Iraq: "We're Making a Difference"

Christopher and I have driven more than 3,500 miles since Saturday, and more than 1,200 miles just in the last 36 hours. Greetings again from Chattanooga, Tennessee; we're on our way back up north for more school visits. Not much time to write today, but I just wanted to relate something special from today.

Today we visited Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. We did a general campus tour there, and also met individually with ROTC detachments from the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Major Jones and Captain Robinson from the Army ROTC were both really awesome. Major Jones in particular was a very inspirational, eloquent speaker, and he related a story that we found very touching.

Christopher asked Major Jones what the difference was between the Army, Navy and Air Force ROTC programs, and how the benefits of each branch of service differ. Major Jones indicated that that really depended on what you wanted out of it, and he listed some examples which I may post later, but I will relate this one experience he told...

Referring to Christopher's earlier comment that he wanted to actually DO something and make a difference, Major Jones told of his most recent deployment to Iraq. About 18 months ago, he was patrolling a neighborhood and a 4, 5, or 6-year-old little girl came up to him, was tugging on his shirt, and said, "I love you." And this is an experience that repeats itself often. Major Jones went on to say that the Army IS making a difference in Iraq, and many Iraqis have told him that they have opportunities now that they would have never had under Saddam. You could tell that he was starting to well up a little bit, and he told us that, even married with four children, he is volunteering to go back to Iraq again this summer.

The Trek East

Sorry I don't have much time to post today; gotta hit the road. Since the last posting, we've spent most of our time driving east...

• Day One: From Salt Lake City, UT to St. Joseph, MO. 1,040 miles.
• Day Two: From St. Joseph, MO to Chattanooga, TN. 760 miles.
  

Today we'll finish our drive to Daytona Beach, FL - over 500 miles.

Unfortunately, having a destination to get to, we haven't had opportunity to do much other than just drive. We did stop in St. Louis yesterday, though, and rode the tram to the top of the Gateway Arch. Cool place! The two photos below best depict our trek west. For all the posted photos, though, please click here.

We though this sign was hilarious. After driving for HOURS and not seeing anything but desert for hundreds of miles, we stopped to get gas, and this sign was on the front of the convenience store: "YOU ARE NOWHERE." How fitting!!! :-)

Christopher by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO.

College Tour Kickoff

A tradition that we started two years ago with Justin is now continuing with Christopher. For each of our kids' Spring breaks during their junior year in high school, we'll go check out colleges and universities. Justin checked out DePauw (Indiana), Michigan State and University of Michigan, and Brianna says in two years she wants to go check out music conservatories in Europe - FAT CHANCE!!! Christopher flew down and met Andrew and I in Salt Lake, where today he and I started a cross-country trek to check out universities with strong aviation programs. Christopher first and foremost would like to be a pilot, but he also loves working with his hands and fixing things, so he's also checking out aircraft maintenance programs.

Today we checked out Utah State University (USU) in Logan, about 90 miles north of Salt Lake City. We also topped off the night by me introducing Christopher to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. He said it is the best steak he's ever had. And MAN was it yummy!!! In the photo here you can see Christopher about to dig in to a fillet, and he's sporting a USU sweatshirt. Some interesting things we learned about USU today:

• USU has a very strong engineering program, of which Aeronautics/Aviation is a part. They get $250 million in research money every year, among the highest in the nation.
• USU sends more research projects in to space via NASA than any other university in the world. Posters can be seen around the place saying, "Send your homework in to space!"
• Christopher found out that his USU index for his GPA and ACT score is a 126, allowing for a "Deans" scholarship that covers full tuition for all four years. He needs just a 131 to get all tuition and fees covered through a "Presidents" scholarship, so he's all of a sudden much more motivated to do JUST a little bit better in school.
• USU's "Professional Pilot" concentration has just 140 students in it, with less than 50 accepted in to the program each year.
• USU's "Aircraft Maintenance" has less than 50 students in it, with just 7 accepted for next year.
• There is a tradition at USU where you can become a "True Aggie." Essentially for a guy, you have to take a willing young lady to kiss her on the "A" located next to the university's huge quad area, on a full moon or on homecoming. Fun stuff.
• We met with an engineering student advisor who spent about two hours with us - she was nice and very helpful. We told her of the tour we were embarking on, and asked her to compare USU's aviation program with that of the other schools we are visiting. She was actually quite down on Embry Riddle Aeronautical University - said they have not been impressed with students transferring in from there to USU (maybe because they've only had ERAU's dropouts???).
• University of Utah was founded as Agriculture College of Utah and still has strong agricultural roots. As such, the university makes it's own "Aggie Ice Cream" of which we got free samples. Perhaps not the #1 reason to attend USU, but this is certainly a big plus. VERY yummy!!! :-)
  

Christopher really liked USU, so we'll see how the rest of our trip compares. Tomorrow we set off to drive toward Daytona Beach, 2300 miles away, which we can cover in two-and-a-half days. Tomorrow we hope to make it to close to Kansas City, MO, just over 1,000 miles away.

