Back in the USA

This blog post covers the remainder of my trip to the UK and Europe, and then some of the adventures upon returning to the USA.

One of the last spots I visited in Berlin was the Olympic stadium.  It was cold and gray, but an interesting sight.

My camera battery died at the Berlin Olympic stadium.  The charger stayed in Manchester, so there were no further pictures taken in Germany.

For a final meal in England, I joined David and Liz for fish, chips, and mushy peas.  The next morning, it was back to the Manchester airport to begin the return journey to San Francisco by way of Atlanta.

Fact: There is a Cavendish Road in Altrincham, UK.  It is not the fastest road in the world.

After returning to the SF bay area, I helped my family find, buy, and bring home a Christmas tree.  Here are the Christmas tree and I in the front yard.

It turns out that overhead squatting a Christmas tree is not terribly difficult.  The awkward part is taking it from on the ground to overhead.

I spent a couple days in the SF bay area, adjusting to the jet-lag, going on bike rides, doing laundry, unpacking my bags from the UK/Europe trip, going to Defiance Crossfit, and generally getting into and/or staying out of trouble.

Then, it was back to the airport to catch a flight to Fargo, North Dakota for a few days at my grandma's house to knock out a list of home maintenance chores before we both flew back to California for Christmas. 

In Fargo, I visited Crossfit 701 for five WODs during my visit.  They are a new (about 3 months since opening) Crossfit gym on Fargo's south side.  On Friday evening, they did a "Wildcard WOD" where everyone picked a workout from a deck of cards.  I picked TABATA squats (20 seconds of air squats followed by 10 seconds of rest, for 8 rounds or a total of 4 minutes) where the "rest" was sitting at the bottom of the squat position.  My legs remained sore through Wednesday of this week.  Thankfully, I did not pull the "Filthy 50" card, since I did that one at Defiance while I was in California.

Crossfit 701 lived up to what my mental picture of a CF gym in Fargo would be like.

There was a bit of snow and some not-so-terrible cold while I was there in Fargo.  One day, my grandma and I went to the Sons of Norway in Fargo for lunch.  Who would have thought that my grandma could have a taco salad for lunch at the Sons of Norway in Fargo?!?

The Sons of Norway is not the most spectacular building in Fargo (ok, well, it might be the most spectacular building in Fargo), but is a good place to go for a nice hot lunch on a cold December afternoon.

When I was packing for my trip to Fargo, I wanted to make sure everything fit in a single carry-on bag.  So, I neglected to bring a razor or shaving cream.  Luckily, in case my chin whiskers went out of control during the visit, there was a solution readily available across the street from grandma's house.

If Chuck Norris can ride a bear through a car wash as a substitute for bathing, I should be able to stick my chin in a wood chipper as a substitute for shaving.