Back to Bama

Less than three months after returning from Alabama, at work this morning I learned that I will be going back. NEXT WEEK! So, after being gone the middle two weeks in June, and having only been back a week, this time next week I will be... on the road again. It was all rather sudden. Literally one minute I wasn't going and the next I was. And I have just a few days to get my travel arrangements in order.

Long Ride Home

It seemed like a simple enough idea. Instead of driving the rental car home, catch a flight. Instead of catching a flight from Tucson to OKC with a 3-hour layover somewhere, just drive the two hours to Phoenix and catch a direct flight. Save an hour. Right?

Apparently not.

I drove the two hours to Phoenix. Grabbed some lunch. Topped off my gas. Turned in my rental car. Caught the shuttle to the terminal. Checked my bag. Got processed through airport security. And sat down to relax for another hour and a half until boarding. All was well.

For about four minutes.

Then the text-message arrived. From Southwest. "Flight delayed". For how long you say? And hour? Two maybe? Nope. Try three. At first. A second text was received another hour later tacking another hour onto the delay. This meant a two-in-the-morning arrival into OKC. There went that hour saved.

The wait was excruciating. I checked into a number of alternative flights, but none were viable. All I could do was sit there with all those angry people.

When I finally arrived in OKC, yet another component of my plan unraveled. To save money on parking, I hadn't driven and left my car at the airport as usual. I was dropped off. The plan was to catch an airport shuttle home. Only trouble was that those stop running around midnight.

Fortunately, a friend was awake and able to give me a lift home. Obviously I owe him. But my three-in-the-morning arrival home was both comforting (to be home) and terrifying (knowing I had to be at work in a few hours). Probably a little more terrifying considering the journey in full.

When I got into the office this morning, it had already been a very long day. After a full day of work, catching up on two weeks of emails, I'm going to need this weekend to recharge from a much longer than expected return. If you consider that from the time I left Tucson, until the time I got home, approximately 13 hours had passed. And then further consider that it's an approximately sixteen hour drive from Tucson to OKC. Even though I flew home at hundreds of miles per hour, I feel as though I drove home, non-stop, and unrested.

Out With a Bang

On our last full-day in Tucson, we slept in a little, before heading south for a little cold war style fun, where we visited the Titan Missile Museum. If you're a nostalgic GenX type like myself, I highly recommend you try to make it down there some day (about 40 miles north of the Mexican border).

It's difficult to beat the feeling of being in the thick of the cold war than being in the only preserved remains of an actual former nuclear missile silo and command center in the world. The girls also thought it was neat, and it was an opportunity for me to explain what it was like growing up during the cold war, of course.

I'm pretty sure there's nothing like learning about nine megaton warheads capable of vaporizing your 600+ square mile home town to brighten your day. Unlike other museums we've visited over the years, with the various videos, tour guide lectures, and photographs, I think the reality of this one sunk in for the girls without too much trouble. Getting to walk down into that bunker, touch the five foot thick steel walls, close the 6,000 pound blast doors, sit in the command chair, hear those actual launch procedure bells and whistles, and see that 130-foot missile helps too. Oh, and we didn't even do the four-hour top-to-bottom tour.




After the few hour adventure back in time, we were back at the hotel to get the majority of our packing done, as we have to hit the airport in the morning, but also had a family dinner to attend this evening, where we knew we be out late.

The family dinner was excellent as expected, particularly with the just-in-time-for-dinner arrival of my dad from OKC for his vacation (we didn't synchronize quite as well as we would have liked). And we got to see cousins we hadn't seen all trip, such as Samantha, one of the few of my newer cousins I'd gotten to meet when she was just a few months old. She's gotten rather big since then though. Here's a then and now comparison!



All and all it's been an excellent trip. While it will be good to be home, it will be an adjustment to be back at work this time thirty-two or so hours from now.

