I took 2 hours for a sight seeing trip while in San Diego to walk through
USS Midway Museum, which was just a short walk from my hotel. I took a few
photos of the flight deck, control tower and views around the harbor. Hope you
enjoy this brief tour.
I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to see how our Navy crews lived through
WWII, Vietnam, and Desert Storm.
In the Vietnam War, I flew Helicopters for the 155th Army Air Corps. The Vietnam
workhorse Huey helicopter, one very similar to what I flew back in 1970 was on
the flight deck. During the Vietnam War, I'm sure the USS Midway provided air
cover for several of the Missions I was involved in while serving.
The runway and conning tower of the United States' longest
serving carrier in the 20th century.
It was fascinating to learn that this ship burned 260 gallons of oil for every mile
and carried a 3.4 million gallon fuel capacity. The new carriers are powered by a
Nuclear reactor, so refueling isn't a problem anymore.
Another trivia tidbit that awed me - the USS Midway served 10 tons of food daily
to the crew of 4500. 3000 potatoes and 1000 loaves of bread served daily.
And 500 pies were served when offered.
A Slide show of all my USS Midway photos can be seen here.
Would your kindergartener come home and ask for a bowl of cereal
in Mandarin Chinese? If you live in the Forest Hills School System
in Grand Rapids Michigan, this isn't as far fetched as it sounds.
The Meadowbrook Elementary School is home to the Forest Hills
Chinese Immersion Program. This program is the first of its kind in
West Michigan. The program just received a Federal Grant of $238,000
for the first year. If all program objectives are met, it will receive
additional funds for the next 2 years.
Leaders in Forest Hills educational community decided to add Mandarin
Chinese Immersion to their bilingual offerings with the assistance
of Michigan State University's Confucius Institute. Currently 2
Chinese teachers are on the school faculty to give students in
the program an early start in bilingual education.
The Forest Hills District is continuing to expand Mandarin language
courses at middle and high school levels. With 55 percent of the
world's population speculated to be from Asia in the year 2025 and
5 percent from North America, being fluent in Chinese will be a real
asset in the future business world.
Forest Hills also has a Spanish Immersion Program running at the
Ada Vista Elementary School.
Front doors are the first impression that visitors and passersby get of your home.
We all make instant judgments about a home's interior when we see the front door,
just like we do about a person we first meet. If you want to make a good first
impression, you should make sure your front door is attractive and welcoming.
I have a fascination with front doors. I drive by homes and look at the front door
or front entry. I love to see a home with a touch of personality or a piece of artwork
displayed by the front door that lets me know a little bit more about them.
Do they like animals? Are they proud of their home? Does everything appear to be
in good repair?
This front door reminds me of castle. I saw several doorways similar to
this in England inside castle walls.
Holidays and seasonal decorating are especially fruitful for my voyeuristic entertainment.
I especially like the his and hers well-dressed scarecrows guarding this front door.
We attended Rebar Camp in Indianapolis on November 2nd. We had a wonderful
time, met some great people, and got all juiced up on Social Media. Seriously,
if you have the opportunity to attend one of these free seminars, you really should
take advantage of it. Some of the best and brightest talents on the web were
presenters. Plus you get the input of everyone attending, so it is a very intelligent,
knowledgeable crowd with expertise in many areas.
Here are few photos of our groups soaking up the information:
We want to thank the Indianapolis hosts and planners for being so welcoming and
sharing their Rebar Camp experience with us.
Thank you - Lola MacIntyre, Dave Woodson, & Harrison Painter
Cascade Hospital for Animals is holding a canine blood drive on Saturday,
November 14th, 2009 from 10am to 5 pm at their facility, 6730 Cascade
Road SE, Grand Rapids Michigan.
Blood donation is a simple procedure, taking less than 30 minutes, and does
not require anesthesia or sedation. Dogs must be healthy, friendly,
50 pounds or over, between one and six years old. parasite free, current
on vaccinations, have no heart murmur, and not taking the following
medications: thyroid, Phenobarbital, NSAIDS, steroid therapy, or allergy
injections.
