Schulert Family Road Trip: Comic Book Heroes, Mermaids and Singing Pigs

Nicole's Day

I know no one wants to hear about the boring work stuff I"m doing, so I'll keep it snappy and then hand the mike over Arthur.

I heard two amazing speakers! First, Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran was there speaking about her new book, Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books. She passionately spoke on democracy, empathy, and the responsibility of Americans to read and be informed. I loved her and thought she would have been a better choice of opening speaker--she was inspiring.

And then, yes, I was here for Stan Lee's talk. I know! I can't believe it either! He was amazing (and adorable)! The line to see him was incredibly long, but most everyone got in. He opened by saying: "Books are good. You can quote me." My favorite part was when he was telling us about how much he loves reading and then completely blanks on the name of the poet who wrote "The Raven." He even offers to recite the entire poem next time--but the name is just gone. We move on. Then, no joke, half an hour later while he's in the "conversation" portion of the program with a high-profile Disney Hyperion exec, he exlaims: "EDGAR ALLAN POE!" obviously startling the interviewer and totally derailing the line of questioning. The audience roared! My other favorite part was when the interviewer asked him what kept his creative energy and drive going, and he replied "Greed" with a spark of mischief in his eye. You can tell that's not true. He's so sweet and self-deprecating, you would never guess that this man was responsible for Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, X-Men, the list goes on. Just Wikapediad him and discovered he shares a birthday with Grace! (They're only 87 years apart.)

I heard about lots of other interesting things, including Sacramento Public Library's Espresso Book Machine. I think it is so fascinating that libraries are morphing from content holders to content creators. From 3D printing to in-house publishing, who we are and what we are doing is changing drastically.

For some reason, there's an Annie Oakley Dr.
in Las Vegas--Jane was excited.

Everyone Else's Day

Arthur, Heather and the girls dropped me off at my conference and then headed on out to Ethel M's Chocolate Factory for a behind-the-scenes look at candymaking.

Is that Lucille Ball back there?

Super cool assembly line.

The girls got to press their very first penny. Jane was very into this, so that may become the souvenir of choice on this cross-country adventure. I think Grace has already lost hers.

There's a cactus garden behind the chocolate
factory. The girls are sporting Auntie's shades
and everyone looks rather hot and miserable.
Time to move on!

Then it was off to see the aquarium and Mermaid Show at the Silverton Hotel. Heather was kind enough to treat them to lunch, so got there early and spread out their McDonald's picnic in front of the fish tank.

What Arthur and Heather thought was going to be a cheesy little show ended up being totally amazing! The mermaid swam in and immediately the girls were mesmerized. She then spent about five minutes interacting with each group of kids. She waved and blew kissed and did flips. Jane now wants a mermaid costume and intends to start a Mermaid Club (with Grace) in the hotel pool.

She could blow the bubbles and move them into shapes--this is
the beginning of a heart.

There were air hoses throughout the tank and
she'd take a breath and then do more tricks.

After the show, they came and picked me up from my convention. We headed back to the hotel room and napped for about an hour before our next adventure. Uncle Zach had arrived, so he and Auntie Heather headed to dinner.

Ham Radio Field Day

Mt. Charleston rising in the background.

I think I had mentioned that Arthur is a new HAM operator, having received his license just over a year ago. Well, apparently radio clubs have field days. We knew that we would be missing the Rio Hondo Club's field day, but Arthur had the brilliant idea of seeing what was happening in Las Vegas. And sure enough, their club was hosting one, too! So we headed up to Mount Charleston (which was at least 15 degrees cooler!) and checked out their field day.

Glow sticks for everyone!

We were all kind of timid and so tentatively hiked down to where they had their set-up. And were immediately met by the most kind-hearted and welcoming people, as well as Homer the Ham, a singing pig that the kids got to carry around. Arthur was whisked away to where the guys were busy talking on the radio while I sat and chatted with some amazing women (who were also HAMs).

Jane was immediately adopted by a sweet 15-year-old girl, Lexi, who helped her make a crown out of her glow sticks. She put her hair into a pony tail and then fastened the glow sticks to that. Jane swears that she will use Lexi's pony tail holder in her hair every day now (Mom and Heather understand the significance of that). Grace wandered around blowing bubbles (which they also gave to them) and shouting "HERE COME BUBBLES! ARE YOU READY FOR BUBBLES?) and Rosalie contentedly munched on a cookie that someone produced for her when they noticed her gnawing on a bubble wand.

I've been up in the air about getting my HAM license. But, I think I will. These people are my kind of people. I can even become a National Sister through the Sisterhood of Amateur Radio. Anyone want to do this with me? (I'm looking at you, Suzanne!)

Broadcasting on a 15M band, talking to people on the east coast.

This is the antennae he's using.

We made it back to the hotel in time for a very brief dip in the pool, and only because I'd promised they could go night swimming and they really wanted to test out their glow sticks in the water.