Hawaii Five-O

Howzit!

In short, since we got back from Rome in November we have done very little newsworthy things. Thus, only one blog post until now. The blog is firing back up because we are now in Hawaii to spend 6 weeks working in Lanikai on the Island of Oahu. Steve is still on sabbatical and this is the last hurrah. Sabbatical is over in June. :-(

Yvonne is still working for Microsoft but is working remotely for the next 6 weeks. The kids start preschool here in Kailua tomorrow at The Cole Academy. Thanks to Michelle for recommending the place. So far, the kids have had lots of fun at the beach - Lanikai Beach is literally just across the street, and we've had a big Muench=Fenner party. That's right, the Fenner clan is on the island for their holiday and we managed to get a party put together than happened yesterday.

Nona is here for 10 days! She and Hadden tackle a 100 piece puzzle on the family room floor of our rental place.

Clara gets a ukulele lesson from Yvonne.

Clara's first day at the beach. Dig! Look my flower swimsuit!

Sometimes Hadden looks 20 years older than he is. 

Hadden asked to be buried in the hole we dug. It's fun to be covered in sand.

After we got home from the beach, Clara ran around in the yard as the sprinklers were going. LOTS of shrieking.

Fenner Party
We had a great party with the Fenner clan on Sunday evening. There were about 16 adults and 10 kids on the property. Lots of room for the party, though. My dad came over with his coconut gear and husked, cracked and grated a fresh coconut for the crowd. Just like the Polynesian Cultural Center but without the hour-long drive to get there. Plus, we served liquor at the party (the PCC is Mormon-run and thus, no alcohol). Hadden got to play with the much older Fenner boys, which was SO cool. Clara got to each oodles of fruit and not much else. Seems we had fun at the party too - we forgot to feed our kids. Oh well, pass me another beer. Mom's potato salad was awesome and the meat from Hibachi (local store in Kailua) was great. Much of the rest of the food came from Whole Foods in Kahala, about a 45 minute drive away. Too bad, the Whole Foods in Kailua opens in 2 weeks. Timing is everything.

Hadden watches closely as Grandpa husks the coconut on the pick. 

Another Beach Day
Monday, which should have been the first work day...wasn't...for Steve. Because it was Prince Kuhio Day (March 26th in Hawaii is a celebration of the Prince). Not bad. We took the kids by the preschool for a look-see (they will start tomorrow) then Yvonne went to work and Nona/Steve/Hadden/Clara went to the beach. Lots of fun in the sand and the kids weren't so fearful of the ocean - running in the shore break and screaming all the time. I think Clara would have run down the beach forever if Hadden hadn't convinced her to turn around.

Can you guess what Hadden is "driving" here?

Daddy, I don't know if I can get out.

Playing in the water with Nona.

Run! The wave (ripple) might get you.

Our Place
It's fantastic. Old Lanikai house lovingly restored with 3 bedrooms. One is open if you want to come visit. Seriously. We're here until May 4th. It's across the street from the beach, has a great little yard and is plenty big for us.

Some plumeria on the property.

Front door to our place.

From the last shot, I turned around 180 degrees and took  a picture of the beach access. Not that far.

Aloha for now,

Steve

Happy New Year

It is now 2012. Time for a quick recap of the kids and family from 2011 and a look forward to 2012. 2011 was marked by about 10.5 months of mediocrity for the Muench family: No vacations, no visits to relatives, etc. Not to say that people didn't come to see us (they did) but having someone make the trip out to see you hardly represents an "accomplishment" on your part. However...we did get to visit Rome for 6 weeks in the October-November time frame (see previous blog entries) so that's mostly what we talk about. I will not recap Rome here (see previous blog entries). Notable milestones:

• Clara is out of diapers (except for night time). That happened around the end of November. She made the transition quite well and still expects an M&M candy just for peeing on the potty.
• Hadden continues karate. He likes it...but really wants an orange belt. He's in the Kinder Karate class, which is 4-6 year olds. He's still one of the bigger folks in class even though he's still 4.
• Trips to the pool. We started up  regular trips to the Ballard pool in December and Hadden and Clara are back to loving the water. They often request "pool" on the way home from preschool. This will set them up well for Hawaii in March.
• Cool stuff according to Clara: anything Hadden likes, princesses (Disney or course), babies, pool, Optimus Prime (Hadden's toy), singing, running around the house naked saying "You na-fa catch me!" Not sure where she got "na-fa" but I THINK it's either "never" or "cannot".
• Cool stuff according to Hadden: Star Wars (movies and all merchendise), Buzz Lightyear, Transformers, lego, puzzles, pool, singing, things his friends say at preschool.