Water Parks and Arcades

This morning we met the cousins for breakfast before proceeding to the area water park, Breakers. Hadn't been there myself since I was there with my cousins as a kid. It's small compared to others the girls have been to, but they had a blast regardless. We got there nice and early, not long after opening, and so had a nice shady spot for our stuff.



I probably shouldn't be TOO surprised, but the girls ended up rather sunburned as they did not reapply sunblock while we were at the park.

We left the park and caught a late lunch, followed by showers and naps to recharge. Then we met back up with a cousin to see the movie, The A-Team. As expected it was a nice, fun ride. The girls didn't really want to see it as it is not their typical kind of movie, but they ended up liking it rather well for the humor.

On the way back to the hotel from the movie we passed "Golf N Stuff", noticed they were still open another thirty minutes, and decided to drop in for some arcade fun. In addition, I got to perform my parental duty in telling my kids all the stories about my dad taking me and the cousins there every summer when we were kids.

Old Caverns and Old Friends

Having been to Carlsbad Caverns a few years ago, I thought for sure we couldn't be impressed by another set of caverns. But I'm pleased to say we were wrong. While not as extensive as Carlsbad, Kartchner Caverns in Benson, AZ is quite impressive in its own right. Particularly impressive is the extent at which they are preserving the natural quality of the site from the beginning (the site has only been opened to the public for a decade), which differs greatly with Carlsbad, a site that has been exposed to human contact for many years (and it shows in some spots).

Unfortunately, part of that preservation involves taking as little into the cavern as possible, to prevent contamination, meaning the only picture we have of the experience is from the outside.



After our excellent guided cavern tour, we spent the evening with long-time, very close family friends, which is always a great time. Wait, who am I kidding, they are family, too. Or the next best thing in the very least.

Hanging With the Cuz(es)

This weekend was spent catching up with the cousins (and their parents, of course). Saturday morning the girls and I went for a quick mountain trail hike (our hotel is very near the Catalinas) to give the family some time to sleep in on the weekend morning. Afterward we met cousins for lunch, followed by a movie (Karate Kid -- one of the better 80s remakes I must say, recommended), and a cookout at my aunt's.

Today we attended mass at grandma's parish, followed by a short stop at her grave site. We miss her very much. I can't believe it has been four years almost exactly since she passed. The girls got some swimming in before a lunch with even more cousins. Tonight we had a Father's Day dinner with nearly the whole local family. Always a good, if not interesting, time.

By the time dinner wrapped up, and everybody headed home, the girls and I weren't quite ready to turn in yet, so we caught an evening showing of Toy Story 3. All I can say is excellent. It was a nice follow-up to the first two, and a good way to end the story.

I rewarded the girls with a stop at Dairy Queen on the way back to the hotel because they didn't gripe even once when we discovered I had mistakenly parked on the wrong side of the mall. When our movie let out, the mall doors had been locked for maybe ten minutes, which meant we had to walk all the way around the mall to get to our car. The girls were surprisingly cooperative. Thus the reward.

Few Days of Phoenix

After our jam packed but fun weekend in the San Francisco Bay area, we took a fourteen hour drive to Phoenix to visit some friends, stopping momentarily along the way in Barstow, CA so that I could reminisce about my 1st through 3rd grade barely-remembered years.

Aside from checking out the awesome view of "the valley" from South Mountain and visiting the SeaLife Aquarium, this leg of our trip was almost entirely about spending time with people we don't get to see much. It was rather great. We miss it already.



Though he's a little guy (not quite eighteen months old), Mitch here was one of our biggest reasons for staying in the PHX area for a bit. The son of a close friend, he is such a cool little dude. SO glad we stopped to see him. Probably the next time we get to see him he will be breaking hearts in preschool.



One of many pictures that will eventually be in the trip album, I post it now because I find it interesting. It is Shelby at the aquarium reaching for a sting ray. It was taken on a diagonal and so had to be rotated, but the lighting from the tank I thought was neat.



