Some More Catch up: The Hot Springs

We went to some hot springs about 2 hours out of town in May with some of our foreign friends.

the drive there

the inside pool

underwater picture....it was super hot.  i wouldn't have done that.
in fact aaron didn't even get underwater when he took this picture, he just put the camera below the water.
smart man.

the wind blew the steam off of the outside pool 

another picture of the outside pool.

Lock the door first

This is what bliss looks like in my life right now:


Stacy surprised me and bought us a dart board, which is something I have wanted to have since I was a little kid. However, growing up with a number of younger siblings, my parents (wisely) opted to never equip us with sharpened, handheld arrows, lest eyes be lost.

So, alas, these 29 years have been spent wanting and wanting. And now, my dreams have become a reality.


You may notice the note written in Sharpie: Lock the door first. See, this is the door to our room, which we often go in and out of, and the last thing I wanted was to send a dart right into the face of an unwitting victim who opens the door just as I let one fly. So we have a new family policy: darts = locked doors.



I hate to say this, but I have been dominating my wife. Some of the beatings I have dished out have almost been criminal. I guess 29 years of desire is flowing out in the form of unfettered dominion.

Luther

I know that the last post was highly Calvinist, and I promise I'm not on a Reformation kick - this post has nothing to do with Martin Luther.

It has everything to do with John Luther.

He is the main character of a BBC tv show called "Luther." It's a pretty fantastic show, you don't know what you're missing. Unless you've seen it, in which case you're not missing it.

Season 3 comes out in September, and the great thing about the seasons of Luther is that they are only like 4 episodes long, so it's more like watching a movie than a tv series.

Plus, it stars Idris Elba, who is all-around tops (as they say in the UK). I'm a huge fan. Him making a Mumford & Sons video certainly didn't hurt his already strong case. But I digress...

Chief End

This was the cornerstone of the church where my brother Micah and his wife Virginia got married last summer. I grabbed a photo because it is one of the simplest and most powerful phrases I know.

For those of you who grew up Presbyterian, you might recognize it as the first lines from the Westminster Catechism.

Beautifully put.

Apology

So, about a month ago, I decided that our blog was barely holding onto life and needed to be revived. Plus, I like being outlandish.

Unfortunately, a few days after I firmly made that resolve, I poured water into my computer. And it turned about pretty much like you would expect.

This is pretty much what happened

Thus, now Stacy and I are sharing a computer (not that big a deal) and I am trying to run a travel website. The result is lots of sharing computer time and not a lot of time to blog. 

Apologies. I promise it hasn't slipped our mind.

Doing what I do. Haberdashery style.

Today, I decided to do something I've always wanted to do. I made myself a bow tie.

In light of the upcoming O'Hare-Peterson Nuptials and a quick trip scheduled to the US right around the 4th of July, it seemed only fitting to turn a pair of American flag boxers that I had into a patriotic summer bow tie. (Don't judge, the boxers were completely clean)

So many things I love, encapsulated in one (incredibly classy) piece of garb.

Here's another shot, in case you missed it:

Fear Itself

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." - FDR

In case you've ever wanted to see what it looks like for someone to stare fear in the face, treat yourself to the pictures below. 

My wife has a fear of heights, but that didn't stop her from doing a technical climb at over 12,000 feet with me earlier this week. At times we were walking on a ridge less than 1 foot wide, with sheer drop-offs of hundreds of feet on either side.

Oh, what's that? A cliff face, a 3-foot wide trail, and
a 125-foot drop?

Another trail, another cliff face. And I'll be honest, the overwhelming brown tone of the landscape really doesn't do
a justice to just how extreme this climb was. Wisely, Stacy opted not to face out while traversing.

Fear? Please. Stacy came to party.

Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong

Hong Kong is a weird entity - it is considered a city, or a "special administrative region" by the Chinese government, but it is actually composed of one main island (Hong Kong Island), a peninsula on the Chinese mainland, and a number of outlying islands. One of those outlying islands is called Cheung Chau, and is home to a small fishing village and not much else (a completely different feel than the teeming crowds on the peninsula and HK island). We took a day trip to check it out.

On the "gangway" (?)

Waiting for the ferry

As I said, it's primarily a fishing island.

A traditional fishing boat

The harbor had a boat or two in it...

The main thoroughfare in the village

The island is too small for cars
and trucks, so everyone rides these
tricycles or small motorcycle carts

Hong Kong the Bustling

We just spent the last two weeks in Hong Kong, which, I must say, was fantastic. There are so many good restaurants and so much fun stuff to do there, plus the city has a really interesting cultural feel to it. There's a strong British/colonial feel going on but that has not in any way diminished the intensely Chinese character of the city, either.

On top of all that, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated area in the world, which made for a lot of crowds and commotion, though in typical Hong Kong fashion, they all move efficiently and in an orderly manner.

The MTR (subway) cars are almost always packed out.

As are the subway stations:

So are the streets, walkways, and public areas:

There are still places to get away from the madness. Stacy and I found those, too.

Hiking on Hong Kong island

Gentiana Update #2

I know that many of you are currently wrapped up the in the unfolding saga of "the flowers Aaron dug up on a mountaintop that he's failing at transplanting in an empty Coke can."

Well, here's the latest.

We were traveling for 2 months during January and February, leaving my beautiful(y nonexistent) Gentiana Phyllocalyx unattended for way too long. However, Mrs. O'Hare didn't raise no fool and my brother is an engineer, so I figured out a way to take care of my "flowers" while I was gone: I put them in a bowl, in a sink, and left it dripping at an interval of 1 drip every 7 seconds. Seems reasonable, right?

Upon our return, I was pleasantly surprised to find that some kind soul had a) broken into our room, and b) turned off the drip. Thanks, eco-friendly cat burgler. Thus, I have been forced to baby my flowers back to life.

At this point, I still have no idea if the flowers themselves have survived this 6 month harrowing saga of transplantation, but I can say with confidence that whatever grass/weed seeds were in the can have continued to grow with a healthy disrespect for the plants I'm actually trying to grow. Here is the current reality: