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Reynosa, Mexico Mission Trip

January 12, 2018 by Prem Leave a Comment

This past Christmas, our family had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico to build a small home for a family in need.
Here is a quick highlight video that summarizes our trip:

Our family met up with a group of 16 other people from a church in Kansas and headed down to Texas where we crossed the border into Reynosa, Mexico.
There, we met up with a much larger group of another 160 people made up of various teams from around the country. This was all organized by an amazing orginazation called Strategic Alliance (www.StrategicAlliance.org). The founders, Roland and Carolyn, have been going to Reynosa for 25 years. They’ve built up relationships in the community and go there to help build houses in this extremely poor part of the world. The community we got to serve has a large infrastructure built up around the nearby garbage dump where people scavange most of what they own. Most shelters are build from old pieces of plywood, bricks, tires, tarps, anything they could find.
The houses that are getting built would be considered sheds in America but to them, they are huge upgrades. They are 12’x20′ wood walls built onto a concrete slab. They have windows, a door, a loft, and a metal roof.
When we arrived on site, the foundation had already been poured and there was a pile of lumber, metal, and screws for us to work with.
The materials had to be counted to make sure we had what we needed and then separated for what parts would be used for trim, walls, studs, roof purlins, etc.
It was then moved to an area where a team could start painting. Unfortunately it was misty rain and cold all day so the paint was not drying properly and with the muddy ground, the freshly painted pieces got dirty very quickly.
By the end of the first day, we were able to get one of the walls put up.

The hotel that we were staying at was much nicer than we were expecting. Other than not having hot water, it was actually a very comfortable room. Their cafeteria provided our meals and drinks and we were well taken care of to make sure nobody would get sick from eating or drinking the wrong thing.
The hotel was a 20 minute drive from the worksite so on some of the days that were really long, some of the people could bring some of the younger kids back to the hotel to rest/relax. The kids all helped out with painting and stuff and they also were able to play with some of the local kids down there. The only problem was that every day we were there, it was cold and rainy so many of the kids didn’t come out in that unusual weather. After we left, it was back up in the 70s and 80s.

By the end of day 2, we had all the walls up.

By day three we got most of the roof and loft done and then the 4th day we had to finish the house, decorate it, and hand over the keys.

After lunch, all the teams walked through the area leading to the dump and the dump itself where lots of people live and we handed out rice, beans, and tangerines to all the locals. It was an amazing experience. This little house that we built will be a home for grandma Marisella and her husband Saul along with potentially 13 other people (kids and grand kids). I hope that it helped all the kids to realize just how blessed we are to live where we live and have the opportunities that we do.

If you are interested in going on a trip here, we will probably be going back over Thanksgiving with a group from the Detroit area so please reach out if you are interested. To learn more, you can check out StrategicAlliance.org

1500 Mile Family Vacation Road Trip around California

June 6, 2017 by Prem Leave a Comment

In May of this year, our family headed out to California to hit some of the main natural attractions.

5/20/17

We flew into Los Angeles, rented a minivan and hit the road. We arrived very late at night and by the time we got our rental car it was already close to 1:00am.
I was trying to find a hotel with breakfast included and all the places I called were booked. Finally I found a place and got us a room.
Unfortunately it was a total dump. The hotel was gross and the “free breakfast” was literally peanut butter and jelly served out of a cooler in the parking lot…yikes!

5/21/17
The next day we drove the 4-5 hours to Sequoia National Park and enjoyed the mountain vistas and the gigantic/beautiful trees. Some of these trees are mind blowing because they are so huge!!

I love this tree that has been lying on the ground for the last 100 years. At one point, a family even lived inside this tree.

This helps give a size perspective on how big these things are!

Next, we headed over to the neighboring park of King’s Canyon. The gorge off the side of the road is beautiful.

One of our stops was Grizzly Falls. The wind was blowing like crazy and with the gushing waterfall and all the spray coming of the falls, it felt like we were in a hurricane.

