Great American Vacation pt. 5: the end

It’s late and I should go to bed but I really should get this done so I can get to the backlog of posts about stuff that’s accumulated since we got back from the US.  There is gonna be a bunch of stuff coming up this week that I’m sure I want to get up here too… man.

Anyway, I just wanted to post a couple of extra pictures like this one:

and talk about some thoughts or whatever that I didn’t get to in the four previous posts somehow.  I also wanted to put up a new header.  The header is a shot of an amazing sunset that we saw the morning we headed over to the airport from my sister’s place.  I didn’t have the big camera out and the best pictures were on my iPhone but believe me, it was amazing.  Speaking of going to the airport, we left really, really early. The only benefit of it was because of the number of people going we needed to take my sister’s big car, which has no A/C, we could roll down the highway with just the windows open and it’s wasn’t horribly hot yet. Just really windy!

After we got to the airport it was time to say goodbye to everyone that came with us and it was very sad.  Especially difficult to say goodbye to my sister, she made the trip wonderful.  She always does.  Love you Dre!

On the trip home MJ was even better than he was on the way there.

So the trip, the trip…  It was awesome.  For me, it was really good to see my family, especially my dad who I hadn’t seen in so long but it was great to see everyone.  It’s crazy how much my sister’s kids have grown in just a year and a half, Skype can’t adequately show that kind of stuff.  I loved being able to spend time with the wife on our first international trip and it was good to spend time, away from the parents’ house with my sister-in-law and her husband.  But I think above all, the best part of the whole trip was the time I got to spend with MJ.  Many days here in Japan when I go to work I only get to see my boy (awake) for about thirty minutes to an hour in a day.  Sometimes less.  It was awesome to be able to hang out with him as much as I did.  The environment we were in was a bit harsh on him but I think he handled it well, that kid’s a lot stronger than he looks!  I really fell in love with him more than ever.

I can’t wait to go back now, for a trip that is.  Still not sure that I want to live there any time soon but the real estate  prices compared to those in Tokyo are really enticing…  Alright, think that’s about it for the trip.  It was great. A couple last pics to take us out, first one from the sister’s camera from the day of the wedding:

And finally: Alright, next time we’ll get into some of the backed up crap since we came back.  Look forward to that!  Tomorrow I’m going to my first baseball game of the season (finally!)!!!  Can’t wait!

Great American Vacation pt. 4: Sedona

For the final outing of the trip we loaded up the car and drove a little more than 2 hours north to the city that’s been getting a lot of pub here in Japan because it’s a “power spot.” Sedona

Outside was pretty nice and with the cloud cover and elevation, it was pretty cool (relatively) so we got out of the car and took a few pictures after rolling into the area:

After a diaper change and a feeding, we all got back into the car and drove into town to have lunch at a little cafe/restaurant I’d been to before called Wildflower Bread Company, it has an amazing view from the patio but it was too hot for us to sit out there with the boy so we sat inside, I did take some pictures and put them together in a panorama as you can see here, click on it to get the big view:

For lunch I had a bitchin sandwich and then we took some more pictures:

After lunch we did a bit of shopping in town, I got a rad shirt, and then it was time to head back to Phoenix and take part in a final family dinner lovingly prepared by my sister.  And that brings us to the end of the trip, there’ll be a bit more about all of that in the final Great American Vacation post coming soon!

Great American Vacation pt. 3: Phoenix

Halfway home now and heading into the second leg of our trip to the US we ended up getting out of Vegas in the early afternoon under a bit of cloud cover so it was cooler. It was still in the 100′s but I had gone to Wal-Mart in the morning to pick up some sun shades to help out the baby in the backseat. The trip to Phoenix was pretty easy, about a 5:30 drive through a wide-open desert and across the Hoover Dam. It was really beautiful, I wish we could have taken a little time to get out and get some better pictures but mornin took some from the car that weren’t too bad. Next time I hope to go when the boy is a bit older and the weather is a bit cooler but anyway, we made it.

It was the first time to see the fam in a year and a half and the first time for mornin and MJ. The family LOVED the baby and were happy to meet the wife as well. Since we arrived late, we just hung out a bit, chatted and then went off to bed the first night. The next day I’d hoped to get into town and see a D-backs game at Chase because it was the last game they were going to be playing there since the following day was the start of the All-Star break but it seemed like it’d be in everyone’s best interest to let the boy (and wife) have the day off after the trip over from Vegas. The next few days we spent a wonderful time in the care of my sister, doing a bit of shopping around town, crossing things off my list, chatting with the family, taking walks and relaxing.

