Virginia, Days 2-3

After spending the day in Colonial Williamsburg last Friday, we drove out to Lynchburg, Virginia, about 150 miles inland. We stayed overnight there, then in the morning visited Appomattix. This is where the last of the Civil War battles was fought, and indeed where the South surrendered and the war ended (in this court house, pictured at left). The community there has been restored nicely to 1860s condition. We wish Justin could have been with us; he would have loved it, and he probably could have told us a few stories.

While driving around in central Virginia, we were surprised at the lack of big roads there. It seems everywhere we had to go, there were just two-lane undivided highways - sort of tough to drive. It's no wonder they had such a hard time moving troops around in the Civil War! :-)

After Appomattix, we took several of these quaint roads to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson's mansion and property. Pictured here are Christopher and Mom behind the mansion. Way impressive house and furnishings - it's not tough to figure out how he died with so much debt! Thomas Jefferson penned our nation's Declaration of Independence and was the Minister of France for five years, but what's amazing is that his headstone doesn't list that he was POTUS (President Of The United States)!

After Montpelier, we drove on to Montpilier to see James Madison's mansion and property. Though James Madison was also POTUS and was known for such, he perhaps is best-known for authoring our great Constitution. 4,440 words (man... I've seen IP licensing agreements twice that long!!!) that are incredibly inspired - we ignore them at our nation's peril.

Whew!!! I almost waxed political in that last paragraph; I'll do my best to keep neutral here. :-)

Digression: They say that Thomas Jefferson wasn't a good speaker because he had a speech impediment, though he obviously was a very gifted writer. I like two quotes attributed to him, the first being "Science is my passion; politics is my duty." He also said, "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing." Hopefully we'll see that in the Massachusetts Senate election today, with the electorate realizing the HOPE was merely HYPE. Uh oh... I waxed political again!

To the left here is Madison's house - it was nice but far less ornate than the Jefferson mansion. It's tough to believe that little 5-feet-4-inch, less-than-100-pounds Madison was the father of our Constitution. I think in today's TV and internet-world, the U.S. would have a hard time electing such a little guy. James Madison had a very successful entrepreneurial life; it's too bad he had family that squandered his fortune away, leaving good ol' Dolly Madison to die a pauper.

There are also a couple of quotes from Madison that I like. He said that under the new Constitution, the nation's powers would be "derived from the superior power of the people" (really trying hard here not to make a political comment). He also said, during the War of 1812, "I flung forward the flag of the country, sure that the people would press onward and defend it."

Perhaps you can tell here that during our tour of some of Virginia's historical spots I was way impressed with our Founding Fathers and what they accomplished, as well as for most of the values that they held.

Right up there with that was the greatness of George Washington. After staying in Fredericksburg, VA Saturday night, we went on to Mt. Vernon Sunday morning to see Washington's home and grounds. Though the weather thus far had been great, Sunday it was VERY rainy, and it made it tough to see things. In the pic here on the right, you can even see rain drops falling in front of the rain-soaked "Bowling Green" in front of the mansion. I hear that the view from the back of the mansion, overlooking the Potomac River and Maryland beyond, is really spectacular. Unfortunately, the weather was so poor that we couldn't see it.

OK... continuing with my trend of listing quotes by these great Founding Fathers, I do like how George Washington was offered the position of "King" and how he promptly refused that, saying that power should be in the hands of the people. His quote here is awesome: "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is a force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."

Wowzers!!! Today's politicians please take note! Anyway... pictured here at the left is one of the original trees at Mt. Vernon - more than 300 years old!!! My children would probably tell you that I'm about the same age! Again to check out all the pics (more than 60) from the trip, please click here for Facebook, or here for Flickr.

Though I didn't get any pictures of this last part, I honestly believe it was the best part of the trip. Michelle, Christopher and I spent Sunday afternoon and evening with my cousin Steve Detton and his family at their house in Springfield. My cousin Matt Jensen and his wife Melinda also joined us there, and we really had a great time!!! Shelley made a delicious pasta dinner, and despite what she might tell you the cookies she baked were also awesome. We really enjoyed hanging out with family back there, and hope we get an opportunity to do so again in the near future!!!

