Swimming Aquatic Park, San Francisco

I couldn't help but stop for this bumper sticker.  I've been struggling with the ups and downs of life lately, and knew it would be hard to get back in the water, and knew I needed to.  Here I am, just before 8 am Sunday morning with a couple of my swim gang headed over to the South End Rowing Club for a splash in Aquatic Park.  Where's that?  It's directly in front of Ghiradelli Square, looking towards Alcatraz.  It's just on the end of Fisherman's Wharf, at Hyde St Pier, down the block from the famous Buena Vista bar, where you can get the most famous irish coffee in the world.

Here's Aquatic Park, and just behind the tall ship, you can see Alcatraz.  What you can't see to the left is some low concrete bleachers and to the right, in front of the tall ship is the South End Rowing Club next to Hyde St Pier.

Here's my gang today.  A special bunch of guys.  Bunk, in the middle is one of our mid-western boys, about 75, and for the life of me, I can not catch him in the water.  That's my coach, Mike, to the right, and Fernando to the left.  Mike is an amazing fount of coincidences.  He knows everybody.  He remembers everyone.  He connects people.  It seems like he hardly talks, but is so easy to approach and chat with.  Simply, he enriches lives.  Lots of them.  Almost secretly helping us get closer to the people we want to be.  That's Fernando on the left.  A happy young man, who took up swimming and has lost I don't know.  I'll say 50 pounds?  That's our white van.  Mike makes coffee.  We meet at PCC in Redwood City at 7am.  Jump in, and away we go.  No muss, no fuss.

There's history for ya.  Oozing out of every corner of the SERC est 1873.  Imagine San Fran in 1873.  A couple decades after the gold rush.  A couple decades before the great earthquake of '06.  And here we are.  Using the same frigging club those early San Franciscans did.  Obviously, a lot of rowing goes on, as well as boat building, and quite a bit of swimming.  That glow in the back is looking out the back to Aquatic Park.

That's the locker room upstairs.  It's pure history.  You can almost feel the bodies from a century ago, meandering around telling jokes, and getting ready for a swim in the bay.

Post swim.  On the pier in front of SERC.  The blue and white building is the Dolphin Club.  I've never been in there.  It looks like it's got similar history.  These are the two I swam with.  Karen and Bunk, both swam my a*@ off.  At least Karen waited for me!  It was a great day.  Water temp was the warmest I've ever run into in the Bay at 63 degrees, totally flat, with a pretty strong flood current.  We did the big loop, inside the park, I would say about a mile.  I should have added to it, but Karen got out, and so did I, and I just couldn't quite get myself back in.

Jib Jab with Tim

I'll point out a couple things in this picture.  You can see a zodiac out there watching swimmers come in.  Between the dock and the Zodiac, you can see a neon orange swim cap of a swimmer in there.  In the middle of the picture is a new friend, I just met after the swim, sort of by accident.  I'd heard a terrible story about a local swimmer who did this amazing 9 mile swim from island to island in Hawaii. There was an organized relay event to swim across, and this guy swam the whole thing himself.  The horrible part of the story happened after 6 hours plus of swimming, he's about 200 yards from the shore, now able to see the sand on the bottom of the ocean, and some guy wasn't paying attention and had his boat in the finish area.  After much prompting to move, the boater finally gassed his engine, and John got pulled in by the prop, taking off his right arm and half his left hand.

Karen (on his left) knows him from Half Moon Bay.  She started telling me who he was, as I was asking him to take the picture above this one(see his coat sleeve bottom left?).  I saw his thumb bandaged, but didn't think my instant camera would be a problem, and less than a second later, as I reached out with my camera, I realized he didn't have a right hand and not much of an arm.  Before I could feel completely uncomfortable, he says, in the most positive way; I think I can do this, but if not, you can try someone else.  He's got two fingers that work on his non-dominant remaining hand.  His 'thumb' is actually built from a chunk of bone from his hip, that's still healing.  He takes a second picture because he notices he has his sleeve in the picture.  Boom.   Done.  Perfect pic.  So, instantly, the uncomfortable is gone.  He's talking like we're old friends, and all the tragedy he's lived through, that's changed his life dramatically, and so many others, is, well, just a part of life.  He's talking about his bone is infected.  He's working on getting some really cool prosthetics, if he can work with the insurance company.  All like it's just a part of life.  Wow.  I'm in awe of his spirit.  Feeling blessed to be standing next to him, and having a conversation.  He's inspiring.  

It wasn't 4 sentences in until he got to talking about how it all works swimming.  He's back in the pool. He says he doesn't have any catch with his hand, and he's talking about fixing his hand so he can swim.  I'm thinking, and trying to stay in the conversation, wait, what?  You swim?  You've got no arms, dude.  That does not compute!

And then I'm reminded of the bumper sticker above.

John, first time swimming, after.

John's story.

He calls it life after 615.  The 615 is 6hours 15 minutes, which is how long he swam before he hit the boat, and changed his life forever.  Everyone says he was an awesome guy before.  I didn't know him then, but I wonder if he's even more awesome now.

Welcome to Barcelona, Park de Montjuic

To catch your attention, this is the MNAC.  The exhibit highlighted is 1,000 years of art.  Wow.