This morning, we have awakened in Tucson, my childhood home until I was four, and the home of much of our family. We stayed as long as we could in PHX last night before hitting the road for Tucson. This part of the trip is also mostly about visiting, but we will get some interesting activities in as well.

No Longer a Mystery

The girls and I visited the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose today, due to a long time desire by Shelby to see it. We took the extended "behind the scenes" tour and so are now privy to all its secrets. Very neat stuff!

Hugging Trees

For this short trip to the bay area we had two goals. Hit the beach, and see the redwoods. Well, mission accomplished! Today we visited Muir Woods National Monument, the nearest fedwood forest to bay area. And, while crazy packed, it was awesome. There's a main, paved trail that is even handicap accessible, but there are a number of side trails that are quite excellent. In our hiking today we covered at least five miles through various trails, and we are pooped!

A few recommendations if you ever decide to visit. Take the shuttle. Parking is atrociously inadequate. Whatever reason you think you need your car for, you're wrong, and you'll regret not taking the shuttle (we did). Spend very little time on the paved trail. The tourists hit the paved trailed heavy, and it detracts from the experience. We LOVED the Ocean View trail. The incline was steep at times, but it was a beautiful, well shaded (thus comfortable), and there are plenty of amazing sights. Even though the redwoods at Muir Woods are not as old or as big as at other places in Northern California (so I've heard), you'll spend a half day trying to get to those places instead of an hour or so, and the redwoods at Muir are still very old (a thousand years in some cases) and very amazing to see. We have no regrets about our choice. In fact, we'd love to go back and hike the beach trail all the way to the main park.


We stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to Muir Woods.



Here's the family in front of some redwoods.



Darby's self-proclaimed goal today was to "hug a tree". Well, mission accomplished.



The family at the top of the Ocean View trail. If you look carefully, off in the distance you can see the ocean between the tops of the mountains and the sky.

Back to the beach

It had been five years since we were last here in the bay area, which was also the last time we'd visited the beach. The kids were elated to be back.



We spent several hours at the beach and on the pier at Santa Cruz. When we got back and got cleaned up, we walked to and through downtown Sunnyvale. It's a nice place!


I've started the album of vacation pictures for this year. Check back for updates.

Keyboards and Airports

Friday was Darby's last day of Kamp Keyboard, and there was a parent presentation. As the camp was at a retreat about thirty minutes outside of town I had to leave work after lunch to make it. It's a neat little place which Darby has raved about all week.



The kids learned how to play the hand bells at camp this week. Pretty neat!

In addition to having piano master classes and lessons, the kids learned how to play the clavinova, which Darby says was a unique but interesting experience. So much so that we signed her up for a clavinova festival later in the summer before we left the camp.

After the camp presentation we had to hit the road immediately. I had the kids pack last weekend since Darby had camp all week, and it was good thing! When we got home we had about ten minutes to spare before our ride got there. And just like that, it was vacation time. As you can tell by the below pic, the girls get pretty comfortable on the plane.



Here's a pic of them watching PowerPuff Girls and eating frozen yogurt at the airport in Phoenix while waiting for our connecting flight. You'd think they were seven again.



We landed here on the west coast about ten local time, midnight home time, but it took us an hour to get our rental car and find our lodging, which made for a late night. We had a good solid sleep, though (in fact, the girls are still sleeping). Not sure how much blogging I'll get to do this week, but we'll see. Today, I think we're heading to the beach. I predict a sunburn in our future!

Similar performance, dissimilar results

Coming off the nice win yesterday, the girls hoped to snag a back-to-back win. But the other team wasn't particularly helpful in that regard, though we helped them out quite a bit with the early defensive miscues and late offensive mistakes. We lost 7-0.

Darby had another productive night, going 1 for 2 with a strikeout and a single. That single advanced a runner, giving us two runners on base with two outs and a chance to get on the board at least. Unfortunately the runner on second left the bag early and was called out. It just wasn't our night. Below is a video of Darby's single.

