MS150, EG and Other Stuff

Well as usual, we are far behind on the blog.  Kimber was in Equatorial Guinea from March 20 through April 18.  She returned home just in time to complete the MS150.  The MS150 is the 150 mile bike ride from Houston to Austin over two days to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.  It is a lovely but challenging ride for a great cause.  This year, Kimber had company on the ride.  Kirk and Kimber completed the ride together on a tandem.  This turned out to be a good thing as there were strong head and side winds on Saturday and on a tandem you get twice the push for the wind breaking.  The larger of the two riders is on the front of then tandem.  This is the pilot and of course that is Kirk.  The smaller rider is on the back and is the stoker.  And contrary to what people may think, the back is not a free ride.  The pedals of the pilot and stoker are connected and our feet are clipped to them.  The stoker does not appreciate the comment by those who are not an a tandem that she is not pedalling.

Other than the wind on the first day of the ride, it was beautiful.  the wild flowers were amazing this year.  Kimber was extremely surprised to still see so many bluebonnets.  We did unfortunately ride through some of the areas impacted by last years Texas wildfires.  It is still heart wrenching to see the burned forest and foundations without homes or businesses on them.  The area is still trying to recover.

We also had one near miss.  There aren't many steep hills on the route until you get into to Austin.  However, there are several short steep hills right as you enter Austin.  We hadn't had much practice on shifting to the gears for those type of hills and weren't fast enough on the first shift.  We lost the chain and came to a complete halt.  If you can't see on the picture, our feet are clipped to the pedals.  Kirk is left handed and Kimber right handed so we each prefer to take a different foot out of the pedal first.  So I took my right and Kirk his left as the bike started to tip.  Ha, we wobbled like a teeter totter, but Kirk finally won.  Somehow we didn't fall.  It took some time and greasy fingers but we got the chain back on and onto the road with no road rash or bruises!  We learned to shift much faster.

We have already made our reservations for a hotel for next year's ride.  Haven't decided yet whether to replace our current tandem with the one in the picture (it was a rental) or something similar.  We rented this tandem and it was a real treat to ride.  Very light and comfortable. Easy to ride all day.

Kimber left to return to EG on May 13.  It was tough to leave with such a short break and knowing that she wouldn't see Sidney for nearly six weeks.  Her stay in EG was only 4 weeks but Sidney went to her Grandmother in Georgia right after school got out and was gone for nearly two weeks after Kimber returned home.

Kimber got to play a little golf in EG.  There is a new not completely built private course in Malabo.  11 holes are completed and Kimber rented a half set of clubs and had a great time playing golf.  She also noticed this pineapple plant in someones front yard on the compound.



Kimber also took a picture of Pico, the largest volcano on Bioko Island.  Because it was the rainy season, the views of Pico were great.  You could see all the reliefs in the volcano and details.

Kimber also walked out on the EGLNG Tanker Jetty.  We have posted a picture of the jetty before.  It is an engineering marvel.  It is a suspension bridge basically, support on one end on shore and the other on a tower in the sea.  It slopes downwards somewhere around 15 degrees from the land side to the sea side.  It is a beautiful walk, especially going down.  Very peaceful over the jungle, shore and sea.  The walk back up is a killer though.  It is long and steep.

You will also find a picture of our other cat, Mouser.  Mouser lives in Africa in the Fire House.  He has lived a long life for a Malabo cat. He is almost 5 years old.  When Kimber went for the turnaround, Mouser was missing most of his fur and very thin.  Kimber and the other professionals provided Mouser with a lot of food and combing and on Kimber's return he was looking quite good indeed.

Now Kimber has been going to Africa for several years now.  And on nearly every trip someone talks about snakes.  How poisonous they are, how big, etc.  Kimber has never seen a snake on any of her trips, and she looks for them.  She went for a walk on the last Sunday before she left and found this lovely fellow hanging out on the fence.  He was there quite a while because she walked past him and walked another mile or so before turning around to come back.  He was still there on her return.  He wasn't concerned with Kimber and Kimber thinks he is a small green Mamba.  He only wanted to hang out in the sun.  Kimber walked only another 200 feet and encountered

another snake.  She didn't get a picture of this one because he was on the ground and moved away quite quickly.  He was black or dark brown, smaller and had red or orange on part of his back.  So Kimber is now content that there are snakes in Africa and quite pleased that she has finally seen them.

