Our Annual Traffic Jam at the Sand Dunes

Each year about this time, the Heaton Family from up in Alton drive their cattle south to the Arizona Strip to their winter grazing area. It is quite the deal--a genuine "ride-the-horses-and-camp-every-night" cattle drive! They pass right by our driveway--it's quite a sight to see.

Their entire family usually comes along--even down to the youngest grandchild. It's cute to see the little kids riding along with the adults, herding the cattle like pros. I've heard that they sometimes take greenhorns along who want to experience the cowboy lifestyle for a week.

This little girl (on the back of the saddle) had her own horse, but must have started to fall asleep in the saddle and hitched a ride with her mom so she could nap without falling off the horse! After I took this picture, I watched her start to tip over sideways--she was probably tuckered out!

Naturally, the cattle are kind enough to leave behind their 'calling cards' that we get to dodge when we drive down to Hancock Road. Happy trails!

Orchard pics

I posted on my blog some pictures of when the kids and I picked apples a couple of weeks ago. A friend of mine just sent me a couple that she took of us after my battery died, then I took a few more pictures when our whole family went again this past Saturday. Just thought I'd share.

Cruisin': Episode 2 "Ensenada"

So, after our awesome time in Catalina, we left for Ensenada, Mexico.  I was super excited because I had never left the country before.  Even though Ensenada is only like 3 hours away from LA, I was still excited for our new adventure.  We ported in Ensendada and a shuttle took us to a little pavilion in town where we could either walk around town or hop on a bus to see the sights.  The four of us decided to take a tour of the local attraction, La Bufadora (the Blowhole).  It's basically a hole in the rocks where the tide/waves come shooting out the top.  Apparently, there's only 3 in the whole world: Hawaii, Australia, and Ensenada.

Chino was our tour guide to La Bufadora

This lady (yes it's a lady) and her drunk friends were, 

unfortunately, on our tour too.  While we were learning about 

Ensenada's history and what not, they were more concerned where 

the best margaritas were.

Our ghetto tour bus.  Even though we were there to have a
good time, I was still looking out the side of my eyes to make
sure we weren't going to end up on a plantation or prison camp
of some kind.

This guy was awesome.  I tried putting a video
 of him singing on here but it didn't work.

La Bufadora

For some reason, it wasn't as big as we all thought.
Maybe the tide was just low or something.

This was the gauntlet...di mean....market, we had to walk
through in order to get to La Bufadora.

It wasn't all bad though.  We got free churros.

Recognize anybody?

I thought this sign was hilarious.

This is where we got our authentic tacos.

MMMMM...I'm drooling just looking at them.

This is our buddy Fernando Navarro.  He does spray paint paintings.

This was the picture he did for Kris and I.
The cool part is that he did it all in around 15 minutes.

After Fernando, we took to the streets of Ensenada.

I guess these were some dignitaries of the state.

They're a lot cooler than they first look.

Every five feet these ladies would send
there kids after us to try and sell us gum.

Ensenada at night.

Adios Ensenada

Food for the Seoul

Anyong! First off, sorry for the terrible pun in the title. Actually, that's not true; I'm not sorry. As you probably know I'm now one week into a 3 week stint in Korea for work. It has been a good experience so far. I came into the airport near Seoul last Friday afternoon. It was a 14 hour flight from Chicago but I was able to travel in business class, so it wasn't too terrible. If you ever get the chance to let someone else to pay for a business class ticket for you, I highly recommend it.
This was the view from my hotel room.
The next morning. See that tiny little tower on the horizon just right of center? We'll get to that later.

On Saturday morning my friend and colleague Gib, who had been here for two weeks before me, came into Seoul to head home the next day. Gib is transferring to our plant near Austin, Texas and will be gone before I get back so this was going to be the last time I saw him for a while. We had fun exploring the city.
This was at dinner with Gib. They give you these sweet apronbibs to keep the spatter from the food off your clothes.

On Sunday morning Gib had to go to the airport to head home and I had to go to Icheon, about an hour southeast of Seoul.
This is the view from my hotel in Icheon (where I am right now, actually). That lake down there has a nice little path around it that I like to run on in the mornings.
Here is a can of Mountain Dew. What's funny is that those symbols literally say "mountain dew", not the korean words for mountain dew. I spent some time learning the alphabet so that I wouldn't be completely lost. They spell out the syllables mah-oon-teen-doo.

Nothing really happens during the week, just work mostly. So I'll skip that part.

Saturday I decided to head back to Seoul and explore a little more. The have a really nice public transit system here including lots and lots of buses that run all over the country. I can hop on a fairly nice bus in Icheon that leaves every 30 minutes and be in Seoul in an hour for about $4.
This is the Changgyeonggung palace. It was the first place I visited and was quite the site to come out of the metro to see.

The next place I visited was the Olympic Park, built for the 1988 Olympics. Some of you might be old enough to remember that. I didn't really get many interesting pictures there, but it was a pretty cool place. It's a huge park with lots of grassy fields and trails as well as the event venues from the Olympics.

My next goal was to visit the N Seoul Tower, on Namsan Mountain in the middle of the city (remember that tower I mentioned earlier?) There is a cable car that runs up there, but I decided to go the hard way and take the stairs. It's a long way up there, but it was actually really nice.


Once I got to the top of the mountain, I bought a ticket and took the elevator to the observation deck of the tower. It was one of the most amazing views I've ever taken in. I just wish the air had been a little clearer. It's amazing how big this city is.




On the way back down the mountain after the sun was setting, the city really started to light up. These were some of my favorite pictures.


After coming down from the mountain I wanted to go see Myeongdong, a famous shopping area. To be honest it wasn't really my thing. It was insanely crowded and I don't really like shopping anyway. I grabbed a bite to eat (at Outback) and headed back to the bus station. I was sure to check their website to find out what time the last bus back to Icheon left and it said 10PM. So I figured that leaving for the bus by 7:45 should give me plenty of time. I got to the bus station by 8:20 and found a big sign that I hadn't seen when I first arrived that listed the departure cities. I was a little shocked and surprised when that sign said the last bus was at 8:40. So what I thought was plenty of time ended up being the skin of my teeth. Thankfully I didn't have to spend an unplanned night in Seoul or fork out for an $80 cab ride.

Well, that's too much typing for one sitting. I'll try to update a little more later if I do anything interesting. For now it's time to go get some food.

Big changes

Life changing events are afoot in our house these days. As you probably know, the plant where I work is closing and I'll be laid off in a few weeks. Before that happens, they are sending me to Korea for 3 weeks to provide some technical support for a machine that has been transferred over there. Last week I got a job offer for a job that would be acceptable, but not ideal. That same day, I got a call about an interview for another job so we drove up to Roanoke, VA and had a great interview on Monday. Today I got a call that they want me to come back again to talk to some more people there. It sounds like it's my job to lose, but that still isn't a solid offer. Unfortunately the solid job offer that I do have wants an answer asap. Oh, and I leave for Korea in 11 hours. So now I have to decide if I want to turn down the job that I have but don't really want in the hopes that I can land the job that I really want, but don't have yet.

and my car has a flat tire.