Some of the highlights were when my dad came down from his summer job at the Grand Canyon to see his newest grandson (and maybe the other grandkids too):

We also had a pretty fun impromptu pool party with the kids and some of their friends:

On the 13th, the wife, MJ and I took out MJ’s great-grandma for a birthday lunch

and then I finally got to shave my head!!!
The next day I headed to the airport to pick up the wife’s sister and her hubby. The rest of the day, we just hung out with them a bit, went to Chipotle and In-n-out,

and checked out the hotel they were staying at down the street from my sister’s, nice place:

Finally we headed off to bed with plans for the next day to head off on one last American Adventure before the U-turn back to Tokyo started…

Great American Vacation pt. 2: Wedding

I’ve been meaning to get this up for a couple of days now but I seemed to have encountered a post-vacation cold that kept me down.  Feeling mostly better now and the wife is currently putting the baby to bed.  Had a good day off today, me and the boy played a bunch and we all made a trip to Kawasaki to hit up the baby store so that we could check out some strollers and ended up finding one we liked but bought it on-line because it was cheaper. Anyway, the top picture here is of the wife getting ready in the hotel before we headed down the street to the chapel which I will insert a picture of here:Not a bad little oasis in the middle of the Las Vegas zaniness.  So just to get the facts straight, this all went down on July 9th, the wife and I’s 1 year anniversary, we didn’t have to do anything as far as getting a marriage license while we were there and it was technically just a vow renewal ceremony but we pretended it was our wedding.  It was pretty fun all-in-all.  Having actually already been married for a year, there was a lot of pressure taken off.After we arrived we went in a little office type place and waited for about 20 mins or so, here’s a picture of us waiting:The ceremony itself only lasted about 30 mins or so and then we were ushered out to take some pictures outside.  They didn’t allow us to take pictures inside the chapel during the ceremony and the pro-pictures we had taken are all in print form and we haven’t had time to scan them properly so no shots from there but we were lucky enough the wife’s sister’s husband used my camera to take some pictures for us after and before.  I also got some from my sister but all the ones on here are from our camera.  Gotta say that Now was a pretty good camera man and it’s a good thing because the picture set-up (scam) that they’ve got going at the chapel is a bit crazy in my view…  Anyway, the ceremony was cool and the wife’s sister and her husband were there along with my sister and her husband and of course our baby boy, studded out in his tux: He was really good during the ceremony until my sister yelled “yahoo!” at the end and spooked him   It was a pretty cool experience and I’m glad we did it the way we did.  I’m not one for big hullabaloos and this was definitely a lot more low-key than other weddings I’ve been to either here or in the US and a lot more comfortable for me, except that I was frying in my tux After the ceremony we all split up and then re-joined for dinner at Outback after we learned that the ESPN Zone had ceased operations.  It was a nice dinner and it gave my sister and her husband a chance to meet mornin’s sister and her husband a bit more than they did at the ceremony earlier in the day.  The next day the wife’s sister and her husband headed out to the Grand Canyon while we went back to the chapel to pick out pictures and my sister headed back to Phoenix.  After picking out pictures, we waited  for the weather to cool down a bit before we headed out to Phoenix as well…

Great American Vacation pt. 1: Vegas

Where to begin, oh, where to begin?  I guess we’ll start with what’s happening now.  The wife and baby are sleeping.  MJ’s been having a little trouble getting back into the Japanese time-zone thing. We’ve been back for two whole days worth of time now and I’ve got to head back to work tomorrow, not something I’m looking forward to at all. Doesn’t help that it’s a 1-10 kind of day. F.

Oh well, on to the trip…

Think I’ll skip some of the details of times and that kind of boring thing and just re-cap some of the highlights.

