Minivan: Fully Loaded

Center of attention…

brandon — Mon, 30 May 2011 16:02:21 -0700

Cailyn always has loved being the center of attention.

Ciera’s photo shoot

brandon — Mon, 09 May 2011 00:07:29 -0700

These days if my kids even get a hint of me looking to take pictures of them they all seem to instantly vanish. We’re often left with begging or forcing cooperation, which makes the entire ordeal anything but fun - not to mention the often less than desirable results.

Last night however was a different story. We’ve been wanting to get pictures of Ciera ever since her 3rd birthday in late March, and when we asked her if she wanted to get dressed up for pictures, she excitedly agreed. I was shocked! And we had a great time till I wore her out.

Now most of the time I just post the best few of the batch. Tonight I took a sample of the entire photo shoot so you could experience the session a bit as well. Most of these are raw and untouched beyond a crop here and there.

Feel free to vote on your favorites! Eventually I’ll tweak a few of the best and get them printed.

Enjoy! (click picture above for slideshow)

Getting too old for Idol

brandon — Sun, 01 May 2011 17:28:19 -0700

I didn’t watch the first season of American Idol. Somehow the hype failed to catch my attention, and I was crazy busy with work that year. The following year there was enough buzz that it was very hard to ignore it.

So for Season two, back in 2003, we finally gave the show a try, and I had to admit it was entertaining. I especially enjoyed the early auditions. How some people could honestly convince themselves that they could sing was beyond me. And I’m not just talking about those that were a little off tune. I’m talking about the auditions that would send our cat fleeing the room in terror. And while Simon Cowell’s critic of these bad auditions was often hilarious, brutally honest, down-right mean, or all-of-the above – I couldn’t help but often agree with him 95% of the time.

Now for those that watched season two, do you remember the first audition from Clay Aiken? Here’s this scrawny nerdy guy who you almost couldn’t help but instantly judge as a bad singer before he even opened his mouth. And the show did a masterful job of making the viewer go there mentally – which is both sad and brilliant because when Clay began to sing both my wife and I were blown away. We looked at each other with shock and surprise on our faces – this guy could really sing! We’re taught as kids to not judge by appearances, but it’s easy to do, especially when a TV show sets you up for it.

Anyway, as season two progressed we’d tune in to see who was eliminated and who continued. When Clay Aiken was initially cut I was surprised, but I pretty much chalked it up to his image more than his singing. I felt (and still do) that if this was a radio only contest that the results would be wildly different. It was great to see him make it back into the show as a wild card, and from that point forward he simply dominated (in my opinion), and while there was certainly talented singers around him, I felt he shined far above them all. And it seemed that America felt the same way as Clay made it all the way to the finale – Clay Aiken vs Ruben Studdard. Now Ruben was certainly very good, but Clay was even better – again, my opinion.

Alas the results came in and Clay lost – but barely. And it sparked a large controversy when one of the shows Executive Producers admitted that Clay had led the competition every week until the final round, where he lost by 134,000 votes out of 24 million. Despite the outcome, I still felt that Clay was the best, and that my personal ability to judge vocal talent was pretty much in sync with America.

The following season this seemed to change and I found myself questioning my skills as a judge. Especially when some of the best candidates such as LaToya London and Jennifer Hudson were cut ahead of what I considered to be weaker singers/performers. And my wife felt (mostly) the same way. By the season finale I was pretty shocked at how disconnected I was from America, and I began to question if the show was rigged for ratings (pretty sure it is). Neither of the finalists were my choice, and while I was ok with Fantasia Barrino winning out of the two, it still was an overall let down on the season.

Come the following year, and for the next 3 seasons (4, 5, 6), we found other forms of entertainment. Didn’t tune in to Idol even once. Ironically some of our favorite singers of today come from that period of time. Carrie Underwood actually won season 4, and has gone on to be a huge star in country music. Probably one of the (if not the) most successful Idol winners ever. We have all her albums. And Chris Daughtry, eliminated in the top 4 of season 5, has gone on to be the most successful artist of that year and is also another of my favorites. Maybe Idol still had hope.

