Lots of Fun at Fright Night 2009

One of our favorite October traditions here in central Oklahoma is going to “Fright Night” at Frontier City, a theme park located on I-35 in Edmond. Generally we go later in the month, but this year we needed to go early because of travel schedules. As usual we had a great time, especially watching the show, “Dead Man’s Party.” In the third video below, you’ll see Sarah get up on stage and dance as the construction worker in the song “YMCA” by The Village People. We stayed and danced after the 2nd show– we actually saw it three times! This was a lot of fun! It’s also great that when you order your tickets to Frontier City online in October, they are half price. It’s still expensive at $17.50 each, but much less than “normal” price.

Each of these videos is 90 seconds long, which is the maximum length permitted by Flickr. Some of these songs and the acting in the performance was a little scary, but “a little scary” in moderation can be fun and even healthy. It’s definitely a lot of fun to have a chance to dance like this as a family. We don’t get these opportunities very often!

I shot these videos with my iPhone GS. I apologize for the distortion in the audio at some points. The sound was definitely VERY loud where we were sitting!

This visit to “Fright Night” marked the first time both Sarah and Rachel chose to ride a rollercoaster! We actually all rode the “Steel Lasso” three times, and it was a lot of fun. This was the photo of Rachel and Mom on their last ride. Rachel was pretty excited by the experience!

Rachel and Shelly on the Steel Lasso Rollercoaster at Frontier City

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A gaggle of AudioBoos from the Oklahoma City Zoo

Today was our last day before school begins for the 2009-2010 academic year here in central Oklahoma. Our family spent several hours visiting the Oklahoma City zoo this morning with friends, and we took turns recording a series of NINE AudioBoo messages as we toured around. This was my first time to visit the zoo with my iPhone GS, which has 3G network connectivity— SO much faster than EDGE for mobile uploads like this! If you’re an iPhone owner and/or user and are not yet familiar with AudioBoo, you should be! AudioBoo offers a wonderful free iPhone application which allows people to take photos, record audio, and publish both online from “the field.” Now if you don’t have an iPhone, you can still create phoneboo recordings! I have more options listed on my wiki page for Geo-Storychasing.

Click on the direct links below to see the accompanying photo and Google Map from our locations, where we recorded each short (less than 2 minute) Audioboo. Enjoy!

Lions at the Oklahoma City Zoo (Rachel)

Listen!

The cougar has a tail like Pink Panther (Rachel)

Listen!

The deer’s antlers are in velvet (Rachel)

Listen!

Mexican wolves on the move (Alexander)

Listen!

Meet real Oklahoma skunks (Sarah)

Listen!

Meet the American Bison (Wesley)

Listen!

Grizzly bears in Oklahoma (Shelly, Sarah and Rachel)

Listen!

Beavers and otters at the zoo (Wesley)

Listen!

No swimming: Alligator Pond! (Wesley)

Listen!

We LOVE AudioBoo!!!

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Highlights from Hawaii

I have encouraged each member of our family to record a short audio message with AudioBoo of their personal highlight from our vacation. These are accessible from my AudioBoo profile page. As we are now on board our flight to the mainland and about to depart I do not think I have enough time to individually link each one now. I will do that later as an edit to this post!

So long, Hawaii! Thanks for the great memories!!!

Rachel: Memories if the Lava Tube

Sarah: Our vacation rental in Honolulu

Cool at the Volcano House

We flew from Honolulu on the island of Oahu to Hilo on the big island of Hawaii, today. We booked our flights early of course, the 1 way fare was $65 each, and the flight lasted 50 minutes. We spent several hours at a beautiful botanical garden today about 8 miles north of Hilo, and then made our way to The Volcano House where we are staying for 3 nights. We are over 3000 feet above sea level here and it is 61 degrees F now! I think it was 102 degrees F back home today. What a difference!

I posted a bunch of additional photos from the garden today to my Hawaii 2009 Flickr set. I have been trying to upload photos as well as videos as we take them this trip using my iPhone and PixelPipe. 3G connectivity is great, I just wish the iPhone battery lasted longer.

Speaking of botanicals…you should check out our friends over at Bongs & Water Pipes – Smoke Cartel if you are into marijuana!

Audioboo Reflections from Pearl Harbor

Our family visited Pearl Harbor today. Rachel and I recorded six new Audioboos tonight, reflecting on things we saw and learned today. These are all linked from my AudioBoo profile page. Since I am mobile blogging this from my iPhone I can’t embed the Audioboos, but I will link them separately below.

