Greetings to my Little Friends

I'd like to give a shout out to all the students in Ms. Bleecker's classes who have visited my website/blog in the past few days.

Be encouraged young ones--you too can look important if you chronicle your life on the web.

Oh and be nice to your teacher.

-SCB

Mexico Mission Trip: 2009

Three days into our visit to Mexico, we are all enjoying ourselves very much. The view from the place we are staying and working is breath taking, and I'm pretty sure we all pause often during the day to appreciate and enjoy it.

We are staying at a camp that will both house mission teams like ours as well as local churches conducting weeks of camp, retreats, etc. It's a beautiful place.

The weather has been interesting. It gets hot quickly, topping out around 90 at noon. Then in the afternoon, rain moves over the mountains, cooling things off substantially so that by dinner we all have our jackets and pants out. The nights are very chilly.

I've posted pictures to my Facebook account (facebook.com/sambowles) and will probably add more as well as other updates as I'm able here.

New York: A Long Overdue Post-Trip Reflection

Simply put, my week in New York with some of my favorite people on the planet was fantastic.  Here are some simply reflections on what I loved about our trip to NYC.

First, I loved that we really didn't care what we saw.  We put no pressure on ourselves or our fabulous host by saying from the beginning that there was almost nothing we HAD to see.  Now that being said, over the course of wandering and wondering around the city we DID see many of the more "touristy" things there are to see.  In our one morning without Marty (our host/uncle/10+ year resident of NYC) we did go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Incidentally, that was the one morning we were up before 11 am...

Second, I loved that we were with a local.  Of course there is great benefit to not having to pay for a hotel, but even more than that, Marty was able to point out endless amounts of things and share endless amounts of information.  And I don't think we looked too badly like tourists.  No one should ever go to NYC without staying with Marty and having him take off work and serve as your personal concierge and guide.

Third, I loved the food.  I do feel like all we worried about was where we would get our next meal.  Everything was fantastic.  I had so much cheese-cake it's not even funny.  And lobster tails...oh - my - gosh...don't get me started....

Fourth, I hated leaving.  I know some people say the best thing about NYC (and other large metropolitan areas) is leaving.  I couldn't disagree more.  I feel like I could just wander around the city forever and never get tired of it.  How I survive in a county of ten thousand I have no idea.  I would move to NYC in a heartbeat if not for the fear of a large meteoroid striking the Atlantic Ocean, thus sending a large tidal wave which would destroy the city and me when I lost a straw-draw to determine whom from my place of employment got to escape on the company helicopter, leaving me to drive to beach and stare-down the massive wave with some old guy...

While it is entirely cliche, I can completely understand the classic t-shirts that state what I feel and what I'm sure so many feel upon visiting the city: "I [heart] NY."

NYC: Day Two

It's been a whirlwind of a trip so far with very little time or energy remaining at the end of the day to blog. It's all I can do to muster the energy to post pictures...

Day one we got to Philadelphia early and had lots of fun wondering around on our own seeing what we could see. We visited the Museum of Art, with its famous Rocky steps, Independance Hall, the Liberty Bell, and some other cool things before we headed to NYC via train.

We arrived in NY Penn. Station where Marty met us at about 7 pm and headed to his apt. We had dinner at this great little Chinese/Japanese place where we all ate until we couldn't anymore: sushi, steamed vegetable dumplings, plus entrees.

Sunday we went to the 10 am service at St. John the Divine Cathedral, an Episcopal Cathedral and the largest in the United States if I'm not mistaken. It was an awesome service, and I found the whole service much more welcoming to an outsider than I expected.

We grabbed lunch at a Mexican place (it was very good....so far we haven't ate anything that wasn't) before heading to Wicked. We had awesome seats and Cameron and Jessie absolutely loved it, of course. Though I'd already seen it twice, I loved it too and would watch it again today.

We had dinner reservations at a French Restaurant called Le Bonne Soupe. It was VERY good. I had Minestrone, Jessie had French Onion Soup, and Cameron had a hamburger. He was very disappointed it didn't come on a bun (it was actually a chop steak).

We wondered around the city for another couple of hours, visiting Marty's workplace, Times Square, the Apple Store (which was amazing), and other places before we finally headed home.

And now we're ready to start another day (even though it's already 10:30). I'm sure we will pull another late night.

Day One Pictures

Day Two Pictures

NYC: Day One

Pictures from day one posted at Facebook.

NYC Vacation Starts in Philly

More pics and a day recap coming later...

Appalachian Mailbox

Today I visited eastern Kentucky and was reminded of the need in our
own backyards. More later, but for now enjoy this mailbox (I did).