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August - Michigan

2000-08-11 Friday

I took a day of vacation today. I've not taken a day off since we traveled to China for our adoption. We were going to go to West Virginia and Kentucky for the Hall Family Meeting, but it was cancelled at the last minute.

Tammy, Delainie and I instead decided to go to Michigan to visit with Steve, Sharon and Jae in Hanover, Michigan.

We left around 1pm. It was past time for Delainie to nap and so she went to sleep quickly. We stopped off at Wendy's in Pataskala for some chicken sandwiches and headed out. Tammy had printed up directions from Yahoo maps.

Heading north, we traveled up through Delaware, Marion, Findley, passed Bowling Green and around Toledo. This was the same way I went those four weeks or so during the DRMS project that I drove to Detroit during the Northwest pilot's strike. But, we didn't turn toward Detroit.

The southern part of Michigan's lower penisula is farms - corn and soybeans, shady towns and marshes. I saw lots of cat tails along with some other purple flowers. There were also lots of signs talking about the shoulders of the road and no passing signs on each side of the road. But there were few speed limit signs.

I wrote some notes on some of the towns:

We arrived at Steve and Sharon's at about 5:30pm. We made good time even traveling with Delainie. This is our first visit with both Steve and Sharon in many years. Steve did come down to Columbus after we had returned, but I don't recall when that happened. We met the Korean foreign exchange student that they are hosting for the year. Her name is Ji-Eun, but she has chosen to go by the name Sarah. I didn't know that this is the second student they had hosted.

Sarah is considered 17 years old in Korea but is considered 16 in the United States. Her father works for Metabo Korea Co. Ltd.

For dinner, we ordered a couple of pizzas from Peppi's Pizza. I should have brought the camera; I missed a great photo of a pizza spinning in the air. Steve, Sharon and Jae had a vegan pizza with just black olives and tomatoes - not even cheese. Sarah, Tammy and I had a pizza with pepperoni and mushrooms.

Sarah taught me how to say "Hello" in Korean:
An Nyun Ha Sa Yo
She also wrote it out for me. I showed her how to write Delainie's Chinese name.

Jae was memorizing Proverbs 13:5. Later, after Jae went to bed and the rest of us stayed up talking.

Sarah had brought a book on Seoul, Korea. I had brought a Rand McNally Country Atlas and showed everyone the route we flew over to China back in March. Sarah modeled a pink traditional Korean dress. It is worn when attending weddings, and on holidays such as Thanksgiving or New Years. She gave us a gift: a CD of traditional Korean music.

Finally, around 1:30 am, we camped out on the living room floor.


2000-08-12 Saturday

I copied down some URLs from some of the information that Sharon had gathered before Sarah arrived:

  • One from the Korean Consulate in Los Angeles with details about the language and flag of Korea. I think that the symbols on the flag are similar in meaning to the symbols for Feng Shui
  • And a second on Rites and Rituals

    Sharon home schools and I noticed an a URL for the Home School Legal Defense Association

    I also took down the URL for Dong Yang Cosmetic Company. They manufacture a hair care product that Tammy was interested in finding.

    Our hosts were busy today with a wedding and since we were close, we decided to drive also visted with Steve and Diana. They were one of the 12 other families that we met while going to China. Tammy had directions printed up and we stopped off at Burger King on the way and headed to Muskegon. I kept some notes:

      Jackson, Michigan
    • signs reading something close to Prison Area - Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers - I've not seen anything like that since we drove though Louisiana and Mississippi years ago.
    • signs everywhere about the US-131 Detour - Now even traffic has a URL.
    We passed around Lansing, Michigan. Back when I was with Oracle, I worked up at the Michigan Family Independence Agency, located in Lansing. As we drove around, I looked for a familiar site and I did catch a brief glimpse of the smoke stacks on the power plant across from the hotel. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of it.

    We skirted around Grand Rapids also and stopped off near Muskegon for a quick stretch and a diaper change for Delainie. Tammy called Steve and Diana and we were only about 15 mintues away.

    We headed on and I caught a quick glimpse of a sign reading something about Snowmobiles allowed on right side of highway in winter. After exiting too early, we at last arrived at Steve and Diana's. Jade and Jena didn't look very different.


    2000-08-13 Sunday

    The camera cover developed a small problem on the way back.


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