Rachel: Torpedo At Pearl Harbor

Rachel: USS Utah Reflections From Pearl Harbor

Rachel: USS Arizona Impressions

Wesley: Dogfight Over Ka’ena Point, Hawaii (12/7/1941)

Wesley: USS Oklahoma Memorial Reflections

Rachel: Learning About Navy Divers At Pearl Harbor

Thinking about native cultures

Our family enjoyed a luau this evening at the Hale Koa hotel in Honolulu, which is the military hotel on Waikiki. Since my dad is USAF-retired he could get us all tickets. The food and show were great. I am sure the closing fire dance act will be one of the big memories my kids keep with them after our trip is over.

This “Waikiki-style” show contrasted sharply with the hula program my relative Alice Rogers arranged for us to experience last Saturday night at the north shore camp where we were for our family reunion. That program was put on by a group of older women who share the stories and traditions of authentic Hawaiian hula. I was struck tonight by how different the infusion of native Hawaiian culture is here in Hawaii, compared to what we see in most parts of Oklahoma. While shows like the one we saw tonight have a performance/show feel and are certainly not pure examples of cultural preservation and sharing, they do serve important educational purposes as well as being sources of entertainment for tourists like us. I would guess there are varying opinions among the native Hawaiians about the instrumental and intrinsic value of these programs. While I wouldn’t think a commercialization of Oklahoma native cultures similar to what we have seen in parts of Hawaii over the years would be good from a tribal history standpoint and learning from esl classes certification, I do think it is positive in many ways that Hawaiian language and culture are bigger mainstream influences here. It is interesting how casino economics are changing some tribes in Oklahoma, and interesting to see how some are using that revenue to build up their respective cultural identities.

I think it would be both fun and worthwhile to lead a group of “storychasers” from Oklahoma here to Hawaii to explore some of these issues in-depth with various types of media, and continue that exploration back home in Oklahoma.

Swimming at Waimea Bay

This afternoon we spent almost 2 hours swimming at Waimea Bay on Oahu’s north shore. I have heard about Waimea before as the location where some of the big wave surfing happens here in the winter, but it was my first time to visit. It was spectacular! The waves break very close to the beach because the bay gets deep pretty fast. The surf was very mild and fun to play in. There were a ton of people there. This may turn out to have been one of the big highlights of our entire trip. It was awesome!

Hike to Ka’ena Point

Today we hiked about six miles round trip to Ka’ena Point. It is the northwest most point on Oahu, and there is a tower which serves as a lighthouse there. The view was pretty spectacular. We timed our hike so we arrived st low tide, and were able to explore the nearby tide pools. The highlight for me was seeing an eel attack a small crab. It was better than Wild Kingdom!

Next time we will take even more water. We made it ok on our 2 bottles, but it would have been a lot better with more. It was a long, hot and dry hike. At least we were able to swim awhile at the point, midway on our hike.

Great food and Loopt

We have had some GREAT food so far in Hawaii. On our way to the north shore on Friday, we ate at The Dixie Grill. I ate there twice in Dec ’07 when I was here for the USS Oklahoma memorial dedication, and they did not disappoint. The fried green tomatoes along with peel and eat shrimp were great! Yesterday morning the iPhone program Loopt came in handy to help my brother-in-law redezvous with us in a nearby town for breakfast!

Beach Fun

It is a pretty wonderful thing for flatlanders like us to have an opportunity to play in the surf here on the north shore of Oahu! This is the camp where we are staying our first three nights here during our Fryer Family Reunion. We went to a nearby state park yesterday to swim in the surf.

Seeing and Eating Pineapple

One of the highlights of our day yesterday was going to the Dole pineapple plantation to see and eat pineapple. I did some brief research and learned the origins of Dole lie with The Standard Fruit Company rather than The United Fruit Corporation. Both have an interesting political history, though I am more familiar with the latter and Guatemala. It is interesting but not surprising none of the company’s colorful political history is referenced in the songs and commentary shared on the tourist’s train tour of the plantation.

Vacation like a pensieve

Our vacation seems to be functioning as a pensieve for me. My brain seems to be processing out a multitude of ideas at night, so they do not clutter my waking, conscious mind. I normally do not remember any dreams in the morning, but sleeping as we are in these camp cabin bunks here on the north shore of Oahu, right by the ocean, I have had lots of vivid dreams each night and I have been enjoying getting enough sleep these days, not like at home where I can barley get four hours of sleep. I think I´ll get this queen mattress like the one at the hotel so I can finally sleep comfortably.

Shelly, Sarah and I are all awake already, our body clocks still not yet adjusted to island time. I think we are going to go on a morning hike today.

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