I decided to give it another chance come season 7 – plus my kids were actually into it which added more fun to the experience. Overall I was pleased with the results of season 7. The two finalists, David Cook & David Archuleta, were incredibly talented and I felt both deserved to win. America got it right no matter what that year. Come season 8 things got a little wilder with the likes of Adam Lambert, and while I wasn’t a fan of his music I couldn’t honestly deny his talent as a singer/performer. I was actually surprised he didn’t win. And last year (season 9), the last with Simon Cowell, was another “just ok” season and I felt America mostly got it right with Lee DeWyze, though I was still partial to Michael Lynche.

Now we come to this year, season 10. One of my daughters absolutely loves this show now and has dreams of maybe one day auditioning for it (that’s 6 years away, so we’ll see). Each week, usually on the weekend, we watch that week’s previously recorded episodes. And each week I find myself once again questioning my hearing and judging abilities as it seems I am a tad off the mark from the rest of America. Maybe I’m getting too old and don’t hear things the way those 8 - 10+ years younger than me do? I haven’t tried polling many in my age peer group to see, and it could be some other factor beyond age. But when Pia Toscano was eliminated I was simply blown away. Was that a reflection of America’s actual view, or did everyone do (as speculated) and assume she was a sure win and not vote? I don’t know. I never watch the show live, and therefore never vote, so I fully admit I’m part of the problem.

I wonder how many others are in my boat that never watch it live? Could we have made a difference? It would sure be interesting to see some analysis done on the Idol viewing demographic and see what different factors wildly impact each weeks results.

This year some incredible talent has been found - no doubt. But in my humble opinion some of the best have already been let go and there are only a few candidates (and my daughter) that are keeping me somewhat interested. It’s going to be hard to finish the season at this rate and I’m not optimistic at a great outcome.

That said, here’s my top 10 picks for this season. Those in red are already eliminated, which is 3 of my top 5! Note that this list does not match my daughter’s list, which is why I suspect I’m simply too old for this show now days. :)

Pia Toscano – Hands down the best vocally. Reminds me so much of Celine Dion and Whitney Houston. Struggled with stage presence at times, but her final performance was awesome.
Haley Reinhart – Something about her voice is very appealing. She’s great on stage and seems very comfortable. Her version of “Bennie and the Jets” was awesome. I also liked her version of “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele. That is probably the type of music she could be best at making.
James Durbin – Possibly the best overall performer. Very talented guy. Not my personal favorite, but undeniably one of the top candidates. He has a great future ahead of him and I could easily see him making records and doing very well.
Casey Abrams – Talk about raw musical talent. Very entertaining performer. Not sure I would have saved him like the judges did, simply because I couldn’t see him actually winning, but it’s hard to deny his ability and I expect he’ll do well in his career.
Stephano Langone – Another excellent performer with a great voice. Also struggled with finding his niche, but I felt was far better than many others.
Lauren Alaina – This young 16 year old has an incredible voice, but she clearly lacks confidence in herself and it shows during her performances. She has an infectious smile and you can’t help but like her. She just needs a bit more experience to really hit her groove. She still might pull it off.
Jacob Lusk – Not my cup of tea as he has a very gospel music vibe to everything he does, but I won’t deny the guy has serious vocal talent. Very passionate singer/performer with a lot of potential. Just don’t see him selling millions of records just yet. Maybe.
Scotty McCreery – His deep voice instantly reminds me of Josh Turner – which he has clearly tried hard to mimic at times. The problem with Scotty is his age and inexperience. He has the voice, but he doesn’t perform well and while he sounds like Josh, he doesn’t have the full power and presence of Josh. I’m shocked he’s made so far considering the other talent around him. With more experience he could do well, but he’d need to find something unique because right now Josh has that sound and style locked in my book. I suspect there are simply a lot of women out there in love with that voice keeping him alive. Am I jealous? Maybe.
Thia Megia – Another incredible voice, yet also very young and just missing that “stage presence” that I think could have saved her. Super potential here. Was surprised to learn she made it to the quarter finals on the “America’s Got Talent” show when she was 14. She certainly went a lot further on American Idol which shows tremendous growth. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of her.
Naima Adedap – She had her moments, but overall just never clicked for me. I think she tried too hard to mix the dance and reggae vibe to her music. I do question if we’ve seen/heard the last of her.

