October 1 - 21: Box City LA, Uncle Al, Steve Jobs, Popcorn, Art show, Cafe Evergreen, Uncle Al's birthday, Amy's memorial, Baby Charlotte

I spent most of the past ten days playing a video game called "Xenoblade Chronicles." It's been great so far, but I'm not done yet. And I don't have any pictures. So what else has been going on for the past three weeks?

From Box City LA

October 1: I visited my friend Nat at Box City LA. Nat is in my church group. Box City LA is a fundraiser for Family Promise of San Gabriel Valley (FPSGV). The event was also supposed to create awareness of homelessness by having people pay for the privilege of sleeping in a cardboard box overnight. (Or a tent.) FPSGV is supposed to become a big part of our church, Evergreen Baptist Church of LA.

October 3: I visited my uncle Al again. We took a walk in the park, and I caught this picture of him looking tough. Don't mess with Uncle Al. :-)

I've been getting to know Uncle Al a lot better over the past few months. I used to wonder if he could cook at all, since he seemed to eat out a lot. But here he is, cooking some noodles for me! I think he knows a lot, actually, but it's just a lot of effort to shop and cook for only oneself.

From Uncle Al

So, there was more unavoidable gluten. And that was totally fine. (I've discovered that I do get immediate bloating from pasta or something. Maybe it's a chemical reaction?)

From Macintosh

October 5: Steve Jobs died. I feel like I owe a lot to Steve, or at least to Apple. Apple products have definitely had a big impact on my life, and I don't think it's fair to assume my life would be the same if Apple hadn't been around.

On the Apple website, they said you could send in memories, thoughts, or feelings about Steve. Below is what I sent.

Subject: Thank you, Steve, and everyone who has worked at Apple.

My father died at 53. He got pneumonia, and he had a latent autoimmune disease. This was in 1994. I didn't realize it until this year, but Apple--and the Macintosh--showed me a side to my father that I might never have known.

My dad, Paul Hom, was the youngest of 12 brothers and sister: 9 boys and 3 girls. My dad was only about 2 years old when his dad died, and everyone in the family had to work hard to survive. (They ran a produce company, David Hom Produce, in San Diego.) My dad grew up learning how to be frugal and to do things on one's own. Eventually, my dad worked his way through college at UC Berkeley, then law school at Hastings. My dad was so frugal that, in law school, he lived out of his car and ate canned food, until he got pneumonia one winter.

Some time after becoming a lawyer, my dad felt called to help people in a different way, so he went through medical school and became a doctor. My dad worked as a doctor for the County of Sacramento for several years, up to his death. He also started a free clinic for poor people in Sacramento, and it still runs today as the "Paul Hom Asian Clinic." I think my dad felt very strongly about helping people.

Even though my dad was a doctor (and a lawyer), he remained frugal his entire life. He would buy produce from the farmer's market under the freeway, not the grocery store. We always ate at home, never at a restaurant. Instead of buying new cars, or a normal used car, my dad would buy a car at police auctions and try to fix it himself. He never bought new clothes or shoes: if my dad's sneakers got a hole, he would use "Shoe Goo" to repair them. At Christmas, my dad would wrap our presents in newspaper. At least he used the Sunday comics section whenever possible.

So my dad was always frugal. Always. Except for the Macintosh. Our first one was a Mac 128K, so I must have been 7 or 8. I didn't know enough about computers to know how different this was: graphics and a mouse. I remember the tutorial for learning to use the mouse, which involved a man throwing a paper plane out a window. I also didn't know how much computers cost, or how much a Mac cost vs. a PC.

As I grew up, we later got a Mac SE, then I think a Mac Classic. However, I found myself wanting a PC instead of a Mac. PCs had all the good games. In high school, I even convinced my dad to buy us a PC. But I used it only for games. All my homework was done on the Mac, and everyone else in the family used the Mac.

My dad died right before I went to college, but we've remained a Mac family. We've had an LC III, a Performa, and several iMacs, iBooks, MacBooks, and a Mac Mini. Today, I am an independent Apple Developer working on my first iPad app.

When the Mac 128K was released, apparently it was $1,995, which would be about $4,000 today, adjusting for inflation. I think my dad once paid $800 for the family station wagon at a police auction.

Until that first Mac, my family had never had a computer. My dad was smart enough and thrifty enough to buy a cheaper computer, maybe a build-it-yourself one or a used one. But he must have seen something special in the Macintosh. Something that would make him volunteer to spend more than the family car.

