1 out of 5

Hannah's middle school went on a community service project back in January. They volunteered at the Alameda County Community Food Bank where they bagged oranges for 2 hours. They bagged 8,065 lbs of oranges which will provide about 6,700 meals to the local community.

Food bins that go out to businesses and organizations to be filled.

One out of five residents in Alameda County receive food from this organization. They serve over 116,000 people a month and depend on volunteers to distribute the food to the needy.

Hannah and her classmates bagging oranges.

For every $1 donated, the Food Bank can purchase $6 worth of food. They have that kind of buying power. Their goal is to rid hunger in the county and they do that through buying second hand or irregular produce and foods that the grocery stores don't want to purchase.

The bagging part of the warehouse.

They receive fresh produce daily so volunteers are needed daily to sort. The sorted foods goes out to organizations within 48 hours. Other foods that come in the donation bins also need to be sorted.

The warehouse is like a Costco but it never stays filled. It empties out within 2 weeks. That's how effective the Food Bank is.

The Food Bank has a huge freezer to accommodate all the fresh produce.

Outside organizations like churches, and community organizations come to the Food Bank to gather food to distribute to the needy. Most of the needy are not the homeless but regular families that live paycheck by paycheck; who need to pay their rent or electricity rather than purchase nutritious food for their families.

Our whole family went this time.

The ACCFB also provides food in mobile trucks that go to local schools to distribute food to needy families.

Emily and some of her youth group with Pastor Doug

In May, I took some of our church's high school students along with some people in my bible study along with Matthew's small group to do what we can to help our community.

Matthew with his friend, Gary

We bagged apples, corn, cabbage and carrots. The Food Bank strives to provide nutritious healthy food to their clients. The don't accept candy nor soda donations.

If you would like to donate, know that for every $1 you give, they can purchase $6 worth of food.
http://www.accfb.org/

The Capital (4 of 4)

As we headed to the Capital, we stopped off at the Vietnam Memorial. This circular-designed memorial has full relief bronze sculptures depicting scenes from daily life during the war.  The 5,822 names of our State's dead and missing are engraved into 22 shiny black granite panels.

The Firefighters Memorial is a tribute to over 1,000 firefighters who have died in the line of duty since we became a state in 1850.

Our state capital, where our government leaders work and laws are passed.

The state seal is very interesting. Do you know what each piece signifies?

The seal features:
- the Roman goddess Minerva (Athena in Greek) the goddess of wisdom and war; she was known to be conceived to be an adult and did not go through childhood; like our State we did not go through the growing pains to be an official State; it was like we skipped childhood and became a state much faster then the other states;
- the state grizzly bear (state animal) feeding on grape vines representing our wine production;
- a sheaf of grain representing agriculture;
- a miner representing the Gold Rush and the mining industry;
- sailing ships representing our economic power.
- "Eureka" means "I have found it!" is our state motto.

The Senate Chambers

The decor on the ceiling were painted by famous artists but they were not able to 'sign' their work so instead they created an 'oddity' that would stand out from the rest.

Can you find the 'oddity'?

The Assembly Chambers

The art decor behind our tour guide has a discrepancy also.

Do you see it? I was the first one to find it in our group!

This great grizzly below is from former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He saw it at a ski lodge and bought it on the spot to have in his office. It's named "Mike".

The 4th grade class with Mrs. Hinton and our tour guide from PACE travel, Mr. Rob.

I have to comment on our tour guide, Mr. Rob. He is from PACE Travel which specializes in custom student group travel with a Christian slant. This is what I wrote to PACE Travel, "He was extremely attentive to the kids and parents making sure we were traveling well and accommodated our suggested requests such as to move the visit to Capitol to the end of the day instead of in the morning so we wouldn't have to rush through the Capital to get to our next destination.  He made a point of remembering each of the students' names and took an opportunity to get to know each of us parents individually. He had a great rapport with the kids giving them sticker rewards as he reviewed what they had just learned from place to place. He was also extremely knowledgeable of all the places that we visited. He had many stories and factual information about each destination. He was prompt, never kept us waiting and the bus was always ready for us to board once we were done with one location. Lastly, you can tell he loved the Lord and wanted the kids to see God in everything whether it was to point out how God and His Word relates to all that we heard and saw or pointing out a character in a painting in a museum who had followed God's teachings or when he was praying for safe travels whenever we headed to another location."

