Spring Break Galveston - Day 4

We have food.  We have boogie boards.  We have a football.  We have reading material.  We have deck chairs.  We have a house on the beach.  We aren't going anywhere today.

We all kept to our own schedules - meeting at meal times and the occasional basketball game on TV.  The boys spent a good several hours perfecting their boogie boarding skills, everyone spent time working on their tan, and the evening was topped off by hunting for crabs at night on the beach.

We thought about big questions today.  How long until a house on the beach loses its novelty?  Is the water on the chairs in the morning humidity, or rain?  What are those clumpy things on the beach?  How far out do you have to go to get out of the shallow water?  How far in do sharks swim?  Would it be better or worse for the Shockers if we watched the game?  Does coffee on a deck by the beach naturally taste better?  Why is it so cold in the afternoon when the sun is out?  Should we worry that the boys can shake the house intentionally and enjoy doing so?

Bottom line, today was a relaxing day of avoiding the highways as the locals left for home after their spring break.  Tomorrow they go back to school and tomorrow we get the island to ourselves.

Spring Break Galveston - Day 3

This morning, I awoke at 8:00 a.m. and took this picture:

I haven't been in Galveston for more than 24 hours and I'm already in love.  We took it easy this morning and watched people and the beach slowly wake up.  We ate breakfast in courses and shifts while Isaac did his laundry and the family got ready.

After a quick review of the "things to do," we piled in the car around 11:30 a.m. and headed into town.  Our goal - the Ocean Star Off Shore Drilling Rig and Education Center.

This museum, located on the Bay side of downtown, is housed in a retired jackup drilling rig and contains interactive and educational displays about offshore drilling.  Here was the source of our first of two pleasant surprises of the day.  I was perusing the Hall of Fame looking at names and reading about oil giants and there, in the 1989 founding class was non other than Dean McGee, founder of Kerr-McGee oil and native of Humboldt, Kansas - my hometown.

The museum is a great reminder of the importance of fossil fuels and oil to the American way of life -  a display right inside the door contains a host of items that contain chemicals derived from oil.  Inside is everything from crayons to shampoo, laundry detergent, cameras, phones, shoes, bandaids, hair dryers and Barbie dolls.  I saw new developments in deep water drilling including "Bullwinkle"; a fixed platform rig that is taller than the Empire State Building.  There were even pigs - which in the oil world are rubber devices used to service and maintain the pipelines.

At the dock near the museum were several fun sites that we don't see in Kansas everyday.  An imposing one was the Carnival Freedom - a cruise ship that makes regular 5 and 7 day trips to the Caribbean, Mexico and South America.  Based on their reaction, I'm fairly certain this was the biggest boat the boys have seen up close and personal.  On a smaller scale, but just as cool, was the Clipper Stad Amsterdam.  The Clipper , its Captain and 30 crew members run luxury private cruises to the British Virgin Islands and Martinique.  They were getting ready to sail while we were walking around.  Finally, we got our first glimpse of the 1877 Tall Ship Elissa also docked at port.  We plan to tour her later in the week (the daily sailing excursions are closed through April 2 due to regular maintenance), but today we stood and watched one of the crew members climb up into her masts to fix something.  He got high enough we couldn't watch anymore.

We ate a quick lunch at Jimmy Johns and then took a walk to the shops in the Strand District - a National Historic Landmark district of Victorian era buildings housing restaurants, shops and antique stores.  It was on the way to the Strand that we encountered the second of our surprises.  After seeing the boys in their blue, high school t-shirts, a man walked up and asked Ross if we were indeed from Winfield, Kansas.  I lifted my sunglasses and said, "Ed?"  It was none other than Ed Larson - a man we knew from our early years in Winfield.  Ed sang in our wedding dressed in his coveralls.  He was pinch hitting for our soloist who was snowed in and unable to make the ceremony.  It is indeed a small world.

After shopping, we headed to Fisherman's Wharf for a cool drink and to watch the Carnival Freedom depart from Galveston port on its way to the Caribbean.  From there, it was time to head home after a quick trip to Walmart for boogie boards.

The boys spent the early part of the evening throwing a football and enjoying the beach while we watched from the house deck.  After tiring of that, we went inside and retired to dinner from the fridge (Isaac made eggs.), basketball and conversation on the couch.  It was a good day.

Spring Break Galveston - Day 2

It is approximately 9 hours and 22 minutes from Winfield, KS to Galveston, TX.  Traveling by the most direct route - I-35 to I-42 - you pierce the heart of two of the largest cities in the United States, Dallas and Houston.

We decided, after driving this route for a few hours, that there are two types of travelers who are defined by the routes they choose to "get there."  We spent today wearing the shoes of the type of traveler that we are not, and find it uncomfortable.

The Interstate traveler is no-doubt seeking efficiency - a concept we appreciate during the work week but find disturbing while on vacation.  Packed between lanes of cars, you point the car and drive.  The views to each side of the road are lined with billboards, advertisements and stretches of grass populated by the occasional wildflower.  Hours of the same.  Miles of repetition.

