Sumner Evans

Plain Text Accounting is Pretty Cool

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 06:25:00 -0600

I like to keep track of my finances pretty religiously. I don’t really budget, I am just very obsessive about tracking every expense, and ensuring that my overall savings rate is high¹. I started by using Mint (may it rest in peace) and when it got killed, I switched to Rocket Money. Eventually I got annoyed with that due to it not supporting connections to some of my accounts and I ended up keeping track of my finances manually in markdown files in a git repo for a few years.² Last year, I started using Origin, which was pretty good. However, recently I started looking for a new solution due to a few reasons:

offlinemsmtp v1

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 13:00:00 -0600

I announced offlinemsmtp in 2019. It’s a program that allows queueing email messages to send using msmtp (part of isync). Today, at long last, I’m releasing a stable v1 version of offlinemsmtp after rewriting the project in Go. The release can be found on GitHub.

In general, the functionality of v0.4.0 is preserved, however if you were using some uncommonly-used features, you may need to update your configuration slightly. This version also relicenses the project under the MIT license.

Stop Using Conventional Commits

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 06:25:00 -0600

You’ve almost certainly encountered Conventional Commits before. It may have reared its ugly head in the changelog of an open source project you’ve used. It may have been the enforced commit format for an open source project you contributed to. A lot of people swear by it. I swear at it.

Even though it is used by a large number of popular open source projects, Conventional Commits is an actively bad standard which encourages focus on the wrong things and fails to deliver on its promises.

Three Resume Tips

Thu, 07 May 2026 06:25:00 -0600

I have been asked a few times to review student resumes and in my current position I review quite a few resumes of potential candidates.

I think a lot of resume advice out there is tied to formatting, presentation, and writing style. While all of that is important, I think that it’s been well-adjudicated.

In this article, I would like discuss the content of your resume. I’m going to describe three rules that I made up to guide your resume’s content.

FOSDEM 2026

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 06:25:00 -0600

The purpose of this trip was (ostensibly) to attend the FOSDEM 2026 conference. Since I’m no longer working at Beeper, there is not really any work-related reason for me to attend the conference. But I wanted to do it to give myself an excuse to go to Europe, and as an opportunity to catch up with former Beeper coworkers, and meet up with a few other friends as well.

Prague, Czechia

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 06:25:00 -0600

I woke up very late today (like 14h). I guess I needed some sleep after my crazy train ordeal yesterday. It was kinda sleeting anyway, so I didn’t feel that bad about missing out on the morning.

I was hungry, so I started walking to find somewhere to eat. I ran across a restaurant that looked like it served local fare, and I got their beef goulash. I ordered with “dumplings” which were the bread slices. I think I should have tried with the wild rice instead.

Brno, Czechia

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 06:25:00 -0600

This morning, I left Vienna for Prague, and on the way I went to Brno. Brno is very near the Austerlitz battlefield, Napoleon’s best military masterpiece. After visiting Waterloo (the site of Napoleon’s ultimate defeat) the last two years I figured that it was only fair to go see the site of his greatest victory.

I woke up in time to get to the Vienna Main Station in time for the REX 1 at 09:07 towards Breclav for my connection to Brno. Unfortunately, the train was cancelled! I had to wait an hour until the 10:07 train. The train was a regional train, and was very slow. It stopped so often. We arrived late in Breclav, and I ended up getting on the wrong train. I ended up on a Regiojet instead of whatever rail line I was supposed to be on. When the conductor came around, I had to pay for the Regiojet train segment. It was luckily not that expensive. The Regiojet was also a pretty good train and it was direct from Breclav to Brno. When I arrived in Brno, it was already nearly 13h and the public transit to the Austerlitz battlefield museum was off-phase, so I took a Bolt.

Bratislava, Slovakia

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 06:25:00 -0600

This morning, I met Bodie and Georgia at around 08:30 to head to Bratislava. There were a few others who where planning on coming as well, but they slept in too long.

We walked to the Vienna Main Station and took the REX 8 to Bratislava. An hour later, we arrived in Bratislava and started walking towards the old town. The old town seems like it used to be a walled city, and it is now a really nice pedestrian area.

Vienna, Austria

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 06:25:00 -0600

This morning, I woke up in time for the walking tour. There were about ten of us from the hostel in the group. Our guide was a woman named Katerina (not sure about the spelling). She took us from the hostel, through the Naschmarkt (an extensive outdoor market area), and towards the city centre. Along the way, she pointed out a variety of the shops along the market including various restaurants, wineries, and beer houses.

Antwerp, Belgium

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 06:25:00 -0600

My plane from Dulles arrived close to on time, but the immigration queue was very long. The new ETIAS requirements seem to be making the border check process somewhat longer than before. In addition to telling the border agent my business and when I was leaving, I had to provide a fingerprint scan. I really do not know what the purpose is, but hopefully it helps them track and prevent illegal immigration (although being Europe, I’m doubtful).

Denver to Brussels

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 06:25:00 -0600

I’m once again heading across the pond to attend FOSDEM as I have the last three years. I’m flying to Brussels via Dulles and then I’m going to fly on to Vienna for a lightning tour of Vienna and Prague, with possible day-trips to Bratislava and Brno. I’m writing this about two hours out from Brussels, and already the trip has been quite eventful, but you’re going to have to read the whole post to learn what happened :)

Forget MCP, Write CLI Apps

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 06:25:00 -0600

Over the last month or so, I’ve been using Claude Code for assisting with development tasks¹. One of the things that has confused me the most about the LLM-assisted programming ecosystem is the Model Context Protocol (MCP) landscape. In theory, MCP is a way to provide the LLM with data from an external system through a structured protocol. However, it sucks. It turns out that it is more efficient to have the AI just write code to analyse and manipulate the data from the external system directly. Rather than piping the data from the external system into the LLM’s context window and letting the LLM muddle through it, the LLM-written code can just do the necessary data processing. Computers have been good at running instructions on large datasets for a very long time and AI is not going to be a substitute for that.

Learning Typst

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 06:25:00 -0600

A few weeks ago, Typst came back on my radar because Sylvan Franklin’s videos on the topic came into my YouTube feed. In particular, Rewriting my resume in Typst in which he rewrites his resume from $\LaTeX$ to Typst piqued my interest. I have maintained my resume in $\LaTeX$ since I started at Mines in 2016, and so I figured this would be an opportunity for me to learn something new.

Building a Software Career in an LLM World

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 06:25:00 -0600

TL;DR

Getting an entry-level software job is harder now than at any time in at least the last decade.

Building a career in software is (and always has been) hard, but highly rewarding if you succeed.

The key is to take ownership of both your work and your career trajectory.

In this article, I am going to discuss how to build a career in the software industry. We will explore career tracks, and discuss the attributes needed to become a senior software engineer. Then I will provide my view of how LLMs will affect the software engineering industry and job market.

Vibe Coding Doesn't Require LLMs

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 06:25:00 -0600

I recently read I Know When You’re Vibe Coding by Alex Kondov in which he described certain characteristic “smells” of vibe-coded software. For example, he points to LLMs proclivity to pave their own path and go against established patterns within a project.

The article resonated with me, but I realized that it resonated with me at a deeper level than just explaining my interactions with LLM-written software. I realized that I’ve seen these “smells” before in pre-LLM software (especially that written by students).

On Being Gay

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 00:00:00 -0600

Warning

This post is personal. If you normally read my blog for my travel updates or my software engineering takes, this is a very different kind of post.

If you don’t want to read about my personal life, this is a good post to skip.

It’s always awkward to come out, but the lead-up is always the worst part. Once it’s done, it’s done and I move on with my life. I have been out to my family and most of my friends for a few years now, but as one of my friends described it, I’m about as out as the sun on a cloudy day. Well, I guess it’s time for the sun to shine a bit more.

7 Things I've Learned After 7 Years as a Software Engineer

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 06:25:00 -0600

A few months ago, I was asked to give the keynote address at the BlasterHacks hackathon hosted at Mines by their ACM chapter. I wasn’t quite sure what would be interesting to talk about for the keynote, so I asked some friends. Byron suggested that I either talk about hackathon advice or career advice. Since I was giving a hackathon keynote, I decided to focus my presentation on hackathon advice. I went to six hackathons while I was a student at Mines, and won prizes at all but one of them so I felt I had something interesting to say about the topic.

Trump Has Made Two Perfect VP Picks

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 06:25:00 -0600

Donald Trump has made two vice presidential picks. In 2016 he chose Mike Pence, and in 2024 he chose JD Vance. Each of these picks was brilliant in its own right.

2016: Mike Pence

During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump faced significant resistance from within the Republican party for having a morally objectionable character, for not being a principled conservative, and for not having enough requisite understanding of politics to successfully run an administration. However, Trump emerged from a hotly contested primary ahead of Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, two highly respected figures within the Republican establishment.

2025 Matrix Governing Board Endorsements

Tue, 20 May 2025 06:25:00 -0600

Disclaimer

I would like to make it clear that these endorsements are my opinions only. They do not reflect the opinion of the Matrix Governing Board which I am currently a member of, nor do they reflect the opinions of my current or past employers.

I have decided that I will not stand again in this year’s Matrix Governing Board elections. I recently joined Can/Am Technologies as a tech lead and I do not feel like I can dedicate a sufficient amount of time to be a good board member. Thus, I have decided to step aside and let others have a chance to take on the challenge of governance.

I'm Joining Can/Am Technologies

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Today I am happy to announce that I have joined Can/Am Technologies as a Senior Implementation Tech Lead.

Can/Am makes a point of sale product for local governments called Teller. I worked for Can/Am in the past as a software developer and I am excited to return after nearly a decade in a new capacity. I will be leading the engineering team responsible for building integrations with third-party vendors. I’m excited about the opportunity this position will afford me to leverage my experience teaching and mentoring students at Mines in a new challenge of leading and mentoring a technical team.

What Happens After You Push?

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 06:25:00 -0600

In this article we are going to be investigating how the code you write gets to your users. This article is intended for consumption by computer science and software engineering students to provide insights into technologies and processes you might encounter in industry. This will be focused specifically on software delivery in web-based SaaS offerings rather than more traditional software delivery methods such as those seen in embedded systems. Every software project has different process for building, testing, and deploying to users and I’m not going to discuss every possible technology which might be used for each of these steps. Rather, I’m going to be describing what kinds of software might be used. I’ll describe how these systems affect the day-to-day work of software engineers, and I’ll also provide some thoughts on how you might integrate some of these ideas into your own personal projects.

FOSDEM 2025

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 06:25:00 -0600

For the third year in a row, I attended FOSDEM, a Free and Open Source Software conference. I enjoyed the previous two years, and Automattic paid for me to attend, so I decided to make the hop across the pond to attend again. FOSDEM is one of the main gatherings of the Matrix community every year (probably second only to the Matrix Conference), and there is also a sizeable Go presence at the conference as well.

Waterloo Battlefield

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 06:25:00 -0600

Today I visited the Waterloo battlefield. I’d visited the town of Waterloo and the Wellington Museum last year when I came to FOSDEM, but I didn’t have time to go to the actual battlefield site. I bought a ticket that was valid for a year for both the museum and battlefield site, so I was able to use the same ticket.

London

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 06:25:00 -0600

I once again am making a trip across the pond for FOSDEM. This time, instead of flying to Brussels, I chose to fly to London a few days early and then take the Eurostar to Brussels. The nice thing about this itinerary is that I was able to take a direct flight from Denver to London, Heathrow. The flight was not very full, and I ended up with a whole row to myself!

Sublime Music End-of-Maintenance

Tue, 24 Dec 2024 03:00:00 -0600

Today I’m announcing that Sublime Music has reached end-of-maintenance. This announcement is greatly overdue, as I have not been actively maintaining the project for over a year, and have not been actively developing new features for even longer.

Thank You!

I would like to start off by thanking everyone who used Sublime Music, reported bugs, interacted in the Matrix room, and wrote code for the project. This project is the most successful open source project I’ve started, and I am grateful for the community that formed around it.

Amsterdam, Netherlands - Work Retreat

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 09:25:00 -0600

This week, Beeper had our second meetup after being acquired by Automattic earlier this year. Unlike the last retreat in Porto which had lots of other Automattic employees in attendance, this was just our team and was focused on work and planning less than team-building.

Automattic is a remote-only company, so work retreats are the only time that we can connect with our co-workers in-person and build stronger personal relationships among the team. The best part is that we get to go to cool locations for these meetups. You can read about all the previous work retreats on this blog.

Matrix Cryptographic Key Infrastructure

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 10:00:00 +0200

End-to-end encryption is one of the things which brought me to Matrix, and I’m sure that it’s one of the factors that brought many of you to Matrix as well.

However, Matrix’s user experience with cryptography is often confusing. I mainly blame the other chat networks for their incompetence. Most other chat networks don’t even provide any cryptographically-guaranteed security and privacy. Some networks provide encryption in a way that does not truly leave the user in control of their keys. Only a few networks (Signal) truly leave the user in control, and their UX is arguably worse than Matrix.

Message Security in Matrix

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 06:00:00 -0600

In Matrix, message security is provided by Megolm. The goal of message security is twofold. We (a) want messages to be encrypted on the sender’s device and (b) only be able to be decrypted on devices of users who are a part of the conversation. As a corollary, we want to prevent other parties (rogue homeservers, man-in-the-middle attackers, etc.) from decrypting the messages.

Matrix Cryptography Prerequisites

Fri, 09 Aug 2024 05:00:00 -0600

Understanding Matrix cryptography requires understanding some basic cryptography primitives. This article intends to explain those prerequisites in simple terms. This article is not a rigorous, mathematical description of the cryptosystems in use. Rather, it is a practical guide to what functionality each of the cryptography primitives provides. I’ve tried to include links to external resources if you are interested in learning more about a specific topic.

Differential Fuzzing Libolm and Goolm

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 06:25:00 -0600

Background

When we at Beeper started working on the new Android app, based on mautrix-go, we initially tried using goolm as the crypto implementation instead of libolm. We almost immediately ran into issues for unknown reasons, and rather than fighting with cryptography, we decided to just put in the work to get libolm working in the Android app.

2024 Matrix Governing Board Endorsements

Wed, 08 May 2024 06:25:00 -0600

I’m running for the Matrix Governing Board as an Individual Member (see my Platform) and I am only eligible to vote as an individual member, but I would like to endorse a few Ecosystem Member candidates who are well qualified to represent the ecosystem.

Kim Brose

I endorse Kim Brose (HarHarLinks) representing Matrix Community Events as an Ecosystem Member candidate.

Porto, Portugal - Sightseeing

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 06:25:00 -0600

On the Saturday after the retreat I did my own sightseeing and adventuring around Porto. However, as I mentioned in my post about the retreat, a bunch of us went on a walking tour of the city on Wednesday, but since it wasn’t really meetup-related, I decided to combine the info that I got on the tour with this post, as I think it fits better.

Porto, Portugal - Work Retreat

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 06:25:00 -0600

The past few weeks have been exciting for Beeper. We made Beeper available to everyone without a waitlist, launched a new Android app based on our own internally-built Matrix SDK written in Go, and were acquired by Automattic for $125M. As part of the acquisition, the Beeper team is merging with the Texts.com team that was acquired by Automattic last year. We are going to unify the products under the Beeper brand. All of this is only a few months on the heels of our Beeper Mini launch which brought fully end-to-end encrypted iMessage to Android devices.

My Matrix Governing Board Platform

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 03:25:00 -0600

Election Results

2024-06-03: The results of the first Governing Board Election have been posted on the Matrix.org Blog.

I am grateful that I was elected as an individual member. Thank you to those who voted for me!

I’m running for the Matrix Governing Board as an Individual Member. I work on bridges¹ and backend infrastructure² as a software engineer at Beeper. You may have met me at one of the Matrix meetups³ and possibly even seen me giving a presentation at one of them. I have been a user of Matrix since around 2018⁴ and I have been heavily involved in the community since around 2020⁵. I’ve contributed multiple spec clarifications⁶ and been involved in many MSCs both personally and through my position at Beeper⁷. I also have contributed to Synapse⁸ and the Matrix React SDK⁹.

Denver to Porto

Sun, 21 Apr 2024 06:25:00 -0600

I’m making my way across the pond once again, this time for a work retreat. I’m attending a team meetup in Porto, Portugal.

I ran the 2024 Mines High School Programming Competition on Saturday, and I had to be in Porto by Monday morning. Thus, I had to leave on an evening flight on Saturday in order to arrive in time. Unfortunately, the best flight I was able to get that left late enough on Saturday went through Munich with a 7 hour layover before the flight to Porto. My return flight goes through Frankfurt (it’s kinda annoying having to go out of the way to Germany to get to and from Portugal, but it is what it is).

Mines High School Programming Competition 2024

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 17:48:00 -0600

For the last seven years, Mines ACM has hosted a High School Programming Competition (HSPC) modelled after the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). I wrote about the 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 competitions on this blog. The problems from every year are new and written by Mines students and some Mines alum specifically for the competition. This year, I wrote two of the problems and helped Ethan Richards with organizing the competition.

NixCon + SCaLE 2024

Sun, 17 Mar 2024 06:25:00 -0600

I attended NixCon and SCaLE in Pasadena, California for the first time this year. I went with my friend Addison, and while I was there I also met up with some other friends, and made some new friends as well!

I flew out very early on Thursday morning from Denver to LAX. It was raining on the way out of Denver, and the approach into LAX was quite windy. It was the most turbulent flight I’ve been on in a very long time. Getting from LAX to Pasadena was quite a journey. I had to take the Metro Connector from LAX over to the Metro and then I took two metro lines up to Pasadena. It probably took an hour and a half just on the metro to get there.

Is Getting A Master's Degree in Computer Science Worth It?

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 06:37:50 -0600

“Master of Science in Computer Science”, it sounds so grand, doesn’t it? But is it worth it? I’m writing this post to give my perspective on whether getting a master’s degree is worth the effort and money. I’m assuming that you are currently in a computer science undergraduate program and are considering whether to continue on to get a computer science master’s degree. I want to be very clear, this post is my opinion only.

Waterloo - The Wellington Museum

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 06:25:00 -0600

Today I went to Waterloo, the town which gave its name to the battle that saw Napoleon’s final defeat at the hands of the Seventh Coalition. Getting there was quite an adventure. To start, I woke up late again. After managing to get out of bed, I tried to take the tram over to a bus that went directly to the Waterloo city centre. I found the bus stop, and waited for a few minutes before the bus came, but then it just rolled right on past! I tried flagging it down, but it didn’t stop. So, I had to go with plan B which was to go over to Brussels Midi and take the regional train to Waterloo.

Bruges

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 06:25:00 -0600

Today I went to Bruges, a beautiful city near the Belgian Atlantic coast. I woke up a bit late (I still haven’t really adjusted to the CEST timezone), but I managed to get to Bruges by around 11 in the morning. I enjoy trains, and I got to take the train from Bruxeles-Midi through Ghent and on to Bruges.

I’d skipped breakfast, so by the time I arrived in the city centre, I was hungry and went to a restaurant called De Beurze. It was a cosy place, with a little fireplace that I sat next to. I had a nice steak with salad and fries, all while having a great view of the main square. I really enjoy the way that they do service in Europe. Nobody comes to bug you while you’re eating, but they are attentive and you can easily flag the wait staff down if you need anything. I don’t like that you have to pay for the water, though. But it gives me an excuse to order sparkling water since it’s the same price as still. Additionally, since the US Dollar is so strong against the Euro right now, the prices are also very reasonable. I think it was 1.08 USD to 1 EUR while I was there.

FOSDEM 2024

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 06:25:00 -0600

The primary purpose of my trip was to attend FOSDEM, a Free and Open Source Software conference. I attended last year as well and enjoyed it, so I decided to make the trip to attend again. FOSDEM is the biggest meeting of people in the Matrix community every year, and there is also a sizeable Go presence at the conference as well.

Brussels - Day 1

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 06:25:00 -0600

This year, I once again travelled to Brussels for FOSDEM (see my post from last year). I took the Wednesday 13:30 flight out of Denver through Chicago O’Hare to Brussels, and arrived on Thursday morning. The connection through O’Hare was a bit tight. As scheduled, I only had 50 minutes, and then due to our incoming flight being vectored to the wrong runway on the first approach, we had to circle around to land at the correct runway. I was at the back of the plane, but luckily my gate was not very far away and I made it just fine.

Advent of Code 2023

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0600

Every year since 2015, Eric Wastl creates a two-part programming problem for each of the 25 days of Advent. He publishes a new problem every day at adventofcode.com at exactly midnight EST which is 22:00 the day before for me in MST. The last two years, I decided to do the problems as soon as they came out and streamed my problem solving sessions on my Twitch channel and uploaded them to my Youtube channel. The last two years I updated a blog post about each of the days, and I will try and do that this year as well.

Toronto, Canada - Work Retreat

Fri, 22 Sep 2023 06:25:00 -0600

This week, my company (Beeper) had our fall work retreat in Toronto, Canada. It has been nearly six months since our March retreat in Amsterdam and it was great to see everyone again and meet some of the new team members. I have also written about our four retreats prior to Amsterdam on this blog.

One of the main goals of each retreat is to provide opportunities to connect as a team on a personal level. There were three new team members present at this retreat.

Los Angeles

Sun, 10 Sep 2023 06:25:00 -0600

This weekend I flew out to Los Angeles to see my friend Ethan Cranston. He is a former student of mine at Mines, and we got to know each other well because he was one of the most consistent in-person attendees during the hybrid COVID semesters. He now works at SpaceX and since I have a ton of Southwest points, I decided to visit him somewhat on a whim.

Becoming a Homeowner

Tue, 06 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0600

I recently became a homeowner. Here are a couple of reflections that I’ve had about this new phase of life:

The permanence of owning my own house is nice. The first time this really hit me was when I was putting up some decorations. I realized that it was my walls that I was nailing things in to. I don’t have to answer to anyone about the holes in my wall if I move out.

Mines High School Programming Competition 2023

Sat, 29 Apr 2023 17:48:00 -0600

For the last six years, Mines ACM has hosted a High School Programming Competition (HSPC) modelled after the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). I wrote about the 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 competitions on this blog. The problems from every year are new and written by Mines students and some Mines alum specifically for the competition. This year, I wrote four of the problems and helped Ethan Richards with organizing the competition.

Amsterdam - Exploration Day

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 09:25:00 -0600

I woke up late on my last day in Amsterdam, and missed breakfast at the hotel. After saying goodbye to the remaining coworkers at the hotel for the retreat, I went to drop off my bag at the hotel where I am staying for one night before heading back home.

I then headed back into Amsterdam city and walked around the streets admiring the beauty of the city. I stopped for lunch at a restaurant and had some very nice pizza. I was planning on renting a bike, but it was drizzling on and off so I opted against it; walking in the rain was enough for me.

Amsterdam, Netherlands - Work Retreat

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 09:25:00 -0600

This week, my company (Beeper) had our first retreat of the new year in Amsterdam, Netherlands. We aim for about three retreats a year, though due to holidays and a recent push towards our beta exit milestone, it has been a little while since we have all gotten together. The last retreat was in Mexico City in October and before that we had three other retreats. The goal of each retreat is to provide an opportunity to connect as a team on a personal level, discuss future plans, and reflect on the progress we have made.

Amsterdam - The Van Gogh Museum

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 09:25:00 -0600

Today I went to visit the Van Gogh Museum in the morning, and the Anne Frank House late in the evening. In between, I walked around the city, and met up with my coworkers for dinner.

One of the reasons I chose the hotel that I did was that it was a very short walk over to the Van Gogh Museum. I had tickets for 10:00 at the museum with an audio tour. I recommend getting the audio tour as it gave some good background about Van Gogh and his life story.

Denver to Amsterdam

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 09:25:00 -0600

Today I once again am venturing across the pond for a work retreat. This time, in Amsterdam, Netherlands. I’ll get there mid-day Saturday and I’ll spend the afternoon and all of Sunday sightseeing before meeting up with coworkers on Monday for a week of in-person work!

My dad kindly took me to the airport this morning. Security was pretty crowded, but I have TSA precheck which makes it so I don’t have to take everything out of my bag and take off my shoes. I got to the airport in plenty of time, and I had brunch at Panda Express before heading over to my gate.

FOSDEM 2023

Sun, 05 Feb 2023 06:25:00 -0600

For the first time since 2020, FOSDEM was held in-person in Brussels. FOSDEM is one of the largest gatherings of open source enthusiasts in the world every year. My employer, Beeper, funded my flight, and I decided to attend. It was a great experience! I learned a lot and have a long to-do list of projects to try out. I also really enjoyed interacting with the Matrix community and reconnect with many of the people who I’d met at the Matrix Community Summit in Berlin last year and meet a bunch new people as well.

Brussels Sightseeing

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 06:25:00 -0600

During my time in Brussels for FOSDEM, I took the chance to do a bit of sightseeing. Here are some pictures of what I saw.

See you at FOSDEM!

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 06:25:00 -0600

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be travelling to Brussels at the end of the month to attend FOSDEM, one of the largest open source conferences in the world!

I arrive on 1 February, and I fly back on the 6th. My flight is being funded by Beeper, and I’ll be attending the Matrix Community Meetup at HSBXL and then the conference itself.

2022 In Review

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0600

This year was a good year. I’m going to list a few things that I’m thankful for, in no particular order.

I’m thankful for…

Advent of Code 2022

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Every year since 2015, Eric Wastl creates a two-part programming problem for each of the 25 days of Advent. He publishes a new problem every day at adventofcode.com at exactly midnight EST which is 22:00 the day before for me in MST. The last two years, I decided to do the problems as soon as they came out and streamed my problem solving sessions on my Twitch channel and uploaded them to my Youtube channel. Last year, I also updated a blog post after each day which I intend to do again this year.

Starbase, Texas

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 09:25:00 -0600

On my way back from my work retreat in Mexico City, I took the weekend to visit my friend, Nic, who lives near SpaceX’s Starbase facility in southern Texas. Nic is a photojournalist for nasaspaceflight.com and reports on the developments at Starbase.

My flight on Saturday was to Harlingen through Houston. The flight path from Mexico City to Houston took me basically right over my final destination, but I wouldn’t arrive for some number of hours because of my connection. The United flight I was on from Houston to Harlingen was on an Embraer 50-seater plane. The flight itself was only 45 minutes, but we taxied for what felt like half an hour. At that rate it felt like we could have almost driven the plane to Harlingen!

Mexico City, Mexico - Work Retreat

Sat, 22 Oct 2022 09:25:00 -0600

This week, my company (Beeper) had our Fall retreat in in Mexico City, Mexico. We have company retreats about once every four months and this was our fourth. Similar to all the previous retreats, the goal was to provide valuable in-person time to collaborate and connect as a team on a personal level. I was able to meet a couple people who had joined the company since the last retreat and reconnect with many coworkers that I’d met during previous retreats.

Berlin to Denver

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 12:00:00 -0600

Today I had to leave the beautiful city of Berlin to head back home from the Matrix Community Summit. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the city and at the summit.

Getting to the airport via the train was uneventful and my quick flight to Munich was fine as well. On the flight from Munich to Denver, the seat configuration was a 3-3-3 in economy, and I was in D (outside of the middle row). In a stroke of luck, the middle seat in the row was unoccupied, so I was able to put my backpack under the middle seat and have more legroom.

Berlin Matrix Community Summit

Sun, 28 Aug 2022 12:00:00 -0600

The main purpose of my trip this week was for the Berlin Matrix Community Summit, an event organized by members of the Matrix community in Berlin. Matrix is the chat protocol that Beeper (the company I work for) is building our chat app on top of. The protocol is developed openly, and has a large community of open source developers, projects, and businesses all building on top of Matrix. This summit was the first Matrix-only event. There have been other events at which Matrix had a large presence such as FOSDEM, but this was the first ever Matrix-only event.

Berlin, Germany

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 12:00:00 -0600

I’m in Berlin for the Matrix Community Summit 2022, but I arrived a few days early so that I could spend some time sightseeing. I am still trying to put in mostly full days at work while I’m here in until the Summit starts by working afternoons and evenings.

On Monday, I went to the TV Tower, the tallest building in Germany. I took the S-Bahn from my hotel which is just a couple stops away from the TV Tower. The Tower was built by the Soviets while Berlin was divided between East and West. I got a ticket up to the observation deck, and the views were great!

Denver to Berlin

Sun, 21 Aug 2022 12:00:00 -0600

This week, I am heading to Berlin for the week for the Berlin Matrix Community Summit! The event will happen on Thursday through Saturday, but I am heading there early so that I can work and have a bit of vacation before the summit.

I flew out on Saturday late afternoon on Lufthansa. There seem to be no direct flights to Berlin, so I flew through Frankfurt on the way out (and will fly via Munich on the way back).

Oakland, California

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 12:00:00 -0600

This week, I went to Oakland to visit a friend Jack Garner, a friend from school who works at Salesforce out in San Francisco. I flew in in the evening on Tuesday to minimize the time I had to take off of work. I worked for the first two days and then we both took Friday and Monday off for a long weekend.

London, England and Back Home

Sun, 19 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0600

Today, I was in a total of five countries. Why? Well, one of the things on my bucket list was to go on the Eurostar from Paris to London under the Channel tunnel. I don’t know why it was on my bucket list; I think it was because I have always liked trains.

Anyway, I woke up early and navigated my way to Gare du Nord for my 09:00 train to London.

Normandy D-Day Beaches

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0600

Today, I took a day trip to the Normandy beaches. The tour visited Omaha Beach, the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach, the D-Day museum at Arromanches (Gold Beach), and Juneau Beach.

This post has taken me a long time to write because I wanted to do justice to the topic, and capture some of my thoughts and emotions from the day.

Paris, France - Day 1

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0600

Today was my first day in Paris! I decided to move to a hotel because I didn’t feel totally safe at the hostel I was staying at. I normally don’t care too much about my sleeping accommodations and can sleep anywhere, but just something about the vibe didn’t sit right with me. I was a bit concerned about leaving my things at the hostel, even locked up. Maybe it was just that my expectations were skewed by the great hostel in Lisbon… Regardless, I’m not on that tight of a travel budget, so I spent the first part of the morning moving to the new hotel (the citizenM).

Lisbon, Portugal - Day 4

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0600

Today was my last day in Lisbon. I spent the morning on a walking tour of the city and then flew to Paris.

Touring Lisbon

The tour was gratuity based, and it was really good. The guide’s name was Hugo and he was very engaging and informative. He took us around a bunch of places in Alfama, and he pointed out interesting things that I wouldn’t have noticed on my own.

Lisbon, Portugal - Day 3

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0600

Due to staying up way too late last night in Alfama, today was a day for relaxing. I woke up just before noon, and a few people that I’d hung out with at various points over the past few days (and who had also been out late last night partying) were planning to go to a beach in Cascais, a town a bit west of Lisbon.

Lisbon, Portugal - Day 2

Sun, 12 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0600

Today, I went to the Alfama district and toured the Castelo de São Jorge. Then, in the evening, I went out with some people from the hostel to the streets where there were celebrations for the Feast of Saint Anthony which is the largest festival in Lisbon.

After a small breakfast at the hostel, I started walking over towards the Castelo de São Jorge in the Alfama district which is the old quarter of Lisbon. My goal was to eventually get to the castle, but I wanted to enjoy walking through the old quarter on my way, so I went at a very leisurely pace. The streets were beautiful, and in some areas, people were already setting up decorations for the celebration that night.

Lisbon, Portugal - Day 1

Sat, 11 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0600

After the week of the work retreat, I am staying in Europe for another week (until next Sunday). The first four days are going to be in Lisbon, and then I’m heading to Paris for a few days before flying home.

I caught a ride from the retreat venue to the Lisbon in one of the taxis so that I wouldn’t have to pay as much for a taxi to the hostel that I was staying at.

