SUP.

A month or so ago, I found a great deal on BuyWithMe for a standup paddleboarding (SUP) tour for two for $63. Michael and I redeemed the coupon on Saturday. SUPs are basically like large surfboards that you can stand up and paddle on. You can always sit on it and paddle too, if you're tired of standing.

We drove out to Chesapeake Beach, MD for a very early 7:30AM tour... and it takes an hour to get there.


View Chesapeake Beach, MD in a larger map


We arrived at the marina, and Camille met us there to start the tour -- just us and the tour guide! We paddled around the marina and down a little river for a while to get used to the feel of the paddle boards. The scenery was beautiful, with egrets and blue herons. Apparently the early morning tour was so highly recommended to me because of all the wildlife to see at that time of the day. It was quite warm, but the breeze coming off the ocean kept us cool.

Once we had fully acclimated to using the paddle boards, we paddled out to the bay. The movement of the water took a bit of getting used to, but it's a lot of fun. We got to go pretty far out in the bay and got a great view of the coastline. We finished up the tour by paddling up to a beach, and Camille had a wonderful breakfast prepared for us as part of the package. I definitely want to try SUPing again.

Apparently Chesapeake Beach used to be a very popular vacation destination for DC-ers, but the railroad that used to connect it with D.C. no longer runs. There's actually only one hotel in the area which burnt down around the time the railroad stopped running (it's rebuilt now), so that didn't help either. I would really consider this to be a great little getaway from the D.C. area -- it's relatively close, has a great beach, and is a very cute, quiet little town. Plus, you can try SUPing and kiteboarding through YK Kiteboarding.

Rockhopper Penguins in Rehab

Have you ever wondered what is actually involved in cleaning up after an oil spill? I found this slide show on the BBC News website to be very interesting. I hadn't even heard about this recent oil spill!

According to Wikipedia:
On March 16, 2011, the Maltese-registered freighter MS Oliva ran aground on Nightingale Island, spilling tons of heavy crude into the ocean. The crew was rescued, but the ship broke up, leaving an oil slick that surrounded the island, threatening its population of rockhopper penguins.  Nightingale Island has no fresh water, so the penguins are being transported to Tristan da Cunha for cleaning.

Stupid Birds

Well, I had an earlier post about Angry Birds... and now I am mad at some stupid birds, so I guess this is an appropriate follow on to my previous post.

Yesterday morning, I woke up to some especially loud bird calls. At 6AM. This was obviously not pleasant for me, and it sounded like there were a million birds outside of my window. I'm assuming they were on their migratory route for the spring, but they could have been a bit more courteous. Tossing and turning in bed for about an hour, I finally gave in and got up. Stupid birds.

As I go outside to my car for my morning commute, I notice that the birds decided to sit in the tree that hangs right over my car. I'm sure I don't have to go into detail about how disgusting my car looked -- you can just imagine that for yourself. The windshield was covered, to the extent that the windshield washer fluid wasn't really that effective... so I just looked between the splats of bird poo to drive. I'm sure that everyone on my way was looking at my car wondering what in the world happened and why I hadn't washed it, but oh well.

I arrived at work and decided that a car wash was completely necessary. On my lunch break, I went to one of those automatic car washers. Sadly, my $10 was almost completely wasted -- barely effective at all. I got back to Goddard (where I work), and the security guys at the gate made a comment about my car... Apparently they had noticed how horrible it looked when I left, and they told me I should go get it washed. Even though I just had it washed 2 minutes before that! They also recommended that I not park in the spot where it happened again, but it is right in front of my house, so that's not really feasible. This is still a relatively new car, so I would like to keep it nice. But I definitely wasn't willing to waste another $10 to go through the wash again. I don't know what those birds have been eating, but this is not normal. Stupid birds.

Angry Birds

I'm not sure what is so incredibly special about it, but it seems that Angry Birds has become sort of a phenomenon for smart phones and ipods. Over the last few months, I have had multiple people tell me how great this game is and how I should try it out. Apparently it is one of the most popular games available from iTunes. So basically the whole point of all the levels of the game is to use a slingshot to fling these angry birds at their nemeses, these weird pig-like things, and blow them up.

While I normally do not get into these sorts of game crazes (I refused to give in to the Farmville stuff on Facebook), for some reason I decided I was bored enough to download Angry Birds on my iPhone (the free version, mind you -- I never buy apps!). Because Michael and I normally laugh to ourselves as to why these sorts of things become so addictive to people, I think he really was shocked to see me playing Angry Birds. He thinks it will rot my brain or something. Well, thankfully, I did not become a zombie. I played the game whenever I was bored and had a few extra minutes, and now I've finished the game over the last few weeks. I will admit that my little social experiment did show me that Angry Birds is kind of a fun game to play, but I still don't have a desire to purchase the full version. I guess I was just kind of curious to find out what it was about this game that got everyone so hooked. Maybe it's the cute little bird and pig characters, but I really have no idea -- and maybe I'll never really understand what makes some people want to play this game in particular. But at least Michael can be happy reading this post and knowing that I am finally done with that game he hates so much!