Olympia

Throughout my travels, I've had the opportunity to visit several centers of government, both state and national, in our country and others. In Olympia, the capitol of Washington, I found myself comparing everything to the Lone Star State's capitol in Austin. So we're all on the same page, let me first share a few thoughts about Austin.

I've visited the Texas State Capitol many times since living in Texas and have helped myself to both self-guided and guided tours of the building. The grounds sit amidst a bustling college-town metropolis and are beautifully manicured. Around the perimeter sit highly visible Texas State Troopers in patrol cars. They also roam the hallways on foot of the capitol building itself.

Whether playing Frisbee on the massive front lawn amidst state relics or rambling the halls of the building itself, there are always people at the Texas capitol. The building is clean, modern, and functional, housing all of the state's business offices either in the main rotunda or the underground expansion. Tour guides offer free guided tours during the week and are typically political science students at the University of Texas, which is within walking distance of the Capitol grounds.

Olympia, in contrast, is a quiet little city about 5% the size (in population) of Austin. While the Texas state capitol is an imposing edifice visible for miles, the Washington State Capitol is off the beaten path and definitely requires directions (or Vicki) to find. Luca and I made the trek from Renton in about an hour, and once we found it, the place was dead. There was so much available parking, we were a little apprehensive about where to park for fear there was some kind of prohibition about parking on the grounds. Driving right up to a point of interest and parking for free at the front door is not usually how I roll. Paying twenty bucks to park a mile away and be bused in is typically more my speed.

The first thing I immediately noticed (aside from the lack of any other people) was the absence of any police or security: no rent-a-cops, no state troopers, no local police. I guess if a crime is committed and no one is around to notice, it isn't really a crime in Olympia.

The second thing I noticed was the layout of the grounds. Unlike Austin, the Washington capitol grounds are like a compound. The main building sits in the middle of a cloister of other buildings that makes the area feel more like a college campus than a government site. We later found out on the tour that very little business actually takes place inside the main capitol building. In addition to the obligatory rotunda, there are four offices (one for the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer, and Secretary of State), a Reception Room, and chambers for the Senate and House. That's it. All the other business takes place in surrounding buildings.

What Olympia may lack in bustle, it makes up for in the quality of the tour. Our guide was excellent. He didn't recite from a memorized script, he simply walked us to the three rooms on the tour and started talking about them. If anyone had a question, he answered it in detail. It was like he was giving us a tour of his own home. Here are the highlights:

1. State Reception Room
   This is where foreign dignitaries are received, constituent groups interact with their representatives, and the post-election ball is held when a new governor is elected. But the crown jewel of the room is the rare 42-star flag hanging in a case on the wall. The flag is rare because there never was an official 42-star U.S. flag in use. Washington became a state in November of 1889. The star is not officially added to the flag until July 4th following a state's admittance to the Union. Flag makers began preparing 42 star flags so they would be ready for July 4th, 1890. On July 3rd of that year, Idaho was admitted to the Union and the 43 star flag became the official U.S. flag the next day.
   
   
2. Bust of George Washington
   This brass bust was presented to the state in 1984 by the Mother Joseph Foundation. It is noteworthy because over the years his nose has been worn by students rubbing it for good luck. Hal got in on that action (as did Luca and I)
   
   
3. The Rotunda
   The entire rotunda is covered in beautiful Alaskan Tokeen marble, which has a bluish white color. All the light fixtures in the capitol were created by Tiffany and the contract was his last major effort before his death. Hanging from the cupola is the world's largest Tiffany chandelier. It weighs 10,000 pounds.

No excursion in the Pacific Northwest is complete without the f-word, so we left the capitol grounds and let Vicki be our guide. The neighborhood she guided us to looked a little sketchy but we did find our destination. As we drove by the establishment we could see plenty of folks getting head inside, so we decided to give it a go.

When I say sketchy, I mean there were train tracks literally running down the center of the street. This gave way to a slew of puns, as you might imagine, and ultimately we concluded the tracks must be abandoned as the street was about the width of four cars. With parking allowed on both sides of the street, we just couldn't see how the logistics of a train coming down the street would work with vehicle traffic. It turns out we were wrong. As we got our fermentation on (that f-word staple of the Pacific Northwest), we asked our waitress at the Fish Tale Brew Pub about the tracks. She actually had to ask a coworker, but it turns out the tracks are still active and freight trains come down the street daily. This is one place where double parking is definitely out of the question.

The beer at Fish Tale is all organic and overall, not bad, although the pulled-pork sandwich I had was better. The walls are adorned with overpriced for-sale artwork, presumably from a local artist. It's good stuff, but not triple digit good, especially for the size. What did impress us was the rows of shelves along a wall holding people's personal beer mugs. I guess sometimes you wanna' go to the side of the tracks where everyone knows your mug.

Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

Check out all the pictures from my trip by clicking a gallery below:

From Everett

From Eugene

Why The Hell It's Taking So Long To Write About Olympia

I've been back home in Texas now for over a week. It's always good to be home. Having said that, let me share with you what I've come home to, and why it's taken so long to tell you about my trip to Olympia, which I did finally take. If you'd rather just read about that, wait until the next update and just skip this one. Understand that you'll miss a near-death experience story if you do.

The story begins with me trying to be smart. In favorable traffic conditions, Everett is about an hour away from SEA-TAC airport. My flight home was scheduled to depart at 7:30AM Thursday morning, so to avoid waking up at o'dark hundred, I switched hotels Wednesday night. For those of you that don't travel that often, let me break down the hierarchy of Marriott properties for you.

Up at the top of the Marriott food chain are Marriott-branded properties (places that actually have "Marriott" in their name) and the Ritz-Carlton. Below that are places like the Renaissance where you've dropped the Marriott name, but you're still in luxury vacation mode. The next level down is for the business traveler. Topping that list I'd say is the Residence Inn. Geared for the extended stay traveler, RI's have separate sleeping and working/lounging rooms and full kitchens. Below that is the Springhill Suites brand, a notch below the RI. Then we get to the Towneplace Suites. This is where I stayed in Everett and it's a mini-version of what the RI and SS offer. Unfortunately none of those brands had vacancy near the airport for Wednesday night and I was thus demoted to Courtyard. This is the Motel 6 of the Marriott chain--not that there's anything wrong with that. Marriott just opened a brand spanking new Courtyard here in San Antonio by Sea World where we used to live. It looks like a great place to stay. Unfortunately, the Courtyard Southcenter in Tukwila is in desperate need of renovation (read: avoid this hotel if at all possible). So much for brand loyalty.

I made it to my airplane without incident, except for the minor annoyance of not being able to use the self-serve check in kiosk. I figured the computer just didn't like me that day since, as I boarded the aircraft, the gate agent had to key in my ticket manually. I was flying Alaska Airlines for this leg of my trip and my aircraft was a new 737 featuring Alaska livery from 75 years ago, in celebration of Alaska Airline's 75th anniversary. I thought this was pretty cool and as I settled in for takeoff I took notice of the very creative Alaska Airlines timeline painted on the overhead storage bins and stretching the length of the aircraft. Suddenly I became aware of some activity about ten rows in front of me. A passenger vomited. That's always a nice way to start a flight, puking before you even leave the gate. For the next thirty minutes our departure was delayed while flight attendants took a full medical history from the man right there in the aisle. I thought this was a bit ironic considering I can't get into a private room with a doctor without signing what seems like half a dozen HIPAA forms. The attendants relayed the information to a doctor on the phone and finally removed the man and his wife from the aircraft for further examination.

The delay ended up only costing us about fifteen minutes by the time we arrived in Dallas. I had plenty of time to get to my new gate and wait for my American Airlines departure to San Antonio. I don't usually fly trip segments on multiple airlines, but this is what came up as the "least cost option" to the company that met my "business requirements"--which of course is the guidance we're admonished to follow by the travel accounting gods in corporate America. That's the last time I pay attention to that advice, and now I have the receipts to prove it. When I tried to board the aircraft with my "boarding pass" I was told it wasn't actually a boarding pass. Apparently three weeks prior when I changed my flight from Friday to Thursday, my good friends at the travel company changed my Alaska segment but never completed the change for my American trip from Dallas to San Antonio. I had to fork over an extra two hundred bucks to get them to let me on the plane and now I was "that guy" that you see rushing to his seat after holding up the entire airplane because he didn't have his shit together. For the record, the flight was already boarding late. By the time all was said and done, I could have flown two round trips to Seattle with what I--that is, what the company--spent on airfare.

The damage to my kitchen ceiling was not as severe as I feared and I decided the repair, mostly cosmetic, could wait. Instead, on late Monday afternoon I undertook the task of mowing the now very scraggly lawn. After my first pass with the tractor, I noticed a more pungent than usual odor of gasoline. I usually spill a few drops when refueling, as I'd just done, but this was really strong. As I started the second pass, I looked down and noticed some fluid by my foot. I thought this was odd, so I stopped the mower, left the engine running, and climbed off the seat to see where the liquid was coming from. As I bent down, I noticed a small leak on the very bottom of the fuel tank.

My first thought was environmental: "Great, a fuel spill. This is going to kill my grass."

My second thought was financial: "Crap, I just filled the tank, how am I going to save the rest of the fuel so it doesn't all go to waste?"

My third thought was more practical, and it overcame the first three: "Holy shit, that's dripping down onto the hot, running engine! EVERYONE PANIC, WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

I shut off the engine and ran like a madman to get the hose. My wife was across the street talking to the neighbor. I must have looked pretty funny because now I had their attention and they shouted at me to find out what was wrong.

