Nicole in Little Rock

As I alluded to in my previous post, Nicole went to Little Rock, Arkansas last weekend to visit Kelly Simpson who was in town from El Salvador to visit her sister. She flew over on Friday morning and came back on Sunday night. They just hung out, played games, went shopping, and went geocaching.




Geocaching was a term that I had never heard before. Geocaching is "an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world." Anyway, the Sangsters are totally into it and I think we will start as well.

Nicole said it was really fun but they when they went they were unable to find the cache. But what they did find was this giant bug shown in the picture below. The last picture is the cache that they found after Nicole went home.

Dayton Air Show

Last weekend me and the kids went to see the Dayton Air Show while Nicole was in Little Rock visiting her friend Kelly Simpson while she was in the states to visit her sister Lisa. The air show, according to Wikipedia, "is an annual event at the Dayton International Airport in Dayton, Ohio...recognized as one of the country’s premier aviation events. It showcases the world's best known civilian and military pilots including the Blue Angels[3] with a variety of airplanes in the air and on the ground."

I think these first pictures are of the Warbirds. The show basically consisted of watching a bunch of airplanes that I didn't know the names of do a bunch of tricks and blow smoke out the back of it.






The hilight of the show was the F-22 Raptor demonstration. We met up Micah's friend Parker and his family who is totally into airplanes. They go to the Air Force museum at least once a month it seems. This plane was very fast and very loud and could do a lot of cool things in the air.

"The Raptor is the world's most advanced fighter aircraft and one of the most sought after demonstrations on the air show circuit. Its incredible maneuverability, aided by its computerized controls and powerful, thrust-vectoring jet engines make it an astonishing air show performance."

You can seem more of them here:

http://www.airshowbuzz.com/videos/view.php?v=8ec80b42
http://www.acc.af.mil/aerialevents/f22a/index.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-22_Raptor








These are some pictures of Micah with his friend Parker and Rebekkah. It was a very hot day and everything was very, very expensive. I blew through about $100 (including cost of tickets) in about 1 hour. It was fun to go but I don't think I'd ever go again. I just don't really care much about airplanes.

Ding Dong Song Remake

I was blogging one day and ended up on a friend's blog which directed me to his brother's blog and then his brother's MySpace page where I came across something absolutely hilarious. Now I used to have Thanksgiving dinner with this kid when he was about 6 years old and this is is what he's turned into! Seriously, Seth is in the Marines and has turned out great. Anyway, enjoy his entertaining remaking of Günther's eurotrash Ding Dong Song. He seriously looks exactly like him!

Pink Yarn

Freedom Center

Two weekends ago we went to Cincinnati to visit the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. It is a musuem based on the history of the Underground Railroad which, if you remember your history, "was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th century Black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists who were sympathetic to their cause."

This first picture was a reconstructed slave pen that was "used as a holding pen by Kentucky slave trader, Capt. John W. Anderson, to temporarily keep enslaved people being moved further south for sale."













This set of pictures is of us hiding in places similar to where slaves would hide in their attempt to escape to freedom.

















One thing we didn't realize before coming to the musuem was that the Ohio River and border to Kentucky was the boundary between South and North, and Slavery and Freedom.









This is a picture of the Ohio River from the Freedom Center.

COSI

Last weekend we went to Columbus to a science museum called COSI. The first pictures are of the outdoor science park where you could lift a car with a giant lever. There was also a centripetal ride that the kids just loved. I think Micah went on it about 6 times.
















The museum included exhibits that dealt with the subjects of space, ocean, life, technological progress, and gadgets. These pictures are in a horse carriage in the Progress exhibit. The last picture is of Micah volunteering for a presentation on weather. The presenter is going to demonstrate atmospheric pressure on Micah.

















For dinner we went to this awesome Greek restaurant called The Happy Greek. The kids had pastitsio (which is basically Greek lasagna) while Nicole and I had gyros. The nice thing about downtown Columbus on Sundays is that it is free to park.

Chillicothe 4th of July

For the 4th of July we went to the Milmore's house in Chillicothe and had what Ohioans call a "Cook-Out" (otherwise known as a BBQ in the NW). Nicole and kids tried to go look at fireworks and they were not allowed. The wierd thing about Ohio is that they will sell all kind of fireworks everywhere but you can only look and purchase if you supply them with a non-Ohio address where you will be letting them off. Needless to say we did not see many fireworks for the 4th.

We at hamburgers and hot dogs and just sat around until the evening when the city let off fireworks at Yoctangee Park, which we could see the very top off from the Milmore's. Here are the pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

Waverly Wildlife

These are some pictures that have been piling up of wildlife in Waverly and Chillicothe. The first set are some intersting moths and a bug.

















This was a squirrel that basically walked right up to us and jumped on our table at the Chillicothe pool. It would not take the food we gave it (chips and bread) though it was about the friendliest squirrel I've ever seen.











These last pictures are of some other wildlife in Waverly that cannot be identified with complete certainty. The first one appears to be a dog of some sort but the second is a complete mystery.















Addendum: This last set was at the Old Canal Smokehouse in Chillicothe. It was a not-very-timid butterfly that landed on our plate and proceeded to lick it (that's his tongue in the second shot).