My Name Is Khan

brandon — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:10:42 -0700

Nearly two years ago I signed up with Netflix, and not long after I found myself sucked into the Netflix mini-game called “Rate as many movies as you can”. Those familiar with Netflix know what I’m talking about. You get to rate movies you’ve seen from 1 to 5 stars, and you can spend hours doing this if you’re not careful. It’s a little scary when you see the number of movies/TV shows you’ve rated tick up into the hundreds – I’m nearing the 1000 mark and bet I could hit if I spent more time “playing”. I’m not sure this is something to be proud of….

Anyway, the purpose of this rating system is to not only let others know what movies are most popular, but it also helps Netflix build a profile of content you like. They then use this information to start throwing suggestions at you. The more you rate, the more suggestions you get. Normally I’m not a fan of systems like this because I’m cautious about giving up certain private information to services outside of my control. In this case I’ve let it grow on me and have even started watching some of the suggested content. And so far, every single suggestion and it’s estimated rating (the rating they figure I’ll give the show) has been nearly spot on. In most cases I rate the content just as they guessed I would; sometimes even higher.

This brings me to the most recent suggestion: My Name Is Khan. Netflix figured I’d find it inspirational and would rate it 4 stars. The only part they got wrong was the rating. I gave it 5 stars.

This was a great movie. Made me laugh, sad, angry, ashamed (of other Americans), and inspired for the possibilities we (humanity) have to make the world a better place. The main actor (Shah Ruch Khan) plays a Muslim man with Asperger's Syndrome (form of autism), and portrays much of his life from early childhood to his adult experience in America. The actor does such an awesome job that you cannot help but fall in love with the character. In a way he reminds me of people with Down Syndrome (of which I have a few family members), and their frequent unconditional love and concern for essentially everyone around them. Often viewed as people with disabilities, they regularly show us the best part of our humanity – compassion and love.

I don’t want to spoil it further. This movie is well worth the near 3 hour investment you’ll make in watching it. I highly recommend it. It’s currently available On-Demand if you have a Netflix account, or you can pick it up from Amazon.

If you watch it, let me know what you think.

11 years old!

brandon — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:28:08 -0700

When I was younger I never thought I would utter the words I’d heard countless times from my parents and grandparents. It didn’t make sense then, but boy does it now. So I’ll say it (err write it).

Where has all the time gone?!

Tanner is now 11 years old. His birthday was this past Wednesday (Dec 1st). Here are some pictures from that evening’s birthday party. I believe he had a great day.

3 months!!

brandon — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:16:17 -0700

Over three months since my last update?!? Well, the next few days are expected to be pretty lousy weather, so let me see if I can conjure up some very overdue content.

Do you know what this is?

brandon — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:41:44 -0700

Click the picture to learn more!

2.5 years old!

brandon — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:09:35 -0700

She’s growing so fast. I have a bunch of other pictures to share, but this was one of my favorites!

Trip Report – Day 2: Historic Jamestown & Colonial Williamsburg

brandon — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:37:17 -0700

[This is the next installment of our East Coast trip to DC & NY this past June. Day 1 here. ]

Early Morning

When the alarm sounded the start of Day 2 it took everything I had to drag myself out of bed. Though it was 6:30AM local time, my internal clock was screaming at me that it was 3:30AM – not a time to be awake. To further add to my punishment I hadn’t managed to get to sleep until just after 1AM local time, so I was really hurtin. And even worse was the fact that the air-conditioner in the room was barely adequate. I slept in the bed next to it and had it running full blast all night and was still not very comfortable.

Sleep didn’t seem to be a problem for Milee but it still took a bit to get her going. Considering how early she crashed this surprised me some, but I also wager her internal clock was a bit off as well.

First thing on the agenda was breakfast at 7:00AM. It was a buffet hosted by the hotel and it wasn’t too bad. I had some scrambled eggs, sausage, toast and juice. I don’t recall now exactly what Milee ate, but for the entire trip she was pretty picky about her meals and usually ate “rabbit food” (as she called it). While not an official vegetarian, she avoids most meat in general. So most breakfasts consisted of muffins, toast, bagels, juice, and sometimes cereal.

