Summer Fun

Ok, grab some time and a cup of tea - this is a long one.  Sorry.  Perhaps we should have broken it up as we went through the summer, but we didn't.

We are two weeks into our new school year and we have been remiss in getting out our summer blog.  Ken actually wrote his part a while back, but I've been behind.  We had a busy summer.  If we missed seeing you, we are so sorry.  We wanted to see everyone, and we tried, but time just has a way of moving right along.

Here is our summer-in-a-nutshell blog:

Ken speaking:  Our summer vacation began with packing up our classrooms (Kim changing rooms for a new grade level), then packing up our apartment.  We were being given a new apartment (without carpet in the kitchen and one with a Babushka - grandmother person who guards the front door).

On June 25 we took a school bus to Boryspil International Airport to catch our flights to Atlanta, and a two-hour drive to Augusta to see our oldest daughter, Desiree, and her family.  We spent three very warm days with them.  We took walks around their quiet neighborhood and played with Autumn (11) and Bethany (7).

Angela and Desiree with sparklers

Angela, Autumn, and Bethany

Bethany and Nugget

 












While Kim spent an extra day with the girls, Ken and Angela drove back to Atlanta before starting their Father-Daughter historical trip to Washington, D.C. and environs.  Landing at Reagan National, they picked up their rented car and drove to Williamsburg, Virginia.  Along the way, they stopped at Fredericksburg and took a short outdoor tour of the battleground in the hot sun. 

Then on down south.  They stayed in a La Quinta motel for two nights, with raging wind storms that knocked out power to much of the East Coast.  Saturday morning was spent walking around Williamsburg, viewing the sights and watching some of the activities.

 In the afternoon, they drove to Jamestown to view the archaeological work at the original fort and see glassworks.  The power failure closed the glass house and all indoor exhibits, so they walked around the excavations and outdoor exhibits.

Ken and Angela with Pocahontas.













Angela with Captain John Smith.

Sunday morning, they attended services at historic Bruton Parish Anglican church in Williamsburg, then returned to Jamestown.

 The power was still out, but the glass house had a back-up generator that allowed for the ovens to be heated so the glass blowing demonstrations could be done.  But the annealing oven was not working, so all the work completed was immediately discarded.  That didn’t stop Kyle from making a custom flower pitcher for Angela, though.  But she didn’t get to take it with her.  After buying some glassware made on site, they headed for Charlottesville.

En-route, they stopped at Berkeley Plantation, the site on the James River where the first recorded American Thanksgiving took place.  The rainstorms that accompanied the wind flooded the basement, so some artifacts were not available for viewing.  But they walked the grounds and looked out over the river, as well as seeing where two presidents were born and raised and where “Taps” was composed.

                                             Berkeley Plantation

                                                

Mulberry Row
(Slave quarters)

   Monticello

         

After spending the following morning at Monticello, they drove along the Appalachian Trail Skyline Drive. 

They saw beautiful views of both sides of the summit, a wildfire several miles away, and a momma bear and her cub.  

After dinner with friends in West Virginia, they drove on to Gettysburg for a couple of days. 

In the  morning they drove to the new Visitor Center and viewed the refurbished Cyclorama; the Cyclorama program is now highly regimented and the viewing time is limited.  Following the orientation, they took a bus tour of the battlefield with a park ranger/guide and saw highlights of the battle from 149 years before.  A rainstorm after dinner cooled the very warm day.

The following morning, they rented horses for a horseback ride of part of the battlefield near the area of Pickett’s Charge (Ken on Freedom, Angela on Twister).  They drove to Harper’s Ferry for a self-guided tour around the town where John Brown attempted to start a slaves’ revolt – river views .  Lunch at a café in a period building relieved some of the heat oppression.  No special events for the Fourth, so they watched the fireworks on TV.

The day after found them on the road again,

this time through the Lancaster Amish countryside.

A carriage tour through the back roads was fun,

before arriving in Valley Forge for a tour of George Washington’s winter headquarters in air-conditioned comfort.

Soldiers' huts

 (replicas)

A final trip into Philadelphia was a self-guided repeat of Angela’s 8^th-grade trip to DC and environs.  The line was way too long to go into the Liberty Bell pavilion, but they did go to the Betsy Ross house and Elfreth’s Alley - a tiny, little thoroughfare that is the longest-continual-use residential area in the US.  They missed the Independence Hall tour with the guide (Larry) that Ali and Dani saw during their trips, but did see him with another group.

MEANWHILE…Kim flew to the San Francisco Bay area and spent a few days with her mom and family.  She then took off for a week of "work" in Seattle.  She stayed at Seattle Pacific University on the North side of Seattle.  There she did a little curriculum writing and a lot of walking, eating, and site seeing.  Once again Seattle blessed her with beautiful weather throughout the week including a evening of lightening storms.

