Travels Part Two: Where's the Lorax?

Ryan and I spent most of the day Saturday at Joshua Tree National Park. I had never actually seen a Joshua tree before, and I must say they look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. It was one of the oddest and coolest sights I've seen--a forest of these crazy trees in the middle of the desert.

We did a fair amount of hiking and rock climbing during the day. In the evening we joined our neighbors at their campfire (we forgot to bring wood, and you aren't allowed to gather it in the park). We played a few rounds of assassins, which was great fun. I ended up being an assassin several times in a row, and I won each time. This led our neighbor Chris to declare that I was a "shady character." They didn't trust me for the rest of the game...

Here are a few pictures:


A forest of Joshua Trees.


Me with the Joshua Trees.


Our campsite from the top of a nearby mountain.


Ryan is stuck between another rock and a hard place...Oh Ryan, will you ever learn?


The stunning view from a nearby rock. This picture can't do it justice.


Here I am climbing to the top. You can see how high up we were.


Ryan standing at the highest point of the same mountain.


I catch my breath and enjoy the view.


A Joshua Tree sunset.

The other great thing about being in the middle of the desert is that we could actually see the stars--and the Milky Way even. I haven't seen them that clearly since being in Michigan.

Come back soon for part three: Driving lessons in Mexico...

-chc

Travels with Ryan

Ryan, my old roommate from ND, came into town for a visit this weekend. It was an awesome time, and we packed quite a lot into these few days.

What was the first thing we did for the weekend? Just look at this expression and you could probably guess.


We're going to Disneyland! Look at how happy Ryan is!

We got there Friday evening and were surprised that it wasn't overly crowded. The lines were getting pretty short by the end of the night, so we managed to go on most of the rides we wanted to.


50 years of Disneyland. It's hard to believe.


Here we are in front of the castle. It looks really good at night, and the fireworks were great.

I guess I can never get too much of "the happiest place on earth."

Where did they go next? Why did they go into the "hall of horrors"? Did Ryan really push a car out of Mexico? Tune in next time...

-chc

I've fallen prey to one of the classic blunders...

The first, of course, is "never get involved in a land war in Asia," but only slightly less well known is this:

Never say that you "enjoyed" a movie (especially one in the Star Wars Trilogy) without first giving notes on all the ways it should have been better.

It turns out that a fair number of people (mostly everyone I know) didn't like Star Wars III. I think I heard several people cursing Lucas under their breath today. Okay, it wasn't under their breath at all...

I'm going to stand by my original assessment. I thought it was a decent movie, and a fitting way to tie the story into the original Star Wars. Did I look at my watch once or twice when I was in the theater? Yes. Did I think some things should have been done differently? You bet. But I still think there is a lot of power in this story, even if it wasn't executed exactly as I would have liked.

At this point Lucas couldn't please everyone, or even most of the people. All he could do is finish his story as best as he knew how. And I think it was a noble effort. If we could look at it objectively, I still maintain that Episode III is at least on par with Return of the Jedi. There is less humor in this one, but it's a darker story after all.

All I'm saying is this: Give poor George a break. He had a great story to tell and he did his best to stay true to it. He went astray sometimes, there's no denying that, but at least he finished his epic. He remained dedicated to his story and told it as best as he could. In the process he affected millions of lives. How many of us can say the same?

-chc

Goodbye, Sprint

You've overcharged me for the last time, Sprint. In my experience, your plans are neither fair, nor flexible. And last time I was in Chicago my phone went on roaming--yes, in the middle of a major metropolitan area. So much for "No roaming, no long distance."

I think I'm moving to Verizon. I'll get our company discount from them, and I've heard that their coverage is actually better out here. If you have "in" minutes let me know...we'll chat.

Everything else is going well. It's shaping up to be a busy week, so I'm looking forward to the weekend. Ryan will be in town visiting--I'll post some pictures when I get a chance.

chc

Thank You George, Thank You.

There's not much to say except this: go see Episode III if you haven't yet. This one is worth it.

It was fun going opening night, but I was exhausted today. Enjoy the one picture I managed to take!


Joe was taken hostage by a real Stormtrooper!

Now it's time for me to catch up on sleep...

-chc

A Pin and a Jacket

Well, today I got my one year pin. It's hard to believe I've been working on this project that long already. Apparently now I need to go and try on jackets so I can find one that fits. I'm not quite sure what kind of jackets they give out, but I'm guessing it's one of those nylon windbreaker types with our logo on it. Still a fairly nice gift I'd say.

I don't know why, but I'm going to a Midnight showing of Episode III tomorrow. I guess there's a part of me that still hopes this one won't be as bad as the last two. I watched Attack of the Clones again the other day and,...well...ouch. Why, George, why?

-chc

A Mother's Day Surprise

Last weekend I flew back to Traverse City for a great surprise visit. Nora picked me up from the airport so that we could keep Mom and Dad in the dark about everything. Needless to say it was quite a shock for them to see me walking up driveway!

We still managed to do a lot even though it was a quick weekend. Of course, we completed the required visits to the Dairy Lodge and Lake Michigan. I also had a chance to wander around Downtown for an afternoon before jumping back on the plane. Good ol' TC!

Here are some pictures from our afternoon at the beach!


Nora and Mom walk along Lake Michigan


Nora stops for a picture


Mom points to where the cross was...


Mom relaxes on a "critical dune." Don't disturb the sand!


Look! Randomly aiming the camera at yourself does sometimes work!


"Take a picture of me, Dad."


What a nice picture...too bad Leah and Steve couldn't make it!

That's all for now. Maybe I'll try to post the rock skipping video tomorrow...

-chc

That's $3,500 in Dimes. Do do the math...

I'm back after a few day's of catching up on sleep. Actually, I still haven't caught up, but I'm getting there.

The cause of my exhaustion was this St. Finbar's Fiesta last weekend. "Jump and Jive in '05." Catchy, huh?

So I somehow volunteered to run the glass pitch booth this year with our young adult group. Of course, we didn't we know that this is one of the busiest booths at the Fiesta until we got there. It was lots of fun for the most part, but it really tired me out. Imagine handing out $3, 500 in dimes over the course of the weekend (one dollar at a time). That's pretty much what I did. It brought in a lot of money for the church though, and everyone had a great time.

Thanks to everyone who helped out at the booth and at the fiesta as a whole. I think it was a great success. Hopefully I can find some pictures to post later.

-CHC