A day of firsts -- Island Hopping 2013

I haven't written here in several years. For all practical purposes this blog was dead. However, today I had a number of "firsts" that I needed to write about somewhere, and that is what this blog was made for, so here I am.

Island Hopping (September 22, 2013)

My alarm went off at 4:45 AM this morning. Well, actually, both of my alarms went off at 4:45 AM. I snoozed them both. Twice. I am not a morning person. I finally drug myself out of bed and took a shower to wake up before putting on my outrageous red Hawaiian-shirt-patterned swimsuit and my bright yellow running jersey from a half marathon I didn't run. I was going island-hopping in the Philippines for the first time and I figured I might as well look the part.

I popped some Excedrin, an acid reducer and chewed a couple of Pepto tablets for good luck and headed down to breakfast at a quarter to six. A muffin and croissant later I was in a taxi heading to our meeting point. I was hoping that the rest of my team would be there, because we were essentially meeting on a street corner in Cebu City and I was only vaguely familiar with that part of town. Sure enough, as we got closer I saw a few familiar faces standing at the right intersection. The day was off to a great start.

Then things started to get a little rocky. For starters, we were expecting a group of 18, and I was only the 6th person there, and I was 3 minutes late. For the next two hours I stood on this random street corner while our group trickled in. It was very frustrating and I punished those who were on time by ranting about how I was not doing this again, and that in the future we were leaving those who were late.

First 1: Jeepney ride

Finally, a little after 8 AM, everyone who was coming (only 11 of us) had arrived, and we embarked on my first "first" of the day: a jeepney ride. I have spent, in total, more than 9 months in the Philippines, where the primary means for transportation for the general populace is the Jeepney.

It is a haphazard system of privately owned and operated public transportation, but they have made it work for years. An until today, I had never ridden in one, always opting for the more convenient, roomy and expensive alternative: the taxi. So I piled into the jeepney with the rest of the group and off we went. Right away I learned that like many jeepneys, this one was not intended for people over 5'8", Being 6'1" I risked hitting my head at every bump, and endured the entire ride in a hunchback position, the memory of which makes me want to sit up a little straighter as I write about it, enjoying stretching my neck skyward.

The Jeepney took us from Mandaue over the old bridge to the neighboring island of Mactan, home of Lapu Lapu city, and the Mactan airport. We continued from Mactan on a much smaller and shorter bridge to another island called Cordova. We drove out to the tip of Cordova to an isthmus with a single line of plywood and bamboo shops whose backs opened to the sea. We oozed out of the Jeepney and into one of the small shops to wait.

It was a sari-sari store, which is a kind of local variety store that you can find all over the Philippines. We sat on some plastic stools provided by the shop keeper, and a few of the group bought drinks or some small snacks. Our boat, it turned out, had gone on another trip because we were so late, so now we had to wait for it to return. It was between 8:30 and 9 AM at this point, and we waited and waited. Around an hour and a half later the boat showed up. Note that I don't list "Waiting" as a first for me. Unfortunately, when one works in the Philippines, one learns to wait.

First 2: Open water in a small boat, ship, or whatever

So the Captain of our vessel, whom everyone called "Boss", was assisted by his First Mate, Taco Phil. I'm pretty sure his name was Taco Phil because that was what was printed on the back of his shirt. I give them the grand titles of Captain and First Mate to make up for their ship. Or boat. I was never quite sure on the distinction there. Our vessel was at most 30 feet long and 6 or 8 feet wide, and was shaped like an over-sized canoe, with bamboo outriggers on each side. There were benches down each side of the canoe facing a small table in the center. It had peeling paint and the plywood floor was mostly firm, and I only noticed one hole in the side where I could get a peek at the water, if I wanted one. It was just an option. Captain Boss and Taco Phil were kind enough to extend a canopy over the table and benches so we had a little floating pavilion set up.

We had piled our things in, and were about to cast off when someone mentioned life jackets. Taco Phil produced 7 ragged orange neck-strangler style flotation devices. Thankfully, my companions told him that we needed more. Unfortunately, everything comes with a price, and we rented three additional vests, complete with snorkels. We were still one vest short, but decided to risk it and get moving. Ironically we had negotiated a discount since the boat was late, and the rental fee for those items roughly equaled the discount. Well played, Cpt. Boss, well played.

So Taco Phil pushed us out to sea with a long bamboo pole, and Cpt. Boss started the engine. It was a pull-start style of engine, like my old lawn mower at home. Unlike my lawnmower it produced a sound like a jackhammer. As they revved the engine the sound got louder, and any conversation had to be worth shouting if it was to continue. None were worth it. We headed out to sea, and immediately noticed that the swells were getting larger. A few other sailors (I'm upgraded my group of BPO professionals to sailors now) screamed a little bit as we rode several of the larger swells up and then back down. Life jackets were tightened and our 11th sailor looked for means of flotation (remember we were still one life jacket short), and saw a 2L bottle of Coke. He grabbed it with one hand while his other hand white-knuckled the back of his bench. This exciting ride continued for 30 minutes, with the yells now being enhanced by playful contributions from those of us who enjoy danger a little bit.

