Black Swamp Cornucopia

A trip to Nijmegen, the Netherlands

2013-04-24T23:01:00.001-04:00

Exactly three years ago today, I was visiting the Netherlands on a work-related trip, but also to visit with my Dutch colleagues with whom I've developed a great friendships after collaborating together for many years. Although I was away from my family for several days, I was able to stay with the families of my friends, and they treated me with great Dutch hospitality and gave me a nice tour. These same friends have stayed with my wife and daughter and me in our house when they've come to visit the U.S., so it's been really wonderful to have friends in another place with which you would otherwise be unfamiliar.

The place I visited first is the city of Nijmegen and the adjacent small town of Wijchen (one of my friends and his wife and kids live in Wijchen), which is in the eastern part of the country near the German border. Like many of the cities in Europe, Nijmegen is loaded with history, having been a fortified outpost (in hostile territory) of the Roman Empire many years ago. I found both Nijmegen and Wijchen to be very charming, so I just thought I'd post some photos showing some of the beautiful buildings and points of interest one can see while visiting Nijmegen (I'll save Wijchen for another post later).

The oldest part of Nijmegen is Valkhof Hill, an ancient citadel overlooking the Waal River that has ruins still visible. Valkhof started out as a Roman camp and was built up with further fortifications over the years through the medieval times.

Visible bricks are Roman fortification ruins, Valkhof Hill, Nijmegen

View of Waal River from Valkhof Hill

This is an octagonal chapel on Valkhof Hill that was built around the year 1000 out of bricks from an earlier fort from the time of Charlemagne in the 700's and 800's, so they call it the Carolingian chapel.

Carolingian chapel, Valkhof Hill, Nijmegen

Me at the Carolingian chapel, Nijmegen

There is also a ruin that is a small remainder of the emperor Barbarossa's chapel that was built in 1155 but demolished in the late 1700's; the columns in it were older ones incorporated from Charlemagne's time.

Ruins of Barbarossa castle chapel from 1155 A.D.

Valkhof Hill, ruins of Barbarossa chapel in background

This is St. Stevenskerk (St. Stephen's church) in Nijmegen, which dates back to the 1200's, but was added onto over the years and partially destroyed then rebuilt at various times throughout history.

St. Stevenskerk steeple

Gothic St. Stevenskerk, Nijmegen

Gothic architecture, St. Stevenskerk, Nijmegen

St. Stevenskerk

This is a classical Dutch merchant house called Besiendershuis from I think the 1500's, which now serves as an art gallery.

Besiendershuis

Besiendershuis (1500's), now an art gallery

Beautiful spiral staircase, Besiendershuis

Balcony inside Besiendershuis

Under the spiral staircase, Besiendershuis

Finally, I got some shots of historical buildings in downtown Nijmegen, in the marketplace/plaza near St. Stevenskerk, just before nightfall.

Waagebouw (weighing house from 1600's)

Nijmegen marketplace near St. Stevenskerk

Kerkboog arch Nijmegen marketplace

Prayer in thanks to St. Jude

2013-04-07T22:14:00.000-04:00

I am posting this prayer to St. Jude at the request of my wife, who wishes to publish it in thanks for an answered prayer.

Pray this 9 times a day for 9 consecutive days and your intentions will be answered no matter how impossible it may be, for this prayer has never known to fail.

O, Holy St. Jude, Apostle and Martyr,

Great in virtue, rich in miracle,

Near in kinsman of Jesus Christ

Faithful intercessor of all who invoke your special patronage in time of need.

To you I have recourse from the depth of my heart,

I humbly beg your greatest power to come to my assistance.

Help me in my present and most urgent need.

In return, I promise to make your name known and caused you to be invoked

St. Jude, pray for us and all who invoke thine aid.

St. Jude Thaddeus image borrowed from St. Jude Thaddeus Samboan Foundation, Samboan, Cebu, Philippines

First Encounter Beach, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

2013-03-23T23:01:00.001-04:00

I've blogged a few posts earlier in admiration of some of the beautiful beaches in my wife's home country, the Philippines, such as Boracay and a few of the beach resorts on Mactan Island in Cebu. This time, I decided to showcase a gorgeous beach here in the U.S. Last summer, when we took our family trip to New York City, we also toured Cape Cod, Massachusetts a few days later. Cape Cod is a narrow "elbow" or "hook" of land in the northeast part of the U.S. that extends quite far out into the Atlantic Ocean from the mainland part of Massachusetts, forming a "protected" bay called Cape Cod Bay. The area of Cape Cod, while small in comparison to the rest of the U.S., contains some really interesting history and great beauty, and is a famous tourist area for those wishing to enjoy the beaches, watch whales (I will post about our Cape Cod whale-watching tour soon), and much more.

Cape Cod offers gorgeous beaches on its east side facing the open ocean. However, these ocean-side beaches have a few drawbacks -- namely the water temperature is cold even in the summer, the current can be tricky with experienced adults and treacherous with little kids. Perfect beaches for experienced body boarders and surfers and swimmers who like big surf, but maybe not the best for folks with little kids or non-swimmers. Also, (very unlikely but...) there was a great white shark attack last summer near Truro, Massachusetts, just before we went there. This latter incident is due to a large extent to new laws that protect seals in the area -- more prey for the sharks. Given these factors and mainly the fact that we wanted a warmer place to swim, we made the trip of just a few miles/kilometers across the narrow strip of land that is Cape Cod to travel from the eastern shore to the western shore. The western shore looks inland toward Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the beaches here (near Eastham, Massachusetts) enjoy the much warmer water of Cape Cod Bay, much smaller surf and waves, hardly any current and no dangerous rip-tide, and no sharks.

The beach we chose, First Encounter Beach, was recommended to us by the lady who owned the hotel at which we were staying. It got that name because the English "Pilgrims" who first colonized that area of what was to become the U.S. landed on Cape Cod in 1620, and first encountered the Native American tribe called the Nauset tribe at this very beach. It was a fantastic recommendation, and we all enjoyed it so much. We arrived late in the afternoon, and decided to stay late until after sunset (maybe 8:30 PM or so) because we just wanted to rest and relax after making a pretty long drive that day.

The beach is amazing in its beauty, and there are cute little typical cedar-shake (wood shingled) Cape Cod cottages built on top of the sand dunes that overlook green reeds growing in the tidal flats. After doing some swimming with Mommy and Daddy, our daughter quickly discovered (and we were stunned to see) the amount of tiny little hermit crabs that were so active right at the shore line... she loves swimming, but became much more interested in investigating and catching the little critters. She had so much fun catching these little creatures in a plastic cup (all of them were later returned to their natural habitat unharmed)!

Typical Cape Cod cottages at First Encounter Beach

Crab catching

Clamshell, First Encounter Beach

Sand dune at First Encounter Beach, low tide

Historical marker at First Encounter Beach

Lots of little hermit crabs!

Father-daughter crab catching expedition in the tidal streams

Big fun at First Encounter Beach

Diggin' for crabs

As the afternoon progressed and the sun dipped lower in the sky, the tide gradually went out. The tidal flats became amazing at low tide, with long extended sandbars that you could walk on very far out into what was earlier the water. The rippled patterns and texture of the sandbars had an appearance almost like what you would expect to see on the surface of Mars.

Low tide -- can't swim here anymore

"Mars-scape": footprints in the sandbar at First Encounter Beach

Undulating ribbed patterns in the sandbars at low tide

Sandbar at low tide

Green reeds, sand bars, and sea gulls

There was a tidal stream that flowed through and around these sand bars and the green reeds, and many tiny crabs and little creatures were in these waters. We spent hours and hours enjoying this, and we enjoyed it so much that we had to go back again the second day. We saw a barnacle-encrusted horseshoe crab, which judging by the amount of them on its back was pretty old (I suppose). It was interesting to watch how it propelled itself in the water and how it made tracks in the sand.

Checking out the horseshoe crab - lots of barnacles on his back!

Ancient barnacle-encrusted horseshoe crab

Cup full of crabs

Certified Cape Cod crab catcher

Family photo on the sandbar

Mommy checking out the tidal streams

Catching critters

Cottages at First Encounter Beach just before sunset

The tide is getting lower

The setting sun and the sunset itself was absolutely spectacular, and my wife made sure to capture some great photos of the setting sun. We had a wonderful time, and all of us would love to go back there again!

Kids catching crabs on the sandbar

Looking west toward Plymouth, Massachusetts

Finding little creatures

Checking out the sandbar

Crabs in the cup

The low tide sandbars extend far from the shoreline

Someone else's little girl carrying a pail

This is the track made by the horseshoe crab

Someone else's little girl playing frisbee... or is she pointing at a UFO??!!

Yeah, I think it's a frisbee

Remember that famous old black and white faked film footage of Bigfoot -- oh, wait, that's just me.

Final seconds before sunset

Our favorite star

Digging in the tidal sands

Me stomping around trying to find treasure in the sand

Me at First Encounter Beach - beam me up, Scotty!

Hunting for crabs in the setting sun

Taking flight at as the sun drops lower

Glaring waters under the setting sun

Sunset at First Encounter

A bite of the Big Apple: some stops along 5th Avenue in New York City

2013-03-15T23:21:00.001-04:00

Switching back again to our trip to New York City (picking up from 2 posts ago), this is a little glimpse primarily of our second day in the city, and is centered around mid-town Manhattan on 5th Avenue from the Flatiron Building walking north on 5th Avenue toward Central Park. My wife took these photos, being a far better photographer than I can ever hope to be.

These next few photos are of the world-famous and historical Flatiron Building, which was named because its "footprint" and top-down shape is triangular in much the same shape as an antique cast-iron clothes iron (flatiron) from the late 1800's, which was placed on top of a cooking stove/oven to heat up. It was one of the very first skyscrapers in the world (completed in 1902) and was an engineering marvel due to its steel girdered skeleton and its innovative use of electrically operated elevators. It's also a really cool-looking building to this day, with Neo-Classical/Beaux Arts styling.

Decorative work on the Flatiron Building - cool faces

Chowing down at the Flatiron Building

Modern entrance to the Flatiron Building - too bad they didn't keep the original

5th Avenue Building clock (from 1909), with Flatiron Building in background

People chillin' in front of the Flatiron Building

Empire State Building taken from Flatiron Building

This next part is for the fashionistas - I know that a number of my blogger friends are fashion bloggers, so this post and my older post about my winter parka will be about as close as I (as a dad) can come to writing about fashion. Our daughter wanted to buy an over-the-shoulder purse, so we tried looking for some in stores, but couldn't quite find what she wanted. My wife gave her a budget of $25, and our daughter had to stay under budget.

Well, finally, her luck turned for the better. Ultimately, on one of the streets intersecting 5th Ave., we found sidewalk vendors selling "Coach" bags... and I put Coach in quotation marks because of course you know what kind of bags the sidewalk vendors sell! They were colorful (lots of pink and complete with fake lizard skin), seemed to be made with decent quality, and had nice little pockets and zippered compartments and such. The vendor wanted $30 for one, but our daughter did a little haggling and got the price down to $25. Sold... a win-win situation.

