The weather in Virginia has been very hot, hovering around 95 degrees, but the important difference between Virginia and Maine is that VA does not have the humidity that ME does when it gets warm.

I flew out of Bangor on Saturday morning and arrived in La Guardia airport an hour later, the airport was medium sized, the runway is partially on the harbor. After waiting about 45 minutes in NYC, we took off in a small Lear jet; I was near the engine so the ride was very loud. I was able to see the Empire State building from the air, I was hoping I could see more of the city but the smog and humidity was too heavy.

I landed in Greensboro an hour later; the airport looked the same as last year which is expected. I met Mom and Jack in the luggage pickup section. We waited for my luggage until it was announced that everyone’s luggage on my flight was flown to Buffalo, New York. We were told that I would be able to get my suitcase(s) the next day.

Mom and Jack have a new vehicle, it’s a Buick Rendezvous, it’s very nice and I am considering purchasing one for myself, the MPG is roughly 27. We headed home after having dinner at the Cracker Barrel and relaxed the rest of the night since I was tuckered out.

On Sunday we went to Trinity Baptist Church in Bedford, the assistant pastor preached, he is 20 years old and has not yet graduated from Liberty University. He spoke a very good sermon, one that hit me.

Later that night we headed towards Lynchburg to pickup my suitcase and went to Liberty University to watch the fireworks. There must have been 25,000 or more people there. Mom and I walked over to the new Thomas Road Baptist Church, it’s massive and beautiful inside. I wish I could of heard Jerry Falwell preach there. Tim LaHaye also teaches at Liberty and lives on Campus, I would really have liked to have met him, he is the co-author to one of my favorite book series, Left Behind. The fireworks were very good, they were shot off from Liberty Hill.

On Monday mom and I sat outside for awhile and talked; I also read some of the Left Behind series in-between waiting for the not-so-camera-friendly birds to land on the feeder. I was able to snap a few decent shots of a Cardinal and a Tufted Titmouse bird and an American Gold Finch. Later in the afternoon we went to see Superman Returns, which was an excellent movie. I’m a huge fan of Superman and his mythology, I was a little surprised on the way the ended the movie, but I will not spoil it.

I finally found Coca Cola in a glass bottle; I have been looking in all of the stores in Bangor for them, supposedly from some online message board research that the majority of the States have Coke in a bottle for sale. I purchased a 6 pack from Food Lion; the Coke actually does taste different in the glass bottle. The cap is metal, but it does not twist off like Root Beer glass bottle cap does, you actually need a bottle cap opener. I’ll be buying a few of these and taking them home with me.

This Christmas I was invited to Chicago, by Aaron and TJ. TJ is Jack’s (my mother’s husband) daughter and I have met them in the past. So, Friday, I flew out of Bangor, Maine. I packed only one suit case full of cloths and gifts and had my high school backpack as a carry on. I got up at 6:30 in the morning, before the sun had rose, Chris, my neighbor gave me a ride to Bangor International Airport. BIA is a small airport, but was actually quit full, due to Christmas only two days away. I got on the plane and could not look out the window like I normally do due to overcast, so, I took out a new book, Left Behind (the first book) and started to read it. I could not help but think as I was reading it that, What if Christ came back at this very moment as I’m reading this book, and only my cloths and book were left in my seat, and the person beside me happened to pick up the book and have the answers right in her hand, assuming she was not saved.

After an hour and half, I arrived at Detroit, Michigan. The airport is enormous! I read that it is a major airport and I quickly found out that the statement was true. I arrived in the “A” section for the airport and needed to get to the “B” section, which was probably a half of mile from where I was. I quickly headed down the moving walkway, which is very neat, and descended down a flight of escalators which brought me into a tunnel under one of the runways. The tunnel was illuminated with black lights which made the jog a little more pleasant. The airport also had an Amtrak, trees and birds inside. After 10 minutes of traversing through the airport, I made it to my destination and got on the jet. I arrived to O’Hare an hour later. O’Hare is very large though I was not as impressed as I was with Detroit. After finding my way to the security gate, mom greeted me and we were off to the luggage area and than to the car. The drive from O’Hare to Oswego, a suburb of Chicago took almost an hour due to heavy traffic. We stopped at Boston Market and had a bite to eat; sales tax is 9% which is pretty high compared to Maine’s 5%. After, we headed towards their housing development, which I must say is very impressive. It was good to see Aaron and his family again. Their kids are great; I had a really good time with them. I think that spending time with them has changed my mind about having children of my own, with the right woman of course That night mom, Aaron, Josiah and I went to see “The Chronicles of Narnia”, We all really enjoyed the movie.

Saturday, we headed towards the city. The weather was overcast and a little rainy, but we still walked the streets. We walked down Miracle Mile, Marshal Fields and Sears Tower. Marshal Fields has a restaurant called “The Walnut Room”, which is supposed to be a really nice place to eat, but the wait time was 3 hours- we decided to leave and eat at the Navy Pier which was interesting, it was a Jazz club, although the musicians were not playing. The Sears Tower was really interesting to see. We watched a five minute video on Chicago’s history and than headed up to the top of the building. When we got up to the top we were not so pleasantly surprised at the zero visibility. If you pressed your face to the glass you could see down to the bottom. Chicago is nice, but its way too busy and parking is extremely expensive to park! I like the suburbs of Chicago more. That night we attended a Christmas service at their local church.