It was fun, not unlike the feeling of a roller coaster. Sure, it wasn't as fast, or the movement so spectacular, but that was made up for by the presence of real danger. Being a roller coaster nut I pulled out my phone and took some video. Upon reviewing that footage later I was disappointed to realize that the real sensation and experience of being on the boat was totally lost on video. It look likes a calm, peaceful boat ride with a bunch of people screaming for no reason. Not cool.

First 3: Swimming in the ocean

As we got closer to the first island, Cpt Boss cut the engine, and several minutes later my ears stopped ringing. Taco Phil was out front with his bamboo pole maneuvering us for a parking spot. They got about 15 feet from the almost-sheer bank that was the shoreline here, and threw the anchor in the the water. They had a handy ladder that swung down from a platform on the outrigger on one side, and it splashed into the water ready to be used. It was time to go swimming. I should explain that I was a little apprehensive about this part. I am not a great swimmer, and frankly, I haven't even tried to swim an real distance for years, although I wasn't too worried about that because I trust my life jacket. I can see the bottom clearly, and it doesn't look that deep, but water is hard to judge, with its light-bending properties and all that. And I know, like everyone else who has seen Shark Week or any movie with a shark in it, they don't need much depth. At this point, my hesitation was obvious, and I happened to be the one closest to the ladder. I did the only thing I could do. Get out of the way. "Go ahead, Dan, show us how it is done."

In he went. He stood up, with the water only chest high. One problem solved. I watched for the frothing red water that always accompanied shark attacks. Dan seemed to be swimming around fine. I guess that was covered as well. So in I went. The water was the perfect temperature. Slightly cool, but in no way cold. I borrowed a snorkel and went to town floating around in my life jacket, staring at the ocean floor. At first it was either sand or some kind of weedy, grassy plant, but then I started to make out more details, and saw all kinds of things, from fish to trash.

First 4: Touch a jelly fish

I took a break and stood up just as Dan yelled for our attention. I went over to investigate and saw what looked like a large clump of grass moving through the water. Then I caught a glimpse of what as on the the other side of the clump. It was a humongo jelly fish. We all basically freaked out a little bit, trying to keep our distance from the thing. A local fisherman who had been watching us (I tend to draw spectators) came over and calmly grabbed it and flipped it over and started explaining to us that it was harmless. It was about a foot in diameter and did have brown weedy-looking top, but with the tell-tell jelly looking bottom. We all touched the bluish, but slightly translucent, spikes that coated its underside. Keeping it underwater he pulled the spiky part open to show us its "mouth" if that is the right work for it. Seeing as how it didn't seem to display a defense mechanism, or any aggression, I'm not sure how this things survived, be we let it go and it floated off. I saw it once more as I snorkeled around, but decided to keep my distance. It may have been harmless, but it was still creepy.

While we were swimming, Capt Boss and Taco Phil had lit a small tin of coals near the back of the boat, and had been cooking a few fish we had brought. We spread out our food on the table and had lunch. Liempo (Pork belly), Lechon Manok (rotisserie chicken), and something they explained as Filipino sushi. It involved some raw fish, a number of juices such as lime juice and soy sauce, and vegetables such as red onions and tomatoes. Of course there was rice called puso or "hanging rice" because it is packaged in an intricate weave of coconut leaves which are hung in bundles. My contribution was a bag of chocolate covered caramels. At least I'm consistent.

First 5: Swimming in the ocean without a life jacket

With lunch done it was time to move on. This time our ride was smooth, although still very loud, across much calmer waters. I don't think the water was ever more than 8 feet deep for the whole trip to the next island. As we approached I could tell right away that this island was a paradise island made for brochure covers. Like most nice beaches, it was privately owned so we stopped just shy of the buoys, but we splashed down onto a soft sandy bottom that you could see through the clear pale blue water. In this perfect environment, I thought it was time to test my swimming skills without a life jacket.

I put my snorkel on and I took a couple of strokes and glided easily through the water, which was strange, because my swimming has never been "gliding." In fact, years ago in Phoenix one simple demonstration of my backstroking skills had my wife busting a gut laughing. Never, she said, had she seen anyone backstroke down to the bottom of the pool. The truth is that I just tend to sink. But this was different. I floated easily. I credit two things with my unexpected success here. One, it was snorkeling, not swimming. The hardest part about swimming is the breathing part, and with a snorkel it is a non-issue. Second, I have heard that you are naturally more bouyant in salt water I don't remember all of the science behind it, but I believe it. I had no trouble floating around. With breathing and flotation solved, swimming is just the movement of arms and legs. I have been to enough of my kids swim meets to have the basics down there, so things went swimmingly.