Back with Ken and Angela:  During the week that Kim was in Seattle Ken and Angela arrived at the Hampton Inn in Alexandria for their week in DC visiting monuments and museums.  But first, they drove to Dulles and spent some time in the auxiliary Air and Space Museum there.  Among the many fascinating planes in the facility, they got to see an SR-71, the shuttle Discovery, and some planes undergoing restoration; restoration typically takes about 5 years per aircraft.  Well worth the parking fee for airplane and history buffs.

Sunday they attended Bethlehem Baptist Church in Alexandria.  They were two of the three white faces in a church filled with very friendly African-American worshippers.  After parking their rental car at the hotel, they caught a shuttle to the closest Metro station, bought week passes for about $50 each, and went to DC.  They went to the original Smithsonian building (known as the “Castle”) to get oriented to the many museums in the system.  Then they walked across the National Mall to spend some time at the American Museum of American History.  They found an exhibit on the first Santa Cruz-Watsonville railroad from the late 1800s; it was reminiscent of the current controversial SC-W Rail Trail going on today.  Dinner was late, at Union Station.

After turning in the car the next day, they walked the Mall, viewing several of the Memorials: Vietnam, Korea, Lincoln and the Washington Monument (closed for repair following last August’s 5.8 earthquake).  The Mall Reflecting Pool is undergoing major renovation for cracks in the floor.  Angela followed in her older sisters’ footsteps and went to the International Spy Museum (“cool” and “bizarre”), where she and Ken read some of the history and saw the improvements in spyware over the centuries.

The following day was busy, starting with a walking tour of Old Town Alexandria.  A Greek lunch preceded at short tour of the National Aquarium (“a total waste of money and time”), a major disappointment for those who have spent time at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  

Arlington National Cemetery -

     Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers

     (Changing of the Guard)

The next day they returned (from the 2007 trip) to the National Zoo.  Much of the zoo was under construction and inaccessible, and some of the exhibits were different.  It’s small, but worth one trip to see.  The weather was warm and humid, so they made a quick stop at the 7-11 across from the zoo entrance for a free Slurpee (from 11 to 7 on 7/11).  After spending time at the Natural History museum, they ended the day watching the Marine Corps band on the Capitol steps.

During their trip to the Holocaust Museum, Ken and Angela were able to join a talk given by a Holocaust survivor.  At the end of an hour listening to Henry Greenbaum tell his story, there was an opportunity to speak with him informally; because of a crowd around him they chose to leave.  As they left the restrooms a short time later, they saw Mr. Greenbaum talking with a couple of women.  They waited patiently a short distance away to thank him for sharing his experience.  He interrupted his conversation and turned to them, asking if there was something he could do for them.  Ken replied that they just wanted to thank him and to comment on his willingness to share what happened to his family.  When Ken told Mr. Greenbaum that his dad, Elmo, had served in the European theater in WWII, Mr. Greenbaum turned his entire attention to them and expressed his deep appreciation for the US military and to Elmo for his service, calling them the “Angels from the Sky”.  As they turned to leave after quite some time talking to Mr. Greenbaum, he told them to wait for a minute as he pulled something out of his pocket.  He opened it to show Ken and Angela his “life passport”, which told the story of his life. Mr. Greenbaum said that this was the last one that he had left, all of which were signed personally by him, and gave it to Angela.

They followed up by spending some time at the American Indian Museum, before returning to their hotel to do laundry before leaving the DC area.

They began their last day by walking through Old-Town Alexandria, about a mile from the Metro station to the Chesapeake Bay, then back.  After lunch at a Greek restaurant on Barracks Road near the Navy Yard, they visited the privately-owned CSI/Crime Museum, where America’s Most Wanted is filmed, for a couple of hours.  It started out kind of “hokey”, but improved the farther they went; they could have spent more time if they had had the time.  They walked around the Mall for a while before catching a walking ghost tour of some of the historic buildings.

Up early the next morning to catch a flight back to Atlanta before arriving in San Francisco and meeting Kim.

Together again we all traveled down to Southern California to visit with Ken's Dad Elmo, brother Jerry, and sister-in-law Sandy.  We also saw two of their three kids - Tammy and Kelly.  It was a quick visit, but we had a lot of time to share, and we even had the opportunity to go to an airplane museum with Elmo at Chino Airport.  Kim also had the opportunity to have dinner with long-time high school friend Marion Jack who lives in the LA area.

