Dalton W. Williams
John's Graduation,
St. Augustine FL,
Disney
World
May - June 2004
I left St. Vincent and sailed the short distance up to St. Lucia in April, and then flew back to the U.S. to be there when my son John received his PHD in Engineering Science from LSU. Then spent some time visiting with my friend Penny in Jacksonville and Memorial Day weekend in Disney World.
I flew on to New Orleans where my son John picked me up at the airport and we drove into town and the French Quarter for lunch at Ralph and Cacoo's. I had wonderful fried shrimp and catfish, two of my favorite things! I may be from north Louisiana, but I love good Louisiana food! We walked off lunch strolling through the French Quarter along St. Charles street window shopping in the marvelous antique shops there and the walked down to the French Market where I was able to resist the Beignets (French donuts) and then back to John's car for the one hour drive north to Baton Rough. Arriving there, we first stopped to pick up Kyra age almost three from day care and then on to their home. Deniece, John's wife was there to meet us and before long my daughter Nicole and her two boys were there as well.
Friday was the big day when at age 31 John was to receive his PHD in Engineering Science from Louisiana State University. This had started back when John was a sophomore and got a part time student aid job working at the LSU partial accelerator. He changed his major to Physics and received both a BS and MS in Physics continuing on in his specialty of Nano and Resist Technology [don's ask me to explain it, I can't] where he holds five patents and has published 12 papers while completing his Doctorate. Can you tell I am a VERY proud father?
Graduation
is at 10:00 AM, but we must be there no later than 8:00 AM to go through
security as President Bush is making the commencement address. The large
athletic facility arena is full at 9:45 when the 6,500 + graduates start filing
in to music played by the LSU student orchestra. Promptly at 10:00 the
Chancellor welcomes everyone and introduces President Bush as he enters the
stage. After the invocation, President Bush made a short 15 minute talk,
not political at all. There was none of the halting delivery we hear on the
radio or see on TV. He spoke with no notes, rather as a father talking to
his son extemporaneously with humor and advice. Everyone chuckled when he
said; "Remember you mother will all ways be your mother and she will all ways be
checking up on you." It really was was excellent, and I wish I could
remember more of it.
With
so many students graduating, the only students called to the stage to receive
their degrees are the 174 doctorial candidates. In the picture to the left, John
is escorted on the stage by his Mentor standing just behind John who "hoods"
John with the doctorial hood as the Dean confers the Doctorate Of Engineering
Science. The picture to the right is of John and his Mentor after leaving
the stage. You and I might think of the Mentor as a faculty advisor, but he is
more than that. He is the student's champion, advising when necessary and
prodding when required. But most of all a friend.
Of course the whole family was there for this special day. John is married to Deniece and they have a daughter Kyra who is two and a half. We had dropped Kyra off at daycare as Nicole has dropped off her two boys Tyler and Devin at daycare also. John's mother Valerie had come from Mississippi where she is a science teacher to be there as well. The photo to the left is of John and Deniece standing outside the cage of "Mike the Tiger" LSU's mascot. The photo to the right is one of the few photos of myself, my son John, daughter Nicole and their mother Valerie. Valerie and I were married in 1970 and divorced in 1977.
My
daughter Nicole is 29 and has two boys, Tyler age five and Devin age three.
Nicole started out at LSU but dropped out to join the Air Force. She did
very well there and was stationed at Nellis in Nevada, Korea, Saudi Arabia and
her last assignment was in Italy, but she wanted to have a more permanent home
for the boys and after ten years resigned and moved to Baton Rough. This
celebration for John was even more special as I was thoroughly enjoying being
with both my children and my three grand children, two of whom I had never seen.
This was truly a very special time for everyone. On Sunday afternoon the
kids took the grand kids and I to the Baton Rouge Zoo. What an outing
watching the children's excitement over the animals and racing through the zoo
where this picture was made. You can't see any family resemblance can you!
Even before John started looking for work, Sandia National Laboratories sent John a letter asking him to come out to Albuquerque to see their facilities and visit with their scientist. Sandia is the premier research laboratory in the United States and is home to some of the worlds best facilities and most brilliant people. This was quite an honor to be invited and since graduation he has received an offer to join Sandia Labs. Being a typical "kid", he is waiting to accept the offer until he and Deniece visit Albuquerque together in July to see if she would like to live there. Me... I would have said yes the moment the letter came. But that's probably while I am single and he has a very nice wife... {laughing}
I
caught my flight to Jacksonville where I was met by my friend
Penny who had visited me in Trinidad. We drove from Jacksonville to her
home in St. Augustine where I was to stay for a few days. Penny lives in a
condominium located along the river with a small dock for sailboats and
beautiful flowering plants.
The following day Penny took the day off from work
so that she could go with me to get a new drivers license. My old Colorado
drivers license had long since expired and then been pick pocketed during
Carnival in Trinidad. The Drivers License office in St. Augustine was very
helpful and able to pull up my old Colorado drivers license information and
driving records. With my clean record, I was able to get a new Florida
drivers license in a matter of a few minutes.
I must say that I was very impressed with the organization and professionalism
of the people there. We then drove to Jacksonville and picked up Jason,
Penny's son, on the way to CompUSA to pick up some ink for my printer and also
looked a digital cameras as I needed to replace mine. Then we met Penny's
daughter Amy and her daughter Savannah for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.
