Road Trip

Sidney and Kimber (I) took a road trip for Spring break.  This trip was between my Norway/UK trip and month in Equatorial Guinea. We left for this trip after I had been home for approximately 14 hours and it was my sixth flight in a week (Norway to Aberdeen, Offshore to Brae by helicopter, back onshore by helicopter, Aberdeen to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Houston, finally Houston to Las Vegas).  We flew into Las Vegas and drove over to St. George Utah on the first day.  At this time I was totally confused by time zones and we were really tired. The lady who checked us into the hotel, Mitsy, was awesome.  She told us where a few parks were, where to get a good cup of coffee and a good dinner.  She made sure we had a quite hotel room and chatted a lot with Sidney.  All we did then was play at the park, have dinner, and swim for a while.

On day two, we drove over to Zion Canyon.  We packed some left over pizza, fruit, vegetables and trail mix and took off. It was an hours drive from the hotel.  We stopped at the visitors center to get Junior Ranger information for Sidney and hiking suggestions.  The day was sunny and warm.  Sidney and I hike the Lower, Middle, and Upper Emerald Pool Falls Trails.  This took us under a few small water falls and two three lovely pools.  Now these are small falls and pools because Zion is in the desert.  We did talk about the signs of spring as we went, noticing insects, flowers and new leaves.  Towards the Upper Emerald Pool, we had to jump from rock to rock over the creek.  Sidney unfortunately landed on a wet slanted rock and ended up with one foot into the water up to mid calf.  She then tried the same thing again, other leg, same result.  She was extremely offended that I laughed at her. She was fine and was dry by the end of the hike. 

We ate our lunch at the Upper Pool which to Sidney's delight had snow.  She couldn't get to the snow but she enjoyed looking at it and talking about it.  We ate our pizza and fruit there.  She only ate part of her pizza and announced loudly to me (with the company of many other hikers) that she was "not fond of the bone" (pizza crust for you non-native English speakers). Everyone around thought this was quite funny. 

After our lunch break, we hiked back down and along the river.  Along the way, we noticed signs of beaver activity.  There were many trees with damage on the bottom and several that had been recently felled.  But we couldn't find any dens or dams.  Sidney and I talked about how the beavers liked the inner bark on the trees and had to keep chewing on trees because their teeth grow longer all the time.  When we stopped back at the Visitor Center and talked to the Ranger, she said there are beavers, but they are burrowing beavers.  Because the river floods frequently, they have learned not to build dens and dams, but instead dig borrows for their home which they abandon during floods, and re-dig afterwards.  She also had a model of a beaver skull to see and a pelt.  We learned quite a lot.  The Ranger told us that although the beavers are very destructive, they are good indicators of a healthy eco-system.  Overall, it was a great, fun-filled, day of hiking and learning. 

Day three took us back through Zion on the way to South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  In Zion, we drove through a tunnel and came out in an entirely different ecosystem and geologic area.  It was amazing.  It was too bad I had to drive because it was so beautiful.  We stopped at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Utah.  The sand dunes were formed from the pink and red sand from the sandstone in the area.  They were quite different than other sand dunes we have visited.  They also have a full ecosystem because they don't shift as much as other dunes.  There was evidence of lots of lizards and kangaroo rats.  Sidney had a blast rolling around in the sand.  It was a great time for her but there was sand in everything for days. 

After our stop there, we proceeded on to the Grand Canyon.  We stopped at all the overlooks outside of the main village and bus transportation areas.  Then we took our exhausted selves to our lodge.  After dinner we crashed. 

On day four, we took the free shuttle bus to the farthest point along the south rim it goes towards the east and spent most of the day walking back along the rim.  We considered hiking some of the way into the canyon, and I am sure we would have enjoyed it, but with only one day we wanted to see some of the museums and displays.  We walked about 6 miles back along the rim.  We stopped and took in a ranger Program and got another Junior Ranger Badge for Sidney.  She now has Carlsbad Caverns, Yellowstone, Zion, and Grand Canyon.  For each she has completed several required activities and talked to rangers.  I think it is a great way for kids to learn things.  She can tell you all about Big Horn Sheep now. Part of our walk was the Walk of Time.  There were rocks from the canyon that chronology the time the canyon has formed.  All the rock layers are from different times and tell the history of the canyon.  Sidney really enjoyed this activity.  By the time were got back to the village we were tired and ready for a break from all the people.  So we drove to our hotel in Williams.

We stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in Williams.  It was very pleasant and a nice break from the crowds.  Sidney swam and showered and then we had a quite dinner. 

We started day five at Bearizona.  Bearizona was not on our original itinerary.  However, we were convinced by the hotel staff to go for a visit.  It was well worth it.  Bearizona has been open since 2010 and is located in Williams.  It is a drive through an walk through animal park.  I am always hesitant about these but I have to admit I was very impressed.  When you drive up and pay, they give you a GPS that talks about the different areas of the park, what is happening in that area, and most importantly about the animals. 

We started our journey with the Mountain Goats.  We didn't see them so we moved on to American Bison, Big Horn Sheep, and Dall Sheep. They also have 4 White American Bison named Ima, Yankee, Doodle, and Dandy.  Additionally, we saw four wolves, one of which I really thought was going to jump on the car.  Very scary.  Windows are up of course.  The final drive through part of the park is the Bears or course.  They have 17 bears on 15 acres.  I have to admit it was really amazing.  You could really watch a variety of bear behavior in a great environment.  I was extremely impressed with the park and the amount of room the animals had and how they were kept.  The walk through section had most of the standard North American animals like Lynx, Bobcat, Skunk, and Raccoon.  Oh and guinea pigs.  But this time, the best part was the baby White American Bison you could reach through the fence and pet.  She was amazing.  Her name in Anabelle.  I think she was one of Sidney's favorite things. 

The GPS describes the reclamation of objects the park does to build habitats.  They used 18 buses to form the walls for the Mountain Goats.  When you drove back through the park, you could see them from the back as well as notice other efforts.  We also talked with the keepers and found them extremely informative and helpful.  When we drove back through, we found the Mountain Goat, as he tried to butt my rental car.  When we talked with the keeper he said the goat was fairly new and very outgoing!  Bearizona was one of Sidney's favorite stops.

After that we headed for Hoover Dam.  I had never been there and we couldn't do all the tours because of Sidney's age.  The tour we did was OK but the whole thing felt very commercial and not as educational as I expected.  We didn't spend a lot of time there and instead headed for Las Vegas and our final stop. I have included a picture of Lake Mead.  Something I did learn was that the white line you see in the picture was a one time level the lake reached in the early nineties where there was enough flooding from snow melt and rain upstream of the Dam that the overflow route for the Dam was in use for 60 days.  So only once has the level been that high but it left a permanent white line that makes people very worried about how much lower the level is today. 

We arrived in Las Vegas and checked in.  Got settled in our room in New York New York. We wandered a bit and then enjoyed some Sushi. 

Day six was spent wandering around the strip.  We went to Bellagio and saw the beautiful glass flowers and garden.  We also saw a bit of the fountains.  We went to the bird sanctuary at Flamingo and the hourly animation of the gods at Caesars Palace.  We also went to a dolphin training center.  That was also a great experience for Sidney.  You were within two feet of the dolphins and could really interact with them and see how smart they are.  They had 11 dolphins total in three tanks ranging in age from 3 years old to 30 years old.  They do not have shows there but do train and exercise the dolphins.  Several of the dolphins will whistle and chatter with their blow holes at you and sometimes even wave.  And two were working together to try to lift a fence to get to another tank.  It was quite interesting.  We also saw white tigers and white lions but they were not nearly as social as the dolphins. 

After that, we went home and took a nap.  We ate dinner and then went to Cirque Du Soleil "O" at Bellagio.  It was amazing.  They have acrobats and clowns and divers.  At one time three divers dove from the ceiling at the same time into a very small section of the pool.  One minute there would be a deep pool of synchronized swimmers and the next a nearly dry stage with dancers.  The stage or section of it would come up in the pool.  Amazing.  We were spell bound. 