Christmas
Christmas was great. We celebrated locally in our house with Nona attending for 3 days. Kids, of course, loved it. I think they were overwhelmed by the gifts but really got into opening possessing. Sharing came later. Did the big dinner on Christmas Eve with the Nelson-Lincecum clan in attendance as well as Cory Crocker. Great dinner - everyone brought such wonderful food. We had a hugely expensive beef tenderloin from Skagit River Ranch (I think it was $140). It was REAL good. Got lots of red meat the next week or so.

Snow
We couldn't wait for the snow to come to us so we drove up to Snoqualmie Pass on January 2nd. I think everyone else did too. The snow park with the sled hill was filled up and closed so we went across the street to the ghetto sled hill and had a blast. The hill was much smaller but perfect for Hadden to go down by himself and Clara really enjoyed sledding with Mom. "I wanna go again!" she kept saying. We also met Uncle Chris (we should really start calling him Chris and not Bug) and Marvelliz on the "slopes" and they went sledding too. '

Hadden and Clara go down by themselves as Uncle Chris follows.

Uncle Chris/Bug steams down the 2 meter hill at an astounding 5-7 mph.

Poor Hadden face plants in his saucer. I was taking pictures with a point-and-shoot so there is a significant delay between when you hit the button and when the picture is taken. This one just turned out to "luckily" catch the moment of Hadden's face plant. He had seen Uncle Chris/Bug go down head first a number of times and decided it was time to give it a try. This was the only time Hadden went down head first. I doubt he will be participating in the Skeleton in the Winter Olympics.

Marvelliz on one of her better runs.

I want to go again Mommy!

Our snow angel in a suit handed down from Cousin Haze.

 Ta-ta for now!

STEVE

Arrivederci Roma

Last blog entry in Roma,

We leave tomorrow morning from our apartment to Fumicino Airport at an ungodly early hour (4:45 a.m.). We've been taking it kind of low-key the last few days just visiting some old favorites and making sure we get our naps. Did Castel Sant'Angelo a few more times, including today, did bicycle riding in Villa Borghese for the third time...stuff like that. Just got back from gelato for the last time (at Gelateria del Teatro). Kids are a bit sugared up right now so putting them to bed will be a challenge. This is why we don't give them a big dose of ice cream just before bedtime at home.

Some final Rome thoughts and insights:

• Rome is filthy. Like any big city, most surfaces are covered in grime/soot/dirt. The Rome streets really do trash your shoes and your children. Especially if they lay down in the street and eat gelato. 
• Gelato is almost as common as cappuccino as an afternoon treat. I now think nothing of 3 guys in suits walking down the street having gelato cones. 
• Rome will never have enough money to preserve all the historical stuff they have here. As a result, there will always be things closed or in disrepair. Deal with it. 
• Vatican City looks like Rome would if it had oodles of money to keep all its stuff in great shape and clean.
• Not sure why Rome bothers with bus schedules. It's rather meaningless as they seem to come whenver they want. To save everyone anxiety and have just three categories: (1) comes all the time - don't worry about it, (2) comes every now-and-then, and (3) comes once in a long while - try your luck.
• If you take enough taxi rides, eventually they will try and pull a fast one on you. If you call them on it, they will back off and pretend it didn't happen.
• A good cappuccino should cost you no more than one Euro (if you drink it standing at the bar and not sitting at a table). This is in contrast with Cafe Greco on Via Condotti where a cappuccino and 3 pastries will run you 25 Euros (ouch!).
• A sure-fire way to start a conversation is to wear a A.S. Roma or S.S. Lazio shirt (or any other piece of apparel). Everyone seems to have something to say about it. 
• Strangers really DO sigh and say things like "bella bambina" about your kids as you walk by. It happens quite often. 
• A ten minute walk without kids is a 30 minute walk with kids.
• Store employees in meat shops are almost always gruff and short with you. They can't understand why you don't know the exact Italian word for the odd cut of meat you need for some sort of dish. Heck, I don't even know the English name for it.
• There is a lot of poop on the streets of Rome. Mostly dog poop I imagine. 
• Romans must be experts at "holding it". There are few public restrooms in Rome. And if you are lucky enough to find one it may be out of service. If Rome has 10% of the per capita restrooms as a standard U.S. city, I'd be surprised.
• Our favorite places in Rome (Bing map): http://binged.it/uO1g2a 

Teatro di Marcello. Used to be a Roman theater until a family built a palazzo on top of it.
An extreme case of hermit -crabbing (but rather standard in Rome).