Ericeira, Portugal - Work Retreat

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0600

I spent the first week of my trip at a Beeper company retreat in Ericeira, Portugal: a town about an hour northwest of Lisbon. We were staying at an event venue called Alma do Paço. The goal of all of the work retreats is to allow the team to have a week of focused collaboration. We tried to take advantage of having all of the teams together by working on some cross-team projects. We also try to have whole-team meetings such as retrospectives, planning and brainstorming discussions, and other meetings. The retreats are also our main opportunity to meet coworkers in-person and are great times to build relationships. I find that meeting people in person is extremely helpful for making the online interactions feel personal.

Denver to Lisbon, Portugal

Sun, 05 Jun 2022 12:00:00 -0600

Today I ventured across the Atlantic for the first time since 2019. The reason: a work retreat in Ericeira, Portugal, a small town about 40 minutes from Lisbon. My flight path was from DEN -> IAD (Washington Dulles) -> LIS.

Both flights were uneventful, though slightly turbulent at times. The service from Denver to Dulles left at 15:30, and I had a red-eye flight leaving around 22:20 out of Dulles. The gate process at Dulles was highly inefficient, and it took way too long to board and get everyone’s carry-on bags onboard. They had this facial recognition system that had about a 50% success rate, and the gate agents still took and verified everyone’s passport and boarding pass, so I don’t really get why they had it. The only nice thing about the process was that it was so slow at the gate that it made the trickle of people on the jet-bridge and getting onto the plane so low that it was chill getting on the plane. We ended up leaving about 20 minutes late, but luckily the jet stream helped us out and we arrived in Lisbon about 20 minutes earlier than expected.

Mines High School Programming Competition 2022

Sat, 09 Apr 2022 17:48:00 -0600

For the last five years, the Mines Computer Science Department has hosted a High School Programming Competition (HSPC) modelled after the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). I wrote about the 2019, 2020, and 2021 competitions on this blog. This year, I wrote three of the problems and helped Colin Siles with organizing the competition.

For the first time since the 2019 competition, this year’s HSPC featured in-person teams. There was also a remote option to increase the reach of the competition. Like the past two competitions, we allowed contestants to access the internet. The problems from every year are new and written by Mines students and some Mines alum specifically for the competition.

Playa del Carmen, Mexico - Work Retreat

Sun, 06 Mar 2022 09:25:00 -0600

A couple weeks ago, my company had our week-long 2022 Q1 work retreat in Playa del Carmen, Mexico (about an hour south of Cancun). As with the previous work trip, the purpose of the retreat was for us to get to work together in person and to bond as a team. I got to see many of the people who were in Montreal again, and got to meet some of the new team members who have joined the company since September.

Advent of Code 2021

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Every year since 2015, Eric Wastl creates a two-part programming problem for each of the 25 days of Advent. He publishes a new problem every day at adventofcode.com at exactly midnight EST which is 22:00 the day before for me in MST. Last year, I decided to do the problems as soon as they came out and streamed my problem solving sessions on my Twitch channel and uploaded them to my Youtube channel.

Montreal to Denver

Sat, 18 Sep 2021 09:25:00 -0600

This morning, I woke up at around 04:30 in order to head to the airport. Ian is on the same flight to Denver as I am (he then continues on to Salt Lake City), and Caroline’s flight leaves at about the same time as our flight, so we all got an Uber together.

We got to the airport around 5:30, and going through security was really quick. In many places (including Montreal) you go through US Customs before departing. It’s kinda a strange system, but it’s nice because you can walk out of the plane at your destination in the states and don’t have to worry about customs. When we got to customs, it wasn’t even opened yet. I guess we could have had another few minutes of sleep!

Montreal - Work Trip!

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 09:25:00 -0600

As I mentioned in my previous post, the main reason for my travel was a work retreat with Beeper in Montreal. The purpose of the retreat was for all of us to get to work together in person. For most of us (myself included), it was the first time meeting anyone else on the team in person. In fact, the closest person to me in the company lives in Provo, Utah.

Washington D.C. to Montreal

Sun, 12 Sep 2021 09:25:00 -0600

This morning, I met up with Sam, Jo, and Robby and we went to breakfast together at a café. Then, we headed over to the building museum which opened at 11:00. The museum is not part of the Smithsonian, but it was very well done. It is located in a vast building that used to be an administrative office for the Pension Bureau.

Washington D.C. -- The Air and Space Museum and the Postal Museum

Sat, 11 Sep 2021 09:25:00 -0600

I woke up this morning around 08:30 with the plan to meet up with Sam, Jo, and Robby at the Air and Space Museum when it opened at 10:00. However, since Robby had gotten in so late, and had flown into Dulles (which is a long way away from DC), they were pretty slow getting up this morning.

I decided to go over alone and start looking at the exhibits. On my way, I came across a 9/11 display on the mall. There were flags representing all the people who lost their lives on that terrible day.

Denver to Washington D.C.

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 09:25:00 -0600

Next week, Beeper is having a company retreat in Montreal, Canada. Since I haven’t really done any sort of leisure travel that requires air travel since the pandemic began, I decided to tack on a weekend getaway to the east coast. I decided to meet up with a few fellow Mines graduates to hang out in DC for the weekend.

About

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 09:04:00 +0000

My name is Sumner, and I live in Denver, Colorado. I am a tech lead at Can/Am Technologies, a 5th Degree Black Belt and certified instructor in ATA Taekwondo under Chief Master Corina Black, and a Colorado School of Mines alum.

I like building software which solves difficult and real problems, and I enjoy helping others develop their careers in software. You can find my professional achievements on my portfolio.

Portfolio

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 09:04:00 +0000

Note

This is my CV. You may want to view my resume instead.

Teaching

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 09:04:00 +0000

Tutoring and Mentoring Services

If you are interested in 1-on-1 tutoring in the Golden/Lakewood/Littleton area, please contact me at tutoring [at] nevarro [dot] space. I can tutor middle school, high school, and college students in all computer science topics as well as some mathematics topics.

I Joined Beeper to Help Build the Future of Chat

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 08:00:00 -0600

Today I am happy to announce that I have joined Beeper, a startup that is building the future of chat by connecting all of your chat networks together in a single application. I will be primarily working on building bridges to other chat networks to bring more people into the Beeper ecosystem.

Beeper is built on top of the Matrix protocol which is an open, decentralized communication protocol. I have been interested in Matrix since college (we used it for computer science club communications), and have been following its development closely for a few years. One of the biggest factors that has caused me to be interested in the protocol is that it is decentralized by design via federation. That means that anyone can run a Matrix homeserver and federate (communicate) with all of the other Matrix homeservers in the federation. This is very similar to how email servers can communicate with one another (you can email people on Gmail from an Outlook.com email, for example), and you can even run your own email server!

Gear

Sun, 18 Apr 2021 09:04:00 +0000

Laptop

I use a ThinkPad T14s Gen 3 - AMD (hostname: scarif) as my personal daily driver.

Mines High School Programming Competition 2021

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 17:48:00 -0600

For the last four years, the Mines Computer Science Department has hosted a High School Programming Competition (HSPC) modelled after the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). I wrote about the 2019 and 2020 competitions on this blog. This year, I wrote one of the problems and helped with some of the administrative backend. I also hosted a live broadcast during the competition with another CS@Mines alum, Sam Sartor which you can view on YouTube. In the broadcast, we provided commentary on the competition, hosted interviews with problem authors, and talked to former HSPC and ICPC contestants.

Sublime Music, a Linux Subsonic Client, Beta Released

Sat, 11 Jul 2020 13:00:00 -0600

Today I’m happy to announce Sublime Music to the world! Sublime Music is a feature-packed native GTK client for Subsonic-compatible servers such as Airsonic, Gonic, and Navidrome. Sublime Music is in beta and version 0.11.0 is available on the AUR and PyPi.

Mines High School Programming Competition 2020

Sat, 25 Apr 2020 23:00:00 -0600

For the last three years, the Mines Computer Science Department has hosted a High School Programming Competition modelled after the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). I wrote about last year’s competition in this post. This year, although I am no longer a student at Mines, I wrote two of the problems, and I volunteered during the competition.

Due to the current COVID-19 lockdown, the competition was held remotely, which meant that we were unable to enforce a no-internet rule as we are able to during on-site competitions. Luckily, the problems are all unique, and written by Mines students and Mines alum specifically for the competition which makes it very difficult to search the internet for answers.

Respecting Theme Preferences on Your Website

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 15:00:00 -0600

You may have noticed that dark themes are becoming more and more common across the computing landscape. Everything from Windows 10, macOS Mojave and later, iOS 13+, and Android 10+ to many Linux desktop environments and many individual browsers are including dark/light theme toggle settings.

Introducing offlinemsmtp

Sat, 07 Dec 2019 13:00:00 -0600

I use a program called mutt for managing my email. A lot of the time, I want to download all of my messages and use mutt offline (for example, when I’m on the train commuting to work). In these cases, I also want to be able to queue email messages to send once I get back online. Even when I am online, sometimes the process of sending the message can take a while (with a large attachment, for example), and I don’t want mutt to freeze while the email is being sent.

Setting up Pelican to Automatically Deploy to GitLab Pages

Tue, 27 Aug 2019 23:58:00 -0600

Warning

This article is out of date, and may contain outdated information.

Since writing this article, I have made a few major shifts in my personal website infrastructure. I migrated from GitHub to GitLab and subsequently from GitLab to sourcehut. Then I migrated from Pelican to Hugo and hosted my website on a Linode VPS for a while before migrating back to GitHub and GitHub Pages.

I posted last year about my switch from WordPress to a statically generated site generated by Pelican by GitHub Pages in a blog post. Since then, my hosting situation has changed a couple of times. I first migrated to deploy straight to a DigitalOcean Droplet from Travis CI. Then, I migrated to GitLab and used GitLab CI/CD to do the same thing. Now that GitLab Pages has support for automatically handling the Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate on custom domains, I’ve moved to GitLab Pages for hosting as well.

London, England and Back Home

Sat, 01 Jun 2019 22:08:00 -0600

Today was my last day of vacation. I flew back to Denver in the afternoon, and I am starting my job at The Trade Desk on Monday which is just two days away! But, that means that I had most of the morning to be in London. So, I decided to go over to Buckingham Palace and then to the British Museum.

Southampton, England to London, England

Fri, 31 May 2019 23:58:00 -0600

Today we docked in Southampton, England. I disembarked as early as possible so that I could get in to London for as much of the day as possible. I did the “self disembark” which basically just meant that I had to carry my bag off the ship rather than have them take it for me. Mom is staying on the boat to go back the other direction to NYC.

Queen Mary 2 Crossing

Fri, 31 May 2019 23:50:00 -0600

Instead of giving you a day-by-day on what we did on the crossing (I was told that it is not a cruise because only lowly peasants would go on a cruise), I’m going to just talk about some of the highlights and make some observations about my time on board the Queen Mary 2. We didn’t stop in any ports, so it was just what we did on board.

Washington D.C. to New York City

Thu, 23 May 2019 22:31:00 -0600

Today we left Washington D.C. Mom and I went by train to New York City, while Hannah and dad headed back to Denver so that dad can get back to work and Hannah can do a summer class for her nursing training.

The ride to New York City was uneventful and easy. We got in a quiet car, which was nice and I was able to sleep for most of the trip. Once we got to New York, we had a bit of trouble getting out of the station. It was a subway and train station combined into one, and there were a ton of different exits. We ended up going out of one which we (really it was me) had to carry our bags up a few flights of stairs. When we got out to street level, we looked across and saw that the other side was a larger exit, and had an elevator. Oh well. At least we didn’t end up on the other side of Manhattan, which could have happened if we’d really screwed up and gone to the wrong exit.

Washington D.C. -- The Air and Space Museum

Wed, 22 May 2019 21:00:00 -0600

I love airplanes, I love spacecraft, I love mechanical things that fly. Airplanes were one of my first and longest lasting obsessions (I’m not sure if my obsession with exhaust pipes started before or after airplanes… I was a weird kid.). Maybe my obsession with airplanes was due to the obscene amount of time I spent on them as a toddler and as a young child. For the two years that my dad worked in Indonesia, my mom and I went between there and the States every few months. I was a United Airlines Premier member when I was two. Regardless of where my obsession came from, I loved airplanes. My mom said she thought that I would be a pilot when I grew up (I am still seriously considering getting my pilot’s license, so maybe that will be true…).

Washington D.C. -- The Museum of the Bible

Tue, 21 May 2019 21:00:00 -0600

Today we went to the Museum of the Bible. The museum houses many exhibits which explain the stories in the Bible, the Biblical manuscripts and their preservation and translation throughout the millennia, the impacts that the Bible has had on societies throughout history, and brings to life some of the stories and places described in the Bible.

I am going to mention just a few highlights of the museum.

Washington D.C. -- The American History Museum

Mon, 20 May 2019 20:00:00 -0600

Today we went to the American History Museum. I’m not going to really discuss the individual exhibits, rather I am going to describe my general thoughts on the overall theme of the museum.

The general theme of the museum was that America was founded on certain principles and ideals. However, throughout our history, we have not lived up to those ideals. The main example of this is the stain of slavery and the legacy of racism against black people in America. Despite our failures, we were a beacon of hope to many people around the globe world. To immigrants from war-ravaged lands, we offered refuge (we did this imperfectly, and did not accept as many as we probably should have at times). To the Allies in WWI, our forces turned the tide and helped bring an end to that terrible war war. In WWII, despite our late entry, we helped the allies liberate Europe, while simultaneously (nearly single-handedly) pushing back the terror of Imperial Japan.

Washington D.C. -- The Holocaust Museum

Sun, 19 May 2019 18:59:00 -0600

We woke up fairly late today because we were quite tired after our long travel day yesterday. Our apartment is very close to a subway station which is a few stops from the National Mall, the big grassy area in front of the Capitol. Our destination for the day was the Holocaust Museum, a tribute to the genocide of the Jews by the Nazi regime before and during WWII.

Denver to Washington D.C.

Sat, 18 May 2019 19:39:00 -0600

Today we left for Washington D.C. I drove mom and dad headed to the airport early this morning (like 04:00). Hannah and I stayed in Denver for the morning so that we could attend a friend’s graduation brunch.

Hannah and I ended up leaving for the airport at around 13:00, arriving at around 14:00, and getting through security with no problems. We had nearly two hours before our 16:20 flight. Unfortunately for us, however, the flight was massively delayed. The incoming plane was stuck in Dallas for a few hours, and could not make it to Denver in time. The plane ended up departing at 18:40 (MST).

Mines High School Programming Competition 2019

Mon, 15 Apr 2019 12:05:00 -0600

For the last two years, the Mines Computer Science Department has hosted a High School Programming Competition modelled after the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC). The Mines ACM Student Chapter does the vast majority of organization and operations for the competition. As Chair of Mines ACM, I was responsible for a lot of the organizational aspects of the competition.

HackCU V

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 23:58:00 -0600

A couple of weekends ago (Feb. 23-24), nearly 30 Mines students (myself included), attended the HackCU hackathon at CU Boulder.

Since the hackathon was so close and since I was driving up to the hackathon, I decided to bring all of my electronics. I brought my desktop, a monitor, my mechanical keyboard, my ThinkPad, my MacBook Pro, my iPad, a Raspberry Pi, and a variety of other assorted cables and electronics. It was a good thing I did, too, since we ended up using all of them during the hackathon.

How to Win a Hackathon

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 22:58:00 -0600

Objectively, I’m pretty good at winning prizes at hackathons. I’m not entirely sure how/why, but I am. In this article I intend to try and describe some of the things which have helped me and my teams at hackathons. Please note that these are merely my experiences. Your mileage may vary.

Facebook Global Hackathon Finals - The Competition

Fri, 16 Nov 2018 22:00:00 -0600

I woke up at 8:00 on Thursday morning. After a quick shower, I went down to eat some breakfast (provided again by Facebook). Then, we got on a bus and went over to Facebook HQ. This is a picture of building 18, one of the smaller buildings on the campus.

Facebook Global Hackathon Finals - Day 1

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 23:30:00 -0600

This morning I left for a hackathon at Facebook Headquarters. I had to wake up at 3:30 since the flight was at 7:50 and I had to pick up Sam and Jack on my way.

We qualified for the Facebook hackathon at MHacks with our Datanium project. Unfortunately, Robby was unable to make it to the finals since he had too many assignments and projects due this week. So we ended up replacing him with Jack Garner who I had on my HackCU team and on my ICPC team.

ICPC Regionals

Sat, 03 Nov 2018 21:04:00 -0600

Today I competed in the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) Rocky Mountain Regionals at Colorado State University (CSU).

ICPC is the International Collegiate Programming Contest. It’s an algorithmic competition for college students. I’ve competed in ICPC three times now, but today was the best my team has ever done. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Some background on what we did.

End of Cruise

Sun, 07 Jan 2018 15:42:00 -0600

Today was the end of our cruise :(

I woke up rather early to go say goodbye to Alex and Eric.

Then we went to eat breakfast. Then we finished packing our bags and then played some ping pong while we waited to disembark. Eventually we just decided to play stupid and just get off because we started to be concerned with getting to the airport on time. It worked, and it was a good thing because once we got off the ship we had to wait in a massive queue at immigration. Still, we made it to the airport with plenty of time.

At Sea

Sat, 06 Jan 2018 23:00:00 -0600

Today was another day at sea. The seas had calmed down, so the ship wasn’t rocking much at all. I spent a lot of time playing ping-pong, swimming, and playing chess (sound familiar). I played one guy who was really good (at least compared to me) rated ~1500. I’m doing well to stay above 1100.

I also tried to help Alex and Eric become better at chess. Hopefully I taught them OK.

At Sea

Fri, 05 Jan 2018 23:00:00 -0600

Today we were at sea. I had a lot of fun, but it isn’t very interesting to write about. I woke up pretty late, but I spent the day swimming and playing ping pong and chess. The waters were a bit rough, but not too bad throughout the day.

This evening was formal night. I dressed up all nice in my suit and tie.

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 23:00:00 -0600

Today we were in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. We disembarked and met our guide. He took us on a short tour of Puerto Limon by car on the way to the zipline. He talked about some of the interesting sites in Puerto Limon and described some of the culture of the city. One interesting fact is that Puerto Limon is the largest port city on the Atlantic side of Costa Rica.

Panama Canal, Panama

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 23:00:00 -0600

Today we transited the Panama Canal. I’m going to first describe what we did and then give you some of the interesting facts that we learned about the Panama Canal.

What we did

Our boat arrived at the Atlantic side of the canal at about 07:00. They opened the bow for people to go outside and watch the transit. We got a pretty good place at the front of the boat.

Cartegena, Columbia

Tue, 02 Jan 2018 23:00:00 -0600

Today we were in Cartegena, Columbia. We only had a couple of hours in the city because tomorrow we are going to the Panama Canal and we need to be “in line” at the canal pretty early in the morning.

Our guide met us at the cruise terminal and took us around the city. Our first stop was at the main fortress: Castillo San Felipe de Barajas.

At Sea

Mon, 01 Jan 2018 23:00:00 -0600

Today we were at sea. I didn’t wake up until late morning, having been up late the last night being miserable because of New Years celebrations.

I spent the day (or what was left of it) swimming, playing ping-pong, and soccer.

Dinner was as usual and we went to play trivia after the show. The assistant cruise director, Alia, runs the trivia and she makes it really fun. She’s even learned my name from the ping-pong tournaments! We’ve been going to trivia when we can, I normally get one or two of the questions, but most of it is about the Beatles and other things that old people know about.

Willemstad, Curacao

Sun, 31 Dec 2017 15:17:00 -0600

Today we were in Curacao, and our tour started at 08:00. The tour today was a tour in the back of pickup trucks which they had put seats and a canopy in. We went offroad for most of the day and since it had just rained, we got pretty muddy.

We started by going over the large bridge in Curacao, Queen Juliana Bridge. This bridge goes over the harbour entrance. Curacao is a major port island. It’s harbour is really good and it has an international airport with direct flights to the Netherlands and other countries every day. Curacao and Aruba are actually Dutch islands, an EU island just miles off the coast of South America. Curacao has a large refinery which refines oil coming in from Venezuela and then exports it to the rest of the world.

Oranjestad, Aruba

Sat, 30 Dec 2017 18:03:00 -0600

Today we were in Aruba, but we didn’t arrive until late morning. I woke up late, so by the time I got upstairs, the daily ping pong tournament had begun. I participated, then I ate breakfast with the Normandeau’s, Alex and Eric’s family.

Then I played a bit more ping pong (you’re probably seeing a pattern here) and then ate lunch. At this point we’d arrived in Aruba, and it was time to get off the boat for our tour: an ATV tour of the island.

At Sea

Fri, 29 Dec 2017 17:59:00 -0600

Since we were at sea today with nothing in particular to do, I slept in quite a bit. I woke up and went upstairs and ate breakfast and then played in the ping pong tournament. I am decent at ping pong, but there are some really good players on this cruise, so I’m happy when I win a game before losing.

Half Moon Cay

Thu, 28 Dec 2017 13:47:00 -0600

This morning we arrived on a private island owned by Holland America Line (HAL) called Half Moon Cay. We arrived at around 8:00, during breakfast.

We disembarked fairly early, so not many people had gotten off the boat yet. We began by walking around on the paths around the island. We came across a garden and the gardener called us in to give us a tour. He was very nice and talkative. He explained all of the various plants and trees that were growing in the garden. One interesting plant was the Seven-Year Apple which produces apples (duh) but it takes seven years per apple! We continued walking and saw some horses and then we went out to the beach.

Ft. Lauderdale, Start of Cruise

Wed, 27 Dec 2017 08:00:00 -0600

This morning we woke up and ate at the hotel. We took a shuttle from the hotel to the cruise terminal. Our driver was a New Yorker and was really funny.

Cruise check in was fairly painless, and we got onto the boat at around 12:15. Our ship is the Zuiderdam, a Holland America Line ship. It is the sister ship of the Noordam, the ship we went on on our first cruise in 2012. It was a transatlantic cruise to Europe (see Transatlantic Cruise).

Denver to Ft. Lauderdale

Tue, 26 Dec 2017 08:00:00 -0600

We are going on another trip! Today we left for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where we will start our 12-day cruise!

Our flight didn’t leave until 4:15, so we were able to finish packing up all of our stuff this morning. Our trip to the airport and flight were uneventful. In Ft. Lauderdale, it took a long time for the shuttle to the hotel to show up, we had to wait for over an hour! We did make it to the hotel though, and we are extremely tired so we are going to bed. Tomorrow should be more interesting.

Setting up Pelican to Automatically Deploy to GitHub Pages

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 09:02:00 -0600

Warning

This article is out of date, and may contain outdated information.

I recently converted my site from WordPress to a statically generated Pelican site hosted on GitHub Pages. One of the most difficult parts of the transition was setting it up to automatically deploy to GitHub Pages. In this article, I will describe how I set this up.

At Sea

Fri, 06 Jan 2017 21:23:00 -0600

Today we were at sea. I woke up really late today: 10:00 late. After breakfast, I went played some soccer on the sports court for about two hours. Then I ate lunch and went for a really quick swim (I didn’t stay long since there were about 50 people around the pool drinking so it wasn’t much fun). I then grabbed my iPad and caught up on my blog writing. After that I went down to trivia. I contributed a few answers so I felt smart. I showered and then we ate dinner. After that we went to a comedy improv show and then to the normal show.

Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Thu, 05 Jan 2017 16:47:00 -0600

Today we were in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. English is the first language in the Cayman Islands, but many people speak Spanish as well since they are in contact with Hispanic cultures on a regular basis. We arrived fairly late in the morning (11:00) and our tour didn’t start until 14:00 (2:00 PM). It was a tender port though, so we had to wait for our tender to get off the boat. We walked around the town for about an hour and then went to the tour company office.

Cozumel, Mexico

Wed, 04 Jan 2017 21:17:00 -0600

Today we were in Cozumel, Mexico. We had to take a ferry to the mainland where we were to meet our driver and go to some Mayan ruins. The ferry left promptly at about 8:00 Mexico Time (meaning it left at about 8:15). When we arrived on the mainland after about a 45 minute ride, we found our driver and she drove us to Tulum.

Roatan, Honduras

Tue, 03 Jan 2017 21:05:00 -0600

Today we were in Roatan, Honduras - an island about 58 kilometers (36 miles) off the cost of mainland Honduras. We had arranged for a driver to take us to a few activities on the island. As we drove around, our driver pointed out a variety of things on the island. Most of the things were “there’s the house of the mayor/governor/rich lady/sister/cousin/etc.”.

Harvest Caye, Belize

Mon, 02 Jan 2017 10:32:00 -0600

Today we were in Harvest Caye, Belize - a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Line. The island has been opened to cruise ships for only 11 days, so we were some of the first people to be on the island.

The first thing we did was go paddle boarding. It was pretty fun. I got to the point where I was able to just paddle on one side most of the time, you have to kinda paddle in a circular motion through the water and it works. Then we went into the ocean for a swim and then to the pool to swim. We ate lunch, and after that, Hannah and I went parasailing.

Costa Maya, Mexico

Sun, 01 Jan 2017 10:21:00 -0600

Today we were in Costa Maya, Mexico. (Yay! Another country on my list of “been there’s”.) Costa Maya itself is not a very big town and the only industry is tourism. It consists of a cruise pier, a multitude of shops where locals set up to sell to the tourists from the cruise ships, and a few houses. The Mexican government is (trying) to develop the area into a large tourism city to compete with the Caribbean ports, but it definitely isn’t there yet.

At Sea

Sat, 31 Dec 2016 10:12:00 -0600

Happy New Years’ Eve! Today was a day at sea. I did a bunch of things today including: playing chess, playing soccer, eating, reading The Art of Computer Programming, Vol. 1, Fundamental Algorithms, Third Edition by Donald E. Knuth, eating, watching the Chelsea-Swansea City game, and watching karaoke.

I could describe the day in detail, but that would be boring, so I won’t. Tomorrow we are in Costa Maya, so that should be more interesting.

New Orleans, LA and Start of Cruise

Fri, 30 Dec 2016 10:00:00 -0600

Today was our last day in New Orleans. This morning we rode the St. Charles Streetcar through the Garden District and this afternoon we boarded our cruise ship: the Norwegian Dawn.

Streetcar

The New Orleans streetcar system is the oldest streetcar system in the world (or maybe just in the United States? I’m not sure). The St. Charles streetcar is the most famous route of the New Orleans streetcar system and that is the one we rode. We got on near Canal Street and went all the way on through the Garden District and a way into the neighborhoods west of the Garden District. The Garden District had some very nice houses. They were old Southern-style mansions with large porches with ornate columns. The windows on the cars were pretty dirty so I didn’t take any pictures, but I’m sure you can find some on the web.

New Orleans, LA -- Day 3

Thu, 29 Dec 2016 18:50:00 -0600

Today we spent the entire day at the National World War II Museum.

There were three main exhibits: an exhibit about the European Theatre of the war and an exhibition about the Pacific Theatre of the war and an exhibit with some WWII planes. Overall, it was a good comprehensive overview of the war. My writing skills can do it no justice so I won’t try. I also didn’t take many pictures, so there won’t be much to this post besides a recommendation to go to this museum.

New Orleans, LA -- Day 2

Wed, 28 Dec 2016 18:50:00 -0600

Today we went on a Segway tour of the city and then went straight to a river boat tour which went down the Mississippi River to the site of Andrew Jacksons stand in the Battle of New Orleans.

Segway Tour

After breakfast, we walked to Decatur street where the Segway tour company is located. We practised riding the Segways in the company’s “office” and then headed out onto the streets.

New Orleans, LA -- Day 1

Tue, 27 Dec 2016 20:30:00 -0600

This morning we woke up to very dense fog. (See below.) I don’t think I’ve ever been in such dense fog for such a long time.

We ate breakfast downstairs and then headed out down Decatur St. (duh-kay-ter) to Toulouse St. (toe-loose) where we met a guide (BilliJo) for a plantation tour. We boarded one bus, but then we had to move to another bus since the first one had some sort of problem. Not a very auspicious beginning to today’s excursion. Eventually we got on a bus and there weren’t any more vehicle troubles.

Denver to New Orleans

Mon, 26 Dec 2016 19:49:00 -0600

Abstract (because I know nobody reads the whole thing anyway)

We flew to New Orleans and walked around the French Quarter.

Today we began another adventure. We began the day in Denver, CO and ended up in New Orleans, LA (pronounced: naw-lens). My day started at 04:00. Yes, that’s 4 AM. Let’s just say I don’t want to have to wake up at 04:00 again any time soon.

Montreal, Quebec, Canada -- Day 2

Sun, 05 Jun 2016 09:44:00 -0600

Today we rode the entire hop on hop off circuit and walked around the Montreal underground city.

Tim Hortons

For breakfast we decided to go to Tim Hortons. It’s the thing to do in Canada. I got a coffee. Because that’s what you do at Tim’s.

Hop on Hop Off Bus

It was raining very hard as the weather report predicted so we didn’t want to do anything outside. (We were extremely glad that we’d done all of the outside stuff yesterday.) The hop on hop off bus was a double decker bus with an open top, but the bottom was covered. We had to walk to the bus stop though, and we got pretty wet doing so.

End of Cruise and Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Sat, 04 Jun 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we disembarked from the cruise and went to a few sites in Montreal.

Disembarkation and Arrival at the Hotel

The disembarkation went smoothly and we were able to get a taxi to the hotel very easily. We were unable to check in to our room, but the hotel stored our luggage and the concierge gave us some information on where to go to get the hop on hop off bus of the city.

Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Fri, 03 Jun 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we went on a walking tour of Quebec City.

Lower Town

Quebec City is divided into two parts, the upper town and the lower town. The dividing line is a tall cliff, so the upper town is literally above the lower town. The lower town is the part of the town closest to the water and therefore closest to the place where we docked.

At Sea (Sailing the St. Lawrence River)

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we were at sea. I managed to stay fairly busy but it wasn’t a very exciting day. I played some chess and ping pong and went to the show, but other than that it wasn’t an interesting day. Tomorrow we are in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada so it should be more interesting.

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Wed, 01 Jun 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we went on a car tour through Prince Edward Island and then we walked around a bit in downtown Charlottetown.

Car Tour

Our guide took us on a large loop around the center of Price Edward Island (PEI). If you think of the island as a U with the straight parts lopped off but fat in the middle, you have a pretty good idea of what the shape of the island is. It takes about 5 hours to drive from one end to the other. We drove around the right part of the “fat” part of the island. We drove north to the North Shore then along the shore before curving back around and driving back to Charlottetown.

Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

Tue, 31 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we went on a bus tour which took us to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum.

Alexander Graham Bell Museum

The Ride to the Museum

On our way to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, our guide talked about a few interesting things about Sydney, Nova Scotia, and Canada in general. (He also said some of this on the ride back, but I’ll just summarise it all here.)

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Mon, 30 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we went to the Canadian Immigration Museum and the Halifax Citadel.

Our original plan was to do a Segway tour of Halifax, but because of the weather, the tour was cancelled. We were very disappointed, but we still had plenty to do today.

Immigration Museum

The first thing we went to was the Immigration Museum at Pier 21, the main entry point for immigrants to Canada. Pier 21 was the Ellis Island of Canada. Pier 21 is right next to the cruise port terminal, in fact, we came into Building 22 so it was super easy to get to the immigration museum. The museum had exhibits on the history of immigration to Canada, the Pier 21 immigration process and an exhibit about the sinking of the Empress of Ireland, the worst maritime disaster in Canadian history.

Bar Harbor, Maine

Sun, 29 May 2016 19:00:00 +0000

Today we were in Bar Harbor, Maine (pronounced Baahh Haahhhbahh). Bar Harbor is know for its lobster but it is also near Acadia National Park.

