Yo Cuz, part II

I had the unique pleasure of visiting with yet another Amish cousin last night, David. If you recall, I had the opportunity to visit with David's younger brother Michael just last year in June, so I've been on a bit of a kick getting to see my Amish cousins of late. You see, David is a pilot with Express Jet airlines, and the good Lord brought David through Monterey on one of his flights. I was blessed when I got an email from David last week and he suggested we get together. He had about a 22 hour layover, and it would give us the opportunity to have dinner together, and allow him to meet the family.

Trisha had a meeting at the church, so it was a bit crazy managing all six of the kids and hosting a small-scale dinner party. But, we had an awesome time together, catching up after 18 years of not seeing each other. It was neat to hear how God was working in David's life, and how life is treating he and his family, as well as share what God is doing in our life.

David promises to come visit again as Express Jet allows him Monterey layovers in the future. We're praying he and his wife Kathy and their children Abby and Gavin will have a chance to come and visit in the future as well!

Praise God!

God's Incredible Faithfulness - Leah is 3!

We've had lots of fun with various posts about the character that is Leah. But, today, I celebrate God's incredible love and faithfulness to me and my family. Three years ago today I almost lost Trisha and Leah. If you haven't read the story, I heartily recommend you read up on it. Praise God for modern medicine and trained professionals!!!

With nothing short of God's incredible miraculous providence, today I celebrate that I am not a widower with three children. Instead, I have a very happy marriage to a wonderful woman and five children (and one on the way)! God is SOOO good!

Leah is so excited to be a big girl! Tonight, as part of her birthday gift, we've decided to move her to a toddler bed. Bethany asked today if we could go to the dollar store so she could use some of her chore money to buy Leah a birthday gift. It just melted my heart :)

Keep an eye out for a post tomorrow or this weekend about Leah's new bed...

Coffee Follow-up

Just as a follow-up to Trisha's last post...it was a joke! I played it straight, but it was a joke, referring back to her previous posts about coffee.

I guess the joke was lost on her...

Yo Cuz!

I had the pleasure of traveling to Daytona Beach, FL on business last month to attend a training conference for work. I had a free evening on the night before I left to come home, so decided to drive up to Gainesville to visit my cousin Michael, his wife Anne Marie, and their two children, Zander and Ava. Mike's mother Lynn and my mother Karen are sisters, the "famous" Schermerhorn clan from Syracuse, for those keeping score at home. On the few isolated opportunities I've had to get together with the family in the northeast, we've had TONS of fun. One thing Schermerhorns know how to do is have a good time, and this evening was no exception.

Not the least bit of the evening's amusement was me trying to navigate the riduculously logical layout of downtown Gainesville (although, the logic was lost on me!). Apparently all the city streets are numbered, and directions are on a grid north/south/east/west from the intersection of University and Main, not far from the main University of Florida campus. Mike told me to make my way to 1st and Main. Great comedy ensued as I drove around watching the street numbers increase when they should be decreasing, and vice versa. Finally, I arrived at The Top, a swanky downtown Gainesville eatery.

We had a great visit, and had dinner with some of Mike and Anne Marie's friends in Gainesville. This group of friends are all in a band together, known as the "papercranes". I haven't heard their music, but if Mike is involved, I'm sure the music is beautiful. Mike's friend Rain offered to pay for everybody's dinner, what a kind and gracious gesture!

After dinner, we went back to their home and I had a fun evening talking about family and good times. He filled me in on other family happenings around the country. Aunt Lynn and Uncle Pete just bought some property in Florida and New York and are in the process of moving their lives (currently in Minnesota) into the "snowbird" lifestyle, splitting time between Florida and New York.

Unfortunately, I needed to be back in Daytona Beach for my flight the next day, and Mike had to get ready for a trip to Athens, GA the next day. The band was going up there together to record some new music. So, we shared some ice cream together, we said our goodbyes and I drove back to Daytona.

And we got a picture...

Thanks, Mike and Anne Marie, for a neat evening together. Sorry we couldn't have spent more time together! Perhaps next time!

Adventures in Astrophysics

Okay, so we already talked a bit about our trip to the Aquarium. What was NOT mentioned was a small side-trip we made to the American Tin Cannery. See, we got to our parking spot, and I was woefully under-prepared for the amount of change that the parking meter would require, so we needed to make a small jaunt to the nearest ATM and change machines.

Too bad ATM machines can't dispense $2.00 in quarters. All I needed was $2.00 in quarters, and instead I got a $20.00 bill with a $2.00 charge for the ATM! I wonder how many people parking on the streets outside the aquarium are doing the same thing I am!

So there I am, with a $20.00 bill in hand, and no quarters. What to do? Look for the nearest "junk" retailer to spend as little as I can to break my $20.00 into smaller bills. Otherwise I'm stuck with $20 in quarters. No thanks!