"No problem, just a small fuel leak!" I shouted back as I ran back with the hose to wash down the tractor.

To think, I could have been killed! At least the beer break came early that night.

So while it's always good to be home, it's not always great to come home.

Post Script: This update would have gone out yesterday, August 23rd, but as I was preparing to publish, my wife called from the parking lot of Barnes & Noble to tell me the car wouldn't start--dead battery.

Touring Seattle: Chittenden Locks and Pike Place Market

Well, I didn't quite make it to Olympia to visit the capital last weekend. Due to a...let's call it a timing issue...the trip was postponed until tomorrow (as the weekend has arrived once again!). In true TRS fashion though, the diversion was overcome and a plan B quickly concocted. After a long lunch with fellow Road Scholar Luca and his girlfriend Tabi, we drove to Ballard, a suburban Seattle neighborhood north of downtown near the Sound. Ballard is home to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and the Carl S. English, Jr. Botanical Gardens.

Unlike many parks and beaches with tourist appeal, the locks and gardens are run not by Parks and Recreation but by the Army Corps of Engineers. They offer free, guided public tours of the locks and gardens. The tour was fantastic. Free is always good and our guide was friendly, knowledgeable, and sensitive to what visitors are typically interested in knowing. It was a busy weekend with great weather, so there was a lot of activity at the locks which we got to observe while the tour guide gave her spiel and answered questions. I won't do the tour justice, but here are a few highlights about the history and current operation of the locks.

Hiram Chittenden was an engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers at the turn of the century (the 1900s not the 2000s). As you might imagine, around that time the logging industry, the railroads, and the discovery of gold in California and the Klondike all contributed to an increase of population and industry in the Pacific Northwest. Due to geography and nascent railroad development, transporting goods such as logs from inland Washington to Seattle was a lengthy and tedious process. Chittenden decided there must be a better way and developed plans for a system of locks and a dam to connect Puget Sound with Lake Washington and allow for better flood control of a region saturated with rivers.

The result was a ship canal still in use today that allows vessels from kayaks to cruise ships to pass from Puget Sound, a saltwater body of water, to the fresh waters of Lake Washington approximately ten feet above the sound. The construction of the locks and dam changed the natural drainage route for freshwater out of Lake Washington, blocking the spawning runs of pacific salmon. To preserve the salmon runs, a fish ladder was also constructed to allow the salmon a series of 21 "steps" on their swim upstream to lay their eggs. The ladder provides the fish a means to swim up shore without the dangers of lock travel, such as boat propellers and birds of prey. There is a viewing area at the 18th step that allows visitors to see the salmon making their way up the ladder. Luca captured a brief video on his iPhone:

The locks are gravity fed, meaning no power is required to move water from one section to another.

1. Ships moving from Lake Washington to Puget Sound enter the lock from the lake. The gate and freshwater release valve is closed, sealing off water flow from Lake Washington into the lock.
   
2. A lower release valve is opened allowing water to flow out of the lock into the Sound, lowering the ships to sea level. When the water level is equalized, the lower gate is opened.
   
3. Once the ships clear out of the lock, ships traveling into Lake Washington enter the lock and the lower gate and release valve is closed behind them.
   
4. The release valve at the other end of the lock opens, allowing fresh water from Lake Washington into the lock, raising the water level--and the ships--to the level of the lake.
   
5. The gates are opened and the process repeats.
   

Wikipedia has some great descriptions and graphics showing the operation of the locks and the fish ladder:Click Here

Today I left work early and joined the LMC for lunch downtown at Pike Place Market. In all the trips I've made to Seattle, I've never actually been to Pike Street...until today. In true Seattle form, it took us the better part of an hour to get from Everett to the Convention Center, seven blocks from Pike Street Market.

Once there, we made the obligatory trek to the original Starbucks, took the photo and were on our way. I'm sure the marketplace has a fascinating history, but today was not about exploring it. We snapped our photo, scarfed down a bratwurst, and walked through the marketplace as it stands today. It's mostly home to runaway consumerism with touristy trinkets of all shapes and sizes; everything from flowers and fresh fruit to paintings, keychains, and T-shirts. There are a couple fish markets and I'm told they still famously toss fish off of trucks and over counters, but we didn't witness that on this lunch excursion. The place was packed to the gills--pardon the pun--with people of ALL kinds. This place is San Francisco on steroids as far as diversity, and I mean diversity of every kind. Like the guy with no teeth on the corner of Pike and Second holding up a sign advertising "Kissing Lessons".

Seriously.

I would have taken a picture, but there was no way I was putting myself in a position to have to give that guy a tip. Interpret that however you want.

Tomorrow, it's off to Olympia and a visit to the Washington State Capitol. No really, I mean it this time.