Kimber returned to the US via Norway.  Agreed, not the most direct route but she needed to visit Norway for a meeting.  She didn't get pictures of the swan family we have watched since we lived in Norway but she did see them.  They have 5 healthy looking cygnets this year.  4 gray and one white.  She did grab a picture of this family walking down the trail at a Stavanger lake though.  Silly swans.








Kimber did finally make it home and so did Sidney.  They got to spend 30 hours together before Sidney went off to Girl Scout Camp.  Six days in 100 degree heat, swimming, eating, canoeing and sleeping outside.  Sound like fun?

On another note, our yard is maturing very nicely. Most of the plants survived the winter, and we were able to fill in the holes with a few other plants.  Here are some pictures of what it looks like now.




Kimber and Sidney and the yard work we had done were featured in a magazine in April.  We have included a copy of the article below.  The article was in the April Issue of Healthy Moms Healthy Kids.  We have included the article below along with a few pictures taken recently of the backyard.  Hope you enjoy the article.

Road Trip

Sidney and Kimber (I) took a road trip for Spring break.  This trip was between my Norway/UK trip and month in Equatorial Guinea. We left for this trip after I had been home for approximately 14 hours and it was my sixth flight in a week (Norway to Aberdeen, Offshore to Brae by helicopter, back onshore by helicopter, Aberdeen to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Houston, finally Houston to Las Vegas).  We flew into Las Vegas and drove over to St. George Utah on the first day.  At this time I was totally confused by time zones and we were really tired. The lady who checked us into the hotel, Mitsy, was awesome.  She told us where a few parks were, where to get a good cup of coffee and a good dinner.  She made sure we had a quite hotel room and chatted a lot with Sidney.  All we did then was play at the park, have dinner, and swim for a while.

On day two, we drove over to Zion Canyon.  We packed some left over pizza, fruit, vegetables and trail mix and took off. It was an hours drive from the hotel.  We stopped at the visitors center to get Junior Ranger information for Sidney and hiking suggestions.  The day was sunny and warm.  Sidney and I hike the Lower, Middle, and Upper Emerald Pool Falls Trails.  This took us under a few small water falls and two three lovely pools.  Now these are small falls and pools because Zion is in the desert.  We did talk about the signs of spring as we went, noticing insects, flowers and new leaves.  Towards the Upper Emerald Pool, we had to jump from rock to rock over the creek.  Sidney unfortunately landed on a wet slanted rock and ended up with one foot into the water up to mid calf.  She then tried the same thing again, other leg, same result.  She was extremely offended that I laughed at her. She was fine and was dry by the end of the hike. 

We ate our lunch at the Upper Pool which to Sidney's delight had snow.  She couldn't get to the snow but she enjoyed looking at it and talking about it.  We ate our pizza and fruit there.  She only ate part of her pizza and announced loudly to me (with the company of many other hikers) that she was "not fond of the bone" (pizza crust for you non-native English speakers). Everyone around thought this was quite funny. 

After our lunch break, we hiked back down and along the river.  Along the way, we noticed signs of beaver activity.  There were many trees with damage on the bottom and several that had been recently felled.  But we couldn't find any dens or dams.  Sidney and I talked about how the beavers liked the inner bark on the trees and had to keep chewing on trees because their teeth grow longer all the time.  When we stopped back at the Visitor Center and talked to the Ranger, she said there are beavers, but they are burrowing beavers.  Because the river floods frequently, they have learned not to build dens and dams, but instead dig borrows for their home which they abandon during floods, and re-dig afterwards.  She also had a model of a beaver skull to see and a pelt.  We learned quite a lot.  The Ranger told us that although the beavers are very destructive, they are good indicators of a healthy eco-system.  Overall, it was a great, fun-filled, day of hiking and learning. 

Day three took us back through Zion on the way to South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  In Zion, we drove through a tunnel and came out in an entirely different ecosystem and geologic area.  It was amazing.  It was too bad I had to drive because it was so beautiful.  We stopped at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Utah.  The sand dunes were formed from the pink and red sand from the sandstone in the area.  They were quite different than other sand dunes we have visited.  They also have a full ecosystem because they don't shift as much as other dunes.  There was evidence of lots of lizards and kangaroo rats.  Sidney had a blast rolling around in the sand.  It was a great time for her but there was sand in everything for days. 

