Memorial Day in Boalsburg

HJ and I went to Boalsburg today for their Memorial Day celebration. Apparently, Boalsburg is the birthplace of the holiday. The federal government doesn't recognize it, but Boalsburg has the documents to prove it.

We enjoyed Civil War era reenactments, festival food, craft shops, folk music, and some incredibly well kept cars.

5 min outside of State College

Hyunjoo and I had a great Saturday and spent it leisurely driving around and running errands. We love it out here. I'll have to investigate the mountain biking scene sometime soon. Oh, wait, I need a workspace to fix-up my bike first. :-(

Packed up and ready to go

Thank goodness I didn't sell my climbing gear! My trusty ole #9 stopper saves the day once again!

Into the Central Timezone

First off, kudos to Hyunjoo for handling the photo blogging you see below. Please keep in mind that the journey isn't really this visually exciting. We're posting mostly the highlights of the journey. Lots of grassland, cows are a distant second, cities/towns distant third. We're having a lot of fun still.

Thanks to the Super 8 Motel, we've got wireless this evening. It'll give me a chance to get caught up with my Electronic Village Online duties.

After over 17,000 ft. of ascent yesterday it was relatively flat-going today. We were able to make over 36 mpg averaged over 570 some miles. The fuel efficiency of the Honda Fit is a huge help. Been dreaming of a fuel-cell car, but that's off in la-la-land realistically. I keep forgetting to take a picture of the Fit loaded-up with all our stuff for my Uncle in Honolulu - sorry Uncle, it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

We got blasted with a shotgun of stones from an 18-wheeler that strayed into the shoulder of the road earlier. I'm going to have to get the chips in the windshield and hood fixed once we get into PA. Oh well, hazards of the trip. At least the roads have been relatively safe.

Thankfully, the weather has been on our side. Dad's suggestion that we stay on US 40 was a good one and it's been smooth sailing (knock on wood). Looks like the east coast has been getting some nasty rain, but I think we'll be west of all that weather as we drive up.

Back to you tomorrow for Day 3.

Follow Our Road-Trip Eastward

Well, we've finished 95% of the packing. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it'll all fit into our Fit (no pun intended).

The cross-country trip will take about five days. We're headed straight for Princeton and will move our stuff in storage from there.

Keep an eye out for updates from the road. I'll be posting our progress here.

Horseback riding near Red Rocks

Please click on any of the pictures to view a larger version of this slideshow or to download.

Flight Links

Mom-folks gave us these two links to a couple of great sites to check airfares. I highly recommend them!

• Kayak
• Farecompare

A late update

It's been such a long time since I've written. I guess I feel like there should be some big news to report on, but there isn't any as of yet. Of course I'm thinking of my next job, but more on that later.

Sadly, it feels like an empty home with only the three of us here. Hyunjoo and I only see Nayoung for a few hours of the day since she has classes in the mornings and often spends time with her friends in the afternoons and evenings. Scott, Hyunjung, and Kong kong (Ryan) are back in Korea. They left about a week ago and we've been missing Ryan. So, we're basically house sitting for them while they're gone. UPDATE: We just heard that their petitions were accepted and now they can go ahead with the police and medical checks and pick and interview date. They might be able to return before the New Year if things keep going well for them.

I am going to start working on another job application today. This one is for a local university. They've posted a position that sounds just like what I'm looking for. This is the second position I've applied for locally. The majority of them have been in PA with the rest scattered through out CO, VT, OR, and other places around the US. I still haven't heard back from anyone, except for a position that was canceled a few weeks ago. My Uncle said to beware that a number of these positions might have been posted out of formality with people in mind to fill those positions already in waiting. I can't say that my morale is very high right now. I'm thinking of looking for totally different work or perhaps something temporary just to get some money while we're waiting on these schools. I don't like the idea of compromising, but I can't wait forever.

Other news is that my Uncle and Aunt from Honolulu are visiting Vegas right now. They were here to spend time with friends. It was great seeing them. Even though we saw them last year, I didn't have much time to talk with them because of the wedding. We had a day out together yesterday. We went to Treasure Island to watch Mystére, a Cirque du Soleil show. I found front row tickets, but aside from one segment, it would have been better to sit further back. The majority of the performance is pretty high above the stage and my neck got pretty stiff. If you've never seen a show like this, it's well worth the time and money. There are incredible feats of balance, acrobatics, strength, and even a perfect amount of comedy thrown in to keep things going. Unfortunately we weren't able to take any pictures for obvious reasons, but you can find a lot of images online.

I also got an email from my brother, Lee. He and his fiancee have chosen a location for their upcoming wedding. Next year, they're planning on having the ceremony at the Essex Conference Center north of Boston. It looks like a beautiful place that offers some cool hiking options.

It must get pretty cool in the evenings around here because I'm "freezing" when I wake up in the mornings. I'm gonna have to fish out some sweaters very soon. I like the climate here though. I'll have to endure a full summer here before I can say that I'd be happy living here if it came to that.

Happy Labor Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying a great day off. I'm just resting up now that I'm back from Dallas.


Please click on slideshow for downloads and a larger version.
I flew up to Salt Lake City last week to help my sister, Lynn, move down to Dallas. I had a chance to spend two short days hanging out with Chase and Cole. They're very well. I got to see Chase's football practice and Cole's Cub Scout meeting. I was a pretty proud Uncle.

