas that include the large power generating windmills – both of which were part of this trip!! But we survived the trip. More about the trip home below.

The house we stayed at was great! Three stories, great view of the lake and trees off the back porch, home theatre, fire pit, hot tub, etc… Definitely relaxing to sit outside in the evenings and chill out. The weather was fantastic, we went over the 4th of July week when the hot spell hit and Folsom was near 110 degrees --- Idaho was in the low 90s and the 80s. Perfect!

Tuesday we spent at Silverwood theme park and Christian was on cloud 9… He loved the Panic Plunge but the highlight was Aftershock! A hanging roller coaster that brings them up nearly 200 feet – facing straight down, then launches them down at 65mph into crazy loops, corkscrews and turns pulling up to 4.5Gs and brings them up another 200 foot tower so they are facing straight up --- and then they do it all backwards. Check out this YouTube video of the ride... We also spent time in the waterpark, it was fun day for everyone.

 

 
    

Wednesday we spent the day in Sandpoint (little town on the north shore of the lake similar to Nevada City) and enjoyed the various small shops and spent time at the City Beach. The lake appears to be primarily a basic boating and fishing lake with limited water activities. Everyone we met and talked with were extremely nice and welcoming. Thursday was the fourth of July and the little town of Hope, population 86, put on a great fireworks show over the lake – over 20 minutes long!! We camped out there next to other families from the area and lit off some fireworks with them, tossed the football around and made some new friends.

Friday we travelled to Coeur d’Alene - The largest city in northern Idaho and apparently known for golfing, though it is on Lake Coeur d’Alene and known for being a lake city. We spent time exploring the various shops and hanging out at the lake. The lake here was a lot more active then Lake Pend Oreille was. Sea planes, para-sailing, tubing, skiers, jet skis/wave runners, etc…

I was on the lookout for wildlife, especially Moose. I never saw one, but I did get a QUICK glimpse of what I believe to be a bald eagle and then we saw a magnificent deer near the house. 

Saturday we hit the road home, taking time to enjoy the better parts of the drive home. We stopped at several waterfalls (Horsetail Falls, Multnomah Falls and third one) near Portland, a great stopping point to enjoy Mother Nature.  

Sunday we completed the journey home driving through the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. Another fun stop where you get to walk through a zoo (including a bird cage you can go into and interact with the parakeet’s and other small birds – I had one crawl through my shirt trying to find a spot to nest)… We got home later at night having enjoyed the past 9 days with family and friends.

Steven Weise

14 August 2013