Fast Five for Mid-Summer

The winner of VICTORIA FALLS is Rick Robiinson! Rick, you can contact James Hornor on Gmail; he's jbhornor.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: This week is the midpoint of summer, half-way between Memorial day and Labor Day. Everyone is busy traveling, writing, visiting friends, and hopefully enjoying everything the season has to offer, so it's the  perfect moment for another Fast Five!

Favorite ice cream flavor?  Mint chocolate chip, especially Hood's Red Sox Green Monster Mint, where instead of chips you get tiny chocolate socks.

Roller coaster or Ferris wheel? Ferris wheel. Ross and I went on a roller coaster ONCE when our usual roller-coaster loving friend wasn't available and Youngest desperately wanted to ride. Greater love hath no parent than to induce nausea for his child.

Hat, sunglasses, or both? Both, and sunscreen. Mr. Sol is not your friend, people!

Beach house, lakeside cottage, or mountain retreat? I should say mountain retreat because it's more on-brand for my fiction, but I'm going to go with lake house. Preferable one that's also near a ski resort.

Best part of summer so far?  Working on time organization with Celia, July 4th on the eastern Prom in Portland, with fireworks and the PSO, Thrillerfest weekend in NYC!

LUCY BURDETTE:
Favorite ice cream flavor? Can I say root beer float? That's sweet cream ice cream and old fashioned root beer, yum...

Roller coaster or Ferris wheel? Ferris wheel--turns out a distant relative used to manufacture them, so how could I not?

Hat, sunglasses, or both? Ball cap and sunglasses

Beach house, lakeside cottage, or mountain retreat? We're doing double family reunions this summer. My side's took place beside lake Superior, which is incredibly beautiful. Next week beach side with 50 of John's family on Cape Cod. By then we'll need another vacation!

Best part of summer so far? Magical trip to Scotland with a dash of Ireland.

HALLIE EPHRON
Favorite ice cream flavor? The rose and lychee flavored gelato I had in Tuscany.

Roller coaster or Ferris wheel? Pass. Because ten years ago it would have been roller coaster. LOVE roller coasters. But I've read too much about how your brain sloshes around in your skull when you ride one.

Hat, sunglasses, or both? Definitely both. I have a straw hat that started out red and blue and green and it's now bleached pastel.

Beach house, lakeside cottage, or mountain retreat? Beach house. I like to take flat walks.

Best part of summer so far? Of course, teaching in Tuscany for Minerva Education. I worked with the most fantastic writers, ate the best food, and got to bring my husband along. Alora... when are we going back?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: 
Favorite ice cream flavor? Jamoca Almond Fudge. This is coffee ice cream with chocolate covered almonds. I ASK you--how great  is that?  Summer flavor, though--pineapple sorbet.

Roller coaster or Ferris wheel?  Roller coaster, theoretically, if don't actually have to ride it.  I think amusement park rides may be a thing of my past. Ferris wheels are, forgive me, boring.

Hat, sunglasses, or both? Both. Most def. Although my one regret in life (!) is that I look terrible in baseball caps. Sigh. But sunglasses are a gift from the heavens.

Beach house, lakeside cottage, or mountain retreat? Beach. No question. Because bugs.

Best part of summer so far?  I bought watermelon strawberry seltzer thinking it was pink grapefruit.  But! Mixed with vodka and ice and fresh lime? Winner. And..I dunno, happiness.

DEBORAH CROMBIE:
Favorite ice cream flavor? Haagen Daz Rum Raisin. And vanilla in a root beer float.

Roller coaster or Ferris wheel? Ferris wheel, if I must. Roller coasters are high on my "You couldn't pay me to..." list.

Hat, sunglasses, or both? Both. Love my big straw gardening hat.

Beach house, lakeside cottage, or mountain retreat? Hmm. Beach. I've never stayed in a beach house. Putting on my bucket list.

