Hot and Bothered
Posted July 26, 2009, 7:07 PM ET

I'm back from a two-week vacation and I can honestly tell you that I'm already irritable.

After spending the past ten days in Dallas, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria and Whistler, the heat and humidity of a July day in the Carolinas was enough to get under my skin.

The heat is also a symbol that it must be getting closer to the opening of the NFL training camps...and that's a good thing.

No disrespect to the Erin Andrews "Peeping Tom" story, but it's time for the sports world to rejoice that the football season is about ready to begin.

Granted, I'm not the biggest fan of NFL Pre-season football; there is only about a possession or two that is watchable, but some of the sports stories that have commanded so much attention in the past few weeks have been downright comical.

LeBron James.....I'm talking to you and NIKE. You mean to tell me that you got your panties and swoosh in a wad over that dunk?

So, Steve Spurrier left off Tim Tebow's name in a meaningless SEC Pre-season list...big deal. The Old Ball Coach is getting older, we get it. I forget stuff all the time, too. I'll guarantee you that he won't forget #15 when he sees him on the other sideline in November.

Jimmie Johnson won again at the Brickyard....and nearly 100,000 empty seats were there to witness it. By the way, we all know that Junior has sucked all year, but what's wrong with Kyle Busch? Is Dale, Jr. giving him driving tips?

Tony Romo dumped Jessica Simpson just like the playoffs treat the Cowboys. Yawn.

My San Francisco Giants are beginning to play like I thought they would all season.....which is lousy. While they have dropped out of the NL Wild-card lead, the bigger story has been the emergence of the Yankees and Cubs, respectively. For the record: all of my "Packman 9" teams are out of the playoffs, as of this posting.

I like Roger Goodell and his approach to most matters, but it's time to make an "easy call" on Michael Vick. What's taking so long? This is almost as ridiculous as Brett Favre's ability to milk the biggest "who gives a damn" return announcement in the history of the NFL.

The Chelsea soccer team was staying at the same Seattle hotel as I was during our vacation. Nice lads....but their fans are complete lunatics. I enjoyed mocking them while leaving the hotel every day/night. If only I had a "Manchester United" shirt.

US Airways sucks.....but we already knew that.

I confronted two of my biggest fears face-to-face during my vacation: the ocean and heights. I will tell both of these stories on the air this week, but I agreed to go into the cold waters between Vancouver and Victoria, BC to go whale watching.

The trip in the choppy, cold waters in the "Straight of Georgia" was a blast and the killer whales were spectacular. However, the next day I read in the local Vancouver paper that a whale watching boat sunk and 32 people were rescued.

We also made the journey north from Vancouver to Whistler. I've been to a number of places, but the 2-hour drive up Highway 99 might be the most picturesque journey that I've experienced. It rivals Highway 1 from SF to Carmel and Big Sur.

In Whistler, I zip-lined in a rainforest 250 feet above Fitzsimmons Creek. It was insane, and I have my family to thank for this harrowing experience. I knew I was in trouble when I was standing on top of this support, staring down the line of a 2,000 foot zip-line with the raging rapids below.

I was white as a ghost and wishing I was back in the cold, ocean waters when my 10-year-old daughter, Emerson, grabbed my arm and looked me right in the eye and said.....

"Dad....man up."

Enough said....and the next thing you knew, I was flying through the air in the Canadian mountains.

Despite the great trip and marvelous adventures, it's good to be back home....despite US Air's attempt to strand us in the Pacific Northwest.