Colonial Williamsburg

After getting in to Virginia around midnight Thursday night, we picked Christopher up from Ft. Eustis Friday morning and spent most of the day in Colonial Williamsburg (see pic at right). What a totally awesome place. In most of the major sites there, they have guides dressed in period costumes, and they tell stories, relate history, and answer questions. They were all very knowledgeable and entertaining - it was great fun!

After Colonial Williamsburg, we drove over to the "Presidential Park" there where they literally have like 20-foot busts of each of the Presidents. It was closed (what's with the historical places closing at 4:30pm?!); however, and we could only get glimpses from outside. The place looks cool, though!

Then last night we drove to Lynchburg, VA and we'll check out some historical sites around here and as we drive northeast from here on our way to northern Virginia. What a great trip, and it's so fun to be with Christopher!!! Oh... just in case you were interested, to the left here is a picture of Christopher's barracks - this is where Christopher lives.

To see all 40 pics I've posted from yesterday, please click here for Facebook, or here for Flickr. I haven't added descriptions to all the pics yet (sorry I'm such a slacker!!!), but there are more descriptions on the Facebook album.

McCall Days 2-3

We sure have had a great time here in McCall. I haven't been able to do a posting here, though, since the neighbor's unsecured wireless network has been a bit spotty. Imagine that... not allowing us to "borrow" their internet bandwidth! :-)

This pic here on the left is of Brianna and Andrew while walking on the golf course at McCall the day before yesterday. There was a great sliding hill there that we went sledding down. That same evening we went to dinner at the "Toll Station" pizza restaurant - yummy! Nothing beats the taste of pizza from Northwood Pizza in Irvine, but Toll Station had a menu much more extensive here and it was all yummy!

Yesterday we had breakfast at the famous "Pancake House" here - YUMMY!!! They have these cinamon rolls here that fill a whole plate. Mmm... Mmmm... GOOD! Their serving sizes are ridiculous and prices quite reasonable. We need one of these in Boise! Check out this photo on the right - do you think our kids are addicted to their cell phones? I do NOT know where they get this from!!!

Then after eating at Pancake House we went to a place called "The Activity Barn" which wasn't a barn at all, but a lift-served tubing hill. An 85-foot drop over a 700-foot run - a 12% grade. It had been snowing so much that the run was actually a bit slow, but as the day went on and the snow was packed down, the run got faster. This pic here is of Brianna and Mom at the top of the hill waiting to go down, and Brianna is eating falling snow. :-)

There are three sets of photos on Facebook (here, here and here), plus all the photos and videos on Flickr, plus some videos embedded below. I'll award ten credibility points if you can name the 70s-80s rock band that sang the song I sing on the one tubing video, below.

McCall Day 1

I'll start off today's post with the cute picture here. This afternoon the kids were playing in the snow, and in this shot on the right, Andrew has just stuffed Brianna in to the snow and he's pointing to her mocking, "Haha... look what I did." They had a great time out there.

Except for Justin, we're all up here; even brought Shadow and Grandma Nancy. Had to come up in two cars because Michelle's van is in the shop with transmission problems. My MDX was the lead vehicle with a canvas car top carrier strapped to the roof rack with bungie cords, and Nancy's Accord was the trail vehicle. Unfortunately, the Bungie cords were apparently too old to handle the combination of cold weather and 60+ mph speeds. When the cords snapped it was SO LOUD in our car, and when the carrier went sailing off the car, we were lucky on a number of accounts: 1) it didn't take out the trailing vehicle on highway I-55, 2) it didn't fly off the highway in to the largely-frozen Payette River, and 3) absolutely nothing inside got broken! We had no choice but to just put it in the back of my MDX, leaving Shadow with almost no room back there. Oh well... it makes for a good story!

