The 2010 Holiday Card...

The Williams Holiday Card 2010

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Ordered from Shutterfly.

Dad and Daughter Do DC!

In my new role I have responsibility for recruiting Full-time MBA students to the Graziadio School.  As this is an area I have very little exposure to as a faculty member, I’ve decided to join our Recruiting Director on a trip to DC.

Of course, the side benefit is that my folks still live nearby.  So I brought my daughter along to spend a few days with my family while I work.

Quick update on the MISERY of flying in today’s world…

• While a R/T non-stop airfare from LA to DC is only about $250, to get a similar ticket with frequent flier miles was 60K miles!  So, I went with a 20K mile award ticket instead.  Of course, this ticket has us departing and arriving from different airports in both LA (depart from BUR, return to LAX) and DC (arrive at DCA, depart from IAD).  Plus, it had a 90-minute layover in DFW on the way.  Ugh.
• The day we departed, there were morning storms in DFW, which delayed the plane’s arrival at BUR, so we were delayed by 1-hr from departure.
• It was 104 degrees in BUR when we left…which is apparently too hot for a fully-loaded plane to have sufficient lift to clear the San Gabriel mountains.  So, they drained the fuel on our plane, and flew over the mountains to the Ontario airport to refuel.  The total flight time was 19-minutes from ground to ground. 
• We stayed on the plane for another 30-minutes in Ontario while they refueled.
• By the time we arrived at DFW, we were about 2-hours late, so many passengers missed connecting flights.  And, they had run out of food on board. So, I had to go out and grab some food at the airport and bring it back to me and Madi.  Of course, if both of us went to get food, we would have had to take our luggage and everything with us, even though we were getting right back on the plane.  So, I left Madi on board and ran to grab some food.  Sadly, I didn’t know this was the case when I got up to ask the attendant about food availability.  Thus, i was gone for about 35 minutes without Madison (or the flight attendants) knowing where I was.  There was general panic that a parent had left a child unattended on the plane.  Madison’s helpful response to the crew members questions about her parent’s status was…  “I’m not alone. I’m with my Daddy.  He got up to ask a question, and didn’t come back.” :-)

Flight Attendant:  “Are you alone?  Where is your daddy?”

Daughter: '”I don’t know!  He got up to ask a question and never came back!”

• When we finally arrived at DCA, it was 1am.  Due to the late arrival, I had reserved a rental car rather than having family come pick us up.  Of course, the rental car counter closed at 12:30, even though they knew we were on flight 318 that was delayed.  So, we spent an hour at the airport trying to figure out a way to get a rental car or public transit.
• We finally took a $112 cab ride from DCA to my parent’s house and arrived at 3:00AM. 

Ugh…what a trip. 

But, when we arrived, it was wonderful to see my folks and my niece waiting for us.  Tiny and Bopper went right to sleep and got plenty of beauty rest before church.

Gadget geeks gone wrong…

You all know I’m a total gadget geek.  I love all kinds of gadgets…phones, computers, game consoles, you name it…we’ve got it.  Xbox, 360, Wii, PSP, DS, DS light, iPhone, iPad, in-car-MP3… All of it.

I love all that stuff.

But today on the way home from church, I saw the dark side of our collection of goodies.

On the way home from church this afternoon I was driving through the canyon with a car full of gadget geeks…

• Michelle trying to get the maximum score on Words With Friends on the iPhone
• Marcus squishing the pigs with Angry Birds on the iPad.
• Madison playing with her newest PSP game

All of us, driving in silence all the way home while each was immersed in their own little world.

It sort of reminded me of a trip a few years ago when a group of my buddies and I drove to Vegas in my van.  As we were in the car several of us were on our phones/email/facebook chatting back and forth WITH EACH OTHER in the same car. 

What a strangle little socially connected, and simultaneously isolating world we are creating.

Yes, I’m ignoring you!

 

Tonight as Michelle and I were downstairs reading the newspaper and relaxing, we called up to the kids…

Time to get ready for bed!

Of course, our perfect children all responded “OK” and we went back to reading and relaxing.  About 10 minutes later, we realized that we hadn’t seen any of them actually heading down to get ready for bed.

So, we repeated…

Time to get ready for bed.

And again, they replied with the familiar consent. 

But a few minutes later, there was still no movement towards the bedrooms.  So Michelle called up and asked…

Are you guys ignoring us? 

To which, our first born said, unsurprisingly, “No.  Sorry, Mom… I’m just finishing this level. (on the xbox, of course).

Our third-born, unsurprisingly said,

Yes.

But he said it in such a sweet, and kind way that we laughed rather than actually disciplining him or explaining that it was not OK to ignore instructions from Mom & Dad.

Ahhh… the life of the youngest…

Sand Dunes, Mesa Verde and Home!

We had a wonderful time Wednesday with our dear friends the Vaughans.  It’s hard to believe how big the boys are getting and they all are doing well.  Here’s a group shot.

 

Then we drove down to Pueblo for the night and hit the Great Sand Dunes NP the next morning.  It’s really neat, and it was my first time to see this phenomena.  It’s really odd…the largest (tallest) sand dunes in North America, right out in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.  So weird…

 

We wanted to hike to the highest dune (nearly 800 feet up), but the sand was about 140 degrees!  So, we decided to just hike up to the first summit and slide down. (BTW – If you’ve seen “Lawrence of Arabia”, they filmed some of it here.)

