In honor of Continental Airlines' last day

Continental Airlines Boeing 757 landing in St. Maarten. (sorry about the guy in the short shorts)

Sunday drive

Aimee and I were bored out of our minds and I was feeling couped up. So I told her lets just go for a drive somewhere, anywhere.

We ended up on the top of whatever hill that is at Point of the Mountain where everyone does their parasailing. It was a nice view and it salvaged what had become a gruff day.

The view out our window

You gotta enjoy life's simple pleasures and one of mine is looking out our living room window every morning. Its not Sound of Music inspiring every day but for a stretch of a few days back in early May it was. Luckily I gave the windows a good cleaning on one of my days off sometime around late April after Aimee had reminded me it was warming up and it was time to get the screens put back up (I take the screens out of the windows for the winter, Aimee thinks its weird but in my world it makes sense).

So I gave the windows a good cleaning, got the screens put back in, and then we got lucky with a late spring snow storm. The snow had melted pretty much from all of the lower elevations at that time but here we got a gift with a new blanket of the white stuff. One morning I woke up, looked outside and started singing, "the hills are alive with the sound of music." I grabbed the camera and snapped the two above photos to capture the moment. And yes, those are taken from inside the house looking out my clean windows! Then I ran outside and snapped the third photo just out our front door.

I'd love to go to Switzerland or Austria some day, but until then I'll just have to look out our living room window.

Oeno Island

The Pirate Code



Trip to Chile, Feb - March 2010

So Madison, Jacobi and I were headed to Chile via Caracas and Buenos Aires when during the early morning hours on Saturday February 27th one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded hit southern Chile. We were in the Buenos Aires airport when it happened waiting for our 830am flight to Santiago and ended up spending 4 days in Argentina waiting for the Santiago airport to re-open. We made the best of a difficult situation and eventually made it home and luckily the area the kids live in did not suffer as much damage as other areas.


The worst of the damage came from the tsunamis that hit up and down the southern coast of Chile. The above picture is one that the news channels in Chile showed many times and probably is "the face" of the earthquake damaged areas.


While we waited in Buenos Aires we watched a lot of tv to say the least. One of the programs we watched was a touristic show highlighting Chile. They mentioned Valparaiso's Hotel Reina Victoria and that it was the first hotel built in all of South America which was something I did not know and I decided to be sure to take a picture of the hotel when we finally made it back. I've only walked by the hotel at least a few hundred times.


This is a closed gate in the doorway of a building that back in 2004 burned due to a gas explosion that happened across the street in a busy area of Valparaiso. This is another building I've walked by a few hundred times and it was sad to see what was left. Many people died as a result of the explosion and fire and the Refugio sign (Refuge) I would have to guess is meant as a place for the spirits of those people.

California vacation - Day 1, Disneyland and California Adventure

We were at the park the moment it opened and didn't go back to the hotel until after the fireworks. We walked so much Aimee had blisters on her little toes and I collapsed on the couch in the hotel room and couldn't move for at least a half hour. Mom and the kids seemed to fare better.




We didn't realize how lucky we were to be able to walk down Main Street with so few people as we did here when we first entered the park. Later in the day the place was absolutely packed, and mind you this was on a weekday in January! Forget about going in Spring or Summer, or probably even in the Fall for that matter.








Strollers! Throughout Disneyland there are designated stroller parking areas. Aimee took this great photo for me after I told her the number of strollers parked boggled my mind.

Toontown





Aimee loved the "ONE WAY" sign.



I liked the writing on these windows.













The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at California Adventure

So later in the day we headed over to California Adventure where we had been told to for sure ride on the Tower of Terror which we did. It quickly became Madison's favorite ride and I have to admit it was a rush. The idea behind it is you are in an abandoned hotel and you get stuck in the service elevator which then begins to drop you several floors and then takes you back to the top and then drops you again. The sensation of falling is exquisite. What we didn't realize at the time is that somewhere along the way there are cameras that take your picture as you're falling (there are a few other rides in the park where they do the same thing, don't ask Madison about how ugly I was in the California Screamer picture. Basically I became the Elephant Man.) These pictures are then on a television screen after you exit the ride and you can purchase copies at inflated prices if you wish. These days though people just take out their digital cameras or camera phones and snap a photo of the television screen and save themselves the 15 bucks. I had Aimee snap a picture of our photo, not because of how we turned out but because of the two dudes in the front who knew just when to pose and pop their collars. Classic!

California vacation - Day 2, another full day at both parks

We started the day at California Adventure

The Golden Gate Bridge at the entrance to the park.







Lunch with the Princesses

Snow White, she was so good her voice even sounded like Snow White.


Belle, we all had to agree she was the pretiest.




Aimee's favorite, Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Aimee was happy she was able to get a photo with her.


Back to Disneyland after lunch with the princesses. The food was so good but I may have ate too much, here the fat man is trying to suck in his gut but its not working.


Mom said, "Oh, what pretty flowers." So of course we had to snap a photo.


I liked this plaque at the entrance to the Pirates of the Caribbean commemorating the 30th anniversary of the ride.




So we headed back to California Adventure just to ride the Tower of Terror again and decided to try our hand at posing for the picture like the two guys did the night before. I however was too scared to concentrate on posing, Aimee and Madison did pretty well though.


We aren't in this picture but I liked the poses so much of the couple in the back and the couple in the front that I told Aimee to snap a picture of this one too.

California vacation - Day 3, a half day at Disneyland and California Adventure

I call this one, "Madison and a fat man wait for a train."


Madison and Jacobi with Dale. Jacobi wanted so badly to get a picture with both Chip and Dale but we could never get the both of them together.


Madison had better luck over at California Adventure, Jacobi was off getting some cotton candy I think.




Aimee really didn't want to get her picture taken with Captain Hook but I told her to wait in line while I went and got Jacobi. I couldn't find Jacobi and Aimee eventually found herself at the front of the line for pictures.