I have to say we were ready to head home on day seven.  I had to get ready to come to Africa and Sidney had to go back to school.  We had a really great time together and I hope we can do another road trip sometime soon.

Our Second Bluebonnet Express

Kimber is away in Africa for the next month, but Sidney and I could not pass up the opportunity to participate in the Bluebonnet Express bicycle ride again this year. Kimber and I are doing the MS150 in one month, and this is one of the better lead-up rides to that event.

We did the 45 mile ride, as I had to ride my mountain bike to pull Sidney's trail-behind.  It is much heavier, and Sidney provides much more moral support than physical support.  Still, her encouragement, singing, and all-around great attitude were very helpful.

The only problem we encountered was a flat tire during the first third of the ride.  I picked up a piece of glass in my back tire just after I took this picture, and had to get a ride for a couple of miles to the first rest stop.  I got it repaired quickly and we were back on our way.

Speaking of rest stops, Sidney was very impressed with them.  She struck up a short conversation with another rider just as we were approaching the finish, saying "Those rest stops are pretty cool.  They are like gas stations but better!  And they are cheap!  You don't have to pay one cent and you get drinks, cookies and fruit!"

The weather has been much wetter here this year than last.  As a matter of fact, we have had almost enough rain since the beginning of the year to erase our drought deficit from the previous year.  This has led to a bumper crop of wildflowers, specifically the bluebonnets that are the ride's namesake.

As the MS150 time draws closer, Kimber and I will make a push to try and reach our pledge goals in addition to just getting prepared for the ride.  We are going to do it on a tandem, so at least we can help each other out (in theory.)  We are happy to do it, though, as the cause of finding a cure for multiple schlerosis is indeed a noble one.  If you would like to contribute to either of our efforts, please click on one of the links below.  Note: Kimber and I are very careful not to make our blog commercial or to use it for multiple fundraising efforts.  This is one of the only times you will ever see us solicit donations on our blog.  Please, if you are willing and able, please help us raise our pledge amount for this cause!

Kirk's page: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?px=10424109&pg=personal&fr_id=17896



Kimber's page: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?px=9064974&pg=personal&fr_id=17896

We Have a Butterfly (and other stuff)

First, we have our butterfly.  After a long wait of watching the caterpillar eat and grow, turn into a chrysalis and hang on our fence for several weeks, we were rewarded today.  Our lowly monarch butterfly emerged on this very wet and rainy day.  Hopefully its wings will finish drying over night and it can fly away tomorrow.  We are so glad we got to see it though.  Hopefully our friend will now give us a few more caterpillars.

Sidney also lost a tooth since the last post.  She lost the other bottom tooth.  The Tooth Fairy had a little trouble this time because Sidney dropped it down the drain while washing the blood that was "squirting" from the tooth off.

We spent the weekend a few weeks ago with our good friends, Kevin, Dawn and William at their beach house on Bolivar Island.  It was cool that weekend but we still had a very relaxing time.  Sidney can enjoy the beach whatever the weather.  Kirk also had the opportunity to take some picture of the lighthouse on Bolivar as well as of one of the ferries that transports cars and people between Galveston and Bolivar.

Finally, a bit of Sidney's latest work.  The child is apparently desperate for snow.  So sorry to disappoint her. 

A Quick Tour of Amsterdam

On the way back from our Thanksgiving trip to Poland, Sidney and I had a bit of a long layover in Amsterdam.  We looked around the airport for a while, even taking in the "mini-Rijksmuseum" with several Dutch masters displayed and described.  We tried the play area, but it was a little small for Sidney.  I finally went to the "Amsterdam City Tour" desk and inquired about their layover tours.  We found out we had enough time to do the tour, and after stowing our carry-on luggage in lockers, were escorted out to our tour van with one other person to take the tour.

Our first stop (actually, the only "stop" where we got out of the van) was one of the classic Dutch windmills.  It was a bit drizzly and there was a cold wind blowing in from the sea, so Sidney was not quite as happy about getting out as she normally would have been.  We were able to get a picture of the two of us in front of the windmill.  This particular windmill was built in 1636.  It serves as a private home, but is a functioning windmill as well.