Week Two In Everett: A Heat Wave and Designing Inside Your Airplane

As my first full work week in Everett comes to a close, I'd like to share a few thoughts with you about the past two weeks.


Is It Really Hot In Here or Are You Just A Pansy?

To my great pleasure and amazement, the weather while I've been here has been phenomenal. I know from past experience the Pacific Northwest is a gorgeous place when the sun is shining, but that same experience has shown me those days are few and far between. It's only rained one day since I've been here, and that was brief at best. There have been some days that started out overcast and dreary, but every one has ended with the sun shining and barely a cloud in the sky.

Since I have been basking in the glory of the recent weather, I've been highly amused at how the locals have responded to it. South Texas this year has been unseasonably warm. We normally get only a handful of days with triple digit temperatures and they typically occur in late summer. This year we started pretty close to Memorial Day and have already tied our record for the most triple digit days in a year. Factor in the humidity and it's been damn hot. I was thus highly amused during my first week here when, on the evening news, a live news van was beaming pictures of people at a park diving into fountains, dousing themselves with hoses, and ranting about how it was finally cool enough to come outside and escape the oppressive 80 degree temperatures.

Seriously people? My thermostat at home is set at 80 degrees.

I know most people here do not have air conditioning, and that's why I was sympathetic last week when Seattle did register a record-setting triple digit temperature. At work, we had to relocate a going away party for a coworker from a brewery with no air conditioning to a restaurant with air conditioning. Really? You can't even brave the heat to drink a cold beer? Pacific Northwest, I don't know if we can be friends anymore.

The Boeing Dreamliner Gallery

Wednesday, before the air-conditioned going away party, I had an opportunity to visit the Dreamliner Gallery. This is the place airline customers go to configure their new airplane once they've made the decision to purchase a shiny new 787. If you've ever bought a newly constructed house, the process is very much like going to the builder's design center.

The building is located a couple miles away from the main factory in Everett. From the outside, you can't really tell what's inside. The building is in the midst of a business complex and has a very sleek, modern look with the Boeing logo displayed on the front. Once inside, you walk into a spacious lobby with a round desk below a flat screen television looping footage of recently-accomplished milestones on the production line. Just inside the door and to the left is a beautiful, six foot tall model of the new airplane with working lights. On the opposite side of the door is a giant touch screen monitor displaying facts and statistics about the new aircraft, current customers, and comparisons with other aircraft in its class. The place wreaks of modern sophistication.

Although we were all Boeing employees on the tour, we had to be escorted by a gallery employee who walked us through the modern facility as if we were customers. The first stop was the home suite. On either side of the giant lobby are single doors protected by electronic card key locks like what you might find in a hotel. Outside each door is an illuminated sign about a feet wide with a house on it. All of the signage within the gallery is iconic and color coded; there are no written words anywhere. This is obviously to accommodate the dozens of cultural and language differences of our customers. One of the home suite doors was closed, the house sign next to it illuminated red. Our guide led us through the door on the opposite side which was open and featured a house illuminated greeen.

The door leads down a short narrow hallway that opens up to a spacious common area. The room looks like the living room of a luxury model home. A large flat screen television is mounted on the wall and surrounded by couches and comfy chairs. The scene is reminiscent of what you might find at an airline's own first class lounge. Of course there is audio-visual equipment galore and Wi-Fi throughout the building. There are two doorways at either end of the room. One leads to a small executive office with a desk and chair, in case an airline executive accompanies the design team and needs to work. The other doorway leads to a large, fully-equipped conference room. This is where customers can come to consult with their sales representative or each other about design decisions, prices, etc. I immediately wanted to buy an airplane just so I could come and experience this room.

From the home suite, the gallery is designed in the shape of a horseshoe. Walking back out into the lobby, we proceeded down the hall and began our trip around the shoe. The first thing we pass is a self-service kitchen with a fleet of coffee and cappuccino machines. Again a flat screen television hangs on the wall as well as various framed news articles bragging about 787 features and milestones. Here customers can come to take a break and relax while decisions are mulled over or information is brought from subject matter experts at the factory a few minutes away. Continuing down the hall, we arrived at a door with a picture of a movie screen illuminated green next to it--the universal sign that this room is available. Inside the theater, we watched a brief film about the features of the 787 and the types of customization decisions we were about to make. The room is also equipped with a rounded projection screen where 3D models of the airplane can be viewed as well as "fly-throughs" of a particular interior configuration. It's the type of thing you would expect to see at NASA or in a Star Trek movie.

Proceeding around the horseshoe, we were taken to rooms where we would select our seats and in flight entertainment options, sit in a mock up of the cockpit, choose fabrics and color patterns, and even climb into the three configuration options for crew rest compartments. Every room is configured and designed to allow the customer to experience hands-on the spatial relationships and true look, touch, and feel of the interior design of their airplane. The element of surprise is clearly not an option when purchasing a $150 million airplane.