We got up here about 3:30pm and the rental home we are in is really nice, with a large backyard where there is a good two feet of snow on the ground. Since we got in sort of late, the kids (and the dog) just played in the snow in the back yard. It was funny to see Shadow sink way in to the snow, but you could tell he had fun.

After playing in the snow we came in, had some dinner and watched TV. We also took the occasion to exchange Christmas presents with Grandma, since we hadn't done Christmas with her yet.

We had a great day. Check out a few more photos below, and all 45 of the pics I posted from today (here on Facebook, and here on Flickr).

Our kids love tackling Shadow, and Mark has him pinned here. Shadow doesn't seem to mind.

Steven exploring.

Andrew making a snow angel.

Andrew TOTALLY gets Brianna with a sled full of snow!

Hey, Brianna. You're a little wet. Did you REALLY think you could beat Andrew in a snow fight? :-)

Half-a-Million Lights

On the way home from skiing last night we stopped by this insanely decorated house in Boise. It's even listed in an article in the local newspaper about Christmas lights in Boise. A more detailed article is here. This place has 500,000 lights, and it's really amazing. The owners of the house let people come right up on the driveway to check it out. Check out the pics I took below.

Panoramic shot stitched together from four shots; sorry for the multiple time stamps.

Christmas Day Skiing

Christmas day yesterday was really great. Got to talk to Elder Justin Goodale for nearly two hours; he sounds like he's doing great! He is absolutely in love with Missouri and having a great time there. Then in the afternoon we went skiing at Bogus Basin along with the Briggs family. We always have a great time with the Briggs and we love our great friends in Boise. To the left here is Mark skiing in his Santa cap. How festive, huh?! :-)

I didn't get too many pics. I started out on the bunny hill with Steven, so he could get used to skiing again. I caught Mark there once so got some pics of him, too. But aside from Steven and Mark, I didn't get pics of anybody because my skiing day ended on only the 5th or 6th run. Steven and I had a nasty collision which tweaked my really bad knee (I'm enjoying narcotic painkillers even as I post this, so I hope you enjoy the hallucinations as much as I do). So enjoy the pics and videos below.


A video of Steven on his second run down the bunny slope. Love his, "Hi Dad!" on the way down. Nice snowplowing, Steven!


A video of Mark heading down the hill. He says he got in a tuck and started going faster further on down this run.

Hey Steven... I think it might be more fun if you open your eyes. :-)

As you can see, there weren't too many people on the slopes last night - it was AWESOME! In fact, when we left at about 9pm (the lifts were open until 10pm), I'd say there were less than 50 cars still left in the parking lot.

Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!

Christmas Eve at the Goodales

Ahhhhh... I love Christmas. And Christmas traditions! Every Christmas Eve we:

• Read the story of the birth of Jesus Christ from Luke 2 in the New Testament.
• Read "The Night Before Christmas."
• Put out all the baby Jesus figures in our nativities. Michelle collects nativity sets and we have them all over our house at Christmas. We pretty much collect only nativity sets where the baby Jesus is not attached to the manger's bed. When Michelle served a mission in France, she noticed that they did not put in the baby Jesus in the nativities until Christmas Eve, and this is a tradition we have kept in our home.
• Put out milk and cookies for Santa.
• And finally, our kids get to open a gift, and it's never a surprise. Every Christmas Eve our kids get a new pair of pajamas. The first picture you see here is of our kids in their new PJs by our Christmas tree.

This year we also did something new. For the first time (I think), we all stood around the piano with Brianna playing, and sang Christmas carols. It was a lot of fun. You see a pic of us below, and there are more online (here on Facebook, and here on Flickr).

Merry Christmas!!!

Today we had our annual kids-with-Santa picture taken down at the mall. Of course, everybody but Justin was there. However, we received a Christmas card from Justin and his missionary companion Elder Moxon the other day. You'll find both pictures below.