I think I saw it, about a year ago. I was with my ninety-year-old grandmother. We were waiting for her dentist appointment, so I brought out my iPad. My grandma has never used a computer in her life, but I opened the Photos app and was able to teach her how to move from photo to photo. Suddenly, she could see her children and grandchildren! If we had had more time, I'll bet I could have taught her how to use email.

I know the Mac and the iPad are due to more than just Steve Jobs. I'm not even sure if my dad thought about Steve Jobs at all. Maybe Dad just thought, "Apple. Mac. Good." But I think my dad and Steve shared a common belief: That everyone should be able to enjoy the fruits of society, not just those who are rich or savvy. Today, Apple products are a lot more affordable than they were in 1985. But, both then and now, they've always pushed the envelope of accessibility, usability, and, well, society.

Thank you, Steve, and everyone who has worked at Apple.

From Popcorn

October 6: I was making some microwave popcorn that Mark had bought from the 99-cent store. (3 boxes for $1, with 4 bags of popcorn in each box!) The popcorn has some "Helpful Hints." The first one reads, "For improved results, preheat a cup of water on high for one minute in microwave oven. Remove cup of water and proceed with popping instructions."

The more I thought about this hint, the more it intrigued me. Why would this work? And what if we left the cup of water in the microwave? Would that help more or less?

I ended up doing a quick test with two bags of popcorn: one with the helpful hint, and one without. I couldn't tell a difference, but then again, I didn't do it correctly: I stopped each bag popping when I thought it was done, when I should have run each for the same amount of time. And I should have done more trials.

Maybe next time that I have enough people around to eat all the popcorn, I'll test this again. :-)

From Art show

October 8: Some of my church group went to an art show at the church. We were hosting local street artists, since the city (Rosemead) apparently doesn't have a public art gallery. As part of the art show, one of the church members conducted a sketching class. I like this photo, because it's just the teacher and six people from my church group. (Daniel's in the corner taking a photo.)

October 9: My cousin Kristen and her husband Mike were working in Cafe Evergreen. Cafe Evergreen is a small cafe at the church; it runs only between church services.

From Cafe Evergreen

Mike figured out how to work the church's shaved ice machine, so that's their speciality.

Thank you for helping out!

In mid-October, we celebrated Uncle Al's birthday. A lot of Homs gathered at Uncle Al's place. In this photo are Luke, Caroline, Brandon, and Katie. Katie's the one making a funny face.

Some Homs looking at a memory book made for Uncle Al. What I really like about this picture is that the three Homs look like they could be one family, but actually they're three different Hom families. (Sort of.)

Everyone seemed to have a great time at the party. I'll describe the scene clockwise from the piano: Cousin Karen played while cousin Gayle sang. Derek, Uncle Al, and David enjoyed listening. Uncle Tom and Uncle Jim chatted on the couch. Auntie Evelyn also listened.

Ah, family.

From Uncle Al's birthday

After most of the people left, Uncle Al had an assignment for us: he wanted a huge cabinet moved! Fortunately, we had Mike's "Forearm Forklifts." If you haven't heard of Forearm Forklifts, they're the orange straps around my forearms. They're sold on TV in an infomercial. I had my doubts, but now I'm a believer! Mike and I easily moved the heavy cabinet through the house and into the garage. It was almost like the Forearm Forklifts made me stronger. Like they gave me super powers.

October 20: I went to the memorial for a church friend named Amy.

Amy was an older lady: she lived into her 80s, and I think she was a teenager when she and her family were sent to an internment camp during World War II. I didn't know Amy that well, but several times we had eaten in the same lunch group after church.

Amy didn't have any kids and never married. I think she was a little bit private. It took almost a month after Amy died to get in touch with her closest living relative. So I was surprised when I heard about the memorial, and I was worried that no one would come. But actually there were a lot of people! I guess Amy lived a life of quiet service and friendship.

Amy was a librarian, and she got her Masters in Library Science from USC. I was really struck by this photo. Several people in my church group are at or were at USC. Here, it looks like Amy could fit right in with us.

I really like this photo, too. It's so natural. It's wonderful that someone captured the moment. (And this is way before digital cameras!)

From Amy's memorial

I mentioned that Amy never got married. But when we saw these photos of Amy, several of us commented on how pretty she was.

When I meet an older person who isn't married, I often wonder to myself, "Is this person not married by choice, or did they want to get married, but life just didn't work out that way?" I hope Amy was happy in this life.

And as the pastor said during the memorial, Amy should now be eternally happy, in the presence of the love of God.