We stopped for lunch in Corsicana, TX at The Cotton Patch - a restaurant chain begun in 1989 by Larry Marshall and Mike Patranella in Nacogdoches, TX.  Their website describes a culture of giving which made me feel good about eating there.

We finally arrived at our destination.  We have rented a house on the shore of Galveston Beach acquired through VRBO.com - our favorite traveling tool on vacation.  The house, named Toes in the Sand, is owned by Walt Burger who has been great to work with.  We arrived around 6:30 p.m., tired and ready to eat. 

We visited the local seafood restaurant called The West End where we met a great waiter who discussed the Final Four with us and shared his opinions about mixed marriages between KU and KSU fans versus the lack of marriages between OSU and A&M fans.  After stocking up on food supplies at the local grocery store, it was back to the house to sleep.

Fun fact about houses built on stilts:  They move.

Spring Break Galveston - Day 1

The blog will be busy this month.  Friends - it's time for the infamous Hicks Family Vacation.  It's spring break in Kansas and we are, once again, headed out on the road.

This vacation is significant.  It represents one of the last times we will be together as the four of us.  You see, life has a way of changing - and ours is reaching another milestone.  We have a senior in high school.

I am trying not to dwell on that as we go through the familiar rituals of packing, loading the car and taking the ritualistic "ready and loaded" picture.  (The youngest, though compliant, is angry because we made him leave the X-Box at home after trying to sneak it in with his luggage.  The giveaway?  The word "fragile" taped to the outside of his bag....)

As it is, here we go.  And we begin this trip by revisiting one of our favorite locations from our Carlsbad location - Pops in Edmond Oklahoma.  This time, we visit at night so we can see the pop bottle in its complete glory.  And it is fabulous.  Mesmerizing.  If you haven't been to Pops, go.  It's roughly 5 miles to the east of I-35 on Route 66 and it is a sight and wonder to behold.  This rose is worth smelling.



  Can't get the pic to right-size.  You'll
have to turn your computer for full effect.

This time we also ate dinner in the café.  Our party wasn't big enough for a booth  (you have to have 5 or more), but we did get a table right under the pop bottle display where we ate hamburgers and (mom is trying to be healthy) the honey roasted chicken salad.

Before heading out we loaded up on six bottles of Pop From Around the World using the convenient cardboard six-pack carrier located everywhere around the store.  Our collection? 

• Grass Soda: Mowed and Bottled in the USA
• Jones Blue Bubblegum Soda with a cover photo of an iguana from Pamela Jones of Huntsville, AL
• Jones Cream Soda with a cover photo of four-hand guitar picking by Emma Pritchett of Fort Worth, TX
• Grandpa Lundquist's Christmas Soda from Sweden bottled in IL
• Fest's Satsuma Mint Soda from Louisiana
• Jarritos Fruit Punch from El Paso, TX

After dinner it was on to Norman, OK to the Hampton Inn for our first night on the road.  It is good to be traveling with family again!

R.A.L. - Who Do I Represent?

To find out who I represent, I dug out NASFAA's annual report published in October of 2016.

There are 2,936 institutional members of NASFAA.

38.9% of the membership are from non-profit schools.  The next largest group is community colleges at 27.5% and then public institutions at 19%.  For-profit and graduate schools make up the remaining 14.6%.

Small schools (enrollments of 1,000 to 4,999) comprise 45.5% of the membership.  Tiny schools add another 26.7%.  Mid-sized schools represent 14%.  The big guys? The remaining 13.7%.

This research has me relieved.  I work at an institution that represents a large portion of NASFAA's membership.  For perspectives on the rest, I have my friends.

R.A.L. - Job Description

Representative at Large (R.A.L.).  According to the board handbook, my job is to "serve as a representative and advocate of NASFAA to the membership-at-large, and as a conduit for providing feedback from members to the association."

Three nouns:  Representative.  Advocate.  Conduit.

Representative. A person chosen or appointed to act or speak for another or others - a mouthpiece.

Advocate.  A person who publicly supports a particular cause.

Conduit.  A means of transmitting or distributing.

In short - I am to practice the art of communication.  I am a conveyer of messages from sender to receiver.  I am a listener.  I am a translator.  I am an interpreter.  My job is to minimize noise.

Distance Traveled

Distance traveled – a phrase that refers to how much ground an object in motion has covered.  What I love about where I work is that we care about this – distance traveled.  Of course, the normal way to relay this concept is to use the phrase lifetime learning.  But I like to define it in terms of the result – distance traveled.

In many ways, as I look back on this blog, it is about distance traveled.  Journeys begun.  Journeys ended.  And thankfully, a journey in progress.  The further you get from the place the journey started, the more clearly you can see it.  In contrast the future remains firmly in the fog.

In January, a little of the fog parted and more of the past became clear.  I was elected to serve as a Representative at Large on the board of the National Association for Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA).  It’s an honor.  It’s humbling.  It’s another real opportunity to travel some distance.  Let’s go!