After breakfast we quickly returned to our room to get our stuff. The trip itinerary only had us staying in the Williamsburg area for a single night/day. The remainder of the trip was to be spent up north in the DC area. We therefore finished packing and I snapped a few more pictures of the room.

Milee was a little bored waiting on me to take pictures.

Jamestown Settlement Museum

With everyone loaded up on the bus, we departed for our first official tour of the day: The Jamestown Settlement Museum.

First thing to note – it was already very warm at just after 8:00AM, and the forecast for the Williamsburg area called for a high of 107 degrees and around 70% humidity by early afternoon. Though a water bottle was on the packing list, we didn’t bring one. I figured I’d buy one later instead, but hadn’t yet had a chance. Thankfully our bus driver decided to stock up on bottled water, which he kept ice cold in a huge ice chest where all the luggage is stored. He generously allowed everyone to take a bottle in exchange for $1.00, which turned out to be a great deal compared to the vending machine prices we encountered later. Little did I know how many dollar bills I’d be forking over to our fine bus driver throughout this day/trip.

Water now in hand we all headed to the back of the museum to meet our tour guide.

Thankfully there was shade on this side of the building. Everyone gathered up, divided into groups, and off we went. (While waiting, I took loads of pictures. Be sure to check more of them out via the slideshow link at the bottom of this post.)

This museum was great. It is a re-creation of the original Jamestown settlement in the early 1600’s and is located about a mile from the present day Jamestown site. I learned tons about the role Jamestown played in American history - it was fascinating. There is no doubt that much of what I learned throughout the day was stuff I’d studied at one point in school, but it certainly didn’t have the impact that seeing it first hand did. Plus I’m sure my attention span is far greater now than it once was…

For the first part of the tour we enjoyed the cool air-conditioned environment of the building. Unfortunately no photography or video was allowed inside, but trust me, the exhibits were awesome. I only wish I’d had more time to spend looking at everything and reading the details provided. But our tour guide had a schedule to keep so you pretty much had to stay with her or get left behind (this turned out to be a common problem throughout the trip).

Inside we learned about the early English settlers and the African slaves they brought with them. We also learned a lot about the native Indians - the Powhatans. It was also fun to learn more about some of the famous people of this time, such as Pocahontas, where the true story is a tad off from the one Disney tells.

Once we completed the very quick tour inside, we headed out to a re-created Powhatan village (or “town” as the original English settlers called them). Here we met with some of the “locals” and listened to them describe their daily life. We looked at the housing they lived in back then, and boy was I further thankful for modern day air-conditioning! These huts were called “yehakins”.

Moving on from the Indian village we made our way to to the docks and paid a visit to the (fully functional) re-created replicas of the Jamestown “founding fleet” – the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. These three ships arrived at the peninsula on the James River on May 13, 1607 – thirteen years before the pilgrims landed in New England. And on May 13, 2007 we celebrated the 400th anniversary of this event!

Seeing these ships was very “cool”, even if it was crazy hot by this point. (more pics in the slideshow linked below).

On that note - here’s a quick video clip taken onboard the Susan Constant. Now before you watch, let me give some context. Prior to this Milee had been giving me a hard time, telling me to “stop complaining” because she didn’t think it was that hot. She was supposedly loving the weather because it had been “so cold” back home. Well, if I didn’t know any better I’d say this young lady was a tad miserable. :)

Yeah, she wouldn’t admit it, but she was hot. :)

The final stop on the Jamestown tour was a visit to the re-created James Fort. Originally built in 1610 it housed everything from guardhouses to the church and played a key role in the survival of the early settlers. We toured the church and learned how the settlers were members of the Church of England and required by law to attend church service twice daily. The church was also used for important town meetings and was the location for the first legislative assembly in 1619.

After the church, we walked around a bit and took pictures.

The grand-finale of the tour was a musket firing demonstration. Loud, but fun.

Jamestown Glasshouse

After leaving the Jamestown Settlement museum we made a quick stop at the Jamestown Glasshouse. This was the early settlers first “industrial factory” where they practiced the art of “glassblowing”.

