I am NOT Tarzan

Yesterday my shipmates and I got in touch with our inner caveman/cavewoman. We sat under the sun, grilled meat over open flames, and even swung through the treetops...sort of.

Milford Mill, a local swimming hole, offers bbq grills, rope swings, and cable zip lines. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, it's only 30 minutes away. I never would have known about it except a local friend told me how fun it was. Brother, he was telling the truth.

Hall (pregnant), Jackson, Lobao, and I made the short trek eagerly, because it's a holiday weekend and you have to get out and do new things when the Navy gives you the opportunity.

Here I tell the lifeguard taking the photo not to lose track of how long we'd been in. :)

Before you're allowed onto any of the high altitude water rides, you have to pass a swim test. This involved swimming, with any stroke, from one end of the pool to the other. After that was a 3-minute tread water session.

Jackson decided doing one backflip off the rope wasn't enough. He went for two and paid the price with the worst belly/face flop I've ever seen. Showoff...

I LOVE to grill. It has to be with charcoal and a nice marinate. My kitchen skills are barely existent, by the way.

I highly recommend Milford Mills!

Liberty! (Six Flags)

This, as well as the upcoming post, is part of my ongoing quest to give future DINFOS students a list of fun stuff to do in the area.  Many Sailors end up at Busch Gardens because it's free to the military.  That's all good, but Six Flags is only an hour away (compared to 3) and has more rides than BG. Michelle and I recently stormed the amusement park and conquered every one of its menacing roller coasters.  Our longest wait for a ride?  Twenty minutes.  This was thanks in part to the Flash Pass, an electronic pager that allows you to reserve ride times and show up when your seat is ready.  Other parks have similar items but this one received the best review online.  Totally worth the extra dough.

I don't have a lot of exciting photos, but here's a good one of the drop on one of the coasters.  The drop is on the far side.  Yeah, it's almost 90 degrees.  Here we're touring the park on an easy train ride.

There were staff members everywhere.  I think I was asking this guy about wearing shoes on water rides.  We forgot our flip flops.

I wasn't able to blog at the time because the person above hogged the laptop.  You wouldn't have the heart to take it away either.

Tubin down the river

Photos by everyone involved


This past Sunday Melkus, Raegen, Lobao, Asato, and yours truly went tubing down the Potomac River.  For those of you who haven't tried it, go soon!

Butts Tubes was our destination, as it was recommended to me by Tom, the Sandy Point park ranger.  (more on that in a coming post)  We each paid $44, which gave us a choice of flatwater or Class I & II rapids, and a cooler to pull behind us in its own raft.  We never tried the flatwater as the rapids were just right. 

You basically show up, sign a waiver, pick up your tickets (if you reserved them), get the cooler/ice, and go wait for the next bus to pick you up.  The buses come every 30 minutes and shuttle you up and down the river.

The water was only a little cold.  When we hit the rapids, some squealed as the water splashed sun-warmed skin.  It wasn't me, though.  It wasn't.

Raegen posed about five times for me to get this shot.  It's not easy using a crappy Target underwater camera to shoot while you're floating, for some reason, at a completely different speed than your subject.

When you go, pay special attention when the guide tells you where to get OUT of the river.  He told us to watch for the red bridge.  "Don't pass the red bridge!" he said.  Well there's no sign to get out and the bridge doesn't really look red.  More like rust.  And there's several bridges close together.  If you wait too long to start swimming to shore, it becomes a tough fight against a strong current.

There are rocks in the center of the river that everyone stops and hangs out on.  Melkus was scared to make the massive plunge alone so Asato and I, being good shipmates, abandoned rock with him.

You're actually glad to see these school buses.  Especially after a 2-hour tube ride, and a long hike up to the top to catch the ride back.

I'm in the process of reworking the post labels on the left.  I want to have a collection of posts/reviews that can be labeled "Fort Meade Things To Do".  That way, other students can come here and take a look.  This is a great area with so much to offer, but many have no clue.