Crossing back over to the east side of 5th Avenue and heading north, we came across a bunch of high-end fashion stores - Coach, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany's, Gucci, etc., etc., etc. We didn't actually even go inside of any of them, but they had some really cool "eye candy" glass artwork that my wife thought would make some neat photos to post on my blog, just for fun. Here are a few of those shots:

Take that, Louis Vuitton - my bag is WAY cheaper!

Gucci had a little insect problem. Actually, these are pretty glass dragonflies.

Louis Vuitton's clever and beautiful octopus tentacles glass sculpture.

Beautiful but kinda disturbing... eyeball-centered glass sculpture flowers look like something from an episode of the original Star Trek. Set your phasers on stun, Mr. Spock!

I guess Tiffany's is too high-brow, stately, and stolid to put any scary eyeball flowers or tentacles in the front window.

Whatever you do, just don't make eye contact with these hypnotic, psychedelic flowers.

We walked a little farther north toward Central Park, and checked out the famous FAO Schwartz toy store. We spent some time looking around the store at some toys and trying on astronaut and jester hats and such, but I think the majority of our time in the store was spent in the "FAO Schweetz" section - the candy land which had candy in jars from all over the world. You can scoop candy out of the jars and pick and choose whatever you want, then pay for it by weight (it isn't cheap). Interestingly, there were many tourists in the store who didn't quite get the concept that these were not free samples (or perhaps were just taking advantage of the fact that the store was packed full of people), so there were numerous folks from various corners of the world helping themselves to "free samples" that were not meant to be free... oh well. One of the famous attractions there is the "Big" piano, which was featured in the 1988 movie "Big" starring Tom Hanks. It's a real functioning piano, and you can hop and dance on its keys.

FAO Schweetz candy inside the famous FAO Schwartz toy store

FAO Schweetz lollipop

Balcony at FAO Schwartz

Like a kid in a candy store

The "Big" piano at FAO Schwartz

Toy soldier doorman at FAO Schwartz. I think this guy served under Wellington at Waterloo.

Edible Legos (??) at FAO Schweetz

The guy with the backpack in the center of the photo looks guilty, doesn't he?

Mmmmm -- healthy food choices!

Our daughter in action on the "Big" piano

FAO Schweetz lollipops

Jester hat and Junior Ranger badge from Statue of Liberty

The 'Big" piano keys light up when you tap on them

Interior of huge FAO Schwartz toy store

The "Big" piano from the eponymous 1988 Tom Hanks movie

Balcony view of large stuffed zoo animals at FAO Schwartz

Hopping on the "Big" piano

I heard this stuff is good for an upset stomach.

Dancing to play a tune

Lighting up the keys

The next place we stopped was Trump Tower, built in 1983 by real estate mogul Donald Trump. He's not one of my favorite persons, but thought we'd stop by and check it out nonetheless. The building was OK, a fancy and quite beautiful modern building, but without the architectural character, charm, and interest that I find in the older more historical buildings such as the Art Deco masterpieces like the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center. I saw a display in the middle, though, that I thought would be pretty interesting to my blog friends Robby and Wrey from fasHi0nm0T0, bloggers from my home-away-from-home and land of my lovely wife, the Philippines. Their blog http://fashionmoto.blogspot.com/ fuses fashion and motorcycles, so the display that we saw in the lobby of Trump Plaza brought them immediately to mind, and I asked my wife to snap some shots of it for the blog. It is a custom (basically handcrafted) built motorcycle made for Donald Trump by Orange County Choppers under the directorship of Paul Teutel, Sr., who is quite famous worldwide for building such machines. BTW, Robby's family also runs a custom motorcycle business in the Philippines specializing in choppers!

Check out how low the seat is on this thing! It's really cool, but it's not quite my type (if I were to get a chopper, I'd go more for something like the chopper Peter Fonda rode in "Easy Rider").

Orange County Choppers Trump Motorcycle

Donald Trump's bike from Orange County Chopper/Paul Teutel, Sr.

You can see a poster of Paul Teutel, Sr. above/behind the headlight

Clock outside Trump Tower. I wonder if this is where Paul Teutel, Sr. and OCC got their color scheme for the Trump chopper?

The Philippine pedicab - workhorse of the provinces

2013-03-03T23:06:00.001-05:00

This evening as I sit at my laptop, I thought I'd take a little break from my theme of our trip to New York (to be continued!!), and in contrast to the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, take a quick glimpse of a snapshot of life in the Philippine provinces. The rural provinces are one of my favorite parts of the Philippines. While I love the hustle and bustle of the big city and hanging out at the big malls in Cebu with my family, I was born and raised in a small town surrounded by rural areas, so I really love seeing and experiencing the rural, agricultural lifestyle in the provinces and small towns.

These are some shots of my 2nd-favorite means of transportation in the Philippines -- the pedicab (my 1st favorite means of transportation is a bangka [outrigger canoe]). These were taken by my wife the last time we went to Philippines in August 2011. The pedicab is basically a covered sidecar welded to a motorcycle, which is used as a taxi in the rural areas and smaller towns and cities. It is a much more common sight in rural areas than in the large urban metropolitan areas (such as Manila, Cebu, etc.), which use jeepneys and multicabs (small trucks) and taxis. This is largely because the pedicab is not safe for use on freeways as it can't get up to speed quickly in heavy traffic, especially if it is carrying a lot of weight. The pedicab can carry quite an extraordinary number of passengers, and I am always amazed at the capability of the small horsepower motorcycle engine to carry a load of the driver and oftentimes greater than 4 passengers, with several in the sidecar, maybe 2 or three behind the driver on the motorcycle, and perhaps one or two hanging on the sides.

It's actually really fun to ride in rural areas, and I'd like to take a try driving one sometime too. It gives a unique perspective that is much different than traveling in a car. Our daughter really enjoyed it and had fun, as we have no such thing in the U.S. (we of course have motorcycles, but no pedicabs). When we returned to the U.S., she took a toy pedicab that we had bought in Philippines to school for show and tell, and presented a little talk about her experience on a pedicab. She told the teacher and her class that "it has no seatbelts, and no doors". The boys in her class (who of course like to play with cars and and trucks at that age) in particular were amazed, and they passed the toy pedicab around the room from desk to desk, some of them making "vroooom-vroom" noises as they played with the pedicab!

The New Colossus - our visit to the Statue of Liberty

2013-02-22T23:38:00.002-05:00

Picking up where I left off in my second-to-last post about our trip to New York City, this post covers the beginning of our second day in the Big Apple last August. One of our top priorities for this trip was to visit the Statue of Liberty, so we got a relatively early start in the day and took the subway from mid-town/Chelsea down to Battery Park, then bought our tickets within an old coastal defense fort for the ferry to go to the Statue of Liberty. It was a beautiful, sunny, hot day, and the colors and shade-shadow patterns on Lady Liberty were quite striking. Although unfortunately the inside of the Statue was not open to tourists going up into her crown due to restoration work, we still got some great photos (mainly taken by my wife) and could walk right up to the base and touch it.

America is a very diverse country comprised chiefly (with the exception of indigenous Native Americans) of immigrants or descendants of immigrants. For my wife, an immigrant from the Philippines, this was a particularly important and emotionally moving place to visit, as it was for me too, even though my ancestors immigrated long before the Statue was built. When I was standing in line to buy tickets, I met a man originally from Guatemala who told me that it was his life-long dream to take his kids to visit the Statue, and now he was finally able to do it. For many, the Statue of Liberty is an icon evocative of strong emotion, as many of the immigrants who came to the US at Ellis Island near the Statue of Liberty were escaping poverty and/or political or religious persecution... Lady Liberty became the "Mother of Exiles" referred to in the poem below. The statue is the allegory of liberty and new-found freedom, as evidenced by the broken shackles of tyranny and oppression that lie at her feet as she strides forward (she's not standing with both feet flat on the ground; the heel of her right foot is off the ground). Few people realize this because the broken chains can only be seen from above.

"The New Colossus" is a sonnet by Emma Lazarus (1849–87), written in 1883 (the Statue was finished and dedicated in 1888) and, in 1903, engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the lower level of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The first two lines and the ninth line refer to a much older statue, the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Family photo - we're wearing audio tour gear loaned to tourists free of charge -very informative.
From the tip of the flames of the torch to where our feet are on the ground is 305.5 feet (~93 meters)

'Celebrating 125 Years - The Statue of Liberty'.
This is when we first arrived on the island, shortly after we got off the boat.

As you can see, the Statue is on a small island... view of Liberty Island from the ferry

At the base of the Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty from the ferry

Lady Liberty under renovation

View of southern Manhattan and One World Trade Center from Liberty Island

Our daughter sporting on her chest a gold plastic "Junior Ranger" badge given (for free) by the US National Parks Ranger for answering some questions about the history of the Statue. The Statue of Liberty Junior Ranger badge is available exclusively at the Statue of Liberty.
http://www.nps.gov/learn/juniorranger.cfm

Lady Liberty's copper exterior has been oxidized to its green color by the elements. The thickness of this copper "skin" is 3/32 inch (2.38 mm), about the thickness of a U.S. penny coin. From the tip of the torch to the bottom-most part of the green copper base is about 140 feet (~43 meters).

JFK quote about immigrants at Statue of Liberty ferry

Striking shade/shadow of Liberty's gown folds
The tablet she holds, inscribed 'July IV MDCCLXXVI' (1776) is 23 feet, 7 inches long and 13 feet, 7 inches wide.

On the ferry to Liberty Island - you can see a bit better here that she is striding forward with her right foot behind the left.

Touching the base of the Statue of Liberty
- the top of this photo gives you a sense of the size of the Statue

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Liebster Award

2013-01-20T21:56:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm finally back to blogging again after about a 4-month absence... no good excuse, just plain old keeping busy with family and work, but I will definitely try to make more time to blog regularly in the future (always a struggle!).

First, though, I am humbled and I'd like to offer my sincere thanks to Sarah from "Not On My Own Anymore" http://notonmyownanymore.blogspot.com/ to be the first to nominate me for the Liebster Award. I feel badly (guilty) that I haven't posted this till now despite the several months that have passed. I also want to thank my blog friends for subsequent nominations essentially in the same time frame, particularly Cecille at FliPinay Wee Blether http://flipinayweeblether.blogspot.com/, Pinay Ramblings http://www.pinayramblings.com/ , and Pettit Mom http://lovelypettitmom.blogspot.com/ .

The Liebster Award recognizes new and upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers (or friends) on their contribution to the blogging world.

In order to accept this award, one must abide the following rules. And they are as follows :

The Rules:

1) Each person must list 11 things about themselves.

2) Answer the 11 questions that the tagger has set for you PLUS you MUST create 11 questions of your own for the 11 people you will nominate with this award.

3) Choose up to 11 bloggers linking them to your post.
4) Go to their page and inform them of the nomination.

5) Absolutely NO tags back. Remember to ONLY tag bloggers with less than 200 followers.

So, here are eleven things about me:

1. I'm very proud of my family... if you read my blog, you'll see photos of them and find out quite a bit about them, that I've been married to a Filipina for almost 19 years now, and that we have a 9 year old daughter.