Today the furnace used to heat the glass is fueled by natural gas, but back in the 17th century that wasn’t an option. They instead had to burn enough wood to construct a two story house and it took weeks to get it hot enough!

I really enjoyed watching these craftsmen work the molten glass into something beautiful. We actually purchased a replica of the colonial pitcher we watched being made this day.

With the glasshouse tour complete, we loaded everyone up and headed for lunch. And where do you guess we ate?? Yep, good ol’ McDonalds. Nothing to be impressed with as it is the same food we all know and love/hate. The only reason it was a hit with the kids was the “all you can eat” clause. They could order whatever they wanted on the menu – no limit. Some of boys took it to the extreme and really pigged out. Milee went with the rabbit food (salad), which was fine with me. I went for a chicken burger variant. It was ok.

Once everyone was well fed, we loaded up and headed out to our last tour of the day – Colonial Williamsburg.

Colonial Williamsburg

So by this point in the day the heat had nearly reached it’s maximum. Just our luck that it turned out to be the hottest day in all of June – it was brutal.

After arriving at Colonial Williamsburg, we divided back into two groups and away we went on our tour. For this part of the tour we had two veteran tour guides. One was 72 years old, the other 77 years old. Walter (our tour guide) was the senior of the two and he started off by warning us (in a joking tone) that he wasn’t as young as Gayden (the 72 year old) and therefore wouldn’t likely be able to keep up the same pace. I laughed at this initially, but then thought that there probably is a big difference between 77 and 72 when you’re that old, so who am I to judge?

Turns out Walter wasn’t totally kidding. Gayden seemed to be far less impacted by the heat and certainly was in better shape. At one point Gayden told the kids to stop complaining about being tired because if he could handle it, then so could they! I really liked Gayden. He was full of great historical data and told so many different stories and provided so many interesting facts that I wish I’d somehow recorded it all. During one of our chats (while taking a break) I asked Gayden if he was originally from the area, and I learned that while he’d been living in the area for a number of years, he was originally from Maine where you get “10 months of snow, and 2 months of lousy skiing!”.

Anyway, the heat was brutal and it certainly took away from the overall experience, but we stuck it out. The first building we toured was the Governor’s Palace. This was definitely the highlight of the tour and due to the heat ended up being really the only thing Walter seemed to be able manage.

The tour of the inside is done by an employee/actress playing the part of the Governor’s housekeeper. She was great and even made the kids promise not to tell anyone (especially the Governor) that she allowed them into the house without his explicit permission. She never went out of character during the entire tour and really made you feel like you had traveled back in time for a bit.

Inside the house has been restored and furnished to look just like it did during Governor Dunmore’s time. And I have to say, the decor was certainly unique. Lord Dunmore seemed to have a love of weaponry and his house reflected it. The walls in nearly all the halls and stairways where covered in rifles and swords. He was certainly prepared for the worst!

Overall the Palace was amazing. As I toured each room I was just in awe at the details in the crown molding and door trim etc. The attention to detail was everywhere and back then it was all hand-crafted which made it even more impressive.

Outside the landscaping detail equaled the interior detail.

I would love to have spent more time enjoying the scenery, but it was just too hot. So hot in fact, that I believe my camera started to overheat during this part of the tour. I ended up with a dozen or more corrupted pictures like the following.

This was the only time during the entire trip that I experienced this problem, so the only thing I can assume is that my gear was just too hot. I know, broken record – but man was it hot and humid! :)

Overall the Williamsburg area was a lot of fun to visit, despite the heat. I just wish we could have spent more time there when it wasn’t so miserable. In the end the heat drove us to blow off parts of the tour and retreat to the shade while we waited for the bus to take us to dinner.

For dinner we ate at a local Italian restaurant named Sal’s. Unfortunately the only thing “all you can eat” was the cold drinks and air conditioning, but that was just fine! The majority ordered pizza while a few, like myself, tried the lasagna or spaghetti variants.

