Bill:  See dumping junk into the ocean is good for the environment! 

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Ship to become 2nd largest intentional reef

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) - Aboard the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, a massive World War II ship last used by the U.S. Air Force to track missiles and spacecraft, it's anything but business as usual.

Crews are preparing the decommissioned ship for sinking Wednesday seven miles off Key West, where it will become one of the world's biggest man-made reefs. Explosives attached to the ship's hull beneath the water level will be detonated to open it for flooding, which should quickly send it to the sea floor. The 17,000 ton, 523-foot-long ship will be sunk on a sandy bottom in about 140 feet of clear water.

''Don't go to the bathroom. Don't go get a beer. It should be under three minutes for the ship to fully deploy onto the bottom,'' said Joe Weatherby, project organizer at Reefmakers, a Moorestown, N.J.-based company that specializes in acquiring, preparing and sinking craft to create artificial reefs.

It's a project that has been years in the making.

The cost is about $8.6 million, from acquiring the ship to cleaning it. Officials in the Florida Keys expect it to pay dividends, up to $8 million in annual tourism-related revenue, mostly from divers flocking to get a look at the underwater spectacle.

The idea is to not only to attract tourists, but to help protect the Keys' natural reefs, already suffering from excessive diving, snorkeling and fishing along with warming ocean temperatures.

Weatherby said people - and fish - will now be drawn to the wreck from nearby natural coral, ''giving the reef a breather, which is what it needs.''

Preparation for sinking has taken months of inspections and cleanup to remove contaminants. Workers hauled off more than a million feet of wire, 1,500 vent gaskets, dozens of watertight steel doors, 81 bags of asbestos, 193 tons of potentially cancer-causing substances, 46 tons of garbage that could come loose and float to the surface, 300 pounds of materials containing mercury and 185 55-gallon drums of paint chips.

The cleanup was performed at two Norfolk, Va., shipyards before the boat made the 1,100-mile voyage, arriving in Key West on April 22. Permitting was required from 18 local, state and federal agencies.

The Vandenberg began as the Gen. Harry Taylor and was later commissioned by the Army as a transport vessel, ferrying troops and supplies from San Francisco to island bases in the western Pacific Ocean in 1944.

In 1945, it carried troops home from Europe near the end of World War II. It was later used by the Navy as a transport ship, and was transferred to the Air Force in 1961, when it was renamed the Vandenberg.

For about 20 more years, the ship served as a missile tracker throughout the height of the Cold War and was retired in 1983.

Mac Monroe, a former mission controller aboard the Vandenberg, said he was pleased the ship won't be turned into scrap metal.

''It's nice to see the old rust bucket again,'' Monroe said on a recent trip to Key West to see the ship. ''And it's a positive outcome for it be sunk and become something useful again.''

Organizers say it will serve as ''the anchor'' to the region's wide array of existing sunken vessels and wrecks from Key Largo to Key West, where some estimate there's a shipwreck about every 300 yards.

The rusty hulk is now tied up at a dock awaiting its final resting place on the ocean floor.

Organizers hope the Vandenberg sinking goes more smoothly than that of the Spiegel Grove off Key Largo in 2002. That 510-foot decommissioned landing ship dock partially sank upside-down, hours before an attempt to scuttle it to create an artificial reef. The sudden sinking sent 40 workers onboard scrambling for safety and left the ship's bow sticking out of the water for three weeks.

The Vandenberg will become the world's second largest intentionally sunk artificial reef.

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http://journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/520073.html?nav=5006

Parker says "Uh-oh" to everything.  He picked it up from little Ian McGuire.  It's cute, he has his little baby voice and he usually says "uh-oh" at the appropriate time.  It's not cute when he is throwing food/bottles/toys and then proclaims "uh-oh."  I keep trying to explain to him that it isn't an "uh-oh" if he does it on purpose; it has to be an accident. 

It's kindeve a long video (30 seconds) but you can hear his little voice and see him waddle around.

(Mom, this is the video I tried to email you but it came back because the file was too big.  OH!  And this is the outfit i got him when I exchanged the outfit you sent at his birthday - the alligator shirt and shorts that I just also bought for him.)

Enjoy!

MOV03913.MPG (10.61 mb)

I gave him this little chicken leg to gnaw on while I was cooking.  I didn't think we would actually eat it but I knew he would enjoy carrying it around and licking it.  The little man did a number on this piece of chicken.  He chewed off every single piece of chicken.  I know some adults that don't even clean the bone like this!

He is a Bondurant.  Of course he likes hot wings.

As we were departing the beach, Stewart asked what beach that was and Bill said, very slowly enunciating each syllable, "Cape Henelopen."  And Stewart bounced back, with a very enthusiastic, "CAPE CANTELOPEN!"  I thought it was cute, I will forever know it as Cape Cantelopen.

These two pictures were taken minutes after we arrived at the beach.  Bill went back to the truck to get the rest of our gear and we were just hanging out, watching the dolphins. 

Frisbee time with dad.  The beach did not stay this vacant.  It got really crowded - we were just there REALLY early! There were a lot of families there with kids running around.  There was also an old man there.  He got there about the same time we did.  He set up his chair and stuff back against the fence - and it took Bill and I a long time of looking at this man before we realized he looked strange because he was wearing a WOMAN'S STRING BIKINI bottom (in teal.)  Not even joking.  Later, when Stewart and I walked up to the restrooms, I swear the man was sitting there NAKED.  I'm not sure which was worse, seeing his junk in a women's string bikini, seeing his crack hanging out of the string bikini, or him sitting there naked reading a book. 