As I snorkeled around, I noticed all kinds of little cylindrical depressions where crabs had made their homes under the sand. We found several large star fish, and Joanne even came up with a small, fat, cylindrical thing that was about 4 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. It was apparently alive. It was pretty gross, but she picked it up and passed it around. Those who were squeamish about unidentifiable squishy living things were taunted and tortured by those who enjoyed harassing both squeamish people and defenseless creatures. Overall, this was a beautiful spot.

First 6: Swim through a school of jelly fish

We decided to go to one more spot before heading back. Capt. Boss knew where there was more marine life for our snorkeling pleasure. We headed out to where the water was little deeper, but still only about 10 feet or so. It was enough to make pretty choppy still, so most of us stuck to using our life vests. I got in and started to snorkel around, and there was a ton of stuff to see. Starfish of all shapes and sizes, more fish, and other creepy crawlies. I saw to big tube things similar to what Joanne found, but these were 8-12 inches long. I was busy being amazed at what was below my, when I noticed a little white thing in the water in front of me. It floated in way that reminded me of a tuft of cotton from a cottonwood tree floating through the air. Then I realized that it was a small jelly fish. I tried to swim backwards (awkward, I know) to keep from running into it, when another one floated in front of my face.

I glanced around me, focusing on the water rather than the floor, and realized that there were tiny jellyfish everywhere. I didn't know what to do and froze for a moment. Then I realized that if I hadn't been stung by now I likely wasn't going to be. I got out of the water and others confirmed that there was a school of jelly fish, but no one seemed concerned, since they weren't the stinging type. It still bothered me though, and combined with the rough water away from the islands (it took a lot of work to control your motion here) I decided I was done swimming for the day.

Final Adventure

We wrapped up the day and headed back. We paused as we got back to our first stopping point and Capt Boss instructed us to tighten things down and told us where to sit to balance the boat. I realized that there must be deeper water between the dock and this first stop. Sure enough the roller coaster swells returned, and this time there was more whooping for fun than out of fear. To add to the drama though, our trusty boat/ship/vessel stalled twice on that last leg, making everything go eerily silent as the swells moved our little boat up and down. It isn't as fun without some real risk...

Back at the dock we cleaned up and unloaded our stuff, but our Jeepney that was to pick us up was nowhere to be found. We sent someone out to the main road via a bicycle driven sidecar-for-hire, and 20 minutes later we had a new ride. Back at the hotel I looked in the mirror to discover that my whole head was bright red, and starting to hurt. I had religiously applied sunscreen, but it seems impossible to get perfect coverage. There is just too much surface area these days. And with any great adventure, if you come back unscathed you didn't get your money's worth. And I prefer a sunburn to a shark bite any day.

Traveling

A lot has happened, and I am way behind in my blog, so I am looking for some way to catch up. What I have decide to do is just put some random notes in one post. This is stuff that happened somewhere in between December 2010 and July 2011.

January was a traveling month. I spent three weeks out on the road that month.

Fort Knox: This was my first trip to what I would call the mid-East, Kentucky. Not the coast, but still East of the Mississippi. I landed in Louisville and drove to Elizabethtown, which is the nearest town with a decent selection of hotels. The landscape there was beautiful, green with lots of vegetation, big square red brick houses with large porches on large lots of manicured grass. Even the lower income areas looked well kept compared to other places I have been. I was only there for two days, but really enjoyed the scenery.

The legendary "Fort Knox" is still there, but ironically is not protected by the military installation. Instead it is just a modest sized stone structure out front of the base entrance, surrounded by its own security--razor-wire, chain link, barriers and personnel. The interesting stuff, I was told, is not in the building but believed to be underground. I hadn't realized it, but this is property of the Treasury department which is a different branch of government than the DoD. Anyway, in the pass office to get on base there are signs to remind visitors that this is an active military base, not a tourist location. There are a fair number of historical locations on old bases like this, and apparently the public at large has tried to go see them.

Atlantic City: From Ft Knox I took a late night flight in to Philadelphia and drove down to Atlantic City, arriving at about 2AM. If I was driving on more familiar roads I think this would have been pretty difficult to stay alert, but in unfamiliar [hostile] territory, driving an unfamiliar car, I didn't have any problems. I had also been warned to watch out for wildlife crossing the turnpike at night, so I had multiple reasons to stay awake. I had a room in Absecon that looked out over the city across Absecon Bay.

I was working at the local Federal Aviation Administration facility, and while the driving there wasn't any worse than anywhere else on the east coast, but the security at the FAA was more involved than just about any military base I have visited yet. They did full airport security to anyone that visited, and I wasn't able to drive my rental car on their campus. It was very inconvenient, and like many government-sponsored security regimens, not particularly effective or efficient.

Washington, DC: The next week I found myself in DC, headed for Andrews AFB. A coworker and I touched down at around 3PM local time, so we decided to go do an hour in the museums downtown before finding the hotel. I had heard that parking was difficult in downtown DC, but at 4:30 there were spots everywhere. I parked on a nearby street and we hit the Natural History Museum and the Military Museum (I think...)