Last Thursday at 9:15 AM, Lynn and I took off with a 6'x12' U-Haul trailer on the back of Lynn's new Volvo XC90. Thankfully, driving forward and turning with the trailer is pretty easy. Reverse is another story. Lynn and I took turns driving 3-hour shifts covering a little over 1400 miles to get to Dallas. We drove through Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma before we arrived at Lynn's apartment two and a half days later.

Dallas wasn't anything like I expected. It was far more residential than I would have figured. There are some very nice areas to drive through only a few minutes outside the concrete high rises.

Best wishes to Lynn in her new beginning down in Dallas! Take care Lynn!

Back from Korea

We just returned from a quick - five day - trip to Seoul. It was really nice to see Hyunjoo's parents, and her younger sister again. Nayoung is headed to Las Vegas to study for a year beginning this fall. She seemed really excited to be going. She is also excited to spend time with her nephew, Ryan, who's already in Las Vegas.

Unfortunately I was possessed by a stomach demon who had its way with my digestive system for a couple of days. I was outta the picture for a while recovering. I'm basically back to normal, but it was a pretty nasty part of the trip.

Kickin' it in Kanazawa

Here are some pix from Lee and Elise's stay in Kanazawa.
Click on the scrolling banner to see a larger version of the slideshow. I highly recommend it!

Hanging around Mt. Fuji after the hike

We spend a few days at an awesome hostel in after we hiked Mt. Fuji. It was a great time to relax, if even for a couple of days.
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Finished Fuji

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We just woke up from our post-hike nap. Yikes it's midnight and we haven't even eaten yet.

So, we went up together and we returned together and had a great experience. It was a fantastic trip and well worth the effort.

We hiked the mountain within a 24 hour period from the "regular" Kawaguchiko 5th station trail-head and back. It was mostly cloudy and misty and we barely managed to miss the most recent "Number 4" typhoon.

It was a blast. I'll update the entry later with better details.

Takin Tokyo by storm

Today is my brother's (and mother) birthday... Happy Birthday!

Lee and Elise landed in Tokyo without a hitch a couple of days ago and we've been having a great time kicking around.

Click on the sliding banner for a larger slideshow.

This morning we went to the Tsukiji Fish Market for a killer breakfast. We've never had such a fanastic morning meal (besides all the home cooked ones from mom).

We'll be heading out for a special dinner for Lee in a little while.

Tomorrow, we head off for Mt. Fuji. Keep your fingers crossed fo us. A typhoon just swept through here and the weather is still a bit cloudy. We're hoping the rains stay clear for our summit attempt.

The plan is that we'll hike tomorrow to the 8th station and then sleep for a few hours before hitting the summit early on the 18th of July.

Wish us luck!

Hangin' with Martin

I had a chance to hang out with my old friend Martin from High School. We checked out the new Midtown complex near Roppongi.

The check list...

This is just a rough list of what we gotta remember to take care of on our way outta here.

• selling the car
• reservations for Mt. Fuji
• arrangements for Alicia's visit
• reservations for Lee folks once they leave Kanazawa
• sell / throw out everything we're not packing up
• buy tickets to Seoul
• job hunt!
• Las Vegas vs. Salt Lake City
• garbage runs
• sign out of the apartment
• wire money to America
• shut off utilities
• hike Hakusan
• clean the apartment
• luggage service to the airport
• fly outta here
  

Niigata Dolphin Show

Scouting trip up Hakusan

(click on slide show for additional viewing options and to download the pictures)
On my quest to hike the three sacred peaks of Japan, I made a scouting trip to number two on my list yesterday, Hakusan. I hiked Tateyama with Adam and Katya last year on a spectacular day and hope to duplicate that experience with Hakusan.

I drove out by myself to the furthest point possible, 市ノ瀬 Ichinose parking lot. I had to hike up the road to the 別当出合 Bettoudeai trailhead which took me about 75 minutes, maybe three miles. Along the way I spotted folks coming down from the mountain. Some were day hiking like myself, others were camping and some had passed me on mountain bikes with skiing gear on their backs!

The trail was pretty steep, but could be hiked with my old day-hiking shoes. I'm not so confident about a full push for the summit, but I'll make do with taping my ankles and using a hiking staff. I have a feeling that I'll also need to support my knees as well. I made it up to the 中飯場 Nakahanba waypoint about 4.5km from the summit before the snow was too thick to hike on with my gear. I hit my return-time anyhow so I headed back down, but not before the enjoying the scenery. It was fantastic and I was even blessed with a wonderful view of two amazing waterfalls not far from one of the ridges. I can't wait to return!

Uchinada Kite Festival

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Hyunjoo, Katya, Sheryl and I took off for Uchinada around 10:30 to check out the annual kite festival along the beach near Kanazawa. We were immediately impressed with over 10 massive octopus "kites" flying low over the beach. They were brought by a team that flew out from Berkeley, California. Unfortunately only a few traditional large Japanese kites were flying. And my favorites, the bug kites, were rarely seen that day as well. After getting pumped watching the team sport kite competition, we decided to try it out for ourselves. There were instructors that let you fly a sport kite for yourself. It was a rather difficult design to fly since it wobbled a high speeds and it gave a wicked pull in those winds. We soon switched to my own sport kite and continued having fun taking turns flying it until the winds died down at three. You can find Katya's video from this link.

Shirone Kite Museum

Hyunjoo and I just returned from a short trip to Niigata city. On our way up, we stopped by a fantastic kite museum. They even have facilities for children to make their own kites and test them in an indoor wind tunnel! The vast majority of kites were hand made, even the gargantuan kites in the atrium.