The two largest rooms are where seats and galleys are selected. Perhaps the most impressive of these for me was the latter. Here customers can view galley cabinets galore and decide whether they want spaces for two coffee makers or one microwave; one trash compactor, or three beverage carts. I had no idea there were so many options in configuring a galley--and the 787 is a "standard configuration" airplane compared to other models like a 747 or 777. The are about two dozen different options for galley equipment, and all are on display. They are also functional, and each piece of equipment can be taken to a working galley area where customers can cook food from their catering vendor to see how it will taste in a particular piece of equipment.

Throughout the entire Dreamliner Gallery experience, I get the impression that over ninety years of lessons learned while helping customers design the inside of their airplane has been incorporated into this one modern, streamlined facility. I have obviously never bought an airplane, so I really have nothing to compare the Gallery to in terms of airplane manufacturers. I have bought a house and a few cars though, and this was like going to a luxury dealership where customer comfort and convenience are the highest priority.

At work, people often see me scratch my head in confusion and utter the phrase "we've been making [insert our product here] for how many years?" in response to some things we do that don't always seem to make sense. I think this is one thing we definitely got right. Check it out for yourself by clicking here or searching Google for "Dreamliner Gallery".

Breweries, Wineries, Sailing, Oh My!

For the first fifteen or so years of my life, I lived in relatively close proximity to most of my extended family. Considering I have eight aunts and uncles and sixteen cousins, I think that's a pretty considerable statistic. Most of the family still lives within a couple hundred miles of Southern California. While some of them have tried other places at various points in time, the most notable current exception to the Southern California rule is me. Prior to that, my dad's youngest brother and his family of six held the record with their move to Oregon fourteen years ago. I figured after fourteen years it was probably time to pay them a visit. Plus, I wanted to make sure my four cousins know there's more to cousin Sean than weddings and funerals.

Before I began my trek to Eugene, Oregon, I finally got an opportunity to visit the main assembly building where 787 final assembly is taking place. It was great to finally see the airplane in person and up close. As a lean practitioner and Industrial Engineer, I saw a lot. Unfortunately I can't share any of it with you, but I did manage to snap a few photos from across the street of one of the airplanes sitting on the flight line as well as the Large Cargo Freighter, or Dreamlifter. The Dreamlifter is a modified 747 built specifically for the 787. It is used to ferry oversized pieces of the new aircraft from our partners around the world to the final assembly line here in Everett. Airbus has a similar aircraft dubbed the "Beluga".

After my somewhat eventful morning I departed for a fun-filled Oregonian weekend. The drive mapped out to about 300 miles and Vicki was estimating five hours. Puget Sound is notorious in my experience for perpetual traffic, so I left the factory about 12:30 PM hoping to keep the drive in the five to six hour range and be in Eugene in time for dinner. 7:30 PM I arrived. SEVEN THIRTY. Have I got a few things to say about that.

First, NEVER EVER rent a Dodge Avenger, or as I call it, a Dodge POS. Last time I was up here I rented a Dodge Magnum. Argue if you will over its aesthetic value, it had a Hemi, and it was cool. My red Avenger is not that car. I have more zip in my lawn tractor and I've never heard a car with only 4,000 miles on it ping so much. As for comfort, I'd rather be in a center airline seat. The car sucks.

Second, I found out what happened to all those 55 and 60 MPH speed limit signs when the rest of the country raised their highway speeds to 65+. They are strategically located along Interstate 5 in the Pacific Northwest to cause the most traffic congestion possible.

Third, and speaking of traffic, I hit some. On the bright side, it was only for the first 200 miles of the trip. Had I used "7 hours in an uncomfortable Dodge POS" for my cost benefit analysis of airline flights from Seattle to Eugene, I probably would have flown and settled for a middle seat--or just let my cousins think I'm a professional funeral crasher.

Once I finally arrived in Eugene, the trip was fabulous. The family prepared an Italian delicacy for me I haven't had in years. The geography of the area reminds me a lot of California's Central Coast, complete with its own wine country. In fact, Eugene features all kinds of fermented fun. I visited three breweries (Ninkasi, Steelhead, and Hop Valley) and the King Estates Winery. Some bevvies were better than others, but all were accompanied by good times and good company. I also met a second cousin from Northern California who has been living in Eugene and went sailing with my uncle on his yacht. My uncle Brian, his son Nicholas (my first cousin), and Matthew (my second cousin) have actually become quite the sailing team. After I left them Sunday afternoon, they embarked on a road trip adventure of their own to compete with the pro's in San Diego this weekend. Hopefully their Dodge is more comfortable than mine for the 20 hour drive.