Once everyone was fed and refreshed, we loaded up the bus and took off for Washington DC. From Williamsburg VA it was roughly 3 hours to our hotel, but it felt more like 5 hours. Some managed to catch some sleep, but I just couldn’t get comfortable. When we finally arrived at the hotel just outside DC I was beyond looking forward to a nice cold bed. It was nearly 11pm by the time we got everyone checked into their rooms and down for the night. It had been a very long day.

Slideshow of Day 2

To be continued - Day 3 (Washington DC): Ford Theater, White House, National Monument, Arlington National Cemetery…

Entrepreneurial spirit

Brandon — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:44:00 -0700

When I was a kid (pre-teen) about the only way I ever earned any money was by working my tail off in my Grandma’s yard pulling weeds or hauling mountains of dirt one wheelbarrow at a time. A buck an hour back then was good money and I believe in most cases Grandma received her money’s worth…

Well, the other day Tanner and his friend decided they needed to make some money of their own. And soon a plan was formed. Did it involve hard laborious work? Nah, they decided to gather up a few pockets full of gravel rocks, taking care to pick a few unique ones that may contain “crystals”, and then proceeded to go door-to-door on our street offering these fine stones to the neighbors for the bargain price of $0.50 each!

And it worked.

They made just under $10.00 and had they not stopped at home to brag, who knows what their haul would have been. I couldn’t believe it.

I won’t lie, my reaction wasn’t what they’d expected. I was upset. I wasn’t pleased that they would bother the neighbors with what amounted to “begging” in my book. We already get enough “little beggers” ringing our doorbell trying to sell us overpriced candy or raffle tickets for some kind of fund raiser, and the thought of my kids selling worthless rocks really irked me.

So I set in motion the process of re-visiting each neighbor with Tanner in tow and having him return the money and apologize. And that is when I realized I had overreacted a little bit. The neighbors didn’t act annoyed in the slightest. They just wanted to help the kids out, and one of them even said she thought it was good “Entrepreneurial spirit”.

In the end, they understood my position (even if they disagreed) and the money was returned. I felt the kids needed to put in more work to earn the money, and offered to let the kids help with yard work or any other chores they may have. One of them actually accepted and let Tanner pull some weeds from her flower bed (for which he kept the $5 she’d paid him earlier!).

I don’t know. Maybe I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did to the whole thing. Maybe I should have been proud of them.

What I do know is that I have some very kind hearted neighbors living nearby. I also know I’ll think differently the next time another “little begger” shows up at my door.

Trip Report – Day 1: Seattle to Richmond Virginia

brandon — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:39:08 -0700

First, while I had hoped to blog about the trip each night before going to bed, it ended up not being feasible. Besides having very limited access to free internet, the schedule we kept during the trip was crazy. Up and going each morning by 6-6:30AM – back to the hotel by 9-10:00PM. Rinse, repeat, each day.

Day 1 (June 23, 2010) was no different. It started with a 6:00AM flight from Seattle WA to Richmond VA. In order to catch a flight at this insane hour (and allow time to get ~50 people checked in and through security), we had to all meet at Monroe Middle School at 2:30AM for the airport bus. One would think that a good plan would be to get some early sleep the night before, and I would agree with you, but unfortunately last minute packing and such prevented this from happening – at least for me. Milee was sound asleep by 10PM. Come 2:00AM I was a bit wiped, having only dozed for about an hour.

Up and going, we arrived at the school and proceeded to get situated with everyone else on the bus. As we left the school it was immediately obvious the bus driver contracted for this job was unfamiliar with the area. He was relying on a GPS to guide him to the airport, and the route it initially selected to get out of Monroe was quite interesting for a bus to maneuver. Despite the extra travel, we still arrived on schedule and began the process of getting everyone checked-in and through security.

Soon everyone was boarding a Boeing 757 destined for Atlanta Georgia. From Atlanta we had an hour layover and then finished our travel to Richmond. While in Atlanta, Milee and I enjoyed a mondo size cookie.

Overall the flights were very smooth except for the final approach into Atlanta. That was pretty turbulent and Milee loved it. She said it reminded her of one of the rides at Lagoon. The only real negative I had about the flight to Atlanta was our seating location. We sat in the second to last row of the plane, and this happens to be very close to the bathrooms. When we first boarded the plane the smell was horrible. Shortly after take-off it seemed to fade (or we may have gotten used to it). Once we landed however the stench returned, only far worse and it was torture waiting for everyone to exit the plane ahead of us.

