Conference Days

I am at the conference in Fort Lauderdale.  I am learning some things but it is nice to actually feel like I am actually up to date on some of this stuff.  Massive things are happening around us in USA but in the conference, there is just this single minded vacuum, that is great in some ways and a bit scary in others.  Colorado Springs is on fire and this is now the biggest fire in Colorado's history.  The highest court in the land, just upheld 'Obamacare' and it has been interesting to watch the uproar that has caused across the news stations and Facebook.  It will be interesting to see how this gets implemented in a nation that seems to have the best and worst health coverage depending on your zipcode and employment status.  One of the slides about scoliosis in this conference was a nineteen year old who had not had health coverage, in a major city in USA.  I would love to see Obamacare do something about that difference.  I am hopeful that it will.

I guess this conference is about hope for these boys.  As the drugs to slow the progression of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy get closer and closer to pharmacy shelves, there is more hope, but again it is a guarded one.  The drugs only are designed for some of the kids, and they still have to pass FDA testing.  I am nervous that it will be a long time before we can treat DMD like Measles and just inject kids with a cure when they are born.   

Just a couple of days more of sitting inside.  Yes, it is torture for me to sit inside on these beautiful days when I could be swimming!  At least with the new iPad I can play games at times when they are talking about something that I don't need! 

Florida

I am in Fort Lauderdale, Florida now.  I am here to go to the Connect Conference.  I am back 'at work' for the next four days and Levi is playing in the splash park, playing tag at the park and generally having fun with his brothers.  Levi stayed in Oregon so that he can actually have fun!  I have a few days here and then I am going diving here in the keys.  It has been a long time since I've been diving without any responsibilities other than just myself.  I am mostly diving with kids, mine or someone else's.  I am looking forward to it.

The conference is the US Duchenne foundation conference that happens every year.  It is being held on the beach in the Marriot.  I am staying in the cheap hotel, within walking distance of the Marriot!  Still it is clean and has free internet!

Klamath Falls

Captured Tree Frog (Don't worry they let it go after loving on it for a while)

Grebes and Pelicans in Klamath Lake

The last few days we have been too busy and too quiet for blogging.  We have been busy just spending time with friends and Levi playing with other kids and Ross.  We went to Klamath Falls for a few days to meet up with some friends there.  It was internet quiet there because I couldn't get their wireless to work with this computer but, you know, I didn't really care.  I was happy to play all day and go to bed early.  We lived in Klamath and it was great to just reacquait myself with the town itself!  It is a very pretty town and the lake is beautiful.  It was also freezing!  Summer has failed to appear in Oregon yet and there is nowhere that is felt more than Klamath Falls, sitting at just under 5000ft above sea level.  

Levi and the boys here got on really well!  They played on the scooters, climbing the hill with them on their backs and scooting down ahead of us as we walked the hillside.  They played with water guns for about five minutes until they were soaked and freezing and ended up in the hot tub!

RV Trip - Day 7

 Today we camped at a State Park in Astoria.  It was huge and the mosquitoes were ginormous as well!  I think that the population of bugs was the highest density that I have seen for a long time!  It still rains a lot here, so the ferns and flowers were great.  The campground did have a lake, which the older boys swan in.  It was freezing, so naturally I didn't do any swimming.  Levi went so far as to put his suit on and put his feet in but he too was driven out by the cold.  As the big boys splashed each other on the lake, Levi entertained himself by climbing trees and jumping on branches that had some spring in them.  Overall the trip is winding down and tonight we drive to Salem, so there is a quick trip the next morning to Eugene to get our car and drop off the RV!

RV Trip - Day 6

We were in what feels like a primordial forest.  As you are walking through, it feels as though it wouldn't be overly surprising to have a Stegosaurus walk out from behind a tree.  Some of it is the ferns.  Some of it is the drooping moss everywhere.  Even the trees themselves seem to be ancient.  This phone box was outside the ranger station.  Obviously with the advent of cell phones, the phone itself isn't necessary anymore but the forest is taking it over!  This was the Hoh River Rainforest.  Now you have to have a pretty good self esteem for a river, to hang around with a name like Hoh, but this was a big enough river to pull it off.  Icy blue from glacial runoff and running quickly it is just beautiful running through the canyon.  We took a long time to do the walk to see the river.  It wasn't that long a walk but when we got to the river, the boys just played and played.  Initially they tried to build a set of stepping stones across the creek.  Then we moved to a spot where they could get across by wading and they explored the island together.  Then Evan came back and he and I split flint to make 'shavers' and 'knives' to cut through wood.  It was just lovely!

Then we drove through Forks.  Notably the setting for Twilight, we however found the best playground!  They had an area for all ages.  Our kids played for a while and then moved to the exercise area and competed for, well, everything; number of chin ups, number of jumps, number of... well you get the picture!  Levi won the chin up contest but only because he had lots of help!  It even broke through with sunshine while we were there and that had been a rare sight in the last few days.

Our night ended on the coastline.  We had a campsite right on the beach.  There was a steep goat path down to the beach and an outlook that went for miles!  We lost all the boys for several hours in the afternoon.  OK, not really lost but they were not up at the camp.  They found a tiny stream on the beach that they worked to dam.  It is a rare time that I can just let Levi go like that and be so secure in his whereabouts.  I knew that the three of them were unlikely to find something that was urgent and then mostly they could deal with things themselves.  At one point, Levi made the trek up to complain about something that one of his brothers had done.  My answer?  "Annoying brothers? Check!"  He went back to play.

After a while Evan came up to try to make fire with his fire starter.  It is great to have some quiet time with each of them.  It is a good way to do that!  Stick everyone in an RV and go from there!

RV Trip - Day 5

Today we delved further into the Olympic Peninsula!  It is amazing here.  The green is so deep a green and so verdant for want of a better word.  We have been lucky with the rain.  It has rained at night fairly hard but nothing really during the day while we are out doing things.  There is a misty feel to the air all the time though and moss grows on everything!  If you sit still for longer than a few minutes, I think you can feel the moss starting to encroach on you!  Today we walked to a waterfall.  It was really pretty and a great chance to stretch our legs out a little.  Levi climbed on things, trees, fence posts, his brothers and was a bit like the moss.  If you sat still for too long he would start to climb.  I think that is his version of stretching his legs!  The water in the creeks is crystal clear but punishingly cold!  Levi and Ross thought that they might swim at one point but it was too cold even for those die hard swimmers! 

At one point this baby bird tried to fly out of the tree beside the RV.  It had to catch it's breath on the top because he really needs a lot of practice before he becomes proficient!

At the end of the day we camped at the Sol Duc Hot Springs.  They are really hot and are artificially cooled so we can swim.  They are very developed hot springs, with changing rooms and tiled edges, but perfect for an afternoon soaking!  Levi said they smelled like rotten eggs and he was correct in that!  The hot showers afterward were wonderful though after days of campgrounds with cold or lukewarm showers!

RV Trip - Day 4

Today was mostly at the Science Center.  Levi could have spent a week there without difficulty and it is at time like this that I see him really shine.  Initially we were going to do the Aquarium and perhaps the zoo as well but all the kids were happier staying put.  It is brilliant!  There are sculptures everywhere inside and out, like the orcas above.  Then inside there was everything from a butterfly house to a giant Rubik's cube!  We started off staying together but then just all split up and would meet before our scheduled Imax time.

Our Imax movie was 'Searching for the Mummies'.  It was about the finding of the great tombs in the Valley of the Kings.  It enthralled the kids (OK and me) and gave them some insight into what had been found before we went into the King Tut Exhibition.  Levi loved hieroglyphics.  He called them a code and would try to work them out himself.  The exhibition was a timed entry thing and a one way out.  Part way through the exhibit I 'lost' Levi because he stayed longer or went faster or any of those things that happen in the semi dark.  But this time I was pretty relaxed.  It was a blind end.  He is older and more relaxed and Ken was waiting near the exit. 

So Ross and I continued.  At the end we waited for him.  I figured if he got distressed, there were many Science Center people inside who could bring him out, but they weren't needed.  He came out with Robert (who had been behind us) who told us that Levi had been calmly checking out the exhibit and when he recognized Robert he said;

"Are you 'Searching for the mummies' because I'm searching for my Mummy too"

Ah I love his sense of humor.  It is great to feel that he is old enough now to cope with unexpected things, an earth away from home!

Then because the EMP building closes much later, we went back and did the parts we had missed yesterday.  It was the Movie Icon exhibit and Scary film Exhibit (I'm sure this last one had a more catchy name but I've forgotten it).  One of the cool parts of the latter was a screen where you stood in front of the screen and then the computer made it more scary.  This was just an example.  Levi (and Robert) spent a very long time playing here!

