Our Visit to Historic Williamsburg, Virginia

I mentioned briefly in a previous post that Katie and I have adopted 4 children. This brings our family total to 7 (including the two of us). The past 7 months have certainly been a stressful time, and we have jumped at the opportunity to leave for a week to spend time in Williamsburg, Virginia. This area includes Colonial Williamsburg, a key area on the British Colonies in the late 1700s, Jamestown, one of the first English settlements in the Americas, and Yorktown, a key battleground in both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

Travel and Learning

Travel is a critical way to learn and experience the world. Simply being in a place allows you to expand and develop and grow in ways that are often much deeper than through study along. I am particularly fond of these kinds of experiences wherein a location is designed to help the visitor learn about the history of an area. It has been a great experience!

The Westgate Resort

Westgate Resort in Williamsburg, VA. The exterior of the building is fashioned after the manner of the colonial style buildings in the area - red bricked and beautiful. Photo credit: tripadvisor.com

The bathroom at the lovely Westgate Resort. 

Colonial Williamsburg

We spent a lot of time at Colonial Williamsburg. This w as an incredible working village that houses dozens of original or rebuilt buildings from the late 1700s. This was an era in which the American Revolution was under way, and Colonial Williamsburg was one of the epicenters of change during that time. The likes of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Patrick Henry served and led the people here. It was pretty amazing to walk where these great leaders walked. Here are some photos...

Here is Katie in front of the Governor's Palace. An incredible building rebuilt in the mid 1930s. 

The main room as you enter the Governor's Palace.

An incredible wood-burning stove (apparently called a "warming machine" 250 years ago) in the Palace. 

The Palace kitchen separate from the main building. This lady was making chocolate. I loved the old-school fireplace.

An impressive piano forte in the entertaining room at the Governor's Palace.

The ballroom at the Governor's Palace. The guide (I think her name was Emily?) was excellent.

Yes, that is General George Washington himself rallying the troops as they prepare to face General Cornwallis in key battles of the Revolutionary War.

I thought this was funny.

Going Sailing

Katie and I sailed on a schooner - The Alliance - along the York River. This was a pretty cool experience (although it felt like my toes were going to freeze off the whole time). We booked the experience through http://sailyorktown.com/.

The captain of the ship - Alex (I think). An impressive man with tons of sailing experience.
Actually, someday I hope to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Probably from England to the Americas....

Just an interesting set of buildings in Jamestown...

Stuff I want to Build

At some point I plan to build an awesome rustic-style cabin. Here are some good ideas for it...

An interesting way to interlock the framing on homes in Jamestown.

Shingles for the homes and buildings in Jamestown. 

I got a little obsessed with the drainage features for some of the buildings. I am going to build something like this in our back yard in Columbus.

More drainage.

Even more.

Interesting fence structure at the Jamestown fort. No nails - everything is held together with pegs between boards.

A scene within the fort including a mini oven for baking. I have wanted to build one of these for a long time but always envisioned a giant horno like those used in the southwest. this seems much more feasible.

A closeup of the oven. 

I liked the simple design of this window. Just slide the wood cover to close the window...

A view of the joist system for holding the second floor of this building. Simple but effective.

These living structures of the Powhatan Indians were pretty impressive. Simple wood framing with weaved cat tails for protection from the elements.

The interior of the living structure. They would apparently burn a fire constantly and hang meat from the ceiling to smoke and preserve meat. A simple but beautiful structure.

Simple methods for joining the framework together.

Framing details.

Visiting Jamestown

One of the days we visited the Jamestown site.

The entrance to the Jamestown Fort. 

An impressive structure within the fort.

Details of the framing and window structure.

More buildings within the Jamestown Fort.

We boarded the replica of the Susan Constant, one of the three ships that sailed from England to the Jamestown settlement. The voyage took roughly 4 months with several stops along the way.

Me in front of the Susan Constant.

The lower level of the ship. This is a view of the rudder (not the best image).

One of the mini-cannons on the ship. A very impressive instrument, and tiny when compared to the cannons on larger ships.

It has been a refreshing, relaxing, much-needed experience. Katie and I have enjoyed our time together entirely kid-free (a rarity for us) and definitely needed the time to reconnect. We are excited to get home to see our beautiful children and slip back into life and continue moving forward in our goals and endeavors.

Sabbatical Travel: Returning to Ohio

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we we have spent the last several weeks in Logan, Utah where I have served as a visiting scholar at Utah State University. We have finished our stay there and just recently returned to our home in Grove City, Ohio. We traveled along I-80 through Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa, went down I-74 into Illinois and Indiana, and took I-70 into Ohio.

Here are a couple of pictures from the trip.

Me and my beautiful wife Katie at a stop somewhere in Wyoming. 

My daughter CK at the Stagecoach Inn somewhere in Nebraska.

We completed the return trip in three days. For some reason, the return trip was a lot less pleasant than the trip out. We were already pretty tired from all of the traveling, playing, visiting, etc., which made the trip more arduous. It was definitely great to arrive at home in Grove City!

