Packing for the trip

With the expense of airline travel these days, we thought we might consider a method of cost-reduction for this trip.

Laura demonstrates the proper way to pack the bag:

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She feels pretty safe since she’s just a bit to big to fit into that bag.

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Seattle here we come!

T-minus 7d

It’s starting to hit home that one week from now we will be on an airplane, with the kiddos, headed for our Washington vacation and Andrew’s wedding. We’ve gotten to the list-making stage. What all do we need to take? What will the weather be like? (It’s a lot different on the coast than it is in Leavenworth where the wedding will be!) What suitcases are we taking along? How many bags will we have to check? Do we have seats assigned on all the flights? And on and on and on.

For me, the most stressful part of the trip is from now until we are at Seatac with a rental car and all our bags. After that, it’s all downhill. I don’t think it’s really gonna be as bad as I’m worried it will be… but I can be a good worrier. I’m really looking forward to this vacation, though - both for Andrew & Heather’s wedding and just for the chance to get away - almost 2 full weeks away from the office once you count the holiday this week and then our trip. It’ll be so nice.

Stay focused, Chris… still three more days of work.

Counting down the days...

Once today is complete I will have only 6 more working days until vacation… and oh my, am I ever looking forward to it. My brother Andrew is getting married on July 12 and we are using that as an excuse to take a week’s vacation to Washington. (The state, not the district.) We have several days of sightseeing and relaxation scheduled around the wedding, and it should be a great time. We’ll hit Seattle, the Pacific coast, the mountains, and back to Seattle before heading home.

Preparations have been in a lull for a while - there was the frenzy months ago when we purchased our airline tickets, made hotel reservations, etc, but then we put it aside and it’s just been lurking… and now we are back to planning in earnest. At this point Becky is starting to figure out what all needs to be brought along, how we can fit it into as few bags as possible, and so on.

I’ll admit it - the one thing I’m nervous/fearful of on this trip is the airline travel. We’re taking the girls on their first airplane trip, which will be fun, and we’ve planned in longish layovers, to try to ensure things go smoothly… but it’s still a cross-country airline trip, and we’re still connecting through Chicago O’Hare. I will be praying much that things just go smoothly. Once we’re in Seattle with our rental car and all our baggage, the next week should be just brilliant fun.

So that’s my little update for today. I’ll try for a more substantive post tomorrow as a major milestone occurs in the Hubbs household.

Bullet Points from Montreal

I’ve been in Montreal since Monday night, and it’s my first trip here, and for that matter, my first trip out of the country. I don’t have any profound essays to write but a bunch of little observations that work most easily as bullet points. So here goes.

  • It’s the little things that mess with you. Ordered a Whopper at Burger King the other night (I was craving the fries) and was asked if I wanted “the trio”. What in the world is “the trio”? Ends up that’s what I know better as a combo. [lightbulb goes on]
  • The roads are bad. They aren’t marked very well, the lanes are narrow, and the traffic is horrible.
  • The other weird traffic thing: rapidly-flashing green lights. As far as I can tell, a rapid green is equivalent to a green left arrow in the US; it’s letting you know that it’s safe to turn left, because the folks opposite you still have a red. Rather non-intuitive, but it works once you get the hang of it.
  • Sewing machine stores in shopping malls. Apparently people in Canada really like to sew or something.
  • A big report came out today in Montreal that is the result of a year-long commission holding hearings and taking suggestions on how to deal with all the ethnic and cultural issues they have in Quebec. It’s interesting listening to talk radio this afternoon to hear what people have to say about it. The commission’s conclusion is that the worst of the division is more stirred up by the media than by the ethnic groups involved. Figures.
  • Of course French is the predominant language here in Montreal, but pretty much everyone I’ve run into switches pretty much effortlessly into English. Still, it frustrates me a bit that they have to; it feels like I’m making them do me a favor rather than being able to just interact with them on their terms.
  • Tim Horton’s (a donut/breakfast chain - think a Canadian Dunkin’ Donuts) has tasty food, but no trash cans. Weird. It feels like a fast food, there are lots of tables to sit and eat… but apparently they expect you to just leave your trash on the table. Very strange.

Well, enough of that. Still, it’s been an interesting place to visit. Tomorrow I fly home.

Montreal

So today was the day I finally ventured outside the good ‘ol US of A; traveling to Montreal, Quebec for the next round of SC-213 meetings. No big details, pictures, or etc so far, but it was nice to actually have decent travel this time around. The flights were more or less on time, the lines were short, the rental car big enough (the PT Cruiser has an amazing amount of leg and head room!) and the hotel comfortable.

