Old Guard Tour

Mark's boss organized a tour, for anyone his office, of the Old Guard and to see the behind the scenes of the changeing of the guard at Arlington Cemetary. I really didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be a great experience. I wish our guests over the weekend could have been here to go on the tour with us.
First they took us to see the Old Guard Caisson Platoon's horses. These hourses are the horses that pull the caskets for fallen soldiers to be buried in Arlington Cemetary, presidents that have passed away, and lead inaugural parades. They are a lot bigger than I thought. One horse's back was at 6 feet in height. So, with his head raised, he must have been 9-10 tall! Holy Huge! They said that the larger horses are hitched towards the back, closer to the caisson carrying the casket, to be the muscle of the team.
Evan was so excited to see the horses! Even thought they were huge, Evan had no fear of getting close to them. At one point he started to walk into an area where horses were free to graze and walk around. Good thing Mark was keeping an eye on him.
Here are some pics of Evan and Sgt. York, one of the lead horses that carries the "riderless horse" position in parades and funerals. He usually is saddled with boots that are placed backwards in the stirrups representing the fallen soldiers. (there's a great picture of Sgt. York with the backward boots in stirrups if you follow the link above)
I usually don't think horses are beautiful, cause I'm usually too overwhelmed by the smell. But Sgt. York was one beautiful horse. We found out that the old guard platoon that care for the horses get up at 4am to bath and groom all the horses every morning. These are some pampered horses. And Sgt. York had the softest and shiniest coat for a horse that I've ever felt!
I happened to give a frosted miniwheat to Evan to eat right before we went to see the horses. He wouldn't put it in his mouth and eat it so all the horses we saw would go right up to him and smell him and probably try to eat the frosted miniwheat in his hand. Evan laughed so hard when a horse would get right up to him and sniff him like a giant dog. He's hair would be blowing and Evan would put his arms over his head and laugh! I wished we took a video of it. Well, these pics sort of depict what happened.
We also got to go behind the scenes at Arlington Cemetary to see what goes on during the changeing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. And acutally get to talk to one of the guards, or Sentinals. The lead sentinal said that they do the change every half hour and he does 19-23 of them a day! And each process of walking out there, inspecting guns and saluting and all the gun flipping and stuff takes about 5 mins too. And that the tomb is guarded 24/7 in no matter what weather. That's amazing dedication. more...
It was a mad rush for Evan and I to get out the door and drive in to DC this morning. Last night, Evan kept waking up every hour to 2 hours cause of a fever, and we slept in till 11:30 and had to be in DC by 1. I bearly had time to grab breakfast/lunch for us to eat on the road and I forgot to bring diapers for Evan. I'm glad his diaper held out for the 5 hours until we got back home. Overall, it was a great tour, and I'm glad we took the time out to see it.

Evan with a frosted miniwheat in hand trying to keep Sgt. York from getting it.

Evan is still hanging on to that miniwheat!


I'm sure Sgt. York smells all the frosted miniwheats that Evan had eaten before that are now all over his shirt! All the other people on the tour thought the horses loved little kids, but really the horses loved what was on this little kid.


Changeing of the guard at Arlington Cemetary

Happy Birthday!

Love, Beverly, Mark & Evan

Best Little Kid Beaches

Thanks for the recommendations that you guys sent us! We did do part of the coastal drive in Hilo, but didn't give ourselves enough time to go through the botanical gardens. We should have gone there first and then gone to Volcano National Park. Oh well. We didn't get to eat out in Honolulu as we would have liked. Staying in Laie, we didn't get downtown too often.

This trip I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time on the beach. Our last trip was a business trip for Mark, and I was pregnant and there was no way I was getting into a swimsuit. So, I think I spent a total of one hour on the beach alone on Waikiki.

This trip I tried to find toddler friendly beaches we could go to, and here are my recommendations.

On the North, Haleiwa beach: its relativly tourist free, because they all go to North Shore to watch the sufers and tan. And because it faces West the winds and waves aren't as strong. Downside is that the sand isn't the best. Its not the most fine sand around, but it does make clean up off an impatient toddler quite easy. Bonus: it is close to Matsumoto's shaved ice!

Also on the North, Pupukea beach: Head to the left side of the beach. There's more tidepools than sandy beach, but there are almost no waves where sand meets water because of the natural rock wall that surrounds the area. Perfect for little ones that want to splash around and not get splashed. On a sunny day the water in the tidepools warms up nicely. The sand is finer and great for sandcastles. There's lots of little fish to see and hermit crabs to play with just a few feet from shore. Downside: There's a little more people around, but the tourists are mostly farther into the tidepools snorkeling so the shore is pretty open for little kids. Also, the rocks are a bit sharp so keep your shoes on, and keep an eye out for your unsteady toddlers.

On the West, at new resort area in Ko Olina, the lagoons at the Marriot hotel have been fixed up nicely so there's plenty of sand, calm waves, and clean grounds. There are clean bathroom and shower facilities. Unlike the previous metioned. And the use of hotel lounge chairs are great! How would they know if we were staying at the hotel or not? It's nice because the grounds and the beach is maintained by the hotel, but it's still a public beach with free but limited parking. Downside: of course there are lots of tourists, but it's a big enough beach, that there's room to spread out.

I hope that will help out if you ever find yourself in Hawaii with little kids. :)

Boo, Snow!

Just our luck, the day we leave and the day we return, there's a snow storm! I'm glad that the snow didn't delay our trip home. That would have made an already dreaded trip more miserable.



Another boo. During the flight, Evan spilled his cup of apple juice all over his lap, my lap, and my seat. I sat in apple juice for an hour and a half!!! I took Evan's pants off to dry, but it didn't dry in time, so he went from the plane to baggage claim with a blanket tied around his waist. Me on the other hand... I was glad I had a sweatshirt that didn't get wet to tie around my waist to get me to baggage claim. Something about apple juice mixed with the airline seat bottom made it smell SO nasty! I couldn't stand the smell I was giving off through the terminal! I hope the steward remembered the seat I was in and had it cleaned, cause that would be an unpleasent surprise for the next person in 19A.

Besides our airport and winterstorm woes, our trip to Hawaii was divine. The snowstorm was a bit of a blessing, because it allowed us to finess the people at Continental to switch us to a closer airport and to extend our trip by 4 days. It was a cheap ticket to begin with so the days that we could travel were limited. We would only have 4 hours to see Mark's brother, his wife, and Mark's sister, before they left town, and only 5 days in paradise. So the storm was in our favor.

This is the shirt that Mark won from a radio station in Hilo, Hawaii. He called in and answered their question about what do you do to prepare for Chinese New Year. "Isn't it clean the house?" I'll have to get the video off our camcorder of Mark calling in and post it. :)

Mark's brother and his coworkers made these shirts to sell after the earthquake in Hawaii. Evan is quite pleased with his.

Our umbrella stroller has been EVERYWHERE with us on trips. Somewhere in Taiwan, the little clip that held the stroller shut came loose and was lost. So we've had to wrestle the stroller when we travel without this clip. I looked into getting a replacement part. It was $2 for the little plastic clip but $6 shipping! Forget it.
On our way back home from Hawaii, while we were getting ready to wrestle the stroller to gate check it, I noticed a dark plastic thing in the gutter of the jetway to the plane. Wow, just our luck! Its the same part we were missing! Someone must have lost it like we did. Its ours now!

Last days in Hawaii Pics

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