I have never traveled with a tour guide (and I have been with many) that prayed every morning  before we headed to our next destination and who genuinely cared about the students and wanted to get to know us as parents. Very refreshing! It made the trip most memorable!

Old Town (3 of 4)

We stopped at the Old Schoolhouse Museum which I thought was pretty cool to see.

The schoolhouse is a replica of the State's early days of education. It is a traditional one room schoolhouse found throughout the country in the late 1800s. 

The kids found the classroom rules very different from current times:
- Boys and girls are separated by side in the classroom;  they are not supposed to play together,  sit together or even intermingle.
- When answering a question from the teacher, the student must get out of their desk, stand next to their desk and curtsy (girl) or bow (boy) before speaking
- When reading aloud they must do the above then read aloud while standing
- There was no paper; just individual chalkboards to write on
- The older students helped the younger ones

After the schoolhouse, we visited the CA State Railroad Museum. It has the Sierra Scene which shows a large scale representation of a construction scene high in the Sierra Nevada representing the Donner Pass (1867) featuring the locomotive Gov. Stanford.

The mail train was fascinating. Potential mail sorters had to sort 70 letters in 60 seconds without error while the train was moving to be considered for the job on the train.

Fun stops: The Pony Express (above) and Candy Heaven (below)

NEXT UP: The Capital

I Found Gold! (2 of 4)

To find gold, we headed to James Marshall Discovery Park.

In front of the replica of the sawmill that James Marshall bulit

On January 24, 1848, James Marshall was building a sawmill for Captain John Sutter using water from the South Fork of the American River. He noticed several flakes of metal in the water and realized that they were GOLD!

A Chinese grocery/herbal store

Some 80,000 immigrants poured into this state during 1849, many whom were from China.

A Mountain Man Talk by Clancy the Mountain Man

We had our own opportunity to "pan" for gold.

Hannah with her teacher, Mrs. Hinton, panning for gold

It was an interesting experience panning for gold. It was definitely not easy. It took a lot of patience and a good eye. The gold flakes were tiny and bright yellow while the 'fool's gold' was more silver than bright yellow. And there were lots of gems in the soil like amethyst. I was lucky enough to find 5 gold flakes. Everyone found gold expect one very determined parent. That's okay. Her daughter found some and shared with her.

Can you spot the gold flake?

Our next stop was to Sutter's Fort. This fort was a 19th century agricultural and trade colony and the fist non-Native American community in the Central Valley.

Guides are dressed in period garb demonstrate pioneer life at this 1840s living history site.

The main building of the fort is a two story adobe structure which is the only original surviving structure at this reconstructed Sutter' Fort Park. It was here that James Marshall privately met with Sutter in order to show him the gold he found while he was constructing the sawmill.

Fascinating seeing how life was in the mid-1800's.

NEXT UP: Old Town

Eureka! (1 of 4)

Hannah went on her first overnight field trip to the State Capitol! I was a chaperone and we had to meet at the school at 5:45am!

In the parking lot praying before we leave

There were only 9 kids going plus 11 adults (including the driver and our tour guide) for a HUGE motor coach! It had WiFi and a charging outlets next to the seats! Sweet!

Hannah was impressed with our 'bus'. It even had hardwood floors!

We stayed at the Holiday Inn. I had the privilege of chaperoning Laneya, one of Hannah's good friends, since her parents were unable to go. Laneya and Hannah go way back. Her mom taught both Emily and Hannah when they were four years old in preschool. Laneya has been in the same class with Hannah since Kindergarten.

The kids of course hit the pool even though the water was cold!

