This has been a funny week.  I have another story. 

We went “camping” this past weekend.  A friend was finally finished with a semester of a full-time grad school program, taken while working full-time.  As a celebration, she decided to organize a group of friends (10) for a camping trip.  She had her heart set on Turkey Run, so made reservations at a campground just outside the park.

David and I were the first ones on the road.  Which meant we were the first ones to the park.

We pulled into the campground at Turkey Run and asked the woman at the gate if she had reservations for our group.  She said no, and that they weren’t taking reservations at all.  We pulled out the piece of paper with directions, saw the name of the place we were supposed to find, and asked her how to get there.  She pointed us up the road.

We drove up the road, passing a canoeing outfitter we recognized (a couple of years ago, we went canoeing with another group of friends, and rented the canoes from this place).  Just past the canoe place, we pulled into a gas station.  We were stopping to ask for directions (we had been out in a state-parky area, but now it looked like we were driving back into a town – we’d just passed a high school), but lo and behold…  There, in front of us, stood a building with a sign proclaiming that it was the place we were trying to find:

… the “Up the Creek Boat-ique.”  (Yes, we made faces, too.)  This place’s decor was Hooters meets Cheeseburger In Paradise – painted fish totem poles, fake ponds, light-up palm trees, music piped over the speakers…  (It’s actually a neat little place – just not quite what we expected for a camping trip.)  We were… suprised… that Bethany reserved camping sites here.  We thought, “Surely we won’t be camping HERE!”  Yes, we would.  And don’t call us “Shirley.”

Here’s David’s I’m-so-excited-about-this-place face:

We walked into the store and asked the teenager there if she had reservations for our group.  She called an older woman over and, laughing, said, “There’s some tent campers wantin’ to know if they’ve got reservations here!”

We asked a few questions, told her Bethany would be along shortly to fill out the form (who knows what was on it?), and they gave us directions to the campsite.  Relieved because it sounded like the campsite was a distance away and secluded, we took off in the car. 

30 seconds later, we arrived at the campsite.  Which was the backyard of someone’s [abandoned, now] house.  The yard was fenced in by trees and barbed wire.  You could see the canoeing outfitter through the fence.  You could hear traffic from the school/roads.  You could hear sirens from the town.  And you could see that bright orange, light-up palm tree from anywhere in the “campsite.”

David and I laughed for the entire first half hour.  Here’s our tent site, which was at the far back corner of the yard:

It was the funniest “camping” trip we’ve ever been on.  Bethany got there and was mortified - turns out the website and the lady on the phone did a good sales job.  Beth had already paid for the sites, so we all “camped” there.  We had so much fun (both just being together and teasing her – she’ll never live down her reputation as “event planner”) – what a great way to end a tough semester!

We’re back from Kaua’i. =)

Pictures here.

My body doesn’t know what’s going on.  After 4 hours of sleep, I stayed awake for 20.  Then I went to bed at 6:30pm (HI time).  I woke up every 15 or 20 minutes after 2:00am (which is my normal wake-up time of 7:00am, IN time) until I finally got up at 6:00am (HI time).  I’ve made it ’til 9:00pm tonight, but I’m fading fast. 

I’ve been trying to get in a last hour of work today, but work right now is some graphic manipulation, trying to squeeze an image and find an extra 24 pixel rows – then trying to use that image as the base of a 20-image series.  It’s just too detailed for me to really focus on right now.  So I’m posting a funny video.

We ate at the Hickam AFB officers’ club tonight – at a mongolian barbeque.  It’s a building with only 2 walls, opening out over Pearl Harbor.  While we ate, submarines and motor boats floated by.  I got some fun pictures of my family, but can’t put them online or they’d cry…  my favorite is one of my dad’s face right after a baby puked all over the table in front of him and in his coffee.  =)  Use your imagination.

Leah and I asked Kelly (mom’s friend) to take a picture of us goofing off.  I handed the camera to her in video mode instead of picture mode.  =)  Here’s us posing for her, then waiting, then posing for a second shot just in case the second didn’t come out (pushing the capture button started then stopped the movie):

[coolplayer] http://tara.elmadera.com/images/hickamposes.AVI [/coolplayer]

Other pictures from tonight are posted on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/taukerman/.