At ERAU, as Christopher is seriously considering a military path, in addition to our tour we also have meetings with ROTC reps from the Air Force, Navy and Army. After ERAU in Daytona Beach, on our way back we will visit Middle Tennessee State University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, two other schools with strong aviation programs.

Go Lakers!!!

Living in SoCal for most of our lives, we are big Lakers fans, and one of Andrew's Christmas presents was two tickets to a Lakers game. So yesterday Andrew and I drove down to Salt Lake City where the Lakers faced the Utah Jazz. We weren't expecting much because the Jazz had won 19 straight at home, but the Lakers came out and just OWNED the game. I like this picture I took just before tipoff (this plus 12 more photos posted here - please click), with all the players hugging and being all nice. Although... Derek Fisher here I think is hesitant to hug his former teammates on the Utah squad. :-) The picture here is about as friendly as they got all night, and the Lakers had opened up a 20-point lead by the end of the first quarter. They never looked back, and won 106-95. The Goodales (some or all of them) had previously seen two "away" Lakers games, both in Atlanta, where the horrific Hawks team BEAT the Lakers. We were beginning to think the Goodales were cursing away games for the Lakers, so it was good to reverse that trend! :-)

Most of all, I just LOVE the energy that you feel at professional sporting events. It's so much fun to be there and feel it. Whether your team wins or loses, it's just fun because of the energy of the place. I once went to a Braves-Phillies game at Turner Field in Atlanta - two teams I don't even care about. But it was fun just to be there and feel the energy.

Andrew loved his Christmas present, and I put him on a plane to head home this morning. His three older siblings have all flown alone, so this was sort of a rite of passage for Andrew, getting to fly alone. He loved that, too!

Christopher has taken his place, though, and we started our college tour today. More on that through additional posts...

Cave Camping

This weekend our Boy Scouts went camping out in caves near Twin Falls (about a two-hour drive from Boise). The Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster (the two leaders) went, a half-dozen of the boys went, and I also tagged along. These caves were very hard to get to and to navigate in once you got there. The main (paved) road ended, and then there was a two-and-a-half-mile dirt road to the caves. This dirt road was full of ruts and in pretty bad shape. My poor Acura MDX, even with 4WD, didn't make it all the way. We decided to park it en route, and the occupants/stuff in my car got transferred to "The Beast" (the scoutmasters old Chevy Silverado appropriately named), and went the rest of the way that way. Snow fell overnight, and leaving was even more difficult the next morning!

Once there, we entered the caves (through quite a steep, narrow, boulder-strewn passageway), which was actually one really long cave with a couple of offshoots. The entire length of the cave is probably half-a-mile; we set up camp in a fairly wide, tall part of the cave about a quarter-mile in. While getting there, though, in some sections of the cave the roof was no more than 3-4 feet from the floor - it made for quite the hike. Not a good place if you're claustrophobic! In spite of the cold and snow outside the caves, inside it was a nice, cozy 52 degrees (where it stays all year, so we hear). The roof of the cave sweats and is constantly dripping, which made for sleeping in there interesting.

Quite a unique, interesting experience, and it was FUN!!! :-) Pictured here is a shot of most of the group, with Andrew in the middle in gray, in the smaller section of the cave (near the entrance) where we cooked and ate. To see all 19 photos from the campout, please click here.

Australia: Flicking Out, Beaches, etc.

I forgot to mention it, but Monday night after our Blue Mountains tour, we flicked out. While walking back to our hotel, we passed a cinema and went in and saw "Jumper." Not sure we liked it - it certainly didn't live up to the hype. Expensive ticket prices, too! $16 ASD each - that's about $15 USD each! At least that got us assigned seats. I've been to movies in the U.K., Japan, Korea and New Zealand, and in each of those countries they assign seats - I have never seen that at a U.S. movie theater. And we had the option of seeing the movie in their "gold class" theater, which would have given us larger recliner seats and in-theater food service (servers in the theater - but you still have to pay for the food). We figured that wasn't worth the $30 ASD they charge, so we got the "cheap" seats!