Of course, last week Justin transferred from Stockton, MO to St. Robert, MO and is no longer with Elder Moxon. His new missionary companion is Elder Hirshfeld. We look forward to talking to Justin on the phone on Friday, but for those who want to write to him, his new address is:

Elder Justin Goodale
181 East Lawn Ave., apt. 124
P.O. Box 929
St. Robert, MO 65584

Couch + TV + Snuggling = SLEEP

This past Sunday evening Steven, Andrew, Brianna and I were snuggling up on the couch watching TV and we all dosed off. Mark snapped this picture. And certainly, there was a fire in the fireplace. Does it get any better than this???

And as you can see, our dog Shadow gets in on the act pretty frequently, too. Though he hardly looks comfortable here! Good times!

Around Tokyo

Me travel with a camera? Hoodathunkit?!?! I like taking pictures wherever I go, and it's especially fun to travel around Christmastime. Things are so festive everywhere, even in countries where Christianity is not all that common. To the left here is a close-up shot I got of a Christmas tree in the Takanawa Wing section of Shinagawa.

To the right here is a Christmas tree display inside the JR Shinagawa East Building, right next to my favorite book store in Tokyo (Ooi Shoten). If you're ever in a need for the latest English-language paperback book, this place has a pretty good selection.

I've inserted a few photos and videos below, but for all I've taken thus far on this trip, please check them out here on Flickr.

When I go out on the town, I wanna wear my brown cowboy boots, purple pants, pink shirt, and leopard-skin coat. Woohoo!!! Taken on the subway the other night.

My awesome French toast breakfast last Friday morning (Thursday afternoon in the U.S., when everyone back home was pigging out on turkey).

Note to Daughter: If something ever possesses you to wear blue shoes with blue fuzzy balls at the toes, I might have to hurt you. Secondly, if something ever possesses you to wear a skirt with a slit this high, same result.

Fall is still in the air in Yokohama (taken in front of Hiyoshi Station).

Haha... baguette delivery scooters. I would much more expect to see this in Paris!

Ahhh... check out these cute little yellow hats as part of these girls' school uniforms. I bet my kids are jealous they didn't get such attire for school!

There's probably scientific proof for this, but on Tokyo subways, 4 out of 5 people have their noses buried in their cell phones; the 5th person sleeps.

Video of Christmas decorations at Takanawa Wing in Shinagawa. Listen for "Jingle Bells" playing in the background.

Home Sweet Home (or not)

Lately in Japan, I've favored what they call "weekly mansion" style studio apartment facilities over hotels. Now keep in mind, "mansion" is about as mansion-esque as a "limousine bus" is limousine-esque. :-) Most importantly, these things feature at least a small kitchen (my "kitchen" pictured at right), so I can prepare my own meals and hence save a ton of money. They also feature either in-room or coin-op laundry facilities on site, also saving quite a bit of money.

What's more is that they are typically CHEAPER than hotels. Most of them do not have a concierge desk nor room service nor any of those other "niceties" of hotels; therefore, I couldn't in good faith recommend them to foreign guests who do not speak Japanese.

And woohoo... check out the tiny bathroom pic on the left. With a mere twist of that faucet you can either fill the sink or fill the tub; what an efficient "feature." As with everything in life, weekly mansions come in all shapes, sizes, and budgets. The one I'm staying at on this trip (Weekly Mansion Tokyo Akasaka) is really quite cheap, old, somewhat dirty, and ANYTHING but fancy. In fact, it feels very much like a pretty low-end college or company dorm (company dorms are somewhat common in Japan). Out in the corridors, the flooring is an immaculate, fancy CONCRETE. The door to my room is only about 5'8" and I have to duck going in. But... this place is less than $100 per night even with the horribly weak dollar right now. The very moderate ANA Intercontinental Hotel just a 5-minute walk from here would run $300/night!

There's also quite a bit of "riffraff" here that you wouldn't find at the nearby ANA, but hey... I suppose that's part of the ambiance. Below is a panoramic shot of most of the glorious 24 square meters (258 square feet) that occupies my "home" this week. In both this shot and the bathroom shot above, the panoramic stitching utility I used sort of whigged out, but you get the idea. It will be really nice to get back to my REAL home on Thursday!!!