David’s task is to come back to Indiana with a “glorious” tan.  He might just make it, by IN winter standards.  =)  We’ve spent the last couple of days (and will spend some time tomorrow, too) at the beach.  Christmas on the beach…  man, I don’t think it gets any better than that!

Look at the color of this water…  It was crystal clear, even while we were boogie-boarding!

 
Dave, doing what mathematicians do at the beach.  Solving mathy puzzles.

Leah.  =)  (Mom in the background.)

Here we are.  Here we’ve been for the last week.  =) 

We arrived Wednesday afternoon here in O’ahu after flying all day.  Went straight from the airport to Debbie, Bianca and Kyle’s house.  It was fun, getting to see them right off.  The last time I was here, we spent a lot of time together and I made friends with Kyle.  This time, he was a bit shy – it’s been six months since we’ve seen each other, and he has two other Woodrum girls to take my place.  We’ve seen him again since and things are returning to normal.  =)  I love that kid.  This time, I’ve gotten to see a little more of Bianca one-on-one…  not much, but more than before.  I’m glad.

So.  We flew off to the Big Island for the weekend.  Pictures are here.  While there, we stayed in a military camp within the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.  We visited volcanic craters, areas devastated by past lava flows, rifts in the earth made my volcanic earthquakes, and the highlight: took a rainy night hike out to see the current lava flow.  We saw red lava flowing into the ocean, making new land.  It was phenomenal.

Not such a highlight of our Big Island trip:  I spilled an entire cup of coffee into my laptop keyboard.  The computer shut itself off and never came back on.  I had gotten my leg stuck under a desk – really stuck – and, panicking, tried to stand up.  I knocked the coffee right into the computer.  That was Monday. 

I spent all of Tuesday looking at current models of laptops after I found out it was cheaper to buy a new one than to repair the Vaio.  Went to BestBuy and found a replacement.  The most important thing I did, though, was to pay for a whatever-the-heck-happens-to-your-computer-we’ll-fix-or-replace-it warranty.  Forget this manufacturer’s warranty crap – I paid for one of those last time and came out with nothing.  Waste of money.  I figure that I’m clumsy enough I’ll make this policy worth what I paid.

I haven’t been able to get hardly any work done, and I can’t show you any other pictures – everything was on my old laptop.  When I get home, I’ll borrow some equipment from a friend and copy everything onto this machine, but for now, it’s locked away on an inaccessible hard drive.

After we got back from the Big Island, we had a day at home, then we spent 4 days at Bellows AFB.  My folks rented a cabin right on the beach and David, my sister Leah and I stayed there for 3 nights.  Mom and Dad joined us for night #2 and my sister Melissa was there night #3.  I got a sunburn that I hope will turn into what my pastor refers to as a “glorious tan.”  We’ll see.  At least I won’t come back without any color.  And at least David spent some time outside without his t-shirt on.  =)

We just got back this afternoon.  I spent the afternoon going through a thousand emails from a client and getting things squared away with that account.  Since then, I’ve spend most of the night in the kitchen making various types of cookies.  My folks are semi-hosting a Christmas dinner tomorrow for their group at church and we’re doing desserts and mashed potatoes.  They went to buy a paring knife, to develop some film for me, and to get my mom some flour for “fudgy bon-bons.”  David and Leah are busy sweating and jumping to DDR (a video game that has them dancing on mats).  Melissa is playing World of Warcraft.  I’m doing my civic duty here.  =)

That’s it – we’ve been busy, but now you know what we’ve been up to.

At the NADDI conference.  I’ve enjoyed myself so far, and hope I’m making myself useful…  We do NADDI’s website, and I’ve been working with members all day who need access to the secure side.  I’ve got a list of things to do a foot long.

This is a nice hotel.  =)  I don’t often get to stay in a hotel this nice because a) there are less expensive places to stay, and b) we usually know someone with an extra bed everywhere we go.  There’s no need to stay in a hotel.

That’s it.  That’s all I had to say.  I’m in Louisville, I’m enjoying it.  We’re going home tomorrow, we’re going to the movies (007) with Steve and Rachel tomorrow night, we’re going to have dinner with the parents Saturday night, and we’re going to be in church all day Sunday. 