2. I love traveling in the Philippines, the warmth and friendliness of people, the natural beauty of the rural provinces, the excitement of the cities, the gorgeous beaches, seaside and mountain scenes, the history, the cuisine... I can go on and on! I'd love to live there someday; hopefully early retirement there.

3. I enjoy history, archaeology, and finding old stuff. My daughter and I recently found a site near our house where we have discovered some flint arrowheads (used for hunting with bow and arrow or spears) from Native American Indian tribes, maybe 1,000 to 2,000 years ago. These can be found right on top of the ground if we're lucky, as rain and weather erodes away the dirt over time. This site was probably either a frequented hunting camp or possibly a village site.

4. I love anything related to manned space flight and its history, the Apollo missions to the moon, fast military jets, latest developments and technologies in these fronts, etc.
3. I enjoy challenges and working hard. I often tend to do outdoor labor the hard way (by hand) rather than with power equipment. I like gardening and landscaping and I'm not afraid to get sweaty and dirty doing the hard manual labor it takes to get it done... a good source of exercise.

4. I love the great outdoors and nature, and I like the change of seasons we experience in the northern part of the US. My favorite is getting outdoors and doing lots of fun things in the hot and humid summer, when we have daylight hours until after 9:30 PM, making for a very long day. But I equally like to get out to take long walks in the snow in January with my daughter along wooded trails near our house, watching deer run across our path, then jump across an icy creek.

5. I enjoy people with a good sense of humor, and I like to laugh. I especially like to see a TV show or movie that makes me laugh so hard that my stomach muscles hurt and tears come to my eyes.

6. I love Christmas, Christmas music, and all things related to the holiday. I have not yet been able to experience Pasko in the Philippines, so I really want to do that.

7. I like to do a little bit of cooking, but more so of baking. I like to experiment with foods from different countries. For instance, over Christmas holidays, I made for the first time a traditional British Christmas pudding, which I had never had before and I didn't even really know what it was (as I am not British). It turned out really well, and had a pretty high alcohol content with lots of cappucino-flavored Tanduay rum in which the raisins and dried fruits are marinated.

8. Following up on point #2, I like traveling in general.

9. I love to read, and have been doing so since I was a very young child.

10. I enjoy listening to music. I'm pretty eclectic in my tastes; favorites are classic rock and early 80's New Wave. I also like some jazz and classical, a little bit of modern pop.

11. I unfortunately don't have any musical talent and don't know how to play any instrument, but would love to learn someday, especially with the guitar.

And now here are the answers to Sarah's eleven questions (would love to answer all of the questions from the various Liebster nominations I got, but would be too much to answer!).

1. What do you love most about blogging ?

I enjoy communicating with others, especially hearing from others by way of the comments they leave on my blog. Meeting (although virtually) people with similar interests across the miles and around the globe has been very rewarding for me. It's really neat to know that someone is actually reading (or at least looking) at some of the things I've written and some of the photos I've posted (in large part taken by my wife).

2. What was the first song or tune that you sang ?

Not quite sure about that, but when I was little I think the songs I sang the most and which made the biggest impression on me were Christmas songs. To this day, I love Christmas music and Christmas spirit, everything about Christmas and the holiday season.

3. What was the first gift that you had ever received ?

That's a really tough one, because I'm sure it had to be from when I was an infant, most likely at baptism. I have some memories of certain toys from Santa Claus from many years ago.

4. What is one historical story in your family that you are most proud of?

My great-great-great grandfather on my mother's side came to America from Germany in 1834, and traveled from the east coast to what was then the deep, dark, dense, and dangerous woods of northern Ohio (an area that is now productive farm land interspersed with small cities). A person who sold some land to him misrepresented it to him as cleared land ready for farming, but it was densely wooded, so he paid too much money. He and his family had to build a cabin out of logs, and while building it, they had to build huge bonfires at night to keep away the roving packs of wolves, which were vicious. They had to clear the land, cut the trees, and pull out the stumps with very hard labor and only oxen or horses and plows, without the use of machines like steam engines. Despite their struggles, they ultimately had a very successful farm.

5. When did you first learn to go home on your own?

When I was pretty young, I would walk home from school on my own. I can't remember which grade I was in, but back then, it was commonplace for kids to walk to and from school and things were seemingly safer.

6. When did you first learn to live on your own ?

Mainly in college and immediately before. I traveled in the Western part of the U.S. right after I graduated high school, and did a fair amount of tent camping. Sometimes the altitude of the mountains, such as in Wyoming and Montana, was high enough that it snows in summer, making for some cold camping. When I was 20 I attended U.S. Air Force (wilderness) survival training somewhere in northern Kansas when I was at McConnell Air Force Base.

7. Who is your favorite author and why?

I don't really have a favorite author per se, but I enjoy reading. Lately it's been almost all non-fiction, especially history and books about human space flight. I recently read a book called "America, 1900" by Judy Crichton, which focuses on the year 1900 and what happened in American history. The book also discusses the Philippines' struggle for independence/insurrection, Aguinaldo, etc., so I found it very informative.

8. What is (are) your favorite movie(s) that touched on history or based on real life events ?

Well, this is right up my alley -- so much so that there are probably so many I find it hard to even think of all of them in order to list them. 'Gladiator', 'Apollo 13', 'Thirteen Days', 'The Patriot', 'Saving Private Ryan', 'Braveheart', 'Amistad', 'Master and Commander' and many, many more.

9. What do you do when you experience writer's block?

In terms of writer's block for my blog, I often just go to our camera and check out the photos on the SD card, then make a narrative around them... that's a pretty easy way to get around writer's block. In terms of writing something else, I think it's good to get up, get outside, get some fresh air and exercise, etc. Sometimes talking to people really generates great ideas, especially if you have someone who is elderly with lots of stories to tell and history to remember. Another idea would be to go to a public library and just wander and look at books.

10. What book or story that you will never get tired of reading?

That's a really hard question. I don't think I could choose one.

11. What difficult decision had you done in your life that was worth it?

In general, persevering during times when it would have been much easier to quit. Working a hard, dirty, physically exhausting and thankless job for a very difficult boss when I was young, in order to save money for college. Pulling all-nighters or getting only 2 or 3 hours of sleep several nights in a row to study in college or to meet deadlines for important projects.

NOMINATIONS: So many wonderful blogs out there! I now give the list of bloggers to whom I chose to hand this prestigious award...

1.http://joysnotepad.blogspot.com/
2. http://www.hersextraordinaryjourney.com/
3. http://bicolananglakwatsera.blogspot.com/
4. http://www.kissess4u.com/
5. http://chickturistanextdoor.blogspot.com/
6. http://malou-alberto.blogspot.com/
7. http://papalengtravelerstales.blogspot.com/
8. http://istorianimaria.blogspot.com/
9. http://www.supahmum.com/
10. http://avonturologie.blogspot.com/
11. http://www.tabulyogang.info/

Here are the eleven questions for the lucky bloggers I have chosen for this award.

1. How do you find time for blogging ?

2. If you could travel back in time in a time machine (guaranteed no danger to you), what would be the top three times/places you'd visit whether in history or pre-historic?

3. What is the coolest thing you have ever built or constructed?

4. What is one historical story in your family that you are most proud of? (This is a question of Sarah's that I liked a lot.)

5. Do you like to cook or bake, and if so, what is your favorite recipe to make?

6. Have you ever found any interesting old artifact or something antique ?

7. Do you have any pets? If so, tell us about them briefly.

8. Do you ever have a commonly recurring dream? What is it?

9. Who would be your top 5 picks of people from the past you would like to meet?

10. You won a huge amount of money in a lottery -- billions -- and you now have riches like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett etc. You can easily take care of the material wants and needs of yourself and all of your family with half of the money. The other half you have to give away. What would be your top 3 specific agenda items or causes for donating the money? It can be donations to charitable/humanitarian causes, or using the money to set up an incentive prize for some amazing achievement in science, invention, engineering, the arts, etc.

11. What is your favorite movie(s), and what is the scariest movie you ever saw?

I will be looking forward to read all of your posts. And by the way, let me end this by saying, "Congratulations to all of you! "

Summer vacation Part 2: American Girl Place, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, Radio City Music Hall

2012-09-09T18:07:00.001-04:00

Following up on my last post (our arrival in New York City during our vacation), from the Empire State Building we started off our late afternoon, and we proceeded on foot north ("downtown") on 5th Avenue to the corner of 5th and 49th Street to American Girl Place. "American Girl" is a popular series of historical fiction story books for little girls, with certain key characters representing a little girl from a defined era of a couple of years of American history. For instance, the character Molly is from World War II era, Kit (the blonde-haired doll shown in the display in the photo below) is from the Great Depression, Felicity is from the American Revolutionary War period, etc. A major part of the American Girl enterprise is that they sell dolls representing all the characters of their story books. Not only that, but friends and pets of each character, clothing, and numerous other accessories... about anything you can think of! They have now even produced some excellent Hollywood-caliber movies based on their historical fiction characters. The characters are also pretty ethnically/racially diverse, which is nice, capturing a major element of the USA being the "great melting pot" and our pride that our populace is made up of immigrants from many nations.

American Girl Place in NYC is a huge 3-story store dedicated to (selling) all things American Girl, and is a huge tourist attraction - at least for folks with little girls - and truly a sight to see. While my wife and daughter really loved it and were overwhelmed, I can honestly say it was pretty interesting and overwhelming even for the dads! They have exclusive items that can only be purchased at this particular store in NYC, an onsite hair salon for the dolls to have their hair styled, even a place where the dolls can get their ears pierced! For our daughter's 9th birthday, which was upcoming in a couple of weeks after we had our vacation, we treated her to a celebration dinner at American Girl Cafe (on the third floor), which must be reserved pretty far ahead. The idea behind the dinner is that the little girl can bring along one of her dolls up to the dinner table, and the doll is placed on a special chair that clamps to the table (you can see in the photo below) and even served a "pretend" tea and snacks. Our daughter brought her doll, Kanani, who is a Hawaiian-American character -- although no one in our family is Hawaiian-American, the doll has some resemblance to our daughter, who is Filipino-American. I was expecting that the dinner itself would be nothing to write home about, but my wife and I were really quite surprised and impressed by the gourmet quality and selection of the food served to the adults (I can't remember but I think our main course was tilapia baked with a coating of roasted cashews) and the level of service.

American Girl Place, 5th Avenue and 49th St., NYC

American Girl Place doll hair salon

Hair Salon at American Girl Place

Dining room at American Girl Place, New York City

Dinner at American Girl Cafe, New York City

Family dinner with 'Kanani' at American Girl Cafe

Kanani's table-clamping chair at American Girl Cafe

Doll hairstylist at American Girl Place, Manhattan

"Meet Kit (1934) - a resourceful girl facing the Great Depression with spirit and determination"

Our daughter with Kanani, a Hawaiian-American character

Just a very tiny portion of all the accessories at American Girl Place

Lots of American Girl dolls -- and a Filipino-American Girl!!!