Angela, Cousin Kelly, and Riley

Riley

Angela and Grandpa

Angela and Riley

Tammy and Rotom

Family Photo

Kim and Marion Jack

We flew from Southern California back to Central Coast California to spend a week in Santa Cruz.  Most importantly we saw many friends.  Ken and Tim Donnelly sang in church on Sunday morning.  We love to hear them sing together and it was a treat for everyone.  Thank you so much to Dale and Esther Mills for letting us stay in their home, and to Tim and Vicki Donnelly for their faithful friendship and help.  We really didn't have enough time to see everyone or do everything we wanted to do.  We did have dinner at The Greek, of course, seeing our friends the Karagiannopoulos family.  We also ate breakfast at The Silver Spur.  Yum!!  Kim and Angela enjoyed a delicious lunch at a local Thai restaurant with a large group of women from church.  It was so much fun to sit around with friends and talk about life.  Thanks Cindy Boram for making that happen!

Tim Donnelly, and Dale and Esther Mills at The Silver Spur

Ken and Tim singing in church

Vicki and Lisa Melendy

Greg and Jim Melendy

Running into dear friend Vicky Ward at the Farmer's Market

Vicky plays in the famous Farmer Market String Band

Walking on the beautiful Santa Cruz beach

Kim with a former student and little sister

Angela spent her days in Santa Cruz with her friend Candace and at Candace's Mom's ranch.  She had a great time riding and seeing friends.  

After our visit to Santa Cruz we returned to the Concord area to spend time with Kim's side of the family - Grandpa, Mom, sister and her family.  We also got to spend some time with Dani and Jeff.  We shared a lot of family meals and just had good together time.

Dani, Jeff, and Angela

Ben and Catherine

Angela and Tesia

Ken, Aunt Linda, and Dani

Catchin' a ride!

Time flew by and before we knew it it was time to hit the road to Michigan.  We had two weeks in Michigan before heading back to Kiev.  It was suppose to be a time of rest and relaxation, enjoying the beach and family.  It was all that, but we also helped my brother move into a new house and we did a little house shopping ourselves, buying a small cottage for our future summer trips.  We also picked blueberries, participated in homecoming events, went horseback riding, and ate a lot of ice cream!  We got to spend a bit of time with Ali, but she was working hard bartending at a local pub before heading back to university.

Ken and Aiden at a game of checkers

Sunset at the channel

Angela kickin' back

Kim and Dad

Angela, Ken, and Aiden at the tracks

Can't take the cop out of the man!

Like our cool shades?

Yes, they came to our little town!  No, they didn't hand out free beer.

The beer on the back is not real.  The dog is.

Grandpa, Angela, and Uncle Mark

Someone had a rough night!

Ali and her bartending crew on 80s night

Rainbow Ranch - a favorite place

Amy

Aiden

Passing through the river

Sand Sculpture competition - 1st Place Winner. Year Around Fun!  Pentwater's got an APP for that!

Homecoming parade

I have no idea who the kids are, but they were cute, and I particularly liked the ear protection!

Aiden representing the Cub Scouts

Homecoming Fireworks

Ali's new tattoo.  This is her "for mom" tattoo.  Note the dragonfly and the image of a mother holding her daughter.  Ali designed it herself.

Our new cottage

a creek runs next to the property

Mmm...is she really?

We arrived safely back in Kiev on August 15.  We have a new apartment with beautiful hardwood floors and is bright and clean.  The kitchen appliances are new.  We are on the 13th floor with a great view.  We are very happy.  Our landlord is a lovely woman who speaks excellent English, and next door we have a neighbor whose daughter attends our school.  The daughter speaks excellent English. This week this came in very handy as there was an apartment fire 10 floors below us and Angela found herself trapped in our apartment not knowing where the fire was coming from but knowing that our hallways were filled with impassable smoke.  Fortunately, Ken and I were out to dinner and returned at her beckoning.  We ran up the stairwell which had clear air and were able to get her out of the apartment.  Our neighbor, Olga, was able to keep us informed of the going ons of the fire.

Our school year is off to a great start and we are busy.  Kim is coaching cross country and is chair of the accreditation committee and this is keeping her mighty busy. Ken finds this year a bit easier than last, but there is still a lot of work to do.  Angela is enjoying her classes.  She ran for student council treasurer and won yesterday.  She is also playing soccer.  She hasn't returned to horseback riding yet, but that is coming.  We have slipped right back into church life at ICA Kiev and we love listening to Pastor Paul's sermons.  Next week we are off to the orphanage, Father's House, with the American Embassy.  So our year has truly begun, and we won't see a break until the end of next month.  So, keep posted!

We hope this blog finds you all healthy and full of joy in your lives!  God bless you all!

Kim, Ken, and Angela