The trip from Tokyo to Seattle to Las Vegas went by a lot quicker than it ever has before.  I think that it had a lot to do with traveling with three other adults and a baby.  The layover in Seattle was not nearly long enough so after getting our bags and going through immigration, we barely had time to pick up a coffee and get back on the plane.  Wish we could have spent a day or two there…

I took so many pictures that it was hard to choose which ones to put up on here.  There’s a bunch more up on my facebook page but I just don’t think I’ll put them all up here.  They might end up on the Flickr page.  Anyway, we arrived in Vegas pretty early in the day, got the car and headed off to the hotel, here was our view:Nice view but I’da liked to have been able to see the strip but it was pretty nice none the less. We stayed at the Planet Hollywood resort and it ended up being a pretty decent place, there was a shopping area downstairs called the “miracle mile” and there were a bunch of good shops and restaurants down there, here’s a shot of one portion: Crappy part of it was that the shopping area is basically a big circle and the parking lot is on the complete opposite side of the shopping mall from the casino/hotel so I had to make a serious trek to get the car everyday. Speaking of the casino, the wife got in some gambling action while we were there:

I think we both probably only gambled about $20 each, that was enough for me.

On the Thursday before the wedding my big sister and her husband came to Vegas to meet MJ and then come to the wedding on Friday.  I was very happy that they ended up coming, there was a time where I thought there would be no one on my side of the chapel.  They were pretty happy to see their little nephew and I think he was happy to finally meet them!

The morning of the wedding I was awoken by the baby boy around 2:30 am and never did get back to sleep.  I took the opportunity to get out and take some pictures of the strip under the cover of darkness, most importantly, before the weekend.  There was still some serious foot-traffic for a Thursday night but what do you expect, it’s Vegas:

That’s about it for the main part of the Las Vegas leg of the trip, we didn’t get to any shows or anything like that, mornin was really worried about the baby so we spent a lot of time in the hotel, me watching ESPN and her doing something. We did get some Taco Bell and they did screw up my order.  The final day and a half of Vegas will be in the next post, the wedding! Until then…

b? family’s Great American Adventure

At approximately this very time next week, the b? family will all be on a plane over the Pacific, headed ultimately to Las Vegas, NV. I think the itinerary calls for a brief stop in Seattle (it’ll be hard for me to leave there…), but I believe we are scheduled to arrive early in the morning on the 6th (local time). This will be the wife’s first trip to the US for vacation (she had a research trip once a long time ago) and of course the boy’s too. For them it’ll be a chance to meet my family and for my family to meet them. I’m excited to see the family but for me, this trip is more of a glorified shopping expedition. A chance to get all those things I miss the most because they aren’t available or are prohibitively expensive here in Japan. There are also several things that the wife wants to try after either hearing about their greatness from me or seeing them on TV or in movies. I’ve been keeping a list of those things in my phone and I’m sure there will be tons more to add as soon as we arrive but for now, the US checklist!

sunflower seeds
Olde English 40oz
beer of all kinds!
deodorant
tums
new mariners hat
cheez its
cream soda
pepper Jack cheese
airheads
Gruntruck CD
Rainier cherries
Twinkie
b?’s new work shoes
Ace bandage
hot sauce
NCAA 11
English children’s books
sourdough bread/starter

I also included a few activities that I wanted to do

taco bell
mexican food
baseball game
old spaghetti factory

This will be my first time to visit the states since November 2008 and at that time most of my family was back in Washington, this time they are all in Phoenix so after hitting up Las Vegas for the first four days, we’re off to Arizona to do the family get-together. I saw my sister and grandma last time I went but this time I’m also going to see my dad for the first time since October 2005, it’s been a long, long time! Cool part about visiting Phoenix is that I know the area fairly well since I lived there for six months before coming to Japan this time. When I visited my fam back in Washington last time they were living in a city nowhere near my hometown so it felt very foreign to me.

I’ve mentioned before that while in Vegas, we will be having a small wedding on Friday the 9th, our 1 year wedding anniversary and that should be fun, hope we get a couple decent pictures of that but unfortunately we can’t take our own pictures during the ceremony, kinda lame. We’re going to be staying at Planet Hollywood so hopefully it’s a nice place, I’ve never been to that hotel I don’t think. Still haven’t exchanged my money or started packing at all but think I’ll take care of some of it this Thursday so I can visualize space requirements (packing for three now) and add some “necessary” purchases to the list. This will be my 7th flight back to US from Japan but I’ve never done it with someone else so sorting out that logistical aspect is going to be interesting…

Tonight Japan takes on Paraguay at 11:00 and hopefully I can make it home just in time for kickoff, I finish at 9:40… Pretty excited for this one!

4 more lessons today and then it’s only 4 more days of work!!!