Having a Little Fun in Reno!

It's September! That means a weekend in Reno, NV for the annual trip to see the National Championship Air Races! This was the event's 51st year and for the AvGeek in me, it was great to see some Balls-to-the-Walls action, as usual! This year we had the military back in participation albeit, still lacking compared to previous years; it's clear that the effects from last year's sequester is still lingering in some places. But I had a great time at the races anyways. This year, my dad and I drove (through Oregon, into northern California and into Nevada) while my uncle flew in with his two boys, making for a small group this year. We still had fun because half the fun is about spending quality time with each other and pigging out with some of the best food Reno has to offer (Here's hoping to a slightly bigger group next year)!

View of Mt. Shasta just south of Weed (don't laugh!) as drove through northern California.

The home pylon at the Reno Air Races.

We made the drive Thursday morning after I got off work (that's right, I got a job working nights at a food processor in the Quality Control department) and arrived into Reno in the late-afternoon. After checking into the Cal-Neva hotel, our usual place to stay, we hit the town with some food from the Nugget for some wings and Reuben sandwiches!

Gotta love their wings!

Reuben sandwich with fries as well!

While we stuffed our faces, we played nickle Keno at the bar; as long as we played, we got free drinks! Yep, we know how to do things right in Reno...

Better yet, I walked away with some winnings with my four numbers! The new family-courtesy rule is that the one who hits the most four-spots (and wins money) must buy a member of their immediate family (namely, my dad!) breakfast the next day.

Friday morning, we had breakfast at the Top Deck Restaurant in the Cal-Neva. And as part of my courtesy for walking away with the most in winnings the night before, I bought my dad breakfast. We had steak and eggs:

No caption necessary here!

After breakfast, we drove down to Carson City to pick up my uncle and his twin boys from the airport there. Because it's air race weekend, most airports around the Reno-area are busier than usual with people flying in from all over. Now I normally don't post my aviation photos on here because I like to  reserve them for aviation blog, but I'm willing to make an exception this time. Here's my uncle as he landed in Carson City:

Last year, he cracked his exhaust pipe (yes, airplanes have exhaust pipes.) landing in Carson City. This year, he had to replace a battery AT Carson City because it went dead en route and was without radio or other electronics (thank goodness for cell phones!). The year before that... I can't remember what it was the year before last year, but the point is it's ALWAYS something when he flies into Carson City! (Maybe the yellow paint job on his plane is bad luck?)

After a morning in Nevada's tiny state capital city, we drove back up to Reno for lunch. We ate at the Sushi Saga at the Siena hotel!

Typical California rolls

My personal favorite nigiri sushi: Maguro (blue fin tuna), Salmon, and Unagi (eel).

While we were eating, we were in for a treat! The restaurant brought in a whole blue fin tuna fresh from the market and we got to see the chefs cut it up!

That's a BIG tuna!

The sushi chefs at the Siena are just awesome guys!

It doesn't get any fresher than sushi straight from the tuna. They gave us the fattiest part of the tuna and it's just melted in my mouth! Also, I had some Inari (tofu skin/curds). The Sushi Saga still stands as the best sushi place in my opinion here in the states.

For the evening, it was back to the Top Deck for some dinner.

I always loved the French Dip plate at the Top Deck.

Saturday was a day at the races! But you can read about that on my aviation blog when I get around to posting it. For breakfast, it was BACK to the Top Deck and I chowed down on some high-calorie Chicken and Waffles:

I don't who came up with the idea of putting fried chicken and waffles together but I think the combination of the two smeared in syrup has grown on me.

Dinner time after a great day at the races, it was back to the little Nugget casino for the one and only Awful Awful burger along with some more wings:

Because it's Awful Big & Awful Good!

Sunday was another day spent at the air races with a twist: my uncle scored box seating, which we would normally avoid but a kind gentleman with  quite a few vacancies offered them to us and we were enjoying the view with a cooler full of drinks!

View of the box-seating area.

And with that, the races came to a close as quickly as it started and my aviation passion for the event was satisfied with nearly 1,000 new photos! Another good year in Reno in the books! We enjoyed the evening afterwards and went our separate ways Monday morning, dropping off my uncle and his boys at Carson City Airport and me and my dad making the drive back to Oregon, just in time to go back to working the night shift later that evening!

