Gringos!!

I am back from an AMAZING time in the Dominican Republic, and I can't wait to share all of my experiences with all of you. Thank you so much to everyone who helped fund my trip. I won't have a full listing until August, so until I can thank you personally....thank you from the bottom of my heart! <3 I am in an intensive Linguistics class this week (and by intensive I mean every day all day and all night and I can't figure out how to transcribe...yay!) so I really have no time to share my stories and experiences. The move is also interfering with my sharing, but trust me, as soon as I get a chance, I will fill everyone in! God bless!

Dark Hollow Falls

No Mas Saturn

The Saturn is no longer in our ownership. We sold her to a couple who just needs it for a few years, and got more for it than a dealer would have bought it for. With one car, we are set to be an eco-California crazy. Not really. Okay...maybe Angela.

NEWS FLASH!

“Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention. I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you, to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball!”
Maybe we just love Anchorman more than anything in the world Ron, but it is a fantastic movie. There is a scene about a squirrel that can water ski, so in honor of the Channel 4 News Team we experimented to see if poodles can float. Lizzie is an able swimmer at home in the pool. After crossing the Rio Grande, AJ has developed a fear of water, and took some time to get used to swimming. He enjoys riding on the boogie board, particularly before we got him groomed and he needed to cool off. The pictures you see are the result of several pool attempts.We even bought AJ a life jacket in case we are ever out in a boat with him. Lizzie, for all her faults, has braved the frigid waters of Lake Superior and is actually better than AJ at something other than begging. I swear she could be a circus dog. I saw her clear a 2 foot bag to get a bone today.

Angry Bohemian Photographers strike again!

While on a merry hike with the family in Virginia’s historic National Park, we came upon a group of photographers competing for picture time with a picturesque waterfall. While young Colin learned how to slow a hiking trek to a crawl through his frolics in the stream, the photographers were visibly shaken at the sheer volume of visitors at the site, interrupting their images of nature. But what is nature? Sure the waterfall was natural, but was it wild? Man had inhabited the area for centuries, and had mined, farmed, hunted, and cultured orchards in the vicinity. In the 20th Century, THE MAN came down on already economically depressed property owners and claimed their land was too beautiful for them to possess it. But I digress; the photographers became increasingly annoyed to the point of sighing loudly and ceasing from picture taking with other visitors enjoying the serenity of the place. I surmised that one photographer may have lost some expensive equipment in the falls and was simply upset. That may be, but true bohemians would have lit up a doobie and claimed it was all part of the experience. We then traversed a less crowded trail to a tall summit (over 1200 meters) and experienced a rat infested shelter where Dad G spent the night once while hitchhiking throughout VA during the last great gas crisis. There were majestic views of New Market Gap, Luray, and other summits in the park from this vantage point. It is also noteworthy in that Colin led the trek, leading us straight to Bambi’s mother. That will be another life lesson for him.

Geometric Buildings

Growing up in Bad Newz we drove by a golf ball shaped house, and thinking this one was particularly unique imagine my surprise when later in life I discovered that houses come in many shapes and sizes, like people! My parents rented a round house in the Shenandoah for the long Memorial Day weekend, which ended up being among the first ski cottages built in the resort area. The house has likely seen its share of awesome parties due to a unique design. The bottom half of the house was obviously designed for entertaining. Angela noticed recent renovations had taken out an old loft open to the spacious bottom floor where a pool table had been, evidenced by the existing pool stick closet 6 feet up the wall. The center of the house is transported by a large, circular stairway. We had to bar a certain toddler from playing on this, but it would have taught him about round stairs versus normal stairs. His world has already been shaken to the core. Given this house’s location at a ski resort adjacent to JMU and the greater Harrisonburg area, I can foresee this house being a great real estate investment for renters. Angela and I would love to invest in a venture such as this one day, essentially a sure fire investment with minor improvements, given gas stays below 200 euros/barrel. Perhaps we’ll purchase a triangular building, like the hot dog kings on the Peninsula, or a patriotic pentagon, or even better, a red octagonal building that just screams “STOP!”

2 Years!

Two years goes by fast. We have lived at 5 different addresses since we wed, and traveled many miles and seen many things. But we have seen how great our relationship is and how awesome it is to hang out with your best friend everyday!

Government Outing

Last week I headed with my Navy training class up to our nation's capital for an up close look at the alphabet agencies that help keep our country safe. It was a good networking tool for us when we get to the fleet, but was also a welcome change of pace from our cold, windowless classroom. We stayed at Bolling AFB, right on the Potomac. The trip was typical of many in government, poorly executed. We nearly left people in Virginia Beach and did not have enough transportation for everyone... But it worked out. I got to see Screech and Tall James as well. After a particularly long day, a few of us took a stroll around the Mall to see the sights. I had not seen the WWII memorial yet, so that was neat. The Pentagon was my favorite tour. We were led on a 9/11 tour of where the plane hit, which was particularly touching as a Navy work center was among the worst hit. The building is immense with well over 20,000 people working there each day. We left DC around 2pm to hit Hampton Roads just in time for summer rush hour... good idea!

Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton

Miss Bianca and Bernard

Ever since I watched the Rescuers as a little girl, I’ve always wanted to go boating through a swamp. I think that movie also encouraged me to want to adopt a child one day…I mean…who wouldn’t want a little Penny with pig tails? It’s amazing how influential movies are in children’s life…I mean…just watch Happy Feet. Doesn’t it make you want to save the penguins and save the earth? And the Lorax? Who doesn’t love the Lorax?

"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.
And I'm asking you, sir, at the top if my lungs"-
he was very upset as he shouted and puffed-
"What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?"

(Mary…you HAVE to read this book!) Perhaps it’s because I grew up in California to be an environmentally conscious liberal, and their classroom agenda is to encourage us to be tree huggers! And I probably love adopting dogs because of Oliver & Company. Cartoons corrupted me! Anyways…the Rescuers was released in 1977, six years before I was even born, yet it is one of my favorite movies of all time. So last weekend, I finally had the chance to canoe through an awesome swamp! James and I drove down to Merchant Mills Pond in North Carolina (which is a little less than 40 miles from Virginia Beach) and enjoyed a few hours out on the water. The swamp was surreal, like something out of a movie. The peace and quiet was intense, and as you listen to the birds and the bugs, you can easily get lost in the eerie beauty of the moss and green water. The spiders in the canoe didn’t even bother me, and I enjoyed watching them scatter about the water lilies. We saw lots of sunbathing turtles, lots of bugs, majestic birds, some fish, and an adorable little red frog. There were signs for alligators, and I was hoping to see one, but unfortunately we didn’t cross paths. There is something really special about moss hanging off of a dead tree reflecting in a calm pond on a late spring day. We could have spent hours out there on the pond, but work beckoned us back to the suburbs. North America is a blessed continent geographically, and we are excited to leave one coastal plain to see mountains, Great Plains, desert, and a southwestern coastal new home!