1st Time Whale Watching...

You might think that since I grew up in California, that I’d seen whales off the coast many times, but I’d actually never seen any. So I was excited to arrange our first whale watching cruise. Early on a Saturday morning, we drove down to Moss Landing, which is on Monterey Bay (south of Santa Cruz and north of Monterey). We had a surprisingly good breakfast at a dumpy little cafe, then met up with Leigh and Mike before going to the orientation for Sanctuary Whale Watching.

On our journey out of the harbor, we saw two otters and a lot of seals. Ashlynn was required to wear a life vest, but she didn't mind because it helped keep her warm.

World's Coolest Flight Simulators..

Our next stop at Ames was to see the building that houses the flight simulators. Jimmy was like a kid in a candy shop. He’d trained in a simulator while in the Navy and even managed to get me inside one for a “flight” over Coronado. First we entered a room that could have been straight out of a sci-fi movie where we saw the Vertical Motion Simulator, the world’s largest flight simulator, which can move as much as 60 feet vertically and 40 feet horizontally. Then we passed by the control room on our way to a room that houses the cabins to a whole variety of simulators; above is the tilt rotor cabin which showed Moffett Field on the screen.

The most exciting cabin to enter was definitely the space shuttle, where all shuttle pilots have trained. The girls also enjoyed standing up in the lunar lander. After lunch with Deb, we visited the Ames Exploration Center, the free museum open to the public, which was anticlimactic after our earlier tour.

World's Largest Wind Tunnel...

We felt very small while standing inside the world’s largest wind tunnel. At 80 feet by 120 feet, it is large enough to test a full-size 737 at speeds up to 120mph. Granted, we didn’t see it in action, but we were fortunate enough to have over an hour with Dr. Bill Warmbrodt, the Branch Chief of Aeromechanics since 1985 with a special interest in rotorcraft research. Needless to say, he bonded immediately with Jimmy, who just loves to meet another helicopter fan. After the wind tunnel, Bill took us over to a helicopter hangar. The girls especially enjoyed seeing the world’s largest remote controlled helicopter.

Private Tour at NASA!

We had one very exciting consequence of going to my high school reunion: getting a private tour by an old friend who is now the Director of Operations at Ames Research Center, one of NASA’s ten field installations. We were so honored that Deb set aside time to show us around. Here we are in her office in front of a photo of a replica of the Wright’s flyer in the wind tunnel.

As this center is usually closed to the public, this was indeed a very special tour. Deb drove us around in an electric car. It was great to hear her enthusiasm about the efforts at Ames to use green energy; she is especially excited about the new sustainable building that is about to open, but which we were unable to tour.

Our New Short Hairdos...

And here are the results from our big haircuts. Frankly, I’d been bugging Veronica for months to pull back her hair as it was getting quite out of control. I instantly loved her new style and think she likes it, too. I’ve only had my hair cut this short once in my life, but don’t even remember it since I was only five at the time. After seeing how short it is, I’m very relieved that I didn’t have to take off an additional two inches. As long as I don’t think about Jimmy’s Snape comment, I think I’ll be able to get used to short hair.

The First Cut is the Hardest...

Veronica has so much hair that she made two ponytails to make it easier for the hairdresser. Even so, it took a long time to cut through her thick hair. Veronica was a bit sad to see her hair go, but can imagine how thrilled someone will be with a wig from her beautiful hair. In comparison to her two horse’s manes, my hair looked like a rodent’s tail. And with my hair wet, Jimmy teased me that I looked like Snape from Harry Potter; I declined to follow his advice on including that photo here.

Measuring Before the Big Cut...

After finding out last summer that Eden had breast cancer, I felt very helpless. In a small gesture to do something, I decided to grow my hair out to donate towards wigs for cancer patients. After some persuasion, I was able to convince Veronica to do the same. Ashlynn was willing, but her hair didn’t cooperate to grow enough. I was originally aiming for the 10 inches that Locks of Love requires, but was a bit shy. Luckily, a classmate at my reunion told me about Beautiful Lengths, which is a partnership between Pantene and the American Cancer Society and only requires 8 inches. Here you see that I barely qualified for that lower amount while Veronica easily had a full foot of hair to spare.

30th High School Reunion...

Good luck finding me in the photo above of most of the 120 attendees out of the 500 graduates of the Class of 1981. Considering I’ve only stayed in contact with one person from my graduating class (you see me here with Holly, who I’ve been friends with for 40 years), the reunion was actually a lot more fun than I expected. Much to Jimmy’s surprise (but not mine), my male classmates ignored me that evening just like they did back in high school. I enjoyed reconnecting with several girls I had known since middle school, but lost touch with after graduation. It was also fun to see how people had aged; there were a lot of bald heads in the room. We forgot to gather folks from my elementary school together for a photo, although I don’t think there were many of us in attendance. We skipped the family picnic the next day because the girls were taking a Red Cross babysitting course, but did enjoy brunch at the hotel with Holly and her husband Carl.