Some areas of King’s Canyon really remind me of driving through the alps.

Near the end of the King’s Canyon road, we found this pretty little waterfall. I had never been to King’s Canyon, so I was expecting that the end of the road was going to lead to a vista point but it didn’t. It just ended in a small loop that turns you around the other way.

As we were leaving the park, the sun was setting which created some really pretty views with the mountain backdrop.

Looking back east, I love seeing the winding mountain road leading into the park.

We ended up driving about halfway to Yosemite and spent the night.

5/22/17
The next morning we drove into Yosemite National Park. Yosemite has always been one of my favorite places but the infrastructure there is just not able to handle the crowds. It took 45 minutes to get into the park waiting in line at the entrance. Once in the park, there was an hour long traffic jam. It then took us half an hour to find a parking spot. By the time we found parking, it was time for lunch. We wanted to go do a short hike. We waited 15 minutes for the shuttle to come, then the shuttle which was taking us about 3 miles took 45 minutes due to all the traffic jams. We did a really nice 1.5 hour hike to Vernal Falls. On the way back, we waited one hour for a shuttle with enough room for the 5 of us, then the 3 mile ride too another 1.25 hours to get back to the Lodge. In other words, it took us almost 6 hours of driving/waiting to do a 1.5 hour hike.
It’s beautiful, but the traffic, crowds, and waiting were exhausting. I will only go back if it’s off-season.

This photo was taken on the trail to Bridal Veil Falls.

Tunnel View is one of my favorite viewpoints in the world. The waterfalls and unique landscape are mesmerizing.

Here is a quick photo from the mist trail at Vernal Falls

In the evening when the park started to empty out, we drove up to Glacier Point to watch the sunset and that was definitely one of the highlights of Yosemite.

Here is a pretty shot of the side of halfdome being lit up by the sun.

From this view you can see Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls way down in the valley.

On our drive back into the valley, we had some beautiful sunset views.

5/23/17

This morning, Kole and I woke up at 5:00am to go do photos around the valley at sunrise. We found a few really pretty spots along the river and then went back to Tunnel View.

We then met back up with everyone else and spent a little time exploring the valley before doing a short walk to lower Yosemite falls.

Next, we drove out to San Francisco. Driving through the central valley in California, it was 102 degrees. 45 minutes later, in San Francisco, it was 65 degrees.
We stopped for dinner at pier 39 which was a fun place to explore. The boys loved the Sea Lions.

Next, we stopped at the Palace of Fine Arts.

We hoped to see a sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin headlands, but that whole area was shrouded in clouds and fog. We stayed at the Mirage hotel by the zoo.

5/24/17
The next morning, sunrise was cloudy. We planned to drive up to Twin Peaks for a view of the city, but that was also covered in fog. We drove out to Baker Beach. The boys played around on the beach and we enjoyed the nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

After that, we drove around city and stopped at the famoun Lombard street and then moved on to the Painted Ladies where we had a picnic lunch.

Our plan was to drive all the way down highway 1, but most of highway 1 was closed for mudslides. We were able to drive about 20 miles of the 100 miles before the road was closed and we had to turn around. It was very cloudy.

We stayed the nigh at the El Castell hotel in seaside. They had a cheap price, decent room, good enough breakfast and a heated pool so the kids had a blast.

5/25/17
The next morning, I started to feel really sick so we had a slow morning. Cheridy and the boys went and had some pool time while I stayed in bed in the room.
Since Highway 1 was closed, we had to drive back inland to make our way south. We stopped at the famous Hearst Castle and did a tour.

5/26/17
Todaywe made our way out back out to the coast and stopped off in Malibu, Santa Monica to explore the Pier, and then Venice Beach.

After that we got to meet up with cousin Caleb who lives in the West Hollywood area and he took us up to the Griffith Observatory and then we had a fun dinner at a Korean barbeque place near his apartment.

5/27/17
Today was just a long flight home with some rest on the plane!

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Family road trip around the southwest national parks

March 19, 2016 by Prem Leave a Comment

In early March, we decided to bring the boys on a family road trip around the southwest national parks. It was a perfect opportunity to teach them about the southwest region of our country along with some history lessons and some hands-on photography classes. THIS is just one of the reasons we were excited to homeschool.
Here is a journal of where we went and what we did. These photos are a blend of images taken by me (Prem) with a Canon 5dMK3 and an iphone 6s along with a few photos that the boys took of each other using Canon Rebel xti cameras.

3/1/16

Today was strictly a travel day. We flew to Phoenix, rented a minivan, met up with my friend Ben for dinner, and then drove one hour to Camp Verde where we stayed the night.

3/2/16

This morning we woke up nice and early, had breakfast at the hotel and then went off to explore Montezuma Castle National Monument.

The boys have been learning about the Anasazi Indians so being able to see some of their cliff dwellings first hand was pretty cool.

Next, we drove half an hour through Sedona and over to Red Rock Crossing and did a short hike and took some photos. The light was really bad for pics, but the kids had a blast.

On our way out of the area we drove back through Sedona and stopped off for a beautiful view of Sedona from the top of Airport Rd.

We then drove out to head to the Grand Canyon. A little ways south of the Grand Canyon is an old Chevron station that will often have some old classic vehicles. Today that had an amazing old motorcycle.

We arrive at the Grand Canyon around 3:30pm and jumped on their shuttle that goes around the rim loop. We got off the shuttle at Powell Point and then hiked along the rim trail to Navajo Point with lots of stops for pictures. The afternoon light wasn’t fantastic for landscape photos but it was perfect for some good family time.
http://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/upload/sr-pocket-map.pdf

As sunset got closer, we took the bus to Pima point and planned to watch the sunset at Yavapai Point but we ran out of time and couldn’t make it back there before sunset. So, we went back to Mohave Point for sunset.

Mayz was really getting into the photography and getting more comfortable working with his camera.

We then took the shuttle back to where the van was and then drove one hour to the Cameron trading post for a very mediocre dinner. However, there were no other options and we were super hungry! Rather than staying in Cameron, we decided to continue on to Page which was another 1.5 hour drive. It had already been a long and tiring day but getting to Page would allow for us to see the sunrise at Horseshoe Bend tomorrow. On our way to Page, the night sky was just magnificent!! Cheridy and the boys saw an amazing shooting star. I missed it because I was setting up for this shot.

We drove the rest of the way to Page and stayed the night in the hotel.

3/3/16

The next morning we work up at 5:15am so we could go watch the sunrise at one of my favorite places…Horseshoe Bend!
It was a pretty rough morning. Yesterday was a REALLY long day the kids didn’t get to bed until 11:00pm and then getting up super early was difficult. But, we made it! The Horseshoe Bend parking area is only a 5 minute drive outside of Page and then it’s a roughly 20 minute walk from the parking area to get to the cliff edge. The walk was fine, but the wind at the cliff edge was really cold and it was not the most enjoyable stop. However, it was very beautiful.

The kids were cold and tired and other than Mayz, they didn’t take a lot of pictures.

The funniest moment here was when Reid starting singing “I found a bag of money, I found a bag of money!!” and then another photographer out there looked at him and said “Um…that’s poop dude.” We all had a great laugh when we looked at what Reid was holding.

After the Horseshoe Bend excursion, we went back to the hotel for breakfast and to pack up. Our next stop was going to be a photography tour of Upper Antelope Canyon. We signed up for a tour, but the tour company we went with was really tough to work with, inflexible and difficult to book. They also packed our tour with way too many people. Others companies said to not do more than 6 photographers due to all the tripods and people getting in each others way. They had 9 of us in the group.
For those that aren’t familiar, Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon on Navajo land. It was formed over thousands of years by wind and water and provides photographers with limitless opportunities to capture beautiful abstract shapes. Over the last few years, it has become insanely popular and the difficult part about that is that it is a very small canyon so when you fit hundreds of people in this tiny canyon, it gets a bit crazy. It is also very expensive due to the popularity.
On our photography tour, we were grateful to be able to travel one direction without too many people in the photos. Our guide did a good job of making sure we could get some clean photos. On the way back, it was like herding cattle into a corral. It was shoulder to shoulder and there were probably 15 jeeps from the various tour companies all parked by the entrance.
The boys did great as they all used their tripods and received a lot of help from Cheridy to take photos inside the slot.
Here’s a quick iphone shot showing what the entrance to the canyon looks like.

After our tour of the canyon, we headed out of Page and stopped at the Wahweep overlook of Lake Powell for a lunch stop.

We then drove the two hours to get over to Zion National Park and our first stop was to hike the Overlook Trail which is a short and easy trail to a beautiful viewpoint with views of one section of this magnificent national park.

After the overlook hike, we drove to the main bridge over the Virgin river. I was hoping to do photos of the Watchman mountain at sunset but the sun didn’t cooperate.
The boys still had a great time taking photos by the river and playing around.

We stayed the night in Springdale just outside the park.

3/4/16

This morning started with an amazing hike to Scout Lookout. It’s just under a 4 mile hike round trip and about 1100 ft. of elevation gain/loss. We weren’t sure how well the boys would do because they’ve never been on a hike like that before and some of the areas were definitely steep and tiring. Kole did fantastic, he led the way. Mayz and Reid struggled and whined a bit at first, but then they got into it and had a blast. The view from Scout Lookout is incredible. For those that are more adventurous, you can continue on to Angel’s Landing which another few hundred feet up. It requires chains in some areas to avoid from dropping off a 1000 ft. cliff edge and is probably not good for kids, or anyone with vertigo for that matter. I even watched a few people on all 4s in some of the areas that were really narrow. The view from up here is one of the most dazzling views in the entire United States.

One of the most memorable moments on the trip was from the hike down. Reid literally high-fived every single person that we passed. That boy has an amazing gift to make people smile.

We spent the next few hours having lunch and driving around to a few other spots in Zion. Two of my favorites are Big bend and Court of the patriarchs.

In the afternoon, we started our drive towards Bryce Canyon National Park.

We stopped off at Red Canyon on the way to the park for a short hike and for a chance to just get out, stretch our legs and take some pictures.

We arrived at Bryce Canyon just in time for some beautiful sunset light at Sunset Point.

3/5/16

The next morning, we had another really early morning to photograph the sunrise. Sunrise at Bryce is an amazing thing to see. It’s incredibly beautiful there.
We started off at Inspiration Point.

All of the viewpoints are great. However, for the sunrise photos I actually wanted pics where we were more submerged IN the landscape. We decided to go back to Sunset Point as that is oddly one of the best viewpoints for SunRISE. We walked 5 minutes down the Navajo Trail towards the rock formation known as Thor’s hammer and this area was magnificent for pics.

We then drove over to Bryce point for a beautiful almost 300 degree panorama of this incredible landscape. This was probably our favorite view that really shows off all the Hoodoos and cool rock formations.

We headed out of Bryce and spent a couple hours driving through Escalante National Monument. Escalante has some really unique areas. As we were driving through, we passed a cool cave on the side of the road that was begging to be explored.

Our next stop was Capital Reef National Park. The Gifford Farm is a really neat place among the towering red cliffs.

There are also a number of Petroglyphs carved into the cliff walls. As we were looking at these carvings, I was trying to imagine life in this area at the time these were made.

One of my favorite things was the stark skeletons of the cottonwood trees with the cliff walls as a backdrop. What a beautiful abstract.

We then spent another couple hours driving towards Moab which was our destination for the night.
We were arriving just in time for some beautiful evening light at Dead Horse Point which provides a magnificent view of the Colorado River snaking it’s way through this ancient landscape.

