Jon's Jibber-jabber

In February of this year, Kim and I took a cruise for our 5th wedding anniversary.  We took the cruise as an early anniversary trip.  Our actual date was a week or so later but pricing did not line up.  We got married around Valentine's Day and this year that weekend is also President's Day weekend so prices go up with everything Disney around those days.  We decided to take a quick 3-night Bahamian cruise from Port Canaveral on the Disney Magic.   We have done two other cruises with DCL (a 4-night on the Dream and a 7-night on the Fantasy) and we wanted to experience the "little" ships. The first thought when arriving to port was how small the ship actually looked compared to the port.  Small is a relative term, as the Magic is 984 ft. long with a gross tonnage (measure of ship volume not weight or displacement) of nearly 84,000 tons.  For comparison, the RMS Titanic was 882 ft. long with a GT of 46,300.  So we aren't talking about a ...

Every year on Thanksgiving weekend, I participate in the Space Coast Marathon.  Now only 2 hours away from us on the "other side" of the state, this has become a popular race due to a series honoring the retired space shuttles.  This was year 4 into the 5 year series.  This would actually be my fifth time participating in the race.  It was also the race's 45th anniversary, making it one of the longest running marathons in the US.  I prepared this year for the marathon by actually quitting triathlon for the fall.  I chose to focus on one sport with the hope of performing well at the marathon.  Read on to see how that worked out.  Race Week Race week was terrible.  Since Thursday before the race (Thanksgiving and my birthday), I was sick with a chest cold that spread itself to my head as well.  Coughing, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat and everything that goes with it was present for most of Friday and Saturday.  I p...