Sabbatical Road Trip!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have been traveling to Utah for my work during my sabbatical. I am going to serve as a visiting scholar at at Utah State University's Center for Innovative Design and Instruction. We traveled along I-70 and crossed several states in the process. Here are a few photos from the trip.

Here I am with my lovely wife and daughter en route to Logan, Utah.

We drove our Kia Soul and loaded our belongings on the top of the vehicle using a Roofbag.  Things went great until we hit a rainstorm and the straps that held it down allowed water to flow into the car. I was totally soaked as we traveled down the freeway. It was pretty hilarious.

Our great friend Lynn McDowell, my wife Katie, my daughter CK, and me at the LDS Church Visitor's Center in Independence Missouri.

My family and I are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we decided to stop in Independence, Missouri at the LDS Church's Visitor's Center, there. The location has some historical and future significance for the church, and it was fun to learn some of the history.

The temple of the Community of Christ Church in Independence, Missouri.

An awesome bridge that we crossed. I think it was in St. Louis, though I can't say for certain.

Katie talking with the police about the old guy who drove off the road.

When we were driving through Kansas, there was an older gentleman who was weaving his car into and out of several lanes. We eventually passed him, and as we did we looked back and saw him drive his car into the median. He bumped his way along there for a while and then came to a stop. He started to drive again, so I got out of the car and yelled at him to pull over. He promptly flipped me off and continued down the freeway. By this time, several cars were following him and had called the police. We followed him until he was pulled over, and Katie went and told the officers what we had seen. A pretty exciting diversion from the monotony of a long drive. :)

Future Drive
So far, we have traveled across the United States using I-80 and I-70. I think this next trip back to Ohio we will travel using I-90. It will be a bit of a detour, but it will be pretty fun to see new places and things. I really enjoyed going through some new states on the way to Utah, and I look forward to seeing more!

Sabbatical Update - Travel to Utah

Well, the first phase of my sabbatical at Franklin University has come to a close. I've spent the last 5 weeks here in Ohio working on article writing, as well as on an application to become a Certified Performance Technologist.

Traveling to Utah
For the next phase of the sabbatical, my wife, daughter and I are traveling to Logan, Utah where I will spend the next 8 weeks as a visiting scholar at Utah State University's Center for Innovative Design and Instruction. It's strange leaving Franklin and our home for this long - Katie and I are very integrated into our Latter-day Saint congregation in Grove City, and we both enjoy volunteering and serving in that congregation. We will miss our friends and neighbors during the stay, but we know that the opportunity will be wonderful. Plus, some members of Katie's family will be staying in our home while we are gone, so we will not have to worry about the home during out time away.

The Travel
We will drive a total of 27 hours across the United States to make it to Logan. We are driving through the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and Utah. We plan to make the drive in 2 days, taking about 13 hours per day. We're also going to make a few stops when we get to Utah to see family before we make it up to Logan.

We considered making the drive in one straight shot without stopping for a rest at a hotel, but we have wisely decided against it. Here's a map of our route:

View Larger Map

The Vehicle
We'll be driving our fairly new Kia Soul, which has proven to be a great traveling car. Very comfortable, reasonable gas mileage, good storage space, and a nice stereo make it an ideal traveling vehicle. We made the trip out to Utah last year to see our families, and it went quite well.

Another Trip to Saudi Arabia

I have spent the past week in Saudi Arabia, again. I have been working with faculty and administrators in Saudi Electronic University. The last time I visited Saudi Arabia I worked with these faculty was in Jeddah, and this time I have been working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The creation of SEU is a strong step toward the future of education in this part of the world. They have embraced new technologies and formats with the goal of expanding educational opportunities for men and women all across Saudi Arabia. They have opened 6 campuses so far and plan to open a dozen more in the next few years.

The Faculty
Again, this has been an outstanding experience. The faculty members at SEU are of a very high quality. They have a sense of excitement about teaching at SEU and many have plenty of experience teaching in higher education. My role is to help them bridge from their more traditional experience to the hybrid (mostly online) format, and the curriculum focuses on technologies and strategies for teaching and managing their work effectively.

Participants in the course Strategies for Teaching in a Hybrid Learning Environment.

The Strategies for Teaching in a Hybrid Environment Course.

I thoroughly enjoyed working with these faculty and have great confidence in their ability to move forward in their work. I am hopeful that I will be able to interact with them again in the future.

Seeing Riyadh
Riyadh is the capitol of Saudi Arabia, and about 6 million people live in this sprawling city. We were blessed with the opportunity to go and see some very interesting sites some of the evenings we were there. I've shared some photos below with descriptions.

Me on the bridge of the Bridge at the top of the Kingdom Tower in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. About 100 floors up. This was a great way to see the size of the city while at the same time enjoying the incredible view.

A panoramic photograph of the bridge on top of the Kingdom Tower.

We visited this castle, which is a historically significant location in Riyadh. The first king of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia lived here after naming Riyadh the capitol.

This is the door of the castle.

Window shutters inside the castle.