Now it’s just after midnight and I’m sitting up too late working on an andrewosenga.net redesign. I finally got the layout working more or less how I want it… now it’s time to make it pretty. Well… that can wait until tomorrow.

I feel like such a homebody

For a family that didn’t travel a whole lot when I was growing up, we have certainly made up for it in the past half-dozen years: Ryan spent a semester at St. Andrews in Scotland, Aaron, Andrew, and Rebecca all spent significant amounts of time with YWAM in Panama, and Mom and Dad (and Ryan, too, come to think of it) took at least one trip down there to visit them. Oh, and Rebecca went to China with YWAM while she was doing her DTS, too. Which leaves one person in the family who has yet to leave the country: little ol’ me. The grief I get is multiplied when you realize I’m married to a missionary kid who spent time in Indonesia.

But today is the first start in just a little change in that regard; I got travel booked to go to Montreal for a week in May for a industry committee meeting. Now, in some senses, Canada shouldn’t even really count; it’s not that far away, they mostly speak the same language, I mean, come on, it’s Canada. But since a) the ridiculous US Gov’t now requires a passport to travel there (well, technically, just to come home, but, yeah) and b) I’m going to Quebec, where they speak French, well, I’ll reluctantly count it as an out-of-country experience.

I got an automated email from the company’s travel agent reminding me that I would need the passport when traveling internationally, and they linked me to the US Dept of State’s page on traveling to Canada, which I dutifully visited. I did find this bit regarding traffic to be amusing:

Highway 401, from Detroit to Montreal, is one of the busiest highways in North America. It has been the scene of recurrent, deadly traffic accidents due to sudden, severe and unpredictable weather changes, high rates of speed, and heavy truck traffic. There have been numerous incidents involving road racing and dangerous truck driving, which have caused injuries to Americans. Drivers tend to be aggressive, often exceeding speed limits and passing on both sides, and police enforcement is spotty.

Somehow, that doesn’t sound too different from interstates I’ve been on in the US. Still, I’ll probably stay off 401. :-)

The trip isn’t for a month yet, so I’ve got plenty of time to obsess over the little details that tend to drive my nerves crazy. I’m sure it won’t be that bad… I just like to have my bases covered.

Another post from Augusta

Yesterday was Day 2 of the RTCA committee meeting here in Augusta. (Why am I posting a day behind, you ask? Because there’s free wi-fi in the convention center, but they want $10/day to get it in my room. I don’t need it that bad… so I’m only online during the day.) The meetings were rather uneventful.

Traveled around Augusta last night, and was surprised a bit when I drove past the famed Augusta National golf club. For some reason when I picture golf courses I think of them as big, open, in beautiful surroundings. Augusta National (where they play the Masters every year) is plopped down right in the middle of an older, poor part of town. I suppose maybe years ago when they built it it was on the outskirts, but now it’s just a walled-off enclave in the middle of the ‘hood. Strange.

Last night I found a shopping mall (boring; all shopping malls are about the same. why do I continue to seek them out?), a bookstore (also the same, but good for buying gifts for the girls), and a steakhouse restaurant (mediocre at best - disappointing). But I spent most of my time at the restaurant and then in the hotel after dinner working through N. T. Wright’s Surprised by Hope. There will be several blog posts on it here in the near future, but let me say right now that this is one of those books that has been an “aha” book for me. It simply makes sense and puts the pieces together in a way that no book has done for me since reading Lewis’ Mere Christianity and The Abolition of Man back in college. Oh, and Dad, if you read this: I ordered you a copy this morning, so don’t buy one.

Time for the meeting to start again. Gonna make sure those Synthetic Vision Systems are safe.

No, I don't play golf...

This week has brought me to Augusta, GA for the quarterly SC-213 meeting. The inevitable first question/comment I’ve gotten from friends when I say Augusta is “did you take your golf clubs along?” So as a preemptive strike: no, I don’t play golf. I’ve never hit a ball in my life. Yes, I know they have some fancy course here where they play some tournament every spring. I even know that a guy from Cedar Rapids happened to win that tournament last year. But it doesn’t mean I’m gonna be playing it in my spare time. :-) I will probably drive by it at some point just to have done so.

You don’t want to read the litany of my travel travails; suffice it to say that Monday I was scheduled to get into Augusta (including drive from the Columbia, SC airport and everything) by about 6 pm - I ended up getting in about 10:30 pm. Not so much fun.

