What's the coolest thing you've ever done outside of triathlon? (Page 4)

10 years of marriage this year, celebrating in Hawaii to volunteer IMKona.

Awesome 4 year old boy who loves to be active and excercise with us.

Worked on pit crew for Michael Andretti,  changing tires during pit stops and traveling the world with the race team.

Raced and won a few of my own races.

Travelled to Ecuador for 10 days.  One of the many highpoints was the mountain biking excursion we did there.  Unforgetable!

Also memorable:

Cloud forest canopy tour in Costa Rica.

Riding the bobsled run in Lake Placid at the Olympic Center.

Playing hockey on the 'Miracle on Ice' rink in Lake Placid.

Taking a hot lap (as a passenger) around Watkins Glen International Speedway.

Hit a 3" piece of clay bird at 200 yards with my 1917 Peter the Great Mosin-Nagant, open sites while standing (no props or support for the gun, which weighs close to 10 lbs.).  My husband still talks about that day!

Having 4 unique and special daughters.

When I oldest was about 7.5 we hiked Mount Washington in NH together which is notorious for weather coming in out of nowhere. We were above the tree line about a mile from the top and the black clouds rolled in and the wind went from nothing to 40 MPH gusts. I looked at her and said listen this is pretty dangerous we could get lightening, snow, both or who knows. We have to make for the top as fast as we can but stay together at all costs and be careful this is pretty rough terrain. If one of us falls we could get really hurt. She looked at me with no fear and said let's go for it. We got to the top and I was pretty spent and she wanted to know if we could do it again, LOL. It never did materialize into a big storm but I was proud of her nonetheless.

1400 skydives. I went to 6 USPA National Championships in RW. Our 4 and 8 way teams have a couple of medals to show for it. I've jumped out of a hot air balloon twice. I got to jump out of a tailgate air craft where I got a running head start of about 40 feet and dove like SuperMan. I flew through sombody's back yard in Maine distrubing their camp fire and sending 20 of them running as it was 9PM and pitch black other than their fire. Nice people who even helped me cut down the tree which had tangled with my canopy.

When I was 11 I was the youngest person to complete a mile swim at boy scouts camp.

I've done hang gliding, bungie jumping, scuba, snow boarding...., I have pilot hours in a bunch of different air craft. `

- two wonderful girls (now 13/11); married 16 yrs

- 17 ocean (sailing) races from New England to Bermuda

- Ocean passages to/from Caribbean and transatlantic

- 25 years in the Coast Guard, including two years as Captain of a 157' buoy tending cutter

Not nearly as cool as some of the things on here but for me some things that come to mind are:

- Married my beautiful wife of 7 years

- Sat in the Apollo 11 command module (Columbia)

- Held the Hope Diamond

- Flipped through what is believed by experts to be Hitler's copy of Mein Kamph

- Held a Noble Peace medal

- Hung out with Bruce Springsteen and his family

- Climbed Mt. Washington and then skied down

- Stood atop Mauna Kea, the 2nd most prominent summat in the US

Married to an incredible woman for 36 yrs

Survived my two daughters now 25 and 27....actually that is still ongoing

Scuba diving with a pod of dolphin

3 years cruising on our sailboat in Florida and Bahamas

skydiving

Back in college, the class was assigned a working trial balance project in the intermediate accounting class.  The teacher was hardcore.  It was the weed out class for the wannabe business majors (along with his finance class).  Long back story aside, I wasn't very confident in my academic abilities at that time.

I was living on my own and working as a fry cook at night.  I had no money or computers or much of anything except 4 column paper.  I taped  four sheets together and started making a trial balance from the description in the book.   Lots of audit adjustments, closing entries, amortizations depreciation, prior period adjustments, inventory valuations, capital in, capital out  blah blah blah..

Anyway by the time I was done, the paper was worn through and dog eared form the erasing and fixing, footing and cross footing.

A week after handing in my mess, at the beginning of class, he starts reaming the class out (1/2 the class actually) for doing a totally crappy job on the project.  Then he held up my paper. by the corners with his pinkies out.  "Uh oh," I think.  Here it comes......

The professor goes on..." But never in 25 years have I seen such a mess as this..... But here's the thing about this mess....  Never has anyone in 25 years gotten it right. Never."

$2,302.12

Held my son this morning. 

Everything else is just stuff that anybody else could do. Many of my life memories are family as I grew up poor.  I remember my first pair of new shoes.  That was really cool. 

My wife thinks I have an amazing life and done so much but it does not matter with out having people to love and provide a stable reliable place for those people.

Jumped on an out of control boat after the drunken boat operator had knocked himself out, still no idea how he did that.

All three (single and twins) of my children were born premature and tiny, spent the first part of their lives in the NICU. Seeing them grow and develope into what they are now has probably been the coolest thing I have seen. One turns 5 and the twins will be 2 this week and healthy.

Also standing on top of Mt. Rushmore, right behind Washington's head!

My old family from DC helped transport the Hope Diamond to the Museum. They HELD it...so unfair. :-(

-  I had 4 kids in 5 years (7/5/3/2).  I feel as if this is the most amazing (and stressful ) thing I've ever done.

-  After college I packed up and moved to NYC.  I think I took 2 bags with me.  I didn't know anyone in the city and never felt so alone.  Applied to a graduate program at NYU and got in.  Studied creative writing and film in the greatest city in the US and met my husband along the way.

-  Backpacked through Europe.  Slept on the train and went wherever my heart told me to go.  

Being a US Marine was pretty cool.  Lots of great training and visiting many countries.  Highlights: Military Freefall School, Ranger School, Navy Dive School and meeting four US Presidents.

Sailed Merlin in the Trans Pac and Newport to Ensenada races.

Seeing the prehistoric cave paintings in Naiux, France was FREAKING AWESOME!

Being a Rotary Club President and taking part in a Rotary International Polio Immunization trip to India.

But, you'll have to ask me again after June 18, when I'll be an official at the US Open at the Olympic Club.  PSYCHED!

- threw out abusive husband without getting myself killed and never let him back in the door

- proceeded to raise my two boys, then 7 mos and 4 years, on my own while completing PhD program and then finding a position to support us. We're all thriving today, so I think I did okay.

- made the drive from east coast USA to Alaska up the ALCAN highway in July to relocate here. It was magnificent. Alaska is magnificent.

- Never gave up on something that really matters. Perseverance is my middle name, I think.

I've lived in many places in the US and abroad and have done many interesting things also, but the above are standouts.

I used to work for the Smithsonian, so I got to see/touch/play with a lot of cool $hit.

That is a crazy fast submarine!!!!

A left full rudder at the North Pole will make a pretty tight turn.  May have been 15 min.

That will be amazing!

I'd love my 3 daughters to meet their birth parents and I'd like to meet mine some day.

Wow. Just wow.

-Married for 5.5 yrs.
-Present when my baby girl was born (now 20months). Looking forward to baby boy being born (T-1month)
-Ran a marathon.
-Learned how to make my own furniture from my dad.
-Learned how to water ski at the age of 9 and was competitive on the local state circuit
-Graduated debt free from college with a BS in engineering & 3 minors

So, yea, nothing too exciting...