The Gondola Ride

Another great weekend has come and gone. This weekend Lisa and I used one of the Christmas presents that she gave me. When Alycia and Lisa went to Italy for Alycia's graduation present one of the things that they did was go for a gondola ride in Venice. I guess she had so much fun that she wanted to take me for a gondola ride right here in San Diego. I didn't even know that they had gondola rides here. Saturday night was the perfect night for it too. It was pretty dark but hopefully the camera did well enough that you can get a feel for what a peaceful and romantic night that it was. The moon nearly full and the water was dead still. The gondola place was on the east side of the Coronado Strand so it was well protected from the surf. Our gondola was actually used in Venice for five years before this company bought it and had it shipped over. It was called the "Queen Elizabeth" because the owner was married to an English Woman. Our "driver" was a college student in Biochemistry.

We cruised around a bunch of very big mansions on the water. Some of the houses were unbelievable and then docked right outside their house is a huge yacht. Looking through the windows we saw one house with three young kids. We were just shaking our heads trying to figure out what some one does for a living to be so rich while still so young. We decided he either inherited his money or he's a drug lord. It was a great evening and very romantic. Lisa even bought a bottle of carbonated orange juice for us to enjoy on the ride. The company provided chocolate covered strawberries.

This week has been so busy that I wasn't able to ride my bike to work until Friday. I was worried that I would have lost all of the conditioning that I had done before the rains began but as soon as I hopped on the bike I could tell that I still had it. The ride was easy and while it took me over an hour before, I am now down to 45 minutes. I actually clocked it on google and I ride 8.5 miles each way. The best part is that I was able to ride all the way up the black mountain road hill without stopping. Black Mountain road coming into Penasquitos is about a mile long up a a very steep hill. It's great going down the hill but murderous coming up. Friday was the first time I've been able to do it without stopping. I thought my heart was going to jump right out of my chest. Hopefully it will be a little easier tomorrow when I ride. Wish me luck.

--------------------trivia--------------------

The most efficient method known to man for converting chemical energy to mechanical energy is a man riding a bicycle.

---------------------------------------------