I was hoping to catch the last evening light in Canyonlands National Park so we hightailed it out there and made it to my favorite spot which is the Green River Overlook. It was too cloudy but that still led to some dramatic pics.

3/6/16

We had a slow morning, the rain kept us from doing sunrise pics but we still headed into Arches National Park around 10:00am and we explored the Windows area which is my favorite part of the park.

After exploring and climbing around the north and south window along with Turret arch, we went a few hundred yards over to Double Arch.

We made a few other stops in Arches and then headed back to Canyonlands National Park. Our first stop was for a short hike at Mesa Arch which is an iconic photo op from this part of the world. The arch is right at the edge of a steep cliff and it frames the Lasalle Mountains in the background.

We spent some time driving to a few other viewpoints include the end of the road on the island in the sky which is Grand View Point. However, the Green River Overlook is a more impressive view so we just went back there.

We then went to the Schafer trail overlook for a quick stop.

At this part of the trip, Mayz was like my shadow trying to take a lot of the same pictures which was pretty cool.

We exited the park and went to catch the sunset at Dead Horse Point. There were beautiful skies on the way there but too many clouds blocking the sun for a good sunset.

We headed into Moab for a terrific dinner at the Spoke restaurant and then it was off to bed.

3/7/16

We started the day with a 1 hour drive to Newspaper Rock State Historical Monument which is an amazing collection of ancient carvings.

That was follow by a 2 hour drive to Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is an extremely unique place in our amazing country. The area is riddled with indian cliff dwellings and it’s pretty amazing to see all those places where people once lived. The most impressive of these areas is the Cliff Palace which is basically a whole town built into the side of a cliff. They built in these areas because they were really hard to access which meant it was very difficult for attackers to get to them. Can you even imagine that life?

We then drove one hour to the four corners where, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado all come together. We planned to go take a quick family pic right on the point but didn’t feel like paying $25 to the Navajo just to go take a selfie so we kept driving. Another 1.5 hours and we got to Monument Valley. This is one of the most iconic locations America. We got there just in time to enjoy some beautiful evening light.

We stayed the night at the View hotel which is correctly named. Every room has an amazing view of the valley. I decided to setup my tripod on the balcony and do some star trail photos. The streak in the foreground is from car headlights driving through the valley.

3/8/16

We planned on doing a private sunrise tour of monument valley to go to some of the places that are inaccessible without a tour. However, at night, the forecast was saying that it was going to be heavy overcast most of the night and morning so we decided to not pay for an expensive sunrise tour.
When I woke up in the morning, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

We spent about an hour in the morning doing the drive on our own which was still really nice and then we had some cereal on our hotel balcony before hitting the road.

We drove 2 hours from Monument Valley to Canyon De Chelly and then spent the next couple hours on the south rim drive and checked out all the ruins and overlooks.
Mayz had been really excited to see Spider Rock so that was our first stop.

The other main location and famous stop is the White House Ruins

We then drove another2 hours to Holbrook and checked out the Wigwam hotel along with the old rundown trucks nearby.

After that, it was follow by a 3.5 hour drive back to my friend Ben’s house where we stayed the night.

3/9

Yesterday was a LONG day of driving so today was just a fun relaxing day where we hung out at the house.

Yes, we did play putt putt with a hammer.

In the evening we met up for a wonderful dinner at our friend Gail’s house and had dinner with her, her daughter Tracy, son-in-law Case, along with my friend Ben and his girlfriend Dena. The kids all had a blast swimming and playing in the yard.

3/10

Today was our travel day. After a 2000 mile road trip. we were ready to fly home. We had a safe and uneventful trip home which is just the way I like it!!

Family trip to Boyne, MI

May 8, 2014 by Prem Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago we had the chance to take a family trip up to Boyne and stay in a friend’s condo.
It was a great opportunity to get away and have some family time for a couple days.
It was an interesting time to go because a lot of the activities were closed due to time of year and also day of the week but, we still made the best of it.