Andrew's Blog

On Day 2, we went to Universal Studios, went on some rides and enjoyed the sun.




Almost lost my glasses and hat on this ride...





Dr.Seuss Land




Watched a mini version of the Macy's Parade.




Watch the sun go down at "Fisherman's Wharf"

Orlando, Florida is home to 3 main theme parks: Disney World, Seaworld, and Universal Studios. You can spend weeks visiting each park which have activities for everyone young and old. There are also lots of things to do out side of the parks, one of them being Fantasy of Flight which houses one of the largest collections of early period and WWII airplanes.


The plane to the left is a Mustang in the colors of the Tuskegee Airmen who were a squadron of african-americans who overcame racial discrimination in the Army Air Corps and became sought after by bomber groups for fighter cover as they flew bombing missions over Germany in WWII. The Tuskegee Airmen never left the bombers to pursue enemy planes which tended to expose the bombers to other enemy aircraft in the area, but stayed with them to fight off the enemy.

Some more planes:





After seeing all these planes, we headed to eat all you can eat LOBSTER!

As of Saturday November 4, 2006 I gained my Private Pilot's license! Here is a photo of me with the examiner, Bob, and my certificate.

I flew an hour north at 9 am in the morning to Traverse City in fairly good conditions - no snow, good visibility and light winds.

The first thing that you do on your check ride is go through the aircraft log books and equipment requirements. This is the start of the oral test where the examiner asks you questions about the plane, pilot limitations, weather limitations, map interpretation, and various situations.

If you pass that section, then you get into the plane for the practical part of the test. Here you show you skills in taking off, landing, navigation, stalls, turns and emergency procedures.

I got through the first part of the test with no problem, but the weather had deteriorated over that hour - snow was starting to fall. We checked the visibility and ceilings and could still fly, so we went up and started on the cross country part of the test. After about 10 minutes flying south, the visibility started to fall and we turned back to airport and did some take off and landings. After that we headed to the north and did turns around a point, s-turns, stalls, emergency procedures, and instrument only maneuvers.

Finally after an hour of flying we turned back to the airport and I was given my license! The next problem was getting back home. Visibility had dropped south of Traverse City and snow was falling. The forecast had it clearing up in two hours, so I went to the mall, make some calls home, and had lunch. Sure enough by 3pm it was looking good and I jumped in the plane, gave my thanks to Bob and flew home to celebrate.

Here are some photos from the air of Midland Mall and Midland Evangelical Church that we attend. I took them at 1,800 feet in the Cessna 172 I fly based at Midland Barstow Airport. You can see the edge of runway 24 in the top left corner of the first picture.



This the Dow chemical plant south of the mall and the fall colors.

Autumn is here again. The trees are changing color and soon the winter weather will start to arrive. Temperatures have already started to fall to the 10 degrees C level.

We took a quick trip up north to see the changing colors up near Harbor Springs. As you can see, the weather was perfect. The water was clear even at the docks.

Shortly after my last post, the little fella took the bait! It is a European Red Squirrel, different to the Western Grey Squirrel featured earlier, as you can see from the red tinged tail. He is also smaller in size, but sweaks just as loud.









Tomorrow he will be on his way to a nice wooded forest with hopefully more acorn trees to feed on and a better place to build his nest for the winter.

Living in a near-rural area brings with it a variety of animals and birds that you just do not get in the city. Of late we have been hearing scampering activity in our roof and bits an pieces of insulation at the corners of our house.

Upon a call to the critter experts, their diagnosis is that we have a squirrel preparing their nest for the winter. Out come the traps then to catch them!

As you can see, it is a cage with a lever with food on it when pressed will close the trap door. The squirrel can then be safely removed to a forest far far away from us.


They have already trapped one squirrel, but we are still hearing the noises. Today I saw one this little guy running around who could be the one in our roof.

The first weekend of September is Labor Day and marks the end of summer and the start of school. It is the last public holiday before Thanksgiving and so we took off on Friday for a nice long weekend.

Friday
The drive between Midland and Chicago is about 5-6 hours, but we stopped off at Michigan City, IN (1hr away from Chicago) to stretch our legs, and check out the shops at the Lighthouse Premium Outlets Mall. I got a good deal on some Nike Trial Free 5.0 shoes - they feel like you are not wearing shoes at all!

It is time to move on and before we know it we are on the outskirts of Chicago and head to China Town for some good food before heading to the hotel.

This time we are staying in the area that they call The Loop, which is the financial district of Chicago situated south of the river. Our hotel is a block away from Sears Tower - W Hotel. It is a very modern hotel with great service, very comfortable, and so we settle in for the night.



$8 Water Anyone?



Saturday
We are going to see the matinee show of "Wicked" at the Ford Oriental Theater - a show about the Witches of Oz and is a prequal to the Wizard of Oz story. We have a quick breakfast at Starbucks and walk up to Michigan Avenue to the shops to walk around for a couple of hours before the show (http://www.wickedthemusical.com/).

"Wicked" is very well done, great music, acting and story line. You learn more about the history of Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West, how they became that way, and also about how the characters in the Wizard of Oz came about. See it if it comes your way!


Sunday
More wandering around Michigan Avenue...then dinner with some friends at Japonais - Japanese fusion food.

Interesting Shots Around Chicago




Monday
We head out on the long drive home after a leisurely time in Chicago.

It is cherry season again and we headed north to Traverse City for our annual expedition to pick our own cherries. This time we went a little later than last year and found the cherries to be a lot bigger and sweeter as you can see below!

Queen Anne Cherries. These are 2.5cm in diameter! They are best eaten 3 or four at a time and at the same time :)

A new map to our new place that we moved to last November:

Our Midland Home II

Again the map is not accurate. We are 7 houses left of the green arrow.

In Michigan you need to go snowmobiling at least once...well we liked it so much, we went twice. The first time there was a fresh dump of snow and we took off north to Boyne Mountain where there is also a ski resort. We stayed at Petosky on the lake at a really beautiful resort (there was a black out in Midland and were forced to find shelter) and spent one day skiing and the other snowmobiling.


This hotel is based on the old style hotels back in the 20's where you had rooms with high ceilings, great service, a relaxing beach front, and an all around feeling of being taken care of.

Riding a snowmobile is like riding a motorcycle except harder to turn. It is pretty powerful and hard to control if you make abrupt moves while accelerating. Once you get the hang of it is great especially on flat areas with fresh snow.

You have to becareful though where you ride because there are barbed wire fences around and if they are covered in snow are hard to see and may a snowmobiler has lost a leg or an arm after flying through unfamiliar farm land...

Snowmobiler's are also very friendly or so we thought... When we went down a trail, we came across a group of riders heading the other direction. They all started to wave as they past. Of course we waved back. Then I started to notice that with this group of 5 riders, the beginning rider waved at us with all five fingers, then the next with four, and then so on until the last one who did not wave at all. It was only then did I realize that they were signaling how many riders were left behind them in their group!

As there are a lot of corners along the trail, you need to keep a watch out for oncoming traffic....