What better way to celebrate the independence of our nation than by blowing up a small part of it?

On Saturday, Provo had its Fourth of July parade, in celebration of this great nation's independence. We saw marching bands, floats, horses, and everything else you can think of! THOUSANDS of people came out to see it! People in Utah have large families so there were hordes of rambunctious blond children running around all over the place! I saw tons of things I didn't even know Utah Valley had...

Like...llamas:



...the Lehi silver bad:



...and even the local undertaker:



...and best of all, Army ROTC! For our float, rigged the George Q. Cannon (named after an LDS Apostle) to the back of a jeep. Here are the cadets with George Q.:




Our jeep/cannon was last in the parade, and for a dang good reason too! Every block or so we would stop and invite someone from the crowd to fire the cannon. Of course, we used blank shells so it wasn't as dangerous as it sounds. Usually a bunch of kids would come up to pull the string while their parents snapped a photo. The kids loved it, and so did the all the spectators.

About six of us followed behind the cannon to make sure that nobody got too close it, and we also tossed salt-water taffy to the kids in the crowd.



Seriously, this was probably the funnest Independence Day ever!

Here are some videos of people firing the cannon:








Isn't that awesome? KA-BOOM!

The whole time the kids waved to us, their parents applauded us, and dozens of nubile young women blew us kisses (or made other coquettish gestures in our direction.) All this makes me glad I'm doing Army ROTC in a conservative, patriotic community that reveres the military and values freedom.

Good signs

Here's one from Monday's outing:



I love ironic photos.

Here's one I saw on my way to campus this morning:



Apparently some trucker drove a little too close to it.

Family Home Evening!

For FHE yesterday, we went up to Bridal Veil Falls (a waterfall that lies halfway between Provo and Sundance.) Check it out:



I've been here a couple times before, but this was the first time we actually hiked up the trail to reach the top of the falls. Along the way, the trail was replete with families riding around on bikes and skateboards and teenagers toasting marshmallows. I guess other people had the same idea we did.

Once we reached the top of the trail, we took a group photo of our FHE "family.":



These are some cool kids.

Some of us even ventured all the way to the top of the ridge. It was amazing, especially the cool steam from the waterfall. Here's me posing at the top:





Once perched at the top, I got this great view of the whole valley:

Road Trip!

One hour after I finished my last final, Drew and I were on the road heading down I-15 towards Las Vegas. Once you go south of Utah Valley, it's...vast. Seriously, there was nothing there 'cept an occasional podunk town and truck stop. After four and half hours of driving, we saw Las Vegas:



We spent the night at the house of our former Young Men's President (for those of you who aren't LDS, that's roughly the equivalent of a youth pastor.) He's retired from the Air Force and now works as a dermatologist. He and his wife are super-nice and the kids are amazing (they've grown quite a bit.)

On the morrow, we continued our journey through the Mojave Desert and finally arrived in sunny California. I should probably mention that the main objective our trip was so that Drew could visit his fiancee, Erin. She's on an internship in Glendale (a suburb of LA.) This is the house she's staying in:



Yes, I did feel a little awkward being the third wheel...but, Erin is way cool. We spent Friday afternoon walking around old Pasadena, including the park (which was full of bums.) Speaking of which, we did a little bumming around ourselves:



Wow, aren't we some brazen law-breakers?

We stayed in Drew's aunt's house down in Mission Viejo.



Nice place, huh? For four days we just crashed on their couches late at night and left early in the morning. Most of the time, I don't think they even noticed we were there.

We checked out San Diego on Saturday...including the USS Midway (a WWII-era aircraft carrier that has since been converted into a museum.) If we were sailors, this would be our living space:



If I were a bad sailor, I'd be in here:



This is my favorite part of the ship, the aircraft:



Isn't that cool? I should join the Navy (just kidding!)

We also checked out the Sunset Cliffs by the beach:



I was surprised by the number of fishermen present.

The best part of the day, however, was stopped by the San Diego LDS Temple on the way back:



What a majestic edifice. LDS Temples are a photographer's goldmine (even for those who aren't members.)

On Sunday we went to Church. Erin's chapel looks unlike any other LDS meetinghouse I've ever seen:



It's got that California/Western motif going in its style and color scheme.

On Monday morning, we piled back into the car and rode back on up to Utah Valley (in one day.) On our way there, we stopped by Las Vegas and got In-And-Out:



...and there was much rejoicing.

The End.

Finite Element Analysis is a pain, but at least it won't last forever!

My engineering classes are maddening.

I'm also taking a history class. Last week, we had to present a "creativity project" featuring a modern take on something from the ancient world.

As an engineer, I opted to do something with Roman aqueducts:



These babies are the reason why the ancient Romans had indoor plumbing (even though my great-grandparents didn't.) I used this aqueduct (located in Segovia, Spain) as an inspiration for my project: an aqueduct waterslide! It uses the same hydraulic technology as a normal aqueduct, but it can used for fun!

I used AutoCAD to model my idea:




...and here's the final 3D rendering:




I also made a video so you can get an idea of what it looks like: