Space Shuttle Moves Through Town

This is a great short film of quite an endeavor to move The Endeavor to its new home at the California Science Center. What an exciting time for the city of Los Angeles. We have tickets to view the shuttle on November 4th at the science center. Can't wait!

http://framework.latimes.com/2012/10/15/time-lapse-video-space-shuttle-endeavours-trek-across-l-a/

Chance of a Lifetime for a Space Geek

On Friday, Glen and I watched the Space Shuttle Endeavor pass by on a 747 from Long Beach, CA on its way to LAX. I was thrilled and touched. It was fun to be with masses of people all excited to see this historic technology fly by. An amazing moment. An amazing scene. I had arrived about 9:45 and waited until around 12:30. This video is exactly what I saw from my vantage point outside the Queen Mary. In fact, from the ground shots included, this photographer must have been standing very close to me.

I had a great time...until I tried to leave the parking lot. People had parked in red zone, double parked, and maxxed out the lot. No one could move. Meanwhile no one closed the parking lot, so visitors to the Queen Mary continued to pour in to the parking lot after the event and add to the chaos. I pulled my car back in to the nearest spot I could find, getting out of the stopped line of cars where I'd sat with my engine off for 20-minutes.

I went into the Queen Mary for lunch and to wait. Traffic was jammed for 2-hours. I sat outside in view of the parking lot from an upper level vantage point and watched cars in every lane not moving. About 2:45, I headed to my car and got home around 4:00, exhausted and frustrated. I talked to the front desk of the Queen Mary hotel and explained I was willing to pay the $5 but unwilling to pay a higher parking fee simply because I was unable to get out of the parking lot in a timely fashion. My contact at the desk gave me a room key to get out of the parking lot for free. That was a nice gesture. No, it was not activated to unlock a room -- or I certainly would have gone in for a nap to wake up after this nightmare.



Another lady wrote this comment on Yelp. I appreciate the fact that I was not the only one wondering where the parking lot management was on Friday afternoon. From what she said, they made a killing at $15/car and I got wonderful understanding from the hotel staff by getting the room key to park for free. Here is what she wrote:

"Enjoyed watching the space shuttle about one hour later.   Time to go home.........then the nightmare begins. The parking lot was full.   I guess to be expected considering all the exhibits and the Space Shuttle.   Everyone seemed to be leaving at the same time.   Nobody thought in advance to collect the parking fee upon entering the lot.  What happened was what appeared to be thousands of people trying to leave the lot at the same time and having to pay on the way out.  This uncalled for traffic jam left all of us sitting in our cars for over one hour without moving at all.  A complete gridlock.   People were honking, yelling,  walking around just angry.   It took one hour before someone took control and had employees start directing traffic and collecting the parking fees way in advance of the gate.  I could only thank God that this were not an emergency situation.  I am also offended that after such a huge screwup on the part of parking management, they still insisted on collecting their $15.   Why didn't you just open the _ _ _ _  gates and let these people out? An extremely poor ending to a very nice day."

Scandinavian Heritage Village Visit

Gol Stave Church (Norway)

Glen & Cindi spent a week on vacation, visiting South Dakota, North Dakota, and taking Amtrak from Minot, ND to Seattle, WA. These photos are from Minot's Scandinavian Heritage Park, featuring buildings and statues and fountains that are tributes to various Scandinavian countries. It was in the 90's that day, so we rushed through in honor of the Peterson Swedish heritage, and the fact that there wasn't much else to do in Minot.

Dala Horse (Sweden)

Dala Horse (Sweden)

Hans Christian Anderson & Windmill (Norway)

http://www.scandinavianheritage.org/tour.htm

Petersons at the wedding

Uncle Brad Peters sent Steffi and me his DVDs of pictures from the wedding.  Before we get them all processed on our side of things, here's a picture of all the Petersons who were present.

Thanks for coming!
 :)

The Newlyweds

Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. Daniel Wilson

Invocation

A student took this photo of me at Whittier College Commencement ceremonies where I was invited to pray the invocation including the Quaker moment of silence last week. It was a great day to see some of the students who became friends and meet their parents. President Herzberger said some very nice things about me. Cindi and I got to eat dinner at Wardman House, Whittier College President's residence the evening before.

Välkommen

Welcome to the blog, Steffi! We were getting a little bland and needed you to spice up the blog. Since you'll be changing your name, we won't need to change the title of the blog to include Hydanus (unless everyone wants to see the whole family's incorporation to the blog).

 "Välkommen" is Swedish for "welcome."

Popcorn is good for you! But we all knew that already.

Summer wedding

You are all invited to the June 23 wedding of Daniel Wilson and Stephanie Hydanus, at Foothill Bible Church in Upland, CA, 2pm sharp. But even if you don't make it for the ceremony, you might make it for the cake & punch reception afterward.

You'll probably see your invitations in your hands in the next few weeks. But you can email danielandsteffi@yahoo.com to let us know if you're coming or not. I would love to see all human members of the blog there! The church's address is 1330 W. 15th Street, Upland CA 91786.

And they lived ever increasingly like their Lord ever after.

Hey everyone. I love you all!