Texas, A State of Extremes

      When I was camping around the United States, my first overnight stay in the desert was in Texas.  Hot and dry when I sacked out that night, desert temperatures drop quickly in the middle of the night.  I found that a desert night could get quite cool and eventually had to curl up in my sleeping bag.  The next morning I would travel to San Antonio where I spent a wonderful two days reliving the history of the Alamo. While the scene was almost idyllic,  "Remember the Alamo!" almost seemed to ring out from the walls of this mission in San Antonio.  Inside, of course, the utmost of reverence and silence is demanded, bringing to mind the somber reality of the sacrifice of the heroes who fought there.  I spent a good amount of time reminiscing upon some of the stories I had read of this place in bygone days.
     However, the Alamo is not the only attraction in San Antonio. The market square and the historic old city were fascinating places to visit.  I would also spend a great deal of time on the River Walk.  An evening stroll along the river is a fantastic way to end a day in San Antonio, observing the small boatloads of visitors glide through the water or sitting down to eat outside in the cool air down by the river banks.  Great scenery with tiny waterfalls along the way keep the visitor's attention.  The temperatures along the river provide a welcome relief from the heat of the day that I experienced as I wandered through the city of San Antonio.  All in all, San Antonio was a great place to visit.

The Perfect Vacation

     I am not sure if there is such a thing as "the perfect vacation," but I have enjoyed a few great ones.  One that was particularly memorable occurred in the summer of 2001.  I was widowed at the time and was planning a trip to Sri Lanka where my eldest son was to be married to a girl he had met in graduate school at Purdue University.  At that juncture in time, I had no idea of all that went into planning a vacation abroad, so I engaged a travel agent that a colleague at school had used.  My time in Sri Lanka needed little planning as my son and daughter-in-law-to-be had my time pretty well planned out.  That turned out to be a terrific vacation.  We spent some time shopping for clothes at ridiculously low prices, touring the capital of Sri Lanka, visiting some outlying areas, dining at some great restaurants with terrific and very spicy foods.  Topping that off was a visit to one of the island's premier resorts for several days.  What a great two weeks!

     Returning home, I spent a few days in London, and that is where my travel agent really was helpful.  With his help I was able to arrange for sleeping quarters to fit my budget in the right section of town and to map out my stay ahead of time.  This allowed me to pack a lot of activities into just a few days, giving me a truly memorable London visit in a relatively short period of time.

     Looking ahead to my retirement years, I may possibly be interested in Seniors Cruising.  This would be a relatively short time in the future, so it is definitely something of interest to me.  I love to travel, but I have never had the opportunity to take a longer luxury cruise, so this interests me.  Of course, another cruise that might interest me in the next couple of years would involve cruising with kids since I now have a second family with two young sons.  With all the amazing family cruise vacations available to choose from, it definitely provides me with something to look forward to.

Best Friend

This guest post from Lewis Beck

I am going to miss my best friend so much. She is moving in two weeks. We have been best friends and lived in the same town since we were six years old. We got married the same summer and were in each others wedding. We have been pregnant and had babies at the same time twice. Our kids have played on the same sports teams for five years now. Things are going to be so different with her not living in the same town. I have been over at her house every day lately helping her pack and get everything ready for the move and also just being with her before she is gone. I like to sit and just chat with her but she has a long to-do list and is always giving me some task to do. Yesterday she had me go on http://www.shopelectricityratestexas.com/ and research electricity rates for their new home in Texas. I keep telling her everything will be fine, but I can tell she is really nervous about moving to a new town where she doesn't know anyone.

A Little Learning Is a Dangerous Thing!

       My eldest son is in the first grade and has developed a love for soccer.  He is really anticipating the spring soccer league this year which is a great improvement over two years ago.  Wanting to see him involved in a physically challenging activity, I allowed him to sign up for the spring soccer league at our school and even agreed to coach his team.  What a mistake!  Despite the fact that he demonstrated tremendous physical ability and hand-eye coordination by hitting a plastic baseball thrown overhand to him at the age of three, he showed little prowess on the soccer field, preferring instead to lie down on his back in the middle of a game to stare at the clouds.  While the ball was down near the opponent's goal, he would be at the other end of the field, blissfully unaware of his father's frustrated shouts to get to the ball.  However, last year I saw huge improvements in his efforts, and this year our house has echoed with the crash of the soccer ball striking a wall as he prepares for the upcoming season.

      The other night we were sitting together on the sofa, and Matthew spoke to me.  "Dad, you don't have a lot of dollars, do you?"
    
      I replied slowly, "No, I don't, Matthew.

      " Well, you need to work harder because I really want to play soccer this year.  How much does it cost, Daddy?"

      "For both you and Everett, it will cost more than one hundred dollars, so it is pretty expensive."          

Now my son really enjoys math in school and has learned a lot in the first grade...just enough to make it dangerous.  He has learned that by counting by tens or hundreds he can arrive at fairly high numbers very quickly.  His quick response was, "Oh Daddy, then you can just count by tens" as though that would somehow make the amount less.  Truly, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing!

Sharing: A Little Boy's Concept

     My youngest son, Everett, has a very big heart.  While he is just like every other little boy and has times when he hangs on to his own things for dear life, much of the time he is very generous, almost to a fault.  He receives rewards at church at times for memorizing his verse and inevitably will ask for one for his brother.  The first thing he does after getting out of his class is to offer the matching reward to Matthew.  There have been times when he did not get an extra that he even divided his treat so his brother could have some.

    Although we have always been very pleased with Everett's generosity, recently we were more than a little chagrined at a strange turn to his benevolence.  My wife had just bought him a new pair of gloves this winter after his old pair had mysteriously disappeared.  Recently my wife had sent him to school with his gloves as the weather had turned rather cold.  Noticing that evening upon his arrival home that his gloves were missing, my wife questioned my son about there whereabouts.  Everett's prompt response was that he had given those nice gloves to a classmate at school because he had none.  My wife tried to explain to Everett that we could not afford to buy new gloves and hand them out to all his friends, but Everett looked up at her and with unshakeable confidence in his logic said, "But Mommy, I just wanted to share with my friend because he didn't have any gloves.  Isn't that what Jesus wants me to do?"  How does one refute such logic?

Parking Convenience

     When getting ready to leave by plane on a protracted visit, the thing I dread most is the parking issue.  First, It can be a real problem finding a secure parking spot with easy access to the airport, and second, it is frequently extremely expensive.  Searching for good parking can be like finding a needle in a haystack; however, LAX is not one of those airports.  There is plenty of great parking within close proximity to the terminal at very reasonable rates.  Reservations may be made online ahead of time so a lot of time is not wasted when one is on a tight schedule.  Now parking is made easy when leaving from LAX.

     Many of these parking lots are hotel parking lots with both indoor and outdoor parking spaces.  Most of these lots provide fairly good security and shuttle service to and from the terminal.  Five day parking may be available for just over thirty dollars.  Many of these parking lots also have valet parking available.  Take some of the stress out of your next trip out of Los Angeles by taking advantage of one of the many options for LAX airport parking. 

Children Say the Funniest Things

     This last fall my youngest son was being introduced to a new teacher at school.  Since my wife worked in the nursery at school, my son's teacher asked him to tell the new teacher where his mommy had come from.  My son thought about this for a while before finally answering, much to the teachers' amusement, "From the zoo."  My wife had come over from the Philippines about eight years ago which was why his teacher had asked the question; however, and this is supposition on our part, he probably answered the way he did because for a while she wore leopard spotted pants.  Needless to say, that is one thing which will not be easily forgotten.