Anyway, it was just after 5:30 when we got back to where I had parked, and the car was gone. I had incorrectly interpreted the instructions on the meter and where I had parked became and additional driving lane after 5PM, so I had been towed. In my defense the scant directions were still not totally clear, even after I understood what had happened. Anyway, the system is that they tow your car to another nearby street. You call a number and they towing company tells you the approximate location of your car. An hour later we located the car three blocks away or so and survived the ugly traffic out of there. I ended paying a pretty penny in parking fines over the next few months as well.

Another take away from my time at Andrews was that our military is very inconsistent in their procedures, which has always been counter-intuitive to me. Every base, even in the same branch of the military has a different procedure for getting on base. These little inconsistencies add up to big time dollars being wasted. My example here is the procedure for getting on base. Thinking of Air Force installations only, I have had to fill out multiple forms ahead of time, or sometimes just show my driver's license at the gate. Sometimes I need an escort or a solid itinerary for my visit, while other times I am just let loose on the base to figure it out for myself. I don't blame the soldiers for any of this of course. It is just another source for my healthy distrust of large government. If you want something done quickly, cost-effectively or at a high quality level, then don't ask the government to do it.

Ft Hood, Texas: The last week of January was the beginning of four trips in a row to Ft Hood in Killeen, Texas. I like Texas in many ways. The people are faith-based, gun-toting cowboys. Most of the time I liked that atmosphere. I think that the stereotypical character that you think of when I describe it that way might struggle in the IT/Computer world, and there was a lot of that as well. I liked the restaurants, the weather and the overall feel in central Texas (I often flew into Austin and drove up). At the same time there was a lot of harsh language and an antagonistic atmosphere among my counterparts, most of which was politically motivated.

February was a little better. A couple more trips to Texas. More progress on Ft. Hood.

March was another traveling month. Another week at Ft Hood. Along with weeks at Newark, New Jersey and in Hunstville, Alabama.

I have shared my thoughts about Newark before, I believe, and they haven't improved much. If anything I am just more comfortable there, knowing more how to get around, where to get food, and where not to go.

Huntsville, Alabama was another story altogether. First of all, for the first time ever I volunteered to get bumped in return for free travel. It ended up being so restricted with rules and fees that I wouldn't recommend it unless you had a specific trip you knew you would have to pay for in the 12 months. The truth is that I was able to make last minute changes to my travel plans, and was comfortable doing so. I jumped on a different plane, one gate over for Birmingham, and then rented a car and drove to Huntsville.

Really, if you have the money, the air travel network is fairly flexible. You can get just about anywhere in the country, and sometimes out of the country in a day, if you are willing to pay the price. A big caveat, I know, but it is a new understanding to have. I have changed a lot of flights and as a frequent flyer been given a lot of leeway over the last few years. The cost is the cost of repeating business enough with one or two airlines to earn the luxury of flexibility. Anyway, a tangent, I know, but I thought it was interesting.

Huntsville itself was fantastic. It was rainy some days, but it was beautiful, and pretty warm for late winter/early spring. I was there visiting the Redstone Arsenal, which is where most of our missile research takes place. So this is a boom town full of government contractors, rocket scientists and government funding. The base had tons of amenities, and was a polar opposite to Ft Hood. No rough languaged shout-downs happening in the hallways here (yes, that happened multiple times at Ft Hood.) If I liked Texas, then I loved Huntsville. I told Heather that we should move there. Heather happens to have a friend in town, so it made for interesting discussions, but the lack of a job and the distance from family kept it from getting too serious.

April brought one more trip to Ft Hood, to finish that project up. It also brought my resignation from the company. Traveling has been hard on the family, but in many cases it has brought the experience that I was looking for. I had only traveled out of the Western US a couple of time up to that point in time, and I felt that that lack of experience was holding me back somewhat, so I embraced the opportunity to travel. Now it is over.

Did I resign because I thought I was "done" with that need to experience things? No, it is more just that we have done what we can do for now. A life of experience does not happen in one year, one job, or even with one purpose. I think I exhausted the professional experience available at that company. Yes, there was more traveling available, but that would just be more of the same. I had gained a lot of experience, I missed being home with my family, and I had another option that had the potential for growth. That is usually all it takes.

So I started a new job in May 2011 and a new adventure. I will write about that too, but this post is already overly long, so I will split it up. I have also been focusing on work events in this post, so I should write a few about other happenings from the beginning of 2011 as well.

My trip to the North Pole

I am not doing a good job of keeping my blog up to date, so in an effort to increase overall activity I am going to let quality slip even more.



I spent 3 weeks in Anchorage, Alaska in August/September this year, and experienced Alaska at its best. I don't remember if I wrote anything about that trip, but I'm not here to tell you about it. I am here to tell you about 2 weeks in December that I spent in Fairbanks, Alaska. That is a different story altogether.

I have pictures somewhere, of varying quality, and I will hopefully remember to add them later. For now, I am just going to hit some highlights:



1. The warmest it got the whole time I was there was -8 F. The coldest it got was -40 F.

2. There are still ravens/blackbirds that live in those temperatures.

3. They don't plow the roads when it snows. It is so cold that the snow doesn't get all that slippery, since it never melts, so their roads are just squished down snow.




