PCTELA 2017

What a difference a year makes!  Last year at this time I was was a bit frantic because I was chair for the 2016 PCTELA Conference.  Was everything set at the Penn Stater?  Would we have a good turn out? Would my speakers arrive in time?  Would things run smoothly?

This year someone else is in charge.  All I have to do is show up and enjoy the conference, which I plan to do.  This year’s chairs have put together what is sure to be an exciting conference.

We will be in Pittsburgh this year so it will be a bit of a drive.  The title for the conference is “Acquiring Advocacy: Overcoming Obstacles, Promoting Partnerships, and Cultivating Dignity”.  

Our co-chairs have lined up some great speakers.  Starting off the conference will be two of my friends, one of who just had her second book published.  Our first speaker is Jason Griffith  whose first book, From Me to We: Using Narrative Nonfiction to Broaden Student Perspectives, was published in Fall, 2016 by Routledge.  Joining him on stage will be Jennie K. Brown, whose second book in the Poppy Mayberry series was just released.

We are really excited about our lunch featured speaker, Laurie Halse Anderson.  How exciting!  I am really looking forward to hearing her.I am sure I am not alone in this.

Our conference ends on Saturday with Kylene Beers & Bob Probst.  I know others who have heard them speak and they were really impressed by them

Intersperse these speakers with break out sessions featuring best practices form many teachers, include some stimulating round table discussions and this year’s PCTELA Conference is sure to be a winner.

Although I enjoyed the opportunity to chair a state-wide conference, I am glad someone else is doing it this year.  I know it will be an exciting and informative weekend.

 

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Oaks 2017

One of the things that we enjoy about September is that the annual Quilt Extravaganza is held the third weekend of the month out at Oaks, which is near Philadelphia.  Of course we go.  Kathy really likes the vendors that come to this show.  I like the buffet they serve at lunch.  What can I say.

The quilts on display are more artsy than traditional as you will see.  Quilts from other countries are also displayed.

Having just been to Australia, the quilts from that country grabbed our attention.  For anyone who likes to ride a carousel, this one won for best use of color.

This is one of the more traditional looking quilts on display.

I happen to like big cats.

Imagine cutting all of these small pieces.

At first I thought this was a vet until I read the sign.

So in love but separated by life circumstances. Hope they are going to the same place.

The quilting on this one was amazing.

Loved this one from South Africa.

This year one artist was showcases.  All of these quilts were made by the same person.  I think you can figure out what kind of quilt she enjoys.

These I just liked.

What a nice birthday present.

Again, I just liked this.

Another Australian quilt.

And one more from South Africa.

Not all vendors sell quilting supplies.  I was able to do some early Christmas shopping for Kathy.

I just hope I don’t forget where I put it for safe keeping when it is time to wrap it.

Well, this is the last big quilt show in our area until March of next year when it is back to Lancaster.  There might be another local guild show before then.  If there is you can be sure we will be there.

Our Own Island

Have things ever gotten so crazy that you wished you could escape to a deserted island for a day?  That is exactly what we had a chance to do – sort of.  As I said last week, our stop on Fiji was strictly for R & R.  Our last full day exemplified this.  Our guide signed us up for a Captain Cook tour where we and everyone else on the ship would spend the full day on a deserted island.  Ours would be the only ship docking there.  Lunch would be served on the island.  There would be swimming and snorkeling.  A glass bottom boat ride was also part of the deal.

We headed to the dock about 8:30 to get our tickets and a seat under the canopy, since the sun was hot that day.

The boat ride was about an hour. On the way an English tea was served.  The crew also entertained us with songs.

Our island was waiting for us.

We finally arrived.

“Bula” is the standard greeting on Fiji.  It simply means :hello”.  The first thing we did was go on the glass bottom boat ride since the boat was right there.  While we did this our guide went off to claim one of the cabins for our group.  That way people could shower after swimming if they wanted to.

The ref at this point couldn’t compare to the Great Barrier Reef so I didn’t get good pictures.  However, it was still interesting.

Here is our section of the beach.

Some people enjoyed the water.

Since Kathy and I both burn and I have been warned by my dermatologist to stay out of the sun, we found a nice tree shaded spot where we sat and enjoyed the view and a nice breeze.  I also had my Kindle with me so I got some peaceful reading time is as well.

A few shots of the island.

We were also at a good spot to see what we would be having for lunch.

Of course, it looked and tasted better once it was cooked.  It was really delicious.

Of course there were salads and other things to go along with the fish.

On the way back we were served more tea and had more entertainment.  Kathy is just enjoying the trip.

Here you can see where the island was in relation to where we were.

Our last day on Fiji wasn’t a full one since we had an evening flight back to Los Angeles.  We spent the day roaming around our resort and sitting on the open porch enjoying the scenery.