One of our last times at Bar Giulia. 

Hadden helps Clara climb San Giovanni di Fiorentini as we wait for the 116 bus.

The kids with our super-great baby sitter, Ginny. She's an American studying abroad here and the kids LOVED her. 

Ciao, See you in Seattle,

Stefano

The Italian Military, High Art and More Busted Buildings

Ciao,

It's been a few days but the activity keeps on coming. In fact, it's been an entire week. Must be near the end of our stay because I am starting to fall behind. This last week we saw the Italian Military (yes, that's right), another soccer game, the Vatican Museum, Hadrian's Villa and Pompeii.

Italian Military
It was the Italian equivalent of "Armed Forces Day" on November 4th and they had a party through the weekend where they loaded up Circo Massimo (the big - and normally empty - space where Circo Massimo used to be) with bunches of military stuff. They had tanks, parachutists, boats, sailboats sailing in a large pool, the sottomarini (submariners), air force, Carabinieri (a strange hybrid of military police that polices civilians), and even the Guardia di Finanza - another military police (they do financial crimes and, as it turns out, drug enforcement). Almost everyone there was a local...except us. This was a BIG function - they had thousands there all day long. Yvonne noticed some differences between such a function in Italy and the U.S.

• There were ZERO bathrooms. No port-a-potties, no public restrooms, no pit toilets, nothing. People in Italy must be really good at holding it. 
• There may have been 10 trash cans. And no recycling containers. Unreal. Where do you put your trash? Then again, there was probably less trash than at a U.S. event because...
• There was ONE pizza stand for food. They had quite a long line needless to say. 
• Safety was kind of lax. The kids were allowed to climb all over the tanks, rappel down a tower, run across a rope bridge, do an obstacle course, sail in a boat and pretty much anything else short of igniting a flare. 

Hadden went crazy. He and Clara got to sit on a Guardia di Finanza motocicli, sit in a GdF super-fast boat, sit in a helicopter (GdF again), get AMI (Aeronautica Militare Italiana - air force) posters of their planes and get in the driver's seat of a Esercito Italiano (army) armored personnel carrier. He was even wearing his Lazio shirt, which elicited some excited conversation among the AMI guys (we believe they were Lazio fans). They asked him a bunch of stuff in Italian (not believing that any tourists would be there) and he answered with "Forza Roma!" Which is the worst thing your could say. It would be like a Sox fan asking who your favorite Red Sox player is and you answer "Go Yankees!" (while wearing a Sox shirt). 

It is so cool to be in the driver's seat! Of a boat!

Hadden, the AMI pilot.

Clara doing her best T. Cruise impersonation.

Hadden on top of an armored personnel carrier with another Italian kid.

The quite small away team cheering section for Parma at the Lazio game. It's not that far to travel from Parma. Perhaps they just don't have that many fans. At least we can say that they won't be harassed by any nearby Lazio fans.

Later that day Yvonne and I went to a Lazio vs. Parma game while the kids stayed home with Ginny, the awesome babysitter. Lazio won 1-0 on an 84th minute goal. Yvonne had "un cafe" before the game at the one single refreshment stand that was open. 

Yvonne sporting her Lazio scarf. 

Museo di Vaticano

On Wednesday afternoon Yvonne and I went to the Vatican Museum while the kids once again hung out with Ginny (whom they love!). It's a rather large museum with LOTS of stuff. Pretty much the spaces are jam packed. Highlights only:

• Statue of cousin Cole.
• Sistine chapel (ceiling and alter wall by Michaelangelo). They walls were painted by other famous guys of their time but compared to Michaelangelo's stuff, they sucked. 
• Raphael's "School of Athens" where he painted the great Greek philosophers and math/science guys on the wall of a pope's office. He used likenesses of current artists for all the famous Greek guys (e.g., da Vinci was Plato). Even put himself in the painting. 
• Serious downer Santa Claus - in a Raphael room that was actually painted by his students...it wasn't as good as his stuff.

I even had a beer in the courtyard when we were done. Gotta love the Catholic Church for that - alcohol tolerance. I don't think you can have a beer inside the LDS headquarters in Salt Lake City. At least not one they serve you.