4. I drove through North Pole, AK every day, and I stopped by Santa's House several times.

5. It is so cold that frost/ice forms on the inside of doors and windows and can build up quite a bit. It seems to all be based on humidity levels...

6. When you spit in -30 F weather, it does NOT turn to ice before hitting the ground. It hits the ground wet and freezes within seconds.

7. In -30 F, if you toss a cup of boiling water into the air, it WILL turn to snow-like particles and float down.





9. You plug your car in whenever you stop for any material length of time to keep the engine from freezing solid. At grocery stores people just leave their car running with the doors locked rather than turn it off.

10. Alaska is an expensive place to live because everything has to be shipped in.

Like I said, hopefully I will get some pictures to include here as well. (Look, I did!!)

The passing of Sandra Lynn Gresko

Heather has an open, well-known and well-documented relationship with her mom that is as close as any two people can be, in my opinion. So this is my turn to say that I loved Sandy, and it was with a deep sadness I watched her struggle with cancer and eventually pass from this life this year.

I hate funerals and the hardest part for me is the viewing. There is just something different between talking about someone dying and actually seeing their bodies vacant of a spirit. To me it is akin to the disparity between hearing about a catastrophe and witnessing it first hand. It becomes something you never forget, that reaches you at a different level. At Sandy's viewing I was overcome by sadness and I couldn't contain it. It was such a sense of loss, and I cried for her, and for her daughter, and for her husband, and their family, and for my family. And for me. I had not felt the loss so keenly prior to that moment, and I haven't felt it like that since, but I remember it, and it was overpowering. And to think that this awful experience of death is a part of life. Such sadness.

The day of the funeral was hotter than usual in Phoenix. Definitely too hot to wear a black suit, but wear it I did. I stood in the sun, next to my mother-in-law's grave, and thought about her, and how she was at almost every major event in my life over the last 13 years. There were babies born, kids' soccer games, my marriage, shopping trips to Costco, my family's sealing in the temple, my Eagle Court of Honor, my first full-time job, multiple surgeries and sicknesses. Our first apartment, the next 13 times we moved, Holidays including Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, Easter, 4th of July, our birthdays and babtisms. There were times we disagreed, even argued, but in the end we were family. We got over it and learned to live with our differences.

Sandy's legacy lives on in each of her grandchildren who will carry the sense of self-worth and belonging that came from the unconditional love of a devoted grandparent. Thanks, Sandy for all you have done for me and my family. We will miss you. God be with you 'till we meet again.

Newark, NJ

So I spent some time in Newark, NJ, and I will just go ahead and put it on my list of worst places I have ever been. Near the top.

Unfortunately, New Jersey isn't a bad place from a natural scenery/climate point of view. It is just full of New Jersians. I will say that I am lucky that I am working with a group of helpful, hardworking people out there, so my opinion is not based on them, but more on the 2000-3000 people I drive past every day while I am there. The ones arguing on the sidewalk, fighting, selling drugs, standing around and doing nothing, playing checkers on the sidewalk, etc, etc. In other words, Newark appears to have a bunch of people in it that don't want to work for a living and just want the government to take care of them. And the hard-working people in Newark (who often live a long way outside of Newark) pay for it. It is rediculous. I think I have written about this before, so this is just a refresher in case anyone forgot where I stand on the "should Newark be leveled so we can start from scratch" question...

Anchorage, Alaska

No, I did not meet Sarah Palin.

I did however take two trips to Anchorage, staying a total of 3 weeks there. It was in August, so it was beautiful weather. Unfortunately I didn't see any moose or polar bears (Alaska icons), but I did see Beluga whales and a seal. And a lot of salmon fisherman. The last day I was there I had some time before my flight left, so I drove down the coast until I had burned half my free time. It was beautiful, and I even saw my first glacier, from a distance (I think).

I also experienced daylight until about 11 PM on those trips. This post may grow if I find some pictures to add, and the time to add them. But at least this wasn't left out now...

Legoland

Life is hectic. So how do you deal with it? I know how I do. I look forward to the next vacation. It sounds kind of cheesy when I say it (or write it), but it is the truth. I like having a plan for something fun to do with the family, and so far our favorite is the canned vacation to a theme park or other "touristy" location. There is a fair helping of irony to this, since I don't really like crowds, don't enjoy cities and spend a lot of time away from home already, but as I found in some of my earliest blog posts, there is something about being on vacation with the family.


So we picked up and went to Legoland. It is part of our commitment to lay off of Disneyland for a while. I have a goal of visiting all of the other major So Cal theme parks before going back.

One of the coolest things about Legoland is simply all of the lego sculptures. They truly were amazing. Everthing you see here is constructed out of regular stock Lego bricks.

Heather and I saw Hagrid, and both immediately went for a picture. Logan was our photographer on this trip, so we were able to get a few shots of just us.

We couldn't turn down Harry either.

