Home again and back

Well, after a good May I was going to head home at the end of the month. The main reason was to get back in time for the boy's graduation. Brian was graduating from the UofA and Kevin was graduating from high school. This was going to be a busy month. We also were still very busy with work trying to finish up all the early tool set and be ready for the start of running test wafers in July. We were doing well but still a little behind on a few tools.

A couple days before I was going to leave for home I had to change my plans as we had too many of our folks that had already went off on a vacation. I was planning on getting home in time for Brian's graduation from the UofA but was unable to. I was sad I was not going to be able to make it but there was no way I would have been able to stay home long enough to be able to go to both the boys graduations. Brian was OK with me not making it to his and Kathy, Kevin, my mom and dad and Kathy's mom all went down to Tucson to go to the graduation. As you can see it was a good ceremony. I am really sorry that I missed it. Kathy and Kevin also met Jenny's parents too. I have yet to meet them.

What a crowd at McKale center at Uof A

Here is my mom and dad with Brian

Kathy with Brian

Kathy, Kevin and Kathy's mom with Brian

While I waited another week before I was able to go home and be there for Kevin's graduation, I hung around China like usual. The weather was getting really nice by now. The days were warm but the evenings were still cool. Right before I was going to leave the folks at our favorite hang out decided to have a cook out to celebrate Cindy's birthday. Cindy is the owner of the bar. She has become a good friend with all of us so she invited us to come to her party. It was our first official outdoor cookout for the year. What a good time.

A little booze, beer and meat and what a good time

The next day I left for home and was ready to get there and have fun. I was looking forward to seeing everyone and enjoy Kevin's graduation. The night of the ceremony it was a nice night. You never know in Arizona at that time of the year. It could be way too hot to be able to be outside or there could be a massive dust storm that could come in and blow everything away. Well, we lucked out. Neither happened and it was a wonderful night. Other than my mistake of which side to sit on it went off without a hitch. Kevin did really well as he graduated number 25 in his class of over 400. He got to sit in the "Front Row"

Here is the ceremony on the football field.

Kevin with my mom and dad

Here is Kathy and her mom with Kevin

The next week after the graduation we were able to get down to Mexico and spend a couple days in our condo on the beach. I have missed going down there and relaxing. The weather was great and there wasn't too many people down there at Rocky Point. Kathy Kevin and I went down there for about 3 days.

Here is the view from our balcony

Beautiful sunset over the water in Rocky Point.

After a couple weeks at home I set off for my other home again. Yes, back to China. The good thing was that Brian decided that he was going to visit me for a few weeks. He flew out the week after I got back. He was with me for a couple weeks before Kathy was planning on coming out. He just kind of took the time to relax and enjoy a culture that he was not used to. He had taken a semester of Mandarin Chinese and he was able to practice it while he was here. He was very good at it. He and Nicholas were having very good conversations. He was able to carry on a solid and understandable conversation. I had been here for about 9 months and I couldn't even speak as well as he was.

While he was here and before Kathy got here, we did a few things. The first weekend he was here we went up to Dang Dong. This is the city which is about 2 hours from here to the north. It is right next to North Korea. It also has a portion of the great wall. I thought Brian would like this. We spent the day up there. Walked the great wall, saw the damaged bridge between China and North Korea and went to the Korean war museum. Nicholas was wonderful and drove us up there and back in the same day. I really appreciate him. It was raining when we left in the morning but ended up being a nice day and we had a great opportunity to walk the wall.
Here you see North Korea in the back ground from the wall

Brian with North Korea in the background

From the wall overlooking North Korea

The little river between China and North Korea

The rest of the time that Brian was here before Kathy came to China we spend watching the world cup soccer games. We did a little shopping and ate out a lot, but we just waited for Kathy to show up so we could head to Beijing and Xi'an. That will be in the next blog.