Monday, July 14, 2008
The Music Truck
When Andrew was young, he really enjoyed it when The Music Truck drove through the neighborhood. You know that truck that drives around during the summer and plays music as it goes through the neighborhood? What a nice person!
Then when Andrew was around 5 years old Gramma blew it and bought him an ice cream from that truck.
Then when Andrew was around 5 years old Gramma blew it and bought him an ice cream from that truck.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Sweden Then and Now
I previously posted about a trip to Mellansel, Sweden in December 2007. I was there shortly before the Winter Solstice. As expected, it was cold, dark, and frozen. Last month, I travelled to Sweden again -- just after the Summer Solstice. As expected, a HUGE difference since it was bright and colorful (I stop at calling it warm though: the HIGH temp was around 60F).
What a great country to visit in the Summer! As a reminder, when I was there in December the sun was only up from around 8:30am until around 2:45pm. It was pitch black by 3:30pm. With this trip, it never got completely dark all night. Overnight it basically got to a point of being dark like at dusk and then started getting brighter again in the very early hours of the morning.
Below I have included a picture of the customer site from last December at noon and then again on this trip to see the contrast.
December 2007
What a great country to visit in the Summer! As a reminder, when I was there in December the sun was only up from around 8:30am until around 2:45pm. It was pitch black by 3:30pm. With this trip, it never got completely dark all night. Overnight it basically got to a point of being dark like at dusk and then started getting brighter again in the very early hours of the morning.
Below I have included a picture of the customer site from last December at noon and then again on this trip to see the contrast.
December 2007
June 2008
I took a number of pictures with my camera phone this time. I will share a few rather than trying to document everything.
Interesting Item #1: Wild Lupin Flowers
These flowers were in large patches at random spots along the roads. They grow wild like weeds do here at home!
Interesting Item # 2: Where's the Dark?
It never got completely dark at night. That made it difficult to convince my body that it was time to go to sleep. The picture above was taken near my hotel at 10:30pm. My camera phone has no light amplification functionality -- it was as bright as you see in the photo.
Interesting Item # 3: Summer Ski Jumping
The main item of interest in this photo is kind of small. Near the center-right of the picture is a ski jump. The Norwegian Ski Jump Team was in town for their summer training. The ski jump has a ceramic surface for the jump and fiberglass grass for the landing area so that they can practice in the summer. We got to see a few jumpers using it when we drove by. The structure to the left of the photo is a large indoor pool and water slide facility that is very popular.
Interesting Item # 4: Speed Boat Ride
We stayed in a town called Örnsköldsvik because Mellansel was too small to have any hotels. The pictures above show the boat we rode and a small fishing village that we passed. The boat ride include some high speed jumps over the waves and a tour of the natural harbor including the homes of a number of NHL stars from the area. The yellow survival suits in the first picture were needed because, despite being the height of summer, the water was COLD!
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Cuyamaca Rocky
Over Father's Day weekend last month, we went down to Lake Cuyamaca to help FlyingVan prepare for the upcoming reunion and for a nice family visit. We worked together to prepare a geocache called Cuyamaca Rocky that we can share for next month's reunion. It is at the corner of his guest cabin property. The construction was very clever -- I have not seen one like it before. Props to FlyingVan on the design!
As of today, the cache has been found by 6 groups. The first person to find it was less than a week after it was published. It has received some nice, positive comments.
I have included a photo of Bethany (on the left) and Mckenna (on the right) helping finish the placement of the cache. I purposely obscured the view of the cache itself to avoid ruining the fun of discovery for anyone that will be down to find it next month. Follow the link on this page if you want a preview of the cache. The geocache page has a picture of the lake as seen from the cache site.
As of today, the cache has been found by 6 groups. The first person to find it was less than a week after it was published. It has received some nice, positive comments.
I have included a photo of Bethany (on the left) and Mckenna (on the right) helping finish the placement of the cache. I purposely obscured the view of the cache itself to avoid ruining the fun of discovery for anyone that will be down to find it next month. Follow the link on this page if you want a preview of the cache. The geocache page has a picture of the lake as seen from the cache site.
Labels: Bethany, Family, Geocaching