Bike Tour

We did a bike tour through the park. The park came to be through large donations from John D. Rockefeller Jr. and a few other men. They bought up the land, preventing it from being developed. After cars were introduced to the island, Rockefeller built a road around the entire park and built separate carriage roads where no motorised vehicles are allowed. They were named carriage roads because horse-drawn carriages are allowed. Throughout the park, the car road and the carriage road intersect in multiple places and in those places, Rockefeller had bridges built to ensure that people on the carriage roads didn’t have to deal with cars. Our tour went on these carriage roads. I think it is best to just post a bunch of pictures and let them speak for themselves.

Boston, Massachusetts

Sat, 28 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Getting Into Boston

We got off the boat early this morning because we had a lot of things that we wanted to do in Boston. We took the Subway towards the North End, at the tip of the peninsula that Boston is on. We walked along the Freedom Trail to Paul Revere’s House.

At Sea

Fri, 27 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we were at sea and the sea was very calm so I was extremely happy about that. I was able to do a bunch of activities on the boat.

Morning

We slept in this morning because we didn’t have anything we needed to be up for. After breakfast, I went to help Barry, the Piano Man with an issue with Garage Band. He is composing the score for Shakespeare in the Park and he wanted to duplicate something in another file so I helped him with that.

Hamilton, Bermuda and Set Sail

Thu, 26 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today was our last day in Bermuda.

Elbow Beach

When we were trying to decide what to do today we wanted to really experience island life so we decided to go to the beach. We hopped on the bus that goes to all of the beaches. We received a suggestion from one of the locals on the bus to go to Elbow Beach and we got the driver to let us know when we got to the correct stop. After a short walk, we arrived at the beach. The water was very blue, just like at Church Beach, but it was a much larger beach. We walked in the shallow water along the beach in one direction until we got to a collection of rocks. The waves were breaking hard against the rocks and we were able to stand behind them and watch the spray and get sprayed. Then we walked down the beach the other direction for a little while. At some point I went all the way into the ocean. At this point, it was about time to head back to the ship so we left the beach for the last time in Bermuda.

Hamilton, Bermuda -- Day 3

Wed, 25 May 2016 19:00:00 +0000

Today we went to St. George’s Island.

Town of St. George

To get to St. George Island we rode the ferry to Dockyard and then took the ferry from there to St. George’s Island. On the way there, a tour guide introduced herself to the people on the ferry saying that she offered tours of the Town of St. George. We decided to join her tour.

Hamilton, Bermuda -- Day 2

Tue, 24 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we went snorkeling and watched the Bermuda Day Parade.

Ferry to the Navy Dockyard

We woke up fairly early to try and make it to a snorkeling tour around some shipwrecks. Unfortunately we weren’t able to do the tour, it’s a complicated story of why we weren’t able to so if you want to hear the details, ask me when I get back. We had already boarded the ferry to the old Navy Dockyard though, so we went. The Navy Dockyard is basically a fortress at one tip of the island. If you imagine Bermuda as a fishhook, the dockyard is at the barb (I think that’s what you call the thing that snares the fish).

Arrival in Hamilton, Bermuda

Mon, 23 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we arrived in Bermuda, went to a beach and walked some in the town of Hamilton.

After breakfast this morning, I went down to the library to see if there was anyone who wanted to play chess. There was a guy, David, who wanted to play. He was very good (at least compared to me). He won all three games we played.

At Sea

Sun, 22 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we were at sea and it was fairly rough. The swells were up to 6 metres (20ft). Of course, the ship didn’t go up that high, but it was going up and down quite a bit. Mom spent most of the day in the cabin, only coming out for dinner. I was up more than her. I ate all three meals, but towards the middle of the afternoon it was really getting bad. To cope, I took a Dramamine pill and napped in the cabin. That was most of the day.

Boston, Massachusetts and Set Sail

Sat, 21 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we did a trolley tour of Boston and then boarded the ship.

Trolley Tour

With our Boston Go Pass we got tickets for the trolley tour of the city. We redeemed our tickets yesterday so that we can use them today (the trolley tickets were good for two days but the Boston Go Pass was only good for three days, but Saturday would be our fourth day). We started out a bit later than the other days, and after a Bruegger’s bagel, we went to go catch the trolley. They were stopped at a light in between two stops but the driver/guide let us on anyway. We rode the tour all the way around the city and the guide explained the various sites.

Boston, Massachusetts -- Day 2

Fri, 20 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today we went whale watching, went to the New England Aquarium and the Science Museum and went up the Prudential Building to the observation deck.

Whale Watching

After breakfast we headed to the dock by subway. Our Boston Go Pass allowed us to do a Whale Watching Tour. We boarded the ship and sailed out to an area about 25 miles off the coast where whales tend to be. There were three Naturalists guiding the excursion. They took notes as we went and recorded sightings of any spouts that we saw. They did this because they are, in addition to guides, part of a research project into whales in the area. We spotted the spout of a Fin Whale. We sailed towards it and when we got near, we cut the engines because you can’t track the whales underwater and you can’t know where they will come up again. The whale stayed close to the ship for almost an hour diving up and down. I got a few bad pictures, but I mainly watched it. At times it was a few minutes between surfacing a, but sometimes it was fairly close together.

Boston, Massachusetts -- Day 1 -- Lexington and Concord

Thu, 19 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

TL;DR We went to Lexington and Concord.

Starting Out

Our first order of business after we woke up was to eat breakfast. There is a Bruegger’s Babel store on the same street as our hotel. After a bagel, we rode the Red line subway to Cambridge. We walked over to the car rental place and got our car. Then mom drove up to Lexington (I would have driven, but it’s illegal). Our first stop was the Minute Man Visitor Center. We watched a short film that explained the events of the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

New York, New York to Boston, Massachusetts

Wed, 18 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today was primarily spent travelling by train from New York to Boston. We woke up and got ready to go on the train. Our hotel is literally across the street from Penn Station where we caught our train. We grabbed some breakfast for on the train and then waited for the track to be announced. We got on the train fine and finding seats was not a problem. The ride was fine and I was able to catch up on my blog post from yesterday.

New York, New York -- Day 2

Tue, 17 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Although it’s the 18th, I’ll be writing this as if it were yesterday.

TL;DR today we rode the Big Bus tour bus around Lower Manhattan. Then we walked to the Intrepid Museum. After that we went biked around in Central Park and went to the Rockefeller Complex.

Big Bus Tour

We started our day by getting on the Big Bus tour, the tour we got tickets for yesterday morning. The bus stopped right outside our hotel which was nice. Unfortunately we had no idea the exact location it would stop so we wandered around asking people. We managed to find the correct spot and board the bus. There was a guide who gave information about the sights we were seeing from the bus. He was a New York Native who grew up somewhere near Central Park. We drove past a bunch of interesting sites in downtown New York. Everything from museums and monuments to Wall Street and Broadway. I would elaborate on what we learned, but that would be a lot of writing so I won’t. Besides, judging by the dismal number of views I’m getting on my posts, you probably don’t care anyway.

New York, New York

Mon, 16 May 2016 19:00:00 -0600

Today seemed like a really long day because it was. We started out at 07:45 and arrived back at the hotel at 23:00 (11 PM for those of you who don’t understand 24 hour time).

TL;DR We went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island then to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. Then we did a bus tour/entertainment thing and then went up the Empire State Building.

Denver, CO to New York, NY

Sun, 15 May 2016 20:52:00 -0600

Today my mom and I arrived in New York, New York. We made it through the Denver TSA Security fairly quickly, and got to our gate with plenty of time. We boarded the plane without issue, but I had the fortune of sitting in front of a baby who kicked my seat throughout the flight and screamed when she wasn’t kicking. (Maybe a slight exaggeration, but not much of one.) I was able to plug in my headphones and sleep through a lot of it.

Going on Another Trip!

Sat, 14 May 2016 15:24:00 -0600

To celebrate the end of my senior year, I am going on trip with my mom to New England. We will be going to New York City, Boston and then taking a cruise which goes to Bermuda, back to Boston, and then to Bar Harbor, Maine; Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; Quebec City, Quebec, Canada; and Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A few days of the cruise we will be cruising the St. Lawrence River. We will spend a day or two in Montreal and then fly to Atlanta where we will meet Hannah and spend time with friends and family in Georgia.

Reflections on Trip 2

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 22:35:00 -0600

Finally, four months after my last one, I have another Reflections on Trip post. Some of these are really deep, while others are definitely not.

Multilingualism

On our trip I encountered many people from many countries. I talked to kids from Israel, France, Spain, Lebanon, Mexico, Kuwait, and a few other places. Everyone used English. Even when the Israelis were talking to the Mexicans or the French with the Spanish, they spoke in English. In some regards, I think it’s awesome that I am a native English speaker because I can communicate with a multitude of people. On the other hand, I feel like I am lacking something in not knowing another language. I would like to be able to carry a semi-sophisticated conversation in another language. I know some Spanish, but I feel that I would need to really focus on learning it to become fully conversational in it.

Reflections on Trip 1

Sat, 10 Oct 2015 08:41:00 -0100

As I said at the end of my last post about our trip to Northern Europe I am going to write about some things that I thought about during the trip. Some of it has to do with the particular events of the trip, but some are more generic. This is the first of many of these posts, so expect more later.

Reykjavík, Iceland to Denver, Colorado

Sat, 22 Aug 2015 11:41:00 -0600

Somewhere over Northern Canada: I am in the plane right now and just got caught up on all my blog posts. Transportation to the airport was fairly easy. The man who took us to the apartments yesterday took us to the bus terminal where we caught an airport shuttle to Keflavik International. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed an hour because the plane was delayed arriving. We walked around the shops and ate lunch just to kill time. We also bought food for the plane. We have a driver set up to pick us up from Denver International Airport so I’ll assume that that will work out fine.

Reykjavík, Iceland

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 11:37:00 -0600

Today we did a tour of the Golden Circle, the main sites in the southwest of Iceland. Getting to the bus terminal was a bit interesting. We were driven by the grandpa of the family from the hotel to some apartments. Then we were picked up by a minibus from the tour company which took us to the main terminal where we boarded a larger tour bus.

London, England to Reykjavík, Iceland

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 10:32:00 -0600

I’m going to make this short because I’m behind on writing. Today was a travel day. We went by car from our apartment to Gatwick International Airport. Then we flew to Reykjavík. It was only a 3 hour flight and 1 hour time difference so it wasn’t bad at all.

We had planned to rent a car and drive to our hotel, but mom’s driver’s license expired on the 17th. The man at the car rental office was very nice and gave us tickets on their bus into town (I guess they are both part of the same company). He said that we would take that bus and then a shuttle would take us to our hotel. The bus ride went fine, but when we arrived at the place where we were supposed to get the shuttle, the lady said that they don’t take people to our hotel. We told her that the man at the car rental place had said we could, so she phoned the car rental office. She came back and said that the man was mistaken, but said that since it was their fault they would pay for a taxi. We were very surprised, especially since we hadn’t even asked for anything, the man at the car rental place had given us the tickets just to be nice. A few minutes later, she came back and said “a taxi would take forever to come so this lady will take you herself”. We got our own private 15 passenger van and she took us to our hotel. Her English was very good and we asked her some questions about Iceland, what things she recommends we do tomorrow and the like. We gave her a hefty tip on arrival at our hotel.

London, England -- Day 11

Wed, 19 Aug 2015 15:37:00 -0600

Today we went to the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre and then to the science museum, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll start with the Globe Theatre.

I’ll start by describing some of the things I learned about the Globe Theatre. The area around the Globe had a long theatrical tradition even before the Globe was built. There were theatres in the area when the original Globe was built according to Shakespeare’s design in 1599 (source of date: Wikipedia). The Globe burned down a few times because of its thatch roof and wooden construction. It lay in ruins for hundreds of years until a reconstruction was made in the late 1900s. The reconstruction used the same materials and construction techniques as the original and is actually the only building in London with a thatched roof.

London, England -- Day 10 -- York

Tue, 18 Aug 2015 14:05:00 -0600

Today we went to York, our furthest day trip so far. It took two hours by express train (120 mph I think). The other trips we’ve made have been on much slower trains with more stops.

We began by going to a museum on the history of York. The area around York is full of fossils from various small snail-like sea creatures. There were a few rooms dedicated to the dinosaur age with lots of evolution junk that didn’t really have to do with York

London, England -- Day 9

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 12:30:00 -0600

We started the day by going to the Royal Air Force Museum. It took a while to get there because we had to get off the underground and walk a little ways and then get on a different line and go for another while. Then we had to walk for about 15–20 minutes to get to the actual museum. The museum consisted of four large buildings with lots of planes. Lots of planes.

London, England -- Day 8 -- Warwick

Sun, 16 Aug 2015 01:12:00 -0600

Today we went to Warwick (pronounced war-ick). Warwick is the site of a very old medieval castle. Today, the castle grounds are what I’d call a Renaissance Festival mixed with a real castle. There were all sorts of activities that you could do on the grounds, most of the activities were a bit young or costed additional money. The castle became a palace at some point and changed hands many times. We were able to walk through the palace and learn about the various owners. I found it interesting how many of the royalty in Europe were intermarried at the outbreak of WWI, yet it didn’t prevent the war. Talk about a family feud…

London, England -- Day 7

Sat, 15 Aug 2015 14:01:00 -0600

Today was another full day in London. We started out by going to Greenwich, the location of the Prime Meridian and the location where Greenwich Mean Time is calculated.

Before going to the observatory, we went to the Cutty Sark museum. The Cutty Sark was one of the fastest clippers in its day. It primarily transported tea from Shanghai to London but also made trips to Australia. The boat is elevated so that you can view the underside of the vessel. It is also elevated to relieve the unnatural pressure on the bottom of the boat which was damaging the ship.

London, England -- Day 6 -- Stonehenge

Fri, 14 Aug 2015 11:35:00 -0600

Today we went to Stonehenge. The journey took over two hours. We went by underground to the train station, and took the train to Salisbury. From there we boarded a bus to the Stonehenge Visitor Centre. The displays explained some of the archaeological features of the area. Stonehenge is part of a vast complex of mounds, ditches and other (less impressive) structures. The stones of Stonehenge were erected around 2600 BC, about the same time that the Great Pyramid was built. The structure is an engineering wonder for a people who didn’t have the wheel. As the people who built Stonehenge didn’t have a written language, it is unknown exactly what the structure was used for. There are some clues however, for example, the sun is aligned through the stones on the Spring Equinox. It is likely that Stonehenge was a religious-scientific centre where the ancient people of the area worshipped, gave sacrifices to their gods, and observed the heavens.

London, England -- Day 5

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 13:41:00 -0600

Today we got up fairly early to go to the Tower of London, the castle around which London was built. We began by going to see the Crown Jewels, the Royal collection of precious metals, gems and other Royal items. Many crowns worn by various royalty and some other things like sceptres are on display. The movies sure don’t exaggerate the brilliance of the crowns worn by royalty, One interesting thing about the things on display in the Crown Jewels exhibit is that they are still used today.

London, England -- Day 4

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 12:30:00 -0600

Today we had a late start, about 9:00. We began by riding the underground to Tower Bridge, the drawbridge that everyone thinks is London Bridge. We did the Tower Bridge Experience which took up to the bridge walkways, the ones above the drawbridge opening. The displays talked some about the history and making of the bridge. They had a glass floor where you could look down on all of the people and cars down below. It wasn’t very scary because the glass had little black dots on it at regular intervals.

London, England -- Day 3 -- Bath, England

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 12:29:00 -0600

Today we went on an excursion to Bath, the town built around the only hot spring in Great Britain. To get there, we had to ride the underground to Paddington Station where we got a train to Bath Spa. The ride took two hours. I slept most of the way so I don’t remember much of it.

We started by going to the main attraction in Bath: the Roman Baths. Built by the Romans staring in AD 43, the site was forgotten and silt from the nearby river gradually covered the area after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman Baths were not discovered again until the late 1800’s. The hot springs didn’t cease to function and the area had a lot of activity in between those periods. Initially it was mainly poor people who used the waters for healing purposes, but then the Queen came and was healed of her rheumatism and suddenly, Bath was the place to be if you were anybody. An entire structure was built around the hot spring, but the Roman Baths were not discovered for another few hundred years. After it was discovered excavations commenced. The best preserved Roman ruins north of the Alps (or so claimed our the guide) were unearthed.

London, England -- Day 2

Mon, 10 Aug 2015 14:16:00 -0600

Today was our second day in London. We spent our morning at St. Paul’s Cathedral and went to the British Museum in the afternoon.

After a breakfast of bread, cheese, and prosciutto we went to Shepherd’s Bush station and caught the Central Line to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was pretty obvious where to go from there since the dome of St. Paul’s loomed overhead. We started by using Rick Steve’s audio guide through the cathedral. We began at the entrance and proceeded down the knave (the place where you sit during services). Then we went around the Quire (the area where the choir sits) to the main altar. Behind the main altar is a memorial to the American soldiers who fought to defend Britain during WWII. We then came back around and went up the stairs into the dome itself. The first level is called the whispering gallery because you can whisper to the wall and someone all the way across the dome can hear you. It’s really cool. Then dad and I climbed up to the next level where there’s a good view of London. I climbed all the way to the top and there was an even more spectacular view. I could see all of the main sights of London. We then went back down and got the audio guides provided by the church. We listened to some of that commentary and then proceeded to the crypt. Many famous people were buried down there. The remains of Sir Christopher Wren, the builder of the cathedral, are down there along with memorials to many fallen soldiers and heroes of war.

London, England -- Day 1

Sun, 09 Aug 2015 13:16:00 -0600

Today was our first full day in London, England. We decided to start with a panoramic hop on-hop off bus tour. To get to the bus tour we had to go to Trafalgar Square to get tickets. We went to the Shepherd’s Bush metro/tube/underground station and bought passes. The man that assisted us was very helpful. To get into the subway, you have to touch your card on a sensor (I’m guessing it uses NFC) and a gate opens for you. We took the Central Line to Oxford Circus (which apparently doesn’t have anything to do with a circus) and then transferred to the Bakerloo line to Charing Cross. It was a neat experience, especially for a suburbs boy like me.

Copenhagen, Denmark to London, England

Sat, 08 Aug 2015 22:16:00 -0600

Today was entirely travel. We woke up early, ate breakfast, and headed out to the shuttle to the airport. We flew directly to London, Gatwick airport (not Heathrow). Then a driver who we had hired picked us up and took us an hour and a half to the apartment we had rented using HomeAway (which is like Airbnb). Our dad, who had flown in a few hours earlier, met us at the apartment. After leaving our stuff in the flat, we headed to the grocery store, Tesco, to get foodstuffs for our stay in London.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Fri, 07 Aug 2015 10:08:00 -0600

Today we were in Copenhagen, Denmark. This is our last port on the cruise. We fly out of Copenhagen to London tomorrow.

We began our day by doing a MeMover tour. MeMovers are kinda like a mobile elliptical, but not. I can’t really describe it, so I’ll post a picture that our guide took when we were parked in front of a water feature. Our guide had virtually perfect English and his son, Otto, who made the caboose of our caravan, had terrific English also.

Fredericia, Denmark

Thu, 06 Aug 2015 13:21:00 -0600

Today we were in Fredericia (fred-er-esh-eeuh), Denmark. We got off the boat late because we didn’t have anything scheduled until the afternoon. When we did make it into town, we walked around for a little bit. It is a very nice town, but there isn’t much to see. There were a lot of pedestrian streets and I liked the water features along and in the street. We did manage to buy a new SIM card that will work in Denmark so we can call dad. We bought it from a Sri Lankan in Denmark.

Warnemunde, Germany (Berlin, Germany)

Wed, 05 Aug 2015 12:57:00 -0600

Today we docked at the port in Warnemunde, Germany. We had to go out earlier than normal because 1) we docked earlier and 2) we drove into Berlin which is a 3.5 hr drive. We didn’t have much trouble finding our driver, and the ride into Berlin wasn’t very interesting. We stayed mostly on the autobahn, the (basically) no speed limit highways. The driver didn’t seem to be very experienced, but we didn’t die. He did drive us to the wrong spot in Berlin though. It was his second time in Berlin, so he didn’t know the city very well. Our guide had told the driving company to take us to a certain part of the Berlin Wall, but the company had told our driver the wrong place. It took half an hour or so to find the right spot.

At Sea

Tue, 04 Aug 2015 12:56:00 -0600

Today we were at sea, only sailing. I really don’t want to write all about it, so I won’t. I will tell you that it was fun. Just combine what I’ve described to you about the last few evenings on the ship and add some swimming to that and you have a good idea of what happened today.

Klaipeda, Lithuania

Mon, 03 Aug 2015 12:55:00 -0600

Today we were in Klaipeda, Lithuania. Unlike Tallinn and Riga, Klaipeda is not the capitol of Lithuania. The capitol, Vilnius is 300 km (186 mi) away and the second largest city is in between Vilnius and Klaipeda. Klaipeda is the industrial centre of Lithuania. The large number of container ships was an indicator of this economic status.

Klaipeda was historically German, specifically East Prussian. It was not until the Soviets came after WWII that it became part of Lithuania. All of the German population left Klaipeda (which was at that time known as Memelis) and the Soviets renamed the city to its current name. The Soviets then incorporated the city into Lithuania. During WWII, like all of the Baltic States, Germany invaded and occupied Lithuania. Then, the Soviets came back and reoccupied Lithuania.

Riga, Latvia

Sun, 02 Aug 2015 12:50:00 -0600

Today we took it a little easier than the other days. We didn’t do any tour of the city, but we did ride the shuttle into Riga and walked around. The shuttle dropped us off at the main square called Town Hall Square. The architecture of Riga is a mix of old, Soviet, and modern and the buildings of Town Hall Square demonstrates that perfectly. There was an old structure, the House of the Blackheads, that was built in the 1300s, an ugly Soviet building that housed a museum, and just around the corner was a modern (post-Soviet) building. There is a statue in the middle of the square of a man holding a sword. In ancient times, the sword was used as the geographical centre of the city and all measurements were based off of that point. We then wandered to St. Paul’s church (I think it was Paul’s, it might have been Peter’s though, I can’t remember). It was like many other small town Germanic churches. We continued to wander through various streets and eventually made it to Dome Square named after the domed church which is the dominant landmark in the square. We walked around, took some pictures and ate some Latvian ice cream. Then we headed back to the Town Hall Square.

Tallinn, Estonia

Sat, 01 Aug 2015 12:49:00 -0600

Today we were in Tallinn, Estonia. We arrived in port at about 7:00 and, after breakfast, we went out to meet our guide at about 8:30. Unlike Russia, there was no passport control or anything (which was quite refreshing). Our guide’s name was Siljva (or something like that) it was pronounced like Sill-vuh. Her English was very good and she was very well educated (she is writing her thesis to become a information technology lawyer). She was able to answer our questions much more easily than Maria in St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg, Russia -- Day 3

Fri, 31 Jul 2015 12:47:00 -0600

Today we were again in St. Petersburg. I will start describing today from when we met our guide outside the cruise terminal. We first drove to a souvenir shop where the travel company headquarters was located (it appeared that the sublet space from the souvenir shop). The lady who was accepting payments for the tour said that all of the kids could get 15 Euro credit for anything in the store. (I think that that was so that the parents would stay and spend money.) I got a cool knife with a CCCP (USSR in Russian) symbol on it. It doesn’t seem very high quality, but it is cool.

St. Petersburg, Russia -- Day 2

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:26:00 -0600

Today is our second day in St. Petersburg. After the normal morning activities, we went out to our guide and she took us to a hydrofoil which we rode out to Peterhov (that’s probably very incorrect spelling), the island where the official summer residence of the Czar is located. The boat ride was fine. I don’t remember much but the back of my eyelids though. The first thing we saw on the island was the canal leading up to the palace. We got some very good pictures of the palace from a distance. I will try to post some of them here.

St. Petersburg, Russia -- Day 1

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 12:25:00 -0600

The stereotypes are true. Russia was pretty much as I expected.

If you like Russia, Putin, Socialism, Communism or Obama (specifically his foreign policy or, really, lack thereof), you should probably not read my posts about Russia.

When we looked out into the city from the 11th deck where the Windjammer Cafe is the buildings (they were a kilometer or so away) just screamed communist block housing. They were tall, white, ugly buildings made out of cement. It appeared that they were still making apartments like that in the area because we saw one under construction.

Helsinki, Finland

Tue, 28 Jul 2015 12:22:00 -0600

We woke up at about 8:00 today, ate breakfast, and got ready to get off the ship. Mrs. Coco had booked a kayak tour for us to go see the city by boat. So after the ship docked at about 10:30 we all walked out and met the guide for our kayaking tour. His name was Marti (with a rolled R). We rode by car to the shore of an inlet to the bay where they had already put the kayaks. I went with mom, Hannah and Sebastian (the oldest Coco boy) went together, and Mr. and Mrs. each went with one of the twins: Nico and Sergio.

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 4 and Set Sail

Mon, 27 Jul 2015 09:21:00 -0600

We started today earlier than any of the other days at around 8:00. We headed up to breakfast at the Windjammer Cafe. The food selection was good for a breakfast and the bacon was cooked to my liking, unlike the bacon at the hotel which wasn’t that good. After breakfast, we got ready to go back into Stockholm for the last time.

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 5 and Beginning of Cruise

Sun, 26 Jul 2015 08:28:00 -0600

Today we embarked on our cruise. We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel and then had the hotel staff order us a taxi to the cruise port. The ride was fine and went without an issue. To check in to the cruise ship, it’s like airport check in and security. We had to “check” our bags and at a little stand, it was very easy because we’d already printed our luggage tags. Then we went into another line to go through security. It isn’t quite as rigorous as airport security (we were able to take water bottles through) but it still took a while. Then we got in a new line to get our key cards for the ship. After these three lines (in total they took an hour or so) we boarded the boat. Then we waited forever for the elevator. Eventually we made it in to an elevator and went to the 11th floor where the Windjammer Cafe is. (The Windjammer is the lunch buffet.) By the time we were done with lunch our stateroom was ready to be occupied so we went to check it out and drop off our “cary ons”. We then went back into Stockholm for the afternoon.

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 3

Sat, 25 Jul 2015 12:42:00 -0600

Someone didn’t get up until 9:15 today. I won’t mention his name. (Oh wait, I’m the only guy, oops.)

After breakfast in the hotel, we got ready and went out to the bus stop which was about 100 metres from the hotel. We got on bus line 69 which took us straight to the Historiska Museet, the Swedish History Museum.

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 2

Fri, 24 Jul 2015 11:19:00 -0600

We started this day very late. (I’m sure it had nothing to do with some individuals sleeping in till 9:30… oh wait, that was me.) We ate breakfast which luckily ran until 10:30 and then got ready to go.

We walked down to the central tram station and got on the 7 tram which took us to our first destination: Scansen, an open air museum featuring various Swedish buildings and animals. We started out by walking around a reconstruction of a Swedish village around the 1840s. There was a glass blowing shop, a woodworking shop, a factory, a few houses and a school. One interesting thing about school during that period was that the amount of light dictated the amount of school done because they only used natural lighting. In one of the houses we went into, the guy said that it was the house of a middle class family. There were only three rooms in the house, but the room we were in was the one where you would entertain guests. It had a piano, nice furniture, and wallpaper so that you could make it look like you were wealthy, even if you really weren’t. Things really haven’t changed much have they…

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 1

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 12:26:00 -0600

We arrived in Stockholm at around 12:30 local time. Unfortunately I did doze off in the plane on our way here for about an hour, so I didn’t succeed in my original goal of not sleeping on they flight. I’m going to try and make up for it by staying up until 21:00 tonight.

Two of our bags took forever to come out, but we finally got them and found the train into Stockholm. We had gotten the wrong tickets (Hannah had a pensioner’s ticket) but the lady was nice and told us that both Hannah and I were free and that we should just ask for a refund once we got to the station in Stockholm. The guy at the station didn’t ask any questions and gave us the refund. It was a good introduction to Stockholm.

On Our Way - Reykjavík, Iceland to Stockholm, Sweden

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 11:03:00 -0600

7:26 2015/7/23 Reykjavík, Iceland, 1:26 MST: I am sitting on the airplane getting ready to leave from Reykjavík for Stockholm right now. We have another little kid behind us on this flight. I am hoping to not sleep this flight so that I am closer to Stockholm time (we will be arriving there at 12:30 local time). We will see how that goes.

On Our Way - Denver, Colorado, USA to Reykjavík, Iceland

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 00:02:00 -0600

I am on an Icelandair flight right now writing this post. We are about an hour and a half into the flight. We were able to check in online, so we ended up being fairly early to the airport, but it gave us plenty of time to eat a lupper (Lunch/Supper) at Panda Express. We are currently somewhere over the US still but I don’t know exactly because the flight map is not working for me. Right now I am waiting for the flight attendant to come and ask if we would like drinks. Right now she is having trouble scanning a Discover card for the people in front of us, so it is looking like it might be a while before we get our drinks…

Baltic Cruise and England Vacation Announcement

Tue, 30 Jun 2015 22:31:00 -0600

My family and I are going on a vacation! We will start with a cruise on the Baltic Sea, and then we will spend about a week and an half in England.

I will be maintaining this blog throughout the trip. I will try and write a post every day (though it might be a few days between when I actually post while I am on the cruise as internet connectivity is limited). I will be posting to both this blog and our family blog: basheracademy.blogspot.com. This blog will only contain posts from me, whereas the family blog will contain posts from my sister, Hannah, as well.

Apple Brings Calculus to the Table With Continuity

Sat, 06 Sep 2014 20:55:00 -0600

There is a concept in calculus called Continuity. Basically, if you have a graph without any holes (x values for which y is undefined) or vertical asymptotes (I’m not going to try to explain), it is continuous. With iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, Apple is bringing Calculus to the table with Continuity. (Just in case your head has been in the sand for the last couple of months, Continuity is a feature in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite that makes it easy to move to a different device and work on the same thing. No calculus required.)

The Need for a New Type of Phone

Wed, 26 Jun 2013 18:44:00 -0600

Currently, there are only two kinds of phones. Smartphones and dumb phones. I don’t think that these terms are descriptive enough. Take, for example, the iPhone versus the $14.99 flip phone you can get at Walmart. Obviously, the iPhone is a smartphone and the flip phone is a dumb phone. Now take a phone in the middle of the pack maybe one with a slide-out keyboard but no internet. Where does it fit? Does it qualify as a smart phone? Or is it a kinda-dumb smartphone? Well, my opinion is that that is a dumb phone. Where, then, does the little flip phone come in? Does it get put into the dumb phone category with the phone with the slide-out keyboard? No way! It is a much dumber phone. But that still doesn’t answer the question. Where does it get placed on the ladder of phone categories? Let me propose a new rung on the ladder. A very low rung… Introducing… The idiot phone. Yes, the idiot phone. With this new phone categorization, the problem of how to categorize a flip phone is solved.

Change from Great Britain Settings to US Settings on RPi

Wed, 26 Jun 2013 16:07:00 -0600

One of the most annoying things about the RPi for most of us is that it was built by Brits. Here are a few of the ramifications of this fact:

By default, the trash can is called the rubbish bin. I don’t know about you, but I don’t normally throw things into the “rubbish bin”, I throw them into the “trash can”
I don’t want to use British servers with British language repos when I use sudo apt-get update etc.

How do we make the RPi recognize that we aren’t Brits? Well, we need to change the locale to en_US. Here’s how to do that:

Editorial: iOS 7 shows how Apple is leading mobile computing

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 06:24:00 -0600

Editorial: iOS 7 shows how Apple is leading mobile computing

When they stop complaining, it will be a sign Apple isn’t innovating.

Appleinsider Editorial

This is one of the best pro-Apple, anti-Everything else posts I have seen. It’s probably very biased and I cannot comment on the historical accuracy of all of the claims made in the article, however I will say that it is a good read. (It’s a long article so it’s a good lunch break read, not a coffee break read.)

Access Your RPi Headless

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:49:00 -0600

This post is for people who have a Raspberry Pi (RPi for short) and want to control their RPi remotely, from a Windows computer on the network.