In a twist of irony, this same group of cousins (minus Nicholas and Matthew) will be visiting us next month while on a trip to San Antonio. They actually arrive a week before I do. I hope we can show them at least half the good time they showed me. As for the rest of my trip, I made it back to Everett in an expeditious six hours, shaving nearly ten whole miles per hour off my average speed. It's a wonder I didn't get hauled off for speeding. This weekend I hope to visit Olympia and tour the State Capitol, which I passed from a distance on my way to Eugene. It's only about 90 miles away, so I'm afraid the cost benefit has me back in the uncomfortable, underpowered lawn mower. At least it has satellite radio.

Everett: Why I'm Here

Whenever a new commercial airplane is built, before it can be certified by the FAA to carry passengers, it must complete a series of flight tests. During flight test, passenger seats and overhead luggage bins are replaced with sensors and computer racks. Once flight test is complete, the airplanes used for testing must be refurbished for delivery to the customer. As results from the flight tests are collected and airplanes continue to be assembled in the factory, changes to the original airplane design are required. Because the assembly line continues to operate during this time, some of the airplanes already in flow are too far along in the build process to receive the identified changes. In these cases, the changes must be incorporated after final assembly of the aircraft is complete.

The production schedule for the 787 is so tight here in Everett that program leaders decided to outsource the refurbishment of the flight test airplanes and the incorporation of certain changes into the airplanes that need them. Boeing San Antonio won the contract for this work. Depending on how the flight test program proceeds, 787's should begin arriving in San Antonio early next year, hopefully sometime in the first quarter.

With partners and suppliers all over the world, technology plays a huge role in allowing us to communicate requirements and status. There is no true substitute however for hands on experience. So for the next four weeks, I am here in Everett to meet our teammates stationed here, get first hand experience with the various systems I will be using in San Antonio, and hopefully to actually see and touch the airplane.

I will keep you posted if anything exciting happens with respect to my work here with the airplane (don't hold your breath). You can also track progress with the first flight and flight test program on Randy's Journal, a blog written by Randy Tinseth, Vice President of Marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA).

On The Road Again

In the spring of 1999 I got the travel bug, an unawakened passion for visiting new places and experiencing life "on the road". Before that first trip with Medinet, I had never even flown on an airplane. Now, ten year later, I have frequent flyer accounts with nearly every domestic airline in the United States. As I sit here preparing to share the itinerary for my latest adventure, I realize that in ten years, almost without fail, I have been "on the road" every summer. That's something I never expected or even realized until now. In case you missed it, here's a quick recap:

1999 - Technically by the time summer rolled around I was done with my trips, but from March until June I was busy testing biomedical equipment nationwide for compatibility with the year 2000.

2000 - Certainly the official start of my annual summer travels, and the trip that launched The Road Scholars as we know and love it today, the Year 2000 Road Trip Extravaganza. Maybe I'll be able to afford a reunion tour in 2020.

2001 - I stayed local that summer, but my experience working as an intern at The Disneyland Resort provided experience and memories on par with any trip I've taken.

2002 - A bit late to be considered a summer trip, but I did visit Chicago, and more than just the airport.

2003 - College graduation followed by Sean's European Excursion, finally realizing my dream of visiting Europe.

2004 - I suppose this was the exception to the rule. I started work full time in March and although I was supposed to travel to New Mexico in early Fall, the trip was postponed until February.

2005 - Perhaps the most significant (in terms of life impact) trip of all so far, my relocation to San Antonio.

2006 - Honeymoon in the Mediterranean...

2007 - We'll always have England, and because of it my wife has vowed never to go back.

2008 - Ireland...enough said (because that's all I can remember).

No wonder I have 23 GB of photos on my computer.

That brings us to 2009. It's weird to think how TRS has changed over the years. When I first started, before I even knew what TRS was, there was a short list of email addresses belonging to people who asked me to "keep them informed" of my internship experience. I got in the habit of sending regular email updates to my parents and blind copied these people. The Internet was still relatively new to me and most of the world. The web was just beginning to evolve and I think my ISP was CompuServe. I remember after the first couple of weeks "on the road", we had to settle up our extra expenses with our hotel in New Jersey. WiFi hadn't been invented yet and high speed Internet was a 56k modem. I had about $100 in unexpected local toll charges because the "local" number I picked was not so local. Now I get online almost anywhere I go, and I turn my nose up if I'm asked to pay.

In the beginning the updates were private, at least to the extent they were sent directly to specific people. TRS remained a fairly private email-only list up until a few years ago when I finally gave in to the blogosphere before my trip to England. Now almost all the old updates are "online" and future updates can be read by anyone in the world via email, web, Facebook, Twitter, and RSS. Half of you reading this don't even know what most of those are. The times they are a changin'.

Up until my business trip to New Mexico in 2005, TRS was based on my own personal adventures. I wasn't going to offend anyone with my witty, matter-of-fact musings on life. When I started traveling for business that changed a little. I was no longer a for-hire college student beholden to nobody. I still don't think of my Road Scholars persona as being "beholden", but I do find myself tempering my life musings more than I used to. Par for the course I suppose.

