Kauai Vacation – Day 3by Angie
14 Jun 2009
12:06 pm0
Church was wonderful in Kauai, at the familiar blue-roofed building that carried fond memories from past vacations. Relief Society was a beautiful lesson about forgiveness and mercy, which led to continued discussions throughout the rest of the day.
Since Saturday was Kim’s birthday (our adopted sister for the week), and Sunday is my Mom’s, Day 3 in Kauai ended with a grand feast. We had bought enough beef tips in gravy, peas, and rolls to feed 10 people, and we put our two microwaves to good use in the hour leading up to dinner. Mom even had her very own chocolate cake and candle (thanks to a single-serving microwavable molten chocolate cake mix). Though the suites didn’t have stovetops, they did have half-sized dishwashers, so we didn’t even have to spend much time washing up – just put load up the dishes… “It’s just that easy!” We finished with a little devotional by Mom, presents
, and some planning for the coming week. At the end of the family festivities, my Mom and I went out on the balcony and studied my next JS Manual lesson together (topic: temples); it was so wonderful to be musing and brainstorming with my Mom like that again. It was even more wonderful for it to be happening as we looked out on Kauai in the fading light, with the sound of the waves on Kalapaki beach accompanying our conversation. I love Hawaii.
Kauai Vacation – Day 2by Angie
13 Jun 2009
12:06 pm0
I love vacationing to the West, because it is so pleasant and easy to get up early! Risi and Josh (who were sharing a suite with us, though we had separate rooms), were up at some ridiculous hour of the morning because Tolton was not going to stay in bed any longer, so they were out walking the beach before the sun was up. By 6am, however, I was awake and dressed and ready to officially start my vacation! I walked down to Kalapaki beach with Risi and met up with Josh and Tolton, who just couldn’t get enough of the water. We just hung out on the beach and watched the cutest little boy ever being thoroughly delighted by the waves crashing on top of him. Whitney wandered down to join us, as did Mom, Dad, and eventually Jim. We decided to head to Poipu beach for our first excursion, so in just over an hour my excited, swim-suited, not-yet-burned family members were gathered at the Mariott Fish Pond. We stayed long enough to watch the goldfish and koi being fed, then headed out to the beach.
We stopped to see the “Spouting Horn,” which was very cool, and the girls browsed the shops nearby. Back on the road, Jim and Josh stopped our caravan to buy some garlic shrimp from a guy selling the stuff freshly cooked in the back of his truck. Then, on to Poipu, where we played in the sand and the water and just had a lovely, relaxed morning. Unfortunately, I had borrowed some spray-on sunscreen, and – apparently – hadn’t quite sprayed enough, because after just a couple of hours, my back was nice and red with little un-burned splotches all over it. That evening, we took a family outing to the grocery store (to plan our microwaved feast for Sunday dinner and to celebrate Mom’s and Kim’s birthday) and K-Mart (for presents for said birthdays, among other things).
Kauai Vacation – Day 1by Angie
12 Jun 2009
8:06 am1
This was a long day, but well worth it! Jim went to work today, as usual, then came home and helped me load our luggage into the car. Our friend, Justin Bradley, drove us to the airport, and we made our flight just fine.
Jim’s seat was by the window, I was in the middle, and in the aisle seat next to me was a wonderful, friendly woman named Leslie, from Palo Alto. She noticed that I was reading The Count of Monte Cristo and we started chatting about it. She told me all about how her son was assigned to read it over the summer for his 8th grade English class. The little trooper read the whole, 1200 page unabridged version, then showed up on the first day of school to find that his classmates had all read a variety of abridged editions, most between 300-500 pages long. His teacher was immensely impressed with his “depth of understanding” and “grasp of characters” on the reports and tests – you’d hope so, considering he read twice as much of the book as all the other kids! Anyway, Leslie and her husband and two boys (now young adults, but not yet married) were flying to Kauai for a 2-week family vacation. When she found out that we’d be there before, she asked about what sights were worth seeing, which beaches were good for snorkeling, and all sorts of other stuff. We had a great time.
Once on the island, my parents picked us up from the airport. It was about 7pm there, but we felt like it was nearly midnight, and hadn’t eaten anything on the flight. Mom & Dad wanted to do some grocery shopping, so Jim and I ate dinner at the Costco food court while we waited for them. I was exhausted by the time we reached the hotel, but I wanted to see my sisters and Jim wanted to take a late-night swim, so it was quite a while before we finally turned in.
NIF Dedication & Toursby Angie
30 May 2009
8:05 am0
With all of the major, necessary hardware finally installed, the National Ignition Facility has been in fine trim for two days. Yesterday, Jim attended a special outdoor dedication ceremony to honor this milestone in their work. There were enough dignitaries there to warrant half a dozen snipers watching over the event.
Today, the entire campus was open for friends and family tours. Jim was up and out the door by 9am to take some friends from our ward and stake around the NIF facility, along with Becka, who is here visiting for the weekend especially for this. When they were done, he came home to meet up with me, Jon, and Brittany and grab some lunch before heading back again. Becka was there too, to see everything a second time (this was not only for her entertainment and curiosity, but also research for a future book!). At the gates, we met the other members of our group – Kelly, Brennan, and Amber Mills.
The line was an hour long, just to enter the building! I’ve been there before, but this time we saw much more – not only the laser bays and the control room, but also lots of other stuff like the capacitor bays, with one opened up. Best of all, we got to look down into the target chamber! It was a lot of standing and walking, but it was fascinating, and I loved it.
Hydrogen on Wheelsby Jim
28 May 2009
5:05 pm1
Today I got to drive a hydrogen fuel-cell powered car. Justin and I went to downtown Livermore to the event and got to test-drive a hydrogen Nissan. We only got to drive it half-way around the block, but it was still really cool. All of the hydrogen cars are actually hybrids; they are part fuel-cell, part electric. When the engine needs a little more oomph, there is a lithium ion battery that kicks in. Also, you get regenerative braking that charges the battery. Very cool.
For the geeks out there, it was a PEM hydrogen fuel cell. (That’s Proton Exchange Membrane, just in case you didn’t know that.) Check out the Wikipedia article for more cool stuff.
UPick Tripby Angie
27 May 2009
12:05 pm1
We spent a wonderful Memorial Day with the Bradleys, visiting several orchards up in Brentwood where you can pick your own produce (with free tasting as you work!), then pay by the pound as you leave. It was wonderful! It was especially fun to have little Emily and Maddie with us, because they were so excited to help! They didn’t love the in-and-out-and-in the car game, but they were troopers anyway. We picked cherries, nectarines, peaches, apricots, and strawberries. It’s pretty early in the season, so not everything was fully ripe, but we found plenty of good fruit to bring home. Jim used up the so-ripe-that-it-won’t-last-another-day fruit in a delicious batch of apricot-strawberry jam.
This is definitely something we want to do again. There were some things we did right – bringing water bottles, wearing good shoes, bringing a map of the different orchards and which fruits they have – but we still learned a lot for next time: for instance, reserve space in the car (preferably in a box or cooler) for the fruit – if you just leave it in the bags, it will be stepped on and squashed!