After we ate our dinner and made a couple little purchases (accessories) at American Girl Place, we proceeded northward on foot a short distance to Rockefeller Center. Rockefeller Center is a historical landmark and a huge complex of commercial buildings covering 22 acres (89,000 square meters) between 48th and 51st Streets and 5th and 6th Avenues in mid-town Manhattan. Like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center is a masterpiece of the Art Deco style of the late 1920's and early 1930's, and was built by John D. Rockefeller for the unheard of sum of $250 million starting in 1930, which would be worth at least $4 billion U.S. today (not even accounting for the labor, materials, and craftsmanship which could never be replicated today). It was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times, and ironically, during the darkest years of the Great Depression. We stopped to take a rest there, took photographs of the tallest building in Rockefeller Center, the G.E. Building (formerly known as the RCA Building), and the famous statue "Promethesus Bringing Fire to Mankind", then we looked around a bit inside of some of the buildings. The G.E. building is well known for housing the headquarters of NBC and the New York facilities of NBC Studios, and the comedy show "Saturday Night Live" and the morning show "The Today Show" have their studios inside the building. The architecture and craftsmanship of Rockefeller Center is really amazing, for instance the "Wisdom and Knowledge" frieze shown below... we were all profoundly impressed and in awe at both the artistry and the monumental scale of this place.

Family photo at Rockefeller Center Plaza

Base of the General Electric (G.E.) Building and Prometheus Statue, Rockefeller Center

Famous G.E. Building (formerly RCA building) and awesome statue, Rockefeller Center

"Prometheus Bringing Fire to Mankind" statue, Rockefeller Center, NYC

Awesome Art Deco Prometheus statue, Rockefeller Center

Base of G.E. Building and Prometheus, Rockefeller Center

"Wisdom and Knowledge" Art Deco frieze from G.E. Building, Rockefeller Center

"Prometheus Bringing Fire to Mankind"

Memorial to John D. Rockefeller, we are sitting facing the Prometheus statue and fountains at the base of the G.E. building

Admiring the G.E. Building in awe - contemplating the beauty of Rockefeller Plaza

Next, we walked a few blocks away to take in the sounds and sights of the famous Times Square, and all of its magical lights (and more recently, gigantic LCD screens) just before sundown. An exciting place with all the lights, and tourist/family friendly. It didn't used to be that way -- just a few years back, Times Square was pretty "sleazy" with a lot of adults-only businesses. Mayor Bloomberg (present mayor) in particular cleaned up a lot of that and turned Times Square into a much more family-friendly and tourist-friendly place. At this point in time the crowd was busy but fairly light... definitely a place you want to have a tight grip on your child/children.

Family photo at Times Square, NYC

The lights and LCD screens of Times Square - looking towards where the New Year's ball drops

Hershey's chocolate store, Times Square

Sundown, Times Square

Sundown, Times Square, and all the lights and huge LCD screens

Broadway show advertisements in lights, Times Square

Bleacher seats at Times Square; Broadway shows advertising on huge screens in background

Bleacher seating at Times Square

Hershey's chocolate store on corner of W. 48th Street, Times Square

Enormous LCD screen with live shot of the crowd at Times Square

Taxis going past Times Square

Enjoying the sights and sounds of Times Square

Finally, before returning to our hotel for the night, we walked past the renowned and historic Radio City Music Hall, another Art Deco crown jewel of New York, got some snacks, and took some photos of the exterior, which has gorgeous old-style neon lights pretty much the same as it was in the 1930's. Actually, Radio City Music Hall is still part of Rockefeller Center. Next time we're in Manhattan, we all want to go inside and see its Art Deco architectural splendor, as well as see a show of the Rockettes.

Including my last post was about it for our first day in Manhattan... we covered a lot of territory in only one, and it was an exciting day. My next post will cover at least part of what we did on day 2 in NYC... TO BE CONTINUED!!

Radio City Music Hall at night

Radio City Music Hall

Summer vacation Part 1: Grand Central Terminal and Empire State Building, New York City

2012-08-30T22:11:00.000-04:00

On the first of August, we started our family vacation, an overland trip by car, to the northeastern part of the U.S. to visit my brother and his family, and to visit several points of interest in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. I will be putting up a series of blog posts about this in the near future, but for now I decided to start somewhat in the middle of our road trip, in New York City, and at least cover part of our first day there... we did so much in slightly over 2 days in NYC there that it's difficult to put it all in one blog post!

It's highly advisable for tourists visiting The Big Apple to leave the car behind, because driving there is hectic, parking spaces are almost nonexistent and parking garages are very expensive, and a car practically becomes more of a liability than a convenience. So we started our day early on a Friday and drove to New Haven, Connecticut, where we parked our car at Union Station, brought our bags for 2 nights' stay, and then hopped aboard the Metro North train for a 2-hour trip with a destination in the heart of Manhattan.

Beautiful old train station at Union Station, New Haven, Connecticut

That final destination of our Metro North train was the famous Grand Central Station, aka Grand Central Terminal (GCT), which has been featured in many movies and is truly a sight to behold and quite an experience. Covering an area of 48 acres (19 hectares) and a masterpiece of the early 1900's Beaux-Arts style of architecture, GCT was completed in 1913 after 10 years of construction and excavation. It is the world's #6 most visited tourist spot according to Travel & Leisure magazine, and is the largest train station in the world in terms of the number of platforms. While some major changes have taken place in the platforms etc. in the conversion from using steam locomotives to modern-day trains, the main concourse looks much the same as it did in 1913. Wish we could've seen GCT and experienced its sights and sounds back when those lumbering behemoth steam locomotives plied the tracks of America.

Arrival - ready for adventure in New York - Grand Central Station!

Beautiful clock at Grand Central Terminal

Main concourse of Grand Central Terminal

Bustling crowd in the main concourse of Grand Central

These cashiers' windows probably haven't changed at all since 1913

We next made our way to our hotel, Hampton Inn Manhattan Chelsea, which was in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, just on the southwestern fringe of Mid-town near the intersection of 6th Ave. with 24th St. It was a nice place, and we enjoyed staying there. We dropped off our bags since we were too early to check into our room, and since we wanted to make the most of our day.

Our next stop was the Empire State Building, a 1,453 foot (443 meter) tall Art Deco masterpiece finished in 1931 and prominently featured in the 1933 classic film King Kong and many other movies. Going up to the observation deck on the 86th floor (about 1,050 feet/320 meters high) entails a considerable wait (at least on a beautiful sunny weekend in the summer) to get through the line: you have to go through security and buy a ticket (if you haven't bought one already), then wait in line for the elevators. The rather lengthy wait was well worth it, though, for the view from the observation deck on the 86th floor about 1,050 feet (320 meters) up above Manhattan is amazing. Needless to say, on a clear day you can see all over the place. The sounds of the bustling megalopolis below can be heard, too, especially the many fire trucks and ambulances that are on a run at any given moment... pretty exciting! A kindly native New Yorker security guard on the 86th floor observation deck took our photo and even let our daughter wear his cool hat for the photo... we told him it was a real honor! The lobby of the Empire State Building is pretty awesome too, with amazing an Art Deco aluminum relief of the skyscraper on a marble background, above a map of the area surrounding New York City and an awesome looking clock. There's a photo below of our daughter posing in front of this lobby art work and the information desk. It amazes me that some of the most spectacular and extravagant Art Deco architecture was built during the economically darkest days of the Great Depression.

To be continued - I've only gotten through about half of our first day in New York City!

Glowing in Art Deco splendor - lobby of Empire State Building

Map of region around NYC topped by relief sculpture of the building

Honored to wear the kind Empire State Building security guard's hat

(Pinay-) American Girl on the 86th floor of Empire State Building

The 3 Stooges - anyone recognize the logo on my hat?

On the 86th Floor Observation Deck, Empire State Building

View to the south including Flatiron Building and One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower)

Looking north toward Central Park (far in the background)

Looking East toward the Chrysler Building and the East River

View of spire of Empire State Building from 86th flr. observation deck - can you believe they originally wanted to tie up a blimp to this and then disembark passengers?!!

More photos our almost 8-year old daughter took in Cebu part 2

2012-07-14T17:46:00.002-04:00

Well, I've been meaning to post the second installation of photos our daughter took while out and about in Cebu last August, when she was not quite yet 8 years old, but didn't get around to it until now. These are just some more shots showing her perspective and point-of-view from her eye-level. Amusing and kind of interesting to see what captures a child's imagination, and qualifies within their mind as "photo-worthy". And of course, this is complete with unflattering close-up pics of Daddy and Mommy.

I'm currently doing my own landscaping project at our house in the U.S., and I've always admired a lot of the landscaping I see in the yards of houses in the Philippines, and I guess our daughter found this noteworthy and different/unusual enough to take some photos of the nice landscaping she saw.

One photo in particular that I find amusing here is a photo she took of her own feet wearing some sandals we bought for her at Ayala Center Mall in Cebu, which was in a boutique store called "All Flip- Flops" that sells Havaianas flip-flop sandals and maybe Tribu, and a variety of other sandals. The ones she picked out and really wanted had little plastic pizza slices, hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, milk shakes, etc. attached to the rubber straps of the sandals, and were really cute. When she brought these sandals back to the States, people here were quite amazed because you cannot find this kind of slippers in the States, and her sandals became quite the center of attention at her school.

So, without any further ado, here is Part II, an addendum to the post I put up earlier about the photos our daughter snapped in Cebu as a young photographer.

The famous "fast food" sandals from "All Flip-Flops" in Ayala Center mall, Cebu

Dental clinic in Cebu... Sundays by appointment!

Interesting tree and gates...

Mama (right) and Tita (behind laptop)

Richmond Plaza Hotel & Condo, Cebu (taken from car)

Cool looking fish pottery in center

Close-up of Mommy

Funky frog

Ceiling fan

Carport gate in Cebu

another carport gate

Beauty shop in Cebu

"Ate" (Lola's helper) and one of her friends

Nice landscaping stones

Electrical wires up (what kind of fruits are these on the plant below?)

Guys on trike in Cebu

Hanging plants in Cebu

Home sweet home in Cebu

Nice landscaping in Cebu

Milk moustache

Red flowers

Sari-sari in Cebu

Unflattering close-up photo of Daddy

Happy Father's Day 2012!

2012-06-18T00:59:00.001-04:00

Today is Father's Day, and as the good earth spins into the final hours of this day, I realize how very fortunate I am to have such a wonderful family. We celebrated the day with my wife and daughter taking me out to a very nice restaurant for an incredible Father's Day brunch. This restaurant started its life in the year 1900 as a major railroad station which was an important terminus for bustling throngs of passengers traveling across the U.S. by mighty chugging coal- and water-fed steam locomotive trains before the days of the automobile. It has been lovingly restored and is on the National Register of Historic Places. My wife took a few photos inside (these 2 shown below) to show the beautiful interior and dramatic lighting. We had an incredible buffet with outstanding food, and really enjoyed our meal, the ambience of this stately and historic restaurant, and most importantly, our time together as a family.