And now there's Kaitlyn, and that introduces an entirely new element into life on the road. The last time I took a trip worthy of being considered a Road Scholars excursion was a year ago when my family reunited in Ireland for my grandmother's funeral. At that time, Kaitlyn's age was still being measured in weeks and I hadn't ventured away overnight from Kaitlyn or Jen since my return from England in the fall. Now, here we are almost exactly a year later and I'm preparing to leave for an entire month. It's amazing how different a year can make you feel; this is going to be hard.

I don't think it's any secret by now that for the past five years I have been employed by The Boeing Company. I am currently assigned to the refurbishment and change incorporation program for the 787 and tomorrow I depart on a four week trip to Everett for training and exposure to the new airplane. I'll explain more of that project in the next few weeks. For now, I'm trying to get a handle on how I'm going to spend an entire four weeks away from the Fuzzy Headed Oracle and not go completely mad. There are a lot of things I would not have expected ten years ago on that first TRS trip to New Jersey. Missing a 17 month old child was certainly one of them.

So as I get ready to finish packing, let me acquaint you with a few things to make sure you are up to speed on the 2009 version of TRS.

First, if you are not aware, there is an entire blog devoted to the adventures of raising our precious princess (and her sibling arriving in January). http://genoveseparents.blogspot.com

Second, for those of you reading this via email, you can now receive TRS updates via RSS if you are so inclined. If you don't know what RSS is, I'll try to write about that on my new, personal blog soon.

Third, I now have a new, personal blog. This is where I'm free to write about things that might not fall into The Road Scholars theme.

Finally, I am now on Facebook and Twitter and have made my Tweets available on the main Road Scholars homepage at http://www.theroadscholars.com. I will update the blog (and this mailing list) as often as I can, but in the meantime you can visit the main TRS page anytime you want to see my most recent two cents in 140 characters or less.

As always, thanks for traveling with me and I'll see you on the road.

State Mug Collection

One day I will post the entire collection (there are international pieces as well) and maybe if I get bored I'll even take a photo of each mug. For now, this will do.

The rules for my State Mug Collection are simple:

1. I must personally visit the state.
2. The mug must display the state's name.

There are currently 29 in the collection, although I am entitled to 30. I once spent 30 minutes on an airplane in Boise but didn't have enough time to buy a mug. Also, among the 30 is Washington, D.C., so my collection will be complete when I acquire 51.

New From Expedia!

Ghanian Culture 101

From Road Scholar Meghan

Just Good Manners

• The people in general are very friendly. You say Good Morning/Good Evening/Hello first and let them respond to your greeting. 
• If offered water from the tap (which there was no way in hell we were drinking), take the glass, pour a bit out of the glass onto the floor/dirt, and at the end of the meeting, give the glass back. None of us could get over how pouring the water out of the glass wasn't an insult, but we were told it is not. Rejecting the water would be an insult. 
• Do not use your left hand for anything. Handing money to a cashier, taking money from a cashier, dispensing meds, taking a pulse, waving, shaking hands, etc. It is deemed improper. Not a total insult, but viewed as not the norm. 

For Medicinal Purposes Only

• Try not to drink bottled water in front of the locals, they don't have any. 
• Try to remember they do medical procedures differently than us and the U.S. way is not the only way. 
• Their version of pain is different than our version of pain, they state it differently, they hide it and tend never to complain about pain. So if you ask them if their pain is a little or a lot, and they respond a little, it's probably a lot. If they say no pain, there is probably a little. That's completely different from the hypochondriacs we get in the States. 
• Despite the cramped conditions in the hospital, men and women would be examined differently and could never room together, even with a curtain separating them. That would prove to be difficult when we took a tour of the hospital a few days later.
  

Air Conditioning and Beer...We're Good Here So Far

The following is from Road Scholar Meghan and her series of updates about her recent humanitarian aid trip to Ghana.  It appears here edited for content and length.

Luckily, we had an air conditioned bus on the 4 hour drive to Cape Coast. I still couldn't get over the landscapes. Amazing trees, shrubbery, and ant hills. Yup, ant hills almost 5 ft high…you don't screw with the ants over here. 

The villages in between the rolling hills were a huge eye opener. Primitive was the first word that came to mind. Billy goats galore, hens, chickens roaming all over the place. Shacks, wooden and no more than 12x12 ft large, mostly with small porches and sometimes painted. As far as I could tell, no electricity or running water. Wooden fires with cauldrons for cooking, and pumps for running water. The shacks were stacked one next to the other for miles. They were mostly businesses on the side of the road, most with titles such as "In God We Trust Hair Salon", "The Lord Is My Shepherd Plumbing Supply" or "Believe In God Womens Boutique". For having very little, the Ghanaian people have huge faith. 