Best part of summer so far? My trip to visit my friend in Kansas City at the beginning of June. Lovely garden, lovely weather, lovely food, fun outings, and a homemade Cosmo or two.

RHYS BOWEN:
Favorite ice cream flavor: Three Twins salted caramel

Roller coaster or Ferris wheel?  I hate anything that goes fast but  can tolerate a Ferris Wheel. Especially a giant one with a view over the city.

Hat. Sunglasses or both?  Both when I am out walking or sightseeing. Never leave home without my sunglasses all year after cataract surgery.

Beach house, lakeside cottage or mountain retreat?  Beach house. Definitely. Love beaches especially white sandy ones bordered by palm trees.

Best part of summer so far? That one's easy. Spending two weeks with my daughter's family in a house on the River Seine in France. Such a wonderful time, sitting late on the deck by the river, enjoying a meal and laughing a lot.

Now it's your turn, dear readers! Cut and paste the questions and give us a glimpse of your summer in the comments.

 
Favorite ice cream flavor?

Roller coaster or Ferris wheel?

Hat, sunglasses, or both?

Beach house, lakeside cottage, or mountain retreat?

Best part of summer so far?

Thrill Rides

INGRID THOFT

I consider myself to be pretty brave, not one to shrink from a physical challenge.  I've been scuba diving with enormous manta rays at night, climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, gone to Costco on a weekend morning.  However, one area in which my nerves seems to fail me is roller coasters.  I like amusement park rides as much as the next person, but I've learned that roller coasters aren't what they used to be.

 
While cooking dinner recently, I happened upon a Travel Channel show called "America's Scariest Roller Coasters."  It's a wonder I didn't chop off my finger given how distracted I was by the ascents and plunges.  My curiosity piqued, the next day I fell down the roller coaster rabbit hole on YouTube, and I emerged later needing dramamine and marveling at the feats of engineering.  The names alone are enough to keep me rooted to a bench underneath them: Intimadator, Sky Scream, Banshee, Goliath, Steel Dragon.  The details are equally intimidating: speeds of up to 150 miles per hour; 418 foot drops; and 14 inversions.

I attempted to break out of my comfort zone many years ago by boarding the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at Disney World.  My husband suggested it wasn't for me, but I really wanted to prove to myself that I could handle the experience, including the upside down portion (inversion) of the ride.  The attraction starts by accelerating from 0 to 57 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds.  "It's going to go really fast," my hubby kept warning me as we strapped into our seats.  "No worries," I assured him.

What happened next?  I'm not really sure because I think my heart stopped briefly.  According to Wikipedia, on that first inversion, riders of the Rock 'n' Roll Coaster experience 4.5 G "more than an astronaut does on a space shuttle launch."  It was terrifying and sickening, and the only redeeming quality of the ride was that it was over quickly!  I think Dumbo the Flying Elephant is more my speed.

Do you love roller coasters?  Hate them?  Want your thrills confined to the page?

And if you want to sample the latest thrill rides, check out this video: World's Scariest Roller Coasters

The Adventure Gene

"Sailors on the high seas are the last people to give a reliable forecast, even when they have the most intimate experience of the weather." Robert McCrum

ROBERTA: A couple of weeks ago, my husband was invited to help sail his friend's 44 foot boat back from Bermuda to Long Island. He leaped at the chance. The captain, an old college pal, and his brother had just completed a race from Massachusetts to Bermuda. With only two of them handling a big boat and a lot of bad weather, they had little sleep and even less to eat. At a cocktail party for the recovering sailors, I heard terrible sailing stories, including one in which the crew of a small catamaran battled an unexpected storm off the coast of North Carolina for 50 hours until one of the hulls filled with water and they realized they were going to tip over. The Coast Guard was able to reach them and they were plucked out of the roiling sea one by one and drawn up into a helicopter.

Here's John at the helm, with his pal Fritz as videographer. Not one minute of these trips sounded like fun to me. But obviously the life-threatening adventure gene skipped right over me. I don't mind running my characters through the physical wringer, but I'll stay safely home, thank you. And I might be curious about a crime, but at the FIRST WHIFF of danger, I'd call the cops.