We then drove into town past the main train station.  There were lots of bikes, and it reminded me a bit of Copenhagen in that respect.  Next, we headed into the city and across the canals.  There were lots of houseboats, as you can see, and they were in various states of repair.  Our guide mentioned that in addition to the numerous houseboats, lots of people own regular boats as well, as traveling the canals on a warm weekend afternoon from place to place is quite popular.

We drove past Anne Frank's school, as well as her family's apartment during this part of the tour.  This apartment was not the place where her family hid - that comes later.  We also saw lots of classic Dutch style houses, and were reminded of the little houses they give on the KLM flights in business class.  With all of Kimber's traveling, we have quite a collection of them.

As Amsterdam is a city of canals, it is also a city of bridges.  Some of these bridges turn into bicycle parking areas, as you can see on the next bridge up the canal.  The bikes tend to not park on heavily-traveled car bridges, though, which is good because some of these can be quite narrow.

We made passes by several well-known sights and areas, including the palace and some other sights.  Sidney took a little nap at this point (she woke up at 4:30 so we could catch our flight out of Warsaw).  This was good, because we passed through the red light district and past several "coffee" houses during this part of the tour.  She awoke, however, just in time to notice a large "rainbow" flag on one of the houseboats and point it out.  Our guide was kind enough to tell us there were several rainbow flags in that part of Amsterdam, which (fortunately) Sidney did not question as to why.

It wasn't long before we reached the house the Frank family hid in.  In this picture, you can see it down the street (crowd in front) with the church in the background.  This is the church Anne Frank mentions in her diary as being able to hear the bells of and see the tower of from their attic hiding spot.  You may also note there are barges in the water out front doing a shoring-up job on the canal wall.  In the other picture, you see the front of the house.  It is odd to see these things in person.  Unlike much of history, Anne Frank's diary makes the historical events of her time period personal, and to see these in person really bring it all to life.  When we got home, I got Sidney's biography of Anne Frank out and showed her a sketch inside that showed her looking out a small hole at the church.

Other places we passed included the "I AMsterdam" sign (Sidney's personal favorite), the Rijksmuseum, and the second-most important sight in Amsterdam (after the Anne Frank house)..., well, you can see it in the picture.

We returned to the airport after this, and had enough time to grab a quick lunch before going to our gate.

Amsterdam is certainly a place one could spend several days visiting, but if you happen to be going through Schiphol (that means ship hull in Dutch because they used to build ships there) Airport, take advantage of the city tour.  It doesn't take long and is well worth the cost.

Update on Small Things

Well one caterpillar didn't make it and we thought we had lost the other one.  The larger one just disappeared at about the time it should have formed a chrysalis.  We talked with the friend who gave us them and she said the caterpillar will go quite away from the bush to form the chrysalis, sometimes half the distance of the yard.  Well after a week of searching we were rewarded.  We found this most lovely chrysalis on the fence.  It is amazing.  It appears you can see the wings forming. And you can also see where the caterpillar sewed the chrysalis together, the thin yellow and black line.  So we wait now and hope to be so lucky as to see the butterfly when he or she emerges.  I would guess we have about one and a half weeks until then.

Kimber has also been planning her and Sidney's trip to the Grand Canyon.  We will spend two days in the St. George Utah and Zion Canyon area, two days in the Grand Canyon area, part of a day at Hoover Dam and a day and a half in Las Vegas. Kimber has the car arranged and half of the hotels.  Still working on the other hotels and maybe a show in Vegas. Making progress. She and Sidney are excited.

Our lives are amazingly quite, but still busy right now.  No travel for January.  We will be visiting some friends beach house this weekend and it should force Kimber to cool her heels and let her food heal more.  She now has some stress fractures and is exceedingly frustrated with the lack of ability to get on her feet fully.  At least for now she can still bike.

Finally, Kimber thought you might like to see the building she works in.  A friend snapped these pictures. The building is made of pink granite and it 41 floors.  Kimber works on the 37th floor so there is a nice view.  The Marathon Tower is one of the taller buildings in Houston.  Houston buildings aren't tall because it is impossible to have sufficient footings in the soil we have here.

