Richard's Summer

Richard has returned to Logan to continue his education at Utah State University. He will be working at the campus library where he is getting a nice raise after working there last year.

Richard got to work at the the Sitka Raptor Rehabilitation Center where injured eagles and other birds are brought to get healthy for possible release back into the wild. Some can't be and are permanent residents. Richard was an interrupter... leading groups through the center. His natural abilities of being an entertainer worked to his advantage. Yeah, he still had to deal with the public... mostly tourists, but he enjoyed not only the work, but the friends he made. We saw very little of him as he was having dinner or just hanging out with his friends when not at work. Richard is planning to return to Sitka next summer and work there again. It is a combination of showmanship and teaching... both of which are part of who Richard is. This eagle is one of the permanent birds at the center. Richard could tell me its name, so I may up date this entry later with that.

More Traveling Harts

It seems like at least one of us always traveling. Meg will be coming home from camp on Sunday, Lori is leaving tomorrow for Utah/Idaho to attend some Weber State faculty meetings and see Anneka/Mike/Little Spud(now referred to as Samantha). Then right after Lori gets back I leave for California to help my mom get some things accomplished/arranged/done. Then a couple of weeks after I get back I leave again for a work trip. Lori is currently planning to be down at Anneka's when the baby is born to help out. We have no idea yet what the holidays will bring!!

Anna the New Hart

OK, so she hasn't changed her name to Hart, but she is fitting very will with us. If you are interested in our other AFS experiences go to my post from 8/9/06.

We are enjoying having Anna here. We have kept her busy which is important for her to get acclimated to things around here. Yesterday Charles and Lori took her up to Beaver Lake(see old post for info on this) for a hike. D'Artagnan had a great time swimming. We have had such great weather the past two weeks we are trying to take advantage of it.

Anna has jumped right in and is helping with dishes, setting the table, laundry, etc. She is now registered at school and will be doing drama and debate and maybe volleyball. Since there are 4 other AFS students here in Sitka she has been able to see them.

Hey, We're Parents Again!!

OK, this event comes in the form of an 18 year old young lady named Anna-Maria Muck... Anna for short. She joined our family late Saturday night (11 Aug) and will spend the next 10 months surviving the Hart household. Anna is an AFS exchange student from the Bavarian region of Germany(the south). Her town is less than 10 miles from Austria. She has very good English skills already. She is staying in Richard's room(since he will be away at school). We hadn't updated that room yet so Lori asked Anna by email what her favorite colors were...brown and orange... and I painted the room a nice milk chocolate brown with an orange ceiling. I built a desk for her and put a a carpet remnant down to make it quieter and cozier.

So WELCOME ANNA to Sitka and the Harts!!!

There and Back Again...A Hart Family Tale... Part 4 York, Church History

Our first adventure from Manchester was a day trip to York. With a long history from Romans to Vikings through the dark-ages to modern times York is a neat place. Both times I've been there it has been cool, blustery and cloudy. We were able to get into a free city tour. This is done by local volunteers who just love their town. Our guide could have been a hobbit. His York accent was cool and Charles enjoyed his explanations of word origins... how and why we have meanings today. We had dinner at a pub and 3 of us had fish and chips. We wandered around town a while just enjoying the oldness of the place. Lori and Meg got their first experience in having to pay to use a public toilet. 40 pence each (that's 80 cents) to relieve yourself. Charles and I had no problem... I guess they figure guys will just find a tree rather than pay. The York Minster is one of my favorite churches in England. Meg really enjoyed taking pictures with all the different angles and lightings available.

One minor reason for going to England for me was to allow Lori and the Kids to see a couple of LDS Church history sites. My 3rd great grandfather was an LDS Church leader named Heber C. Kimball. He was the first missionary from the church to go to Europe. Most of his time was spent in the north in the Preston/Liverpool area. One area of particular interest are the villages of Chatburn and Downham. These are near the town of Clitheroe. When we went through Clitheroe we visited the castle there. In Chatburn we had ice cream at Hudson's where 9 years ago I had ice cream with my mom and the Kimball Family group when we toured England. In Downham we visited an OLD church and wandered through this quaint village.

In the US we have signs on the road indicating that "Children Playing" or "Deaf Child", etc. Well, in England they take care of the old people with signs that say: "Elderly People" with a drawing of two old people stooped over. See the picture.

We went over to Preston where there is an LDS temple. During my first trip there I attended the open house for the temple as well as the services of dedication (when it is consecrated and closed to the public). One purpose of that trip with the Kimball group was to donate a portrait of Heber(our group's common grandfather) to the Church. It now is in the Missionary Training Center in Preston.

While in Preston we found a nice Indian place to eat. We drove one some narrow windy roads and got to see some great country side.

There and Back Again...A Hart Family Tale... Part 3 Rick's Reason/Manchester

The first "reason" we took this trip was so I could attend a contact lens conference and get some continuing education for my optometry license. In Alaska I am required to complete 36 hours of education in a 2 year period. Fortunately, SEARHC has a benefit for the medical staff which pays a certain amount each year for expences to attend. I can pick what ever I'd like. This trip took my whole allotment for this year... but it was worth it.

The BCLA(British Contact Lens Assoc.) has one of the biggest contact lens meetings in the world. They usually have it in a different city in England each year. This year was Manchester. There were over 1000 delegates...85 from the USA. The speakers were all world renowned and about half of the were from the States.

We had decided that since hotels would be expensive and we were staying in one area for a week that we would rent a flat. Here in Manchester we rented a "self-catering" unit, which turned out to be a condo. We had 2 bedrooms, kitchen, bath... We were able to buy groceries and cook meals there as well as keep milk, juice, etc. the frig. There was also a washer/dryer in the place which is always nice on a long trip. Strange unit though...the washer and dryer were the same appliance. It did take Lori a while to figure out how to go from one to the other.

The location turned out to be really nice... a 15 min. walk to the conference site. We were just down the street from a public library and the kids were able to used the computers there to check emails. I had it even better. One of the vendors at the conference set up a small internet cafe a the conference center with 6 computers. It was very convenient.

We were able to use Manchester as a "base-camp" for some side trips such as York, Preston, Chatburn. We did find a big mall and were able to replace our broken camera. We even took time to see a movie...Pirates 3.

Having a car was nice, but getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road was interesting. We had picked up the car at Heathrow Airport in London. Meg was my navigator and we got us to Manchester without too much difficulty. The problem was finding the flat... Almost all of the cars there were manual transmissions. A slight adjustment to shifting with the left hand while pedal were the same. I kept hearing this word in my head for 9 days...LEFT!!! Lori and Meg were very "kind" to remind me to not drive like an American. I didn't run anyone over and didn't hit another car, so I was pleased. Roundabouts while maybe efficient and too difficult were at times crazy and in places you didn't expect.

Since most English food is pretty bland, we avoided it except for the fish and chips. Meg was the only one who didn't since she eats no meat and Lori and Charles will eat fish. During this trip we probably had fish and chips over 10 times. Lori's goal was to get sick and tired of and she was sucessful by the end. We found Indian food which we all like and we had tapas(I'd never heard of these small portioned serving meals) at a Spanish place and an Italian place.