The first thing that comes to mind when we look back on our 2 days spent at Crater Lake National Park...BEAUTIFUL!!! The lake is 5 miles wide, is at an elevation of 6,000 feet, the deepest part of the lake is 1,943 feet deep. Crater Lake is the clearest lake in the world. There are so many unique features to this lake but I won't bore you with too many facts. One of my Leader Mentors at Weight Watchers told us we needed to spend the money and due the boat tour on the lake, so we spent the $39/person and took a 5.5 hr tour of the lake. The boat ride took us out to Wizard Island and we spent 3 hours hiking around the island and taking in the amazing views. There are only ... read more

Some may ask "Why did you get married again?" Or "Didn't you get married on 8-9-10?" The answer is "Because and Yes". Last summer was our civil/legal ceremony to be husband and wife. The ceremony we had last night was our ceremony to God to be husband and wife. I had never wanted a big church wedding ever since I was little but Pete and I also have always wanted to raise our children in the church. In the Catholic Church we hadn't received the Marriage Sacrament. This sacrament allows us to have our children, when we decided to start a family after our return from China, be baptized in the church and it also was one of Scott's wishes. Scott was with us in spirit last night. We set the date just 16 days ago ... read more

Friday, late afternoon, we arrived at Staci & Martin's apartment in Spokane, Washington. We lounged around that evening chatting and catching up since we last saw each other on New Year's Day, 4 months ago. Staci & I email, chat/video chat, or text message multiples every week but seeing each other is much more fun. Martin prepared us a Mexican style dinner that was very good and then we decided to go to a local bar to watch the Lakers/Mavericks game. Us ladies were more interested in having a few beers to relax. Saturday morning the 4 of us went to YMCA Central in Spokane as Staci & Martin are members there. Ali Vincent, Biggest Loser Season 5 Winner, recently moved from Arizona to Spokane and was putting on a 30 minute Boot Camp workout. Staci ... read more

A quick journal of our journey back to the USA. We left our apartment at 7:30am Sunday morning (China time), took 2 cabs to the Hangzhou train station since the 1st cab driver wouldn't let us put suitcases in the back seat of his car. (3 suitcases, 1 large backpack and 2 small backpacks) Nathan and Pete rode in Cab #2 and Crystal and I rode in Cab #1. We both arrived at the train station about 20 seconds apart so it worked out ok. They took us to our waiting room inside the train station as I think they were both very sad to see us leave. We were able to ride the new train from Hangzhou to Shanghai that travels at 350 KPH= 217.5MPH. The journey used to be 90 minutes and now is ... read more

It is a fact that whenever something is called the something of something else it’s not, otherwise it would just be known for what it is. Suzhou is famous for its networks of canals, stone bridges, old white washed buildings, and plentiful gardens. There are two times it is recommended to visit, Spring and Fall. The first so that one can see all the blooming flowers in any of the dozens of gardens throughout the city and the later to see the typical fall foliage colors. We were happy with the later since we had been living in Southern California and most recently Southern China and neither of which have any well defined seasons. We headed out to the Hangzhou North Bus Station after Elyse’s last class on Friday afternoon. Suzhou is in the neighboring Jiangsu ... read more