This is Piscines Picornell sports center, home of the 1992 Summer Olympics.  This area is up on a hill, overlooking vast parts of the city.  That said, it's still not that popular of an area it seems.  It's winter.  Apparently there is work going on in the outdoor pool.  The other pool behind where I am standing is not in commission either.  I'm guessing the other pool is some sort of warm up area.  A few features I noticed here, aside from not having water;  The pool is DEEP, compared to what I'm used to.  It has infinity edges to cut waves.  Well, the perspective gives you an idea of what 50 meters looks like.

Although the outdoor pools were shut down, there is also an olympic pool indoors, shown here, with a view to the extraordinary MNAC, or Museu Nacional D'Art de Catalunya.  The sports center's an impressive center, and is in no way an attraction to tourists.  There is virtually nothing that says 1992 Olympics anywhere.  I was hoping to set a souvenir with the center name or olympic rings or something.  Nada.  They did have a swim shop, and I ended up getting a Catalunya cap, since Barcelona is the center for Catalunyans.  Spain, as I am learning, is comprised of several people, the Catalunyans being one, who would even like to be considered their own nation.

I've got to be careful visiting pools like this, or I won't want to go home.  I would say it's 8 feet deep or so, infinity edges, a ledge to stand on in the water, viewing level below water, and this vantage point is from a cafe overlooking the pool.  Shown, I would guess is around half the length, so maybe 30 lanes or so.  The far side are 2nd story windows of some of the workout rooms, and so on.  Yes, I did actually felt faster in the pool.  I ended up getting 3,000 meters, which felt absolutely great in so many ways.

Jib Jab with Tim

A few things.  As I said, this isn't a major attraction (strange yet fortunate!).  The downside is, there's very little on the web in English on schedules, logistics, etc.  I spent way too much time trying to figure it out, and finally just grabbed suit and goggles, and headed over.  For the next person, here's what I've found so far:

Piscones Piconnell Athletic Center

Open: 6:45am to 11:30pm.  

Cost:  About 5 Euros

What to bring: towel, shampoo/soap, lock for locker

Good news:  If you forget any of the above, you can purchase it there during certain times:

Turbo Store in the lobby:  10am - 1:30pm and 5 - 8 pm

Finding it:  This was a little complicated, but let's keep it simple.  Either get directions to the MNAC, and it's right behind it.  Follow the huge communications tower shown.  It's just in front of it.  To it's left is the main Olympic stadium, which I saw only from a distance.  There's other olympic venues around, not sure about the rest.

Metro:  Take the red line to Espana or Espania.  It's a big city circle area, and at the top of the hill you see the massive MNAC, and it's just behind.

The communications tower behind.  To give you perspective, it's about 100+ meters tall.  Really the most interesting communications towers I've ever seen.  The pool center is that on the right.  I know.  It doesn't look like much from this angle.

Sorry about the awkward angle!  Here's the only Olympic anything I saw.  The torch bearer and pedestal is about 20 feet tall, but sort of hidden along a path.

 This museum is absolutely huge, and a hint of my next post.  Suffice it to say, it's worth a visit.

Why Barcelona you ask?  It's where Mobile World Congress is hosted.  Some 50,000 - 60,000 attendees.

Sometimes it's hard to show size in photos.  This a a great example.  These two towers are about 5-6 stories tall.  In the extreme right lower corner you see the MNAC, a picture of it in the red access sign.

Last highlight for tonight.  Seems like a nothing picture.  Look again.  Two guys, headphones, video games.  Nice lamb cap on one, haircut on the other.  Elder women sitting next to them.  Photographer in the reflection.  This is the Metro.  Runs like clockwork.  Super efficient, very inexpensive.  Okay, final note.  Guy on left has tats on his hands.  See?  Love Hope across his knuckles.

Chengdu, China

Chairman Mao was the first chairman of communist China in 1949 through WWII and beyond.  Here he is in front of the Science and Technology Museum.  As it turns out, he was also a very good swimmer.

There is a huge amount of investment going on in Chengdu, into high technology.  Although we saw some historic sites, the pace of construction and magnitude of new buildings is mind-boggling. 

A building of this size in the United States would likely be the talk of the country.  They thought it was being built for high technology in Chengdu.  The government builds the facilities and brings in high technology companies to occupy the building.

Another high rise condominium building.  It's beautiful, and this photo highlights the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about.  The smog is dense everywhere.  I can see it getting thicker as the day wears on, although this was first thing in the morning.  Scary.

This is a teahouse we ate lunch at.  Chilly, but really pleasant.  It's not far from the center of town, and walking distance from our hotel.  This area is known for its spicy food, which we tried and really enjoyed.  Kung Pau chicken done like I'll never forget.  So full of flavor.  Eating here is an experience.  There is no hesitation to get fully immersed, including skin, bones, ligaments, organs, fat and meat.  Not for the dainty.

From left to right, Michael, Victor, and Tony, my travel partners.  Michael is on the sales team.  Victor is our interpreter.  Tony works with me, and lives in Boulder.  All three great people and a pleasure to travel with.

Temple in old part of city.  It's famous, I forget the details, but suffice it to say, a great place to get centered.  Buddhism has something going on.

Updating the Temple lanterns to compact fluorescent for the next 1,500 years.