After our stop there, we proceeded on to the Grand Canyon.  We stopped at all the overlooks outside of the main village and bus transportation areas.  Then we took our exhausted selves to our lodge.  After dinner we crashed. 

On day four, we took the free shuttle bus to the farthest point along the south rim it goes towards the east and spent most of the day walking back along the rim.  We considered hiking some of the way into the canyon, and I am sure we would have enjoyed it, but with only one day we wanted to see some of the museums and displays.  We walked about 6 miles back along the rim.  We stopped and took in a ranger Program and got another Junior Ranger Badge for Sidney.  She now has Carlsbad Caverns, Yellowstone, Zion, and Grand Canyon.  For each she has completed several required activities and talked to rangers.  I think it is a great way for kids to learn things.  She can tell you all about Big Horn Sheep now. Part of our walk was the Walk of Time.  There were rocks from the canyon that chronology the time the canyon has formed.  All the rock layers are from different times and tell the history of the canyon.  Sidney really enjoyed this activity.  By the time were got back to the village we were tired and ready for a break from all the people.  So we drove to our hotel in Williams.

We stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in Williams.  It was very pleasant and a nice break from the crowds.  Sidney swam and showered and then we had a quite dinner. 

We started day five at Bearizona.  Bearizona was not on our original itinerary.  However, we were convinced by the hotel staff to go for a visit.  It was well worth it.  Bearizona has been open since 2010 and is located in Williams.  It is a drive through an walk through animal park.  I am always hesitant about these but I have to admit I was very impressed.  When you drive up and pay, they give you a GPS that talks about the different areas of the park, what is happening in that area, and most importantly about the animals. 

We started our journey with the Mountain Goats.  We didn't see them so we moved on to American Bison, Big Horn Sheep, and Dall Sheep. They also have 4 White American Bison named Ima, Yankee, Doodle, and Dandy.  Additionally, we saw four wolves, one of which I really thought was going to jump on the car.  Very scary.  Windows are up of course.  The final drive through part of the park is the Bears or course.  They have 17 bears on 15 acres.  I have to admit it was really amazing.  You could really watch a variety of bear behavior in a great environment.  I was extremely impressed with the park and the amount of room the animals had and how they were kept.  The walk through section had most of the standard North American animals like Lynx, Bobcat, Skunk, and Raccoon.  Oh and guinea pigs.  But this time, the best part was the baby White American Bison you could reach through the fence and pet.  She was amazing.  Her name in Anabelle.  I think she was one of Sidney's favorite things. 

The GPS describes the reclamation of objects the park does to build habitats.  They used 18 buses to form the walls for the Mountain Goats.  When you drove back through the park, you could see them from the back as well as notice other efforts.  We also talked with the keepers and found them extremely informative and helpful.  When we drove back through, we found the Mountain Goat, as he tried to butt my rental car.  When we talked with the keeper he said the goat was fairly new and very outgoing!  Bearizona was one of Sidney's favorite stops.

After that we headed for Hoover Dam.  I had never been there and we couldn't do all the tours because of Sidney's age.  The tour we did was OK but the whole thing felt very commercial and not as educational as I expected.  We didn't spend a lot of time there and instead headed for Las Vegas and our final stop. I have included a picture of Lake Mead.  Something I did learn was that the white line you see in the picture was a one time level the lake reached in the early nineties where there was enough flooding from snow melt and rain upstream of the Dam that the overflow route for the Dam was in use for 60 days.  So only once has the level been that high but it left a permanent white line that makes people very worried about how much lower the level is today. 

We arrived in Las Vegas and checked in.  Got settled in our room in New York New York. We wandered a bit and then enjoyed some Sushi. 

Day six was spent wandering around the strip.  We went to Bellagio and saw the beautiful glass flowers and garden.  We also saw a bit of the fountains.  We went to the bird sanctuary at Flamingo and the hourly animation of the gods at Caesars Palace.  We also went to a dolphin training center.  That was also a great experience for Sidney.  You were within two feet of the dolphins and could really interact with them and see how smart they are.  They had 11 dolphins total in three tanks ranging in age from 3 years old to 30 years old.  They do not have shows there but do train and exercise the dolphins.  Several of the dolphins will whistle and chatter with their blow holes at you and sometimes even wave.  And two were working together to try to lift a fence to get to another tank.  It was quite interesting.  We also saw white tigers and white lions but they were not nearly as social as the dolphins. 