We wander a bit, up and down the escalators, and spend a few minutes in the coin-operated kiddie ride area. Then I spot the place, Windborne Kites. Lots of cheap stuff, and lots of really fun kite-related stuff. We spend about 10 minutes looking for fun and cheap stuff, and then I spot the perfect item: the Arrowcopter. This $5.00 item is the answer to my trouble, and with tax, gives me four $1.00 bills, SCORE! The claims of the Arrowcopter were too much to resist: flights of upwards of 300 feet in the air, with some reports of MINUTES for the aircraft to land back to earth. My curiousity (and desire to expedite our planned trip to the aquarium) got the better of me, and I bought it right away, not really expecting much performance out of it.

Back to the car, stocking the parking meter accordingly, I stuffed the Arrowcopter into the car to lighten the load into the aquarium. The girls were pestering me the whole time back to the car about when we were going to go out and try it out. I promised them we'd go out after dinner and try it out...

So, we had dinner, and it was time to take the new toy out for a spin. I loaded up Hannah, Bethany and Caleb, and we drove over to nearby Schoonover Park, with vast open spaces ideally suited for our "adventure".

We go out into the middle of the field, and I find myself a good spot for the first shot. Throw a few blades of grass into the air to determine the wind direction, and then give her a good launch. Up, up, up she goes, and catches the breeze, and soars some 100 yards across the field, nearly catching in a tree on the other side. I had no idea it would float so much in the wind!

Then each of the kids take turns with it. Even Caleb gets in on the action, and has a blast. In fact, after a small mishap where the toy smacked his little finger and cut him a bit, he turns out to be somewhat of a natural at it, launching it some 100 feet in the air on his second try!

Hannah and Bethany have a blast chasing it down while still in-flight and doing their darnedest to catch it mid-flight. Hannah is just a bit more coordinated, so has a bit more success.

We had a blast the twenty minutes we were out. And for the help it provided in giving us a great parking spot for the aquarium, I say it was one of the best $5.00 toys I've every purchased!

Reminiscing about Kauai

Many years ago, while I was single and in college, I had the unique opportunity to travel to Hawaii for a backpacking trip. And not tourist-trap Waikiki either, real honest-to-goodness Hawaii....KAUAI! I spent two weeks in the Hawaiian Islands, with eight of those days in Kauai. The first three days were spent hiking the amazing Kalalau Trail, an eleven-mile trail that covers the only roadless section on the perimeter of the island. Crossing the famed Na Pali coast, a very rugged section of Hawaiian wilderness, it is a very ethereal experience. We spent another five days "living" on Kalalau Beach once we arrived. The island of Kauai contains in its upper ramparts, the wettest spot on earth, Mount Waialeale. Because of this fact, the entire island is covered with the lushest blanket of green you ever saw, and the Kalalau Trail crosses many creeks and streams and gazes upon the steep canyons and valleys carved by the enormous runoff from Waialeale. It really is a beautiful sight!

So why, some ten years later, am I writing about my trip to Kauai? Well, in a nutshell, it was the turning point in my life. I hope to recount my visit to Kauai in hope of providing some insight to the amazing way that God works...

For those of you who don't already know, I'm involved in a recreational pursuit called County Highpointing. I try to get to the top of every county I can. Right now, I'm collecting California county highpoints. There are 58 counties in California, with a total of 56 highpoints; two of the highpoints can be claimed for two counties since the peak sits right on the county line. I've completed 17 of these 56 highpoints, and plan to have four more done before the summer is finished. There are some amazing spiritual lessons I've learned from climbing, from good effort and the joy of victory over challenging circumstances. My highpoint trips are always spiritually refreshing. My trip to Kauai was paramount in that regard...

The County Highpointing community, as a whole, is trying to complete the entire collection of county highpoints, with there currently being a total of 3,142 county highpoints in the United States. When all the county highpoints in a given state have been surmounted, that state is said to have been "completed". California was completed many years ago (in 1992-1993), and the process chronicled in a wonderful book I enjoy immensely, California County Summits by Gary Suttle. Until recently, the state of Hawaii has been an uncompleted state, the highpoint of Kauai County being a rather troublesome spot. The highpoint of Kauai County is a mountain called Kawaikini, and sits a mere mile from Mount Waialeale, along the same ridge high above the Alakai Swamp, an almost impassible tropical rainforest that separates Kawaikini from the nearest trailhead.

First Attempt, May 2005
SUCCESS! February 2006
Bob Burd's dayhike attempt, April 2006

As I watched the pursuits chronicled in the links listed above, it made me think back to my visit to tamer territory in Kauai County, yet no less dramatic from my perspective...

I arrived in Kauai on New Years Day, 1995. It was winter break from college, and we had six weeks off from school. I flew with my roommate and some friends of his. We changed planes in Honolulu, and then flew into the (now private) Princeville Airport on the north coast of Kauai, right next to Hanalei Bay. The Princeville Resort is the major draw to this northern part of the island, and must have been the main reason to have an airport in Princeville. Maybe since 1995, they've realized it isn't economically feasible to have the airport open any more? The main airport on the island, in Lihue, is on the east side of the island, and most of the resorts that the tourist go to are clustered around Lihue, and down toward the southern part of the island near Poipu.