This was a true locals place, long tables, waters who knew everyone, and food
that was simple, excellent, and lots of it.
Amy and Savannah were excited about their up coming trip to Denmark. Amy had been dating a Danish fellow who had gone home to Denmark recently and invited Amy and Savannah to visit. I enjoyed talking with them about the up coming trip as I have been to Denmark more than 10 times and we talked about things to see while they were there. After dinner we drove back to St. Augustine.
I
did not realize but now know that St Augustine is the oldest city in the United
States. It is not a large city, more of an overgrown town and very proud
of it's heritage dating back to Ponce. De Leon who founded the city thinking he
had found the fountain of youth in the fresh spring water. In the center of the
city is a historic section where the original city from Ponce De Leon's time is
preserved and some buildings still in use. Surrounding this is a modern low rise
city in keeping with it's heritage. The tallest buildings are the churches
and the town if filled with boats of every description.
Penny
had made reservations for us a Disney World for Memorial Day weekend to stay "on the property" at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. This is a beautiful
facility designed and built to look like an African Safari Camp nestled in a
savannah with animals all around. It really is amazing how they managed to
build a large hotel and yet keep the apparent scale down by surrounding the
hotel with a true African savannah where animals live right outside you room,
and in our case, Graf's peering in our window!
Saturday morning we took the morning Safari through the savannah where the animals roam free and you are the one captive in the safari truck. It really is a different experience that seeing animals in small cages, here they truly are free to roam with preditors separated from their prey by natural boundaries. Here are a few of the many, many pictures I took. Remember that as all ways, you can click on a picture to enlarge it.
The
picture of the male lion above looking down on us as our safari truck passed
below him is extraordinary, be sure you enlarge that one if you don't enlarge
them all. And notice the Graff and the Ostridge looking at one another, you just
have to ask yourself what they are thinking. Penny found the Tasmanian
Devil wandering around loose and got a kiss! All I got was a hug from Donald
Duck...
That evening we had reservations to see Circus De Solie
at Downtown Disney. We allocated 45minutes to catch the bus, but when we
got to the buss pickup a bus had just closed the doors and pointed to indicate
to take the next bus. The next bus came 35 minutes later rather than the
published 20 minutes so we wound up getting to the Circus 15 minutes late.
We
should have been at the bus an hour before the show. But even arriving
late, the Circus was absolutely fabulous and clearly one of the best parts
of the entire weekend at Disney World. I wish I had some pictures from the
show, but they absolutely forbid any photography. After the performance we
walked through Downtown Disney with is essentially a huge outdoor night club.
There was a band playing on the main stage with a huge crowd you young adults
enjoying the loud music, bright lights and huge video screen that you can easily
see in this picture
The
next day we went to Epcot. For those who don't know, Epcot is an
international exposition of the cultures, art and food of the countries of the
world. One of the really neat things we saw was a young acrobatic team
from China. In these three pictures you can see the skill and beauty of
these young athletes. Be sure and enlarge these pictures, you will be
amazed with their skill and I am guessing that the oldest of them is in their
mid teens.
This
weekend was also featuring all of the beautiful spring flowers that are through
out the park. The flower dragon in front of the Chinese temple, the flowers
growing on the roof of the house in the Norwegian exhibit and the beautiful
roses through out the park. We stopped for lunch in the Norwegian pavilion
which I thoroughly enjoyed as I have spent many months hiking and touring in
Norway over 12 out of the past 16 years. There were the small cold water
shrimp in dill mayonnaise, traditional meet cakes, Norwegian vegetables and of
course Norwegian Salmon. I was in culinary bliss but Penny was not as
excited. Norwegian food is an acquired taste. Oh, and the wonderful
smoked goat cheese with their fresh bread. {sigh}
Then
in the evening, Epcot becomes a fantasy land for adults as the setting sun turns
the hot afternoon into a warm glow with people walking hand in hand sampling
foods from all the countries. Penny loved the French pastry shop which I
managed to control the temptation and enjoyed watching her enjoy the French
pastry.
We
decided to have dinner in the China pavilion and enjoyed a great Chinese dinner
finishing just in time to go outside and enjoy the fireworks and laser light
show at 9:00 pm and then took our time walking slowly to the park entrance
making a picture of the American, Moroccan, and French pavilions all lit up
across the lake. Then we sit and marvel at the Norwegian Stave Church. These
churches were built in the 11th century as Christianity was making its way into
the northern countries. If you look closely, the church is in the form of
a cross, but also has gargles on the roof to guard the Christian spirit. The
Vikings were covering all the bases. The name Stave Church comes from the
way the churches were built entirely of wood and supported by huge vertical logs
called staves that held the upper structure.
You can never tell what you will learn reading a sailing web site! {laughing}
Monday
we packed up the car early and took the bus to the Magic Kingdom to walk down
main street, ride the merry-go-round, steam train, and of course the monorail
before we headed back to the car and the drive back to St. Augustine. The
next few days were spent following up on the boat parts I had ordered and
getting everything together for the flight back. I purchased a second
rolling duffle bag suite case even though I had come with a mostly empty suit
case. There were new autopilot parts, solar panel relays, books, and even
a large bag of Grits and another large bag of Pistachios for friends who had
been looking after Quietly for me while I was gone.