On the Road

Mariah passed her driving permit test this week and is now eager to drive mom and dad around the area in order to get some behind the wheel experience. She is doing a good job. She has even had her first expereince at night driving. She still has to take formal behind the wheel training before she can take her driving test next spring. She will also have the opportunity to gain experience in the snow before she takes her license test.

Locks of Love

Today, Kara had her long hair cut short and donated the cut off portion to Locks of Love, an organization that takes donated hair and creates wigs for children with permanent hair loss. Back in August, Hailey had donated her hair, and in July, Mariah had hers cut off. The girls all looked so different after the haircuts, especially after seeing them with long hair for so long.

The kids had first heard about Locks of Love through a friend of Mariah's who had donated her hair when she first had her hair cut short. They have since seen information about it on TV shows and various publications. The kids had all decided they wanted to grow their hair long enough to be able to donate their pony tails to help others. This committment to long hair became a little less comfortable when we moved to the Philippines and had to endure a lot of hot weather all year long. To help stay cool they generally wore their hair in pony tails or braids during this time.

We are very proud that they made a choice of helping others, and followed through with their plan. Way to go girls!

Typhoon Damage in the Philippines October 2006

Ray was back in the Philippines for a business trip and had an opportunity to see first hand some of the damage and the power of the typhoon that went through the Philippines in late September.

The coconut trees at the Philippine Plaza along Manila Bay were upright now, but it appeared that many had been knocked over during the typhoon. Many were also topped off and now just stand like telephone poles out in the garden. The pool was being repaired, and I don't know how much of that was due to storm damage as the hotel is going through a general renovation.

Heading south out of Manila, he could see the downed and stripped trees all along the expressway. Many piles of debris had been piled up alongside the road. The South Expressway had been totally blocked by fallen trees and debris during and after the storm. Clearing the road has been the first priority, with pickup of the debris coming later.

The Sta. Elena golf course was hard hit by the typhoon. Although very playable at this point since the greens, tees and fairways suffered little actual damage, the vegetation around the perimeter of the holes was severely damaged. Every hole is surrounded by trees and plants, and they took the brunt of the storm.

Some large trees were snapped off anywhere from 10-20 feet above the ground, others were toppled roots and all. For as large as the trees were, their root systems were very shallow. Even the trees that remain standing were relatively bare as their leaves were stripped off.

A lot of the trees that were down have been uprighted, although many are still laying down. Even some of the snapped off trees have been uprighted and will begin to leaf out again and grow from the point they were broken.

A deep (50-75 feet) ravine with a usually small creek runs through the course. The creek walls have been covered in grasses and other vegetation in the past. They are now bare, down to the soil, rock, or concrete applied to prevent erosion. It has really changed the look of the creek and some of the holes. The amount of water that was flowing through that creek bed was tremendous, based on the damage and new look of the creek. It appears that the level of the water was over halfway up the banks.

One of the most affected holes in my opinion was number 8. This was double dog-leg that followed around the creek. You could cut the first corner over the trees, but could not see the fairway where you wanted to land. Due to the lost trees and loss of leaves on the trees that did remain, you can now see the landing areas from the tee. The creek now has no vegetation coverage from tee to green. The look of the hole has totally changed.

There has been a lot of work done on the course, but there is a lot of work to be done. Only time will allow the trees to come back and give the course the look and feel it once had.

At Club Intramuros Golf Course in Manila itself, most of the trees survived, but some of the light fixtures were toppled, making some dark areas for the night golfing. The protection offerred by the buildings surrounding Club Intramuros was evident comparing the damage in the inner city vs that in the rural area

On the southern edge of Manila in Alabang, there was signifcant damage to trees and vegetation, but not as much as further south towards Calamba. Some trees were uprooted and toppled, but not as many appeared to be topped off. The village had been collecting brush and piling it in various empty lots, and some of the brush piles grew quite large. Many of the large toppled trees have already been cut down to the stump, so they don't stick out as much as the toppled trees that remain whole in other areas.