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY YOUR USE OF THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THIS POST.

This guide makes a few assumptions. First, you have installed Debian Linux (or similar) on your RPi. Second, you know how to use the command line to install software and execute a few other commands. If you meet those criteria, you should be able to follow this guide.

Browser Wars: Chrome vs. IE

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 19:10:00 -0600

Yes, you saw that right, I am going to actually put Chrome and IE (Internet Explorer) up together and see which one comes out on top. First however, I must say that I have a bias towards Chrome, however, considering Chrome has 46.60% of the market share 1 (as of January 2014), I am definitely not alone on the Chrome bandwagon. But to the comparison part. Here are a few things to think about…

CrashPlan Review

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:47:00 -0600

I went out and signed up for the CrashPlan 30-day Trial a little over a month ago. I started by backing up about 350GB. (It didn’t finish during the trial, but we - my family - have the lowest connection speed that you can get and still pay money for it. We get a max of 850 Kbps [+/-50 Kbps] up and an average of 1.1 Mbps down.) After the trial, my family decided (on my recommendation) buy the 4 year family plan. The family plan made much more sense than anything else because we have 5 computers in the house that need to be backed up.

Use Custom Themes on the Free Version of ObjectBar

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:56:00 -0600

One of the worst things about ObjectBar Free is that you can’t use custom themes. You are limited to the themes that ship with the free version. When you try to use the theme selector to select a different theme (such as one that you’ve installed), ObjectBar tells you that you have to buy the full version of the program to use the theme. Well, I’m here to tell you that that is not the case. You can use any theme that you want.

Office 2013 Review

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 15:12:00 -0600

A little while ago I downloaded and installed Office 2013 Preview on my PC. Now, with only a few days before the final version shows up in stores I decided to post some of my thoughts on it.

Files First

When you open Word, you immediately see your files.

The first thing that I noticed about Office 2013 is that it puts your files first. On run, Word, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Access all open to a page with recent files, and a view of all the templates that you can use to create a new document/file. (See picture)

3 Tips to Survive Windows 8

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:36:00 -0600

If you got a computer within the past few months, you probably have a computer with Windows 8. If you got one at Christmas, it is almost sure to be one with Win8 (unless the people who gave you the computer intentionally put Win7 on it). Random comment alert, I think that a lot of people who got a new computer for Christmas (especially the less young) were a little disappointed with the loss of their start button. Just a though. Anyway, about survival. Here are a few things that will help you get started with Windows 8.

Why the Search Charm Shortcut is Win + Q

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:13:00 -0600

Ever wonder why the search charm shortcut key is Win + Q? I think I know why Microsoft chose this as the shortcut key. Then I looked at the actual letter “Q.” Notice how it kinda looks like a magnifying glass The circle part is the lens, and the little tail is the handle. I know, it’s a long shot but it sorta makes since…

My Thoughts on Windows 8

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:02:00 -0600

I first saw Windows 8 at my C# class last year (2011-2012 school year) and fell in love with it. Well… not really but… you know what I meant. Anyway, the teacher of the class decided to dedicate the second semester to programming for Metro (Metro is the same thing as Modern UI which is the new user interface on Windows 8). We were required to get Win8 CP (short of Windows 8 Consumer Preview) for our computers for class. So, of course, I installed CP. I had seen Windows 8 before and knew about how it worked so I was whizzing around the Modern UI in no time. I got Win8 Pro through DreamSpark before it even came out. All of this was to say that I have been using Win8 for a long time (in the computer realm, that is).

Day 29: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy - End of Cruise

Mon, 28 May 2012 12:39:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was a sad day we had to get off the boat. We got up and packed the last few items. I went down to the front desk to tell then that we wanted to donate some clothes, they were really nice and said that they would come and pick them up later. After that we went up to the Lido Restaurant for our last breakfast :( We saw Gede, I unfortunately have neglected to tell you any about him but he as been such a neat guy. He always says hi to us every day and he always has a huge smile on his face. He lives in Indonesia (most of the crew/staff is from there except most of the bar people are from the Philippines). He also has a daughter back home that is about the same age as Hannah. I think that Hannah reminds him of his daughter back home. I just can’t explain it besides that I think that he has become almost family to us. He said himself that he feels like we (Hannah and I) are his sister and brother. He is just a great guy. We thanked him profusely for all that he had done and for being like a brother to us. We also saw Jeff’s assistant waiter, Weda and thanked him for being so nice to us and also having a smile on his face at all times. After that we went to our room and packed all the last minute stuff and got ready for our number to be called for disembarkation. It was so sad to leave behind all of our friends but we still have a grand adventure ahead of us. It is a different kind of adventure but at least we don’t have to think about “oh! Am I going to be late for the boat?” I am really exited about being able to see all of the sites that I have read about and see pictures of for myself. When we got off the boat and found our luggage we went outside of the terminal and looked for our taxi driver/guide. He was waiting for us at the other exit but we found him easily. Because we were actually in Civitavecchia we had a hour or so drive to Rome and then we were going to tour around Rome with him until three when we were to check into our apartment. I slept on the way to Rome but as the driver said nothing all the way, I didn’t miss anything. We went first to see the Colosseum. It was raining but the places that we went where mostly inside. I will not bore you on exactly where we went, instead I will tell you a bit about the Colosseum and my thoughts on it. First of all it is huge! In the best preserved parts of the Colosseum the entire thing is not there but even so it is as big as the Pepsi center at least. It’s just plain massive. It was the beginning of modern stadiums, there are walkways around a central seating area that used to hold shops and I bet t-shirts with the best gladiators (just kidding, they didn’t have t-shirts then). The thing about the gladiator stuff is not false though. It was the center of gladiatorial fights. It is awful to think about what occurred in the Colosseum but if all you think about is the marvel of the construction with which it was built it is spectacular. In ways its splendor has never again been matched because though some of our modern stadiums can hold more people they are not made of all stone. And just think, they built all of that with all the heavy stones without cranes or modern building equipment. there was another thing that was interesting about the building and that was that there were holes in between some of the stones and some in the stones. This is because in those places there was iron that had been used in the Colosseum were taken during the middle ages to create weapons. Though in ruins now, it would have been a grand achievement in architecture for its time.

Day 28: Messina, Italy

Sun, 27 May 2012 06:55:00 -0600

Sumner

Today’s port of call was Messina, on Sicily in Italy. We did get to see a neat church and a large bell tower. The bell tower was really neat because it showed the date, time, and the phase of the moon. But the most interesting part of it was the bronze figures that moved. There were some that were set up on circular platforms that went round and round and there were some other figures as well. Unfortunately we were not there for a big display, all that we got to see was one of the figures move their arm. It was really cool. We then walked down a street and ended up at this circular square. I know you are probably thinking “what’s happened to Sumner, has he gone insane? There is no such thing as a square that is a circle!?” yes that is true but it was an intersection that was circular and there were buildings around it. All the facades were curved to the shape of the square. One of the buildings on this square was a shopping mall that had been deserted because of the economic crisis. It seemed recently deserted too, there was a store whose clock was still accurate and running, if that tells you anything about the recentness if the closure you’re doing well. There was a lot of graffiti everywhere but before the crisis I could see it as a nice shopping mall. Well that was about all, we went back to the boat and started to pack :( At dinner we had to say goodbye to Mrs. Anne and Mr. Peter. Let me back up just a bit, I told you before that we have a table that is ours for the whole cruise, well this table is right next to the window above the port (left) motor. It is oriented so that the chairs are perpendicular to the end of the boat. There is another table for two that is only about two feet from the end of our table on the inside (if they were on the other side, they would be in the ocean). At this table Mrs. Anne and Mr. Peter sat on the first or second night of the second part if the cruise and they liked us so much that they too asked to have that table for the whole cruise. We became friends with them and we were sad to say goodbye. They even tried some of the tricks that Jeff gave us which I will show you if you want when we get home. We also thanked Jeff because he was so nice to us all and knew what we wanted for drinks and such. Well, we have to have our bags outside the door by midnight so I should probably get busy.

Day 27: At Sea

Sat, 26 May 2012 06:54:00 -0600

Sumner

Today I will briefly describe our new room.

Day 26: Athens,Greece

Fri, 25 May 2012 19:23:00 -0600

Sumner

Today started off with breakfast and after we had consumed our food we headed out of the ship and hopped on the shuttle to the terminal. There we met our guide and walked to their car. We then rode to the acropolis and parked at a parking lot that was kinda like a valet parking area. She gave the keys to the guy and then we headed off up the acropolis museum so that we could hopefully avoid some of the crowds by doing is before going to the acropolis. Inside we were able to see the many statues that were found in the acropolis area. On the acropolis is a temple to Athena. This temple has some statues with the form of a lady that are used to make the pillars for the temple facade. On one side of the facade he statues have their left leg forward and on the other side they have he right leg forward. Now on the boat there is a hallway that has a little concave opening with statues that are much like he ones on the temple on the acropolis. While at one of the port talks the speaker pointed out that there was one thing wrong with the statues on the boat, this was that the legs on the statues were not different, they were the same. Later that day we were walking past them and saw that they didn’t even have either leg forward at all. There were also many other statues in the museum including the statue of a boy that, for art historians, marked the begging of truly realistic statues. The third floor of this museum had the same dimensions as the Parthenon and faced in the same way. What I mean by this is that on the east side of the inside of the museum had the same dimensions as the actual Parthenon and faced in the exact same direction. Now that in and of itself was interesting but the most interesting part was that the facades were removed from the Parthenon and moved to the museum. There they are displayed on the third floor of the building and in the same place that they were originally on the Parthenon. The front and rear facades of the building that were on the triangle thing above all of the pillars were displayed to the greatest extent possible. In some places however, because the pieces were totally destroyed, there is nothing on display. Around the whole building was a relief of a scene where people were taking offerings up to the gods. It started in one corner and went in both directions meeting on the opposite side where the gods were receiving the gifts. We then watched a movie about the acropolis we went out on a deck that was in the third floor and had a great view of the acropolis and then proceeded onward to he acropolis. It was a fair trek up to the top of the hill but not too bad. Once there our guide went to get our tickets and then we entered the acropolis area. From the beginning it was very neat, almost overwhelming. At the entrance there was an arch and after going thought the arch on the right side was a wall maybe ten or so metres high (about 11 yards). This wall was like a retaining wall around the acropolis. On the ground that the wall is hiding in is a small temple. It is unique because it is the only temple on the acropolis that has columns on only the front and back, not on the sides as well. Back to the entrance in general; although it is in ruins now in its prime it must have been extremely spectacular. Even now it’s scale is immense. After going through the columns we got our first view of the Parthenon. I was expecting it to be in a very ruinous state but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t that bad considering that it is almost two thousand five hundred years old. They have done a good job restoring it and it is now to he point where you can get a good idea of what the Parthenon looked like. Of course all that you can see are the columns on the outside as well as some of the inside wall that held the statue of Athena. Four of the columns are not completely restored but all of the others are. In most places also the blocks of stone over the columns are in place as well. He friezes on the triangular part of the front of the building are gone. They were taken from Athens to Britain by the Earl of Elgin (he is not popular among the Greeks). Only a few parts remained in Athens and are displayed in the acropolis museum. On the left of the Parthenon about fifty to seventy five metres is the Old Temple of Athena. This temple is the one with the ladies that are columns. From the acropolis we were also able to have a great view of the city of Athens. It is a city that is very flat without many big, tall buildings. From this point also we could see the ocean, this is rare because of the pollution cloud normally hovers above the city of Athens and blocks the view of the sea. We then walked back to our car and got the key back from the buy who had parked the car. Now the key was broken to begin with, it was broken when she had tried to get a copy of the key at a shop, she had the copy though. When she tried to put the broken one it it wouldn’t turn. This is because the plastic part of the key was separated from the metal part so she couldn’t get any leverage. She honked for he guy and there was a long discussion, then hey tried the other key. It didn’t work because it had not been made exactly correctly or something because the car I think could tell that it wasn’t made by the car company and it had been copied. It then made it so that the car couldn’t start. We stood around for a while and then she told us that we would change our plans a little and let the men around the car fix it while we went to eat. We went to a nice restaurant and had some good food though it was really expensive. When we got back to the car and found that it wasn’t fixed she tried frantically to find another car. Eventually we left the car and went and got on a bus that she had gotten for us to ride around in. Now, this bus was one of those fifty person tour busses that we had to go on for a few of our excursions and it was kinda amusing because we had it all to ourselves. Four people in this enormous bus. We kept on joking that we might be in someones way. Of course by this time it was an hour before we wanted to be back at the boat so we didn’t get much more touring. We did take a peek at the original modern Olympics stadium, he one that was used when Greece held the first modern Olympic games. Then we went back to the boat and, since I had nothing to do after dinner I caught up on my blog.

Day 23: Ephesus, Turkey

Thu, 24 May 2012 19:24:00 -0600

Sumner

Today’s port of call was kusadasi (koo suh dah see), which is the port where cruise ships dock to get to Ephesus, Turkey (ehf-uh-sis need I tell you how to pronounce the second word?) Anyway we had to get up early to go off the ship, six o’clock or so. When we had eaten some breakfast we proceeded down to the pier and met our guide. We walked through this little “village” that was covered. It was more of a tourist trap than anything else. It was made to have a village type feeling but it was all tourist shops. Our guide said that the shops there were only opened for the high tourist season and then in the winter the were closed, during those times it is like a ghost town. After walking through there we went on to the car and made our way to Ephesus. We decided to try our best to avoid the crowds by going to a temple turned into church. It was originally a temple to the gods and then it was taken over by the Christians and turned into a church. It was so cool to see. In places they had recycled the stone. One such place was in a wall where they had taken a broken capital from a pilar and inserted it into the new wall. The area of this temple is a big religious are because from one point you can see a pagan temple, a church, a mosque, and if you go over a hill there is a synagogue. They haven’t found the synagogue but it is written about in the Bible. The nice thing about this temple was that we didn’t have to deal with anyone else in the ruins because all of the tour busses were elsewhere. After walking around the ruins for a little while we went to a mosque and looked around. And then we got back into the car and went to the main ruins of Ephesus. It was really crowded but it was really cool to see the very places where Paul the Apostle went and preached. We saw two theaters, a library, toilets as well as many other ruins. There I will only tell you about the theaters, the library and, the toilets. Both of the theaters were built into the side of a hill and were pretty big. One was only for plays and the other was mainly for gladiatorial fights. The bigger one was the one in which they had the fights and the smaller was for plays. Both had the half circle shape. We also saw the facade of the library. It has had to be restored but it still looks really grand. We got some pictures by it but unfortunately I think we got more of a picture of the other tourists than the building it was just so crowded :). We also watched some sort of a gladiatorial reenactment on the road that leaded to the sea from the theater. The ancient Ephesus that we were able to see used to be the port, but he river silted up so much that it is now six miles from the sea. It was actually not he first port of Ephesus because it used to be even further inland until they moved it to the place that we went to. After seeing the ruined city we went up a hill to a place where the Catholics believe the Virgin Mary lived for the last years of her life. It was more like a shrine to Mary than anything. We were respectful as we walked through but it really didn’t have any significance to us. There was also this water that was declared holy or something by some pope sometime. We had some and it was supposed to have healing properties. It didn’t do anything but quench my thirst. Then we went to a pottery selling place. They showed us the process that they use to make the pottery and then the guy who showed us opened a door to show us some of their works (aka buy some of these things). We bought some small things and then went back to the van. We also went to this carpet weaving place and were shown how the Turkish carpets are made. He showed us the cocoons and how they were woven into stings. He also showed us some of the weaving techniques that they use to weave the cloth. He then said, after explaining the whole process that he would show us some of the carpets that they make but mom politely said that we just came to see how it was made and not to buy carpets. Now we were expecting it to be any uphill battle to get him to leave us alone but we were pleasantly surprised that he kindly said thank you for coming and let us leave. That was really nice for mom. Anyway we made it back to the boat and I tried to catch up on my blog. I’ve had a lot more time to blog because I don’t have anyone to hand out with at night so that is I guess good considering we have so many sea days.

Day 24: Santorini, Greece

Wed, 23 May 2012 19:25:00 -0600

Sumner

Today started out pretty early because we sailed into the caldera of the Santorini volcano this morning. We were allowed on the bow to see the arrival into the area. Because Santorini doesn’t have any port remotely big enough to take a cruise ship we had to anchor out in the middle of the caldera (cah-ul-dare-uh) and ride the tenders into the port. Mom didn’t like the ride in the tender but it wasn’t too long. We met our guide right as we got off the tender and went together to the cable car. It is much like the ski gondolas a home, just not so sophisticated. It was six of them grouped closely together on either end (top or bottom) one goes on the right side and the other on the left and they alternate places. If that confused you that’s ok because I’ve confused myself trying to describe it for you. Anyway once at the top we walked maybe fifty metres or so, if that and then waited as our guide went for her car. We went first to the village where all of the pictures of Santorini are taken. This village is very pretty and has the best views of anywhere on the island. All of the roofs are blue and the rest all of the buildings are white. These homes used to be the homes of the poor while the rich lived on the top of the hill. They are now the most expensive hotels on Santorini. The reason that these homes started out as homes for the poor is because they were caves to begin with and then expanded out on the side of the cliff. It was so serene. We walked all the way to the end and then went to small castle that is now a tourist lookout where you could see almost the entire caldera (the fog obscured some of it), the cruise ship, the old port as well as many other things. While you admire the view I will pause a moment to tell you some about the history and shape of Santorini. A long time ago, as in like three thousand years, Santorini was a large circular volcanic island. Then it blew up so that it went from being a large mountain to three islands in a few seconds. It blew volcanic material up something like twenty six kilometers or something (16 miles). Regardless it was in the twenties of kilometers which is really high. Santorini is the biggest of the islands and is shaped like the letter C. There is another island in between the ends of the c and one in the center that has come up recently… Only in the last thousand years or so. This middle island is the new vent for the volcanic activity. Kinda like Mt. Saint Hellens has a new small pile of material in the center of the crater Santorini has a new one in he middle of the caldera. Aft driving around seeing all of the other main sites we stopped at a place called Akrotiri (ak-row-tear-ee). Akrotiri is considered the best preserved prehistoric city in the world. It dates back to two thousand BC and some parts are believed to be from three thousand BC. That’s four to five thousand years old!!! It was kinda funny because some of the people from our boat, Mrs. Irene and Mr. NAME, and another couple who they had met who were also from Denver (Mrs. Irene and Mr. NAME are from Denver) joined our tour for Akrotiri. Of course they tipped nicely and it wasn’t much trouble for Georgia (that was the name of our guide) so we let them come along. Throughout the whole tour we at times had people try to tag along with us because they wanted to hear what Georgia was saying. It must mean that she is a good guide. The city that was uncovered by the archeologists is pretty large. It was probably about one hundred metres by ninety metres (110 yards by 100yards). And all of it was very well preserved considering that it is at least four thousand years old. The walls were intact and still standing, of course they were not complete but you could tell that they were once walls. There was a sewage system and the homes had running water and toilets. Very advanced for the time. We were able to see tubs as well as pots in which they stored goods. All of which were extremely well preserved surprisingly. I can’t describe everything that we saw but I will tell you that it was very neat to see such well preserved homes from so long ago. The last thing that we did is go to the black sand beach. This beach has black sand made from the volcanic material. It was like nothing that I have ever seen. Even though it wasn’t very hot today, the sand was *very *hot. I can’t imagine what it would be like if it were something like a hundred degrees Fahrenheit (about 37 degrees centigrade). That was about all that we did today but I will tell you about one of the tricks that Jeff, our waiter at dinner gave us. Ok let me back up just a bit and fill you in. We have open seating at dinner, but we like our table a lot and I think that they like us so they let us reserve the table for the whole cruise. Anyway the waiter for the table that we have is Jeff and his assistant is Weda (mom thinks that there is an e at the end instead of an a; I disagree). We have become friends with them and every night Jeff has show us a trick or little puzzle. Today he had a puzzle involving two glasses and a blueberry. One glass was smaller than the other, this one was set upright. The other one was put upside down and the blueberry was put under it inside the cup. Now this wine glass that was upside down was oddly shaped. The opening was smaller than the rest of the glass. The goal of the puzzle was to get the blueberry from under the big glass to the little glass. You could only touch the big glass and it also had to stay upside down. It took me about two seconds to figure it out. All you do is ***** *** ***** ****** *** *** ************ ***** ** **** ** ** ** *** ****** ** *** ***** **** **** ** **** *** ******* ***** *** *** *** ********* ****. I blotted that out so that you can figure it out yourselves if you want. I’ll show you once we get home. That was basically the day so I will leave you to wonder what the answer to the puzzle is.
~Sumner

Day 23: Olympia,Greece

Tue, 22 May 2012 19:22:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was an early day because we had to get up early because we were to meet in the Vista Lounge at seven fifteen for our shore excursion. This is because we did a shore excursion that the ship offers where we go to Olympia and to a museum. We were on Holland America Line tour six. (as if you really needed to know that) and when we got to the bus we saw one of the leaders for Club HAL, Kate. She was going on the tour also. They have to pay to go but it is greatly discounted. The catch is that you kinda have to help to keep track of everyone in the tour. We had an excellent guide for the tour, her name is Olga. She really knew her stuff and gave a great commentary all of the ride from the port town to Olympia. She had written a book about Olympia and was in the process of getting it published. We were kinda worried because a lot of people had said That Olympia is just a pile of rocks on the ground, it might have been if you didn’t have a guide to take you around and explain what you were seeing but with the guide it was very interesting. He place must have been magnificent in its prime. A true sports complex. We saw a training arena where the athletes were instructed by their coaches. Of course only the foundation and a few columns are left but it was neat to stand on the very spot where athletes were once trained. We then went to a place where the wrestling competition was held. One interesting thing about this building was the flor. It was made of tiles with little channels going longways down the tile in it there was sand which was the indication of how many matches you had lost. He more sand you had on you, the worse you were doing. We then headed on through a hall which had on both sides, columns lining the way. Of course only the ruins of the columns are left but as with all of the buildings of Olympia, they must have been spectacular when they were new. We then passed a memorial that Philip the Great built in the middle of Olympia. When it was built it showed not only political power but also displayed religious power. This is because Olympia was a religious center as well as physical and the Olympics were spiritual as well as physical displays of power. Near this was a fountain this fountain held many different statues that had been removed to a museum for protection. We then went through an arch into the race track. As I was walking through the arch I realized that there is truly not anything new under the sun. It was just like our modern tunnels that the athletes come out of before a game. I am sure that it was much the same then as well. Once out of the archway we were in the running track. There were sixteen or eighteen blocks on the ground probably a yard and a half in width (1.3 or so metres probably). These were the starting blocks for the runners. The way that they made it fair and made sure that no one gets a head start they had a pulley system in which a wooden board was held above the ground so that the runner couldn’t get out. The ropes that held the board were held by someone else behind them and when the signal was given the ropes were dropped and the runners went off. As the boards hit the stone they made a large racket, much like the modern pistol shot. Hannah and I lined up and then had a race, not all of the way but some of the way down the track. I won. We then got back on the bus and went to the museum. We stopped at a shop for a few minutes and had a sandwich and then proceeded to he exhibits of the theater. We went first to a room that had the pre-Olympian artifacts. Statues, clay figures etc. We then kept on going and getting more advanced in time and ended at a place with a large statue of the god Nike. Nike was the god of victory. Here also were two helmets, one of the Persian army and the other of the Greek. This was because in the first Punic war during the Battle of Marathon, The Greeks routed the Persians as they were trying to get organized after they landed. We then went to the second best exhibit; the removed statues from the fountain. I won’t bother describing them all to you because one you’ve looked at them for about ten seconds at the most you are done. More interesting however was the last and best exhibit; the facades from the temple of Zeus, the head of the family of the gods. Before we saw this exhibit we looked at a model of the building that they statue of Zeus was held in. The statue of Zeus must have been almost overwhelming because it looked like if he stood up he would bust the roof. We were able to see the two facades of the building. One side had a battle of men versus centaurs, half man half horse. This was symbolic of the battle between men and barbarians. The centaurs because they were thought to be half beast are represented by the centaurs. The other facade is of the birth of Athena. The myth is that Zeus had a headache and so his son took a two sided axe and opened up his fathers head and out of it came Athena, in full armor and fully grown. She is the god of war, wisdom, and love (I think). After that we went back to the bus. The ride back consisted of black, yes I slept all the way. Tonight was formal night and during dinner Jeff showed us a trick with corks. They are so hard to explain in writing that I won’t even bother, you can ask me when I get home to show them to you.

Day 22: Corfu, Greece

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:21:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we stopped at a Grecian island called Corfu. It is in the middle of the Aegean sea, as most Greek islands are. The first thing that we did is get off the ship. Profound statement, eh. You know I think that I’ve been around Canadians to much… Anywaay we had to tender from the boat to the dock. I was perfectly fine all the way but mom didn’t fare so well, she was very glad when the ride was over. Anyway we got out and our taxi guide was right there at the dock. His name is Spiero (I think). The first thing that we did is drive thought the town of Corfu and then drive up through a mountain village and to a great lookout point. Over this point you could see a large part of the island including Corfu town and the first mountain town that we went through. As well we could see our ship and a few islands off the coast. We then made our way thought the mountains seeing all sorts of nice villages. In one there was a church that was about three metres across at the front (a little more than 3 yards) and maybe ten metres deep (we kept on going and on the way Oma took a lot of pictures of the olive trees. You could tell which ones were and weren’t taken care of. The ones that were small and pruned were the ones at we taken care of. They pruned them because they produce bigger olives that way. The ones that were large and looked almost like a wad of vines were not taken care of and had small olives. It was kinda funny because the ones that weren’t pruned back and that hung over the street would drop heir olives and when the cars went over them it would make the roads very slippery. At home we have snow and ice to make roads slippery but there in Corfu they have olive oil to make their roads slippery. We hen arrived at another lookout from which you could see a beach. There weren’t any people on the beach. It was a great day for sightseeing because there was some cloud cover and it was just right as far as temperature. We drove through a few other villages one of which we got out of the car and walked around in. The streets in this town literally just footpaths. We wandered around for a little while and even had a conversation with an old woman. It was all Greek to us, all English to her. We did have one word in common, salad. Anyway we went in our way and as we drove a few time Oma got out and made some pictures of the olive trees. She made at least forty probably. Anyway we came eventually back down the mountains after going through some other villages and made our way way to the

Day 21: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Sun, 20 May 2012 18:16:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we came into the port of Dubrovnik at around six or seven o’clock. We literally went right next to the shore, not more than one or two hundred yards away, we were able to see the houses and all which was really pretty. They were all close together and so quaint. We saw all of this from our table at breakfast and after we had eaten we got of the boat to meet our guide. Her name was Tanya. The first thing that we did is go up to a lookout point where we could see all of Dubrovnik. On the way to he top of this hill we went up a one way road that was used as a two way road. It felt like we were back in Vietnam driving to Ba Be Lake. At least our driver didn’t play chicken on the road, they would pull over and let the other pass instead of just going for it. Anyway from the lookout point we could see, on the water side, four islands, three of which were inhabited, as well as the old town and most of the rest of Dubrovnik including a Costa ship, it wasn’t crashed, listing on its side. On the other side of the hill was a stretch of about a mile (that is close to two kilometers and because I am just guessing you can use that if you like the metric system. I will try to remember to also use the metric system in my writing because I realize that this is definitely an international audience that is reading this blog. Just a side note; this trip has really made me respect the metric system a lot, it makes so much more since than our “standard” system) wide walking but maybe half a mile (close to a kilometer) as the crow flies. And then Bosnia & Herzegovina started. If you looked down the coast about ten miles (16 kilometers) you come to Montenegro. I know the ten miles stuff because I had read somewhere that Bosnia & Herzegovina has ten miles of coast because of some treaty that said that they had to have that much land on the coast. During the war between Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina (I’m going to call it B&H from now on because it is much easier to type) B&H shot missiles from where I told you that B&H started into Dubrovnik. This war occurred in the nineties, a few years before I was born so not in the very distant past. You could tell which of the houses in the town were hit because of the roofs, if they were hit they had very bright new reddish tiles but if they were old the roofs they where brown. Most of the houses were hit by either a direct missile shot or by shrapnel form the missiles. We then made our way down to the old town. On the way we had to stop because someone was pulling out of their parking spot. We backed up just a little to let them out but there was another car behind us that came from behind and hit us!!! No damage was done except in think that mom almost had a hart attack. The drivers got out of the car and started yelling. Obviously they agreed to go down and stop in front of the old town. When we got there the other guy came out and started yelling. I was glad that I don’t know Croatian because it didn’t look pretty our guide was not pleased that he did it in front of guests (us). Anyway we let our driver, the other driver and the police man sort it out. The entire old town was surrounded by a wall that was, I think she said a hundred or more feet (30 metres) tall and, at points, sixteen feet (5 metres) wide. These walls withstood the missiles of the B&H army in the war, it just scratched the walls but it was so well made that it was fine. We walked first across a bridge and a small draw bridge into the town. We walked down the streets and it, except for all of the tourists was very nice we really enjoyed it. There were some nice little churches and shops. They were shops on the bottom but the tops were residences. We came to the main square and then went into the church there. It was baroque in style and it had a modern front altar because it had to be repaired because of an earthquake I think. In the middle of the square was a statue of someone, I think a prince that defended the city from someone sometime but don’t take my word for that. We then walked down the main road. There were all sorts of small alleys in all directions that were so nice and of which we took many photos we then turned and went through another square. In this square the was a market and we stopped and bought a bag of sweets, nuts, dates, and orange peels covered with sugar. Then we turned to a street leading back in the direction that we had come. On this street we stopped and Tanya went into the shop and came out with a traditional sweet. It wasn’t very sweet, typical of most of the world except us Americans. It was kinda like not sweet donut holes. At the end of this street was the old port. This port is now used for private boats as well as for cruise ships that tender from the ship to he dock. We walked around for a few minutes and then we went back to the van to go to one of Tanya’s mom’s friend’s house. One of the options for the tour was to go eat with a local family and so we took up the offer. The family was so nice, there were three generations there, the girl could speak excellent English, her mom could speak pretty well but the dad couldn’t. The grandparents couldn’t speak much at all but we had our guide to translate. The funny thing was that they grandpa spoke German and so he and mono communicated in that language because mom lived in Germany for four years and she knows German. The appetizer consisted of smoked ham and a cheese that tasted like Parmesan but a little stronger. Then we had a homemade noodle soup, the noodles were handmade and they grew the carrots as well. It was very good I had an entire big bowl of it. Then came the main dish. It was really interesting how they prepared it. They used a traditional method of cooking food in which they had a huge cooking instrument that was about two and a half feet wide (70 cm probably; just an estimate on that) and four inches high (10 cm). This vessel was flat on the bottom and in it they put lamb, veal and potatoes then they put this in the area of the fire but not on the actual fire. Then they used this bell shaped thing to cover it and they put coals on top of the bell as well as round it to cook the food. After two or more hours it was ready to eat. It was really good expert it was just too much. For desert we had this thing that was like crém burle and another desert that was [FIGURE OUT]. Then we talked about their lives, what they did for a living besides rent parts of their house and do what they were doing for us today, where they went to school. We told them about ourselves. There was an instrument on the wall and we inquired about it they turned on a traditional song and it used that instrument in it. As we were listening to it all of a sudden the grandma and the dad were up dancing! Mom described it as looking like a traditional Greek dance. After having the windfall meal we made our way back to the ship. Today there was a church service and so went to that before our dinner. Before that though I played a few games of ping-pong with Angus. I actually beat him once (he beat me three times though). In between he service and dinner I talked to Noah and Elijah’s mom about what we had done for the day and then watched put the window as we left the port. After that nothing much of interest happened, the boys were just going to dinner as we were coming out so I have just been trying to write this blog post. I am glad that I have some time in which to do this through because Dubrovnik is such a neat city.