Around 2:00 we thought we would go get some lunch.  The food at the resort was delicious.  Here we are sitting waiting for the food to be served.

Since it is an open air restaurant we did have some company.

The waiters did their best to shoo them, but it was a lost cause.

Well, this brings our Australia, New Zealand, Fiji adventure to a close.  What a lifetime of memories.  Thank you for revisiting our trip with me.

R & R on Fiji

Our tour of Australia and New Zealand was over.  We could have come home, but we decided to add on the Fiji extension.  It was kind of billed as R & R following the trip.  I am so glad we went to Fiji because it was just what we needed.  Being on the go constantly, three days of peace and quiet sounded wonderful.

We left our Tour guide at the Aukland airport and flew to Fiji.  She did not travel with us and we would be getting a new guide once we landed.

As with most of our plane trips this also took 3 hours which meant that we were now three hours closer to home as well.  We landed at the Nadi (pronounced Nandi – I know there is no”n” in the spelling but that is how it is pronounced).  We met Dan, out guide, and headed to our hotel.  Of course it was an ocean front resort.

Here are some pics of the resort .

On our first full day, Dan took us on a tour of a local market.  We were set to have a Fijian feast on the beach that night so he wanted us to see some of what we would be served.

After the marked tour we went to visit a traditional Fiji village.  We were greeted by the men during a welcoming ceremony.  We had to pick a chief and a spokesman from our group to participate in the ceremony.  This included learning the greeting, learning how to clap (not what we think of as normal clapping), and the drinking of kava when it was offered.  My friend, Bill, was picked as chief and I was asked to be spokesman.  We both agreed and our guide took us through the ceremony.

Here are the men of the village in the meeting room.

Luckily, we were given chairs.  I am glad because I am not sure I could have gotten up gracefully we we had to sit on the floor.  Bill and I learned our parts and all went well.  Because of this ceremony, we can now go back any time and be considered members of the village.

I do want to say one thing about the kava.  It is a kind of grain mixed with warm water and served in a coconut shell.  My opinion, it looks like muddy water and tastes like it as well.  Being the spokesman I had to finish it without making a face.  Hard to do but I did it.

After the meeting we got a tour of the village.  It started with a coconut demonstration.  We were shown how to split a coconut.  We were given straws to taste the coconut milk. We were also given coconut to sample.  There were two kinds, brown and green.

A tour of the grounds followed.

Each village contains a church.  At this particular village it is a Methodist Church.

This section of the church is reserved for the chief and the children.  Children sit with the chief as a way of behavior control during services.

That night we had dinner on the beach and were served some of the items we had seen at the market that morning.

After dinner we were provided with entertainment .

This ended our first day on Fiji.  I know it seems like a lot of going, but the pace was so nice and slow that it was relaxing.

Next week we will bring this trip to an end.  Finally!

Finishing Up New Zealand

We had a few more stops to make before we left New Zealand.  One was at a Kiwi Preserve.  We were not allowed to take pictures of the kiwi so what follows were taken at the exhibit.  I knew what a kiwi looked like, but I had never seen one.  I was surprised by their size.  They are about the size of a chicken. They are nocturnal creatures because that is the safest time of day for them to be out and about.  Less predators lurking about.  There are different types of kiwi, which I didn’t know.

As I said, these are not live kiwi, but display models.

You can see an egg in the middle picture.  As you can imagine, they are a good size.

After leaving the kiwi Preserve, we headed north to Auckland, our last stop in New Zealand. However, on the way we did make one more stop.  We were in New Zealand.  How could we not stop at the place Peter Jackson filmed the Hobbit movies? Yes, we stopped at Hobbiton.  I must admit that I had never read The Hobbit until about two weeks before our trip.  I did, however, read the Lord of the Rings trilogy many years ago and really got into it.  I was excited about this stop.

The scenery and views were magnificent.  I can see why this spot was picked for the movies.

Let’s stare with Bilbo’s Hobbit Hole.

Of course, since this was a community there were other dwellings as well.

When is a tree not a tree?  Peter Jackson was not happy with a tree that was on site so he had this tree made.  It is not a real tree, but one that had been constructed for maybe a 10 second shot in just one movie.  Genius or insane?  You decide.

Notice the wash on the line.

The tour of Hobbiton ended with a stop at the Green Dragon for a free drink: ale, hard cider, or soft drink.

Here are just some pics of the countryside.

OK, so Kathy and I got into one of the pictures as well.

Since we started with Bilbo’s home let’s end with Sam’s.

We left here and made our way to Auckland. We had two days here.  One day we went, where else, to a winery: Peacock Sky Vineyards.  I guess it got its name because it was at the top of a hill.

