The highest fastest roller coaster in the world....

Though the picture does not do it justice nor have any redeeming artistic value, you are looking at the fastest and highest roller coaster in the world. In the center of the frame you see an upside down U. That is the Top Thrill Dragster. Yes, the name is cheesy, but the ride is unbeaten. My family went to Cedar Point in Sandusky OH after Mindy's wedding. Cedar Point is a roller coaster enthusiast's dream come true- 16 roller coasters including three that have at some point been the highest and fastest coasters. We went for the highest first and worked our way down. Top Thrill Dragster, henceforth known as TTD, is hard to describe because it is not like any other roller coaster you have seen. You are strapped into a dragster and sent forward to the Christmas tree of lights (this may be familiar to NASCAR fans or other racing fans). When the lights say go, and it is a terrifying wait since you know what is going to happen to you, the train is hydraulically shot from 0 mph to 120 mph in like 3 seconds. Yes, you read that right 120 mph! You go up 420 feet at a 90 degree angle with a 270 degree twist. The signs talking about the ride warn that sometimes the train does not make it to the apex and not to panic, you will just return to your starting position. Rebekah and I were not sure that was reassuring- going down 90 degrees backwards....When you reach the 420 foot apex, which we did with no trouble, you see Lake Erie briefly before you head down at 90 degrees with a 450 degree turn. I apologize to Cedar Point for my initial skepticism that a 30 second ride could be that exciting. It was. My mom said they should send you around twice. I am apparently wussier than my mom, because when I got off I was shaking. A lot. I am not sure I would have made it around twice. The website has some point of view videos of the different coasters. It does not do this ride justice. After this one, the rest were only okay. There were several others we liked and did not like, but the TTD was wild.

The 2 other biggies got mixed reviews from the fam. Wicked Twister (my dad had stopped riding rides by this point because of his torn and bruised hamstring- not a good idea to injure your self on your posterior end before riding on roller coasters) was good. Rebekah and I almost blacked out on Millenium Force which has a 300-something foot drop. Too many Gs I guess. We did like the Raptor a lot- our last ride of the day before hitting the road for PA.

  

Mystery man

A mysterious shot of Andrew taken by ????
Andrew is the only Houghton friend we actually got a picture of at the wedding (except some balcony shots or their heads).....someone needs to e-mail us some!

  

The wedding ceremony

Mindy and Michael got married a year to the day after their 2nd date and 53 weeks after they met. My friend from high school Mandy got married the next week (picture later), almost 7 years after meeting her husband! I figured out the other day that Doug and I have been dating or married for over 9 years....more than 1/3 of my life. It makes me feel old!

  

The bride-to-be

Before I comment on this picture, I would like to mention that while Rebekah was in Charleston, we celebrated the 4th of July with her and Luke Ulrich and his girlfriend Megan Preble. Luke had the enthusiasm of a small child at Christmas because fireworks are legal in SC and not in GA. He and Megan brought a ton of fireworks and while Rebekah and I cowered behind cars we had a practically professional pyrotechnics display in our front yard. You would not believe what they sell to ordinary people to shoot off themselves! We had a grand time and I even lit 2 fireworks myself! Rebekah also lit some and we concluded it was the most exciting fireworks display we have ever been to, perhaps just because of the proximity. I was tempted to make everyone watch a video I have on how fireworks are made, but Megan had to work the next day.

Anyway, back to the wedding, this is a picture of the lovely bride-to-be, calm and relaxed just hours before her wedding. Mindy was a beautiful bride even in her shorts and shirt. We bridemaids had fun at the beauty shop. The hairdresser was one of Mindy's patient's wives (I think his only wife but I am not sure how to word that). He stopped by with a breakfast pizza for Mindy and all of us. She has quite an impact on her patient's lives. Not that that is a surprise, but a good reminder of why she is my friend too.


  

The rehearsal dinner

After our kayaking adventures, Rebekah and I trekked from here to my parents' house in Beaver Falls PA. I continued on the next day to help Mindy and Michael with the final details of their wedding. This is one of Mindy's last conversations with Michael before marrying him. I don't remember taking the picture, so I am guessing someone else did- perhaps my high school friend Jon?