Day 20: At Sea

Sat, 19 May 2012 18:14:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was my first sea day that I didn’t have Colton to hang out with. Luckily however I found some other boys that are nice. It just wasn’t the same t I still had fun. The first thing that I did was go to the meet and greet hosted by the cruise critic people. At the beginning one of the crew members spoke and hen people got up and started to make announcements. Mrs. Irene asked me if I wanted to make an announcement, meaning of course about having an iPad class. I made an impromptu announcement. And I sat back down with an iPad class at three. Then I went to find someone to play with. I found Noah, Elijah, Logan, and Hannah in the Lido Dining Room. We decided to go play chess on this big board with huge pieces we played Noah, Elijah, and me against Logan. We got into a stalemate. Then we played another game “Go-For-It” style. We kept on attacking with our king and we were doing pretty well until we realized that the king was kind in danger without anywhere to go for protection. We lost that game. At that point I had to go and do my iPad class. A lady came to me and said “So what are you going to teach me?” she got out her tablet/computer (she had an Android tablet with a keyboard attached. I had never seen one but like I told Mrs. Irene later I think I looked intelligent enough, anything that I did was more than she knew. That took up the first part of the class and then I helped out Mrs. Irene a little bit. She has three different accounts, and it’s a mess figuring out what has what and which one has anything etc. with no Internet connection. I found the boys again in the Lido Restaurant and we decided to go swimming. Only Elijah Logan and I got in. Then they had to leave and I played a game or two of ping-pong with a boy named Angus. He’s an Australian and he’s good at ping-pong he won. Twice. Anyway then I went back to my room to get ready for formal night. After dinner I saw the boys going to dinner but on the way we stopped to listen to a string quartet. They’re from Russia and played some songs that I think Hannah has played before. Anyway, after that I went to the Loft to see if anyone would come. No one came but I played games with the leader until bedtime.

Day 19: City that Starts with a "C" (Civiteveccia); Start of Second Part of Cruise

Fri, 18 May 2012 18:13:00 -0600

Sumner

So today we were docked at a port which I won’t tell you the name of because I can’t even spell it let alone say, or pronounce it. I will tell you however that it is close to Rome so I will just call this port Rome for simplicity sake. In this port one cruise starts and another starts, like I told you about in the last post. Therefore we had to get up early to get packed up to move cabins (if you recall, we are upgrading to a room with a balcony/verandah). I wnet looking for colton to say goodby to them, I couldn’t find them for a while but then I found them and was able to say goodbye. It has been nice for the past few weeks to have someone to hand out with on the ship and so I was pretty sad to see them go. Luckily I have their email so we can stay in touch. It will be hard to find someone to take their place as boat-friends but it doesn’t matter so much for this part because there are a lot of ports and not so much time on the ship. Then we had to wait a while they got our room ready. After our room was ready and they had already moved our luggage in we came in and out our stuff down. Next we went up to the Lido Deck for lunch. As we were eating we looked out the window and watched all of the people come in. At one point a family with two boys, Noah and Elijah, we assume that they were Christians because before they ate they prayed, I never got to really ask them. Anyway, Noah is fifteen and Elijah is thirteen. Another family also came in with kids, one is named Hannah (I don’t know if she spells it with an “h” at the end or not). She is eleven. Her brother name is Logan. He is fourteen and looks about sixteen or seventeen or so. The girl as well looks older than she really is, she looks to be about fourteen or so but as I said she is only eleven. After lunch mom and I went to go see a talk about some of the ports that we are going to in the Vista Lounge. It was by the official travel guide along with another lady and all that they did is advertise the ships shore excursions. We were a little surprised because the other talks that he had done were actually interesting, not just “Oo ah, buy our shore excursions, yay”. Anyway at right I went up to The Loft to see if any others would come. It was just me and her leader for most of the time, one girl, from the Philippines came for half an hour, maybe fourty-five minutes, somewhere around that. We just played some games and then when Hannah was done with her stuff we went back to the room and got ready for bed.

Day 18: At Sea

Thu, 17 May 2012 18:12:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was an at sea day. Nothing much happened of too much interest so I will describe our plans for the rest of the trip. Our next port is C-something (I can’t remember the actual name). Here one cruise starts and another ends. This is because there are actually two cruises that we are going on, a sixteen day one and then a ten day one. So far we have completed the sixteen day one and will continue on the ten day one. Unfortunately the Baldersons are not coming on the next part of the cruise so I will not have much to do each day, not that that matters too much because there are a lot of ports that we are going to in the next part of the cruise. I will still miss them though to have something to do in the spare time that we do have on the ship. So I told you guys earlier that I have been doing some Club HAL activities. I am actually too old to do those activities as it goes up through twelve. There is a teen group, of which I am the only member right now but in the next cruise there will be fourteen other teens. Tomorrow or maybe it is day after that I will go to the meeting and see if I like any of the kids and if they’re jerks or not. I definitely won’t be able to go to any Club HAL activities though. Oh well. Anyway the next cruise ends in Rome and Oma will stay with us there for a few days and then she will fly home and dad will come over to join us. We will stay in Rome for a few more days and then go on to Florence, Venice, and I think another city that slips my mind at this time (I have a lot of times that that has been happening as I have been writing this blog, maybe it is because I am writing this at **:**pm. hey last night I was up ’till *:**pm [dad don’t read the part that you just read]). Anyway eventually we we will reach Germany and dad will fly home, the rest of us will go and visit the town that mom and dad lived in for four years in Germany back before Hannah and I were born. Then we too will fly home to all y’all. Unless of course you live somewhere else besides Denver, Colorado. Well I about to have some nice views of the back of my eyelids so see ya!

Day 17: Barcelona, Spain

Wed, 16 May 2012 18:11:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we went to Barcelona (bar-sell-oh-nuh or if you want to say it in the Catalan (cat-uh-lin) language you say bar-th-eh-loh-nah). Barcelona is in an area of Spain called Catalan. In this area the Catalonians live (I say that as if Russians live in Catalan). Anyway, Catalan is almost separate to Spain it has it’s own government, flag, language, as well as many other cultural differences. In a way you can compare Spain and Catalan to the relationship between Canada and Quebec just more extreme differences. OK, next subject: The ship came in at ten o’clock to the port of Barcelona and we got off the boat. We were supposed to meet in the Placa Sant Jaune (I think that is Catalan for Saint Jhon Plaza) for a guided bike tour. It was about two or so kilometers to the plaza and we had about twenty minutes to get there. We tried to get a taxi but they didn’t want to take us for such a short distance, they could make more money if they did taxi tours so they directed us to a shuttle bus that took us to the Columbus monument. From here it was about a kilometer to the square. Once at the square we had some trouble finding the correct company that we were doing the tour through. We went to the first company and gave them the papers. They said that we were at the wrong place so we went to another company that had their meeting place in the same square. They looked at the papers but they were not the right company either. I went to go see if the last company was he right one, they weren’t. The second company helped us and called the number on the paper for us and after a while he told us that it was the first company that we went to that was the correct one. Once that was sorted out it was pretty straight forward from there. We were directed down a little street to the shop to get our bikes. Then we went back to the square. There were twenty-four people so they split us up into two groups. We were with the girl, she was from Canada. We learned about the square before we went on our way. The square had two significant buildings, both were, and are, important to the Catalan government. After learning about those buildings we rode down some small streets and got to the palace, the very palace, where Columbus went to ask Isabella and Ferdinand for money to go find a westward route to India, of course we all know what happened then, he found a whole new continent, the Americas. Then we rode down some really nice streets and eventually we got to the Sagrada Familia. This building is the cathedral of Gaudi (g-ow-dee). His finest achievement. It will, when complete, have twelve towers representing the apostles, four for some saints or something like that, one for the Virgin Mary and the last for Jesus Christ himself. Currently there are eight towers and two facades. The best way to describe the towers is how mom described it, that someone took a candle and let the wax melt down the side. It really looks like something that you would see in Disney World. Many architects and artists have taken over some of the work now that Gaudi is dead, he has been dead for almost a century since nineteen twenty-six, they are trying to complete in in two thousand twenty six, the hundredth anniversary of his death. It was supposed to be completed in two hundred years, using the technology of Gaudi’s day. One thing that I though was very neat was that the tallest tower, the one to Jesus, will be exactly two metres shorter than the tallest hill/mountain in Barcelona because he says that he doesn’t want his creation to be bigger than that of God. I thought that was pretty neat. After going to the cathedral we rode down a long street to the beach. Here we stopped at a little beachside restaurant. We didn’t have anything but the view was neat. The beach was manmade for the Olympics that were held in Barcelona in nineteen ninety-two (I think). There was this sculpture of a goldfish which, when hit right by the sun, looked as if it was a goldfish in the water with the light reflecting on parts of it. There are a few buildings in Barcelona that look exactly like a building in Dubai. Of course the architect that designed them claims that he didn’t copy them even though they are the same as the ones in Dubai. After that we went back to the square, dropped of the bikes and then made our way back to the ship. We went down the Las Ramblas (loss rahm-bau-s), the most famous street in Barcelona and then got back to the bus stop to go back to the ship. The rest of the things that we did were not of much note but I will say that there was an Indonesian crew show at eleven tonight. We went to that, there was a lot more people in this one than the Filipino crew show. There was one number that was a dance/play (I like those better than the dances that the people who are professional do). It was about the good king who falls in love with the pretty princess and then goes off to get a golden deer for her. He leaves her in the care of the monkey king and then went off. But while he was away the bad king came and capture the princess and kills all of the monkeys. But one monkey, the king who had been away, survived and wonders why everyone is dead. He tries to do CPR but all that happens is that the monkeys tail flies up. Then he goes to get some highly sophisticated devices to try to revive the monkey the devices were flip-flops! Then he uses a magic spell to resurrect all of the monkeys. Is time it works! Yay! Then the good king tries to go get the princess, he fights with the bad king and then the monkey king gives him a weapon and he wins!!! Well all’s well that ends well and that brings me to the end of this post.

Day 16: Cartagena, Spain

Tue, 15 May 2012 18:10:00 -0600

Sumner

Today our port was Cartagena. Cartagena means little Carthage (I think). Whatever the meaning it was the port for the day. We didn’t have a tour for this city so we went to walk around after we had had our breakfast. We made our way on a pedestrian street and then down a side street to get to a Roman theatre. We couldn’t figure out how to get into the theater area so we satisfied ourselves with just taking pictures from the top. The theater was pretty big, probably fifty to seventy-five metres (and about the same in yards) across. The structure was very incomplete but it was the first Roman theater that we have seen so far on this trip. Even though you can’t see it now it must have been the coolest thing in the time of the Romans. Just the scale of the project must have been awe inspiring. We then made our way to a castle. I was more just walls that used to be something but we did find a neat little playground and stayed there for a long time swinging and see-sawing. It was really nice because it was breezy and cool up there on the hill (the theater was built into the hill and the castle was on top of the hill). From this vantage point we could not only get a good view of the city but see many other sites of where ruins of Roman or even Carthaginian buildings still are. All around almost wherever you look there were ruins. Of course we didn’t have a guide to tell us what the ruins where from but it was just neat to see them. After staying at the castle for a while we went to go find the cathedral. We walked to the place where it showed it on the map but it was not there. We gave up because we won’t have any shortage of cathedrals on our trip. We then made our way back to the ship for lunch and after that we went back off to go to Burger King for free wifi. Unfortunately it didn’t work but we went back up the pedestrian street to see how much a museum that held some ruins of the city. It wasn’t worth the cost so we went back to the Burger King and this time the wifi worked, maybe it had less traffic but regardless we used it because anything is cheaper and faster than on the boat. We decided then to go back to the boat for a swim. I swam for about two hours actually, the last part of that time was with the Balderson boys. After we were finished swimming Colton and I played some ping-pong. We had a lot of fun but then we went back to our rooms to get dressed for formal night. After dinner we came back to the room, Hannah went to Club HAL and mom, Oma, and I watched some of Ben Hur together. We didn’t get very far and I don’t know where it’s going but I do know that it is about chariot riding and that there as been no mention of that activity at all during the first fourty minutes of the movie. I decided to go up to the theater to try to catch Colton as he was coming out and then we nt to go play ping-pong. Of course we were still in suits but hey, a very formal game of ping-pong it was. After that we went to bed.

Day 15: Granada (Malaga), Spain

Mon, 14 May 2012 18:08:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we started in the port of Malaga, Spain. Like yesterday we went with a semi-private tour group with basically the same people as before. Today we went to the Alhambra (al-haw-m-ber-uh; just add a little accent and you are good. The Spanish however do not say he H sound so it is pronounced something like this al-ahm-ber-uh). Anyway we went on her bus to the Alhambra and with us on the bus was a lady from England. She had moved to Spain because she married a Spanish guy and she learned the language and everything. She explained some of the things that we saw on the way. The drive to Granada, the town where he Alhambra is located, was a two hour drive with a ten minute stop with forty-five minutes left to go. By the way, the air conditioning worked, almost too well I actually turned off my vent. I slept a great deal of the way to the Alhambra but I was told that he scenery was beautiful. I’ll just take their word for it. When we arrived at the Alhambra we met our guides at the main meeting place that everyone uses so there were a lot of people. Our guides name was Miguel. (Remember hat there were two groups, we were in group one and the slow complainers were in the other one. I must say though that no one complained today. What a relief!) We were given headsets so that we could hear what he was saying without him having to talk to loud. I felt like a tourist being shoved through the sights en mass. It was kinda go in, explain the stuff, take pictures and get out of the way of he next group. But hey, I’m thankful that I got to just go, not many people have that opportunity. So anyway where was I… Oh so our guides name was Miguel he took us about 600 metres, or at least that’s what he said to a building that was circular on the inside but on the outside it was square. We only peeked at this building for a moment because we had to got to the gates to the Alhambra before our time expired. We made it and then we went to he oldest part of the Alhambra called the Alcazaba (I won’t even bother telling you how to pronounce that because I don’t actually know how you do). There were some really nice views of the city from the walls. We went as well to a watch tower in this area. Then we went to another palace. We went through lots of rooms and courtyards in the palace. I will tell you about them in general and then I will pick the most spectacular ones to describe separately. If I described all of them I would be writing until I get back to the States. The palaces were all built by the moors the Muslims who ruled in Spain from around seven hundred AD to fourteen hundred AD. For their time they were very advanced in mathematics, astronomy, and just learning in general. They had preserved many of he writings of Aristotle and Plato and all of the other great philosophers of the classical age. Their advancement in the architecture of the buiddings of the Alhambra was evident here everything was mathematically correct, there are all sorts of cool little mathematical algorithms that they used to construct the buildings, unfortunately the guide didn’t go over that so even though I know they exist I don’t know the patterns that were used all over the building. The archways were all in a horseshoe shape, not he semicircular or pointy ones characteristic to the renaissance and gothic periods of architecture respectively. They also had stalactite like points on the underside of the arches. Water was also an integral part of he moorish architecture. This was because ha Arabs came from a place where here isn’t much water, the Sahara desert therefore water is rare and if you have lots of it, as needed for pools of water and little fountains, water is a symbol of wealth. The last thing that I will tell you about is the designs on the walls. Everywhere there were Arabic script mainly from the Koran which because Arabic is so pretty in the first place looked really nice. Now I will tell you about some of the individual rooms in the palace. One courtyard had a rectangular reflecting pool of water down the middle with small fountains on either side at the end of the pool. These flowed into the big pool. If you’ve seen anything about the Alhambra you have seen a picture of this. It is a classic photo that looks great, even with an amateurs camera. I probably annoyed some people by sitting down and taking a picture across the pool right behind the little fountain but hey, I got a pretty good shot. Another place which I was looking forward to seeing but unfortunately they were restoring, is the lions courtyard, this courtyard has a fountain with twelve (at least I think there are twelve) lions decorating it this is the second most common picture that you see of the Alhambra. We went through some other rooms of lesser importance but they were still really neat. A little side track. If you read our blog about our trip to Vietnam you probably read about the ruins of a palace in Hue. I thought to myself that if the Vietnamese had preserved the palace that it could be as grand as the Alhambra, unfortunately they probably won’t ever be able to restore it because of lack of funds. After those palaces we walked through some beautiful gardens with some great views of the city. I think that Oma thought that she was in paradise (she likes gardens by the way). The gardens were made by some king during the Rennaisance period as a way to make it more contemporary. Once we walked through the gardens which were extremely beautiful but which I don’t have enough time to describe we went to another palace. This was built by the kings of Granada as a pleasure vacation spot. It was built by a Moorish architect so it had some moorish influences in its design. As we were waiting for the bus to arrive we ate our sandwiches that we had fixed at breakfast this moring and then we we left the Alhambra to go to the center of Granada for a little while. We went down a pedestrian street, much like sixteenth street mall in Denver. And went into an ice cream shop for a little break. Not a word of English was spoken, all of the communication was done in Español. It is really hard when they speak to you at a hundred miles an hour though, I should have though to say speak slowly please because I know how to say that but hindsight is twenty-twenty and unfortunately I didnt ask. Anyway we made our way back to the bus to go back to Malaga. No one complained on the way and I slept for a good chunk of the ride. That was about all, of course we did all of he normal evening and nighttime activities but I will not tell you about those.

Day 14: Sevilla, Spain

Sun, 13 May 2012 12:03:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we started early, went to breakfast and then got out in Cadiz (cad-ese; with an emphasis on the s), our port for the day. We had a simi-private tour to Sevilla (seh-vil is the English pronunciation but if you want to be more proper and use the Spanish version it goes like seh-v-ee-yuh) today and it started in Cadiz. As we drove out of Cadiz the guide, Francisco, talked over the intercom about the city. It is one of the oldest cities in the world and was settled by the phonetians, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Visigoths (I think), the moors and now the Spanish. Cadiz was the starting point for Columbus’s journey to discover the new world. It used to be an island and Sevilla was on the coast of th sea. It has a long history of being a sea oriented city as well as an aerospace center. It was an hour and fourty-five minutes drive to Sevilla. I slept a good deal of the way. The countryside that I did get to see was beutiful, nothing like anything at I have seen in the States. Anyway when we got to Seville we drove down the main avenue and saw all of the beautiful buildings. Then we stopped at one of the squares in the city. American square I believe was the name. This park was made for the world exhibition that was held in nineteen twenty-nine. In this park was a nice fountain and a lot of pigeons. The pigeons were a gift from someone, maybe the king of Spain or something like that. On one side of the square was a renaissance style building made by Seville’s equivalent to Gaudi. There was also a moorish style building on he opposite side. The next thing that we did is get back on the bus and go to the old Jewish and Muslim quarters. The first quarter that we went to was he Jewish quarter. This area was very nice with lots of small streets and alleys with hole-in-a-wall shops and buildings that were built in very tight spaces. We went all over going down streets and through small squares. It was nice because the whole area is pedestrian only. So we didn’t have to worry about being run over by cars or motorcycles like we did in Vietnam. We went to a palace called the Alcazar. This palace was built b the moors (the Muslims in Spain) and hen taken over by the Christians in the reconquest of Spain for Christianity. Inside there was much moorish influence in the architecture and in the decoration but in some places the Christians had Christianized the buildings. One such place was a courtyard that was moorish on the bottom but on the top they had put a renaissance style floor. It didn’t look good. It was really hot, 44 degrees centigrade, 112 degrees Fahrenheit and though it was really neat it was always just where’s the next shady spot! I need shade! Etc. After going to the Alcazar we went to a square in between the Alcazar and the cathedral. This square was called Plaza del Something I forgot the name of the square but it had a statue of someone (descriptive, eh?). This was to be our meeting place after a little free time in which we could go and do whatever we wanted. We decided to go walking looking for an ice cream place that we had seen. We didn’t find it but we found a different ice cream shop and we went inside. We used our Español (Spanish) to order our ice cream. You should have seen us trying to communicate, there was lots of pointing and attempts at using the other persons language. The main language that we communicated in was Español though. We made our way winding through the streets back to the square where we were supposed to meet to go to the bus. Like I said it was 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44 degrees centigrade) and some of the peoples tempers were as hot as the weather. I will back up just a little and tell you that there were two groups of people going on the tour with two tour guides. One group had organized themselves through Cruise Critic and the other didn’t we don’t know where they organized themselves. Regardless of where they did, they obviously didn’t get the memo that there was a lot of walking involved. There was one person with a cane and another with a walker in their group which held everything up for them. When we were about a block from he bus the husband of the woman with the walker came up to the guide and had a mild explosion “You have to slow down and wait for the people who can’t keep up!!! La de da de da…” anyway this went on for a while because some other people got involved as well. One of the people from our group said that he was going to go tell the guide that we were going to walk to the bus by ourselves. That made the caravan get moving. When we got on the bus it felt like a sauna it was like a greenhouse! Some people were complaining about how hot it was and it resounded like these seventy and sixty year old people had just gotten out of preschool! On the way back I do not know if the complained any more but I do know that the back of my eyelids are very black.

Day 13: Lisbon (Sintra), Portugal

Sat, 12 May 2012 12:02:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we were again in Lisbon, Portugal. Today though we went out intro the countryside to a town called Sintra (center-uh; without the “r” sound at the end of center). We met Susanna in the same place as yesterday and then got into her van to drive to Sintra. On the way to Sintra we saw suburbs of Lisbon. The suburbs here are nothing like those in the States because all around there are tall apartment buildings. All around you couldn’t see much of anything except for apartment buildings. Unfortunately it did not seem like a good place to live. There was graffiti galore and you just looked at it and knew that you didn’t want to live there. Another thing that we saw on the way was an aqueduct. This aqueduct was built in seventeen or eighteen hundreds. It was made using Gothic arches (the ones that are pointy). One of the arches that makes up the aqueduct is the tallest in the world. It is also I believe the widest. It did not take long to get to Sintra. When we arrived mom commented, “Now we are in Europe.” It really was too. It was the typical small European village with narrow streets that don’t have any pattern whatsoever and quaint shops and hole in the wall restaurants in hidden corners. There was a palace that we were going to go into but because all of the big tours of like fifty people were going to the palace at that time, we decided to walk around before going to the palace. As we were walking mom commented, but not to loud so as not to make Susanna feel bad, that the village looked like a little German village. We walked down the side streets just taking in the beautiful buildings and shops. One of the specialties of Sintra is their quark products. They love to make stuff out of quark. They make everything out of the stuff. There were purses, bracelets, and many other apparel including iPhone and iPad cases! I was thinking that I might buy one just for the sake of doing so but I realized that they aren’t any cheaper there than here. They cost around 30€ which is somewhere between $50 and $60. When we were done with our walk around the town we went over to the palace. It was a grand palace for the Portuguese kings to go and have a nice summer vacation. Even though Sintra is not that far frame Lisbon it has enough difference in temperature that it was a nice vacation spot for the royal families. And of course if the king does it everyone wants to do it so, a town is formed. The scale of the building was immense. Just the stairs leading up to he palace took up a lot of room it was easily fifty to seventy five yards across. This part of the stairs was not covered. It was open and the stairs wee on either side of a platform which was probably thirty to fifty yards across. Then there was a covered part with stairs in either side leading up to the main palace. It had that old grandeur typical of the time which it was built. There were some great view of the city from here and also there were some interesting rooms with glazed tiles all around. It was in interesting mix of materialism of the age of discovery as well as both the Muslim and Christian religions. The chapel that was built in the palace was built by moors (Muslims living in Spain) and had the glazed tiles typical of the age. Oval the style of the building was the Manueline because it was primarily King Manuel that built the palace. There we all sorts of neat little fun facts like magpies that were ordered to be painted on the ceiling of one of he rooms to represent all of the ladies in waiting that we’re present when a secret was leaked an who spread the word about this around through gossip. There was also one room on which was painted the many coats of arms of the rich families in Portugal at the time. King Manuel’s coat of arms was the biggest and the only one the was carved and then painted. It had lots of symbolism but I don’t quite remember them. Regardless whatever the importance of the different symbolic things in the cost of arms it is important because it is the coat of arms of Portugal. After going to the palace we made our way thought the countryside to the furthest western point in continental Europe. I enjoyed all of the scenery along the way, even though part of the scenery was rather black, like the back of my eyelids. I wonder why that is? ;) yes, I went to sleep. I do have the excuse that he roads were very windy and I just was lulled to sleep by the movement. There was a car show going near the monument so we had a hard time parking but we did meet a man who we though was one of the car owners and got into a conversation with him about how some island in the Azores was used as a military base by the allies during WWII. He also said that if you went directly west from that point you would reach NYC. Well in between NYC and New Jersey he said. After getting pictures we got back in the car and drove past many coastal villages or towns. They aren’t very distinct towns because it has molded into one big town along the waterfront but they were still called towns. Most of the way it was beaches with restaurants serving seafood. She to,d us that it was expensive to buy seafood in Portugal compared to the United States she said 50€ per kilo! That’s like almost $75 for a two person meal! The areas that we went through were used first by the royalty as a summer vacation spot. And then the population caught on. We saw lots of people on the beach but Susanna said that only tourists go to those beaches because the water is so dirty but the locals stay away from those beaches. We got back to the boat about thirty minutes before we had to be on the boat at two or so and went up to the Lido deck for some lunch as we were eating we saw the Baldersons coming on and then about twenty minutes later some other people and then even though they were fifteen minutes late to the boat they were just meandering along. Of course they could see that they were raising the gangplank and making the ship ready to leave but they didn’t step up the pace at all. Later Mrs. Angie commented that, and I quote “I would have been bookin’ it!” some people just don’t know when it is right to speed up just a bit. That was about it for the day and I assume by now that you know the drill, make up the rest of the day because it was the same as all the other afternoon/evenings.
~Sumner

Day 12: Lisbon, Portugal

Fri, 11 May 2012 15:05:00 -0600

Sumner

Today started out at ten thirty when we woke up. Mom, Oma and I went to the Vista Lounge to listen to a talk about the architecture of Rome and then I went to the Lido Deck to see if anyone was there to play ping-pong. Nobody was so I started back down to the room. On the way, I saw someone who had just come from the bow, which was opened so that people could watch as we went under a bridge that spans the river that Lisbon was built by. By this time it was about time to go to lunch do I went down to the room to go with the est of my family. They also wanted to go to the bow to get a view of the bridge so we went to the Lido deck for some food. The Baldersons (Colton’s family) came with us and we sat together for our meal. After lunch we went back down to the room and got ready to go into Lisbon. We have a guide for Lisbon for this afternoon and tomorrow. We met this guide outside of the dock station. Her name is Susanna. The first thing that we did is drive up to a place where you could get a good view of the city of Lisbon. At this point there was a monument to the Revolution in which the Portuguese threw off their dictator. There was also, on either side of the monument, a pillar the two together symbolized the treaty/alliance between Great Britain and Portugal. This treaty is the oldest in he world. The view from the monument was very comprehensive of the day. You could see the old Muslim quarter as well as a valley and another hill that was part of the city. Much of the city had been destroyed in the earthquake of 1755, this earthquake was a major event in he history of Lisbon. The next destination was the old Muslim quarter. On the way to that quarter, we stopped at a park with all sorts of nice plants and it was really pretty. Anyway, when we got to the old quarter, we went to a cathedral. Outside, before we went in Susanna told us that we should watch our things. There are lots of pickpockets she said, as she was saying so she said, “See there, they’ve been robbed already.” She said this pointing to a police car that some tourists were getting into. They had obviously not heeded he warnings on every Internet site that knows anything about Lisbon or about most of Europe for that matter. I thought that it was rather iconic that, even though it is a cathedral where things are supposed to be holy, the pickpockets play the part of a tourist and, as they are professionals, you don’t realize that you’ve been robbed until you try to pay for something. Besides the pickpockets there was another interesting thing that you don’t see much of in America. Tram cars. They were all over the place, two of the lines went right in front of the cathedral. We got to saw some go past as we were standing outside of the building. The cathedrals construction was interesting because it was in two styles. Romanesque and Gothic Romanesque churches have the same design as a Roman basilica, or law court. This means that enemy have a large nave in the center and small hallways on either side. It is also characterized by semicircular arches where the height of he arch is half he width, it has to be or else it isn’t be a semicircle. He main body of the church was made in this style but, as the cathedral was built over a few centuries, the old style went out of he fad so they changed styles to the Gothic style for the back of the church behind the part where people go to mass. This area was for people to go pray to the relics and such. To get to this area there’s a Gothic arch it is interesting because you can also see the Romanesque arch which the Gothic arch was built into. Then we walked around the area and saw lots of facades with glazed tiles covering them as well as many other charming sights. As we were walking we went down a street where people were decorating he streets, our guide said that they were preparing for a celebration. It was still a month away but, like us in America preparing for Christmas, they start decorating early. The celebration is because some children had sworn that they had seen visions of the Virgin Mary and in doing so they made this area a big pilgrimage area for he Catholics. Then we kept on walking and we passed a few fadu (fahd-zoo) restaurants. In these restaurants you go and eat while people sing to you. Hen we went through a neighborhood which was really nice but the buildings weren’t in good shape because the owners didn’t have enough capital to restore the buildings. Part of this is that they can’t raise the rent if the owner stays the same and the rent is sometimes less than 50€. One € (Euro) is about 1.4 dollars, the exchange rate though makes it more like 1.5 dollars. Therefore 50€=$75. Sort of there was a nice hotel that was really nice one of the nicest in the city, a five star. It was investing however that nowhere on the building did it say that it was a hotel. In the front of the hotel on the street side was a fountain that used to be a public fountain with water from the aqueducts coming into the city. After that we got back in the ban and went to the monumental area. We were planning to go to the cathedral but as it was closed for a funeral, we walked to a bakery first. We had seen the bakery in a video from Rick Steve’s it was called Pastries de Beliem or something like that. The pastures are very popular and secret. There are only four people who know the secret receipt and, though they try, anywhere else but this restaurant that serves the pastry just can’t do it right. I have no other words to describe the desert other than it was extremely delicious. After we ate our pastries we walked back to the cathedral and went inside. This one, like the one in the old quarter, is in two styles, Manueline and renaissance. Most of he building was in he Manueline style but the front altar is in the renaissance style. Manueline is a style unique to this area and it was named after Manuel, the king of Portugal when this style was popular. The actual structure is much the same as the Gothic style but the major difference between them is the decoration. In the Manueline style there are lots of decorations with a seaward theme. By this I mean ropes, ships, oriental leaves, etc. Because people couldn’t just learn about what their explorers were finding on tv, they carved it into their cathedrals, creating the Manueline style. He renaissance style is much like the Romanesque because the renaissance is characterized by the romantification of the classical Roman arts. After we went to the cathedral we drove to another site where there is a fortress that was used for the defense of he river in the times when pirates would sometimes come to rob the people of Lisbon. It had a tower and then on he side of the tower toward the river there was a platform that was lower down from the tower for cannon possibly. This tower used to be in the middle of the water but when the earthquake of 1755 happened, the water level for the river went down making this tower become the side of the river. After this tower we went to the Explorers monument this monument was to all of the great explorers from Portugal. It was kinda neat because it showed some of the people who where important in the development of world history. After going to this monument we went back to the boat and because we did nothing of note, I will not bother describing the rest of the day because I think that you can piece together the rest of he day from my earlier posts.

