MY TURN!!!

OK! Not that we don't love to hear what's going on with Dad and Sara, I must interject here and let everyone know that they aren't the only ones doing some summer traveling and adventures!
And I regret to inform everyone that I don't currently have the camera or pictures from the upcoming adventures I'm about to share with you......but rest assured, they will come in a few days.
Let's start with last Friday, July 2nd: We woke up and saw Eclipse at 11am. It was great! Not many people. The movie was only so-so according to my taste, but it had quite a bit of action which made it fun. After the movie we went home and got dressed and ready for our first night of fireworks. Ashlyn's friend Sarah lives with her family here in Hamden which is only a couple miles from our house. So she invited us to come out with a bunch of the YSA's from the single's branch here in New Haven AKA the Yale Branch. So after fighting traffic we found them and had a great time listening to the Air Force brass band and being entertained waiting for dark. The fireworks were great, much better than Idaho. Plus, it was a great community atmosphere.
Next day: Saturday, July 3rd. We go DEEP SEA FISHING! We wake up pretty early and drive an hour to the dock in Noanck, CT. The boat's name was First Light. We went with my co-worker Johnny, his wife, my new employer, his wife, and another guy they all knew. It was a gorgeously sunny day, but not toooo hot. It was more or less my training day and i had to learn how to set up all the tackle and gear and fishing poles and lines. Then as we went out to sea I learned how to properly cut up Squid for bait, and then it was time to fish! We caught Porgy, Fluke, and some other fun stuff. Ash caught a bunch, and I caught a bunch. We had a LOT of fish, probably about 20 or so. On the way back into the dock I got to learn how to Fillet, which is NOT as easy as some people make it look. Anyway, we were going to stay and have Jimmy (one of the guys that was with us) cook up some fish in a way that Ashlyn would agree to trying, but we were on a time schedule. We had to get home and change to meet up with Ash's mom's friend Annie. We went to her house for dinner and then went to the West Haven Beach for some fireworks. That was quite an experience. People were shooting off their own fireworks up and down the beach and all through the neighborhoods. and when I say fireworks, I mean FULL AERIAL FIREWORKS! It was actually kinda scary. The best part of the night was when I saw a guy dig a hole in the sand and bury his kids dirty diaper in the sand....GROSS!! Anyway, this day ended and were pooped... heehee no pun intended.

(Horns blare) JULY 4th!
After church we head to the train station and catch a train down to New York City!! Woohoo!! NOw that i look back, i should've insisted we go over by the statue of liberty to see that once in a lifetime spectacle... however we were both tired and it was getting really hot, so we just took the subway to Ashlyn's Sister's house in Brooklyn. Ashlyn is spending the week down there until friday, while I work and stuff. However, on monday I had a day off so I spent the night sunday night and we went and did some small sight-seeing on Monday in New York. There's a huge apple store right near Central Park, and we used the wi-fi there to download a Subway App on my iPod-Touch so that we would know where we were going :) Eventually we had to just walk 15 blocks to get to Grand Central Station so that I could get on my Train to come back up to New Haven.

So that brings us to today, where it's over a 100 degrees outside and I'm looking for any excuse to stay out of the house. One excuse was taking some DVD's back to the Library downtown, 2.5 miles away. I thought it would be a good idea to be healthy and ride my bike in, and i WAS SO WRONG! IT WAS STILL WAY TOOOOO HOT! What i wouldn't give for an Air Conditioner right now... haha

Anyway, hope all is well elsewhere in the world, i look forward to hearing more about the travels everywhere.
Love you all!

p.s. i'll post some pictures soon hopefully!

Sara and Dad to Kenai

This is Dad. Thought I'd get a word in before Sara writes a more colorful post. We just got back from three days of travelling through some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Friday, we drove for 6 1/2 hours to Anchorage. Saturday we caught the 6:45 am train to Seward on the Kenai Peninsula. That's a 4 hour train ride south of Anchorage. We then took a four hour boat ride around Resurrection Bay looking at the Fjords and marine wildlife. We then caught the 6:00 pm train back to Anchorage. Today we got up, caught churchand then headed back to Fairbanks, arriving here at 9pm.

Here are some things we took pictures of and would like to post, however, after taking about 300 pictures I somehow managed to "format" the SD card (I was trying to answer a request by a nosy guy asking me what resolution pictures I was taking and must have pushed a few buttons in the dark while going through a tunnel because the next time I looked down, we had enough memory for 387 pictures and only had 13 pictures on the disk.) If any of you know how to salvage pictures from an SD card (the way they do on CSI) please let us know because it was a terribly tragic event that almost ruined the whole trip. However, I quickly remembered, that those pictures are like many other things in life--not nearly as important as the memories we have of family and friends--at least I haven't lost those (yet!!!!)

Earthquake in Anchorage
Low tide at the Anchorage port
Fisherman in the mud
Sara by Captain Cook (monument)
Float planes landing in Lake Hood near Anchorage

Train loading
Bald eagle sitting on nest
Black bear crossing snow (great close-up)
Spencer glacier
Trail glacier
Grandview mountain pass and the train
Many other mountain views
Boarding the boat
Porpoises
Sea otter with a pup on its stomach
Pacific humpback whale
Stellar sea lions actively resting on the rocks
Two types of puffins
Mountain goats
A beautiful lake on Fox Island
The forest covered mountains lining the fjords.
Seward harbor
Dad's leg drenched by a wave
Sara wearing her new hat she bought for the cold, rainy day
Snow White Falls--seven tiered water fall
More snow covered mountains
Well you get the idea.  And here are some pictures we did get after the loss.

Oregon Zoo & Mt. Hood

Ahem. So I'm not in the exotic and exciting Alaska, but I am part of the Oba Ohana and I am going places. According to the description, I think that means I can post some adventures on here.

A couple weeks ago Sara was visiting me in Portland. Naturally, we explored.

We drove up Mt. Hood to Timberline Lodge




and took the train to the Oregon Zoo.

From Sweet Aunt Sara

From Sweet Aunt Sara

From Sweet Aunt Sara

Since most posts on here will probably include our restaurant adventures, here's a list of where we ate: Sweet Tomatoes, Noodles & Company, Olive Garden, YoCream, Burgerville, and multiple picnics. Yum yum.