Sorry I haven’t called, Mom.  I still love you.  =)

We went on a camping trip this weekend. I’ve been trying to post about it for a couple of days now, but more urgent things like sleep, church and work keep coming up. Hopefully, though, you’ll enjoy the pictures. =)

We (our good friends Steve and Rachel Elwood, and David and me) have been talking about going camping for a month or so, and when we first discussed it, set aside this past weekend as the date to do it. We Aukermans slacked on the planning, though, so the Elwoods picked up the slack the day before we left. We went to an Indiana State Park none of us had ever been to before:

On our way to the park, David and I stopped and bought bicycles (and a bike rack for the car). We’ve been talking about it for a long time, and since mine got stolen, neither of us has been able to ride. We thought it would be nice to have bikes for short trips to the Roger (our local Kroger’s K doesn’t light up at night, so we call it the “Roger”) and a great way to get some exercise, and since S&R were bringing their bikes, we thought, “what better time than now?” We LOVE our bikes, and loved riding them this weekend. We also realized that we’re a little out of shape. =)

Because we waited until the last minute to reserve a campsite, the only available sites were electric… Meaning running water, warm showers and flushing toilets about 50 yards from our tent. We didn’t really rough it, though we were truer to the term “camping” than our neighbors, who were all in RVs watching TV. =) Here are a couple of pictures from the campsite:

Steve playing the guitar

Rachel listening to her hubby

David unwinding after a long bike ride

We biked over to the Camp Office to see about renting a canoe and a couple of kayaks (the park’s website advertised them), and found out that all they had to offer were rowboats and paddleboats. We rented a rowboat, thinking it would be better than not being on the water. It was… interesting. Rowboats are infinitely slower and less maneuverable than canoes and kayaks. Our aspirations of exploring the [big] lake quickly dulled to just making it to the other side of our little leg. =) We had fun, though:

Steve taking his turn

Putting his back into it

Rachel enjoying the ride

Dave taking his turn

We made our way to the other side of our piece of the lake and pulled out on the tiny beach there. There was a steep bank just above the sand at the edge of the water that we climbed – at the top, there was a pretty grassy area, and a neat path into a wooded area:

(switching camera from manual to automatic = washed-out image)

We had a great time this weekend. =) I never remember just how much I love camping until I get back from a trip. Hopefully we’ll get to go again this season. We’ve got a busy few weeks lined up – hopefully it won’t get too cold before we find ourselves with a spare weekend again.

We’ve arrived! We’re here in South Carolina, enjoying the ocean breeze and the company of good friends and family. =) We stretched our legs, then headed to dinner at one of my mom’s favorite places, then came back to start the relaxing. I showered, Melissa napped, Dave read, Leah played with her computer, and Mom, Georgiana and Bill went for a walk.

I have been sitting on the balcony for the last hour doing some catch-up work, and wanted to post a picture of our view from Bill and Georgiana’s 8th-floor oceanfront condo:

Today, Saturday, we spent at my parents’ house in PA. We got to sleep in a little (which is always nice after driving a whole day) and to spend time with my family. Here’s Leah, just chillin’…

And Melissa doing her thing…

Mom and I sang some hymns – I’d been tooling around on the piano and she just plopped down beside me on the piano bench and flipped through the hymnal. I love that part of my family life – the spontaneous singing. =) I can always count on it at home, though usually I’m just a singer and not the accompanist, too. My dad plays the guitar better than anyone I’ve ever heard. =)

I spent some time looking through Leah’s home school curriculum for next year, too… Home schooling, while socially stunting, is a great way to challenge smart kids. With this “no child left behind” stuff, advanced students are really suffering in school systems. I’m going to give her a list of supplements to her history/bible class for next year – movies to watch and music to listen to that will give her a better picture of the period than just a chapter in the text book.

On the way to bed, we spent some time with my Grandpa – he taught us how to play the fiddle! Dave and I are going to keep an eye open for a used fiddle – both of us think we can learn some bluegrass skills… =) Here’s David trying his hand:

By the way – anyone out there know a solution for a sore on the side of the tongue? David bit his tongue really badly the other day and is still suffering…

We’re on a road trip! Well, we’re actually in PA, on our way to SC. We’re staying a week in Myrtle Beach. =) Here’s us getting ready to leave Indy…