We arrived in Princeville, and quickly got about figuring out our transportation options. Knowing we had about 12 miles of road to cover to our trailhead at Ke'e Beach, we set off doing what any good Kauai local does to get around in Kauai: hitchhike! We started walking the road toward Ke'e Beach, and quickly picked up a ride. Drivers in Kauai are very friendly to hitchhikers since there are proportionally smaller numbers of drivers there than there are non-drivers. We got to the road's end, bid our gracious driver adieu, and set afoot on the Kalalau Trail, setting our sights on Hanakapiai Beach, two miles into the trail. There is a spur trail that heads inland along Hanakapiai Stream from Hanakapiai Beach to Hanakapiai Falls, and this is quite the tourist destination. So, the Kalalau Trail is miserably muddy and in poor shape from Ke'e Beach to Hanakapiai Beach. We set up tents and spent our first night, New Years night, in nice campsites at Hanakapiai Beach. It was very temperate, and it felt like we wouldn't need our tents. Little did I know of the Na Pali coast weather mid-winter...very windy at night! It blew our tents like crazy!

Next day we set out for our next day's destination: Hanakoa Camp, some five (5) miles distant. Since almost nobody went further along the Kalalau Trail than Hanakapiai Beach, we found the quality of the trail increase markedly. We found ourselves acclimatizing to the Kauai weather more this day, and made it to Hanakoa Camp around lunchtime. We set up camp there, and found a neat place along the creek where there was a small pool with a large rock above. We had a BLAST diving and jumping into the pool. We had dinner, set up camp again, and dealt with another windy night.

Next day we set out for the terminus of the trail, and the goal of our trip, Kalalau Beach, some five (5) miles distant. This is the most rugged section of the hike, but amazingly, this rugged five-mile section of trail was MUCH easier to negotiate than the two-mile section on the first day. It's amazing how you acclimate! We made it to Kalalau Beach around lunchtime, and set up camp under the brush back from the beach. We proceeded to walk the length of the beach to the far end to see the famed Kalalau waterfall. After a long day of hiking, this waterfall provides an awesome opportunity to clean off and get a natural "shower". While at the waterfall, we came to know some other folks who were staying at Kalalau Beach. We came to find out over the next few days that these people actually LIVED on Kalalau Beach, and in hamlets up in the nearby Kalalau Valley, the massive valley formed by the Kalalau Stream as it erodes the "Pali" or cliffs on its journey north to the ocean. Not only did these folks live out here, but their choice of clothing (or lack thereof) was a bit surprising. No matter, without any morals to speak of, neither me nor any of the other members of my party had any objections. We made friends quickly, and were invited to our first community Kalalau Beach dinner later that evening.

We had a great dinner of passionfruit, oranges, guava, and the "native" plant of Kauai, taro. The taro root is much like a potato, and is usually boiled like a potato in order to eat it. Guava and passionfruit grow in abundance up in the Kalalau Valley, where many of our hosts made their "permanent" residence. The feeling of community was strong, and I really enjoyed it. Our hosts regaled us with stories of living off the land and traveling into "town" at Hanalei and further to Kapaa and Lihue to restock. Hitchhiking was always the means of transportation when off the trail. We visited until much after sunset, and then retreated to our tents under the trees.

I spent the better part of the next three days doing much of the same. Relaxing for many hours on the beach, swimming in the ocean, climbing up the use trails (there are no official trails) into Kalalau Valley to forage for taro and fruit, and exploring the many neat hideaways that Kalalau Beach has to offer.

During all this free time, I had a great deal of time to think. It was here, on Kalalau Beach, 3000 miles from home, that I decided that I needed Jesus. My life was a mess. I had been in a physical and amazingly UN-fulfilling relationship with a woman that ended very badly. I had been spending a lot of time with Christian friends during my college years, and their life and behavior was markedly different that the friends I now spent time with. Even with all the majesty and grandeur of Kalalau, all the freedom to live any way I liked, I was still lonely and in need of a Savior. A friend had been talking to me rather intently about Jesus just before I left for Hawaii. He knew all about the unhealthy relationship I had, and knew I was ripe to know of a Savior who would forgive and love me regardless of the things I had done.

I spent time journaling while in Kauai. I had never been much for journaling, but here it seemed appropriate. I mostly bemoaned my poor life choices, but talked as well about how amazing the place was, and how blessed I was to be enjoying it. I don't remember actually writing it down, but during my quiet times alone on the beach, I knew this experience would be the beginning of something big for me. I would go back home, and ask my friend more about this Jesus. I would find out how to get involved in a life with meaning and value.

I returned home after spending two amazing weeks in Hawaii a new man. I talked with my friend, and within two weeks decided to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. The day was February 4th, 1995.

Life has never been the same since...