Small Things and Big Things

We will start with the small things and end on the big things. Anticipation is great.

First small thing is that Sidney learned to tie her shoes. And ever so briefly tie shoes were preferred over flashy shoes. That lasted about two days. It really was easy to teach her, taking only a 15 minute lesson.

Second small thing. She has learned to swing by herself. She has always loved to swing and to swing high. That meant a lot of work for the pusher. Now she can propel herself as high as she wants. Next her mother will teach her to properly jump out of a swing. She is going to learn it from someone and it may as well be mom.



Third small thing. We have two new "pets". They actually live outside and will be with us only briefly. We came home from church with two monarch butterfly caterpillars last Sunday. One of the choir members brought them for Sidney and knowing we have the plant in our yard that they prefer to eat. They like butterfly weed and are working on ours now. They are two different ages. One will go into chrysalis in a few days and the other in about two weeks. They will each by in chrysalis for three weeks before emerging for their approximate three week lifespan as a Monarch butterfly. There is a popular book called "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". Well these guys eat constantly and grow daily. The larger one ate two leaves of his transport plant during the sermon. They also look the same front and back which Sidney finds entertaining. Hopefully we will get pictures when they go into chrysalis and if we are lucky, when they emerge.




Fourth small thing is that we have started doing a little painting around the house. We have been living with the contractor colors and now are starting to make it a little more ours. The first project were are niches in the living room and pillar and bar in the kitchen area painted a rusty red color. That will be followed by one kitchen wall of the same color to tie it all together. I think our bedroom will be next.

So the big thing! We just used some of our frequent flier miles to book tickets to Australia. We are super excited. We will be there for three weeks in late summer. Something we have talked about for so long is about to become reality! So we will keep you posted on how plans progress.

Christmas Cruise

Happy New Year everyone! We hope that your new year is starting off well. We also know it is tough to get back into the routine of work, school and life.

This is our Christmas Cruise blog post. We spent the days leading up to Christmas and Christmas on the Carnival Magic traveling to Costa Maya Mexico, Belize City, Roatan Honduras, and Cozumel. A very warm and unwintery Christmas.

We boarded the Carnival Magic on December 18. The ship departed Galveston at 1600 for two days of sailing to Costa Maya Mexico. We ate our first meal in the dining room that night and met table mates and new friends Karen, Keaton and Kaitlyn. We hit it off wonderfully with Sidney and Kaitlyn becoming fast friends and our family’s enjoying every meal together and planning for future meetings.

We spent two days at sea during which Sidney attended Camp Carnival for some time and swam and played for the rest of the time. She loved Camp Carnival with all of their great activities. The camp leaders are all trained or certified in childhood education and it is a very well run program for kids of all ages. Sidney had a blast. It was a bit cool for swimming during the first two days as we had significant winds. They were unable to open the ropes course on the ship for most of the two days due to the wind. Night one of the cruise is also when the nightly “animals” started showing up in our room. The pictures show the dog and elephant. Others not pictured were a frog, swan, bear, bull, and monkey (who was hanging off the ceiling). Sidney thought these were the greatest things ever and proceeded to collect their eyes (yes, totally Sidney).

We arrived in Costa Maya on day three. Now we have to tell you, there isn’t much there. We would not return given the option. We had not pre-booked an excursion here so we just wandered off the ship and picked up a taxi to a local beach. It was an all inclusive deal where you get a lounge chair each, free beverages, access to the beach and all the facilities and equipment there. Sidney and Kirk swam and snorkeled and Sidney built sand castles. Mom watched the world go by and unwound. Kimber just isn’t so beachy. We stayed for about three hours and were done. We ate dinner alone that night at the Italian restaurant on the ship. It is a little extra money but a nice change with excellent food. While we were eating, a colleague from when Kimber worked at the Texas City Refinery walked in. It was a pleasure to see Darrell again and meet his wife.

