Two Weeks of Adventures - on the Far Side of the World from Beirut!

Welcome to the Summer! Here we are! Back in Washington State visiting family, going to the lake and seeing places and people with a new appreciation! After being here for two weeks we haven't seemed to slow down very much.  Here are some pictures of just a few of our adventures so our friends on the "Far Side of the World" can see where we are from!

The girls and I went on a walk at Boulevard Park in Bellingham with my sister and niece. It was a beautiful day!

This is my wonderful sister, Libby. 

As you can see, the beaches here are rocky but still great places to go.

There is a wonderful walkway along the water. Not quite the Corniche in Beirut but still beautiful in it's own way.

A little goofy here. I think they were getting wet. My sister, Libby, my niece, Audrey, and Delaney and Janna.

Cousins, sitting on the grass and just talking. Quality time.

We then went to the other side of the mountains to Eastern Washington.  It reminded me more of Lebanon because it was warmer but it still was nice to not have the humidity.

We visited Grandpa Jack. Hmm, Delaney is being awefully hopeful. I think she will have to wait a couple of years.

 And then we were off to the lake!

It's wonderful to be with the ones we love AND in the water!

Elijah was pushing is Dad into the water. Too bad he got pulled in too!

J caught 10 rainbow trout and one bass.  We watched the "master" fillet them for him.  Thanks again Mike!

Playing games with new friend and family.  It was a hot day but cloudy so it was bearable.

Nice selfie!

More games

More attitude!

On our way out of town, we stopped at Dry Falls to get our yearly picture of the kids.  

We then went up into the mountains to a town called Leavenworth. In the past, Leavenworth was a dying town. In order to save the town they made it look Bavarian and it is now fun place to go and see it's style.

On our way to breakfast.

Yes, waffle with blueberries and whipped cream, bacon, yes, bacon and an egg. One happy girl!

Biscuits and Gravy for this one. Of course, she had bacon as well!

This is the local park

 We then went for a walk at the Riverside Park. What a beautiful place.

This is a man made lake to help Steelhead grow and return to the river. 

The girls along the Wenatchee River.

Our beautiful trail

On our way out of town we stopped at a dam along the highway before going back over to the west side of the mountains.

We then went over Steven's Pass and stopped at Deception Falls.

Along the water

I added this picture because this is the type of forest I grew up with.  To me, pictures like this will always remind me of my childhood. 

The falls were really loud and we were getting wet!

The falls seem to go up and up....

and up...

And up!

This was the view from the bridge looking down.

We will have more summer adventures to show later. I hope this gives you all more of an idea of where we are from (if you don't know Washington).

A "Week Without Walls" in Lebanon

Yes, it has been a long time since a blog post but with the school year winding down we have been VERY busy!!

Week Without Walls is something I had never run into until teaching overseas. It is an opportunity for students to get away from the classroom and learn in a different way.  While our 8th graders were in Sri Lanka, our 7th graders were in Armenia, and most of our 6th graders (including Tim and Delaney) were in Turkey, I was here with the students who did not travel outside of Lebanon.  This also allowed Janna to experience a little bit of the activities because we did a camping trip for one night.

I was quite excited to see more of Lebanon and also get the chance to be with some great students and staff.

Here are some pictures of our activities that week!

The first day, we went to a nature reserve called Jabal Moussa.  We hiked down the Roman stairs there. It was quite steep but what a beautiful view!

 

Janna was quite a trooper

 

What a view!

We walked down into the town and went past this newly renovated church.  The new bell tower was beautiful!

We then went up a little into the mountains to Chahtoul Camp.  There was no electricity and we were in tents but what a beautiful location! The kids were able to rock climb and repel, zip line and try some archery. Here are some fun pictures!

Janna and I in our tent

Janna and I getting ready to do the zip line. She was pretty nervous!

There were some neat rock outcroppings to climb all around the camp.

A beautiful view.

Janna trying rock climbing. She went a little ways then came back down.

Our future archer.....

Me and my friend and colleague, Joumana.

The clouds rolled into the valley below us.

My favorite picture of the view from the camp.

The next day we went to a place called "Rio City". This is where the kids got to take a driver's exam and learn to drive golf carts.  Now Janna can drive Grandpa Jack around the golf course!

Watch the road!

She had a very nice instructor that knew a little English.

The next day we went to a local beach to do some clean up.  Since it was very sunny and about 95 degrees we only worked for about three hours.  Sadly, we were only able to clean a small part of the beach but it still felt good to use a shovel again!

We would shovel sand onto the screen to get the small stuff. The sift out the sand.

This is what we were removing. The whole beach was full of the stuff. Very sad. We ended up taking away a large yard sized garbage bag full of the stuff though. You could tell where we had been.

One of the highlights of the week for me was going on a tour of a UN ship in port.  The Bangladeshi Naval Ship Osman welcomed us in true Bangladeshi form.  The people seemed to have this "aura" of gentleness around them. We took pictures of them while they took pictures of us.  They left to return to Bangladesh this week. I wish them safe sailing!

Other colleagues of mine, Jeremy and Wassam were on the tour as well. Notice the Bangladeshi flag behind them.

The U.N. Flag next to the Lebanese flag.

Gunnery men.

Just a fun picture of Wassam.

Overall, it was a wonderful week with great students and friends!