View of downtown.

Can't forget the awesome Reno sign!

And this year's funny t-shirt that I ended up buying this time around:

Just makin' my statement regarding certain cliches and taboos about dating known! What can I say? I'm what you call an "Aerosexual!"

Update: Check out my recap of the Air Races on my aviation blog!

New Family Addition

My mom wanted a new cat because our third one, Hemingway (Hemi) disappeared after going outside one night. Yesterday, after our family lunch down in Albany, OR, we drove back up to Salem and went to the Willamate Humane Society to look at cats and kittens. One particular kitty caught my mother's eye and long story short, she adopted him... 

Little guy all tuckered out.

Personally, I was fine if we did not adopt a new cat but my mom insisted because she was going through some emotions that were the results of Hemi disappearing. But I eventually grew to like this little guy so we were fine with welcoming this part-Lynx (named Link) into our family. As for Hemi, well, wherever he is, dead or alive, rest in peace little buddy.

Whatta basket case!

All I Could Eat

We went to a pretty decent Asian buffet down in Albany, just south of Salem called Golden Town Buffet. Pretty predictable name right? But like I said, it was pretty decent stuff and the lunch hour prices are quite reasonable. As always with buffets, you gotta get your money's worth. Any Asian buffet with sushi is a good start.

Inari, Salmon, and shrimp, but sadly, no tuna.

My only complaint is why doesn't an Asian buffet that serves sushi, not serve my favorite, tuna (maguro)?!

Chinese deep-fry and egg-drop soup.

Yaki-soba noodles among other things.

Mongolian Barbecue stir-fry.

Despite my complaint, it's a pretty decent selection of food so I'll take it for all its worth. Plus, we ended with a decent dessert selection so it was a buffet worth going to.

I stayed in Idaho for THIS!?

I left the proximity of Rexburg and BYU-Idaho on Wednesday and I'm still in eastern Idaho! I never planned on staying with my relatives too long since I'm anxious to get home and I have 12 hour drive ahead of me. But before I go, I got talked into doing gyoza one more time...

Sittin' pretty in the freezer!

Only the best Japanese treatment for my relatives who have been here for me while at school!

The End of Another Long Semester

I had my last class on Monday and took my one and only testing center final exam the Saturday prior, so that means Spring Semester of my Sophomore year at BYU-Idaho has come to an end. After two semesters of having four days of classes per week, this recent semester definitely required some getting used to since I had to go back to a routine of five days of classes per week; I really could have used that extra day out of my week to unwind and spend time getting assignments done but beggars can't be choosers. A few of my classes felt non-stop all the way to the bitter end so naturally, I feel like I've been chewed up and spat back out. But that's life... And besides that, I finished the semester with straight A's for all my classes, which of course is a pretty great accomplishment.

This past Spring Semester was full of highs and lows; let's start with the lows so I can end this post on a high note (no pun intended!)... Classes and crazy assignments aside, one of the biggest frustrations I've had this semester was (believe it or not!) Church-related. I wrote about these frustrations here on my religion blog last month but to summarize, I was a Sunday school teacher and after the middle of June, I ended up not teaching for the rest of the semester because the class I was assigned to for the semester apparently got cancelled. To be honest, this felt like a big waste of my time and efforts I put into for the class. I was already worn out from my classes, the time I needed to study for them, as well as the commitments to volunteering at the Legacy Flight Museum but this whole debacle with my college ward Sunday School organization made things worse for me by adding unneeded stress. But the semester's done and I'm officially off from school so I can finally breathe easy from this!

Now for some semester highlights! I had great roommates this semester. What was even more nice was that there was only four of us in the six-man apartment this semester so there was room to spare amongst us. But I really enjoyed the company of my roommates this semester simply because I could easily relate to them due them being from the eastern part of the U.S., areas I once lived at and fondly familiar with. And let's not forget my relatives who conveniently live in the area. That means quality time spent with them and being able to turn to them in times of need. I said it before and I'll say it again and again: My family is awesome.