Day 11: At Sea

Thu, 10 May 2012 15:04:00 -0600

Sumner

[Continued from Day 9]

Day 10: Ponta Delgada, Azores

Wed, 09 May 2012 15:03:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was our first port day. We stopped at the island of São Miguel in a port town named Ponta Delgada. Before commencing our journey inland we went up to have some breakfast. While there we saw some of the city from the vantage point of the boat. Once we were ready to go into town, we went down to A Deck. Not a deck but A Deck, this is the bottom most level of the ship that the passengers are allowed to be on. They checked our cards as we went out and then we were free to do anything we wanted, we just had to new back at the boat by four thirty in the afternoon. We were planning on walking around the town but we decided to get a taxi tour of he island instead. The tour cost the same as if we had gone with the boat but we were able to stay in any location for as long of a time or as short of a time as we wanted. From Ponta Delgada we rode in the car for a few minutes to get to another town on the island, the name of which escapes me at the moment. He took us to what you might consider the middle/center of the town. There was a small square with little pathways going throughout. The trees had a peculiar plant or something hanging on it. There was a path down to another larger park. This park was near the side of a river, well a river for us Coloradans, maybe not for those of you who consider a ten foot wide flowing body of water a small brook. Anyway the bridge over the river upstream a little bit was the bridge that we went over to get to the town center. The river that was running underneath it was the river that the aforementioned river by which the park was located. His park had some very nice flowers and paths throughout. Some of the water from the river was diverted to form a small channel of water going thought the center of the park. After seeing this park we went to a small church. We guessed that it was baroque or classical in style (Mrs. Duncan if you are reding this) it was our first of what will be many visits to cathedrals around Europe. I think cathedrals are to Europe as temples are to Vietnam. (For those of you who did not followed us on our trip to Vietnam about every other stop on the tours that we went on we stopped at a temple. Or at least it seamed that way). After the church we went for a little walk, about a hundred yards down a street until we got to a place where there was a traffic jam and we deemed that it was necessary to turn around. We circled around and went back to the taxi. The next thing that we went to was an overlook over which you could see the sea all the way to the horizon, or at least until you could no longer see because of the fog. You could also see the cliffs that the water dashed up on from the aforementioned vantage point. Another sight that you could see was a plateau which some horses were grazing on. It was actually more like a ledge but…

Day 9: At Sea

Tue, 08 May 2012 15:01:00 -0600

Sumner

Like I promised I will describe to you the nature of the ship today. Hopefully it isn’t to convoluted for you to understand. I will hopefully before the trip is completed be able to add a link to the website with the plans of the ship and of the rooms. And as a picture tells a thousand words… My posts will only be a helper as you look through the pictures. Maybe I will post that in Lisbon, or… Maybe not. We’ll see. [The rest of this posts will be posted under the title Day 11: At Sea] I admit, I have been staying up watching shows etc. way too late and once I get to the blog it is often eleven o’clock at night. Right now I am writing this while waiting for a show to start. Now you can go to Day 11. See you there!

Day 8: At Sea

Mon, 07 May 2012 15:43:00 -0600

Sumner

Nothing much happened different than the other days at sea therefore I will not spend much time describing the days activities. Basically if you take all the previous posts that I have written, mesh them all together (give or take a few things) and then make a day out of them you will get some idea of what happened today. Colton and I tried to solve a sudoku puzzle (we didn’t succeed I think that we messed up one our logic for one square which screwed up everything else. Oh well, maybe we’ll succeed tomorrow.)

Day 7: At Sea

Sun, 06 May 2012 15:41:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was another day with a late start. About nine o’clock. We were going to go to a church service but because the room doesn’t have any windows we don’t know what time it is by the sun. If we turned off the lights, even at noon it could be midnight for all that we can tell. Anyway going to the church service didn’t work because it was supposed to start at nine. Oops. We decided to go to eat our breakfast. After that Hannah went to Club HAL and I went to the pool to see if anyone wanted to play ping-pong. Colton was there so we played for a while until we went to a talk about Seville. At the beginning though, he went thought the history of architecture. Much of this I already knew. Thank you Mrs. Duncan! After the talk we went to go eat lunch and then I went back to the pool and talked for a little while with Colton and his mom and played a little more ping-pong (we are playing a lot of ping-pong). Then I came down to the room and got my bathing suit on to go swim. A little way through my bathe, Colton and his brother Sebastian came. We played for a little while end then their other brother, Nathan came. We kept on going from the hot tub and then to the regular pool and back to the hot tub again. Then we got ready to go eat. (eat, play, sleep; what a life). After the delicious dinner we went to go to watch people at the karaoke room. There were a few pretty good singers but this one guy, I felt kinda bad for him, just couldn’t carry a tune at all. After that we came back to the room. When we go there though we had some chocolate covered strawberries which we promptly ate. The people that cleaned our rooms must have done it because Oma’s meat was not very good. I must say thought that Oma didn’t complain at a all but they must have sensed that she was not pleased, no wonder that they did, she only ate a tiny portion of the meat. Anyway that was basically it but I must tell you that if any of you have pets you probably should be wary of mom when she gets back because each night the people who clean the room always make a creation with the towels. The past two nights when the have done so mom has murdered the creations before Hannah had come down from club HAL by putting her jacket on it! Pets beware.

Day 6: At Sea

Sat, 05 May 2012 15:40:00 -0600

Sumner

The day started out really late today, ten o’clock for me. We didn’t go to breakfast because we were going to have lunch in just a few hours. I decided to go up to the crows nest but on the way I saw a boy that was bouncing a ping-pong ball on a paddle. He looked like he was just slightly bored. So I asked him if he wanted to play. We played ping-pong for about half an hour and then Colton, that’s the boys name, and I went down to the theater to watch a talk about the history of the cruise boat. I met Oma and mom down there at the talk, which was very interesting. I learned a lot about cruising in the speech. Then we met up with Hannah went to go eat lunch. After lunch, which was really good, mom and Oma went to go watch another talk and I went up to the crows nest to do my class. While I was waiting for the ladies to show up the people that I had done the trivia with yesterday called me over to play with them. I didn’t help much but it was kinda neat just to listen to the questions and think of good answers. Anyway, as the people in my iPad class showed up I asked them if it would be OK if we just met two hours later at four for the class instead of two because the talk that mom and Oma were going to was on that the ladies in my class wanted to go to as well. I decided go go up to Club HAL to see what they were doing it wasn’t anything that I wanted to do at that moment so I went down to the pool and talked with Colton’s brothers and mom. He has two brothers, one is named Sebastian, the other is Nathan. Colton is ten, and the others are seven and eight, I just don’t know which one is which. Anyway, I went back up to Club HAL for a few minutes until I went to go do my iPad class. After class we decided to meet in two days, on Monday, so that they could try out everything that we had gone over. At that point it was about time for dinner so we went to the room and got ready. The food was good and after we had eaten we went to the show. Today it was an Olympic gymnast performing some things. Mainly he used silk things that hung from the ceiling to do some tricks on. One time though he said that he was going to take a break and let the band play but he went over to the piano and started playing with them! He had learned to play because for the last few years he as been doing shows on cruise ships and he had learned from the musicians that he met on the boats. He also did a few juggling routines, one of witch he did in the dark with lighted balls. It was really cool. After the show we went back to the room to go to bed.

Day 5: At Sea

Fri, 04 May 2012 23:14:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we got up earlier than we did yesterday, about seven or a little after. We actually got to go to breakfast today! The food was good and after the meal we had to decide what to do. Hannah and I went with Club HAL to play ping-pong. And after we were done we played UNO for a little while. Then Hannah went with Oma to a cooking demonstration and mom and I went to hear a person talk about one of the ports that we went to. I dosed off during part of it do I’d don’t really remember everything that he said. Oh well. Next was lunch, which was very good, and then we played a little ping-pong before I went to meet with the ladies for our little iPad class. We didn’t have much of a class, only about twenty minutes. This was because there was another talk that all of the ladies wanted to go to so our meting adjourned and the ladies left. I decided to go and find mom and Oma, who themselves were at the talk. I couldn’t find them but we had arranged for everyone to meet in the room at about four to get ready for diner. That was done and we went to eat at the restaurant. I wasn’t feeling great, it was a little rocky. (I’m fine now, it was juts over that one spot for a few hours that was really bad. It wasn’t that bad though I just didn’t enjoy everything to its fullest extent.) After dinner we went to watch the boats sings perform some Broadway songs. I fell asleep for part of it, (I seem to be liking to sleep through things… Oh well it doesn’t matter). We all went down to the trivia show, it was pretty funny. We left a little early because Hannah wanted to go to a room where someone was playing the piano. I came to the room and am writing this blog. Well I should probably start getting ready for bed. I’ll keep you posted!

Day 4: At Sea

Thu, 03 May 2012 13:00:00 -0600

Sumner

We started out really late, nine o’clock or so, because we have such a dark room in the interior of the ship and we don’t have any windows so we were all just thinking that it was three in the morning and went back to bed. Finally I figured out and looked at my watch. Oh well we had some nice rest. We actually didn’t have breakfast because we were so late getting started. Instead we got ready to go to this “Meet and Greet” meeting hosted by this group called “Cruise Critic” (if you ever want to go on a cruise check it out, I actually don’t know what it is but it must be good or else mom wouldn’t have used it). Anyway Hannah and I got ready before mom and Oma so we went up to the Crows Nest to write yesterday’s post. The meeting, by the way was at the Crows Nest on one side. We were sitting on the other side looking out at the ocean in front of us. Mom showed up at the meeting late, really late, so late that she missed the entire meeting. She did show up for the mingling time after the meeting and somehow or another she ended up talking to some ladies about the iPad and how they didn’t know how to use it. Well she volunteered me to teach an iPad class. I had come over just as she was doing so and I was just a little surprised. Well, I walked out of the Crows Nest with an iPad class with four women at two o’clock in the afternoon. We decided to go have some lunch and after we ate we went to play ping-pong until time for me to teach the iPad class. The iPad class went well, our progress: we made it to learning how to mass delete photos! Anyway after an hour of class we decided that we would have another class the next day at the same time two o’clock. Remember this time, it will come in handy near the end of the day. After I was finished with the class I joined club HAL for ice cream an then plagued ping-ping with mom. Then Hannah and I went swimming for a little while. Once we were done we went back to the room to get dressed for the formal dinner. The formal dinner is a very formal occasion. I wore a suit and tie. If you’re reading this Nic, thank you for the suit, it has come in handy. Goodwill also helped out by supplying the shoes and tie. The food was delicious, we had an appetizer, soup, an entree and a desert. All of which were good. After our dinner we went to go see a pianist perform. Before he started though, the guy announced that there would be a time change in the middle of the day tomorrow, at two o’clock. There will be no two o’clock tomorrow. He joked that he was going to work out from two till three. Now remember that time I told you to remember? Well if you remember I had scheduled my iPad class at two o’clock but tomorrow it not exist, oops. Anyway the pianist was really good. I enjoyed the songs. One of the songs was a medley of some of Beethoven songs made modern, it was really interesting. It just goes to show that the melodies are the same just the style, and instruments that the melodies are played on change. After that show as we were going towards our room we saw another thing set up. It was a game show. We decided to watch that, they took some people form the audience that wanted to do it and one of the guys from the staff asked the questions. One of ladies was just not good at all but he staff guy made her feel fine. He asked all of the other people to step back and let her get some questions for only herself. One time when she answered a question “John F. Kennedy!” he said, “Yes, also known as Jimmy Carter but you know he went by a lot of things back then.” Anyway everyone had a good time and it was really funny to watch. After that we came back to our room and got ready for bed. I am currently writing his post and getting tirrrrrrrreeeeeeedddddd oops, I think I held down a key on he keyboard, that probably means I should go to bed.

Day 3: Start of Cruise - At Sea

Wed, 02 May 2012 23:11:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was tiring at best. We started the day out in Ft. Lauderdale and ended it out of site of the shore. We had breakfast in the hotel and then went back up to get ready to check out of the room at ten. Then we went to the port, Port Everglades. There we dropped off our bags and went to the airport to drop off our car. We took the shuttle from the airport back to the port and went through a very extensive security and check in. Eventually we got to the jet-way. Oh wait, it can’t be a jet-way, we weren’t going on a jet. It did look like it though. Anyway when we got onto the boat it was really cool. It was really grand. We were almost attacked with people with hand sanitizer and everyone was very nice. Then we were told where to go to get to our room and there we put down our bags and then we went to lunch. After a delicious buffet lunch we explored the ships for a little while and then went back to the room to get on our bathing suits to go swimming. After that we watched the embarkation at about 6:00. There is a kids club and a teens club on the ship. The kid club (called club HAL; Holland America Line) had a meeting and so Hannah went to that for a few minutes while mom, Oma and I went to go eat. We learned that I was one of two teenagers on the ship and Hannah was one of about ten or so kids. We were going to try to eat at the nice restaurant but the line was so long that it just wasn’t worth it. We went to the buffet instead. After we had eaten we went up to pick up Hannah. One of the leaders of the club informed us that I was actually the only teenager on he ship. The other “teenager” turned out to be 67 not 17. Someone had made a typo. Anyway Hannah came down to have dinner and then we went back to the room to go to bed.

Day 2: Ft. Lauderdale FL

Tue, 01 May 2012 13:13:00 -0600

Hannah

Day 2

Can you believe it? Tomorrow is the BIG day! We are going on our cruise tomorrow around noon. (Maybe before.) Anyway… Today was the last minute shopping time. Such as Target, Walgreens and CVS/Farmacy (that is the southern Walgreens.) Today wasn’t very interesting, but I’ll tell you, in 7-9 days, there will be LOTS of news. Well maybe tomorrow will be interesting. Why? Because I will probably tell everyone about and what’s on the boat. It will be VERY exciting. Well I gotta go to bed now, see ya’ll later!

Day 1: Flight to Ft. Lauderdale FL

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:03:00 -0600

Hannah

Day 1

Another Trip!

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 21:44:00 -0600

Hi everyone, in just a few days (starting on April 30th) Basher Academy will be going on another long field trip in which we will be seeing many of the things that we are learning about in World History.

We will be going on a trans-Atlantic cruise to Europe. While in Europe we will be going to many different countries and seeing many interesting things from Portugal to Greece, Rome to Dubrovnik in Croatia, Athens to Corinth. All of these places we will be seeing history right before our eyes. Just going to Rome is a journey through history but going to Athens, Corinth, Barcelona, and other cities will give us a taste of the cultures of many different countries.

Looking Back

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:23:00 -0600

Sumner

OK now I will tell you what I thought of the trip since that’s the number one question that you ask people when they come back from a vacation. It was great, I was able to see the lives of many different people groups, from the Dao (pronounced: Zow) in Sapa to the Cham in the Mekong River Delta. I got to see rice being harvested, planted and rice fields that were already harvested. One of the sad things that I noticed was that much of Vietnamese culture is based on Buddism. Well I have thouroly enjoyed being able to share this wounderful, rich culture in this blog. I hope that one day I can go back to Vietnam to see my wonderful homeland once again. I’ll be sure to keep a blog that trip too.

Trip Back Home 12/12/10-12/13/10

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:37:00 -0600

Sumner

It was about a for hour trip to Shaghai and then we had an eight hour layover. It was long and hard. We ate a meal and shoped and bored ourselfs to death. Finally the gate opened and we checked our bags and went to the plane. It was a ten and a half hour flight to San Fransisco. I slept and worked on my blog for most of it. We had thought that all the movies that they were playing were going to be bad. One of the ones that they showed was Ramona and Besis. I would have watched it but I thought that it was another of those bad movies and nobody told me that I could watch it. We made it to San Fran and had a three hour layover. Then we had another three hour flight to Denver. We bussed out to our car and were a little worried that our car wouldn’t start. It did and we drove to our house. Hannah slept all the way and mom and I dosed off for a minute or so. Dad luckily didn’t dose off and we made it home safe.

Saigon,(or Ho Chi Minh City)

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 02:18:00 -0600

Hannah

So, we are back safe in Saigon. No problems on the plane, but the transportation to our hotel was aweful. I guess the guy who was supposed to pick us up, was wrong on the timing, so we waited for about 1 hour, till mom decided to call the guy. After waiting another half hour, the guy FINALLY showed up. He said, wait for 10 minutes, and I will get your ride. But of all things, another guy,( the guy who picked us up at the airport last time,) showed up and said to come with us. So we loaded up the luggage in the taxi, and ALMOST started out agoin, but then, the first guy said to wait another 10 minutes, and he would load us up into a “big” van, the van was the size of the other car, but we FINALLY succeded in getting to our hotel. We got a warm welcome, so that is all to tell you what we did this after noon.

Fourtyith Day - Saigon 12/11/10

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 21:46:00 -0600

Sumner

Today is our last day in Vietnam. We woke up and ate breakfast. Then we hung out for a fem minutes to find things to do and work on the blog. Then we went shopping for a while. We ate lunch at a place called Wrap and Roll. In this restaurant you were served the food that you ordered with some green vegitables, noodles and rice paper. Then you rooled it all together. It was really good and then we went out and shoped a little more. After that we went back to the hotel and asked if we could have a small room for the night so that we could have a room until we leave at one o clock tomorow morning. They let us and we moved to the other room. Then we went swiming for a while to cool down. After we were refreashed we went to the room and got packed up. Mom and Hannah slept for a while and then I laid down to try to sleep for a while. I never did but my body got to rest. By this time it was about time to fialize out packing and go to the airport. We went down with out bags and got into the car. We made it to the airport but the gate wasn’t opened yet. Some people started to line up and we asked them if they were in line for our flight to Shainghi. They were and so we got in line. I took forever to get up to the desk and when we got there she couldn’t find our tickets! Finally she found ours but she couldn’t find dads! After a while she was able to locate dad’s ticket. Needless to say, we were the last ones at the check in counter. Unfourtunentaly she couldn’t check them to Denver so we would have to spend all of our time in Shanhai with our bags. Then we went to our gate and got onto the plane…(Look at the next post for the rest of the story.)

Phu Quoc

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 02:17:00 -0600

Hannah

Day… half

Thirty-ninth Day - Phu Quoc and Trip to Saigon 12/10/10

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 21:46:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was our last day on Phu Quoc. We swam in the ocean and in the pool for a couple of hours and then packed up to go back to Saigon. After we were packed up we went to the resorts restaurant for lunch. It came late, thirty miniutes after we ordered. We only had fifteen minutes to finish our meals. After lunch we were picked up to go to the airport. We got onto the plane fine and on the way we had one last view of Cassia Cotages. We knew that it was Cassia because of the houses and a house-boat in th water just outside Cassia Cottages. It was a very short flight. It was only about one hour long, half the length of the trip from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City. We got to the airport and went outside to find our guy. There must have been some confusion because there wasn’t anyone there. We had to wait for thirty minutes to find anyone. He then took us to the wrong taxi. Another man showed up and said that a big van was coming. Then instead of waiting to get the van they decided to move us to another taxi that was the exact same size as the one before. We made it to the hotel and went to reseption to get our key and go to our room. The told us that we had to pay for the room that we stayed in last time and the room that we are going to stay in this time. We wanted just to pay at the end so that we could use as much Dong (that’s the currency here) as we wanted for shoping and then use the rest to pay the bill. Then if there was any leftover cost we would pay it in dollars. We tried to tell them but they said that we had to pay anyway. We paid some in dong and some in dolars. Then they said that we owed another twenty-eight cents. We asked what that was in Dong and they calculated that for us. It came out to be six thousand Dong so dad pulled out his walet and gave them a five thousand and they said one more. Mom then pulled out a one thousand and put it down, a little violently. Done. We went to our room and got settle in. Then we swam for a minute went out for dinner and went to bed.

Thirty-eighth Day - Phu Quoc 12/9/10

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 02:44:00 -0600

Sumner

This morning we hung out at the beach and the swiming pool. Hannah played with her Norwegen friends. Then for the afternoon we decided to go on a motorcycle ride. In Vietnamese you would say that we went on a xe om (say ohm). We went up to reseption and asked for a mortorbike for te afternoon. First we went out to lunch. We went to a german place and had sandwiches. They were good and then we got back on our motorbikes and went south. The road that we took was the one that we went on with Johns Tours but this time we got to enjoy the scenery better because we were going slower. Unfourtunently the motorbike that dad and I were on didn’t work properly. When you tried to accelerate it would go for a second and then putter and die. As soon as you let off it started to work again. Sometimes when we were ahead mom and Hannah would spead up and pass us going “HONK HONK” with their horn. We drove along the beach and then went across a really scary bridge. All it was was a few metal poles suporting wood with sheat metal on top. It looked like they were making another bridge to the side of it. We made it accross and kept going allong the beach. We were hoping that there would be a place that we could turn off and go through the forest but there wasn’t. Mom was getting worried that she would get sunburnt so we turned around and went back to the resort. Or at least tried. We we were supposed to fill up the gas taks of the motorcycles at the end of out trip but dad and I missed the gas station. I looked back and mom looked bewildered. I told dad to stop and pull over so we could figgure out what was wrong. Mom pulled up and asked where we were going. We said that we were looking for the gas station and they replied “it was back there!” So we turrned around and went back. We filled up and then went to the resort. We played in the pool, had dinner and went to bed.

Thirty-seventh Day - Phu Quoc 12/8/10

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:25:00 -0600

Sumner

Today since we didn’t have much to do I will give you a tour of the resort. If you went in the front gate (opposite the beach) on your right are the staff’s area. On the left is a mortorbike rental place. Walk a little further and on both sides of you are little cottages where you can stay. Walk past the cotages and to you right is the breakfast room, the internet cafe, and reseption. Now walk around the bend in the path and to you left is a beach house. Walk a little further and (on your left again) you see the pool. On you right is the big house with four rooms, one of which was ours for the last four nights of Phu Quoc. Oh I forgot to tell you that on the second day we had to move to another smaller room. Anyway if you go a few steps more you are at an intersection. If you go on the path straight in front of you it will lead you to the beach house that we stayed in the first night of our stay. Turn right and you are facing the room that we stayed in for the lastr few nights of our stay. If you turn left and go down the steps you are in the area of the resorts restaurant and walk a little further and you are on the beach. That’s about all. I decided not to tell you anything about the second room that we stayed in because it wasn’t anything special. All I’ll tell you is that it wasn’t as nice as the first one, it was more like a regular hotel room. OK done with the tour. Durring the moring we played at the pool and the beach with the Norwegen girls Then we went to eat lunch. I forgot what we had, it must not have been very special. Then we hung out at the pool and worked on the blog for a while. Then at around three thirty dad and I got ready to go squid fishing. We were picked up late, fifty miniutes late actually and went to a van at the hotel next door. Two people were already there. Then we waited for two guys from the hotel. Finaly they came but then they went to their rooms for fifteen minutes! Well they got in and they said that they had gotten lost on the island. I can’t immagine how they got lost because the entire island except in the cities have about ten main roads and a few secondary ones. They should have taken a map. Well we went to another hote and picked up four more people. One boysterous man sat next to us in the van. Then we went to another hotel and picked up two more people. After that we went to the dock. On the way the driver blasted the music and when he stopped the music the man next to us said! Oh! That was good keep it up! So the driver turned it back on. For most of the trip I had one ear smashed on dad’s shoulder and the other ear pluged up with my finger. Well we made it to the dock without being deafened and when we got out some of the local boys who were playing soccer started dancing to the music coming out of the van. After that we got into the boat and went out to where all of the other tourist fishing boats were. We fished for fish for a while with big spools. I got pretty good at casting and I even caught a fish. Then we got a different spool for squid fishing. It didn’t have a bait just a shiny thing that you drew past the squid when you saw it. I didn’t catch any squid, we only got three squid and a few octipi. They squirted ink all over the place. Lucily there were buckets and we put them in those. We even caught two crabs with a net! On of the crabs was caught bu the man that sat next to us on the bus. I saw it and told dad. Then one of the ladys saw it and yelled. Someont handed a net to the guy and he scooped it out of the water. After fishing they grilled them on a little stove thing. They didn’t have very much meat but fourtunently they made some calamari soup for us to eat. The man who caught the crab had one bown and said, “I’ve had enough calamari soup for the next ten years! After the calamari soup which wasn’t my favorite we went back to port and went to a taxi. There was something about us and two other guys going in this taxi because they didn’t want us to walk in the dark. I guess that they didn’t want us to walk down the little road that leads to Cassia Cotages. Well we made it back safely and went to bed.

Thirty-sixth Day - Phu Quoc 12/7/10

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:13:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we went on a tour of the sothern part of Phu Quoc. We started out and waited for them at the front gate. While we were waiting the owner of Cassia Cotteges came up to us and asked where we were going. We said that we had organised a tour with John’s Tours and were waiting to be picked up. His comment about them was “Oh, go get another cofee, they’re always late.” He obdviously didn’t like the lateness (I don’t think that is a word is it, oh well I’ve made up more that a few words while wrighting this blog) of Johns Tours. We also asked him if they spoke good English and his comment was that “there will be somone that can speak enough to say ’now it’s time to get out to snorkel’ and ‘sorry the coke isn’t cold’ and stuff like that.” Anyway we were picked up by a taxi and went to one of their many offices and got onto a bus. We drove around for a while allong the beach and then stopped to “see how pearls were formed.” Of course the real reason was to let us buy stuff. We did get to see them open a few clams to see if there were any pearls in them. After shopping we got back into the bus and drove to a dock and got onto a boat. We went out for a while and then stopped to do some fishing but the seas were pretty choppy and we moved to another place. Then we went snorkling. Hannah had some problems because her fins didn’t work and so she couldn’t stay up, they were just flaping around not doing anything. So she took off her fins and got a life jacket just in case. We snorkeled to the reef. It wasn’t much of a reef, all of the coral was dead and it seamed like there wasn’t anything alive exept small fish. All of the fish were, well, fished! Much of the reef was gone because of dynamite fishing. That’s when they drop a stick of dynamite into the water and then the shock kills all the fish and makes them rise to the surface so the fisher-men just have to pick them up. Unfourtunently it also ruins the reefs. After the first snorkeling place we sailed to another one close by. The conditoins there were just about the same, dead coral and not many fish. After thirty miniutes there we moved to another one. The first time we stopped for snorkeling all ofthe people got in. The second time about half got in. This third time it was just us and another couple. This one was a little more interesting but just as dead. There were some rocks that made it neat to look at. After that we went back to the dock and went to Sao (pronounced: sow) beach. I was the only one that got into the water. Not even Hannah mom or dad got in. Just me. Then we went back to the resort and swam. Hannah played with her Norwegen friend again and then we went to the room to get ready for dinner. We saw the beautiful sunset on the beach and went down to get pictures. We decided that it would be easiest to eat at the resort’s restaurant. The menu didn’t have very many choices but we ordered and after a while the waiter came back and told us that some of the things that we ordered were not avalible. So we had to re-order some of our dishes. Anyway the food came and we had a pleasant meal. The area had a little stream and some nice trees and vegitation which mada for a pleasant atmosphere.

Thirty-fith Day - Phu Quoc 12/06/10

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:54:00 -0600

Sumner

Well today is our first full day on Phu Quoc. We decided that today we would just stay at the resort and enjoy the beach and the swimming pool. We swam for a while in the ocean it was pretty special because this is the maybe fourth or fith time that we have seen the ocean and the beach in our lives. The last time that we really were at the beech was when we went to Hawaii when I was five. We stayed at the beach and at the pool for most of the morning and then we walked into town to see the town and look for some goggles for me because mine broke. On the way we stopped at a little stall for John’s Tours beside the main road into town. We boked a tour for tommorow of the south of the island. Allong with that we booked a tour to go squid fishing the night after tomorrow. Then we walked a little futher and found a shop that looked like it may have goggles. He didn’t have any but he told us where to go buy some. We walked in that direction and looked at some differnt shops until we got to one that sold goggles. We got the goggles and then headed back. The town wasn’t very big, just maybe five to ten main streets. By this time it was about time for lunch. We ate at a pizza place, it was good but we accidentaly got two pizzas. I think that when mom was asking for the size she pointed at one of the choices and the waiter thought that mom wanted to order that. Well we ate the second pizza and then went back to the hotel. We went down to the pool for a while. Mom chatted with a Norwegen man with two daughters. He asked where we were from and we said America. He asked which state we were from and then he said, oh, there’s a university somewhere it starts with a “B.” Of course he was talking about Boulder and when we said that he said that one of his friends was going to school there at Colorado School of Mines. Then another couple came over and said “Boulder? are you from Boulder?” It turned out that they lived in boulder and had come to Vietnam on a buisness trip for Celestial Seasonings. The reason is that all of the cinimon that celestial seasonings uses comes from Cassia Cottages. It just tells you how small the world is, three people metting at one spot all having something in common! Hannah played with the Norwegen girls one was nine and the other one was my age. The younger one had very good English, of course not perfect, but what would you expect from a girl that has oly taken two years of English! It wasn’t just “my name is Ellinor” it was “can you do a hand stand?” and things like that! Of course there were some grammar errors but they were minor. Then we walked down the beach to another place where we had dinner. It was good and then we went back to the hotel and went to bed. ZZZZZ (that’s dad snoring).

Thirty-fourth Day - Trip to Phu Quoc 12/5/10

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:50:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we woke up and got ready to go to Phu Quoc, an island off the western coast of Vietnam. After we were packed we got into the car go to Rach Gia where we were to board a boat to go to Phu Quoc. Once there we had to kill time for a hour or so. We had lunch and then went to the dock. Our boats name was the Super Dong Express. It was suposedly a hydrofoil and most likely it was but sometimes companys just think a word sound like a good way to market their services to tourists and may not even know what it means. It was like an airplane in some respects like having set seats. It was pretty cramped so it was a pretty long two and a half hours. We got to Phu Quoc safe and sound. We were picked up at the dock and drove to our hotel. The one that we picked was called Cassia Cottages. It was one of the first resorts on Phu Quoc. We got our key and were shown to our room. It was huge! When you went in the front door you were in the living room it had a sofa and two chairs in the left side . On the right side was a table and the mini bar. If you waled forward to a little alcove you would see to either side of you a door that led to on of the rooms. They were mirror to each other so you know the drill. I’ll tour you through the one on the left because that was where Hannah and I slept. As soon as you go in you are seeing the bed with nighstands to either side of it. In front of the bed was a big box to put valubles in. Walk in a little bit and turn right and look right you are looking at a closet/desk allong the wall going all the way to the bathroom wall. The bathroom door is on the wall paralel with the closet. In the batroom was nice but not spectacular, it had a bath and a shower and all the regular things. The ammenities were basic though, oh well. Anyway once we were settled in we went and toured the grouns. I am not going to tour you right now but it will come. We went down to the beach and hung out at the ocean and the pool. Then we went back to the room to get ready to go to dinner. We decided to walk down the beach to try to find a spot to eat. We found a little restaurant on the beach with little tables on the sand. We got a table on the sand and had a wonderful meal. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.

Choa Doc Ride

Sun, 05 Dec 2010 01:53:00 -0600

~Hannah~

Hey,today we are going to Choa Doc. That is on the way to Phu Quac Island. That makes sense that Phu Quac is an island. Anyway. This morning we went to a more occupied breakfast room. There was about… 20 people at breakfast. Mom and Dad were the odd balls, because they were the only white people. We had to leave for Choa Doc at 8:00 AM so we had a relatively hurried breakfast. We got ready and headed out on the road at precisely 8:00 so we timed everything well. Mr. Anh, ( our guide,) told us a very interesting story that I would like to tell you guys.

Thirty-third Day - Drive to Chao Doc 12/4/10

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 21:45:00 -0600

Today we woke up and got readdy to drive to Chao Doc. We went through Can Tho and then kept on going north to Chao Doc, a place very close to the border with Cambodia. The first thing that we did was go on a boat ride. We rode around and see many exiting things. One thing that really stood out were some people fishing with big nets. It was a simple design for these big nets. The frame was just two ladder-ish things conected at a fulcrum on the shore. One side is over the river and has a net attached to it. The other side is just free with nothing. The person fishing walkes on the ladder closest to shore and tips the net out of the water. Then he (of she) walks to the center of the contraption and pulls a rope that then pulls the net up. Then they put the fish that they caught in a smaller net. Then he walks to the end out over the water and waits for two miniutes and start the prosess over again. After the boat trip we went to a market. It was basicly just like any other Vietnamese market. We saw some pretty disgusting stuff such as frogs with their heads cut off but still moving. After the market we went to the hotel and got settled in. It was a nice hotel and the rooms were nice (we had to have two). The staff didn’t win any prizes though. We hung out for a while at the hotel (no tour because it wasn’t anything special) and went to the hotel’s restraunt for dinner. Then we went to bed.