Ultimate Frisbee

There's several very good reasons why Ultimate Frisbee is so popular here on base and around the universe.  You don't have to be a PT stud to be good at it.  There's just enough contact (no tackling) to make it interesting.  And, most importantly, it's co-ed!  (on a good day)

I took some pictures, with my Cybershot with almost no zoom, and got yelled at for not playing.

I do it all for you guys...

Chief Carter, in the camo shorts, came out to represent.  He recently had his arm replaced with a cannon.

Some slight tapping occurs when opponents go for the frisbee at the same time.

Chief Shavers, always happy to be involved with the students, may have yelled and screamed as much as he threw and caught.

Most of these guys are new.  I'm looking forward to Warrior Day, when we'll have a chance to avenge an overtime loss against the Ultimate Frisbee (or were they playing football?) champs...Army.   

There can be only one

Photos by SR Kristina Zhuchenko

Forget March Madness. Fort Meade's where the action is. Recently, in an earth-shattering clash of basketball titans, the champions of Navy basketball emerged.

Bramham, Carey, and Johndro couldn't stop the steam roller that was Carver, Jeffries, Pickett, and Vargas. (one sub)

Final score: 11-1

Search "basketball" on the left for more tournament shots.

Vargas wrecks shop with his jumper.

Anybody's ball, but with the score at 9-1, it's not really anybody's game.

The opposing team spent most of the day looking up at Jeffries.

From left, Pickett, Jeffries, Vargas, and Carver.

Congratulations!

Laser Tag Armageddon!

Yesterday, at Red Zone Adventures, 45 Sailors charged into battle. The arena quickly became stained with splashes of blue and green light. Cries of "Hooyah!" mixed with curses (G-rated) from warriors as they fell. I put down my rifle and picked up my overmatched point-and-shoot Sony Cybershot to cover the scene.

The students cheer for their private room that included pizzas and drinks.

An event like this is great because it gives the students from different classes a chance to get to know each other. Senior, middle, and baby class all had a great time.

C

Carey and his brother Jarrod proved that two heads are better than one.

In a laser tag arena, there's too many places the enemy can come from. It's impossible to have eyes in the back of your head. Teamwork keeps you alive longer.

Some brave Sailors attempted the laser maze.

Straight out of "Ocean's Twelve", it was a true test of one's flexibility, dexterity, and patience.

In a more relaxed but no less challenging area was Glow-In-The-Dark Urban Golf.

The carpet was wet and the room smelled kind of like mildew, but that didn't stop several golfers from sinking holes-in-one.

No harm no foul!

One of the great things about MC 'A' school is there's always something going on.  Imagine being in a family with 70 brothers and sisters around all the time.  We have a huge pool of bodies to draw on for all sorts of events.  From Ultimate Frisbee and football (when it's warmer) to chess and ping pong tournaments, we're always finding ways to stay active.

Right now it's all about basketball.  Corbin, one of the senior class members, put together a two-week long tourney featuring teams of 3 battling it out during morning PT.

My team lost in the first round but I was able to get some shots of our Sailors in action.  Chief Shavers, our head Electronic Journalism instructor came out to grind out pushups, situps, and jump shots.  I'll be adding photos to this entry as the tournament progresses.

For the record, I'm damn good at racquetball.

 Meineke takes his opponents to the house.

 Chief Shavers contemplates how best to bring the pain.

Meineke watches as his layup hits its mark.

Corbin pauses after a hard-won victory.

 

 Day two brought emotional highs...

 

 and lows.

Melkus shoots a jumper as the defense can only watch in awe.

Take That Hill!!

The only thing snow's good for is skiing, snowboarding, or sledding.  I found a hill on Fort Meade, threw some folks in my car and away we went.

Thanks Chief Carter & MC1 Farr for the inner tubes!

Half of our group had never sledded before.  It's like seeing the ocean.

You have to do it at least once.

Yarborough, pictured right, rejoices in his first sledding experience.

 Yes, I realize these aren't
real sleds. ------>







IC2 Cruz, pictured left, also
went sledding for the 1st
time today.

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YEAH IT'S ME!!!!!!!