Defensively, coach had Darby at second base tonight because we were short-handed, playing with only two outfielders (which bit us badly when the opposition exploited that wide gap). She hadn't played second at all this year, or in quite awhile for that matter, but she did well with three solid stops (though only one was converted to an out), one of which was a sliding catch. Darby has the most experience at shortstop, second most at first, and probably equal experience at catcher and third. So second base, followed by pitcher, are her least proficient positions, which she was very self-conscious about the whole game. Below are a picture and a video of one of her stops.

Third time is a... triple!

Darby had a REALLY good night at softball tonight. Defensively, coach had her at third base again, which may be where she plays the rest of the season. She's played a lot of third base before, but the last few years have been largely at shortstop or first. She's getting back into the hang of it.



She had at least four assists at third tonight, no mistakes. Here's one of them, though not the best video ever, and also not her best play, but the one I happened to catch on video.

Offensively, she struck out her first at-bat, and grounded-out her second at-bat, but it was a really good at-bat as she had several solid near-hits that were just foul before the fair grounder. During her third at-bat, she appropriately hit... a triple! Fortunately I was recording at the time! If you watch carefully, just before she slides into third, she actually gets hit by the ball being thrown in. I'm a little disappointed that I stopped the video when I did, but it's a great little clip otherwise. But 1 for 3 is a good night at the plate.

This one is just for fun. During her second at-bat she swung at a low ball and you can tell by her reaction that she knew it.

Another fun video. She hit a foul ball that was right back at me. Too bad I stopped recording before she taunted me about it.

The team did well overall, winning the game 6-1.

And let's not forget about Shelby, who sat patiently and was very well behaved watching the game in the heat with daddy.

Piano Camping

Today, Darby started the piano camp she had previously auditioned for, which she'll be in the duration of the week. Seems like she's having a great time. I've asked her to take some pictures so I might have some things to post. We'll see how that goes.

She was also supposed to audition for piano guild today, but she lost track of time and missed the audition! Argh! You see, she had a regularly scheduled piano lesson tonight as well, and didn't discern with her mother that there were TWO piano activities this evening, so mom didn't know to remind her about the audition. Oh, well...

Arizona before Arizona

As has become tradition for us the last four or five years, the Saturday that the Women's College World Series is in town, we have a full day of softball fun. That held true this year as well, only we also got to see Arizona play this year, whereas in past years we always seemed to miss them. The interesting thing about that in this case, is that next week we'll BE in Arizona. And we'll probably visit the U of A campus, too.

Anyway, in the morning Darby participated in the free NCAA Youth Clinic, where she usually learns something every year and makes new friends.

After the clinic we grabbed some lunch and a quick nap before heading to softball practice. It was 95+ degrees out, but practice went for two hours regardless. During warm-ups the ladies decided it was better to do their crunches in the shade where it was more comfortable. Even though that shade was IN THE STREET. We tried to finish up early, but we took a LOT of water breaks (appropriately so), which slowed things down some.



Darby had to catch while the regular catcher was hitting. She found herself in the dirt a lot...



...so when she watered herself down to keep cool, that made for a bit of a mess.



Darby also started learning how to slap bunt. It didn't really go that well, but made contact finally!

After that brutal practice, we got some dinner AND dessert before heading to the WCWS. We got there just in time to see Florida get sent home after their second loss. And, of course, we got to watch Arizona stomp Hawaii 5-1. It was a fun game to watch.

Identifying the Bodies

Today the girls got Oklahoma state ID cards for our upcoming trip. They will be making their first ever flight sans parents at one point, and so they needed some photo ID for the airport. The acquisition of said IDs was a bit of a fiasco that took essentially three days to resolve. I'll be updating this entry later to expound, but for now, here's a look at what we had to face at 7 a.m. this morning at the DMV.



And, ninety-seven minutes later (and then some), they are now state credentialed (actual credentials have been pixelated).