We dined at the old Spaghetti Factory.

Hannah with Laneya and Alice

Yummy spaghetti

But before we hit our State's capital, our first stop was to Gold Bug Park & Mines. These two mines, Priest and Gold Bug, were real gold mines from the Gold Rush Days.

The Priest Mine was dug into the hillside by hand in the 1850's.

We had some great tour guides which explained how the miners were able to find gold (you look for the yellow vein of the walls) and how the miners scaled the walls (called scaffolding) to get to higher ground.

Duffy and Dewey, our tour guide miners, demonstrated how the miners used explosives in the mines.

This was not an easy nor safe profession!

Next we checked out the Miner's Blacksmith Shop. Miners always need to have their tools sharp and in good shape! Breaking down rocks was hard work.

Hannah with an iron snail

Lastly, we visited the Stamp Mill. This large machine 'stamped' rocks into tiny tiny pieces so it can filter and sort out gold from the rocks.

The people operating and manning this machine were brave! It was easy to loose a finger or hand in this contraption!

NEXT UP: I Found Gold!

What on Earth is Going on Back There?

Every afternoon even on the weekends there is always a lot of commotion coming from behind by backyard. Kids talking. Kids laughing.  When I try to peek out there to see what's going on, I can see them but I can't see what they are doing. I've always wondered what they were doing back there.

The view of the back of my house behind my fence.

Well.. now I know. They were planting, irrigating, weeding etc.. Behind my backyard is Tule Ponds, a wildlife sanctuary to many animals and plants that reside in the area along with having a natural constructed wetland combined into a single ecosystem.

It looked like a mini greenhouse was being created behind my backyard. Oh I wish we had a part of this land! My backyard would be so much bigger!

It is not open to the public rather it is open by appointment and reservation only. They mainly host school field trips and student and/or adults who desire to do some community service.

Emily and her friends, Caryn & Adrianne, getting ready to do some physical labor!
Eww ..don't want to know how many other people have used those same gloves!!

To celebrate Earth Day, KHA's middle school worked on several restoration projects:

 non-native plant removal and...

Our 8th graders pulled weeds.. looks like they're working in the rice paddies in Vietnam right?

...dry brush removal from the trails.

6th graders shoveling dry brush

Even weeding the potted plants.

My house is just a few doors down this street from this spot!

It was a great opportunity to help restore and preserve God's creation in our hometown. The kids also took it one step further to support our environment by walking from school to the Ponds (1.55 miles) and taking public transportation back to the school.

My daughter, on the other hand, instead of taking the bus back to school for me to pick her up to come home, walked all the way home by herself. She exited the gate (see above) and walked to our house just a few yards away. :)

That was literally the very first time she walked all the way home after school all by herself.

FFF

 Food, Friends and Family

Of course as the summer ends we headed a few more times to the water park (got to get my monies worth you know with these season passes).

This time with Owen and Grace and their two girls, Faith and Hope along with my friend Helen and her girls.

Grace, Hope and Helen

The water was warm and it wasn't too crowded!

Celebrating Faith's birthday again at the water park (we took her last year too)

We finely dined at the Food Trucks.. checking out what they had this year. It seems that every year there are new trucks and the old ones seem to disappear for some reason..

Faith's birthday red velvet cupcake from Truckin' Sweets!

Lastly we breakfasted with my cousin Henry who was home for a few days. He is in seminary at Dallas Theological Seminary. The FIRST of my family to pursue full time ministry!! PTL!! (He and his brother Jason accepted the Lord in their hearts when they were in junior high at my old church on an Easter Sunday many moons ago!)

Henry is here with Josephine... his girlfriend and I hope soon to be fiancee/wife. We are waiting.. No pressure Henry!

Lastly, we had a Europe reunion at our place with all my family and Michael and Angela's family (who also went to Europe in April) to reminisce about the trip; to see the awesome slide show Matthew pulled together and to check out the 100 page digital album I put together for my parents.

I don't think I had ever had so many people in my family room before!