  

Flipper

I have just returned from a journey of many miles in the North, but this picture was taken while my sister was visiting before we went North for Mindy's wedding. We went kayaking in the evening and saw at least 30 dolphins some within 10 feet of our kayaks. It was beautiful!


  

Rainbow hunting

After this afternoon's thunderstorm, Daru and I went hunting for a rainbow. The sun was shining, the rain was falling, and there was no rainbow to be found.

Are you a Rebel or a Yankee?

This is an interesting quiz about your speech patterns. My brother-in-law heard about it on NPR and my sister sent it to us. My dad who grew up in West Virginia was the least Dixie in his speech and my mom who grew up in Arizona and Pennsylvania was the most. It has a lot of interesting information on how language is different across the US. Doug and I were both 40% Dixie (although our answers were different), so we are definitely Yankees. Let us know how you do.

http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankeetest.html

It's summer!

Last summer, Daru did not like watermelon. She has changed her mind this year and she enjoyed eating this piece of our first full watermelon of the summer.

  

The Big One

After we moved to Charleston, we learned several key facts that one might want to know before settling in an area. We knew we were moving into hurricane territory. The last major hurricane hit Charleston on 1989 (Hugo). According to lots of people, the big one is coming soon. Some people feel that hurricanes cycle on about a 10-15 year cycle. One year the hurricanes hit FL, then the Gulf Coast, then the Atlantic coast is due for a big one. The first hurricane season we were here (June 1- November 30 for those of you who are not privileged to live in a hurricane area) we had a Category 1 pass through our area, but that year the majority hit FL. Last year obviously the major storms hit the Gulf Coast. Alberto just passed through as a tropical depression (technically he loses his name for that- the storm previously known as Alberto I guess is what we call it now) The big one is coming....
What I did not know about hurricanes is that they also spawn tornadoes. You probably remember doing tornado drills in school where you went in the hallway and knelt on the floor with your head towards the wall and covered your neck with your hands. I remember these drills as uncomfortable for the 3 minutes we usually had to practice. Last year, we had a tornado touch down within a couple miles of my school and my room had no windows so I had 3 classes worth of kids in there against the wall and under the lab tables. There have been several other tornadoes in the area as well, but nothing huge. Not many talk of the big one coming I guess because the tornadoes are overshadowed by other natural disasters.
Charleston is also apparently on a fault line. I guess real estate agents and travel books don't find this to be necessary wisdom to impart on prospective buyers and visitors. In 1886, an earthquake took out 7/8 of the city causing $6M of damage (in 1886 dollars). The earthquake is estimated to have been between 6.6 and 7.3 on the Richter scale. There has been at least one tremor since we have been here, a little shake of the magnitude of 3-4. Some people feel that major quakes occur about every hundred years. We are about 20 years overdue for our big one...
If you would like to know other reasons to live in Charleston, you probably should not talk to me...it is a nice place to visit, so y'all come on down, ya hear?

Thanks to www.weather.com for the Doppler radar pic and wikipedia for the Charleston earthquake info.

Jellies

A few weeks ago our friend Elwood took us on a tour of the Charleston area to see the things we would never see since we are practically tourists. At the beach we saw lots of jelly fish. This was not taken at the beach obviously, but at the SC aquarium, but I think it is the same kind.

  

Inspired by Andrew

Andrew has posted 2 peahen pictures in the past couple days, and he inspired me to search for my favorite peahen picture that I have taken. Though this is not a white peahen or perhaps it is not as artistic as Andrew's, I like it. This was taken last July at the petting zoo at Magnolia Plantation. I also have a picture of a white one, but it is not so great.

  

Ladies and gentleman, children of all ages...

 

Spoleto Festival USA is one of the highlights of the year for Charleston, SC. I had heard of it when we moved here and when we got our brochure last year, I was excited until I saw the prices of tickets. As one of Doug's friend's wives said, you understand why people who have lived here their whole lives have never been. Most events are over $40 a ticket. This year, MUSC gave Doug a voucher for $20 and someone gave him theirs, so we went to the circus. It was a long and hot show (over 95 outside!) show-over 2 hours, but pretty interesting. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the circus, so this may be contraband even. They had lots of kids performing in the show and I found out that 3 of Doug's cousins were in the circus when they were little. Amazing! After the show, the performers stood outside to thank you for coming so I asked a couple of the kids how they learned all this. They said practice and good teachers, but I am still curious as to how they got started. How do you get a kid into the circus if you wanted that for your child? One of the kids was maybe 4 years old. He could do a flip just standing there. He was hilarious, eating up all the attention!
We also saw the flying Wallendas perform. I had heard of them, but wasn't sure why so I came home and read up on them. They are a very interesting family. Some of the performers we saw were 7th generation circus people. They did a 7 man/woman-3 layer pyramid crossing the high wire with no nets. The top girl sat on a chair. Pretty spectacular! They are famous though because at least 4 members of the family have died when falling from the high wire, but they still will not use nets or any safety gear.
When they were performing, the band played "Majesty" which I thought was kind of an odd selection, but reading about them, they are Christian. One of the guys actually goes to churches to walk the tightrope and then gives his testimony. God can use all talents! 

Trouble

  

What do you mean I am not allowed on the kitchen table?

Future Old Navy Mascot

Old Navy is looking for a new dog mascot, so of course our precious puppy Daru is in the running against 56,000 other dogs. The judges have to pick 6 for the public to vote on in June. We are wondering if more hits to her picture will generate more interest on the judges part.

http://www.oldnavy.com/

You will see a dog at the bottom right. Click on it, then go to see the competition and then sort by first name. Right now she is on page 2510ish when sorted alphabetically by name- right before the Darwins and after the D'Artagnans, but the page # changes frequently and you can't search by name.

Happy Mother's Day!

Moms love to wipe hands and mouths and kids hate it. This was taken after Matthew tried to ingest the seashell or at least give is a good couple of licks....
  

A little crabby

I need to go to bed because I am starting to act this way at school...=)

  

Matthew's treasure

This picture of our nephew was taken last fall when they came to visit. We went to the beach and Matthew found a shell which he proceeded to put in his mouth to Robin's dismay....

  

Magnolia again...

On a recent trip to Magnolia with a friend, we watched this raccoon play around in the water for a few minutes before it decided to come right on over the bridge to see us. It actually chickened out halfway over. We are wondering if it was rabid since it was out during the day.

  

Growing up

When I met Kim and Stephen they were 7 and 8 (respectively). Now both are taller than me- no surprise there I guess....

  

Dyeing eggs

While our Easter eggs did not get hidden or turn out like the picture on the box, we had fun dyeing them!

  

Crabby Stephen

We did try to do some fun stuff with our guests in addition to the pain we inflicted. We took Dee and Shan and fam to James Island County Park to go crabbing. We did catch quite a few and had a science lesson on telling the gender of blue crabs too! One fellow crabber could not believe we weren't keeping them to eat, so we finally gave him one that was legal.

Future PA

Doug's sister was the only one willing to let Doug play PA and give her a shot. You can see niece Sarah watching as niece Rebekah worries in the kitchen. You can see why people don't come visit us often since this is how we treat our guests =)!


  

Happy Easter!

Our "traditional" Easter picnic took place with Doug's sister's family in our backyard. It was nice to have family here to celebrate Jesus' resurrection with!

  

Our squirrel-proof bird feeder

This bird feeder is also supposedly bear-proof. I have my doubts.

  

Your tax dollars at work =)

This was a funny sight for me- 4 army people in full fatigues guarding the jump castle...


  

Piloting a C-17

At the airshow, you could tour different planes and helicopters and ask questions. One pilot offered to take a picture of us in the cockpit of a C-17- basically a cargo 747. The Charleston AFB is a C-17 base though we sometimes see other planes.

  

Air Show

We spent the morning at the Air Expo 2006, a free air show at the Charleston AFB. We went mainly so we could get on base, but it was very interesting. We left before the highlight of the show, the Navy Blue Angels, but we took this picture in our own backyard!