Mt Etna

1900 meters up Mt. Etna (only 14oo more to the top!) Wasn't a clear day, so no pictures of the peak, but we were able to walk around (yes, it's snow covered!) and see a few extinct craters. One key learning for us was that Etna has many many craters where eruptions have taken place (that is a dormant crater behind the three of us) all along the slope--not just one large crater at the top. We each picked out a small piece of lava rock for ourselves---free souveniers!--before getting back on the bus for the trip back down. Not a fun busride for those who are easily carsick--winding roads the entire way up to the top, and again back down. The view was amazing (when the sun was out at least), and you can see the where the lava flowed down during past eruptions. The guide mentioned that the steam (3rd pic; barely visible) rising from the black lava rock is actually due to residual heat from the eruption--even though it took place years ago.

Walking around Taormina 2 and Siracusa

Having a few problems adding the pictures directly onto the blog...here's a link to a couple more pictures around Taormina, followed by Jenny and Alex's visit to the ancient ruins at Siracusa

http://picasaweb.google.com/cswestphal/SicilyDays345

Walking around Taormina- 1

A few pictures from walking around town--up and down the main shopping street to and from the City Center.

Sicily - Days 3 and 4

Sunday and Monday have been pretty uneventful days. Craig's conference started on Sunday, so he was tied up for most of the day. Jenny and Alex continued some of their sightseeing, and we all managed to meet up for lunch. Jenny and Alex relaxed in the afternoon, and the three of us met up with one of Craig's co-workers for dinner in a nice restaurant. After some mussels, pizza, and pasta (and vino), we headed back to the hotel for the evening. Jenny is still on Philly time--she was up until 4:15am--while Craig and Alex were fast asleep.

On Monday, Craig left at 8am for the first day of lectures. The weather had degraded overnight, and it stayed cloudy and rainy all day--before turning windy at night as well. Jenny and Alex slept in, then headed to a nice cafe located in the town center. They spent the day there keeping dry and drinking cappucinos and eating gelatto. I spent the day inside at the conference, running into my graduate advisor and also seeing the commercial version (on sale for just $1250!) of an invention I had while at GW. The talks later in the afternoon were forgettable, so I headed back to the hotel for some R+R before the evenings happy hour(s), hosted by one of the instrument manufacturers at the other VERY nice 5 star hotel. Jenny and Alex headed off for dinner where they had the best time, making friends with two groups at tables next to them. Jenny looked up at one point and Alex was even sitting at a different table. Both families were from PA--go figure!

Jenny and Alex head to Siracusa tomorrow (Tues) for an all-day sightseeing tour; I'll spend all day at the conference. Hopefully the weather will be nicer--it's not really picture taking weather right now!

Sicily - Day 2

Salve from Taormina! Our first full day in Sicily got off to a slow start (I won't say who slept in late--you can find out yourself by dialing 867-5309; although she is a bit under the weather so I'll go easy on her...) but we made it out for a nice lunch in the town square. Our first thoughts: there are LOTS of hills. And not easy hills easy--walking around town is like a continual stairmaster. After some authentic (and delicious) cappucinos, gelatto, and pizza in an outdoor cafe, we walked around shortly before Craig headed for a 4-hr lecture on uncertainty budgets and error propagation exercises in chemical analyses. Alex and Jenny really wanted to go too, but decided to walk around town some more instead. Very beautiful and scenic--narrow, winding streets, balconies filled with flowers, crazy Italian drivers... We met up again in the evening and walked around---it's Carnivale time here; the streets are filled with kids in costumes, silly string, confetti, and music, which makes for an interesting and fun atmosphere. Jenny had found a nice out-of-the-way restaurant for dinner, and we had a nice, relaxing (read: long) dinner, enjoying veal and chicken marsala, pasta carbonara (sadly, Craig still prefers the Stoufer's version), gelatto again, and some cannoli (we left the gun . . .) We're back at the hotel and plan to take a 2 hr walk tomorrow (after another of Craig's exciting lectures on Antimony in the environment) to a castle on a hill overlooking the town--we'll hopefully have some good pictures of Mt Etna when we do that (you can see part of Etna in one of the pictures below). Ciao for now...

Sicily - Day two

A few random pictures from our walk around town...


 

Sicily Day One

We made it...finally! Months of anticipation and a few days of worry with the winter storms in the NE, but when all is said and done, we're here! Craig was able to make it to and from Columbus to drop Charlie off earlier in the day, and then the three of us caught a 2/3 full flight (because so many people didn't make their connections to Philly on-time) to Rome--it was nice to be able to stretch out and sleep on the way. We had a short layover in Rome, hopped on a flight to Catania, Sicily and then took a taxi the remaining 65km to our hotel in Taormina. Exhausted, we slept/read/relaxed for the afternoon, ate dinner at the hotel, and retired early in the evening. These are a few pictures from the hotel room--it's a great view looking out in the Ionan sea (at least that's what we think we're looking at!)


 

Valentine's Day Party for Charlie

The baby playgroup had a Valentine's day party this week which Charlie went to (in his red outfit below that reads Handsome and has a heart and arrow with Baby in it on his pants). He's really crawling now and moving around, and his favorite thing to do is pull himself up from sitting to standing position. He's one happy baby...