Thankfully the flight to Richmond was smell free and smooth. We arrived on schedule at basically 5:00PM local time. While heading to baggage claim I groaned when I saw this sign:

And I groaned even more when we walked out of the air-conditioned airport into what I can only describe as a perpetual sauna. The humidity was murder and you could literally see the moisture in the air. In Seattle I'm used to the constant "drizzle" of moisture we often get - where it isn't raining but you still get wet when you walk around outside. Well this was the exact same thing but HOT. Thank heavens the bus was air-conditioned.

Leaving the airport we headed to the Jamestown/Williamsburg area for dinner. By 6:30PM we arrived at the College of William & Mary for our scheduled dinner, but due to a miscommunication our bus driver initially dropped us off at the wrong building. While trying to sort out our proper destination, everyone decided to take a walk around the campus.

Again I was miserable. Dry heat I can handle. I spent many years in the desert climate of Utah and getting "baked" I can manage. Being "steam broiled" is entirely different. I spent less than an hour outside and I felt soaked. Little did I know that it was going to get far worse the next day.

Dinner turned out to be pretty lack luster. We essentially received an all-you-can-eat buffet from the campus cafeteria. It was ok, but not much better than you expect from a school cafeteria.

Certainly fell way short of a Golden Corral or Hometown Buffet, but the discovery of the soft serve ice cream machine certainly helped redeem it some - the kids drained it in no time flat.

After dinner we again loaded the bus and had one more stop to make before checking into our hotel for the night.

This last stop was a visit to a local "Story Teller" by the name of Sheila Arnold. She portrayed the character of Ol’ Bess, an 18th-century tavern slave owned my a Mr. Southall - the owner of the local Raleigh Tavern. Her performance was incredible. Funny and educational – we all loved it.

I only wish I had recorded even more to share, but this funny video was all I captured. I don’t believe she ever went out of character the entire evening. At one point she sat down and began telling a story about the day her daughter was auctioned off and sold, and her emotion and heartache was so real you believed she had actually experienced it! It was gut wrenching to hear her recount the experience and helplessness she and her husband felt knowing they would likely never see their child again!

It was truly an incredible performance from an extremely talented actress and historian, and great end to a very long first day!

To be continued - Day 2: Old Jamestown & Colonial Williamsburg

We’re back!

brandon — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 10:31:18 -0700

Milee and I made it back from our trip this week. It was a great time and I took nearly 4000 pictures that I need to now wade through. Sorry for not posting details each day, but we had spotty internet and the days were so long and exhausting that it wasn’t possible to stay awake much each night.

I’ll put together some posts of our adventure ASAP.

Off to DC!

brandon — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:39:28 -0700

In a few short hours (3 to be exact) Milee and I will be heading to SeaTac to catch an early morning flight to Washington DC. We’re going with another 50+ 7th grade students and parents as part of a school coordinated trip that’s been planned since the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. Milee spent the entire school year saving money earned from babysitting and other work so that she could help pay for it. I decided to tag along because it sounded like it could be a great experience and I’ve never been further east than New Orleans before.

While we’re both excited, it’s going to be quite a whirlwind trip. Our schedule each day is roughly 7am – 9pm every day, and there is very little downtime. We’re being escorted all over the DC area visiting practically everything possible in only 4 days. Oh, and it’s expected to be very hot and humid – unlike Seattle.

After the DC trip comes to an end, and everyone else is hopping on a plane for home, Milee and I are going to break from the group and head further north to New York City. We’ll stay there for a couple days and do whatever we want before flying back home.

I’m going to do my best to keep a record of our experiences, and I’ll also be taking tons of pictures. When possible I’ll post additional updates.

It should be quite a trip!

(picture courtesy Wikipedia)

My Father’s Day Card

brandon — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 10:24:35 -0700

Far better than anything Hallmark can put out.

Kickin back after lunch…

brandon — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 22:36:37 -0700

We have sooo many photos and videos I need to post and share. Ciera just gets cuter every day!