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Once in a blue moon, we do get to do fun things:
Thanksgiving 1997 - Went to the Florida Keys!! It was wonderful. Got lots of chances to commune with Nature. The highlight was snorkeling which, by the way, was Ben's first time. Oh...did I mention Ben has an illogical fear of "live" water? (I think it was the movie Jaws!) For some reason, Ben just loses all reason, his imagination races ("something bit me!"), and he starts to panic...
Well picture this! We thought snorkeling would be easy..."just put on some fins, swim a couple of feet from the beach, and just stick your face in the water, right?"... wrong! Snorkeling in the Keys means getting on a boat, cruising a couple "hundred" of miles off the coast, and finally just dropping everyone off in the middle of the ocean and telling everyone, "have fun, be careful...see you in about an hour." With Ben scared silly, sick as a dog (as in seasick and feeding the fishes with his undigested lunch several times), and Eugenia stung by jellyfishes, many of which (and we mean many) the size of a basketball, you can imagine the time we had .... actually not too bad! The assortment of corals and colorful fishes made up for the sufferings...it was a must-do experience.
Wisconsin Dells 1997 - I don't know what happened, it was just one of those spur of the moment things (Ben was probably stressed from work and Eugenia was a bit homesick), but we just decided to get out and go to Wisconsin Dells (the touristy place in WI) for a "danger"-packed weekend. Went wave-running one day...doing 360's and other stupid stuff (like Eugenia pitching Ben with her daredevil double-reverse turn).
But the most memorable was bungi-jumping. Was it scary? Hell yeah!! But you know what the most scary thing about it was? It wasn't the freefall (felt like it was forever) or the rebound (twisting out of control)...it was right before the jump...You stand with your heels on the edge, toes wiggling open air, and arms raised straight above you... all you hear is the wind blowing and all you see is the net (sturdy you hope) below... the guy says to you..."you can jump now"... I couldn't do it...my mind kept telling my body to go, but my body refused. It was very "primal" (survival instinct, I think) ... anyway, the guy got sick of waiting so he gave me a gentle shove... and well, I'm still alive!! My heart still pumps when I think about it, but I'm glad we both did it.
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