Soc Tran Trip

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 23:40:00 -0600

~Hannah~

Hello, today was a very special and memorable day. Today we started at in a city called Can Tho. Can Tho is also a very special day, because when Mom, dad and Sumner came to get me in Soc Tran, they stayed in a hotel very close to the one we stayed in this trip.

Thirty-second Day - Soc Tran 12/03/10

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:53:00 -0600

Sumner

So toady we woke up and got ready to go to Soc Tran. Soc Tran (pronounced: shoc tran) is where Hannah was born and where her orphanage is. We got up and walked to the dock to go to a floating market. On the way we found the hotel that we stayed at the last night that we were a three person family. The next day we had Hannah. Then we got onto the boat. We went up the river a little way and then turned on a canal where the floating market was. On the way we saw an on the water gas station. It was like any other Vietnamese gas station with gas pumps and all. When we arived at the gas station we went slowly up one side of the market. There are many boats with fruits and vegitables. We saw many bamboo poles with some of the different fruits and vegitables hanging on them. We asked our guide what they were for and he said that those things are the things that they are selling on that particular boat. This market was wholesale so you had to buy in mass. We saw some women in little canoos up beside the bigger boats and buying produce. We saw some other women in canoos selling phu and noodles and other food. Our guide called one of these weomen and asked her to make us some fried noodles. She had a little styrofoam box with the top and one side cut out of it with a little one burner cookstove. She had one pan add mixed the noodles and fried all the stuff. Then she gave us the food. It was moving fast food! Once we got to the end of the market we furned around and went down the other side. On the way back we stoped at a place that sold pineapples we baught one and the man on the boat sliced it for us. We ate the pineapple on the way back down the other side of the market. Then we went back to the big river and to the dock. After that we went to buy some things for the kids in the orphanage at another market. This time it wasn’t outside on the water it was inside on land. We baught all sorts of stuff, candy, washing machine soap, soy sause, rice (five kilo’s of it), toys and all sorts of other things that would help them. Then we loaded all of it in the car and drove to Soc Tran. It was maybe a four hour trip to get there. When we went to go get Hannah it took allot longer because you had to take two ferrys. They just compleated the bridge six months ago so if we had gone seven months earlier we would have had to go on the ferry. When we got there we went directly to the orphanage. First we went into the office of the orphanage and met a woman named Mrs. Van. She was the doctor for the orphanage at the time Hannah was there. She didn’t remember Hannah because she didn’t ever have any realy serious sickness. In that room they had a chart of how many kids were there. We were supprised to see that they only had twenty-nine kids. Then Mrs. Van took us to one of the rooms, the main one for orphans. We saw babies and little kids and older kids. There were some older kids in there that we gave those fethered things to. Many of the kids there had disabilitys. I was so glad that I have someone to love me and take care of me instead of being in an orphanage. It is probably one of the hardest lives to live. After giving some toys and candy and cookies to the kids Hannah played with one of the girls there. While she was doing that I played for a while with an older kid in the orphanage. His name was Tam and he is fifteen. We played with the fethered thing. We learned that the Vietnamese call it a fethered cock. I don’t know why, but that is what they call it. After that we went to another building where elderly people live. That room used to have with Hannah’s crib. After that we went to another building, the one that we went to to sign the papers that offically made Hannah ours. Then we went back and had a conversation with Mrs. Van through Anh because her English is very limmited. She thanked us for taking care of her for the last years and we thanked her for taking care of Hannah for the first years of her life. The conversation was more than that but that was the path the conversation took. After that we got back in the car and drove to a pagoda. It was basicly like any pagoda exept that in the trees surrounding the ppagoda were many bats. The locals even called it “bat temple.” After that we went back to the car in a thing sorta like a sicilo. It was the oposite though because a person on a motorcycle attached at the back to a small carage (not like the ones that the pony express went on just a seat and a little area to sit on the front.) Once at the car we went to the hotel and got settled in. It was a big hotel and looked very nice from the outside. Once we got inside it was still nice but it wasn’t as nice as it seemed from the outside. Our room was clean and it would be only one night so it was fine. They even had a swimming pool so we decided to go check it out. It was a little questionable about how clean the water was but it looked clean enough so Hannah and I swam for a little while and then we got out and went back to the room. By that tome it was about time for dinner and we went to the restraunt in the resort. It was a little scary because we were the only ones there, besides two emploiees. The meal was OK though and we went went back to the room to get readdy for bed. Done with today, BEDTIME!

Thirty-first Day - Trip to Can Tho 12/02/10

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 10:05:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was basiclly just a ride to Can Tho. We started out by metting our guide who’s name was Anh (pronounced: an with the a sounding like a mix of the letters O and A) and driving out on the way to Can Tho (pronounced: can toe). The first thing that we did was see how they make rice noodles. We stopped at a village in the sububs of Saigon and walked down a path to someones housenoodl factory. Anh explained the prosess of making the noodles which was very interesting but to many steps to explain. After that we got back into the car and drove on. We arrived in Can Tho and ate at a restraunt that was relly good and was close to out hotel. Then we went on a boat trip on one of the branches of the Mekong River Delta. We saw the floating market but it wasn’t very active and we are going to see it tomorrow. We got to go on a little cano paddled by a woman down a canal. It was very prety and we got to see life in the country side. We met the big boat and continued on out tour. We stopped to see the prosess of making popped rice. Popped rice is kinda like rice crispy treats. Any way the first step was that they placed a big wok over a fire and put sand from the river into it and a little oil. Then, once the sand was hot enough, they added rice to it. The hot sand made the rice pop and then they put the rice into a sieve and sifted out all the sand back into the wok. Then they put it in another sieve and got all the rice husks which they used to fuel the fire. Then he started over again. After that they add some other ingredients to make it sweet and sell it to you. We tried to buy just a couple but we ended up with six, oh well. After that we got back on the boat and went to the hotel. We said goodbye to Anh and hung out in our rooms until dinner which we had at a restraunt in an indoor market. It was very nice and the food was good. After dinner dad got in trouble and asked for the price on a t-shirt that he liked. They went all over him and even he couldn’t get away. The one that he like was an knock off “Abercrombie”. They tried to sell him an knock off Osh Cosh shirt which was better quality. Of corse we knew that it was fake because Hannah and I out grew Osh Cosh a while ago. He ended up with the Abercrombie. Then I saw a t-shirt that had a picture of a Vietnamese telephone pole with all of the wires. I then went with one of the ladys to another shop and got a t-shirt that fit. Then we went back to the hotel. I won’t bug you with another tour because it really wasn’t anything special. And then went to bed.

Thirtyith Day - Cu Chi Tunnels (Saigon) 12/01/10

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:46:00 -0600

Sumner

To is our free day in Saigon (oh oops the politicly corect name is Ho Chi Minh City). We got up and went this morning at eight o’clock to the Cu Chi Tunnels. The Cuchi Tunnels are some tunnels that the Viet Cong hid in durring the Vietnam war. They are located on a bend of the Saigon River and cover over three hundred square kilometers (about one hundred fifty square miles.) It is a little northwest of Ho Chi Minh City (very long name). Anyway now that you know it’s general vicinity I will continue the story. At eight o’clock we went downstairs and met our guide. He was an older gentelman (we learned later that he was two years older that dad). He started out by saying “We must talk about the war. We are not enemies we are friends…” He went into the details of our good relations and Bill Clinton starting those relations. He talked on about it pausing only to show us a sight. It was rather funny, he would be talking about some political thing and then point and say “there is a rubber plantation, we’ll see it on the way back.” and then go right on talking. He was fairly easy to understand (always a good thing) only a few pronuctiation errors but hey, I would have umppteen zillion errors if I tried to speak Vietnamese. His English would probably have been easier to understad if he had not had fake teeth that didn’t fit because all the time that he was talking he was tring to keep his teeth in! Oh! I forgot to tell you that he was ex-Viet Cong (Vietnamese comunist fighters in the south)! When he told us we were thinking “maybe all of the tour companys hire ex-Viet Cong to do tours of the Chuchi Tunnels. But after the tour we hadn’t seen another tour guide that looked than forty years old! We were extremly lucky that we got shuch a guide. When we got there we first were going to see a movie full of comunist propaganda but all the little rooms were full. So we just went on to see the tunnels and see the movie later. The first thing that we saw was some traps that the Viet Cong used against the Americans. They were pretty brutal. Then we went throught the forest seing some of the different entrances. Some were very teny only about twenty inches by ten inches and had a little cover over it. You had to put your legs in and then slide down with your hands over your head and squat in the little hole to get in. There were little tunnels leading betwene the enterances that were maybe two feet wide and two feet tall. We didn’t go in those we just went down the entrance. We kept on walking through the forest and saw many other places that secret enterances to the tunnels. The reason that the tunnels have many enterences is so that when someone comes out and shoots if you go to that enterence then he goes to another enterence and shoots you again an so on. Then we came to a place that was the kitchen/mess hall. It was a rectangular pit with a fire and some tables. When it was really in use it was covered by a roof that was the level of the ground with a mound of dirt. For tourists though they made thatched roofs and made the walls about a food higher. If they let the smoke from the firego out freely then the Americans could find them and, as Phong said, bomb comes boom. So to avoid this fate they made tunnels that went through the ground. Allong the way put underground compartments to trap smoke so by the time that the smoke went out it waws greatly reduced. Sometimes they even had to do it for two hundred meters! After we saw that we saw the generals place. It was basicly the same as the kitchen just with a desk and a meeting table. After that we walked to one of the enterences. They made a roof and made the enterences ten times as big for tourists. They also made steps to get down to the tunnels. They had made the tunels larger two times (tells you how skiny they were and how fat we are). Inside the tunels used to be up and down and narower in some places and not in others. Also there were little indents that you could hide in while they went past and then follow them from behind. Also the tunels were curvy and made it hard to shoot at anything far away. At the first enterence we went back out. You could have gone further to other enterences but we didn’t. We didn’t go very far but it was very curvy so it seemed longer. All the other enterences in the circit were for tourists. They were really close together just like the part that we went in. We learned that there are three levels. The first one is three meters deep (nine feet) it is for getting around. The second one (six meters deep)is for fighting. And the third one which is nine meters deep is for when the bombs come. On our journey we went in the first and second levels (they don’t take the tourists to th third level because of the chance of them getting choked). The kitchen and generals room were also interconected with the tunnels (not now though). After that we went to a place were they colected unexploded bombsand shells to make their own homemade explosives. They burryed unexploded shells and used them as anti-tank mines. They sawed open bombs for the explosives (doesn’t seem like the best thing to do) and then put it into things to use as mines. After seeing the tunnels we went back to see the movie. The lady in the movie talked about how Cu Chi was shuch a piecefull place but how the “ruthles American bombs decided to demolish this beautiful land” (OK one or two of the words were wrong but that was the basic message). Then she talked about how the people of Cu Chi defended themselfs. She never said anything about the Viet Cong hiding there or that many of the people there were against comunisim. Fighting with the Viet Cong was almost like a game of hide and seek for the Americans because they had to find where they were hiding and then clean them out. And they were tring to hunt the Viet Cong and what is a game of hide and seek without the seek?

Hue and Hoi An

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:50:00 -0600

~Hannah~

Hi, I seem to have miscalculated my estimations on when we have WiFi, cause today we found out that we have free internet. So here I am telling you about what we did in Hue. The way we got to Hue was by plane. It was the shortest plane ride I have ever been on. It was an hour flight,and basically we went up for about 20 minutes and then stayed in the air for about 20 minutes and then went back down to the ground for the rest of the hour ride. When we arrived at the airport, we got our baggage and then went to find our driver. He saw us before we saw him. Then we went to our hotel. It is the grandest hotel that we will stay in while we are in Vietnam. There are about… 95 rooms in all. But I think the way they did the grounds around the area is very

Twenty-ninth Day - Hoi An 11/30/10

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:28:00 -0600

Sumner

Today is our las day in Hoi An, well actually it is our last partial day. We leave for the ariport at eleven o’clock this morining to go to Da Nang for our flight to Saigon/Ho Chi Min City.

Twenty-eight Day - Hoi An 11/29/10

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 13:14:00 -0600

Sumner

Today after breakfast we met our guide to go on a bike ride. We went through the country side of Hoi An and passed lots of rice fields and just got to enjoy the country side. Then we got onto a boat with our bikes (I was surprised that they could actually fit) and went to an Island. We biked through the country side there and I almost had a wreck! This is what happened I was riding and some cows were running in the field then they suddenly bolted out right in front of me! It looked like a mama and a baby playing tag!

Twenty-seventh Day - Trip to Hoi An 11/28/10

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 12:11:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we drove to Hoi An. On the way we got into a traffic jam. One side of th road was completely stopped but the other side was sill flowing normally. We found out that there was some construction and they were letting people on one side through for thirty minutes and then the other side for thirty minutes. Well we got through and then our guide asked if we wanted to go on the pass over the mountains or through the tunnel. the drive over the pass was going to take forty-five minutes whereas the tunnel would only take fifteen. It was hazy and we had heard that the roads were a little scary. So we decided to give it a miss because we really didn’t want to crash off the side of the road and there wouldn’t be much of a view because of the haze. The tunnel was six kilometers long (three miles). Twice a long as Eisenhower (the big tunnel) in Colorado. It also seemed longer because we were going slower (only about forty M/H) instead of seventy. After going a little way we arrived at Da Nang We drove to a museum with many statues from the Cham people. Many were pulled from some Cham towers that we are going to see tomorrow. We then went drove along the beach where the Americans first landed during the war. We stopped and took some photos and then we saw some of the hangars that we used. Then we went back to the car and drove to Hoi An. We went to the market and saw many people selling things and then we went to the fish part of the market. I to this day haven’t figured out how people with stand the smell! It’s absolutely terrible even in the regular market! Anyway we went to a restaurant that was pretty nice compared to some of the places that we have eaten at. It was good food but we were kinda disappointing that we hadn’t gotten to eat good street food. Then the guide showed us a bridge that in times past separated the Chinese and the Japanese parts of town. It was just a small covered bridge but it had, in the middle, an area that issues were resolved between the two sides of the bridge. Then Phong showed us a shop that sold custom made clothing so we went in and were just going to look around but then dad decided to get a suit. I just waited downstairs while they were upstairs looking at designs but I got bored after a while so I went up to see what they were doing. Dad was looking at the many different designs of suits but they all looked the same to him so he just picked one and a color. Then they measured him. They took lots of measurements and then went downstairs to take pictures of him. I guess they did that so that they could see what his body looked like. Then we drove to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel we went to a little gazebo where we went through all the stuff and had a drink. Then we went to our room, got settled in and then rented some bikes from the hotel and went wandering on the back roads for a while. On our explorations we ordered mom some jeans at the place that one of the employee recommended After our bike ride we had dinner at the hotel and then went to bed.

Twenty-sixth Day - Hue 11/27/10

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 09:56:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we had our first day in Hue. We had a buffet breakfast in the restaurant and then met our guide at the front gate. His name was Phong, the same name as the guy that took us on our tour of Ba Be Lake and Phu Tho. We got into the car and went into town and went on a boat trip to a pagoda. It was like all pagodas basically lots of altars and incense and buildings. Then we went to the old palace of the emperor of Vietnam. (FYI, Hue was the old capital city of Vietnam.) On the outside was a mote system and a wall that was supposed to look like a star (I didn’t look like a star to me but it must have to someone). Then there was another mote system with another wall that enclosed the palaces. We went inside through the gate. One interesting thing was that there were three gates. One for the mandarins (government officials), one for the king, one for the commoners, and one for the elephants and tigers and wild animals. We went through the mandarins gate. We got in and there were two pools with fish on either side of the path. You could buy some food to feed them. It was amazing when you did because literally hundreds of fish fought for the food! Then we went up above the gate where the king would give speeches to his people. Then we went down and went to some palaces. It was sad but allot of the palace was bombed during the war. Since it was only one hundred kilo form the DMZ it got bombed from both sides. We toured around all the palaces and saw where they were trying to restore it. I was glad that we had a guide because we would have been clueless on where to go and what everything was. After touring the grounds we went back outside (this time through the elephants gate) and saw nine “sacred cannons.” They were sacred because they were never used and nine is a lucky number. After seeing the palace we went to a tomb of one of the kings. there was a lake and a nice island in the middle. We learned that this tomb was not only a tomb but before the king died he used to come to his tomb to wright poetry and just enjoy the area. Then we went to a place that had some statues and had an autobiography of the king. After seeing that we went to the place where the coffin was. Nobody really knows if the body is actually there because nobody has opened it. After the tomb we got back int the car and he asked if we wanted to see another tomb. We had had enough tombs so we said that we just wanted to go back to the hotel. Then dad, Hannah, and I went swimming and then we hung out for a while in the resort. When it became tome for dinner we went to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner. Time to hit the sack!

Twenty Fith Day - Flight to Hue 11/26/10

Sat, 27 Nov 2010 02:40:00 -0600

Sumner

Well today is our last few hours in Hanoi. After breakfast we went to the air port for our flight to Hue. (Hue is located in the central part of Vietnam.) It took only one hour to get there and when we did we had to show our baggage claim tickets. Mom was so unused to having to do this so she had to dig for the tickets! Anyway the airport was extremely small so we just walked outside and people with signs were there waiting to pick people up. We found our guy and then got into the car to go to our hotel. As soon as you walked in there was a great atmosphere, trees, grass… The first things that you saw were some handcraft shops where you could buy things. Then the lobby. Behind the lobby was a restaurant for lunch and dinner and to the left of that was the internet cafe. Behind this were rows of rooms set up with little houses that made it feel like a neighborhood. There were two swimming pools and another restaurant that served breakfast. There were spas and beauty salons and all sorts of other stuff. We were greeted and then sat down and an employee talked to us about the services. Then we were shown to our room. It looked on the outside like it wasn’t a connecting room but when we got inside we saw that is was. The rooms were mirror to one another so I will take you on a tour of one and you will just have to switch it around in you head to have an idea of what it was like. I’ll tell you about our room just because I want to. When you entered into your room you were in a little corridor that if you walked forward a little bit and looked to you right would be a huge bathroom that I will tell you about in just a minute. If you keep on walking you would in the main room and to you left would be the door to the other room and your right the bed that I slept in. Walk a little further and you would be in the center of the room with a steep right in front of you and a sofa. To your left is the mini bar and the closet. If you went around the sofa and down the steep you would be right next to a desk. Walk a little further and the TV would be to your left. Look right now and you would be looking over a coffee table at the bed that Hannah slept in In front of you just a little to the right are the doors to go outside onto the balcony. Outside were some chairs and a little lounge thing. OK now I will tell you about the bathroom. As soon as you walked in you would see yourself in the mirror and underneath the mirror the sink and amenities. Turn right and you would be looking at the shower and then tub. The water from the shower just flowed down to a sunken area with rocks and went to the drain. Go forward and do a right turn you wold be seeing yourself in another mirror. Look in the opposite direction and you would be facing a towel rack. Walk a little further and turn left you would be facing the toilet. Well that’s all, the only difference between the two rooms is that mom’s and dad’s didn’t have the extra bed like the one that Hannah slept on. Then we walked around enjoying the nice atmosphere and finding the pools and restaurants and the spa ext. Then we had dinner at the restaurant. Dad had hot pot. (By the way what I ate at the Kangaroo Cafe wasn’t hot pot it was clay pot.) Basically hot pot is a big wok set up on a little burner. You had some broth and some other vegetables. Then you have to add all sorts of different ingredients to the mix to cook them. Once cooked you would roll it up in a piece of rice paper. I forgot what I had but dad’s meal was memorable. After dinner we went to bed.

Halong Bay Trip

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 03:38:00 -0600

Hannah

Sorry I have not been able to post my blogs. But I will tell you all about our adventures at Halong Bay. First we had a four hour drive to Halong Bay. ( Not a bad drive.) We arrived at a place that sold a lot of different stuff. It went from Jewelry to food. Of course we did not buy anything. I felt sorry for the driver because my dad had spilled some red juice on the floor.( I do not know why he brought the juice in the car in the first place.) So the poor guy had to clean up the mess. He had said we would have a 15 minute break. I think that was his lunch break.Then when dad thought the 15 minutes were up, we started looking for our driver. We found out that he was still in the middle of eating his lunch, so we started out again. When we got there. we were welcomed with wet towels,( that’s the custom in Vietnam.)and tea. We waited for a while and then got ushered to the HUMONGOUS boat. Well it was big, but since I am small, it seemed that big. We had a warm welcome of rose pedals falling on our heads.( Pretty fancy stuff huh?) Then we got directed to the dining room. It was set with fancy glasses,plates, and the napkins were folded into the shape of a kind of bird.We had a speech from the manager, and then got our keys to our rooms. Sumner and I shared a room together.( Away from the adults.) We looked at our room, and then headed back upstairs for a yummy buffet lunch. I do not remember what there was, but it was good anyway. The first thing we did was go on a boat to this really cool cave. It had three different chambers in it. The first chamber was 300 square meters, the second chamber was 400 square meters, and the third one was 900 square meters. They were huge. And if you had a good imagination, you could see different animals, and people in the rocks. Got to go! T.B.C

Twenty-fourth Day - Hallong Bay and Trip Back to Hanoi

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 14:39:00 -0600

Today is our last day in Hallong Bay. We woke up a little later that yesterday so we definitely didn’t see the sunrise. Breakfast was about the same as yesterday but that’s OK. After breakfast we packed up our things and then went to see the cooking demonstration. Today they showed us how to make fresh spring rolls. You basically had to put the ingredients on evenly and then roll it up. No need to pinch it in. Then we went to Te Top Island, the island that we dropped off the two day people yesterday. We hiked up to the top of the island and had a wonderful view of Hallong Bay. Then after staying for a few minutes we hiked back down and go onto the boat. We packed up as we sailed through Hallong Bay and then went up to the sun deck to see our last views of Hallong Bay It was so beautiful, islands with very steep bare sides and then lush, greenery on the top. There were, it seamed, thousands of islands. Then we arrived at port. We were all sad to leave such a pretty bay but we have more great adventures to come! We got our luggage and then got into the car to take us back to the Elegance for one more night. On the way back we stopped at a place “conveniently at the half way point” It was a place that sold all sorts of arts and crafts and a restaurant. We ate some food and then got back in the car. When we arrived at the Elegance we were welcomed warmly as always. We got some pictures with the manager and the staff because the manager won’t be here tomorrow. ~~Then we walked around Hanoi for a wile and had dinner.~~ (Look near the bottom for what I meant to say.) I think that it would be proper to decide the Elegance in more detail than I have because it was such a memorable hotel. It had glass doors in the front and to the right of the doors were a sofa and a coffee table. it you walked in a little way to your right would be a travel desk where you could organize a tour. Opposite of the travel desk was reception. If you went to the right of reception were some chairs and a news paper stand. Opposite of the chairs was an elevator and if you stood in the middle and walked towards the back of the hotel you would be in the breakfast room. Behind the tables on the back wall is a mural/painting that showed a scene in Hanoi. The only thing missing was the multitudes of motorcycles. To your right is the cooking area which has a stove and a refrigerator and some counter space. It was extremely small only about five, maybe six, square yards in total area. It must have been extremely hard to cook because the squashed three sometimes four people in the space! OK now if you walk back so that you are in the lobby facing the travel desk you will see the bottom of the stairs. On the second floor if you turned right you would be facing two rooms and if you tuned the other direction on you left would be the elevator and if you walked just a little further to you right would be a bathroom that guests waiting for a room or those who have already checked out. In front of you is a lobby with a TV and a few chairs and a sofa. It also has two computer for guests to use. On the furthest side away from you is a little overhang where you can see the first floor. If you kept on going up the stairs you would be on the third floor which on you right would be tow rooms and down the hall one more room. On of the ones that we stayed in. The rest of the eight floors are basically the same so I will not bore you any more with my explanations and move on to…Oops I made a mistake. Right before the tour of the Elegance I said “Then we walked around for a while and had dinner.” But really this is what happened.
We had been wanting to do a cicilo ride but we hadn’t been able to. Did I tell you what a cicilo is? If I did you get another explanation. A cicilo is a cross between a stroller and a bicycle. The back wheel of the bike and the seat are at the back and the stroller type thing is front with a little bar at the back that the driver uses to pedal. The stroller is just a metal thing that is sorta like a sofa just really short. It also has a foot rest and two wheels on either side. We asked the receptionist to call one so that we could tour the old quarter. They came and we got in. Hannah and mom got into one and dad and me in another. Then we toured around. I felt bad for our guy because he had such a heavy load. We had asked for an hour tour but we only got a forty minute tour. Oh well it was very net to do because we could really enjoy the sights without having to dodge things on the sidewalk and cross streets. When we got back we payed them and went back to the hotel. Then we went out to dinner and went to bed.

Twenty-third Day - Hallong Bay 11/24/10

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 14:03:00 -0600

Sumner

Well today was our second day on the water. I woke up and was hoping to see the sunrise but since it was so hazy you couldn’t see the sun. We enjoyed the scenery that we could see and then went up for thirty miniutes. It was interesting, kinda like a cross betwene yoga and dancing and taekwondokarate (whatever you want to call it). After tai chi we went down to breakfast. It was a buffet breakfast with all sorts of bread and fruits and pancakes and french toast and egg and pho and noodles and fried rice. They had a good mix of western and Vietnamese food. Anyway we ate our breakfast and then sailed to Ti Top Island where the people on the boat who were only going for two days got off. By the way, there is a choice of a two of three day tour of Hallong bay. We went with the three day tour because we could really expeirience it. This is how it works. The big boats like the ones that we stayed in come out of dock each day. Do all the things that we did on the first day and then spend the night. In the morning the people going for a three day tour get onto a day-boat and do the things that I will write about in just a moment. The big ship goes back to port and gets more people and then comes back to meet up with the day boat and picks the people back up. Then the next day the three day people do what the tow day people did the day before and the cycle starts over again. That way they can two and three day people all on one boat. So because Te Top was what we were going to do on the third day we didn’t go this time. After we dropped them off we got into the tender and were taken to a day boat. It wasn’t anything special, just six tables lined up along the sides with wood benches on the fron and the back of them. The boat had life jackets which is always a good sign. In the back there was a little kitchen/nap room for the crew and if you went around that you would be at the bathroom. All that I have described so far has been on the first level so I will move to the top level and telll you what is up there. Basicly it is just the captian’s area and a deck with a few chairs. Anyway we sailed for a while at a good clip but about half way through our journey to Cat Ba Island the engine had troubles and we slowed down allot. We saw ships that were over the horison come and slowly overtake us. We made it to Cat Ba island safely though. We got out of the boat and were given a choice of going on a motorcycle or a bike. We went with the bike because we could enjoy the scenery better. Then we biked to a village. It wasn’t very big but we saw some activity. It was basicly just three streets. One leading into the village and a road leading off of that to another road. All around the village were rice patties. Anyway we got to the end of the trail/road we got off our bikes and went on a hike through the forest. It was almost as if we flew back to Colorado in an instant and were hiking thorugh the forest. The only diference was that it was very hot and had more exotic plants. It was wierd but there were no birds! We didn’t see them flying of hear them sining, there was absolutely no sign that there were any birds. We asked the guide and hea said that they are hunted for food and that’s why there aren’t any birds. We hiked up for a while and then got to a cave. It wasn’t very big but it was still dark. After the cave we went back down to our bikes and went back to the dock. Lunch was readdy for us so we ate. The food was very good and we even got brave enough to eat some squid! Dad tasted it and said it was like cucumber. I tried it and I guess that I can see why he compaired it to cucumber because it is sorta cruchy at the beginning. After the crunch though feels like you are eating rubber. After lunch we sailed to a protected cove and got off to kyak. Mom and I went togather and dad and Hannah went together. We went to a big opening that led us to another open area. The tide was obdviously going out bacause we had to paddle upstream to get to the second area for kyaking. We paddled in the cove for a while looking at the beautiful scenery . Mom and I even went into a fishing net on accident! After we paddled for a while we went back through the tunnel and to the day boat. We managed to get on safely without falling in but one person in the group fell in. We then went back to the big boat and then sailed to the docking place for the night. Then we had dinner which was a set meal of all sorts of different seafoods. It was very fancy everything was presented nicely, they never just plopped it on the plate. It was also the first time that I was served a meal in courses like that. We had many apitizers, a main meal and a desert. After dinner we flopped into bed.

Twenty-second Day - Hallong Bay 11/23/10

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 01:51:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we woke up ate breakfast and then started to get ready for going to Hallong Bay. Let me tell you what Hallong Bay is. Hallong Bay is located on the east coast of Vietnam in the big part at the top. It is a huge bay filled with big rocks called carsts which means that the sides of the rocks go almost straight down. Anyway I’ll tell you more about it later. We had organised the tour with the hotel so a hotel driver came to pick us up. Then we drove to Hallong Bay, a four hour trip if I remember corectly. We had decided to go with a company called Paridie Cruises because the hotel had recomended it and it had it’s own dock so it is much easier to goet on the boat. Anyway we got to the dock and waited in the loby until we were called to go onto the boat. We walked down the gangplank and then entered the boat. We walked in and were greted by flowers falling on our heads! Then we were directed upstairs to the eating room where the manager (his name is Jonas {pronounced yo-nus}) introduced to the staff. Then we were given our keys and went to our cabins. We had two cabins one for mom and dad and one for me and Hannah. I’ll tell you more about them later. After settling into our rooms we went back up tp the eating room for a buffet lunch. While we had lunch we departed from the dock and sailed out into HallongBay. Once lunch was done we went back down to the room for a miniute.

Twenty-first Day - Dad's First Day in Hanoi/Vietnam 11/22/2010 3:00 PM

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 07:54:00 -0600

Hannah

So, today was dad’s first day in Vietnam. But thank goodness he made it to Hanoi safe and sound. This morning we decided to do a walking tour around the old quarter in Hanoi. (Without the crowds, Sumner was our guide.) We started at Yen Thai. ( That is where our hotel is, 3 Yen Thai.) and ended at the Ngoc Son Temple. (In the middle of a BIG lake. During the tour around Hanoi, We stopped for lunch at a place called Quan An Ngon. It is a place featuring various traditional Vietnamese food. Me and mom ordered some Vegetarian Dumplings, but they turned out to be basically hot steaming rolls. They were good though. Dad ordered Shrimp with Lemongrass and Chilies. He was I guess expecting the nice small shrimp that we Westerners eat. But instead, they were HUMUNGOUSLY large shrimp, and they still had their skin,and feet, and so forth. After lunch we went to the lake. WE were going to have a cyclo ride. (That is were you go in basically a cart where the oldish men drive you by peddling their bicycles.) But we never got to it. We are resting now in our hotel room, waiting for the time that we will get dinner. (Well at least me.) Sumner and I were going to really go right around the corner to go pick up the stamps that we had ordered. But dad will not let us. Now since dad is here, we have to be more cautious. I just finished packing for the 2 day boat trip at Halong Bay. I am excited because we get to go kayaking. For the first time!!!
Boo Hoo, We only have basicly one more day in Hanoi! AND Sumner, Mom, and I have been here for 3 weeks! (half of our trip!) I think I have gotten too used to Hanoi. I have also met some really nice people here, so I wish I could live here. (For a little time.)
We just finished a scrumptiously yummy dinner. We all did not have anything special, so I don’t need to tell you what we had for dinner. Dad made it through the day without taking a nap.

