Polar Bear Plunge

Earlier this winter, it sounded like the West Coast phenomenon El Niño was set to bring much warmer weather our way. We took a chance and had the park's Holiday Boutique outdoors in early December and were rewarded with a balmy 55F degree day. As Christmas approached and the temps rebounded from a momentary bit of cooler weather, we enjoyed a rainy, almost 70F degree Christmas day. It was almost too warm, in my opinion. I don't love the cold weather, but it's part of the feel of this time of year so I expect it. When I saw the temps for New Year's Eve and Day were going to be more seasonable in the 40s, I figured that was an improvement. Little did I know that Nacho would pick this year to do his first ever Polar Bear Plunge on Coney Island, Brooklyn on New Year's Day. The ocean temps were in the low 50s which apparently is about 10 degrees warmer than normal. And really the air temps in the low 40s wasn't too terrible though the wind gusting was a definite damper on me joining him. It also didn't help that I was having my second full day of stomach cramping (more on that later). But with friends Kenny and his daughter Krystal already veterans of the plunge, we knew we had good company for the eventful day. So we woke up after our NYE party at home and managed to get to the beachfront just before the 1p.m. start time. We weren't officially registered or anything, but it was still a great day and the fact that Nacho made it in and out of the water despite his daughters' pleas that he reconsider (they were NOT impressed) was more courageous. You would have thought from their reactions that he was going off to war. But no, it was just some chilly water though I have to say, I don't think I was inspired to join him in the future. But for this year, I was proud of his accomplishing this goal. Now I can forgive him for his "polar plunge" in Puerto Rico last year on the same day.