Day four brought us to Belize City. Now this we really enjoyed. We had an excursion that took us to Mayan pyramid ruins followed by lunch and a trip down the River Wallace. We had a great time. The guides were extremely informative and made the tour very pleasant. We learned a lot about Belizian culture and Belize City as well as about the ruins and the river. Sidney loved climbing a pyramid and of course scrambled to the top with ease. After the ruins we had a traditional lunch of chicken, rice, beans and plantains. Kirk had a local beer and I tried some blackberry wine which was quite good. Lunch was followed by a trip down the River Wallace where we saw crocodiles, iguanas of all shapes and sizes, Howler Monkeys, insect eating bats, and at the river mouth, manatees. It was a great trip. The wind blowing through your hair and making it nice and cool and seeing all sorts of wildlife. We really enjoyed Belize and look forward to a return there to possibly spend more time.



Day five took us to Roatan Honduras. This was another stop we found rich in culture and activities. Our excursion here was a catamaran sail and snorkeling. We sailed for about an hour to our snorkeling location, then snorkeled for an hour. Sidney did great. She is such a trooper to try new things. She got cold toward the end so she rode one of the kayaks back to the catamaran while mom tried to swim as fast as the kayak. Fortunately some nice folks on the catamaran helped get her wrapped up and comfortable because mom couldn’t keep up and arrived several minutes later. We didn't take the good camera snorkeling but we did take a waterproof camera and Kirk was able to get this picture of Kimber and Sidney.
We enjoyed a fantastic meal of chicken, rice, pasta salad and rum punch after finishing snorkeling. We rode a bus back to the ship but actually enjoyed seeing more of the city and local spots. Again, we would love to return here to spend more time exploring. That night we ate dinner without Sidney in the steakhouse. Kimber had lobster and Kirk had New York Strip. It was a fine dinner and Sidney enjoyed going to camp carnival again. The pirate look is how Sidney came home from dinner. We also went to a magic show that night. We didn't have the best seats and could actually see a lot of the "magic." For the engineer that was still very interesting and quite impressive.


Day six took us to Cozumel. This was also Christmas Eve. We didn’t have plans in Cozumel and just spent some time walking around. Kimber had been there some years before for a friend's wedding (Jinni of previous posts) and wanted to see how the city had changed. It has grown significantly with many new tourist attractions, hotels, shops, etc. There were seven cruise ships there and the Cozumel Kimber remembered would not have handled that. We walked around town and then did some tide pooling on the way back to the ship. We found many of the usual tide pool finds including many crabs, snails and urchins. But we also found one small sergeant major fish and a tiny octopus. These made Sidney’s day. She loved them. We brought home a few shells for Sidney’s collection.

Christmas was spent at sea and brought a few gifts from Santa. He left a note that because mom and dad had to carry everything off the ship and that we would be home tomorrow, he left everything else at the house. We spent a relaxing morning eating and swimming. Sidney then went to Camp Carnival for the last time. The afternoon brought a huge surprise. The kids at camp had been practicing to perform in a musical with the performers on the ship. Sidney came home and said she had a solo in the show. There were actually two shows so that was our entire afternoon. Well the kids got up to sing about two thirds of the way through the show. Two of the performers held microphones on front of the kids two at a time while they sang a song. We thought this was the solo. But at the very end of the show, Sidney and Kaitlyn had a duet of several lines entirely by themselves. It was amazing. Of 1300 kids on the ship that the two girls who had never met before and ate dinner together every night would end up doing a duet together. Mom melted of course. It was originally supposed to be that each of the girls would solo in one performance. But Kaitlyn was very nervous and Sidney worried about Kaitlyn. So Sidney suggested a duet by both girls in both performances. Sidney was worried that Kaitlyn wouldn't get to sing if she was too nervous. What incredible girls. And we loved listening to them both times and then celebrating with them at dinner. The lead performer also commented between the shows on how good of a singer Sidney was and how enjoyable. We are so proud.

December 26 brought us home. Disembarkation was not so much fun. We did eat a relaxing breakfast but the line through passport control was outrageously slow. We finally made and got home to reality. Santa had left the remaining presents at the house so we did that and spent a relaxing day at home before Kirk went back to work.

Now we are all back at work and school. It has been a long week and we are ready for a weekend. Here is one last picture of Sidney at the beach. What a beach bum.