Jeff and Rachelle's fam met us out there, and we ate at this great restaurant twice... umm, I forgot the name. Maybe someone can remind me? Anyway, we were there in between Collin's and Trenton's brithday, so they got to stand on their chairs and be recognized. The cousins were in rare form that night, if I remember correctly. Oh, to be young and so excited about life...

Taryn was a good sport. At Legoland, the little kids have to wait in line with everyone else so the parents can switch on the ride. She did pretty well, and as always, we love to take pictures of her.

Collin turned 11 on this trip. He is growing up on us.

Yeah, work it baby.

I think she has a thing for bald guys...

They did pretty much the whole Vegas strip. The detail was pretty cool. I did find it interesting that the are working hard to create recognizable characters out of their Lego guys, yet they didn't use the standard Lego guys in their model. They built people out of bricks instead. Weird.

We realized that we didn't have a jacket for Taryn anymore, so on the way out of town we stopped at our favorite store: the Disneyland outlet store and got her this Mickey jacket. She loved it, and it turned out to be a good idea because it was cold the whole time we were there. (Highs in the 60's in the second week of July??)

Another cool thing was the technic classes. You could sign up to come back and play with these robots. You plugged them into a computer, programmed them to do certain tasks, and then tested it on this special table. The boys loved it. I loved it. I only wish they would have just let us play on our own a while longer.
All made out of Legos. Pretty cool, huh.
They had some 3-D shows, one of which was Bob the Builder. Taryn really wanted to go see Bob, until she got there. Then she remembered how shy she is, and how big Bob is up close. Still, Taryn seems to pull us more toward characters than the other kids have.

Wow. look at our little family.
So one of the down sides of Legoland was that the rides left a lot to be desired. This is one of the few that Taryn went on, and she loved it, but overall the rides were a disappointment. They were all scaled down compared to DLand, and you can tell that they just didn't spend the money on them. The cheese factor was pretty high. But still, we can say we experienced it.

Jon Schmidt

Collin found this Utah-based piano-guy, Jon Schmidt a while back. I don't know how he heard about him, but he loved his stuff and worked his tail off to learn one of his songs. Over the last 6 months while Collin has worked on "Jon Schmidt" songs we went to a concert in Henderson where Jon performed, and have watched every you-tube video that mentions his name or his songs. I love to listen to Collin play, and especially when he is playing one of these songs, and I have found myself far away from my family, streaming music from Jon's website, and thinking about how it would be at home and hearing Collin play. Collin isn't a master of all of these songs yet, but he does pretty good, and he is learning what it is to have to perform them on stage. He makes a few more mistakes in front of an audience then he does at home, but I know that it is because he wants to do them as fast as Jon does. He is getting better all the time, and I am so proud of him. So I am going to post a video from a recent talent show. Taryn was making a fuss for part of the video, and Collin had to do his own page turning, as well as deal with nerves, so this is a little rough, but it is life.

So I came home for a week at the end of May/beginning of June, and then returned again to Okinawa. I was in Okinawa for the rest of June and the first few days of July (28 days total). Currently I am once again in the Kansai airport in Osaka, Japan, waiting for my connecting flight back to San Francisco. I feel like I have blogged more in this airport than in anywhere else in the world (not true, of course).

Anyway, I haven't posted anymore pictures of signs with goofy translation errors, or other cultural oddities, because, frankly, they all blend in for me now. I feel like I see more things as "normal" now, although there are some things that are still just wrong in my book, most of them being culinary in nature. (Why, oh why would you ruin a perfectly good pizza with ring shaped hunks of squid?)

So what I do have to report on is that I finally bought a new camera. It is still an inexpensive model, because I am a tight-wad. It is also a stylish blue color, that doesn't at all fit me, but that is also because I am a tight-wad (the blue ones were on sale. Apparently they didn't fit anyone else either.) So although the newness of Japan has worn off a bit, the newness of my camera has not, and I was on the lookout for something interesting to take a picture of.




So in airports across the world now there are designated smoking rooms. You get used to them. You smell them before you see them, and once you pass them if you just keep walking the smell goes away. Anyway, I was passing this one and walked by, and then stopped and went back and took a picture. There is an obvious problem here if you put "For smoking adults only." Where are the kids going to smoke? Some people are just thoughtless.

Anyway, so on this trip I went golfing for the first time in Okinawa. And the same thing happened that happens every time I go golfing. I lose horribly. I had a great time. I stated at least 10 times that I need to go to the driving range and practice before golfing again. As usual, I enjoyed the time outdoors and so the next day we went again. It was my first time on a small irons course. Nothing but par 3s, and I really liked that. The second time we went it was close to their closing time, so we did all nine holes in an hour and ten minutes. We jogged the whole way. Did my score suffer? Yes. Did it matter? No. So I heard a long time ago that if you video tape your swing, and then look at it, it is easier to see what you need to change (as opposed to having people constantly tell you how to fix it, which I haven't found totally helpful up to this point...) So I did that, and it was really educational. I decided against posting that video however. That would be a waste of bytes on some server somewhere.