1900 Train Station - 112 year old restaurant

Gorgeous windows letting sunlight come inside

Mid-way through our meal, I got to open two of my Father's Day presents. These were a very nice hand-made card and bookmark from our daughter, and, from my wife and our daughter, a framed photograph of the astronaut Edgar Mitchell standing next to the U.S. flag at the Fra Mauro highlands region of the moon (Apollo 14 mission, February 1971), which is autographed by Edgar Mitchell! I'm really interested in the history of (and the future of) manned spaceflight, and the Apollo moon, Skylab, and Apollo/Soyuz missions of my infancy through kindergarten age in particular (space geek), so I was of course thrilled to have something like this autographed by the 6th man (out of 12 total) to walk on the moon. My wife then researched online to find a really nice mission patch for Apollo 14, and she put it in the frame just below the photo, to make a really gorgeous presentation. The hand-made card our daughter drew has a launching rocket and a Georges Melies "A Trip to the Moon"-style moon with an artillery shell capsule stuck into it, just like the 1902 silent movie (or, in her case, the more recent movie, "Hugo")... she knew that would delight her wannabe astronaut Papa.

The 6th man on the moon, Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14)

Edgar Mitchell autographed photo from Fra Mauro, Apollo 14

Check out the "Hugo" Man in the Moon!

After we got back home, my wife and daughter had one more present for me, which was just as awesome. They custom framed a wonderful work of art our daughter had made in elementary school, which detailed what they had learned about the Colosseum in Rome. I really loved this gift so much, because our daughter really spent a lot of time and effort making it and writing all of the (really cute) inscriptions describing the Colosseum and gladiatorial combat, and my wife really spent a lot of time and thought selecting the beautiful color of the frame and matting. I know it was a brutal place in its day in history filled with carnage and terror, but nothing can soften the harsh edges of history like the thoughtful and well-meaning crayon drawings of a creative little 8-year-old girl LOL! The "World's Best Dad" tie I am wearing is also a gift from our daughter.

I love the captions on these drawings!!! Click on pic to read it better.

Last but not least, my wife ordered from our grocery store's bakery a special cake to celebrate the day... complete with a launching Space Shuttle (on which the baker put a smiley face)! Yum!

Space Shuttle Cake

Finally, we decided to take some family pics, but didn't really want to take the time to get out the ol' tripod. So we just took photos of each other, with the one missing from the photo being the photographer... the one of my wife and I was taken by our daughter!

My girls on Father's Day

"Lazy bones" lap dog

Happy Father's Day 2012

Our daughter on Father's Day

Mama and Papa (taken by our daughter)

We had a wonderful day together, and having a loving, happy, and healthy family and being together is the greatest gift of all.

Memorial Day weekend backyard campout - pics at twilight

2012-05-27T20:18:00.000-04:00

We had been meaning to purchase a cheap dome tent for our family for some time now. The last one I had was a 3-man dome tent I purchased in 1987, which my wife and I used for some years during the early years of our marriage, then it got old and smelly and more or less dry-rotten. Finally, about a week ago, my wife picked up a Coleman Rosewood 4-person dome tent at Target at a very good price with the intent of using it on occasion for camping, but also setting it up in our back yard for our daughter to play in it.

Here in the States we have an annual national holiday called Memorial Day, which mainly honors military who have given their lives for their country, veterans who have passed away, or police/firefighters etc. in service of community, and the 3-day holiday weekend also unofficially starts off our summer. This year, tomorrow, Monday May 28, is Memorial Day. When our daughter finally discovered the still-packaged tent sitting in its bag in our garage the Friday proceeding Memorial Day, she immediately got really excited and wanted to know when I would set up the tent. So yesterday (Saturday), she helped me to set up the dome tent in our back yard, which didn't take us very long at all. We had it completed in the afternoon, but it got really hot and humid outside just like in the Philippines (about 92 degrees F or 33 degrees C), so it was too hot for us to go inside and play since it was in the direct sun. I promised her that we would have a little camp-out in our back yard last night, which we did. My wife got her new camera out and documented certain highlights of our little father/daughter outing, which are shown below. My wife decided to enjoy a quiet evening in the cool aircon of the house (with an original plan to watch a Pinoy movies, but she later decided to surf the internet and watch TV), while we explorers were outside "roughing it" in the humidity and heat and mosquitoes.

When the sun started to set, I built a little impromptu fire ring in our back yard, and gathered up some sticks to build a "tipi" style structure that would make a small but intense and well-aerated fire. With some good kindling from dry bark, it lit up quickly and soon we had a roaring fire.

My wife wanted to mention to my readers from the Philippines and outside of the U.S. what "Smores" are, and she laid out the ingredients to show. They're actually spelled "S'mores", which is a contraction of "some mores", as in "I want some more of those". S'mores are a campfire dessert often made at overnight campouts for kids. You take a graham cracker to make a top and bottom like a sandwich, then put a marshmallow on the end of a stick carved to a point with a knife (or a long metal fork) and roast it over the campfire until it is blackened on the outside and hot and gooey on the inside. Then, the partially melted marshmallow is put between the two graham crackers, with a piece of Hershey's chocolate put on top of the blackened marshmallow so that the chocolate will melt. The whole thing is eaten like a little sandwich, with the top and bottom layers being graham crackers.

My daughter and I intended to use a little lantern inside the tent to read, but by the time we were in the tent, it was already about 10:15 PM, and we both had a very active, hot and sweaty day. Before we knew it we were both out like a light, slumbering away in our sleeping bags. We had a good night's sleep, as it had cooled down a bit from the hot humid day, and 3e enjoyed our little "long-distance" camping trip a few footsteps away from the house. Here are the photos; all of which were taken by my wife before she got run off by the mosquitoes!

Bring on the night!

Gimme Shelter

Checking out the new tent... backyard camping

Coleman Rosewood tent at twilight

A quickly constructed fire ring and fire

Twilight through the trees

Burnin' like a flame

Nothing like a hot fire to warm yourself up during 91 F/ 32 C weather

The 3 ingredients for S'mores

Dome tent illuminated by fluorescent lantern

Magic lantern

Contemplating the fluorescent lantern

Soft sleeping bag - pretending to be asleep inside the tent

Cool photographs from Cebu City, Philippines - the perspective of an 8-year old photographer

2012-04-20T22:39:00.002-04:00

During our last trip to the Philippines in July and August 2011, my wife and daughter and I stayed for a large part of the time at my wife's parents' place in a subdivision in Cebu. While staying at her Lolo and Lola's house, our daughter (almost 8 years old at the time) developed a real bond with her Lolo and Lola's helper. We had been to the Philippines in 2008 when our daughter was almost 5 and she also had the opportunity to meet this young lady back then, but I doubt her memories from that trip are so distinct and lasting. This time, she became a true buddy with her Lolo and Lola's helper, and referred to her as "Ate" (pronounced "Ah-teh"), which is the Filipino word for older sister.

Our daughter and her Ate had a mid-morning ritual of walking a few blocks together down to a sari-sari to get a little treat. A sari sari is a small shop selling various foods and convenience items that in most cases is usually open-air and quite accessible from the street or sidewalk. Sari-saris can be found anywhere in the Philippines, from rural to urban to suburban settings, and are found in residential areas just as frequently (or perhaps even more often) as in commercial settings. During these walks, her Ate would bring along an umbrella to shield themselves from the sun, and the two of them would have great fun walking together and smiling and giggling, stopping sometimes to meet and talk to friends of her Ate (who were usually other helpers). They truly had fun together. These were unique experiences for our daughter, because in the States we don't have sari-sari stores (we have some similar but not exactly like this), we don't typically use an umbrella unless it rains, we don't have helpers, and the architecture of houses and the plants/trees are quite different from back home. And then there is the much different selection of treats and goodies available at a Philippine sari-sari! Our daughter tried a variety of Magnolia ice cream drumsticks, some Mentos different than the ones we have in the U.S., etc.

One one or maybe more occasions, our daughter brought her camera along on these walks, and took some really interesting photos from the perspective of an almost 8-year-old Filipina-American who was developing an appreciation of both the fascinating differences and similarities between her own familiar world back in the states and those within this little microcosm of a small subdivision of Cebu. Armed with a camera and a smile, and free from her parents for a short while with the gracious help and interpretation of the Visayan language of her Ate, she had some experiences that truly made an impression on her and for which she'll have lasting memories. The photographs speak volumes about the pure wonder and innocence of a child, her physical height above sidewalk/street level, her interests and things that she deemed important or fantastic or notable. And the photographs show the love and kindness of her Ate who, although not a blood relative, took care of her just like a little sister, both of them communicating and enjoying each other's company despite more than a few barriers and challenges in the dialogue between English and Visayan.

Here are some samples of the (many) photos our daughter took from their walks together; only one was not taken by our daughter:

One of Ate's friends in Cebu City

"Ate" in her Joe Cool Snoopy shirt

"Ate" upholding the shade

"Ate" with some of her friends in Cebu

In the sari-sari (the only picture not taken by our daughter, but by her "Ate")

Garbage dumping fine: 500 pesos

Philippine papayas

Fridges inside the sari-sari (I'll take the one on the left, please)

Lonely trike (Cebu City)

A mama (or maybe a helper) shielding the baby with an umbrella (Cebu City)

Bananas hangin' high

Sweet wrought iron gate design pattern (note the bubbles)! (Cebu City)

The infamous "business end" of a dog (Cebu City)

Another interesting gate design (Cebu City)

House and truck - cool roofing tiles! (Cebu City)

Fat-bottomed tree (Cebu City)

Multicab pickup truck (Cebu City)

Pedicab driver with gloves and biking sleeves (Cebu City)

Pedicab driver picking up passengers (Cebu City)

Taxi cab driver hangin' out (Cebu City)

Trike trekkers carrying a load (Cebu City)

Camansi fruits on tree in Cebu

Gate and wall around a house (Cebu City)- hey, isn't that those trike guys down the street?

Water storage tower in Cebu

The Versatile Blogger Award

2012-04-14T23:16:00.001-04:00

I have been remiss in posting this, as I've been busy with work lately. Recently,

I was awarded the Versatile Blogger Award. Thank you so much to Honey

(of Little Miss Honey) and Donah (of Mnemonic Reveries) for giving it to me, that

was very kind!

This award has its rules; if you receive it you have to:

- thank the blogger(s) who sends you the award and add a link to her/his blog

- write 7 random things about yourself

- give the award to other 15 bloggers you love and tell them.

7 Random Things About Me

1. I enjoy spending time with my wife and daughter, especially outdoors and/or traveling

2. My favorite place to visit is the Philippines

3. I'd like to own a bangka boat some day and spend a lot of time out exploring on the sea

4. I once rode on the back of a carabao (water buffalo)

5. I love history and am intensely interested in manned spaceflight

6. I once got charged by an angry mother moose in Yellowstone National Park

7. My favorite flavors of ice cream are (in no order): anything coffee-related, maple nut,

black walnut, anything peanut butter-related, mint chocolate chip, and ube

These are the blogs whose bloggers I want to give this Versatile Blogger Award to.

I had a hard time coming up with 15 because I'm relatively new at blogging,

and two that I would've given it to were the ones who nominated me.