There will be a lot of time required for this area to fully heal and recover, but a lot of progress has already been made. One of the local houses that always puts up a large Holloween decoration carried through with the tradition again this year

We Have a New Neighbor

Our neighbor had mentioned to me last Friday that she had met a couple on the trails in the woods behind out house who had seen a small bear out in clearing. Tonight my mom called and said she had seen something on TV about a bear in the park. Here is the story from the KARE11.com website:

Black bear sighted in Eagan park
Eagan Police are asking residents and visitors to be aware that a black bear has been sighted near the area of Patrick Eagan Park. Earlier this month as darkness fell, a couple returning from a walk, saw a small black bear cross the path in front of them. The bear was spotted about 50 yards from the trail head near the Eagan Art House off of Lexington Avenue. No one else has seen the bear, but on Monday Park staff found tracks along the south shore of McCarthy Lake, in the nearly 100-acre natural park. Photographs were sent to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Officials there confirmed they were bear tracks. Black bears are not known to be aggressive and it is likely the bear will move, in time, to a more rural area, according to Byran Lueth, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources urban wildlife specialist.

We will be keeping our eyes open and cameras ready, just in case we can get a photo. (Maybe a better one than the track print shown here.) Besides the usual deer and raccoons, we have seen a wolf back there in the past and coyotes have also been spotted back there.

Annual Labor Day Celebration in Graettinger Iowa—Sept 2006

We attended the 110th Annual Labor Day Celebration over the weekend in LeAnn’s home town of Graettinger Iowa. Graettinger is located in northwest Iowa about a 3 hour drive from the twin cities. As we drove down, we saw some of the downed trees from the recent tornados just south of St. Peter. The trees along the river bank on the east side of the road were heavily damaged for about 1/3 of a mile, while the trees on the west side and up the hill were all in fine shape.


We arrived about 9:30 Friday night and then LeAnn’s sister Sue and her nieces Heather and Heidi arrived shortly after. They then headed off for downtown to go to the Legion club and listen to a local band, then headed to the new tavern in town.

Saturday was cloudy with rain off and on, but the activities went on as normal. Ray went over to the antique tractor pull. The tractors are divided into different weight classes and then pull a sled with a sliding a block that makes it harder to pull the farther down the track it goes. The track is groomed between each pull so everyone has equivalent conditions. The gals went to some of the local garage sales, but found very few bargains.

In the afternoon we headed to the demolition derby. There were lots of participants in cars that ranged from small compacts (like an old Chevette similar to one LeAnn had many years ago) to larger full-sized cars. Generally, the larger cars fare better. Most contact is initiated with the rear of the car to protect the engines and radiators. The area is kept moist and slippery and up to 11 cars went at a time.
Once a car is stuck or disabled, they break off a stick on their roof to indicate they are out and wait for the end of the race. Winners of heats come back for the finals. Losers have another opportunity if they can get their car working again before the consolation round. It is amazing how quickly they can get a car back in running condition after being knocked out. Some cars were running without tires after they were stripped from their rims, and many were smoking while running. A few had some small fires that the fire department put out before they became a problem.

On Sunday we went down on main street to attend the carnival. But before we even got to the carnival, we stopped for ice cream at the local drive-up. We had some cones, malts and twisters before we went out on the midway. We played some ski-ball and also tried a game that you attempt to stand up a beer bottle using only a ring on the end of a string. When we were at the state fair, the guy running the booth could do it every time and showed you how to do it in order to entice you to play. Ray tried it here and did not have any luck.

Hailey and Kara took a ride on Spin the Apple, and Kara did the Tilt-a-Whirl. There was a nice crowd on main street despite the threatening skies. We also stopped for popcorn at the tiny popcorn booth that has been making popcorn for many, many years. The popcorn machine itself has been in use for over 75 years and is still working. LeAnn and her sisters came here often when they were growing up.

LeAnn and her mom went to the talent show in the evening. Along with the local talent, the Labor Day Queen was crowned. All the royalty for the parade on Sunday was also there.

On Labor Day Monday, LeAnn started up and drove her mom’s 1950 Chevy around town and out to the country. Ray, Kara and Hailey went along for the ride. We saw a few other old cars coming into town for the parade as we were driving around.

The car only gets out a few times a year, but it is fun driving something that old. LeAnn’s dad had it restored back in the 80’s, and would occasionally drive it in the parade. They even had an antique and classic car show in town for a few years.