What was cool is that the course is right under the incoming flight path to Kadena Air Base, and we saw a bunch of fighter jets throughout the round. They were SO close that we could hear the hydraulics that controlled the flaps and stuff. It sounded like a scene from Transformers. It was so cool. Unfortunately after the tenth fly-over I thought "I should get video of that." Too late.

So I am so glad to be heading home to see my family. We have been spread all over the place, and it is high-time we had some time together. Unfortunately, it looks like I will be back out in OKA a time or two this year, so we will have to make the most of the time we have together over the next few weeks.

I have a few other topics to post about, but I'll wait and work on those later.

What is that on your plate?

So I didn't take any pictures, but did have an interesting dinner. I love the Korean BBQ places; those are the ones with cutouts in the table with a BBQ stuck right there. My favorite are the buffet style, where you can go to a big open refrigerated buffet of raw meat, and heap up a bunch of raw meat to take back and cook at your table. It is most exciting because since I can't read Japanese, so I have to guess at what kind of meat I am getting.

Well we were at one such establishment, and I saw a plate of raw chicken, and thought that I might get a little chicken to go with my pork and beef. So I grabbed a couple of pieces and sat down to BBQ and eat my rice. Mark, who I work with, asked if I knew what that was. "Yep, its chicken." He smiled. Its bad news when Mark thinks something is funny.

"Tell me what it is" I said.

"No."

"If you tell me I promise to try it anyway."

He grabs the tongs and throws my two now suspicious raw somethings on the grill.

"Intestines" he says.

So it turns out that intestines are rather tasteless, albeit extremely chewy. Reminded me of the unfortunate squid I sampled last time I was in Yokohama, only without the crunchy parts (the little round sucker things.)

I didn't go back for seconds.

Update from OKA

Still no pictures (I haven't gone anywhere new yet). Still not a lot to update. It has been 13+ hour work days and finding food and sleep in between. I hope to be on my flight home on Saturday, but it isn't looking promising at this point...

Interesting tidbit: Okinawa has endured an earthquake and 2 tsunamai warnings since I was here last. The world is rocking and rolling.

Osaka, for another hour or so

So, it is true. The only time I have for blogging these days is when I'm on the road. I have been re-assigned to our project in Okinawa, so I am on my way back there today, and will be back and forth a bit for the next month or two. The 7 week break from travel was nice, but good things never last. This should only be a one-week trip, and I have a big task ahead of me, so I don't plan on doing anything exciting. I didn't even bring a camera, other than my phone. We'll see if I can find anything interesting to take pictures of...

Germany

So I finally made it to Germany in January 2010. Now I am out here for a second trip already in February-March. Overall life has been busy, both at home and abroad, so I haven't had a lot of time for picture taking/site seeing, but I though I would post what I have and make a few comments in case anyone is interested.



This is me standing on a castle wall, overlooking the town of Heidelberg. This is an "Americanized" German town, but I can't tell from where I am. To me it just looks German.



This is pretty much the same picture, just better because I am not in the way.


More from the same vantage point, but looking straight across the valley.



If I turned around from where I took those pictures of the valley, this is main building? Wall? of the "castle". The term castle refers to a lot of things, and while it felt like a castle as I climbed the ancient narrow trail that wound up the side of the mountain, I didn't expect for there to be so many windows... Granted, this still isn't an easily accessed/conquered vantage point, but still. That is a lot of windows.



It seems that the castle is in a constant state of being rebuilt to keep it in showing condition, however, some parts had been damaged beyond fixing by time, bombs and lightning. This picture (horrible lighting, sorry) was meant to show the thickness of the walls. They are incredibly thick in some place,like 12 feet thick. And it still broke... Interesting.



This was part of an interpretive sign that explained about how the castle used to look. It seems that most castles weren't just built, they were large buildings that kept getting addons and remodels until the took the shape of what we consider a castle. Perhaps some of the more Gothic structures are a little different, so I should find some of those. If/when I go to France, I think that a few French castles fit my particular perception of a castle a little better.



This tower was broken almost clean down the middle, and the massive piece of the tower remained intact and just slid to a new resting place. A German professor, trying to make a political point of some kind back in the day, spread the story that this was the work of WWII bombing by the Allies, but Wikipedia confirms that the real culprit here was lightning in the 19th century. Still, it is amazing to see this massive, old, man-made hunk of tower just leaning there like a tinker toy. My picture doesn't do this justice...

Old vs. New. As I said, the castle was more like a bunch of add-ons. Here you can see a date carved in the stone (1545) and right next to it are the more modern pipes bringing in utilities of some kind (water maybe?) Very interesting.




This is from inside the Courtyard of the castle. That big building in front of me is the other side of the wall I was looking up at a few pictures ago. The courtyard does match my perception of castle life a little better... They have converted the East side of the castle (to right, around the corner) to an Apothecary (Pharmacy) museum. It was very interesting too, but I wasn't able to get pictures of anything in there. In the foreground of this picture on the right, you see the corner with pillars. That was where the well for the castle was. That alone is amazing to me, that they could dig that deep by hand on a mountainside and hit water... ok, so I was raised in a desert.