Meanwhile, on with the summary...

Tuesday, March 4th:

• Bondi Beach. Lots of people told us we MUST visit two beaches here in Sydney, and we hit the first one Tuesday. Bondi Beach really was quite pretty (pictured herein), and the water was very warm and clear. This did make us realize how much we took the beach for granted when we lived in SoCal - Bondi Beach seemed no more cool than some of our old stomping grounds like Corona Del Mar, Laguna Beach, and so on.
• Sydney Wildlife World. Right next door to the Aquarium we visited earlier this week is Sydney Wildlife World, a quaint little zoo featuring a lot of animals that are native to Australia. It was cool, but honestly I think the smaller, less-publicized Featherdale Park we saw on Monday was cooler. Check out the way cute Koala, though.
• We're Gonna Go Batty!!! Last night while we were walking back to our hotel, we happened to glance up and see HUNDREDS of bats flying above the city!!! I had heard rumors of these, but hadn't noticed previously. Fortunately they tend to stay up really high so you never really notice them unless you're looking for them. But even so... they're kinda creapy!!!

Wednesday, March 5th:

• Taronga Zoo. We took the ferry (ferries are great here!!!) over to the other side of Sydney Harbor, to Taronga Zoo. This has got to be the coolest zoo I've ever been to! It's huge, and very diverse. Here is one of my favorite pictures - a picture of two giraffes with the Sydney skyline in the background. They also had the CUTEST meerkats there!!! I've posted these cute little guys on our Flickr site, so go have a look. I guarantee you'll go "Awwwww..."
• Temple. It was very nice to visit the Sydney Temple of our church Wednesday evening. A nice, peaceful contrast to the craziness we've been enjoying all week. :-)

Wow... running out of time again, so will have to put up more later. There are more pictures (up to 181 now) on the Flickr site, though, including pictures from today's visit to Manly Beach. Please click here.

Busy & Fun Time in Australia

Have been so busy and having so much fun in Australia that I haven't had a chance to do a blog posting in several days - sorry. Here's a brief recap, though.

Sunday, March 2nd:

• Church. We started the day by going to church. Learned of the Hyde Park Branch of the church that met on the second floor of a commercial building not even a five-minute walk from where we're staying in downtown Sydney. When we walked in somebody said, "It looks like we have more visitors..." and they asked where we were from. When we replied "Boise, Idaho in the U.S." they start to chuckle, just due to the irony: the branch had some 30 visitors from Idaho! There was a large group of retired farmers from southeast Idaho (Pocatello and surrounding areas) on an "Ag Tour" of Australia. The Hyde Park Branch is a small branch, and there were more visitors from Idaho than there were local members. Funny.
• Sydney Opera House Tour. We checked out the schedule of events this week at the Sydney Opera House, but there was nothing really that we wanted to see. So we took a guided tour, and it was actually very interesting. Quite the structure! But I guess it should be. Projected to cost $5 million over 5 years to build, it ended up costing more than $100 million over something like 15 years. Crazy. Included herein is a picture of the Sydney Harbor Bridge with the Opera House in the background.
• Cockle Bay Wharf. This has become one of our favorite places here in Sydney. At the end of Darling Harbor, this cute little wharf has a beautiful boardwalk area, tons of shops, and a lot of nice restaurants. And while most of Sydney (except for the many bars) shuts down at 6pm, shops/restaurants here are open late!
  
• Sweet!!! Quite literally. Located on the boardwalk mentioned above is the only Lindt Chocolate restaurant in the world. We indulged in a yummy dessert here (see photo on Flickr site).
• Aussie Beef! I've found Aussie beef to be quite yummy, so we ate dinner at a restaurant on the boardwalk, a place called I'm Angus Steakhouse. Very yummy!!! Michelle had a yummy filet, but I had a 600g (about 18 ounces) New York strip in my sons' honor! :-)

Monday, March 3rd:

This was the day we did a tour of the Blue Mountains, a very beautiful area about 60 miles inland from Sydney. We booked a tour with a tour company, and there were 21 of us that toured in a small bus throughout the day. The bus picked us up just after 7am, and we got back after 7pm. Our tour guide ("Bob") was great, and we made several stops to and from the Blue Mountains:

• Featherdale Wildlife Park. Our first stop en route to the Blue Mountains was this cute little park. What a great selection of Australian animals they had! We're pictured here with a koala that we had a chance to pet. These little guys are SOOOO cute, but they smell rotten! They have a very low-energy diet, so they sleep something like 20 hours a day (now Brianna is officially jealous!). :-) We also enjoyed their petting zoo, where we got to interact with kangaroos. Have never seen that in a petting zoo in the U.S.!
• Boomerangs. After Featherdale Park, we drove to an open area where we were offered "morning tea" and were taught how to throw a boomerang. We discovered that I rock at throwing a boomerang (stated with all appropriate humility, of course). I threw the thing quite far, and it actually came back to me (or at least got pretty close). We bought a boomerang, and I look forward to practicing at home (and seeing how many people I can injure / things I can break in the process)! :-)
• Blue Mountains. Our pre-lunch stop was at an overlook point where we got to see most of the Blue Mountains from up top. Picture a mini Grand Canyon, but covered in deep vegetation. The bulk of that vegetation is eucalyptus trees, and secreted oil from all of these trees is picked up in the sunlight and reflects blue (hence the name).
• Country Club Lunch. After all that we had done that morning, we were quite ready for lunch, and we had lunch in a clubhouse at a country club there in the Blue Mountains.
• Three Sisters. There is a prominent rock formation (pictured herein) in the Blue Mountains. The best view of this formation is from the bottom of the valley, and getting there and back was half the fun. We descended on the steepest cable car skyway in the world, and ascended back up on the steepest train in the world (52 degrees!).
• Sydney Olympic Park. On the way back to the city, we drove through the Sydney Olympic Park. It seems like the 2000 Summer Olympic games in Sydney was just yesterday!
• River Cat Ride. From the Olympic Park, we took a "River cat" river cruise back to Circular Quay (pronounced "key"), the main passenger wharfs in Sydney Harbor, right near the Sydney Opera House. Saw some beautiful riverside homes en route!

Well... that's all I have time for now; will have to summarize Tuesday and Wednesday later. It's Thursday morning here, and we're gonna get ready to go spend a good chunk of the day at Manly Beach. I've posted more photos (134 in total now) covering through Tuesday. To see the photos, please click here.

Greetings from Down Under

Day One from Australia: Hello from Sydney. Michelle and I have arrived safely, and we're having a great time. Have been in country a little less than 24 hours now, and here a few highlights.

• Long LONG Trip to Australia. No... I'm not necessarily referring to the 13.5-hour flight from SFO to SYD (photo from plane at right), although that was a long flight! But what I'm referring to is the fact that, yet again, like in Tokyo, I've been stuck here in Sydney. At SFO, I had Australian visa problems because according to Australian government records, I never left here when I was here in November. So the Australian government was confused as to why I was trying to board a flight to Sydney when I was already here! Fortunately my passport has a "departed" stamp from November 18, 2007, so we got it all straightened out and I was able to board the flight, but I thought it was pretty funny. Stuck in Tokyo for six weeks (as previously posted), and now stuck in Australia for more than three months! Apparently there's been three of me running around (frightening!!!). :-)
• Sydney Tower. Feeling somewhat jetlagged (having landed at 7:30am after spending all of "leap day" in the air), our first day was pretty low key. Walked around downtown Sydney, and went to the top of Sydney Tower. Here you see a picture of Michelle from the tower, with the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Sydney Opera House far below us, in the background. The Sydney Tower is as tall as the Eiffel Tower - I hadn't realized it was that tall. The views of the city were gorgeous, and it was a beautiful, sunny day (very windy which sometimes made it cold, but temps in the high 60s - quite cool for an Australian "summer").
• St. Mary's Cathedral. Here you see a picture of a Catholic cathedral that I took from the Sydney Tower. What a beautiful structure! It reminded Michelle of all the beautiful cathedrals she saw while living in France, so after the tower we strolled down there and were able to go inside. If you take a look at the several photos I've posted online, you'll see a few pictures of both inside and outside the cathedral. Note the beautiful stained glass windows! Pretty stuff. This cathedral is also right in the midst of Hyde Park, sort of a "Central Park" of Sydney.
• Diversity on Display. So... I didn't know this when we planned this trip, but yesterday happened to be Marti Gras here in Sydney. And it so happened that it was sponsored by gay and lesbian groups. The streets of downtown Sydney were absolutely PACKED, especially during the parade in the evening (Michelle and I saw the floats lining up to start, but we were too tired to stay). There was quite a diverse group of people on hand for the event, both participants and observers. Just as a bit of flavor for what the crowds were like, these two "nurses" pictured here are indeed men.

That's it for today. I've posted 34 photos so far on our Flickr site, including more Mardi Gras photos, views from the Sydney Tower, and even a cool car that Christopher and Brianna will enjoy. To view, please click here.