Cousin Cole in the Vatican Museum.

Naked Cousin Cole! Actually, Cole has a better physique. 

One of the more elite parking lots in the world - inside the Vatican Museum.

Raphael's School of Athens.

That's Raphael (just out of camera shot in the previous photo) looking out at the crowd. Sweet beard.

After "Raffy" went next door to the Sistine Chapel and saw the stuff Michaelangelo was doing he was seriously impressed. So much so that he went back into his "School of Athens" fresco and added one more guy in the front - Michaelangelo. Cool boots. 

This is a serious "downer Santa Claus" in the last Raphael Room. He's naked being carried out by his son.  Actually he's Aeneas' father being carried out by Aeneas from a fire in Rome. But you've got to wonder why he was naked except for a red Santa cap when his son came and got him. "Dad, get out of the shower...Rome's on fire and we've got to leave NOW!"
"Wait, let me get my Santa hat first."
This is NOT jolly old St. Nick.

The Crucifixion of the Grinch. This is what happened after the Church elders got a hold of him. After all, he DID try and steal Christmas. Whooville got its revenge. 

Beer me...Vatican style.

Villa Adriana

Went to Emperor Hadrian's villa outside of Tivoli on Thursday. He built a "modest" 120 hectare villa to pass the time. Like most Roman stuff it has been significantly plundered but lots of stuff still stands. It sucks getting there. We took a taxi to the Ponte Mammolo metro stop/bus station and then took the regional COTRAL bus to a remote stop, walked 1/2 km and finally got there. First, the Mammolo bus terminal rivals any shitty Greyhound terminal in the U.S. Why is it that intercity buses and terminals are always smelly pits? You get off at the correct stop and there are about two signs that guide you only part of the way to this UNESCO world heritage site. Then...you're on your own. Start asking locals. Anyway, the time there was pretty good (great day for it even if it was in lieu of the kids' naps). At least the tortuous flow path to get there thinned out the crowds. Took a cab all the way back for 60 Euros rather than repeat the bus nightmare. 

Villa Adriana's Maritime Theater. It was not a theater but there was a water pool around a central island where he hung out. Hadden's highlight of the visit was the tourist here that let him feed some bread to the talapia-like fish in the pond. Yuck.

What a roman bath house looks like just before its roof collapses. 

Cute Clara climbing on the ruins.

Pompeii

I went to Pompeii on Friday to check it out for the Engineering Rome class I am planning. Yvonne and kids went to the zoo for the day. I think I made it all the way to Pompeii (150 miles) faster than it took us to get to Villa Adriana (15 miles). Took the 40 Express from just around the corner to Termini Station. At 6:30 am there is only one other person on the bus. During normal hours this bus is packed like a Japanese train at rush hour. Took the Frecciarossa ("fast train") to Napoli. Beautiful, clean, non-smelly (a super plus) Euro train that took on 1:07 go get to Napoli. Took the local from Napoli to Pompeii Scavi (35 minutes) and I was there. Even got 45 minutes of paper-writing for work done on the Frecciarossa. Spent 3 hours touring Pompeii. Highlights in pictures below. 

Looking down main street in Pompeii from the Forum. The three big blocks there are traffic obstructions to keep you from driving your chariot into the forum. 

Some original Roman lead pipes. Only a nerd would photograph this...five times.

Evidence of a really old paving job. In the background you can see deep chariot ruts but in the foreground they're gone. The interpretation by the guidebook is that this street was being repaved in 79 AD when Vesuvius blew and buried Pompeii. For the record, it appears that when the ruts get to be about 6 inches deep, it's time to repave. 

A fresco from the brothel in the bad part of town. You can tell your kids that these two are "wrestling". The interpretation here is a primative "menu" of services. There are two other frescos depicting different menu items.

Yvonne's day off

Today, Yvonne "took the day off" and did he own thing all day (museum, shopping, enoteca, etc.). The rest of us went to the usual park in the former moat of Castel Sant'Angelo for 1.5 hours and then took the 116 over to Pizza Zaza for lunch. Best Pizza a Taglio (pizza by the slice, more or less) I've had. We've now been there 3 times. Then, gelato after lunch that we ate in the Piazza dei Rotonda in front of the Pantheon. Yvonne went to a museum and had lunch at an Enoteca (wine bar). Then went shopping. Get this: SHE DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING. "What?" you're saying. I know. Go figure. There are still several days to make up for this. 

Ciao,

Steve