 

Pinewood Derby 2007

A quick recap and pictures from the race. Alex and I both built cars this year, as they had a parent only division. Notice the Jeff Gordon DuPont hat...

The outcome:

A few quick facts: the fastest car came in at 2.5489 sec, followed by 2.5503, 2.5579 and 2.5783. The slowest car was around a 3.25 secs. Last year, 1/2 of the cars were slower than 3 seconds (same racetrack); this year, only 3-4 cars were slower than 3 seconds---a huge improvement, which made the competition very intense.
Alex's car: 18th out of 46 cars; final time (4 race average): 2.6509 seconds. There was a problem the first race (not quite sure what; I don't think it was put on the track well) and his car ran a 2.77s time; if we factor that out, his 3 race average was 2.611 seconds, which would have put him in the top 10 cars. Our goal was to be in the top 1/2 this year, an improvement over last year. Final car weight: 4.9 oz (5 oz max) Unfortunately, three other kids in our den were in the top 10 (only den where that happened), so we finished 4th and didn't earn a ribbon. However, after losing the first race, Alex's car destroyed the competition in the next 3 (including a victory over his best friend in the 4th race), so he was able to enjoy the thrill of victory a few times (and it is a great sight to see him jumping out of his chair and pumping his fist!)
We spent a significant amount of time on his car playing around with the wheels, which was probably our downfall--the axles got loose and it was difficult to keep them in the optimum position. I also bought a test track, so we spent part of Fri. night having practice runs down the hallway to make sure the car went straight. All told, a lot went into the car. We finished his car around 10:30pm on Fri., at which point I got started on mine. I cut mine out, sanded it quickly, and applied two coats of paint before retiring to bed at 2am. I was up at 6:30, put the finishing touches on (paint and decals) then put the wheels on. A few test runs down the track, and we were out the door.
Craig's car: 2nd out of 11 cars (parent's division); final time (4 race average): 2.5927 seconds, which put it as the 5th fastest car of the day and earned a ribbon for place.
Go figure.


The pre-race Press Release:

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines
Press Release: For Immediate Distribution
The Mark and Westphal Racing Teams are pleased to announce that they will be competing in the 2007 Annual Pinewood Derby, held this Saturday at New Garden Elementary School (Landenberg, PA). The Mark Racing Team will be making its second appearance, and will feature its "Green Lightning" car #64 this year. This wedge-shaped based car design boasts an unique fin design added behind the seat to improve the aerodynamics and handling, particularly down the course straightaway. The car, laser green in color with a metallic golden front end design, will also feature a cylindrical-shaped weighting system along its rear fin, to come in at a total weight just under the allowed 5 ozs (weighed in accordance to Good Laboratory Practice guidelines on scientific balances accurate to 0.01 mg, thanks to a joint partnership with DuPont and Jeff Gordon). A precisely balanced wheel and axel system will utilize an unique Teflon(R), graphite, and baby drool lubrication system to minimize friction and provide the maximum velocity allowed by the laws of physics.
The Westphal Racing Team will be making its inaugural entry in the adult-only competition. The Westphal Racing Team car will feature more of a "free-form" design (ie. whatever I think of in the next 16 hrs) and hopefully have four wheels.
Winning prizes in both divisions include 2 tickets to the Busch Racing Series in Dover in 2007, and bragging rights amongst the other scout members and parents.

 

Alex's B-day party #2

After dinner and cake were finished, we had a "design your own treasure chest" activity, where each boy got a wooden box they could then paint and decorate. Overnight, golden chocolate coins magically appeared inside. Once this was finished, the boys got ready for bed and we opened presents, and then put the movie Monster House on. The movie finished around 10, and the boys were...still wide awake. Aha--let's put another movie on! Chicken little finished around 11:30, and the boys were...still wide awake. After turning out the lights, things quieted down somewhat. One by one, the boys gradually fell asleep (thanks to some encouragement from Craig, who had to keep walking in and "gently" reminding the boys to be quiet). Things went smoothly for awhile, until whispering could be heard at 4:15am, with the boys starting to get up. After being "gently reminded" by a now awake Craig that it was time to still sleep, it quickly deteriorated and everyone was up by 4:45. We had quiet time until 5am, when Gameboys could be played, and by 6am everyone was up and downstairs playing in the basement again. Breakfast was ready at 8, and we started giving the boys back to their parents around 9. All in all a great time, although everyone was exhausted from it the rest of the day.


 

Alex's Birthday PARTY!

It was a simple idea...we'd have a few kids over, have some pizza, play some games, do a craft, then they'd watch a movie and fall asleep. We'd have a nice relaxing morning with homemade pancakes and sausage, and the kids would go home. However, the equation: (Kids * 8) + Pizza + Cake + (Crazy!) does NOT equal Sleep. The party started off with 8 (!) boys playing games in the basement, from air hockey to racing cars to Xbox, followed by pizza and cake (a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed party).


 

Random Charlie pictures

A few random Charlie pictures