We arrived to Cape Coast and the harbor area and my jaw dropped as I looked out at the harbor. I felt like I was instantly taken back to the Crusades. Wooden gondolas, hand painted with no particular flag hung at the end of the boat. Hundreds of boats. The dirt roads, the billy goats, the roosters, the women carrying baskets on their heads and their babies wrapped behind them in cloth. Never seen anything like it. Still the people would come up to the window asking you to buy products. Children would glance in the window, see the Abrunees and smile and wave. You would smile and wave back at them.

Shortly thereafter we were driving along the coast to the hotel. Away from the gondolas, you'd think I was in California without any sort of development. The beaches were beautiful with palm trees galore and waves like Huntington Beach. If I didn't close my jaw soon, a mosquito would fly in so I tried to compose myself but I couldn't get over where I was--Africa or California?? Then I'd look over at the other side of the road where the land was and quickly be brought back to reality. Mud huts were the local architecture, with thatch roofs made of palm trees and shrubbery.

We checked into the hotel and into our rooms. Rooms were fine, had a/c so I was OK with whatever else they didn't have. Even had a small fridge so we  weren't exactly roughing it..yet. Mattresses, I would soon find out, were made of something similar to plywood. Hard as stone but no bugs on the sheets so we were good. By this time it was 5pm…just enough time for Barbara and I to head out into the water for a quick dip into the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. If I closed my eyes, I was totally back in CALI. Awesome.

Dinner consisted of local cuisine. Appetizers were plantains, bananas fried with a sweet flavoring. Groundnut soup is a fave and I could see why. It was melted peanut butter with Thai spices and ch

icken bits, pour it over rice and you have dinner. Beer in Ghana is fantastic! Four or five different types, I tried something called Star Amber Ale, served in a 20 oz bottle, for 1 Cedi (dollar) 50 pesos (cents). The exchange rate was almost equal so I realized I was going to be quite the cheap date in Ghana. Moreover, a 20 oz bottled water…2 cedi's (dollars). Beer, again, is cheaper than water in the countries I visit. Tell me I don't have my priorities straight. Good food, great conversation, another Star beer and bed.

Our first day in Cape Coast was a tour of Kakum 

National Park. A small rainforest (it couldn't have been that big, we heard sirens in the background at one point) but the way you walk though it was completely unique. It was called the Canopy walk. You were not on the ground but walking on an 8 inch wide wooden platform, with rope woven on either side about 5 feet tall, hoisted almost 300 feet above ground and only connected in random spots by a large tree. While the animals were not to be seen at all, the views were absolutely incredible!!! While others were crapping their pants because they realized how civil engineering was so not involved in the design of the walk, I was living it up with my camera. I figured if hundreds of people before hadn't fallen, why would I? We ended the Canopy walk, had fresh coconut juice from a coconut a local chopped open for us and left. I bought a t-shirt in their gift shop. I had to. I had no other clothes.

Our last day was spent at Elimina Castle, a slave castle from way back when. People from all over Africa were brought here to be sold and traded for slavery. It was one of the largest ports for slave trading. Women were brought here to please the Governor and then bought and sold for slavery. Horrible dreary place with the stench of slavery still embedded in the walls. Not only did it make you nauseous, it made you realize how much the people have gone through in their history. This was our introduction to the "culture" part of the trip. I had a feeling this place would be brought up in our "de-briefing" later that night, and we were going to talk about how we felt. Not without a Star beer in hand though.

Lunch was at the harbor area and I ordered another local favorite, pavlava: Spicy sauce with onions and cabbage, poured over rice. (Side note, the group is trying to put together a cookbook of local Ghanaian dishes...highly recommend buying one, they have some great cuisine.) Then Janet, one of the other RN's introduced me to Castle, a local fave beer. It's Guinness but lighter and not as filling with a sweet side. I found my new addiction. Thank you, Janet. I also ended up ordering a coffee, and when the waitress repeated the word I jokingly said, "Yes please, large coffee, hahaha." 

Well, she took that very seriously and ten minutes later handed me a large Thermos full of hot water and two instant packets of coffee. OK. Won't make that joke again. The table was in hysterics already knowing what a huge fan I am of coffee, Starbucks in particular, and I had pretty much had no coffee for a few days. Coffee in Ghana consists of instant Nestle Café. Period. However, I realized that one of the other team members brought his own Mr. Coffee coffeemaker and--get this--5 pounds of Dunkin Dounuts roast. Nope. Still not drinking it. I'll stay with the instant stuff thanks.

After lunch it was back to the hotel to start our official planning details, orientation to Ghanaian culture, and of course, the "de-briefing". Without the beer, I was still able to wing it and talk about how I felt, without rolling my eyes. I knew the beer was going to follow shortly anyway as dinner was approaching.  Dinner followed the orientation, with local cuisine galore and Castle beer to be had. Good conversation, and good night.