Hey look!  it's me - Stewart and I were frolicking in the ICE COLD water.

Bondurant Boys playing in the sand.

Parker and his 20 minute power nap.  He refused his nap all day - Finally around 3, we got him to lay down.   He didn't sleep for long.

Stewart and his big kid size sand hole.  He got in the hole to show me how big it was and I couldn't help myself.  I buried him in it. (I like how you can see Parker's feet in the corner of the picture!)

I remember taking a lot of trips to the nursery with mom when I was growing up.  I never really "got" the idea of buying flowers etc - it is starting to make a little more sense now.  I have a vision for our front flowers beds and it involves hiring someone to tear out the cement walkway (cause I HATE IT) and tier up our big square shaped flower bed in the front.  It's big and it's a funny shape.  It's deep and I know I should be planting taller plants in the back but the shape is just funky and the builders threw 5 azaleas on that space - never made sense to me.  I have transplanted 3 of them - trying to give the front some symmetry but I am having a hard time getting the look I want.  I have 3 azaleas in the back against the house and then this big empty space between those and the flowers I planted along the sidewalk. 

I have a dream of having big beautiful hydragenas and fluffy peonies - but I'm not all that great with plants.  I have managed to keep quite a few plants alive inside but mostly because all I have to do is water them.  

Anyway, we stopped by the nursery on the way home from our 10 mile bike ride.  We had 2 adult bicycles and the kids bike charriot in the back.  It was crowded and somehow we managed to get 2 big bags of mulch, a big bag of potting soil, a HUGE potted hydragenea, hibiscus, wisteria, and this amazing flower basket also in the truck bed.

We went to the nursery because we needed mulch - and I wnated to replace the dying shrubs in the front - but I was tempted by hydrageneas on sale, and Bill wanted to get the hibiscus for the deck, and I wanted the wisteria.  I think we are both hoping we can get the hibiscus and the wisteria to grow and climb around the deck rail.  

I spent a good hour power washing the deck.  And the whole time I just kept dreading the next water bill.  I felt like I was using a lot of water but Bill keeps saying it doesn't use as much as I would think.  

I'll try to take some pictures.  It looks nice. 

Friday afternoon, we were sitting outside watching Stewart run through the sprinkler, Parker was climbing up and down our chairs.  Out of nowhere, Bill blurted out, "would you be interested in a day trip to the beach tomorrow?"  Of course I wanted to go to the beach but we had quite a bit of chores we needed to do - laundry, cleaning, stock up on beach supplies, pack.  It was late - about 4:30, when we started this discussion.  But somehow we made it happen.  We did 4 loads of lundry, cleaned the kitchen, did the floors, packed, ran up to Wal-Mart for beach snacks, got the plastic tote of beach toys out, got out the beach umbrella, chairs, and baby tent.  We had everything sitting in the garage ready to throw in the truck.

Bill had figured it up in his mind - worst case scenario, we will leave at 3:30am, hit some traffic, and get to Cape Henelopen (Lewes, DE) state park around 8 - and wait in line to get in.  So we got up at 3:30, loaded the stuff up in the truck, woke up the kids (Stewart was very excited) and we were in the truck on the road BEFORE 4:00am!  It only took us 3.5 hours and that included a potty/breakfast stop.  I drove about 3/4 of the way - there was no traffic.  The bay bridge was perfect.  All of the toll lanes were open and we had no problems.  Smooth sailing!

We got to Cape Henelopen at 7:00am!  We were on the beach, with all of our gear (and let me tell you, we have gear!) by 8am.  It was beautiful.  There was NO one on the beach that early, the sand was fresh and cool.  The dolphins were playing just off the shore and I liked watching them go back and forth.  We walked up and down the surf and picked up shells - Stewart got TWO humongous osyter shells and we picked up a big chunk of a glass beer bottle (people are such assholes.  Why would you leave a broken beer bottle on the beach.  It's the beach, 99.99999999% of everyone is BAREFOOT!)

Parker immediately took to the sand.  I don't know if he just liked playing in the sand or if he was having a great time playing with his brother - He played HARD all day.  He refused his nap.  Stewart and Parker were covered from the tippy top of their heads to the bottom of their little toes in SAND.  Parker had sand in his diaper, his ears, his belly button.  We kept slathering the kids in SPF 50 - eventually, we were just slathering on a cream of sunblock and sand.  They are both rocking 2 really short hair cuts so Bill was smart enough to remember to lather up their little heads - I didn't think we would ever get the sand and sunblock goo out of their scalp.  No one came home with a sunburn, execpt for Bill.  His back is lobster red and he won't admit that it is bothering him.  his back is bright red, I just know it has to be bothering him!

The kids ran around, played in the sand, dug holes, frolicked in the ice cold water - and they were alseep within the first 30 minutes of the car ride home.  

It was great to know that we could take a day trip (on only 1 tank of gas!) to the beach and it was nice to come home to our pretty house.

Pics coming soon.

And yes - we taste tested the cake before I blew out the candles.