And last but not least, being an aviation geek (AvGeek for short), one of the biggest highlights I've had so far this year has to be volunteering at the Legacy Flight Museum located in the same town where I go to school to. The museum afforded me opportunities to be around what is to me, the greatest sources of inspiration in my life. It also gave me a place where I could "retreat" to in order to get away from the monotony and rigors of the school campus. Being a volunteer, I had a variety of tasks I could do so it was never boring. One minute, I was giving tours to visitors; the next minute I would be cleaning a vintage World War II-era aircraft. And sometimes, the museum was my quiet place to get some homework assignments done. Not only that, I met and got to know some incredible people who are part of the regular museum staff. What happened in the middle of the semester was the bi-annual air show hosted by the museum, which is held on even-numbered years. Once again, I got benefits of being a volunteer by getting to attend a V.I.P portion of the air show, which is held the day before the main event. This was perhaps the high point for me during this past semester. But then again, anything that has something to do with aviation is a high point for me!

Well, I'd say it was pretty great and interesting semester and a job well-done. But one thing's for sure: it is definitely time for me to head home for a well-deserved off-time from school and enjoy being around my immediate family for a change.

4th of July Shenanigans

I can't believe I spent my 4th of July in Ashton for two years in a row now! If you recall, what I did for the fourth last year, there was a parade, there were some cool fly-overs by some P-51s. Yeah, all that happened again this year and I'm glad I'm getting to spend the weekend with my relatives. The Legacy Flight Museum brought their two P-51 Mustangs over for a couple fly-by passes again this year. And of course, there was the parade:

Gotta love the retro stuff! Later on we went boating out on the Snake River in my uncle's boat. Definitely a good way to spend a hot summer afternoon on the 4th of July!

Hmmm... Should he be texting and boating at the same time???

Just to be clear, it's not a jet boat; we can't make those giant rooster tails with the water.

I'd say we had some great 4th of July Shenanigans! Happy Independence Day! Go America!

Things Start Heating Up

The month of June means summer is officially here, and I'm STILL in school. Oh, well, that's what I get for being on the Spring track here at BYU-Idaho. Honestly, I don't even know why they call it Spring Semester if it eats into half of summer... But their reasoning is apparently beyond me so I'm not even gonna ask. I figure if I can get an update a month (if you still read these things!) I'm doing relatively well. School is busy, as expected. It's been a busy month as well; volunteering at the Legacy Flight Museum for this month was especially busy because of the air show. I had a blast at the biennial Legacy Air Show because for me, it two days worth of air show buzz; first we had the V.I.P. exhibition the night before the air show and then actual show itself.

They gave me a media pass and V.I.P. parking pass! Perks of being a volunteer!

What I didn't realize is that the day of the air show was Flag Day, which would've been my grandmother's 85th birthday. It's been such a busy month that it's hard to think about the little things sometimes... The weekend after the air show, I had to attend one of my numerous cousin's wedding, which happened to be in the area. The main venue: a riverside view of the Snake River near Ashton! I kid you not, it was a beautiful day and the scene around the venue really complimented. Oh, and of course I enjoyed the company of my many relatives as well as the new in-laws. Now, I'm not that into wedding or hanging around for long periods of time but I certainly did enjoy the company of my extended family members and I suppose that's what counts.

Funny story related to this: My dad was going to ask one my aunts or uncles to get my cousin a wedding gift on our behalf only to realize that he has a son (that's me!) going to school in the area. I was like, "Thanks a lot dad!" Seriously, I feel like he's forgotten about me! Long story short, I was relegated to getting a gift for my cousin, which I was happy to do, but at the same time hated and that's because of what happened last year, when another one of my cousins got married. It was the day I flew home from my first year at college; I remember my arrival into Portland was mid-morning (which was nice) and I got picked up at airport by my sisters. Only, we didn't go directly home. We instead spent the subsequent hours looking for and picking out a wedding gift for my cousin and his soon-to-be wife (which in turn, cancelled out the nice mid-morning arrival factor from my flight!). And when I mean "we", I mean my two sisters. I was dead-dog tired from the getting up earlier that morning, the flight, and the bus ride the day before my flight and was just anxious to get home after being away from school. I didn't set foot into my home until about 3 PM that afternoon. My thoughts about that were, "People go through ALL this trouble for a wedding gift?!" Fast forward to today, and I still don't get all the trouble people go through. And THAT'S why I'm not really that big into weddings.

Other than that, things are going rather smoothly here. Just one more month and I'll be heading home for the off-track, which will be a welcome sight.

Do you see the kitty camouflaged with the carpet in this photo?