Shark!

I used to surf at a place called Sunset Beach when I was in high school.  Its right next to Gladstones on PCH below the Palisades. I saw this picture from the LA Times taken at the same beach and thought it was kind of crazy.  Its the same place I cut my head open surfing after my freshman year at college.  I guess the rocks were the least of my worries.


http://sharkresearchcommittee.com/pacific_coast_shark_news.htm
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-shark8-2009oct08,0,2454627.story

The horror of it all!

Here is the aftermath of a recent road trip from San Francisco to Vancouver.  I thought this was a good compare and contrast to the flying with children pictures.  The good thing about the airplane is that you can walk away feeling only minimally guilty, since you probably had a worse go of it than the cleaners will.  With a car you can’t externalize the grossness.

 

Travelling with kids on very very long flights

Do you ever wonder what its like to fly on a really long international flight with little kids?  Well, it generally starts out fine - an initial fascination with the airplane evacuation brochure, a bunch of questions about whether the plane is going to crash, lots more questions about when the food will come out and about how much Sprite they will give you, then a trip or two to the bathroom.  Then you take off.

After that, they'll watch the loop of kids movies and cartoons on the in flight system.  On a US airline this takes only 3-4 hours.  Most foreign airlines have much better entertainment systems so you can get a lot more time.  Eventually the boredom sets in and the questions about how long until we arrive.  The airline food gets cherry picked for the dessert and crackers.  The vegetables get squished around.  Half the fruit ends up on the floor and it eventually starts mixing with everything else that the floor begins to attract - shoes, socks, books, DVDs, crayons, sippy cups, snacks brought from home.  Then all that stuff starts getting smooshed up and stepped on until it becomes a really gross and sticky mess.  Kids fall asleep in all kinds of weird postures.  When you arrive, most are asleep.  Some are excited to arrive.  Others just want to keep sleeping, upside down covered in smashed grapes and dirty socks.

Its actually not as bad as it seems...

Halloween

A solid showing this Halloween costume-wise.  A witch with very frizzy hair.  A Transformer who didn’t really like wearing his mask, which, when coupled with the inability to turn into a machine, somewhat diminishing the authenticity of the get up.  A race car driver who wanted to be a fireman who wanted to be a race car driver who wanted to be a fireman who ended up as a race car driver.  And a lion who liked the candy but couldn’t really understand the causal relationship between the sweets and the costume.

Oregon coast

We headed to the Oregon coast recently for a long weekend. None of us had ever been there and we ended up with warm sunny early October weather that made for a great weekend, though it was a bit of a drive. We saw a Lewis and Clark IMAX a few months ago in Seattle so the kids were really excited to see the fort where they spent the winter. The recreation they had didn’t make it look like a lot of fun for its inhabitants. The beaches and dunes were great. The kids liked rolling around in the sand and we were probably potentially in violation of some Canadian agricultural rules with the amount of sand we ended up bringing back on the floor of the car.

Meet the mayor

Abby and Ben both read enough books this summer to qualify for the distinguished Super Reader Medal personally presented by the Most Honorable Mayor of Port Moody, British Columbia.  We had admittedly not heard of the Super Reader program before getting our library card soon after moving in, but it was quite an affair and everyone was excited.

Butchart Gardens

On our trip to Vancouver Island we made a stop at Butchart Gardens, a lovely garden created in an old stone quarry.  The grounds and summer flowers were beautiful and the day, like most days in British Columbia in the summer, was clear and mild.  

While I'm no connoisseur of gardens, I probably take a keener interest in these things than most Americans and while I wouldn't say that it’s on the same level as Keukenhof in the Netherlands or Sissinghurst in England, it’s close to that league.  

The kids liked it for a while, but eventually began to focus on where they could get an ice cream cone. 

Vancouver Island trip

We took a trip to Vancouver Island and the city of Victoria a few weeks back. It was a beautiful ferry ride over, a nice day in the pseudo-British town and then good trip to a very lonesome beach on the western side of the island. Once you get a little ways out of the city you realize that there is almost no civilization on this huge island, which is perhaps a bit more eerie feeling after being in China where it seems you are never more than a few feet from other people.

It was our first trip using our new minivan and tent. How about those for clear indicators that we’ve come back to North American reality?

Mount Rainier

We've been down to Seattle a few times this summer. Once we went hiking on Mt. Rainier.

Here's Abby's take on the whole experience -- "When we where hiking the snow didn't melt so we had a snow ball fight!!! After that we had more snowball fights and more hiking. Pretty soon my shoes started to hurt and I took them off. My Dad said my feet would get cut. But I said my feet really hurt. So he said O.k. Soon I tripped and my toe got cut and bled. I was crying beacause it hurt a lot. My dad carried me part way down. When we got to the car it was ok and we drove to the Hotel".

Aside from Abby's shoe travails, things were fine and it was a strikingly beautiful place. Wildflowers, meadows, glaciers. Ethan hiked basically the full 3 miles, which was pretty impressive for a 3 year old. In any case, here are some pics.

Vancouver

We finally made it to Vancouver. So far, so good. Beautiful mountains, lakes to swim in, tap water you can actually drink. What more could you ask for? Here are a few early pics.

More Bali surfing

Here are a few more good pics of the kids surfing in Bali. Good stuff, huh? Ben with the victory stance and Abby with an intense look does a little rail grab.