Twentieth Day - Sunday in Hanoi 11/21/10

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 09:17:00 -0600

~Hannah~

Guess what? We went to church today. We went to a international church. It felt I was in God’s family because there were people from more than 30 DIFFERENT nations attending church! Wow that is a lot of different people. Church there was a lot different to our church at home. (Foothills Bible Church.) It was an A LOT smaller group, and the pastors seem to switch of every Sunday! Today their was a guest speaker who I think was from the Philippines, but I am not 100% sure. But I am sure that I did not fully understand the sermon, because his English was hard to understand at times. Also they did not have a certain building for the church. The sanctuary was a ballroom from a BIG hotel. After we sang a lot of beautiful hymns, we did the offering. After the offering we had the sermon of something. I did not fully understand the topic of the sermon. Soon after the sermon, we finished church. We tried to hail a taxi, but the first driver said we could not go to our destination.( Which was to have lunch.)We finally hailed a taxi that would take us to lunch. We had lunch at a place called KOTO’s ( Which means Know One Teach One.) It was a school/restaurant that took in 30 students each year. Those students were either street kids, or disadvantaged kids. Such as the kid lived in a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very poor family, and could not afford for the kids to get education. When we were at the H’mong Mountain Retreat, we did a cooking class with a guy who came from a really, really, really, etc. And went to KOTO’s. And now, he is the Master Chef at Sapa Rooms. (The place we stayed a in Sapa.) We all had yummy lunches. Then we wandered our way to our hotel. After 3 seconds in the hotel, we headed out to go see if we could go get tickets at the Water Puppet Theatre. But when we got to the place where you order your tickets, the lady at the desk just said NO in the most rudest way. So finally we got her to give us some tickets for 9:00 tonight. I am really excited. Now we headed back to our hotel. But then I remembered that we had ordered some beautiful hand carved stamps. We got those back and finally went back to the hotel. now we are just hanging out in room. AND Dad is on his way to Hanoi. I am SO excited. But he comes in the hotel at 11-12:00 at night! Surely we will be asleep! (hopefully!)

Nineteenth Day - Hanging out in Hanoi 11/20/10

Sat, 20 Nov 2010 08:22:00 -0600

Hannah

Today we did a cooking class. It was fun, but I only had fun for a little bit. Why? Because We were making yummy fried spring rolls, when our cooking extraordinaire was trying to flip the spring rolls, she accidentally dropped them in the very hot (to me) cooking oil. It splattered on my hand. It was not a very bad burn, but it still hurt very much. But I also learned how to treat a burn, with out ice, and the pain goes away pretty quickly. You need half of a lime or lemon. Then you simply squirt the lime juice on the places where you got burned and you are good. Also you can use some white light vinegar. After a while the pain will go way and you just have to be careful about where you put your hand.

Trip to Ba be and Phu Tho

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:56:00 -0600

~Hannah~

                                                                      Ba Be
Well, I have had a lot of adventures at Babe lake and in Phu Tho. We had to drive about… EIGHT HOURS! that was a long trip just to get to Babe Lake. That was a very long trip for me. I luckily slept a lot on the way there. AND we had a driver that did not know how to drive the car. It was his first day on the job! ALSO they gave him a very bad car that barely went up those mountain roads! When we got into a pretty good sized town,our driver asked someone something in Vietnamese. My mom asked if we were lost, but our guide just said that we were not lost, he was just
asking for directions. After a LONG time we finally arrived at our home stay. But unlike our Home stay in Ta Phin, you were separated from the family, you did not get to befriend the family members. So we went with our guide to other home stays, (which were more like guest houses) but they were all full.We finally found one that had only four other people ( instead of maybe…11-14 people, counting us.) Also the people were nice at our new home stay. Mom,Sumner, Our guide ( Mr. Phong,) and I went on a pleasant bike ride around the area. We went to a place where some people were working in the rice field. Sumner and I got to cut some rice. It is pretty hard work, but yet fun,( at least for the few seconds I did it.) Then we headed back to the house ( not my house though,) for a delicious dinner. It included rice ( duh) pork, chicken,and some greens. Then we went to bed.
   I think the roosters are a little confused ( and crazy),because they started crowing at 1:00 in the morning instead of at the crack of dawn. and kept on crowing for a long time.
   The next morning we had those pancakes again. ( I told you before, they taste and feel like you are eating rubber!) So the Lady of the House asked if we wanted some fried rice. Sumner and I answered yes very enthusiastically. After breakfast we went on a boat ride on the lake with our guide. It was very pretty, so I think Sumner will put the pictures on the blog. ( At least i hope so.) First we went to a cave that had a million bats, and they dropped waste on us. I had to dig out my hat so that I would not get hit by it. After that we went to a very dangerous waterfall. Because they blocked of the dangerous part with a big wall of cement, bur tourists go past the cement another way, so they slip on the moss and fall in the water. People can not find their bodies because there is too much foam.Then we ate lunch at a local restaurant, and then headed back to the house. Before the meal Sumner and I played with the feather thing. Our driver joined in as well. He is very good at the game, better than us at least! Finally after we got tired of playing, we went back to the house and got ready for dinner. We had a special dinner that night because we were going to eat with the family. Again we had a very good meal again, so I ate my fill and went to beddddd Sorry I am tired right now, so I probably should go to bed.

                                                           GOOD NIGHT!!!

Eighteenth Day - Back to Hanoi 11/19/10

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:34:00 -0600

Today we woke up and got ready to go back to Hanoi. Once packed we met Phong outside and got into the Jeep. It wasn’t nearly as long as the drive to Ba Be but it still was pretty long. Just outside of Hanoi we stopped on the side of the highway where some stalls were set up selling corn and shuggar cane trees. We got out of the car and Phong bought some corn. Hannah had been wanting some shugar cane to chew on. So we went over to one of the ladys and asked for just a little piece. There were some miscomunications and we ended up with the entire tree. It was an interesting experience, being on the side of the road buying shuggar cane. One that I will never forget. We tried to chew it, mom liked it and Hannah liked it but I wasn’t a fan of it. We got back into the car and drove on. Finally we made it to the hotel checked in and went to our room and sighed a shgh of releif. It was nice to be back in a western hotel with clean rooms and soft beds (This is where Hannah’s song comes in). We relaxed in our room for a while and then went out to walk around Hanoi. Then we went back to the hotel and tried to catch up on our blog. We went out for dinner and then went back to the hotel. Ok now for the bed.

Seventeenth Day - Trip to Phu Tho 11/18/10

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 12:56:00 -0600

Well today we woke up with another driver in our midst. The one who owned our car. He had come in the night on a bus from Hanoi to try to fix it. He arrived at about twelve o’clock and then towed the car to a spot where there was more light. He worked on it but when we got up in the morning it was still not fixed. And that’s were my day began, with waking up. For breakfast again we had those pancakes but today Hannah and I had fried rice. After yesterday’s breakfast Phong had asked if we wanted to have fried rice instead of the pancakes. We accepted so mom ate some pancakes and we ate the fried rice. After breakfast, which was delicious, we got ready to go to Phu Tho (pronounced: fu taw, the taw sound ends abruptly). The car had to be towed to be started but it did start and we were on our way. This new driver was like a race car driver on a one lane road, that to the Vietnamese is a two lane highway. He was passing people on blind curves and on the straight parts if there was a gap of two yards he went through it. Mom was scared to death and even Phong who was leaning slightly out the window was going, ohhhh, made it oh oh oh, phew! that gave me a scare. In fact I don’t think that we ever stopped until we got to a gas station. Where we stopped to stretch our legs he had to leave the car on because it he turned it off it would not be able to start back up again. After we got gas we went on to a town were we said goodbye to the first driver who was catching a bus to Hanoi. We felt sorry for the guy, it wasn’t a good car and he was nervous because it was his first time to driving it. We stopped in a town for lunch. We ate at a street-food place but the food was good. But the weird thing is that once we were served our food they pulled up chairs and watched us eat. And afterwards they touched mom and pinched her and talked about her. Phong said that they were feeling if she was real. I truly think that we were the first westerners they had ever seen! Then we got back in the car went on to Phu Tho. We wandered around the town and went to a square where we walked around. You could tell you were off the beaten tourist path in Phu Tho because wherever you went people stared at you. Just like to people at lunch, well maybe not as bad as them but we were the center of attention. Phu Tho, though small, is actually a university town. We saw that on our little walk.

Sixteenth Day - Homestay At Ba Be Lake 11/16/10

Thu, 18 Nov 2010 03:58:00 -0600

Sixteenth Day - Homesay at Ba Be Lake 11/17/10

Today we woke up and had breakfast. Breakfast was those “rubbery pancakes” but this time it was more crepe-ish. It was allot better but we went to the kitchen and they asked if we wanted to have some of their fried rice. We accepted the offer and ate the rice. It was much better than the pancakes. After breakfast we got ready for a boat trip on Ba Be Lake. But the car would not start! So we had to walk to the dock. We go on to a boat that was about two yards wide and about ten yards wide. The seats were wooden planks across the boat. The engine which was in the back was really loud but the trip was nice. First we cruised around in the lake. It was very interesting but the weird thing was that the water was surprisingly warm. After we had cruised around for a while we came to a river which we went upstream to a cave that the river went right through. We got off and walked on a path through the cave. On the way we went under a big crevasse that the bats lived in, The path was covered with their droppings and some fell on mom’s and Hannah’s heads! I was lucky enough to have kept my hat on so it didn’t get me. We got out from under that crevasse quickly and to another part of the cave. It wasn’t really very big but it was a good sized cave. When we go to the end of the path we went back through the cave and to where the boat was docked. Then we headed in the other direction on the river which led to a little village when we stopped and walked on a path to a gorgeous water fall. On the way we had to walk down a lot of stairs. Going down was fine but mom had a little trouble on the way up. The water fall spanned two kilometers (why did they make up the metric system?) which is about one mile. We looked at it from a look out and then went back up the hill and to the town where we stopped for lunch. Lunch was much to big for us and our guide didn’t eat with us. I would have liked to have more food but my mouth is hurting because some teeth are coming in in the wrong places. After lunch we went back to the lake and sailed back to the dock. When we got back to the homestay there were two drivers under the hood. They tried to tow the car up the incline that it was parked on, with the other driver’s car. They had tied a rope to the the front of the Forerunner (that was our car). Then they tied another rope to the other car’s front end where it had a hook. Then they put the other car in reverse and backed that car up and tried to pull the Forerunner up the incline in reverse. That was definitely not a good thing for the other car. Then Hannah went to go get the feathered thing and we played with that for a little while. After that we decided to go on a walk. We turned left and went down a small hill. Then the road evened out and we waked on to a bridge. We crossed over and a policeman was there at the other side. He came out and said something in Vietnamese to us that we didn’t understand. We think that he was asking where we were going so we decided that maybe we shouldn’t go that way. We turned around and went across the bridge. When we got across our car was rolling down the hill and stopped at right at the bridge. Then we made our way up the hill .We saw them again beside the other car discussing what to do. When we got back we played more of that feather thingy and the driver of our car played too. We went down to the “park” which was just an open field full of weeds and stuff with one torn up volleyball net in one corner with a little bit of sand. We played for a while and then went back for dinner which we had with the family, the driver who tried to help us, Phong, and our driver. It was about the same as last night with rice some vegetables and some meats. It was very interesting because mom was asked how old she was. The reason for this is that in Vietnamese what you call someone is relational the age of the person. For example, if I was older that you I would call you “em” but you would call me “anh” and if I was a girl I would call my self something else. So back to my point, when they asked her age it was more a thing of respect than disrespect. Once we finished dinner we were offered tea.We declined because of the caffeine. Then we went to bed.

Fifteenth Day - Trip to Ba Be and Homestay 11/16/10

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 11:51:00 -0600

So, today we checked out of our hotel early and had breakfast. Then our guide came and we got into the car that would take us to Ba Be Lake. The car was about one hundred years old and didn’t have any shocks left. There were no seat belts in the back seat and hand crank windows. OK maybe it wasn’t one hundred years old but it was very old. I wasn’t joking about the shocks though. The car was so bad that when we hadn’t even gotten out of Hanoi mom had to pull out the Dramamine!
Well we made it out of Hanoi and then kept on going until we go to the mountains. We were able to do most of the hills but the ten percent grades were difficult. Once we went up part of the way and then the car couldn’t go any further. So, we had to roll down the hill and then use the emergency brake and then hit the clutch to change the gear. We revved the motor and then let the emergency brake go. The car inched up the hill and then finally made it to the top. There were a few hills where we had to do this but we made it safely to Ba Be Lake. We stopped at one homestay but we decided to go to another homestay. We found a different one that was more satisfactory.

Fourteenth Day - Hang out in Hanoi 11/15/2010 6:30 PM

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:58:00 -0600

Hannah

So, after all of the trekking and the home stays and all, we get ONE day to hang out. Today we DID get to just relax, unlike last week. Our family went on an overnight train from Lao Cai to Hanoi. I slept very well unlike Sumner and mom. But when we got to the hotel, we found out that they had an available room for us to stay in until 10:00 AM. The minute my mom’s and brother’s heads hit the pillows, they were sound asleep. Guess they are not meant for train rides. When they FINALLY woke up, I had read about two whole books! (also I am a really fast reader, so that makes a difference.) That afternoon we went to a silk shop and got my self a fitted ao dai, (according to the north pronounce it ow zie). I got one for next year, and another one for the next 2-3 years. The first ao dai is turquoise-ish, and when you move, the little trees and flowers that are the prints, they turn different colors. The one that is for a few years to come, is a pretty white color, and has a light blue coloring to it. Now for dinner we are having some sort of snackey dinner. Don’t know what it is, but I hope that it will be yummy. Gute Nacht! (goodnight in German).

Thirteenth Day- Sapa and Overnight Train 11/14/10

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 10:49:00 -0600

Today was our last day in Sapa. Today we got up and had breakfast and then went back to the room to hang out and try to figure out what we wanted to do today. We decided to go to the radio tower. Everyone said there was a wonderful view so we went. When we got down we paid and checked out. Then we started out. We walked up lots of steps and then had to get tickets to go the rest of the way. Then we walked up more steps until we got to a Mt. Fan Xi Pan Lookout (Pronounced like: fancy pants without the “ts” at the end. Fancy Pants isn’t really very original because we met some other people that named it that also) Then we walked a little way more and arrived at a fork. We went left and got to a little covered area where we stopped and had a drink because Hannah had a headache. Then we arrived at a Europe Garden. We saw a look out on the top of a hill but mom didn’t want to go all the way to the top. I wanted to go further but mom was to tired and Hannah had a headache. So, I decided to go up a path that I presumed went to the radio tower. I went up some steps and then more steps and then into finally got to the top. It probably wasn’t as spectacular as if we went up to the other lookout but it was a nice view. In the foreground was Sapa all laid out and then behind that in every direction were mountains. After I took some photos I went back down and surprised mom and Hannah by my speed. Then we headed back down the hill. Once down we went back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby until time to get on the bus to Lao Cai.
The drive to Lao Cai was a little traumatic because our driver was a little crazy. We were thankful that we got off the bus alive. We were dropped off at a Kangaroo Cafe sponsored restaurant and settled down at a table. The man who seemed to be in charge of the place asked us for our voucher and then went to get our tickets. He told us that we would leave for the train station at seven. It was six something so we decided to have dinner. While we were waiting for our food another van full OK let me re-state that. Another van BURSTING with people. There were nineteen people in a bus that fit, oh, fourteen people? Also there was everyone’s luggage along with the people!
We ate our food and then the man came to take us to the station. We got to the station and he took us to the train. He wasn’t as helpful as Mr. Viet but he took us to our cabin and then went away. The cabin was nicer than the last time but it was basically the same. The beds were a little bit longer (mom could fully stretch out on it). The water bottles were in a basket (instead of just loose on the table). This was an advantage because when the train bounced the water bottles didn’t bounce out on the bed (not that they would, but just the small things make it nicer). Also we had a trashcan which was nice. The…

Twelfth Day - Sapa 11/13/10 8:03

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 07:39:00 -0600

Sumner

Today started with breakfast (good thing to start with). And then after breakfast we met some people who were also staying at Sapa Rooms and they asked if there would be any opportunity to buy. We laughed because as soon as you walk out the door you are bombarded by H’mong and Dau (pronounced: z-ow) women saying “you buy from me why you no by from me, you bye this, you no want? Ok you buy this..” and after they give up on one person if there are others in the group they bug them. We told them to go to the market in the square and pick up one of the things that they like and then they will have a multitude trying to sell you the exact same thing.

Eleventh Day - H'mong Mountain Retreat and Sapa 11-12-10

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:06:00 -0600

TODAY WAS HANNAH’S BIRTHDAY!

OK we started the day with a little trauma because when I woke up I realized that Hannah was not in her bed but I found her in mom’s bed. Obviously Hannah had been scared because of the mice and the bugs. But after we got up it was basically OK but we didn’t want to stay another night so we called Mr. Khanh the manager of Sapa Rooms and asked if we could come back. He understood our predicament and let us come back. But before we did we stayed and had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful scenery because we were going to do the cooking class at the retreat. We had a nice time just relaxing.

Tenth Day - Trek and H'mong Mountain Retreat 11/10/10

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 06:24:00 -0600

Sumner

Today I woke up and was surprised to see that I was in a house with wood boards above me. I was the last one to wake up because the family was awake at five and mom didn’t get much sleep so she was up and Hannah just was awake. I got out of bed and went to the fire. They had already started making breakfast, so we just sat around waiting. Then our hostess got out a frying pan and got the batter she had been making and made these pancake-ish things. While it was cooking Sume (if you read the last post you heard about her) arrived, for she would be taking us back to Sapa (and we didn’t know this at the time but to take us to Ta Van). Once all the pancakes were cooked, we sat down to eat. I am going to tell you this now so I don’t have to later (pretty good reason, right?) The hotel supplied the food for us at the homestay so that is why we had all that food at dinner and why we were having pancakes for breakfast. The pancakes were not what we think as pancakes. They were, as Hannah described it, rubbery. I thought that they were defiantly not prime and mom didn’t think much of them either. We had banana, honey, and sugar to go with it. We started to eat one, but after about half of it Hannah started to make faces and looking longingly at the rice that Sume and the hostess were eating. I guess that they must have seen her doing that so they asked if we would like to have rice with them. It was just the left-overs from the night before but it still was very good. After breakfast we packed up our bags and hung out for a minute until Sume said it was time to leave. We went into the town that we had lunch in and got in a van to go back to Sapa. As we were leaving we saw big tour bus filled with people and we were very grateful that mom had planned all the transportation beforehand and that she had planned the trip so we did the trip by ourselves instead of with an enormous group. When we got back to Sapa I made that quick post, shot an email to Oma (that’s what we call our grandma) and Skyped dad. Then we set out on another trek. We were fortunate to be with Sume again for the trek. We started out down the road going to Ta Van. We had been walking on the road for about an hour when we met up with Sume’s cousin’s group (Sume’s cousin is also a tour guide for Sapa Rooms) and met a young couple and one set of parents. We went on and were a little ahead of them when Sume’s cousin called out to our guide and said that she wanted to go together so our groups merged and we made friends. After a little while we saw a truck that had overturned on the highway that in the US would be a one lane road but here in Vietnamese is a 8 lane highway! Ok I exaggerated but it actually was a highway with two lanes and could be 3 lanes if two cars were going and a motorcycle wanted to go in-between them! A little after we saw the wreck we stopped for a rest. Hannah and I ran up and down from where we were sitting to a power pole. There were step-like things that looked like they were supposed to be rice paddies but didn’t get finished. They were good obstacles but since I have longer legs it was easier for me so I won almost every time. After that we went on down and when I say down I mean *down. *We walked a little ways and arrived at a little bamboo bridge made of two bamboo poles. It was easy for our guides, the sales ladies (I didn’t tell you but we had accumulated good deal of girls trying to sell us things), and Hannah and I to cross. But the older people had some trouble making it across. Luckily for us it was at most one yard long. We walked along some terraced rice patties and then across one of the retaining walls and then down some more. We walked across one more bamboo bridge and went a little way and then arrived at a quarry. If dad had been there he would have been able to tell you what kind of rock it was but all that I can tell you is that the rocks were white. We walked through the quarry (nothing was going on) and went down a hill. About have way down we saw a big digger thingy and a car that was smashed on the treads! We were thinking that these guys definitively didn’t get the safety award for the year! We got to the bottom of the hill and went across the bridge. To the right of the bridge was the old bridge which was closed but not very well, for, you could still go on the bridge. After we crossed the bridge we went to a restaurant to eat and then headed on. The rest of the way was just small villages and beautiful views of the valley with terraced rice paddies. There was one incident that I will tell you about though. We stopped at a large shop and Sume asked if we wanted to buy anything. Mom said that we would look and see what the prices were like. Well we went in and realized that there were no prices because in Vietnam they look at you and if you look like you have a lot of money then the price goes up about two to three times! Whereas if you look poor then you get a lower price! Once they tell you a price you must bargain for it no matter what it is, chopstick, you bargain for it, little donuts that are being sold to you on the streets of Hanoi, you bargain for the little donuts. You bargain for literally everything except food at a restaurant. Once we looked we walked on to Ta Van. In Ta Van all of the group, us and the Australian/English group (I forgot to tell you where they were from) hopped into the van and went up to the mountain retreat. The other group got out to look around and then headed back to Sapa. We stayed and were directed to our room. After we set our luggage down, we explored the retreat. There were, I think, five little bungalows (maybe six) and one but H’mong house. There was also a big house that was on stilts where we would have our meals. The big H’mong house one was the one that we were going to stay in. It had three rooms and a balcony. When you went in you were in the living room it was basically a brick floor and two wood benches and a table in the middle of the floor. On one of the rafters there was some corn for decoration. On the right of that room was a bedroom with two beds and a lamp and to he other side was one big bed. After our explorations we had some rest and then after a while went to go eat. We went to the house on stilts to go eat and were directed upstairs (they used the bottom level as a relaxation place). We sat at a table that was made of logs so that it was hard to put water and food on the table. Dinner was delicious but it was way to big for the four of us (we ate with Mrs. Elsa Marie, the Danish lady).

Ninth Day - Trek and Homestay 11/10/10

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 02:04:00 -0600

Sumner

Oh my!!! I have so much stuff to tell you about!!! Ok I am going to start where the last real post stopped.

Quick Update On Our Trip

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:19:00 -0600

We made it back from the homestay safely. It was very fun but I can’t tell you about it now because we are going on another trek to Tavan to a mountain lodge. Bye

Eighth Day - Sapa 11/9/10 5:00 PM

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 10:41:00 -0600

Sumner

Read the last post (the end at least) and this will make sense. I didn’t wake up until about 5:30 in the morning on the train. I slept very well but couldn’t go back to sleep so, I looked out the window. We seemed to be stopping but I guess that we were just passing a train on a side-rail. We then sped up and went for a while. We kept on going but before we got to the station the crew came by and knocked on our door to tell us that it was time to pack up and go. So we woke up Hannah (mom was already awake) and packed up our stuff.

Seventh Day - Hanoi 11/8/10 4:32 PM

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:35:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was our last day in Hanoi. We started the day as normal with breakfast. Then our driver picked us up to go to class. We did class and learned more about present perfect tense (I don’t even know what that is in English so it was very difficult to do in Vietnamese.) Mr. Tan works on very complex stuff that may or may not be practical, such as present perfect tense, instead of doing things like where is the bathroom or I need a hotel but he is a very good teacher. After that we summarized what we did during the class this week.

Sixth Day - Hanoi 11/7/10 8:09 PM

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 14:31:00 -0600

Sumner

Today we had a day off from class so we did things around Hanoi. Breakfast was as usual and then we went to our rooms to work on the blog. Hannah and I were getting restless and we wanted to go do something. So we decided to go to the army museum which was about 25 minutes walk away. When we arrived at the army museum the sour faced man said that it was closed. So we decided to go to lunch we started out for a place that mom’s book said was good but when we arrived it was closed! Then we tried another restaurant but it looked like a nightmare to even get in. Next we tried another but it too was closed. Then mom said that we needed to go to the hotel that we are booking our trip to Sapa with so we headed in that direction trying to find a place to eat. We didn’t find anything so we just gave up and went to the Kangaroo Cafe. I had the same thing that I had last night, chicken and rice in a clay pot After lunch we walked all the way back to the army museum. We went to the first building and looked at the exhibits there. There were bazookas, rifles, cannon, swords, and all sorts of other weapons. Then we went and looked at some ancient cannons all rusty and old. Next we saw some anti-aircraft guns that shot down french planes in Vietnam’s war against the French. Then we saw a hunormus (huge and enormous mixed together) missile launcher that shot down American B-25’s during the Vietnam war and an anti-aircraft gun like the one that shot down John McCain’s plane. Beside those guns there was wreckage from a plane that had been shot down. After we saw that we went to the second building and saw the tank that burst through the hedge at the presidential palace at the fall of Saigon. Next we went to the flag tower. The flag tower is a tower that was constructed in the eighteen hundreds to fly the flag and I think to serve as a fortress. Mom stopped after the first set of stairs, but Hannah and I wen all the way to the top. we went up some stairs that a man dad’s height probably would have bonked his head on but there was no warning sign no nothing. You then had to climb another set of stairs that led to another level and then you had to go up some spiral staircases that in the US we would have not been climbing up because there were no handrails and very skinny steps. Once at the top we saw another way down and we went down it. We weren’t sure where it led so we decided to explore. All it led to was a little altar and a window. We headed back up looked around and then started to go back down. We made it to down the spiral staircase but and then tried to go down the next set of stairs. We were unable to because all the exits were blocked off and we couldn’t escape! Luckily we were with someone and we wandered around with them they went one way to go find an exit and we went the other way. We didn’t find an exit but finally a woman came with the key to let us out. With that saga over we headed back to the hotel because the museum was closing in about five minutes. We headed back to the hotel and were just going to settle down and rest until bedtime but when we arrived at the hotel they told us that there was a message from Miss Joy. We were going to just get a piece of bread to eat but Miss Joy wanted to go out to eat. We decided to go to get some street food that Miss Joy had recommended. The restaurant is a hole in the wall place that you go in and there are skewers that you can put in a plastic bin and then they barbecue it for you. It was very smokey because the exhaust from their grill was jetted out onto the sidewalk where we were sitting! The food was excellent! We had okra with bacon, many different meats and a few vegetables. We had almost finished when everyone started screaming and yelling and the owner of the street stall ran around like a chicken with her head cut off grabbing chairs and tables (the tables were things like pizza trays on little stools and the chairs were the little stools) we didn’t know what was happening but our food was swept away and our chairs from under us. Then the moment of truth came when the police car came into view obviously the restaurant had “been serving too many people” And had gotten busted! So the police just sat there and didn’t leave. When we left they still were there. The police here in Vietnam are most of the time not here to help, they are here mostly to arrest people that can give them money and then get their money so if someone scratched you don’t go to the police to help thy could arrest you for something ridiculous like frustrating a policeman! When the excitement had gone down the lady asked us to sit down and finish we just wanted the bill so we asked how much it was we paid and left. I think that some people just left the place didn’t pay. During that sort of confusion it is easy to do. We went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Fifth Day - Hanoi 11/6/2010 6:00 PM

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 10:57:00 -0600

Hannah:

O.K. I think that this day was the best day I have had at my language class. Why? Because usually the language class is very difficult, with all of the grammar and stuff. But today there wasn’t as much grammar so that I had fun. Before I tell about our class time, I must tell you what we did for our field trip. Our group (including the driver this time) went a pottery village. The people there made bowls, pitchers, and humongous vases, some reaching up to 8 feet tall! That is taller than our Family room! AND people at the village put the huge vases in their homes. Do you know why they put those vases in their homes? They would put water in those vases, because water, to them, is very important in their lives, so I guess they will always have water!

Fourth Day - Hanoi 11/5/2010 4:30 PM

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 10:17:00 -0600

Hannah

Oh, am I tired. Today was a huge day! Now today at the language class, we all started in the classroom for conversations and stuff. After 2 hours of sentences and phrases and words etc. our group went to a temple. The temple of West Lake. It was a very sacred temple. Actually, I don’t know if it would be called a temple or a pagoda. But it really does not matter…to me at least. After the pagoda temple thing, we attempted to go to the Army Museum. And of course, the interesting things were closed. So on to plan B. We had decided to go to the Hoa Lo Prison. If you do not know what that is, you might know a famous person who was kept there- John Macain. It was kind of cool to go there. At the museum there were SOME disgusting parts at the museum that I will not tell you about. If you want to know the details, I will tell on my own. Before all the touring and walking, we went to a local street restaurant. The food was called bun.You had to make your own variety. You could put spring rolls, noodles (vermicelli), vegetables (don’t eat the uncooked vegetables, you can get sick), pork, and pork fat, sauce and all wrapped in yumminess. So do you guys want to come to Vietnam sometime? Come along!

Third Day - Hanoi 11/4/2010 5:45 PM

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 10:59:00 -0600

Hannah

Can you believe that we have been here for three days already?! Time is flying by, so we better get our plans in. O.K. I will tell you what we did today. You probably are thinking, same old routine, eat, go to class etc. No! It is new stuff today! If you want to know what we did, go right on ahead and read on. I sure hope we always have breakfast, but today’s breakfast was exciting. The manager at our hotel told us to speak some Vietnamese to him, but we forgot, so he told us to to study last night, and if we do not say some stuff to him, we would not get any breakfast. Ahhh! I would starve if I didn’t get any breakfast! This morning I said my thing to the manager. LUCKILY! We ate this curious fruit called Dragon Fruit. It was very good.

Second Day - Hanoi 11/3/2010 6:00 PM

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 12:27:00 -0600

Hannah

What a day! You could never imagine what happened. Well first I NEED to tell you. We (my mom,brother and I) had our first Vietnamese language class. It was hard, but I made it through. What I mean is that the language of Vietnam is very, very, very difficult. It may seem easy to you if you listen to them, but really you need to do all of the right tones. In the Vietnamese language there are 6 different tones. I will not tell you them because they are hard to write out.

First Day - Hanoi 11/2/10 6:00 PM

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:52:00 -0600

Sumner

Today was our first day in Vietnam. We got up and went to go eat at the hotel restaurant. We ordered our breakfast. I had an omelet, a pancake, some bacon, and a little bit of Hannah’s toast. We were talking about what we wanted to accomplish today. The manager must have overheard us talking about getting a phone, and he said that he could escort us to a place to purchase a phone. We said that we would like to go with him to get one. We went back up to our room then we went back down. The manager asked us to follow this other guy. We went with him to a lady on the sidewalk who had all sorts of cigarettes and used phones. They had a conversation and then she left and got a new phone somewhere else down the sidewalk. Then she gave it to mom and they set it up there on the sidewalk, something that is not found in the U.S.

Hotel In Hanoi 11/1/2010

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 08:09:00 -0600

Sumner

Hotel

Airplane to Seoul 12:27 MTN Time

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 10:58:00 -0600

We are in the plane over Northern Japan. It has been a long ride but hopefuly wewill be landing in about three hours. We had traveled in a wierd path to get to Seoul it goes like an arch form Seattle and then goes over some of southern Alaska after that it goes through some of Russia then for the last part of the journey we go down the west coast of Japan then it goes west to Seoul. I think that the reason for this path is this: the further up north you go the less distance it is to go arround the earth. This has been a hard flight for all of us. If you have ever gone on a long flight you know the experience. Sitting up trying to sleep, noise of the your fellow pasengers, noise of the plane, and so much more that henders you from having a good time on the plane. At least there are some goood movies going on I think I have watched one thing on a soccer chanel 2 times and wached Karate Kid 2 once and the end of it a few more times. Hannah and mom heve been attempting to sleep but I think unsucesfuly. We have been following the coastline of nothern Japan for a while and I think that we are about to turn towards Seoul. We are at 38,000 feet and going at about 300ish m/h. I’m going to get up and streach my legs so goodbye

Seattle International Airport 12:08 MTN Time

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 12:08:00 -0600

Sumner

We arrived in Seattle a couple minutes ago, and we came to our gate for the next flight. It took around three hours to get to Seattle from Denver. Now it will take approximately 11 hours to get to Seoul, Korea. We are about to go get a bite to eat.