Promdi/City Girl Diaries

Istoryadista

Travelentz

Tabulyogang

Pinay Daily Ramblings

Beyond My Quiet Zone

Proudly Philippine Made

My life saved in Time Machine

Perfect Day
Travels and Wandering

Spring-time fun in the backyard and neighborhood

2012-03-25T19:57:00.002-04:00

March 20th marked the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and we've been enjoying unusually warm weather in most of the northern part of the U.S. The past week in particular has been awesome, a glorious early spring that has seen some really nice high temperatures in the low 80s Fahrenheit (nearly 28 degrees C). These are temperatures we usually don't see in our area until perhaps sometime in April, and it is not unusual to get snow in March. In the summertime, however, it can get hotter here than it does in the Philippines (but with less humidity). Although we really encourage our daughter to do well in school, have a love for reading and creative writing, do homework, practice math and piano etc., we think it is also really important for a kid (and us adults!!) to just be a kid and have fun and unstructured play time while getting some good, healthy fresh air, exercise, and sunshine outdoors.

This last week, since the temperatures were so nice, after school our daughter got out and rode around in our back yard on her trusty Peg Perego jeep. We picked it up for a song on Craigslist a couple of years ago, and it has proven to be one of her very favorite toys for outdoor use. It runs on a motorcycle battery and is very powerful, and we have a back yard away from any cars so it's very safe. As you can see in the photos below, she likes to take our dog as a passenger and ride around. Her neighborhood friends like to ride it too, but now that they're 8, having a driver and a passenger brings the weight limit about up to the maximum in terms of draining the battery pretty quickly. So probably it's best to stick with a 10-pound dog as passenger for now! Additionally, there's one photo of her and our dog on her swing set.

Hitting the ground running on the Peg Perego Jeep

Posing on the jeep

Man's best friend on the swing set

This past Friday (March 23), we started off the weekend after I got home from work with our typical dinner together as a family, followed by a little outdoor outing until sundown. We enjoyed a nice walk around the neighborhood and a chance for our daughter to put in a little more riding practice on her new Kickboard Maxi Kick scooter. It's a pretty cool looking scooter, which has three wheels and a lean-and-steer design like a surfboard, so it seems like she's having a really fun time learning how to maneuver the scooter and work on some simple little hops over bumps and cracks in the sidewalk. She had a scooter before this, but it was more simple in design and didn't have the 3-wheel design and lean-and-steer capability of the Maxi Kick. There is a nice little cul-de-sac just down the street that provides a smoothly paved circular surface for her to ride, with virtually no car traffic (and we can hear and see any cars coming, which would be moving slow)... a good, safe place to ride.

We let her go through her paces for awhile, and before it started getting dark I mentioned to my wife "this would be fun to take some photos", so she ran back to our house quickly to get her camera. The photos below are some random shots, all by my wife, of our daughter in action having fun on her scooter, as well as a few photos of some of the beautiful blossoming trees we saw. As you can see from our daughter's legs (bruises, mud), our daughter is a fairly rough-and-tumble kid (climbing trees and wrestling as well as any of the boys her age) and is pretty tough when it comes to getting bumps and bruises etc. We had a nice evening, and we could catch a glimpse of the planets Venus and Jupiter in the western sky high above the setting sun at the time we made the short walk back home.

Scooter girl - my wife added a slight sepia tone effect to this photo

Piloting the Kickboard Maxi Kick around the cul-de-sac... bruised shins!

Weeping cherry tree in full blossom

Weeping cherry tree blossoms (don't know species of trees behind)

Checking out the beautiful tree blossoms

For those who are reading my blog who live outside the U.S., where we live, we have a true 4 seasons: spring, summer, autumn (fall), and winter, and right now the plant life is just starting to sprout and blossom again after being dormant all winter. The warmth and blossoming of flowers and trees this spring is probably running ahead of schedule by about 2 or 3 weeks compared to usual springtimes in the past. So what you will see in the photos above are trees mainly bare of leaves, but which are starting to grow their leaves and flowers anew. When summer comes, everything will be fully green again, although usually here where we live the most quantity of flowers and the most beautiful flowers on the trees can be seen in April and May. Also, in the most all parts of the U.S. we observe daylight saving time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time) starting March 12, which allows us to have extra daylight in the evenings... it's really nice at the height of the summer, when the daylight hours are very long and it typically gets dark at about 9:30 PM, allowing you to more thoroughly enjoy the day outside and really feel like you can accomplish something during the day.

Our 18-year wedding anniversary and some family pictures

2012-03-06T21:10:00.000-05:00

My lovely wife and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary yesterday. Well, we didn't actually celebrate it yesterday, since yesterday was a Monday and a busy work and school day for our family... not the best for scheduling an evening out. So my wife and our 8-year-old daughter and I instead celebrated our wedding anniversary as a family on the weekend immediately preceding. On Saturday, we all went to a special performance geared for kids, and on Sunday, we had a really nice Sunday-only brunch buffet at a very nice and historic restaurant, complete with some really awesome Bananas Foster for dessert.

Reflecting back on the past 18 years, we're truly grateful for all of the blessings we've had, especially our daughter. Although we've had our share of hardship and struggle along with all of the wonderful times, love truly overcomes all. Those 18 years have gone by very quickly, and it's hard to believe that at the half-way point of our 18 years, on March 5, 2003, my wife was less than 4 months pregnant with our daughter.

We didn't take any photos for our anniversary (too busy enjoying the Bananas Foster I guess), but I've posted a relatively recent photo below of the three of us together during our trip to the Philippines in July/August 2011. This was an early birthday party for our daughter at her Lolo and Lola's house. Also, I've included a recent picture of our smiling little bundle of joy, now a third-grader.

Halo-halo: our daughter's 3rd grade essay about diversity

2012-02-22T21:56:00.001-05:00

Our 8-year-old daughter's elementary school has an annual contest in which the students write an essay about diversity, which roughly coincides with the timing of the Martin Luther King Day holiday in the U.S. The U.S. is quite a heterogeneous "melting pot" of people, and is comprised of immigrants and descendants of immigrants from many races and ethnicities, cultures, and religions. That is something that has always fascinated my wife and me, and of which we are proud.

Our daughter's entry is as follows (her top-down viewpoint drawing of the halo-halo dessert is shown first), and uses an analogy comparing diversity to a traditional Filipino shaved or crushed ice-based dessert called "halo-halo". I would explain halo-halo a little further for those who have never experienced it, but I don't want to detract from her essay. So here it is... the actual photos of her handwritten essay are first (her name and the name of her school have been blocked out for privacy), and then the transcribed text is below it:

Halo-Halo

By: ________

I am an American girl and I am part Caucasian and part Asian. My mother is Asian, she is from the Philippines, and my dad is Caucasian. I am here to tell you about my favorite dessert in the Philippines. Philippines is a very warm and humid country because it’s close to the equator. Whenever I go there, it is so hot and humid. Sweat from my body sticks to my clothing. Just then, I feel that it is nice to cool down with a nice cold snack, “halo-halo” (pronounced “hollow-hollow”). Halo-Halo is a famous treat from the Philippines. It’s like ice cream but has many different ingredients mixed together. Each ingredient is different. Well, some of the ingredients I wanted to talk to you about are the different kinds of beans. Each bean is different in its own way, size, shape, and color just like everyone. That’s why it is important. Each ingredient is also different; coconut gel, coconut string, sweet “ube” (which is a purple sweet yam), banana foster, ice cream, sweet beans, flan, jackfruit, sweet corn, milk, and crushed ice. Each of these has different colors, size, shapes, texture, and even taste. And that’s what makes us and halo-halo similar, not even one little person or ingredient are the same and all combine together to make a wonderful mixture or “treat.” If you get all the ingredients of halo-halo and mixed them together it would make a cold creamy treat. Just as if we all got mixed together, we could all get along well, much like all of the different ingredients of halo-halo blend together to form one great taste.

Students here in ________ School come from many different families to make a wonderful school. If we all work hard together, the world would be a better place, and we could have peace and good-natured people. We could be one big well blended community, working no matter how different we are from each other. It’s the thought and the heart that counts. Just like the dessert halo-halo, ________ School is like one big melting pot because many students from different places come here, and we all get mixed together to make one awesome treat!

Prior to submitting this contest, our daughter showed her essay to one of her teachers, who thought that our daughter had a good chance at winning. In the end, our daughter didn't win the contest, (we had of course told her that she might not win), but yet she handled it gracefully and did not get disappointed. The teacher who liked our daughter's essay so much was a bit sad to hear our daughter had not won, but she was impressed about our daughter's positive attitude and that she remained a good sport about the contest even though she didn't win. All in all, it was a nice writing composition exercise for her, and she now has the satisfaction that although she didn't win, she put a lot of effort into this and made us all proud by doing her best.

Blowing snow with my old Honda HS55

2012-02-12T22:25:00.001-05:00

I wanted to post something to give my readers from areas that don't get any snow in the winter -- including, but not limited to the Philippines -- an idea of what it looks like here at our place in the northern part of the U.S. after we get some snow. Also, I wanted to show one of the maintenance chores I have to do to clear the snow from our driveway and sidewalks at our house. In the past, my wife and I relied on shoveling and on a very light-weight, underpowered snowblower, which is a machine that can quickly clear the snow from sidewalks. However, a couple of years ago, we along with a major portion of the northern/northeastern U.S. got hit with a major storm that dumped 22 inches of snow in about a 24 hour period, followed by probably another 8 inches in increments over the next couple of days.

We discovered the hard way that our little snowblower was completely incapable of handling that amount of snow. I set out on a grueling clean-up job of 22-plus inches of snow on our entire driveway, which is long and steep, and my wife joined me shortly thereafter on this daunting task. Although we're both quite able-bodied, even physically fit people can have a heart attack doing that kind of hard lifting in the cold temperatures, due to over-exertion of the cardio-pulmonary system along with sucking in cold air into the lungs. Long story short: we had really sore muscles for days after and were sweat-covered after shoveling that mass of snow by hand for nearly the whole day.

I grew up in northern Ohio in the "Snow Belt" with lake effect snows coming in from Lake Erie, and I remember the huge yellow and white Bolens snow blower my Dad had when I was a kid, especially during the record-setting Blizzard of 1978/1979. So after the hand-shoveling fiasco, I decided enough was enough, and I was going to get some appropriate horsepower: a 2-stage snowblower, which has an auger in the front that rakes in or "ingests" the snow and then throws it against a rotating impeller that blows the snow out of a cylindrical chute. I didn't really feel like buying a new snow blower, as I felt that a used older model well-maintained would be of higher quality than the current offerings and would be much cheaper. I searched the listings of used blowers on Craigslist, and long story short, I got really lucky to find a really nice quality older snow blower at a great price.

The snow blower I found is a Honda HS-55, and the two things I like the best about it are its raw snow blowing power and its use of tracks (like an army tank) rather than wheels, which work really well on my steep asphalt driveway, which can often get icy, slippery, and treacherous. The tracks can easily handle my steep and slippery hill of a driveway, and I really enjoy using it. This snowblower is pretty old, from about 1987 or 1988, but all accounts I've read say that they are truly built to last with outstanding engine and component quality. Parts are readily available for it too, and Honda keeps making and using the same or similar parts for its newer-generation tracked snowblowers. So, I've had it now for about 2 years, and I truly haven't regretted it. It's been a lot of fun to run it, and I really enjoy it... it's fun to see how far you can get it to blow the snow out of its chute.