If accepted for the donation drive, the pet will receive approximately
$235 worth of blood work performed free.
If interested, call 949-0960 or mail chfa@chfa.net.
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Our team strives to provide Buyers & Sellers in the Greater Grand Rapids Mi Area the best resources & user friendly tools we can find to make a stress free decision about their real estate investment
As leading real estate professionals in Grand Rapids MI, including Ada MI,
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We have provided video tours of some of our local areas so you can get an
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Click on the communities below to view:
Ada Caledonia Cascade East Grand Rapids
Local Information Blog Articles:
Ada Township Hall Rockford Park #2 EGR Park
Local School Links Watermark Country Club
Caledonia Park #1 Real Food Cafe Rockford Park #3
The Grille Restaurant Forest Hills Foods
"Green" Grand Rapids Famous GR Natives Ada Township Park
Cascade Park Leslie E Tassell Park
GR-Top 50 Cool Cities West Mich Golf GR Micro Brew Pubs
GR Dream Home GR Baseball GR Facts
Foreclosure Home Grand Rapids Golf
We strive to provide information, tools, and resources so Buyers & Sellers can make informed decisions
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Terry is a very dedicated realtor! Our family can not say enough good about him. He was patient, persistent, creative and very knowledgeable in the selling of our home.
Our home was on the market during the time when homes in Michigan were not selling. We had an old farm house with acreage on a very busy road__ not an easy home to sell even in good economic times. With Terry's persistence and dedication we fortunately were able to sell our house. Terry even persisted on working coming right out of surgery. He completed the buy/sell agreement for our home a day after he was discharged out of the hospital. What dedication!!!
Our family would highly recommend Terry for selling or buying a home. He developed a personal relationship not only with my husband and I but also with our two teenage sons. What a wonderful realtor to have during a "stressfull" time for our family. Thank you so much Terry for all you did for us!!
Mary Beth, Mike, Kenzie & Dalton 
After six disappointing months with another company, we signed with Terry. The activity increased immediately and he sold our home quickly and easily. Tom & Joan
Terry helped us sell our house, then buy property to build a new one. Our family is now enjoying our wonderful new home. Jeff & Heather
When I started looking at buying a home in Grand Rapids, I met with a couple of realtors, and in a matter of 2 years, I had only been shown 3 houses. So, I decided to try looking on my own. I spent a lot of time looking in the paper, and just driving around. I went with a good friend one day to look at a house I had seen in the paper, and ended up driving around for quite a while trying to find it. She said, "Chris you can't do this on your own, it's too time consuming. You need someone to do all this looking for you. We'll call my realtor when we get to my house." Being a full-time working, single mom, I knew she was right. I was very apprehensive about making this call, as her house was substantially more expensive than the price range I was in the market for. So, my thoughts were that I would just be "small potatoes" in her realtor's eyes, and he would probably not spend much time assisting me. Especially since his commission would depend on the price of the house. But, we made the call and I set an appt to meet with him. We sat down, and he asked me lots of questions, and gave me some information about different areas in Grand Rapids. He took notes on what I was looking for (no other realtor had done that) and we scheduled an appt. to look.
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I have to thank you for the super job you did getting me so well settled. It could have been a very traumatic time but everything moved as " smooth as glass. " Your preparation was awesome, too. I sold real estate for only 2 years and I wasn't near you in the work you did for me. You sold my house and have me so well tucked in the new one in about one month! Has to be a record. Thank you and Bonnie, too for everythng. I can recommend you very happily -
Loretta M.
Just a note to let you know how much I appreciated everything you did for me in purchasing my condo - the circumstances were not great & the problems were many but you made it all happen pretty smoothly and always with a smile on your face. You have a great way of making sure we all "get with the program!"
-Lin C.
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