Trip to China

Eric recently took a business trip to China.  He saw many interesting sights and some neat architecture.  Below is a picture of the area outside of the Guiyang Airport.

Here is a view of the city of Guiyang taken from the hotel room on the16th floor.

The hotels that Eric stayed in were very nice.

Here is a view of Shanghai from Eric's hotel room taken from the 77th floor.

China had smart toilets that had heated seats and all kinds of advanced features. Fancy!

The roads in China were very similar to roads in the US except the signs had Chinese characters.

Eric was able to try interesting foods like worms, crickets and pig’s feet, but most of the food was vegetables with rice and perhaps a little meat in a sauce. Most of the meals were on a table that spun around, and everyone would take a little bit from the dish as the table rotated.  

The meal in the picture below included rice noodles, vegetables, and pig's feet. The pig's feet is the brown dish above the bowl of rice. There is no meat on the pig's feet. Eric did not like it, but the locals loved the dish.

This was a chicken dish complete with head and feet.

Here is a video of a dinner with local's playing music and dancing.

Eric was able to do a little sight seeing when he was not working. Here he is on a Great Wall. It is a Great Wall around the old city of Guiyang.

Here is a garden site popular with locals.

Here is a shopping area, including a Walmart.

Here is the financial district of Shanghai.

Here is a video of a park where Eric went for a jog.

Here is a video taken in Shangahi which is the world's 3rd largest city.

Cincinnati

Our first trip as empty nesters was to Cincinnati for Eric's work. It was cold the day we drove in, but all the walking around the city warmed us up.

We walked over to the Bengals Stadium and the Red Socks, crossing the Purple People Eater pedestrian bridge.

All the walking got me hungry, and I wanted to try Skyline Chili. This was the 3-way with spaghetti, chili, and cheese. If I go again, I'll have to up my game to include beans and onions for the 5-way.

No trip to Cincinnati would be complete for our family without a visit to Jungle Jims. This place is like an international grocery store on steroids. 

Inside, the themes for each country are decked out in animated figures. It reminded me a lot of the Rainforest Cafe. Just shopping here is an adventure.

We met up with my cousin who took us to the shooting range. On the way there, we drove through the prettiest covered bridge I've ever seen.

Eric did well with the pistol.

I did well with the rifle.

There were places I couldn't tour because of the government shutdown, so I'm ready to go back.

Off to College

Julia goes to College.  

It was both a happy day and a sad day.  Happy that Julia is starting out on a new adventure.  Sad that she is leaving home.  There she goes, off to college. 

We arrived well before our move in time so we had time to explore the campus.  We found that Luke's old dorm was demolished and a new dorm was built in its place.  In this picture, Julia is standing in front of the new dorm.

We went inside to inspect the new dorm and to have some lunch.  The dining hall is amazing.  Luke would be jealous of the variety of food offered at this dining hall along with how spacious it is.  Here is a picture of the dining hall.  Bonus, we were able to see Cocky.

Eric had an opportunity to stop by his old engineering building where he earned his Masters Degree in Mehanical Engineering. 

After stuffing our belly's, it was time to move in the dorm. But first, a picture in front of Russel House, the USC student union. 

The move in process was well organized.  We dropped off all the items in a staging area.  Julia obtained a large roller cart.  We put everything in the roller cart.  We rolled the cart to the dorm and used the elevator to get to Julia's floor.  It was a hot day (~95F) so we were glad we did not have to make multiple trips up the stairs with heavy loads. Here is her dorm room before the move.

Julia has a roommate and two suitemates.  Julia's roommate had an earlier move in slot so was able to set up her side of the room by the time we arrived.  Next it was time to unpack and set up Julia's side of the room.  

August Time

It was busy and fun summer!  It seemed to fly by.  This blog is about a few miscellaneous events.

Eric was able to take a week off from work and spend with his granddaughter.  Eric and his granddaughter enjoyed the water.  Here is a picture of that sweet girl having fun at the splash pad. 

She helped Eric celebrate this birthday.  Happy 55!  Welcome to the active senior club.

Luke and Eric played golf in Space City.  They thought it was neat to tee off and see rockets in the back ground.  This round of golf make the blog becasue they had their best round of golf ever.  Way to go guys!

Eric hasn't been working on the Cobra helicopter engine but it still reminded him of the headache he had with the Chinook helicoptor engine. So he lightly kicked this display helicopter with a smile to vent a little prior frustration.  

Eric served his state and country. The good folks in Pickens were thankful for some work he did there this summer.   Here he is with his drill sergeant look.  Someone needs to wash that humvee. 

A deer ran into the Silverado. It was totaled.  This didn't happen during the summer but it took a while for insurance to figure out the claim.  In the meantime, Luke drove the red truck for a bit while he thought about the kind of vehicle he wanted.  Luke decided on a truck that gets good gas mileage and is sporty looking.  Good bye Silverado, you were a good truck.

His new ride.

Julia won the race!  It was the hottest day of the year, July 4th, but that did not slow her down.  Julia came in 3rd female and collected cash money for winning.  Here she is sprinting across the finish line. Congratulations!  Eric also ran the ran with an impressive time under 30 minutes.

Special access to Rocket Park.  We were able to visit a restricted park in a secure location that very few people can access.  We were all excited to be able to view this unique place.  There is a lot of history here. 

Luke scored us free tickets to the NASA Marshall Flight Center. Mom never passes up an opportunity to go!

Dad enjoyed talking to the original engineers who designed features on the Saturn V rocket that went to the moon.

And this is the replica of the full-scale version of the Saturn V.

We went back inside to look around once more and again, found Eric talking to the founding engineers of the NASA space program. 

The next day, Dana got to enjoy some sweet grandma time with this cutie!

They played and played...

Went to Panera..

Twice!

Got the toys working again with some fresh batteries....

And showed off her first little teeth from an ornery grin!