I've posted here some pictures my wife took of me running the snowblower a few weeks back (I actually just used it again today, and yesterday, on a lighter coat of snow). Also there are a couple of our daughter playing outside while I was snow-blowing. Admittedly, the amount of snow we got in these pictures was not very much, probably only about 5 or 6 inches. But still, it worked really well, and was a true pleasure to run. My daughter also decided to come outside to play, but the day these pictures were taken was bitter cold, so I didn't let her stay out very long for fear that she might get frostbite of her fingers under her gloves. For any fashionistas reading my blog, I bought a vintage N3-B U.S. Air Force-issue arctic parka from 1962 on Ebay, which has a real coyote fur collar (and some accompanying Air Force issue N4-B gauntlet gloves from the same era), and they keep me very warm. They were designed to allow B-52 and B-47 bomber crews to survive if their bomber went down over the Arctic Circle in a place like Greenland, so I stay nice and toasty even in the most brutal winter weather. Sometimes if the weather is a bit windy (like it was today) the "blow-back" of snow from the chute onto my face makes it very uncomfortable, stinging the face... but if I zip up further like shown in the photos below, the coyote fur collar really protects my face, and the fur gets coated in snow rather than my skin. So next time we get 22-plus inches of snow, I'll be ready.

Our little Picasso

2012-02-05T17:49:00.004-05:00

This is a short candid video my wife captured of our daughter, who is now almost exactly 8 and 1/2 years old, when she was 2 years, 9 months old, on a beautiful day in May in 2006. She is busy painting with watercolors with a little plastic toy painter's easel and set, and is singing "Sing a Song of Sixpence" with much determination... a budding Picasso!

Children are a true wonder and joy at any age, and especially now at 8 and a half years old, she can share many of my same interests and relate and communicate much more to me than she could at 2 or 3 years old. For instance, last night she and I watched together with wonder and amazement the outstanding DVD "For All Mankind", which was made in 1989 and chronicles the Apollo missions to the moon which occurred from just before my birth up through my very early childhood. However, watching the above video when she was almost 3 years old and seeing again her true and sweet innocence as a toddler warms my heart and puts a smile on my face, but also makes me feel a little sad and wistful that our little girl is growing up.

Sometime a bit later, I'll post a few of her more recent works of art.

The mysterious case of the moving Santo Niño statue

2012-01-27T22:36:00.001-05:00

Over 80% of Filipinos are Roman Catholics, and nearly all Roman Catholic homes and businesses in the Philippines own and display a statue of Santo Niño, a representation of the Christ Child. The Santo Niño de Cebu ("Holy Child of Cebu") is a celebrated statue of the Christ Child venerated by Filipino Roman Catholics. Similar to the Infant of Prague, it is claimed to be the oldest religious image in the Philippines, originally given by Ferdinand Magellan to Rajah Humabon and his wife Humamay in 1521, along with statues of Our Lady of Guidance and Ecce Homo. The statue is clothed in expensive textile robes and a gold crown, and gained renown when it miraculously survived a devastating parish fire in 1565. The Santo Niño de Cebu statue is permanently housed under bulletproof glass at the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño in Cebu City, and is one of the most recognizable cultural images in the Philippines found in many secular and religious areas. The Basilica is a major site of religious importance to Roman Catholics as well as a significant historical site and international tourist destination.

Before we left Cebu in August 2011 on our last trip to the Philippines, my wife purchased a Santo Niño statue molded of light-weight fiberglass (for easier air transport back to the U.S.) from a vendor outside the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, which is immediately adjacent to Magellan's Cross. This statue was clothed in a red tunic of thin nylon material which was slit down the sides of the legs, covering the back and front of the statue. The statue also happened to be an "anatomically correct" representation of the toddler Jesus. When we arrived back at our home in the U.S., my wife displayed the Santo Niño statue on an end table in the entry foyer of our house, positioning it near a floral bouquet facing our main entrance door.

A few weeks after positioning the Santo Niño statue, my wife noticed that the statue had moved its position. She asked me whether I had moved it, and I told her that I hadn't. She confronted our 8-year-old daughter about this, and she said that she hadn't moved it. "Well, we must be having a miracle then, if no one is moving the Santo Niño!" my wife replied.

A few days later, she found that the Santo Niño statue had moved again, and then again another day or so later. The movement seemed to coincide with the timing of visits from our daughter's friend, a neighbor girl who is about the same age. My wife questioned our daughter a little bit further, and found that apparently the first time this movement happened was when our daughter was using the bathroom and her friend was waiting outside the bathroom door, which is immediately adjacent to the end table with the Santo Niño statue. Aha! Finally a clue. Our daughter then divulged to my wife that she had seen her friend these two most recent times picking up the Santo Niño statue to take a peek underneath his tunic, getting a look at his anatomically correct "pikoy"! Our daughter told my wife that she had told her friend "that's not appropriate". My wife just advised our daughter to tell her neighbor friend not to move the Santo Niño anymore. Then, she put in a request with my mother-in-law to have a new set of clothes made for Santo Niño, this one complete with a pair of underwear! So, now our Santo Niño has a beautiful white silk gown with red trim and sequins rather than a simple red nylon tunic... and a proper pair of underwear to prevent little neighbor girls from peeping at his pikoy!

A bangka (outrigger canoe) trip along the shoreline and up-river in Mindanao

2012-01-19T16:12:00.000-05:00

During our last trip in July/August 2011 to my wife's home town in Mindanao, the Philippines, we hired a traditional means of Philippine maritime transportation -- a small outrigger canoe called a bangka. The bangka is widely used in the Philippines, especially in the provinces outside the major metro areas, for fishing and transportation within and between the islands, and bangkas are very common in the seashore and fishing villages. Its long, narrow canoe-like banana-shaped hull is wooden and painted with multiple coats of epoxy paint. Generally it has two outriggers made of bamboo, which act to stabilize the boat in the tropical sea or river waters. The smallest bangkas are usually manually powered with paddles like a canoe or kayak, although the rather small bangka we hired was propelled by a small outboard engine that was I believe was only 5 horsepower. I've been on a bangka before and enjoyed it thoroughly, but this time we took a fairly small bangka and traveled on a trip route we had not taken before, which was really pleasant and exciting for all of us. For our 8-year old daughter in particular, this was an exciting, educational, and eye-opening trip that gave her exposure to many things she does not have the opportunity to see in the U.S.

The man that my father-in-law hired to take us out in a bangka was a local fisherman with his own bangka, and interestingly he was also a builder of bangkas. So since my wife and I didn't personally make the arrangements, I don't really have any practical advice or suggestions about looking for a boat for hire other than "use your common sense, and look for a boat that doesn't leak" (ha-ha!). I have a definite appreciation for bangkas, and some day I would like to have one of my own. Onboard the bangka were our Papa/Lolo (my father-in-law; "Lolo" is the Filipino word for grandfather, and is what my daughter calls him), my wife, my daughter, our bangka captain, his son who was about 11 years old, and myself.

We started off from the beach at my wife's home town in Mindanao, and we went a short distance along the shore line until we came to the mouth of the river that flows through the small city. Since the draught of our little boat was about equal to that of a canoe, it can get into some pretty shallow water. From the mouth of the river, we went upstream as far as we could. We passed under a pedestrian suspension (cable) bridge, which can easily accommodate the width of two people walking side-by-side passing in opposite directions, and we kept going upriver. We next came to the first road bridge, and went underneath it. There were a good number of people doing laundry in the river under the bridge, and this was really educational for our daughter, as this is something that is not seen in the U.S. and even in our travels in the Philippines we can't usually see too well what's going on under a bridge because our car is traveling over it. An interesting social and work event, nearly hidden from the sight of all above.

Washing clothes under the bridge

We then had to turn off the motor and use paddle due to it being shallow. We were able to go upstream about a couple hundred more meters, at which point we were starting to scrape bottom and get stuck, and ultimately we had to turn around. Our trusty bangka pilot and his son got out and re-situated the boat when we got stuck pretty well. Before we turned around, however, we passed some more women doing the laundry, this time out in the middle of the river (since it was so shallow) on piles of rocks, and on several occasions accompanied by a very small child or children. We waved at these tiny little children, who watched us with a shy fascination perhaps mixed with a little bit of fear.

Children accompanying mother on rocks in river doing laundry

Little boys with their mama doing laundry on rocks in river

Once we headed back down-river and got past the bridge, we used the motor again, and headed out past the mouth of the river into the sea, following the shoreline less than a kilometer from the shore. We headed north to find another, smaller river that came out of an area of foothills. This smaller river would lead up to a village in which Papa had spent time as a young boy with his family farming and evading the Japanese Army during World War II. Unfortunately, we didn't get many pictures of the beautiful shoreline, but the following picture is one that shows the area along the shore several kilometers north of my wife's home town. In the photo below, we are approaching a much more rural and agricultural area, with the elevation of the land climbing up from sea level, and you can see behind the clouds the elevation of one of the main mountains in this area. In this photo, the water is getting just the slightest bit of choppiness from either a bit of wind or from some turbulence from streams and the river coming down from the foothills. There's a fair amount of desirable hardwood timber grown in those foothills (mahogany, nara, etc.) in addition to coconut trees and camote (sweet potato/yam root crops).

Bangka boat "Kimberly", as taken from our bangka boat

We next passed by some fish nets that were staked into the water, and entered the mouth of this second, smaller river coming out of the foothills. This river was much, much narrower than the river that passes through my wife's home town, but apparently also a bit deeper, at least in parts. The narrowness of the river was really interesting and somewhat exciting to my daughter and me, but my wife was worried that there would be snakes in the thick trees and bushes that lines the shores (her worries were unfounded, at least during our trip). We saw many nipa huts (bamboo houses), which near the river are typically elevated up on stilts, in comparison to nipa huts you'll see inland away from the rivers, which are not raised up as high. Usually, sitting on the bank of the stream in front of these houses are brightly colored bangkas. As shown in some of the photos below, bangkas represent an important means of transportation for villagers living along the streams and rivers of provincial (rural) Philippines. Ultimately, we realized that this was not the river Papa was looking for -- it was a bit further north along the coast line. Due to time constraints, however, we decided to just continue our trip and just "go with the flow" (or in our case since we were heading upstream, go against the flow).

Small bangka passing by, fish nets staked up in background

Bamboo nipa hut houses on stilts, bangkas docked in front

Family (mama, papa, 3 boys, dog) in bangka passing by on this narrow river... a "fluvial road"

Another nipa hut house, with a brightly colored bangka in front

Family onshore doing some work near their bangka boats

We enjoyed our trip, and a great time was had by all. Taking a bangka trip along shore and upstream is definitely something on my "highly recommended" list of things to do if you visit the rural coastal provinces of the Philippines, and it is especially fun to do if you have children. Our daughter got to experience all of the sights, smells, and sounds of this trip, and also got to wave hello to a lot of families and little children along the banks of the rivers. Papa got to reminisce about some of the trips along the same coastline he took as a child and as a teenager. And my wife and I got to relax and really enjoy being out on the water, taking in the experience and enjoying the company of family. Although our trip probably lasted about 3 hours, I could have spent literally all day on the bangka (despite having long legs in a small boat). I think next time we will bring along a picnic lunch and try to spend more than 3 hours out on the bangka.