Because I love Stargate!

They also had a green screen and a miniature composite to add special effects and to make short movies.  They didn't save them to YouTube or anything, so here is part of Levi's movie.  I think that is Ken's hand about to pinch off his head!

Then it was fireworks night!  We had a campfire and the kids roasted marshmallows.  We had S'moreos.  Like S'mores but with Oreos instead of Graham Crackers.  Then we had a $40 pack of fireworks.  The best still for Levi was the sparklers, and running up and down the beach with them!

RV Trip - Day Three

Today we camped at a place on Bainbridge Island and we were staying there for two days.  It is but a short hop, skip and a jump (OK a ferry ride) from Seattle and we had a bunch of things that we wanted to see in Seattle.  The ferry ride was as much a part of the entertainment as anything else.  It was incredibly windy.  The kids would play outside in the wind for a bit and then get cold and come back inside.  Outside, Inside, until we got to Seattle.  The best part about the ferry is that it drops you off right where you want to be, in the center of  town.  From there you can walk along beside the pier or you can go into town.  We did a little of both!

We saw the first Starbucks store ever and noted that US sensibilities has required that a little less of her bosom needed to be showing to become an international brand. I was a bit saddened by it because the original retained son much more of what I see as the character of the age in which it was born. Anyway, Seattle is definitely the city of coffee and that is enough to make me happy, no matter what else we decided to do. We walked to Pike's market and then got on the monorail to the Space Needle.  Levi loves things that move and building things and he has found a kindred spirit in Evan who is discovering that Levi is now old enough to be a real friend rather than an annoying younger brother, even though at times they still annoy each other.  But that is as it should be too!  One of the sayings from this trip comes from when we were packing and Robert would read stuff off a list and we would call out "Check" when it was packed.  Part way through as the boys started to annoy each other, Robert said; "Annoying brothers.....Check".  From there every time that one of them would get cranky, we would just have to say that and they would all laugh!

At the Space Needle we all went up and had our photo taken and then went all around and through the EMP building, which was as interesting on the outside as the inside!  It is a museum of sound and light and had some great displays and things to play with.  It had the history of guitars and Rock and then a whole area that displayed techniques used in films.  The Avatar exhibit was fabulous!  They had all sorts of memorabilia from the filming but also demonstrated the new techniques they had to achieve in order to film it at all!  The boys loved the part where you could act out a part.  First off you go into a red room and hold your arms out so the computer can 'measure' you and then the lights on the floor tell you what you should be doing and then in about 30 seconds you get a clip of you acting out a scene in Avatar!  This is Levi acting out touching a plant on Pandora.  He loved it and because there were few people there, all of them could repeat it as often as they liked.  I had some time just studying the building itself and marveled at the ability to create such a fluid structure that could still stand up to the rigors of Seattle!

RV Trip - Day Two

The next day we drove to Mt St Helens.  It is amazing to see how much destruction is still so obvious from the eruption thirty some years ago.  All the trees have their stumps in the ground but the tops are just blasted apart.  We got up there and watched the videos of the eruption and then did a little walk around to different viewing areas.  It was really fun but Levi's best part was the big field of ice/snow/dirt that was in the parking lot at the top.  He would have been happy to through snowballs at everyone for hours!  Lucky for us, the park was going to close so we had to pull him away from it all!

 Levi didn't mind getting in the RV though!  He loved the whole idea!  Actually I think he mostly loved the idea that he could get up and go to the bathroom while we were driving.  He must have gone about times on each of our drives!  He loved being able to sit next to different people at different times as well.  The lure of the 'older brother' was a strong one.  He would watch them play on the computer or they would all play cards.  He had the DVD player to watch as well so it would have been hard to get too bored in any of the driving spells.

The route had been pretty well picked out, but where we would stay each night was always a choice that was made along the way to take the boys stamina into account.  At night we would play games and Levi's bedtime was a very flexible thing.  It actually serves my purpose to hold him in 'Australia' time somewhat.  It means that he actually sleeps in mornings rather than getting up at the crack of dawn as he usually does at home.  Once he starts getting up earlier, his bedtime will get correspondingly earlier.  At the moment though, he is tracking more like a teenager!

Levi and Evan were given a Lego Space Needle to build before we went to Seattle.  They built it together in the back of the RV.  It is lovely watching the kids together!