We went to the parade in the afternoon with LeAnn's aunt Ruth, cousins Barb and Darwin and their families. The parade was made up of lots of floats, tractors, fire trucks, beauty queens, and of course politicians. Elvis even made an appearance in one of the cars and the Shriners brought their six wheel swamp buggies for some narrow street precision driving. Most of the units threw candy for the kids, but some even had mini Frisbees, pencils, and slap on bracelets. The kids filled up their bags with goodies and the adults enjoyed seeing so many people they knew. we bought some raffle tickets both for the cash prizes and for the quilt being raffled to support the local ambulance. Hopefully we will be a winner!

Gull Lake August 2006

Every year, Ray's family gets together at a Gull Lake, MN. It is about 150 miles north of the Twin Cities and is a popular vacation destination for Minnesotans. We stay at the Gull Lake Resort on the east side of Gull Lake near the Gull Lake Dam. It is also very near the Brainerd International Raceway. We have been going up every year since 1993. We missed the last 2 years while we were overseas, but the rest of the family was there. As the families have grown, we have moved up to larger cabins, but have stayed at the same resort since the beginning. This will be the first year that Ray's dad won't be with us, so it will be different for all of us.

We went up on Saturday and everyone got there by dinner time. The weather was good and expected to be good all week with highs in the 80's and lows in the upper 50's, making for great sleeping weather.

Sunday began with sunny skies and the kid's getting some worms to hit the docks to do some fishing. They caught a lot of fish, ranging from sunfish and crappies to a few large-mouth bass. They all got very good at removing the hooks from the fish and baiting their hooks.

In the afternoon we headed up the road to Pirate's Cove Adventure golf, which is a regular stop every year we are up here. The kid's formed one group and the adults another. No one was lucky enough to get a hole in one on the mystery hole which would give them a free game for a future visit.

After golf, we went down to the beach area and went swimming. The lake is down at least a foot this year. Normally there is a large current flowing past the beach as it is situated on the outlet of the lake. This year there is very little current on the outlet as the dam is set to allow minimal water flow out of the lake. On Sunday, we followed another tradition and had dinner at Ernie's, a local lakefront restaurant and marina just a couple of miles from the resort.

Monday was a little overcast, but that did not stop the kids from wetting a line and hauling in some more fish. We then went into Nisswa, about 10 miles north of our resort and did some browsing and shopping at the local candy store, getting a large variety of candy and fudge. Unfortunately, when we got home, we didn't get all the candy put up and away, and Beth's dog (Harper) ended up getting into the fudge and ate about a half pound of chocolate and mint fudge while we were fishing and working on building a rodeo golf game. Harper got a lot of water and was OK, although a little hyper-active. LeAnn and Grandma took the kids back to Pirate's Cove to play mini golf under the lights before coming back to hit the hay.

On Tuesday, Ray and LeAnn went golfing in the morning at a local 9 hole course. The course was pretty quiet, but in good shape considering how dry it has been. Just off the 4th hole we saw a tree that one of the local beavers was working on. It looked like he didn't have too much farther to go before the tree would be on its side.

In the afternoon we went swimming again, did some fishing while we were at the beach, and even played some tennis with the kids. We got a few games of rodeo golf in out in front of the cabin, but we were all still trying to get the hang of how to throw the ropes weighted with golf balls at the end. We also set up the bean bag toss out front so everyone kept busy with games and activities.

Wednesday started out cloudy, but improved as the day went on. We got LeAnn and Mariah packed up to go back so that Mariah could go to the open house at Eagan High. They were going to stop at the outlet stores at Albertville on the way back to look for some bargains. The kids played a lot of tennis today, improving their game every day. We hit the beach again, and although the water is cold, if you stay active in and out of the water, it can be comfortable. We all were taking turns on the diving board, but did not have much luck improving our form, except the belly flops and cannon balls.

The highlight of Thursday was the minnow races. The kids all get to pick a live minnow and then they race down a water filled track for fun and prizes. The kids can't touch the minnows on the main track, but they can put their fingers in the water behind the starting line once the gate is raised. It is a much anticipated event by all the kids every year. This year, Hailey and her minnow won the race, and Kara and her minnow were third out of a total of 9 racers. On the way home, we stopped at the Prairie Bay restaurant and had some brick oven baked pizza. We tried the rotisserie chicken pizza which had chicken, sausage, fennel, and even green apple slices. I had never had a pizza with apples on it before, but it was actually a very tasty combination.