Sunday, which was Christmas, we got up early, due to the kids. We started out by reading the Christmas event and asked the kids questions about Christ’s birth. It’s such a nice feeling to hear kids answer the questions and be excited about Jesus. Shortly after we all opened our stalkings and presents. Mom and Jack got me some really nice gifts. One of my favorites is a hand carved wooden duck and a recipe book named “A man, a can, a plan”. We spent the day hanging around the house playing with our gifts, talking, etc. I called Dad and wished him a Merry Christmas.

Monday, Aaron and I went to see “King Kong” by Peter Jackson. What an amazing movie! I was a bit upset that Kong died in the end; I had never seen the original movie or the other iterations.

Tuesday marked the end of my visit and I headed home to Bangor, Maine. I already miss everyone, especially my Mom. I am looking for a job in Lynchburg, Virginia. I have been for a few months now, I really like that area, and it’s not too far from Mom.

Today we climb Peaks of Otter (Sharp Top) which you can see from Mom’s porch. The hike took about an hour and half. It’s about 3,500 feet up. 3,000 feet up there’s a ledge named Buzzards Edge. I went out and there are huge rocks you can climb up on and look for miles and miles. I met a few guys there, they attend Liberty University. We talked for a few minutes. After, I met up with Mom and Jack at the top of the Sharp Top. What an amazingly beautiful view. You can look in a complete circle. There are some rocks that you can climb up on and I did, Mom was nervous but took some pretty neat photos of me. There’s a camp on top as well that people use to camp out at night. I’d love to do that sometime. We had a snack and headed back down. I wanted Mom to get a photo of me on Buzzards Edge. I climbed down too far and got stuck…. I finally was able to get out.

We headed down and went home to rest. Vacation is over… Time to go home. I know I’m going to miss Mom, Jack , Bugsy and Virginia. I am really considering moving down to VA.

So today Jack and Mom took me to see Virginia’s Natural Bridge. I’ve been there before when I was a child. We got there and purchased some tickets for the Bridge and for a tour of some caverns nearby. We walked to the caverns and waited for our turn to take the tour.

Caverns and caves have always interested me. The tour was interesting and fun. After, we went to the gift shop and purchased some candy. I bought a $2 recipes peanut butter cup… it was good.

After, we headed down to see the bridge. There’s a 2,000 year old tree that is now dead but still erected. The bridge is pretty amazing once you see it. It’s neat to think that a long time ago there use to be a river that flowed through it. We saw a mock Indian camp which was interesting as well.

Today we went to Smith Mountain Lake, Jack has a friend that owns a house on the lake. It’s mostly a retirement area and/or area for people that have a lot of money.

The lake is 26 miles long and has ~500 miles of shore line. Jim and Marry (the couple that has the house on the lake) has a party platoon type boat. They took us out on the lake, we road around for almost 3 hours. Very beautiful house and scenery. After awhile, we stopped at a restaurant and ate. They have a dock that you can walk out on and beside the dock there are hundreds of Carp fish just waiting for someone to toss some pop-corn in. I could reach down and pick one up or even pet them. Everywhere you went they would follow you with there mouths wide open!

After we ate we rode for a little while longer and than went back to their house and talked for a bit. After, we went home and relaxed for the rest of the day. I read for a couple of hours on Mom’s porch swing and fell asleep for an hour.

So today (Thursday 8/30) we went to the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford. It was pretty good, we say and read a lot of information about WWII. After we went to Roanoke to see the Star on the mountain. It lights up Red, White and Blue at night. From there you can see most of Roanoke.

We headed to Lynchburg and Jack took me to Liberty University. I am very impressed with the college. I took a tour of the campus and really would like to take some Bible / Theology classes there.

Here are a few photos that I snapped over the week.

Well, today starts my vacation. I stay at Dad and Karen’s last night, stayed up late and watched the season finale of “The 4400″ and “The Dead Zone”… both ended nicely and suspenseful.

We got up @ 5:30 in the morning, showered and left for Portland, ME. We got there around 8:30 in the morning, 1/2 hour earlier. I said my good-bye’s to Dad and Karen and went through the gate. The first plain was small, it held ~ 40 people. The flight was really neat, we only went up about 4 miles, right above the first level of clouds. I looked out the window most of the time. I landed in Philly, stopped at a gift store in the airport and picked up a magnet for PA. After that, I checked in to my gate and read for about 45 minutes until my plain to Greensboro, NC was ready.

An hour later I arrived in NC. When I got to the gate, I was surprised to see a shoe shinning station with a sign in-front of it labeled with a verse in the Bible that mentioned Christ. I headed towards the gift shop and purchased a NC magnet. I headed out to the exit and found mom and Jack waiting for me. It was good to see them both. The ride to Bedford VA was over an hour and I had barley eaten all day so we ate at a Texas steakhouse. I had a 1/2lb burger with fries.

After, we headed to Bedford, VA. It’s about 23 miles from Lynchburg. We got their house and settled in.

Once I was home, Jack turned on Fox News and we watched all of the Destruction that Hurricane Katrina had done to New Orleans… What a devastating event. The media is calling this an apocolyptic event, which it is not… this is a day in the park compared to what the end times will bring on.