This large chess set got my attention.

Of course there was wine tasting.

As I said, we were at the top of a hill.  Check out these  views.

 

The last we did in Auckland was visit the Sky Tower.

This gave us a bird’s eye view of the city.

Our tour coordinator, who doesn’t have a fear of heights was not comfortable up here.  She held on for dear life. Her fear was that if everyone came to this side of the tower to watch the bungee jumper –  yes, you could bungee jump from the tower – the tower would lean an fall over.

One thing I thought was neat was that they had clear inserts in the floor around the inside perimeter so that you could see what was directly beneath you.

Since it was getting dark when we left the tower I just couldn’t resist this parting shot.

This ends our Australia/ New Zealand trip.  On the way home we stopped at Fiji for some R & R.  More about that next week.

The North Island

We were set to leave the south island and move on to the north island, Rotoura to be exact.  However, there was a problem.  We had rain the day we were to fly out and flights to Rotoura were cancelled.  This caused a bit of a problem for our tour guide since there were things she had planned.  The one thing she really wanted us to get to was the Maori Cultural Village and Hangi (Feast).  So, our guide frantically went about trying to get us booked on another flight.

Finally she succeeded. However, our flight would now take us into Auckland which is several hours from Rotoura and Erika still wanted us to get to the Village and feast.  Our bus was waiting for us when we arrived in Auckland and we drove to the village.  Erika knew that we wouldn’t make it for our scheduled time, but we would still be able to see some of it and attend the Hangi.

The village was set up as a series of stations where we were taught something different about Maori culture at each one.  Because of our timing we were only able to get to two.  At the first one we were taught a traditional Maori game.  Thank goodness for Bonnie.  She is game for anything so she agreed to participate in the game.

As you can see, the game involved throwing and catching sticks.  However, there was a pattern that had to be followed.  I know I am not coordinated enough to do it.

At the second station we were told how the Maori fight and try to intimidate their enemies.

Right before the meal we were shown where the food was cooked. For a feast, food is placed in the ground and cooked for most of the day.

The cloth is covering the cooking pit.  Here you can see some of the cooked vegetables and meat.

While the food was removed from the pit and readied for the meal, we were treated to some entertainment.

It was then on to the food.

The food was delicious.  I have never had pavlova before even though I knew what it was.  Didn’t take any pictures, though.  Sorry.  Here’s an internet picture.

Next week a visit to Hobbiton.

Milford Sound

Before we left Queenstown we had one more planned excursion and a day on our own.  Let’s do the excursion first.

After breakfast on our second day in Queenstown we boarded our bus for a trip to Milford Sound.  It was a several hour trip and we passed some magnificent vistas on the way.

First of all we had to go through a mountain pass.  The story goes that when the road was being built there was no way to get over the mountain so they had to blast through it.  It is hard to tel from these photos, but you might be able to see the winding road we took’

We stopped partway down for some pictures.  Here you can see the tunnel entrance.

Just a spectacular view.

Yes, that is the road we traveled.

We traveled a bit farther and then stopped here.  The sigh explains it all.

I posted pictures of this spot several weeks ago, but I think they bear repeating.

The reflected images just blew my mind.

And one more.

On to Milford Sound.  Our boat was waiting for us.

Milford Sound heads out to the Tasman Sea which separates New Zealand and Australia.  Our ride took us the entire length of the sound and into the Tasman Sea where we turned around to head back to port.

This picture just proves that I was on the boat.

We did get up close and personal with a waterfall.

Wait, that’s not really close.  How about these.

I chose not to stand where I would get wet.

We came across some seals that were sunbathing.

It was really an enjoyable day.  As you can imaging, we were tired and many of us old fogies fell asleep  during the bus ride back to our hotel.

A quick bit about out last day in Queenstown.  It was a free day.  I hate to say it but Kathy and I spent the morning doing laundry.  Hey, when you are gone for 24 days clothes need to be washed and reworn.  There is only so much suitcase space.

When we were finished, though, we decided to take a walk around town.  We hit a few gift shops because I needed some gifts for family members.  Then it was time for lunch.  Our tour guide told us that one of THE places to eat in Queenstown was Fergburgers.  Yes, it is a hamburger joint, but what a burger.

The place itself is small.  There are maybe three tables in the place and a few counter seats.  The building is narrow.  People, however, are line up on the street just to get in and order a burger.

We joined the line. The burger was worth it.

Yes, there is a burger in there and it is the size of a dinner plate.  Hard to tell from this picture.

After we ate we took a slow, and I do mean slow, walk back to our hotel.  Along the way we stopped for some pictures – imagine that.

Queenstown really is a beautiful city.  Next weer, the north islane