Right Wing in Japan

This (Sunday) evening here in Tokyo I decided to be really geeky and get some fun pictures down at Shibuya Crossing - sort of the "Times Square" of Tokyo. My 360-degree panoramic shot is here at the left. Without clicking on it to see it enlarged, it may be tough to see because it's so long and skinny (and I never dated a girl like that). Anyway... it's always a fun place to people watch. I ended up taking in some very interesting propagandizing. In Japan causes, politicians and others can use vehicles laden with speakers to be mobile propaganda platforms. These things can actually be quite annoying, just because they're so loud. I'm sure even here in Japan you need a special permit, but I'm not even sure you could get such a permit in the U.S.

Anyway... tonight parked down at Shibuya Crossing was one of these propaganda trucks for Taikousya Sumera. Upon doing some research I discovered that they're a right ring group here in Tokyo of about 700 members, and they even have ties to the yakuza. Lovely. For the most part, their propagandizing wasn't bad. They brought up several speakers, each addressing the topic of how to make Japan better. Not a bad cause. They were even saying some really logical things like, "You'll have a chance next summer to participate in elections; study up on the issues and candidates to make an informed choice."

It's all good so far. As was one guy who said, "We can make Japan better by honoring our parents. Even if you don't like your parents, you still need to honor them because they brought you in to the world. Take care of them, and don't let anything bad happen to them. Don't let the medical establishment treat them poorly." And so on. All good stuff. But wait a minute... this is a land of socialized medicine: on that last point, how could that happen???!!!

One guy even got up and said, "You know... for as long as I can remember, at this time of year, we also light up all parts of the city with 'Christmas light-up' every year. Even here a Shibuya Station, erected back in the 1920s, in its first year it had Christmas light-up. Why is it that we all do this? Why do we like this so much? I believe it's because in the vast craziness of living in such a big city, it makes us feel like a small community..." (you can see a little bit of that "Christmas light-up" he was talking about at the right).

Interesting, huh? Man... he just DOESN'T GET IT!!! We like it because it's the Christmas spirit, you nitwit!!! Christmas. Christ. Geesh. Oh well... I'm glad this guys feels the spirit of Christmas, even if he doesn't recognize it for what it is.

But the most interesting part was when the guy got up and spoke about how we need to rely on ourselves to make Japan better. OK... I'm a self-reliance kind of guy; I'll go with that. But then he went on to rip on all foreignors, and that's when he lost me. He said that "in our own circles of trust (individually), we trust ourself the most. Then just below that we trust our family. Then just below that we trust our friends." OK... I guess this isn't so bad; I'll go with it. But then he lost me. He said, "Trusting foreignors is way down on the bottom; we cannot trust them. We can't trust the Chinese; look at what they do to their own people. We cannot trust the South Koreans because look how we treated them for several decades last century. (OK... he sort of has a point there.) We cannot trust the Americans; they nuked us. Why didn't they nuke the also-white-skinned Germans instead?"

Whoa wait a minute, fella (pictured at left). Maybe it had something to do with the fact that despite overwhelming losses for over three years the Japanese were still entrenched throughout the Pacific and were not giving up, but the Germans had already surrendered???

By this point, probably 100 people were standing there listening, including another white guy standing near me. He and I both started shaking our heads at the same time. He came over to me and asked in English with a very thick accent, "Do you understand this guy?" I laughed and said, "Yeah, I do." As it turns out, this guy I was near was from Russia but also speaks English and Japanese. He told me, "This guy's stupid." Well... I actually think he seemed pretty intelligent, just a little nutty.

It was really interesting. I was here in Japan in September when they had their big parliamentary elections, and I sat glued to my hotel room TV that Sunday night watching election returns in Japanese. I got really in to that then, and observing this tonight was pretty interesting, too.

Below, and linked here, is an embedded video of the massive throng of people crossing at Shibuya Crossing when the light turns green. You can hear one of these guys talking in the background.