This is a horrible picture for a number of reasons, the biggest being that you don't get the scale of it at all. This is a humongous Wine cask. It was built in the castle, and is 20 ft. tall I would guess? Standing on the ground next to it I have to look up to see the center of the thing. It was huge. Some idiot with more money than brains had it built, only to find that within a year it started leaking. It was only in use for a year or two, at the end of which it was constantly leaking like a sieve. At least the guy did set his sights high.... There was a staircase so you could walk up and over it, or stand on top. It was cool.



This is a town square in below the castle (you can see one of the ruined walls behind the statue. The statue was of Mary and Baby Jesus, but the picture didn't turn out too well.

So those are some of my pictures from my first trip in January. I only had one half day (luck) to do anything but work, since I was only there a week, so I am glad to have been able to see what I did.

I was home for about three weeks, and then I went back to Germany for what was going to be 2 weeks, but is stretching into almost 4 weeks (I am still here...) I hope to be home soon. The upside is that I had a few more days--weekends--to see a few things, so here is a sampling of those sights.

The day started at the Hauptbahnhof (train station) in Frankfurt. We had to take a coworker to the airport, so we parked the car at the train station. There was a tourism office where we got a day pass for Frankfurt, which allowed us to ride any of the trains and get discounts at any of the museums in town (there are a lot of museums) for about 9 euros. That is about $14.


An overall shot of the train station. I am not a big fan of cities, or city life, but I am a big fan of trains. Too bad they seem to go together.


So after getting our day passes and maps we took a few minutes at an American icon to plan out our day. It was extremely cold, and snowing off an on, so a cup of hot chocolate was perfect. Did I mention it was freezing cold? Ok, good. Didn't want to leave that out. (BTW: Can you pick me out of the crowd? Ok, that was too easy.)


There are basically 4 types of trains: underground (U-bahn), Regional surface trains (R-bahn), local trams (buses on tracks;)--(S-bahn) and then the long distance, super fast Inter City Express trains (ICE trains). This is the tram stop (S-bahn) outside of the train Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station). We decided to ride the tram down to the old city center along the river, where it would be a short walk to a dozen different museums.

This is the old town in Frankfurt. Frankfurt is actually considered a new city, and has more skypscrapers than anywhere in Germany (or so I am told) but why would I take pictures of skyscrapers? That seemed dumb. So here is one angle on the old town square. This weekend was Carnival (a big drunken festival of unknown origin?) and they were setting up for the festivities as we wandered around.


Just another building in all its quaintness.


This statue was outside an "ancient statue" museum. They had big windows along the outside of the building, so we walked along and saw all kinds of Greek and Roman statues, at varying levels of modesty. We didn't pay to go in. The statue pictured is of the King (ok, so I don't remember exactly what he was king of) from around 760ish AD. That was a long time ago. And it looks just like him!! Amazing. I wonder if it was chiseled by a guy named Polaroid. Or maybe it was a guy named Bob using Polaroid chisels...


So being from Vegas, I see random stuff stuck on buildings all the time. I don't even see it anymore becuase I know it is all just a faked up attempt to make stucco (and the whole city) look like something more than it is. Well, I saw this on the side of an old German building and thought, I don't know if that is genuine or a reproduction for tourists. Just not knowing for sure somehow lent it some credibility. And even if it is just another cheap stucco reproduction, it does have more value because the street I was standing on probably had seen armored troops on horseback (among other conveyences.) Also, you can't tell from the picture so much, but this is not just a picture, but a flat sculpture on the wall (isn't that called a relief? I never took art history. I never thought I would use it ;) )




This is two attemps to get a shot of an old chapel across the river. Yes a new camera is on my Christmas list.


There was a foot bridge across the river... (Did I mention it was freezing cold?)


This is me on the foot bridge, freezing. (Thanks Mom for the stocking hat from Christmas like 10 years ago. See, it made it to Germany!) The sign above/behind me is in Greek. In the full sized picture I can't make out the characters I can't read. Yeah, you aren't missing much there.

This is a dog.

So we wandered around some more. Went to an Architecture museum and a Archeology museum (no pictures allowed in either.) We found a more modern, very European street to walk down that had a bunch of shops and pubs, so we stopped in one for lunch. That took two hours. That is where the dog picture came from. We noticed in multiple places, especially restaurants, that people would bring their dogs to work. Our waitress owned this little dog, and the table next to us had a few little kids, the youngest being a little blond haired girl who was 3 at most. They loved this dog, and the waitress came over and had it do tricks (rolling over and such). My little Taryn would have loved that dog. He was very patient with the kids, although they did finally get him to bark a few times. When the family left the dog went and sat by the glass door and watched them leave.

So a few more train rides and we were done for the day. I have a few more pictures from my trip, which as I mentioned isn't over yet, so I will do another post later for those who might be interested.