u.s.a. family reunion at hilton head
haha i forgot to include one picture, so you have to hold off on that family reunion thing a bit. i couldn't very well leave it out, could i?
somehow i forgot to mention that in washington d.c. we paid a visit to the air and space museum, full of aeronautical awesomeness. and i know that the word 'awesome' is sometimes misused but truly some of the aircraft in this museum are awesome. just to mention one - the sr-71 blackbird in the picture. designed in 1964 (!) it still holds the record for the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft - mach 3.3 which is 3,529kph (2,193mph). its basic defense when a missile was fired at it was.....to fly faster than the missile. it needed air conditioning in the cockpit because the windshield temperature at that speed was 260 deg. C (500 deg. F). whats that feeling i have right now thinking about it, yep, its awe. awesome.
notice how i havent even got to the space shuttle you can see behind the SR-71.
on to something even more awesome - family reunion!!!
for those reading who are not actually members of the smith family, a bit of background. it started with my moms grandmother (my memories of her involve avoiding her since she was pretty grumpy, but i am told that was because of her old age) she had 6 girls who all had huge families, including my grandma's 6 children. marjorie married ken smith (the couple in the picture above) and those are my maternal grandparents. hence the smith family reunion.
this year we were at this beautiful house in hilton head, south carolina. our introduction to the south was going to a supermarket, and meeting a really really friendly older gentleman who spoke non-stop....and after walking away sandi and i both burst out laughing because we did not understand a single word.
about 2 minutes away from the house was the beach. it was early spring, so not too hot yet, but way warmer than new york. grandpa and grandma passed on many good qualities to their children: kindness, a sense of fairness, love of a good laugh, and apparently also a cut-throat approach to any competition regardless of whether its scrabble or the traditional ping-pong tournament.
so hilton head island is an island of the coast of south carolina. it got its name from an english captain named william hilton who identified it in 1663 and humbly named it 'hilton's head'. he said it had sweet water and clean sweet air. yep, it does. it is also blessed with beautiful beaches and sunrises.
more on the rich past history and current idyllic life to come...
somehow i forgot to mention that in washington d.c. we paid a visit to the air and space museum, full of aeronautical awesomeness. and i know that the word 'awesome' is sometimes misused but truly some of the aircraft in this museum are awesome. just to mention one - the sr-71 blackbird in the picture. designed in 1964 (!) it still holds the record for the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft - mach 3.3 which is 3,529kph (2,193mph). its basic defense when a missile was fired at it was.....to fly faster than the missile. it needed air conditioning in the cockpit because the windshield temperature at that speed was 260 deg. C (500 deg. F). whats that feeling i have right now thinking about it, yep, its awe. awesome.
notice how i havent even got to the space shuttle you can see behind the SR-71.
on to something even more awesome - family reunion!!!
this year we were at this beautiful house in hilton head, south carolina. our introduction to the south was going to a supermarket, and meeting a really really friendly older gentleman who spoke non-stop....and after walking away sandi and i both burst out laughing because we did not understand a single word.
about 2 minutes away from the house was the beach. it was early spring, so not too hot yet, but way warmer than new york. grandpa and grandma passed on many good qualities to their children: kindness, a sense of fairness, love of a good laugh, and apparently also a cut-throat approach to any competition regardless of whether its scrabble or the traditional ping-pong tournament.
so hilton head island is an island of the coast of south carolina. it got its name from an english captain named william hilton who identified it in 1663 and humbly named it 'hilton's head'. he said it had sweet water and clean sweet air. yep, it does. it is also blessed with beautiful beaches and sunrises.
more on the rich past history and current idyllic life to come...