Yesterday was the first day of meetings, and it was fairly useful. Last night I was looking for something to do and noticed in the paper that the local ECHL hockey team (the Augusta Lynx) was playing at home. The arena was only six blocks away, so I headed over, bought a ticket, and watched my first hockey game in some time. The game was poorly-attended (maybe 300 present) and the local team gave it a good effort against the first place Texas Wildcatters, but took too many penalties and couldn’t seem to pull the trigger and shoot the puck on the few power plays they had. Final score: Texas 3, Augusta 1. (As a side note: I went to look up the Wildcatters to find out where they are located in Texas; their team website actually didn’t say, any place that I could find. Poor website content. The ECHL site tells me they are in Beaumont, TX.)

So now I’m eating breakfast and getting prepared for another day of meetings reviewing this document my committee is creating. Good times.

Putting on the miles

The lengths I will go to hear a concert? Well, this weekend the length was 300 miles, each way. Lincoln, Nebraska ends up being, with short stops, about a five-hour drive. Well worth it to see Caedmon’s Call in concert again. First I should extend thanks to my mom for coming down to watch the girls for a couple of days. They had lots and lots of fun with Grandma, and it was sure a blessing for Becky and I to be able to get away.

Three hundred miles to Lincoln on Friday morning was broken up with P. F. Chang’s for lunch in Des Moines. It ended up being a good thing we ate a big lunch, because we never did get supper eaten, unless you count the McDonalds cheeseburgers we picked up from the drive thru around 11 pm while on our way to see Andy Osenga’s post-show set. After checking into our motel (very decent for the price), we headed down to the church where they were playing to hang out, take pictures, and watch the sound check. Everything was running late enough that once sound check was over it was almost time for the doors to open… so we ended up just staying there the whole night. Between Derek Webb, Caedmon’s, and Andy Osenga, the concert went a full three hours. Lots of fun. I’ve written up a full review with pictures over on caedmonscall.net.

After the Caedmon’s show, we trekked over a couple miles to Grace Chapel (a little PCA church in a neat old church building) where Andy Osenga did another half-dozen solo songs. It was fully midnight by the time that was over, and then we were headed back to the other side of Lincoln to our hotel. What a day.

The drive back home was rather uneventful, unless you count seeing multiple cars sliding off the road (not already in the ditch, but actually actively sliding into the ditch) as eventful. Made it home in one piece. Took most of Sunday to catch up on rest. In the end we drove about 750 miles for the weekend. Now, I’ve driven further to see concerts, and have seen better concerts, but overall it was great to hear Caedmon’s again, to be able to take Becky along (her first Caedmon’s show!) and to have a weekend out.

Putting my talents to some profit

Pretty much ever since my brother Andrew and his fiancee Heather set a date for the wedding this summer Becky has been in full-on planning mode for the trip. It’ll be a bit of an adventure and all, taking the girls on their first airplane ride and going cross-country to Washington for a week. We’re going to make a week-long vacation out of it; we’ll have a few days with the family for the wedding, but we want to get out to see the ocean, too, and will try to take a day to see Seattle and hopefully Matt (my old college roommate) and his wife Abbie.

So when I say full-on planning mode, well, that doesn’t capture the half of it. Becky is a ridiculous crazy good planner. She first scoped out the airfares and after a few days settled on the best option of price, schedule, and dates. With that in place, she sketched out an itinerary for the 8 days of the trip - fly in, go to the ocean, then head up towards the wedding, then hit Seattle for a couple days on the way out. With that planned, she started researching places to stay near the ocean. If she could find true Oceanfront, she’d be thrilled. [There is a point to this story, just be patient.]

She found a place called the Oceanfront Lighthouse Resort that has some pretty nice “oceanfront” condos, at least as far as we could tell from the website. The website is pretty scary - obviously someone’s side project, just enough to make do. Then inspiration struck - why, I asked Becky, don’t I contact the resort and see if they’d like to trade a website overhaul for a couple nights’ stay? A few emails later I had agreed to create a prototype so that they could make a decision. Half-a-dozen hours of weekend webdesign later I had a prototype complete and emailed off. (And Geof: thanks for allowing shell access. Makes it a ton easier to edit stuff live.)

Last night I talked on the phone with the manager of the resort for a while. The end result: we now have reservations for a complimentary two-night stay in an oceanfront condo. And I have probably another 5 or 6 hours of work to complete and setup the new website. Sure, if I were a professional designer I’d get a better hourly rate, but for a couple afternoons of design work, well, I’ll do the trade.

If I design too many more websites I need to think about setting up a design homepage to see if I can attract a little more business. After doing so many (worthy) freebies, these paying gigs are kinda fun!