Brag Thread -- What'd Ya Get?

[Shannon]

Ok, here's the thread to "brag" about the cool gear or outdoor recreation stuff you got for the holidays (either as a gift or purchased for yourself thanks to holiday sales).

Me? Not much, but that was by choice since with the baby due April 1st I told Justin and family that stuff off our baby registries was absolutely fair game for Christmas and any birthday purchases for me (Dec. 28th).

Justin did get me one of those front-load baby carriers (baby can face inward, when an infant, and outward as they grow) so both of us can carry Sprout on short jaunts to do some walking at area parks or around the neighborhood and so forth. (BTW, we do have a real name picked out for Sprout, but we're keeping it a surprise... just in case we look into her little eyes when she's born and are inspired to give her a different name.)

I gave Justin a Garmin Forerunner 305 with heart rate monitor, since he's gotten hooked on having the heart rate data from his cycling GPS and wanted that same capability with a hiking and walking GPS. (The 305 is great for biking too, it's just that Justin prefers his present Garmin unit for cycling... sorry, I'm blanking on the model number at the moment.)

After the baby's born and I'm getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight, we'll get me fitted for a road bike and I'll be able to slowly start working up to Justin's endurance and distance capabilities on road cycling. I'm still a mountain biker at heart, but I need to get a better fitting mountain bike, also. (May sell mine at some point, in which case I'll offer it up here for first dibs for folks.... we're months away from that though. I need to wait 'til I'm not carrying around a baby inside to get properly fitted on the bike I have and see if our favorite bike shop can't work a better handlebar/stem arrangement that doesn't cause numbness and pain in my wrist, elbow and shoulders.

Not a Christmas or birthday gift, but our Texas State Parks Pass expires in April 2007 and we'll be renewing them then... even though our baby will be a newborn we look forward to taking her out for some "stimulus and input" in the great outdoors starting very early.

[campermom]

Our parks pass is up January, luckily we'll be in a park that weekend and can resolve the issue there. We got a handful of gift cards for all over. We'll wait to spend those. I did get a handy little hand crank flashlight and a single burner propane stove.

[Shannon]

Nobody else is going to share their goodies? *sniff*

Well, I thought I'd share a little update post-our first hike with Justin's new Garmin Forerunner 305 (reposted from my blog):

At Justin’s behest, spurred by my own comments about needing to walk/exercise more, we walked 2.33 miles at Stone Oak Park today (tracklog from Justin’s new Garmin Forerunner 305).

We were pleasantly surprised when we pulled into the usually deserted parking lot — it was nearly full with families and couples out enjoying this sunny and mild December day. Ordinarily, we aren’t delighted by crowds, but the trail system at Stone Oak is reasonably sufficient to spread the load. The park has definitely validated the adage, “If you build it, they will come.” The Stone Oak area needs as many parks as it can get, given the rampant new home and apartment development.

Walking feels a little alien these days, considering I can no longer see my feet and all my joints seem to be developing randomly assorted aches and pains. However, it was great to get out and exercise with Justin a bit. He’s kept up his road cycling habit, and I hope to join him in that post-pregnancy, when I can be properly fitted for a road bike myself (and resolve some fit issues with my existing mountain bike.)

[Shannon]

.bump

Anybody else?

Bueller... Bueller...

[campermom]

What about "Garmina"? Just kidding.

[Shannon]

Hehe... better than Katrina, if we're talking baby names. (My poor mom actually suggested that until we all, in unison, reminded her -- Uh, hello, deadliest hurricane in U.S. history!")

Sprout has a name, but we're keeping it under wraps until she's born... that way we have the ability to change it if we look into her eyes and say, "Nope, she's definitely a ______ instead!"

[BigBendHiker]

Garmin GPS here. Now that I have one, I wonder how I survived all this time without one??:confused:

[Shannon]

It all starts with one. We have a ton of 'em... and since we're both into the same things, we have TWO of some models! Can't go wrong with Garmin!

What model did you get? You may have mentioned it in another thread... if so, sorry -- my memory is all short-term right now!

[BigBendHiker]

I got the GPS Map 60CSx. Really pleased with it. Used it last week on the Angel of Goliad Trail. We were up in San Antonio last week and used it to navigate to Tip Top Cafe...had always heard of it and read the writeups, but never eaten there. Good food, by the way.

BBH

[PUNCHY]

I got two new saltwater rod and reels (Shimano Stradic ST4000FH). We camped at Goose Island for Christmas and caught a lot of trout with four keepers. The reds were biting as well and we caught a couple of 17" reds from our island camp site.
The weather was great until the last night of our stay and thats when all heck broke loose. I/We learned that our pop-up could with stand gale force winds, it was a long and crazy night. The kayaks had to be anchored to the campsite and one of those stand alone canopies didnt make it. I think it was the first time ever I went to reel in the fishing lines at 3am hoping there wasnt anything on the other end. Yea Im still having a hard time saying that.

[happybooker1]

Not camping gear really but the neatest thing I got was a 'fingerprint reader' from Microsoft. Instead of passwords to sites, you have it read your fingerprint & it automatically signs you in. And no, it doesn't work with just anyone's fingerprint!

Then on one of my other camping forums, someone posted a link to Bonfire Buddies. So I sent that to my brother (who welds) and he made us all custom-made ones. Even my 10-yr-old son has one! And they didn't cost us a thing!

[BigBendHiker]

Originally Posted by happybooker1

Not camping gear really but the neatest thing I got was a 'fingerprint reader' from Microsoft. Instead of passwords to sites, you have it read your fingerprint & it automatically signs you in. And no, it doesn't work with just anyone's fingerprint!

Now, that is cool! No longer having to remember the many passwords and PINs. Great!!


BBH

[grrljock]

Shannon,

Just want to share that we love our Ergo baby carrier (http://www.ergobabycarrier.com/) for our little one. It's more comfortable (both for us and Peanut) than the Bjorn we had used before, plus it doesn't max out at ~ 20 lb. like the Bjorn.

We're also planning to get the Wee Ride (http://www.weeride.com/centreseat.htm) so we can take Peanut on our bike rides. I really like the fact that this seat puts the kid front and center, to me a much more secure position than behind the adult rider.

And - for relevance - I got a very nice pair of hiking boots for Valentine's Day, which I plan to use on our first hiking trip with Peanut in April. This baby loves being outside, so I think he'll really like being out in the trails.