Our loyal and loving (but intellectually challenged) little mutt

2012-01-12T21:50:00.002-05:00

Here are a couple of photos my wife took early this summer of our daughter with our mutt, a Shih-tzu and Maltese mix. He's truly not the sharpest tool in the shed - it took him literally a month of training sessions to learn how to shake hands, when other dogs I have owned picked up this trick in about 5 minutes of training. Often he'll come bounding upstairs into our bedroom searching absent-mindedly for my wife when in fact he just passed her in our kitchen downstairs. Let me be frank - he is very often dumb as a rock!

However, he is a very sweet and loving dog, and is really good with children, even if neighbor kids come to our house and pick him up like a rag doll, smothering him with affection. He truly craves getting attention and affection and being held on the lap, especially when it comes to my wife, and he is a true "Mama's Boy". He shadows my wife constantly around the house, watching her every move and guarding her. He seems to have an innate sense of when one of us in "the pack" are not feeling well, and in particular he was on a heightened sense of awareness, empathy, and affection when my wife was recovering from her mastectomy surgery earlier this year.

As a typical 8-year-old, our daughter is into fantasy play, and she has no other brothers and sisters, so you can just imagine the rigors of play and make-believe our little mutt has to go through with her and her friends. He has of course been dressed up numerous times, plays the role of co-pilot on different ride-on jeep-type toys in the backyard, and gets hugged, squeezed, and carried about by her and all of her friends (we of course monitor to make sure he's being handled gently).

So, while he's by no means a genius, we're pretty happy with him in the three years we've owned him (we got him as a pup of about 7 months old) and he has been a good and loyal companion for us. At times he can be frustrating, but in the end he loves unconditionally and really just wants to be loved in return.

Early detection of breast cancer - for everyone and including Pinays

2012-01-07T21:33:00.000-05:00

I'd like to take a bit of time to discuss early breast cancer detection via yearly mammograms after age 40, and bring a point-of-view relevant to younger women and inclusive of Filipinas. While the concept of early detection via annual mammography in women over 40 is "preached" by family physicians and OB/GYNs, and dispersed with public service announcements and public health campaigns through all types of media, it is easy to procrastinate due to a schedule that's too busy, fear of cancer, fear of discomfort during the mammogram, or any number of other reasons. But I can speak from experience how important and crucial mammography really is. January 11th marks the one-year anniversary that my lovely wife was diagnosed, after a confirmatory second high-resolution mammogram (first one looked suspicious) and then a stereotactic biopsy, with a type of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). She went in for her very first-ever mammogram just a few weeks after turning 40, and had no family history of breast cancer other than one case on her father's side of the family... only a family history of breast cancer on the maternal side of a woman's family is considered to be a prognostic risk factor. Thankfully we caught it early, and she is healthy and happy now.

Statistically, Filipinas and Asian women in general do not have as high an incidence of DCIS and other breast cancer as Caucasians. Ironically, however, immediately before my wife went in for her first mammogram, a Filipina acquaintance of hers who is just a couple of years older than my wife had a mastectomy for DCIS. While certain risk factors exist and various ethnic groups have a higher or lower propensity for different types of cancers, any given type of cancer can be (and is) represented in virtually any population. So I'd like to take the opportunity to strongly encourage, urge, cajole, and prod every woman over 40 (or any man who has a wife, girlfriend, mother, aunt, sister, cousin, daughter, friend over 40) of any race or ethnicity who reads this to please try their best to get an annual mammogram, and additionally perform regular self physical breast exams.

DCIS is the most common type of non-invasive breast cancer. Ductal means that the cancer starts inside the milk ducts, carcinoma refers to any cancer that begins in the skin or other tissues (including breast tissue) that cover or line the internal organs, and in situ means "in its original place." DCIS is called "non-invasive" because it hasn’t spread beyond the milk duct into any normal surrounding breast tissue (i.e., stage 0). DCIS isn’t life-threatening per se, but having DCIS can increase the risk of developing an invasive breast cancer later on. According to the American Cancer Society, about 60,000 cases of DCIS are diagnosed in the United States each year, accounting for about 1 out of every 5 new breast cancer cases. There are two main reasons this number is so large and has been increasing over time: 1) People are living much longer lives, and as women grow older, the risk of breast cancer increases; 2) More women are getting mammograms, and the quality of the mammograms has improved. With better screening, more cancers are being spotted early. Additionally, the DCIS in my wife's case was not able to be detected via self physical examination because there were no palpable tumor masses, and therefore mammography was the only way to detect it so early.

Women who have breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) for DCIS without radiation therapy have about a 25% to 30% chance of having a recurrence at some point in the future. Including radiation therapy in the treatment plan after surgery drops the risk of recurrence to about 15%. My wife was advised to have a complete mastectomy of the affected breast, which was actually what she would have chosen anyhow, and she decided that a prophylactic mastectomy of the other (contralateral) breast would make her feel much better in terms of not needing to worry. For my wife's non-aggressive grade of DCIS, bilateral mastectomy brings the risk of recurrence down dramatically, to a yearly chance of about 2% and a lifetime chance of about 10% up to a very old age. She had the bilateral mastectomy in February and is doing great since - her lymph nodes were clear, and she has not required any radiation or chemotherapy at all. She has adapted perfectly well, is as active as ever before, and is confident and happy with the outcome of her surgery, her physical appearance, and her new lease on life.

I've included a few pictures of a Susan G. Komen Foundation Race for the Cure 5K run/walk we participated in as a family during Mother's Day 2011, less than 3 months after my wife's surgery. It was quite an inspirational event, as many of the ~30,000 participants were breast cancer survivors (and their families), many of whom were diagnosed with much more aggressive types of breast cancer or breast cancer that metastasized, and went through some real hardship and tribulations through extensive chemotherapy and radiation therapy after surgery. Numerous of the paper race/walk entry tags that were pinned to the T-shirts being worn by participants had listed in memoriam the names of mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, daughters, or friends who succumbed to breast cancer.

Further information is available at the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen Foundation websites. I've also included a link to a review article, "What every Filipina should know about breast cancer", by Tyrone M. Reyes, MD which is from the Philippine Star website:

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleid=511418

Banana boats, jet skis, and parasailing in beautiful Boracay, Philippines

2012-01-03T22:44:00.001-05:00

These are some photos of water sports we enjoyed during a family trip to Boracay in 2008. I'll write a bit more about Boracay and the experiences we had there in a later post. The jet skiing is self-explanatory, and was incredibly fun - in my opinion the most fun and thrilling of all three water sports shown in the photos below, although I did not personally indulge in the parasailing and only watched from the back of the boat. The icing on the cake was (were) the beautiful views we got of Boracay and the sea... a truly gorgeous place and an equally beautiful day. All of these were very enjoyable, but unfortunately our daughter was too little to be able to ride on anything with the exception of the speed boat towing the parasailing parachute.

Gorgeous view of parasailing fleet, Boracay, Philippines

Water sports at Boracay

The jet skis were really nice and handled really well, especially when going full throttle - a good, exciting ride that really gives you some good bounce. I rode with my wife behind me, then let her drive with me as the backseat passenger (she was actually pretty good). Finally, I went solo and really opened up and cut loose. It was a blast, but I felt kind of bad because I forgot all about the time and the guys who managed the place had to send someone out on a jet ski to get me because I went a bit over with my allotted time. I would have loved to have taken it out all day, and to have gone far beyond the boundaries they permitted me to take it. Would be neat to rent one, but I doubt that is possible without a guide, because one would have to have a really intimate knowledge of where all the coral reefs are in a particular place.

Pre-flight dockside check-out, Boracay, Philippines

Off we go!

My wife and I coming back to dock on jet ski, Boracay

My wife's turn to drive

My wife at the helm... aye-aye, captain!

The guy who had to remind me that my time was up!

Coming back in to the dock

The banana boat -- not a boat on which bananas are transported, but an inflatable banana-shaped raft towed by a speed boat -- was also fun and can accommodate a pretty decent-sized group of people, but was actually a bit more tame of a ride than I had expected... quite cushy and stable. I had expected it to be more bouncy and that it would catch more "air" from the waves. But it was fun, nonetheless, and everyone really enjoyed it... lots of laughs from all of our group.

"Vacation all I ever wanted, vacation had to get away..."

Banana boating in Boracay

Beautiful shoreline scenery of Boracay

Hoppin' and boppin' on the banana boat

Banana boat hitting the wake at Boracay

Finally, parasailing. My wife and I have done some pretty bold and dangerous things, including white water rafting on a Class IV rapids on the river at Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao. But since our daughter wanted to come on the boat with us (and since she hadn't had the chance to ride the other rides), we opted out and her two sisters who accompanied us have their chance at cheating death. Just kidding - in all fairness it seemed safe and the operators appeared to be responsible. But that parachute sure does get far, far up in the sky and far away from the boat!

My two sisters-in-law parasailing at Boracay

Don't cut the rope, Dong

Parasailing chute

Kicking up a good wake under the cumulus clouds

How's the weather up there?

Can barely see them any more

My wife's home town in Mindanao - a rooftop perspective

2012-01-02T13:11:00.001-05:00

Three of my favorite perspectives of life in the Philippines are those perhaps often overlooked by the foreigner or tourist. One of these views is that from the street level as a passenger or driver of a pedicab. Another is that from the water level from a simple bangka boat (outrigger canoe... I'll post photos from that later) either off-shore or going up a small tidal river in the provinces. A third perspective that I've always enjoyed, particularly in the provincial towns, is that of the rooftop or water tower, often approached by concrete stairs and then finally a steel set of stairs similar to a fire escape. The views and perspective up there are often unequalled. The nostalgia-evoking smells of coconut husk charcoal from people cooking and fresh saltwater breezes coming up from the ocean are really nice, as is the effect of the cooling breeze gained from the higher elevation. One of my favorite things is getting a great view of the varied tropical fruits growing on trees, depending on the season, with the ever-present coconut trees swaying gently in the ocean breezes. The activities of the people down below on the street are still very evident and noticeable, but the noises are a bit muted from the height of perhaps 20 meters, and in many ways one becomes a silent observer. I'm not a voyeur, but there is a certain anonymity and ease of observation while watching the day-to-day activities and the beating pulse of a relatively quiet provincial town (in comparison to Manila or Cebu) in a market below.

I've posted a few photos from a rooftop in my wife's home town in Mindanao, just to highlight this birds-eye perspective, although of course I cannot convey the senses other than sight. Interesting and beautiful views of the mountains and an old church I believe built in the 1880's. Four photos can never do justice to the views from the rooftop water tower perch, but hopefully readers of this blog will enjoy these.