After playing in the sand for a few hours, we took off to Mesa Verde NP, where we had reservations for a deluxe room.  Unfortunately, when we checked in we discovered they had not cleaned our room and housekeeping had already left. So we were stuck in the two oldest rooms they had…no windows, no AC, and no view.  Iccckkk!  It was so hot and nasty none of us slept at all.

But the next morning we woke and explored the Mesa Verde Ruins.  This was awesome.  These are cliff dwellings that were used by native peoples from about 550 AD to nearly 1300 AD.  For some unknown reason, the inhabitants left around AD1300 and the dwellings are still intact.  Truly fascinating.

 

We left Mesa Verde about noon.  We were thinking of going to Vegas for a couple of nights on our way back to LA.  But after the miserable night of no sleep and insufferable heat, we decided we were ready to head back to our condo by the sea.  So we drove straight for 14 hours with two gas stops, and two bathroom stops. 

When we reached the CA border at 9:30 it was still 110 degrees!  When we reached Barstow at around 11 it was still over 100.  Of course, when we pulled into Malibu at about 1am, it was a balmy 65. I love our home. :-)

It was another great summer vacation for our family.  We’re already looking forward to next year where we plan to do the Pacific Coast…Redwoods, Crater Lake, Olympia, and Glacier National Parks.

Wind Cave and Rushmore

We spent our last day in South Dakota today and will have our final night at the Alex Johnson Hotel in Rapid City, SD. 

We first went to the Wind Cave National Park, which was very interesting. 

The cave is the 4th longest in the world (and possibly the longest since they believe it is connected to the second longest cave in the world, the nearby Jewel cave).

It’s hard to get a good photo in a cave, but here are two.  First, notice the intricate “boxwork” structure of the rocks in Wind Cave.  It’s estimated that 90% of the world’s “boxwork” is located here. Second, notice the relatively cramped space here.  It’s not a giant cavern like Mammoth Cave or Carlsbad Caverns.  It’s pretty narrow and small throughout.  They offer a 4-hour tour with strenuous climbing and undeveloped routes.  That would cool.

 

After this, we headed over to Mt. Rushmore, where we planned to stay about an hour, and wound up there about four.  We enjoyed the Visitor’s Center, the movies about building the monument, a hike around the “President’s Trail”, and then stayed for the lighting ceremony.  It was great!

 

Next stop…Parker, CO to have dinner with the Vaughans and spend the night in Denver.  Then two more stops before we get home… Great Sand Dunes NP, and Mesa Verde NP, both in CO.

The Badlands

What a wonderful day to tour the badlands in South Dakota.  A few years ago we planned to visit here, but it was about 106 degrees so we changed plans and went due East to Rocky Mountain National Park (here’s my blog post from 2007). So, we were worried a few days ago when a fellow traveler in Yellowstone told us that their family had a miserable time at Badlands due to the heat. 

However, today was perfect.  It was occasionally cloudy, a light breeze and a high near 90.  In other words, perfect.

We left Rapid City for Wall, SD around 11am, and spent an hour or so at Wall Drug Store.  What a fun place.

I have way too many photos to post them all, so here are a few funny moments.

We all tried to read this sign, but only Marcus got it.  I guess it helps to be a 1st grade reader sometimes (the last letter is a backwards “S”).

The kids were officially introduced to the “Jackelope” on this trip.

For once, I was the Chief (no offense, Dad).

We always think of Matt as “Malibu Matthew” but clearly, he’d be a good cowboy too…

Then we headed out to the Badlands National Park.  I find that this park is one few people are familiar with, but its one of my favorites. Even as a kid when I first made this trip to the great western national parks, the Badlands was one of my favorites.

The stark contrast between the open, green prairies and the bone dry, colorful, desert hills of the Badlands is one of the starkest in North America.

As you can see, the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands seems to go on forever.  It’s easy here to imagine the Lakota and European settlers fighting over this open, fertile land.

Again, the light was better on the “leaving” side of the sign, so on our way into the park, we posed for this photo.

The kids and I loved climbing around on the hills of the Badlands.  Michelle could only watch so much of it, then she had to turn away out of nervous concern over everyone’s safety.  Fortunately, she got some good photos first.

  

We are all trying to create something artistic this year to express our own experience with the sights, sounds, and smells of the west. It can be poetry, haikus, drawings…whatever.  We’ve all enjoyed working on it.

Here Madi & Marcus work on some sketches of the Badlands from one of the overlooks.

We ended at the Visitor’s Center where the kids found some great books on American Indian history and the National Parks.  We stayed reading for a few hours then relaxed at the Sioux teepees nearby.

One major change at the park since my first visit in app. 1980… now there is a Minuteman Missile silo on display near the park.  Of course, in 1980 these were still protected and confidential.  Unfortunately, we arrived a bit too late to view the silo.  But maybe we’ll go back.

When we got back home, we left the kids in the room with a pizza, and Michelle and I walked across the street for a dinner date.  The Firehouse Brewery in downtown Rapid City had a live band playing swing, blues, and some rock while we enjoyed local cuisine.  It was a great night to end a wonderful day.