How about you all? Did you get that gene?

JAN: Roberta, I did NOT get that gene, but I married that gene. I've found myself sailing immediately after a tornado (NOT A GOOD IDEA) spent my honeymoon and four subsequent vacations sailing in the British Virgin Islands (With me the only mate) , and flew in numerous small airplanes (volkswagens with wings) that my husband piloted. I actually grew to like sailing, but thank god the small plane phase is over. My mother used to clip every article of every small plane disaster and send it to me.

I know exactly what you mean -- Some people interpret danger as fun. I am not one of them. My husband wants to go skydiving. He will go alone.

HALLIE: I am a class-A wimp. Boats: Feh! However... the one boat trip we've taken is a cruise down the Yangtze on barely moving water through spectacular gorges with someone else at the helm (and great food) was an experience of a lifetime.

The closest I get to adventure is riding a roller coaster. I love-love-love roller coasters and was always the one who lined up with the kids for rides on Disneyland's Matterhorn and Space Mountain because my husband is an even worse wimp than I am. Though he is the designated driver for all round-and-round rides which make me throw up.

RHYS: I am attracted to adventure when it comes to traveling to outlandish places, but not when it includes sensation. Terrified of roller coasters and anything else that involves hurtling down anything out of control. My granddaughters obviously haven't inherited my gene and love amusement rides and the scarier the better. I do like sailing and one of the best things I ever did was to take out a Hobie Cat alone on the ocean. It wasn't a very rough ocean and it wasn't a challenging sail, but it was the first time I'd handled a sailboat alone. I got a big kick from knowing it was all up to me and that I could handle this thing. Usually the most adventurous thing I do is drive through LA occasionally.

ROSEMARY: I like exotic trips and I enjoy challenging myself physically but the potential for danger, death, disfigurement, dismemberment...does NOT increase my enjoyment level. Climbing to Everest Base Camp we passed a lot of memorials to fallen climbers. If my guide says turn around, I turn around.

And I would really not like to drown. We've sailed around the Galapagos and the Greek Islands but I really like to see land. I think sailing across the Atlantic would be very stressful for me! I'd keep having visions of the end of the movie The Perfect Storm - which even though I know it wasn't real - was one of the scariest scenes on film in recent memory.

HANK: Laughing. Jonathan leaves the house to walk to the corner drug store. I call after him: Be careful! He says: Of what? And there you have it.
(Roller coasters though..love them.)

DEBS: HATE roller coasters. I have chronic vertigo and there are few things less appealing to me than being made deliberately dizzy.

Zip on the danger gene, too. My husband's idea of fun is white-water rafting, camping, climbing, going up in helicopters, deep sea diving. Mine is reading in a hammock. You can see we have some vacation issues.

He, on the other hand, won't consider making a trans-ocean flight, while I'm a fairly good long-haul traveler. (I sleep.)

My one little aberration? My husband has been a storm chaser for years, and I love going after a big storm. It's crazy, but I find it more exhilarating than scary. Would I do it with anyone else? Probably not. Give me my hammock.

JULIA: Hate roller coasters. Barf city for me. Actually, I hate the movement sensations in most fun park rides. On the other hand, I love sailing and small-pane aviation (despite being prone to motion sickness) and did a lot of white water rafting, rock climbing and bombing down ski slopes when I was younger. I remember realizing I had become noticeably more risk-averse once I had children: I stopped driving like a bat out of hell (when they were in the car) and was no longer willing to say, "Sure, what the hell, let's do it and see what happens."

Nowadays, I think my risk-aversion is more like discomfort aversion. I'm game for any adventure - as long as I can have a hot shower, a well-cooked meal and a comfortable bed at the end of the day!

ROBERTA: And you Jungle red readers? How do you feel about adventure? (And sorry Hank did not find an image of a corner drugstore:).