After that, we went home and took a nap.  We ate dinner and then went to Cirque Du Soleil "O" at Bellagio.  It was amazing.  They have acrobats and clowns and divers.  At one time three divers dove from the ceiling at the same time into a very small section of the pool.  One minute there would be a deep pool of synchronized swimmers and the next a nearly dry stage with dancers.  The stage or section of it would come up in the pool.  Amazing.  We were spell bound. 

I have to say we were ready to head home on day seven.  I had to get ready to come to Africa and Sidney had to go back to school.  We had a really great time together and I hope we can do another road trip sometime soon.

Our Second Bluebonnet Express

Kimber is away in Africa for the next month, but Sidney and I could not pass up the opportunity to participate in the Bluebonnet Express bicycle ride again this year. Kimber and I are doing the MS150 in one month, and this is one of the better lead-up rides to that event.

We did the 45 mile ride, as I had to ride my mountain bike to pull Sidney's trail-behind.  It is much heavier, and Sidney provides much more moral support than physical support.  Still, her encouragement, singing, and all-around great attitude were very helpful.

The only problem we encountered was a flat tire during the first third of the ride.  I picked up a piece of glass in my back tire just after I took this picture, and had to get a ride for a couple of miles to the first rest stop.  I got it repaired quickly and we were back on our way.

Speaking of rest stops, Sidney was very impressed with them.  She struck up a short conversation with another rider just as we were approaching the finish, saying "Those rest stops are pretty cool.  They are like gas stations but better!  And they are cheap!  You don't have to pay one cent and you get drinks, cookies and fruit!"

The weather has been much wetter here this year than last.  As a matter of fact, we have had almost enough rain since the beginning of the year to erase our drought deficit from the previous year.  This has led to a bumper crop of wildflowers, specifically the bluebonnets that are the ride's namesake.

As the MS150 time draws closer, Kimber and I will make a push to try and reach our pledge goals in addition to just getting prepared for the ride.  We are going to do it on a tandem, so at least we can help each other out (in theory.)  We are happy to do it, though, as the cause of finding a cure for multiple schlerosis is indeed a noble one.  If you would like to contribute to either of our efforts, please click on one of the links below.  Note: Kimber and I are very careful not to make our blog commercial or to use it for multiple fundraising efforts.  This is one of the only times you will ever see us solicit donations on our blog.  Please, if you are willing and able, please help us raise our pledge amount for this cause!

Kirk's page: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?px=10424109&pg=personal&fr_id=17896



Kimber's page: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR/Bike/TXHBikeEvents?px=9064974&pg=personal&fr_id=17896

We Have a Butterfly (and other stuff)

First, we have our butterfly.  After a long wait of watching the caterpillar eat and grow, turn into a chrysalis and hang on our fence for several weeks, we were rewarded today.  Our lowly monarch butterfly emerged on this very wet and rainy day.  Hopefully its wings will finish drying over night and it can fly away tomorrow.  We are so glad we got to see it though.  Hopefully our friend will now give us a few more caterpillars.

Sidney also lost a tooth since the last post.  She lost the other bottom tooth.  The Tooth Fairy had a little trouble this time because Sidney dropped it down the drain while washing the blood that was "squirting" from the tooth off.

We spent the weekend a few weeks ago with our good friends, Kevin, Dawn and William at their beach house on Bolivar Island.  It was cool that weekend but we still had a very relaxing time.  Sidney can enjoy the beach whatever the weather.  Kirk also had the opportunity to take some picture of the lighthouse on Bolivar as well as of one of the ferries that transports cars and people between Galveston and Bolivar.

Finally, a bit of Sidney's latest work.  The child is apparently desperate for snow.  So sorry to disappoint her. 

A Quick Tour of Amsterdam

On the way back from our Thanksgiving trip to Poland, Sidney and I had a bit of a long layover in Amsterdam.  We looked around the airport for a while, even taking in the "mini-Rijksmuseum" with several Dutch masters displayed and described.  We tried the play area, but it was a little small for Sidney.  I finally went to the "Amsterdam City Tour" desk and inquired about their layover tours.  We found out we had enough time to do the tour, and after stowing our carry-on luggage in lockers, were escorted out to our tour van with one other person to take the tour.