California Bound...

On July 15th, the day after school got out, we jetted off to California so I wouldn’t miss my 30th high school reunion the next day. This was my first time flying directly to California from Holland. It was cool when we flew over Greenland and we saw icebergs for the first time. Not the best photo from the window, but you get the idea.

We spent the first night at Dad’s, then Jimmy and I headed to Cupertino for the reunion. When I was growing up, there was a grain mill (Cali Bros.) at Cupertino’s main intersection. Now it’s home to several high rises with a 4-star hotel, the location of the reunion. After checking into the hotel, Jimmy and I walked to the mall. Ironically, my little sister Eden just happened to drive by and spotted us. She wanted to check out the hotel, so she came back with us and couldn’t resist posing with the funky hotel bathrobes.

Parlez-vous francais?

I must confess: I was pretty surprised when I got the invitation to the elementary school awards ceremony. Don’t get me wrong: I know Ashlynn is a good student and excels in many subjects. However, there is only one subject that she consistently complains about: How am I supposed to know if a pencil is a boy or a girl? Even Ashlynn was surprised when she got the Year 6 (5th grade) French Award. She knows that she’s not the top student, but luckily she doesn’t voice her complaints in class and manages to keep a good attitude, which we guess helped earned her the award.

Where Were You When...

Do you remember where you were when the US launched its final space shuttle into orbit on July 8, 2011 at 11:29 a.m. EDT? Jimmy and I were very fortunate to be in a pretty cool location: the European Space Agency’s Space Expo. An AWC Member who works at ESA had extended an invitation to watch this momentous lift-off surrounded by ESA employees, which was too good of an offer to turn down. Jimmy left work early, so we could cycle the 15 miles to Noordwijk. Just before launch, Jimmy told how he’d been at Cape Canaveral for the first launch of the space shuttle in 1981, which was aborted with just 30 seconds left on the clock. Imagine his surprise when he’d just finished telling his tale and the clock stopped with 31 seconds left. Before we were convinced that he truly was a jinx, the clock started back up and as you  can see from the above screen, the STS-135 launch of Atlantis was a success.

After a celebratory toast with bubbly, we wandered around the space museum for the first time. Here we are posing in front of the model of the Eagle, the first manned lunar lander. Jimmy was deeply saddened that the US no longer has the ability to put men in space, but he managed to cheer up when we cycled to Leiden for dinner at our favorite restaurant.

Final Primary School Field Trip...

A week before school got out for the summer, I chaperoned Ashlynn’s final Year 6 (5th grade) field trip. We took a public bus to the beach at Kijkduin. After a brief discussion about the dunes and the role they play in protecting Holland, we headed to the beach for the fort-building contest. The only rule was the it had to be big enough for the entire team to sit inside. Just as Ashlynn’s team was about to be declared the winner, the skies opened up. We were already drenched by the time we reached shelter under the awning of a beach restaurant.

We had planned on eating lunch on the beach, but those plans were quickly washed out and the trip was cut short. Before heading to the bus, Ashlynn’s teacher let the kids get ice cream. The shop owner was very sweet, but perhaps that was because he mistook the kids for a visiting group from England. 

Sightseeing with Jim...

After dropping off Veronica at school to catch the bus to Poole, we took a journey north with Jim. Our first stop was the touristy,   yet quaint, town of Volendam. This town is famous for its traditional clothes, but we didn’t see anyone dressed up. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed having lunch outside along the harbor. Afterwards, we ventured further north to the city of Enkhuizen to visit the Zuiderzee Museum. This open-air museum consists of 130 relocated buildings capturing the feel of the former fishing villages that were destroyed when the Zuiderzee was cut off from the North Sea and became an inland sea. We especially enjoying seeing the laundry demonstration, which helped me to appreciate even our crappy small washer and dryer. We caught the last boat back to the parking lot, then made the journey home via several dikes just to make the route more interesting.  

Local Storm Surge Barrier...

The last time that Jim visited, we took him to Neelte Jans to see part of the Delta Works, a series of storm surge barriers to protect the southern coast of Holland. In keeping with the theme, this time we visited the Keringhuis, the information center for the Maeslant Storm Surge Barrier in Hoek van Holland (outside of Rotterdam). This barrier is the final stage of the Delta Works and it is one of the largest moving structures in the world (each arm is as long as the Eiffel Tower). Construction was completed in 1997. It was closed in 2007 for the first time due to a storm surge. Always good to know that the Dutch continue to work hard to hold back the sea.