I got to surf quite a bit which was fantastic for me. I ended up hiring this local surfer guy I met on the beach to take me to some local spots, partly to get access to the spots and partly to have someone make sure I didn’t drown or get my head split open on a reef. One day he took me a reef break which was pretty far offshore. We got a guy with a little boat to drive us around to the back of the reef, since it would have been a very very long paddle out. He dropped us off at the back side of the reef and we threw our boards out and then paddled towards the break from behind. I’d never done this before. The current was intense, pulling sideways quickly across the reef, parallel to the beach, so you had to paddle pretty hard just to say in one place. I ended up getting a few waves before being too tired to paddle back out. I learned that without a beach in front of you, there is no undertow or rip to make it easier to paddle out. Its just you against the waves. Too hard for me in my old age, but a great day none the less. I think having the guy pull up to our hotel

with a scooter and two boards on the side rack was fun enough in itself.

Chocolate dreams

Did you ever wonder what happens if you fall asleep at night eating a 5 pound bag of chocolate chips that you sneaked out of the refrigerator unbeknownst to your parents?

I didn't think so.

We'll here's what it looks like anyway. Courtesy of 3 year old Ethan Woodward.

Bali

We are moving to Canada soon so we're taking our final family Asia trips now. We went to Bali about a month ago. I love Bali because it’s sort of a mix of Hawaii type developed tourism, Hindu culture with a very pronounced boho element of scraggly Australian surfers and random European college-ish kids. The later part pleasantly reminds me of my younger years when I was able to float around South America a bit with a backpack, $15 a day and a high tolerance for very risky looking eating establishments.

The older kids also got to do their first surfing. Private lessons, one hour, board included - $10. This was my kind of place. Both Abby and Ben got up quite a few times. They are so small that they could pop right up, even on a 6 foot board. Anyway, here are some pictures from Kuta Beach.

More Bali pics to come.

Shaolin temple

I went to the Chinese city of Zhengzhou in early December of last year to speak at a conference and figured out after I was booked that it was near the Shaolin Temple – the birthplace of Kung Fu. Zhengzhou is a 3^rd tier Chinese city in the middle/northern part of China with aspirations to be something more. It sits in the middle of the Yellow River valley and has a large agricultural area around it. I thought if had an agricultural feel despite the fact that it had a large urban area and pollution that shows the presence of surrounding industry. I admit that I could hardly wait for my speech to be over so I could get out to the temple. The temple was about 1.5 hours out of town and the ride was nice enough once you got out into a little more of the countryside. At that point some rather large mountains jutted up abruptly from the Yellow River valley that Zhengzhou sits in and they were very pretty. Near the base of one of the mountains was the Shaolin Temple. It was hardly isolated and rather small, but it was pretty and there is a large cemetery outside with tall pillars marking the burial spots.

The funny thing was that there were tons of Kung Fu schools all over the place. There were literally hundreds of kids sparring in school yards on the sides of the roads. Later I read that there were something like 100 Kung Fu schools there. The kids looked to be about 8 to 18 years old. They had sticks, shield, boxing gloves and sparring helmets. Some had these swords that were more decorative than sharp, but still, they were swinging them around like crazy.

The big question that came to mind for me was what do you do after Kung Fu school? Sure, China is a big country, but what are all these wannabe Bruce Lees going to do when they grow up? We can’t all be Ralph Maccio.

Kyoto

I went to Kyoto in late November of last year on a stopover from Singapore to Miami between meetings. I was on a red-eye out of Miami and they originally had me going through Tokyo and then spending a day in Miami. I changed it to go through Osaka. When I got there, I got a bus to Kyoto, which was about 1.5 hours away. The ride was mostly city, until you got a ways out of Osaka. I actually always liked flying through Osaka. The airport is right on the water and you can see the ships and port well and I liked the maritime feel of the place. Anyway, the mini-bus took my right to my hotel, which was actually a small inn. The place was nice. All tatami mats inside so you had to leave your shows at the door. I had no bed, but at thin futon on the floor. I put on a fleece, bought a bus pass and a map and started walking. The day was beautifully cool and clear. I walked through a fairly normal neighborhood until I reached an older neighborhood with smaller streets then I walked up a hill and began going in a series of temples.

This was the Asia you dream about and you see in movies and postcards. Red, yellow and orange maples covering the hills and walkways. Bamboo groves nestled in the foothills. Raked zen gardens next to ponds filled with slow moving koi. The buildings were lovely with the large thick roofs with the rounded eaves. You took your shoes off in many of the shines and temples as you walked along in their open raised platforms above the gardens and ponds. By mid-morning the large Japanese tour groups had arrived, but with them the touristy geishas wandering the small streets. The streets were full of vendors selling different snacks. I tried quite a few, not knowing what almost any were. Most were good. A few a discreetly chucked when I got to a trashcan out of view of the seller. I saw very few non-Asian tourists. I ate at this little ramen bar at night. Gyozo and udon from this giant steaming pot that was almost vat-like in dimensions

The striking thing is how different it is than China. So clean and orderly. None of the pushing, pollution and dirtiness that characterizes so many Chinese tourist locations.

In flight meal

Next time you complain about the lack of a free in-flight meal on a U.S. airline, just look what you're missing. In China they generally still serve some sort of snack. Here's one I had on a recent flight to Guangzhou.

None of it stands out as particularly good, or for that matter edible. The "squids lice" (zoom in on the upper left hand package) tastes about as good as it sounds.

Birthday Carnival

Here are a few pics from today's double birthday party for Abby (8) and Ben (6). We invited all the kids in each of their school and church classes and we ended up with over 50 kids! We hired a local streetside cotton candy guy to come for the afternoon. Since cotton candy is about 10 cents a pop here, this is quite feasible and it was a huge hit. Zachary fell down on the street right before the party. He seems to have fallen directly onto his nose, since he had no scuffs on his hands, knees etc. Everyone had a great time and the weather turned just in time for the party.