Our first stop (actually, the only "stop" where we got out of the van) was one of the classic Dutch windmills.  It was a bit drizzly and there was a cold wind blowing in from the sea, so Sidney was not quite as happy about getting out as she normally would have been.  We were able to get a picture of the two of us in front of the windmill.  This particular windmill was built in 1636.  It serves as a private home, but is a functioning windmill as well.

We then drove into town past the main train station.  There were lots of bikes, and it reminded me a bit of Copenhagen in that respect.  Next, we headed into the city and across the canals.  There were lots of houseboats, as you can see, and they were in various states of repair.  Our guide mentioned that in addition to the numerous houseboats, lots of people own regular boats as well, as traveling the canals on a warm weekend afternoon from place to place is quite popular.

We drove past Anne Frank's school, as well as her family's apartment during this part of the tour.  This apartment was not the place where her family hid - that comes later.  We also saw lots of classic Dutch style houses, and were reminded of the little houses they give on the KLM flights in business class.  With all of Kimber's traveling, we have quite a collection of them.

As Amsterdam is a city of canals, it is also a city of bridges.  Some of these bridges turn into bicycle parking areas, as you can see on the next bridge up the canal.  The bikes tend to not park on heavily-traveled car bridges, though, which is good because some of these can be quite narrow.

We made passes by several well-known sights and areas, including the palace and some other sights.  Sidney took a little nap at this point (she woke up at 4:30 so we could catch our flight out of Warsaw).  This was good, because we passed through the red light district and past several "coffee" houses during this part of the tour.  She awoke, however, just in time to notice a large "rainbow" flag on one of the houseboats and point it out.  Our guide was kind enough to tell us there were several rainbow flags in that part of Amsterdam, which (fortunately) Sidney did not question as to why.

It wasn't long before we reached the house the Frank family hid in.  In this picture, you can see it down the street (crowd in front) with the church in the background.  This is the church Anne Frank mentions in her diary as being able to hear the bells of and see the tower of from their attic hiding spot.  You may also note there are barges in the water out front doing a shoring-up job on the canal wall.  In the other picture, you see the front of the house.  It is odd to see these things in person.  Unlike much of history, Anne Frank's diary makes the historical events of her time period personal, and to see these in person really bring it all to life.  When we got home, I got Sidney's biography of Anne Frank out and showed her a sketch inside that showed her looking out a small hole at the church.

Other places we passed included the "I AMsterdam" sign (Sidney's personal favorite), the Rijksmuseum, and the second-most important sight in Amsterdam (after the Anne Frank house)..., well, you can see it in the picture.

We returned to the airport after this, and had enough time to grab a quick lunch before going to our gate.

Amsterdam is certainly a place one could spend several days visiting, but if you happen to be going through Schiphol (that means ship hull in Dutch because they used to build ships there) Airport, take advantage of the city tour.  It doesn't take long and is well worth the cost.

Update on Small Things

Well one caterpillar didn't make it and we thought we had lost the other one.  The larger one just disappeared at about the time it should have formed a chrysalis.  We talked with the friend who gave us them and she said the caterpillar will go quite away from the bush to form the chrysalis, sometimes half the distance of the yard.  Well after a week of searching we were rewarded.  We found this most lovely chrysalis on the fence.  It is amazing.  It appears you can see the wings forming. And you can also see where the caterpillar sewed the chrysalis together, the thin yellow and black line.  So we wait now and hope to be so lucky as to see the butterfly when he or she emerges.  I would guess we have about one and a half weeks until then.

Kimber has also been planning her and Sidney's trip to the Grand Canyon.  We will spend two days in the St. George Utah and Zion Canyon area, two days in the Grand Canyon area, part of a day at Hoover Dam and a day and a half in Las Vegas. Kimber has the car arranged and half of the hotels.  Still working on the other hotels and maybe a show in Vegas. Making progress. She and Sidney are excited.

Our lives are amazingly quite, but still busy right now.  No travel for January.  We will be visiting some friends beach house this weekend and it should force Kimber to cool her heels and let her food heal more.  She now has some stress fractures and is exceedingly frustrated with the lack of ability to get on her feet fully.  At least for now she can still bike.

Finally, Kimber thought you might like to see the building she works in.  A friend snapped these pictures. The building is made of pink granite and it 41 floors.  Kimber works on the 37th floor so there is a nice view.  The Marathon Tower is one of the taller buildings in Houston.  Houston buildings aren't tall because it is impossible to have sufficient footings in the soil we have here.