From Baby Charlotte

Finally, just the other day, Kristen and Mike visited with Baby Charlotte. I volunteered to "hold" Charlotte for awhile, as you can see. No, I haven't changed a diaper yet! But I would. Maybe.

September 8 - 27: Off Street Cafe, Paige & Tiffany, cleaning, fixing computer, short lamp, and unavoidable gluten

There's this new word I've been hearing/using for the past few years: foodie. It's someone who's really into eating good (tasty) food. I'm not a foodie, but it seems like everyone else is.

Anyway, my cousin Mark got me hooked on this Food Network show called, "Restaurant: Impossible." This guy and his team help struggling restaurants turn around in only 2 days. It's actually a very nice show; you always feel warm and fuzzy at the end.

One of the restaurants on the show is the Off Street Cafe in Cerritos, CA. It's pretty close to us, so I wanted to try it out. We went for lunch.

The inside of the Off Street Cafe, after the makeover. Very white and cheery. I like the plates as wall decorations.

Although it was lunch time, they serve breakfast all day. Mark would want me to point out that all the food showing isn't his, even though it looks like it. :-)

Both our breakfasts were quite sufficient. For my starch side, I had to choose corn tortillas (gluten-free diet). Mark chose biscuits and gravy. You can see both in the picture. The tortillas worked really well with my meal, but I can't shake the feeling that Mark chose more wisely…

The Off Street Cafe's cinnamon roll. I think that's melted cream cheese on top. It was literally dripping off the cinnamon roll.

Mmmmm...

From Off Street Cafe

If you watch the episode of the show, you'll want to visit the cafe. One of the owners invested her entire retirement in the cafe and had been working there for decades. The other owner had so much trouble making ends meet that she was waitressing 30 hours per week to get by. All things considered, I give the Off Street Cafe 5 stars out of 5!

From Paige & Tiffany

These are my friends Paige & Tiffany. We're in the same Bible study group. Both girls were celebrating their birthdays that week. I had bought all these boxes of Gluten-Free Rice Krispies, so I made Rice Krispy treats.

One weekend, my relatives and I had a special mission: cleaning.

It started sprinkling that day. The drops reminded me of puppy feet.

My cousin Cindy was in charge of doing laundry. Lots of laundry. Halfway through the day, my cousin Pat and I went to help her out.

See, here we all, all smiles. Ready to do laundry.

Overall, I think Cindy ended up doing laundry for 9 hours straight. And I mean straight. We had half a dozen washers and dryers running in the laundromat continuously. (Did you know they have washers that can do 6 loads at once!) I don't remember sitting down once.

From Cleaning

So by the end, we were a little tired. But at least we could still laugh about it.

Our new motto is, "So many sheets!"

A few days later, I had to fix a computer for one of my uncles. The computer had simply been moved from one home to another in a car, but now it wasn't working.

From Fixing computer

I was stumped, but I called my friend Glenn in Sacramento; he's an expert at building and fixing PCs. I had to take this picture to remember where all the cables went.

In the end, Glenn led me in the right direction, and we saved an expensive trip to the repair shop. Whew! Glenn, thank you!

From Short lamp

Later, I was staying at an uncle's house, and we didn't have enough lighting in my room. But I found a small Chinese lamp and this lamp shade, so I made a short lamp. Isn't it cute?

On Day 90 of my gluten-free diet, I faced a dilemma. I was having dinner with one of my uncles, and he made me a stew.

From Unavoidable gluten

The stew definitely looked like it contained gluten/flour/pasta, and lots of it. But my uncle had never cooked anything for me before. Also, he had recently suffered a stroke.

In the end, it was an easy decision. I ate the stew with gusto. And then I had a second bowl to clean out the pot. I definitely felt bloated later that evening, something I hadn't felt since starting the gluten-free diet.

But the privilege of eating my recovering uncle's home-made stew? Priceless.

August 14 - September 6: Grocery shopping, praying mantis, basketball, Santa Barbara

I've been on a gluten-free diet for about 70 days. People often ask me if it's hard to stay on the diet. The hardest part is eating out, since I don't know what's in the food. So, this is forcing me to go to the grocery store, but I don't mind since it's cheaper.

I was walking through Albertson's the other day, and look what caught my eye!

Special, gluten-free Rice Krispies! I thought Rice Krispies were already gluten-free, but I'm not complaining. What I appreciate most about this is that "Gluten Free" is so prominent on the package.

From Grocery shopping

Later, I was at another Albertson's with my friend Nick. We saw Cinnabon pastries, which can be warmed in the microwave. How long do you think that takes?

The box says "3 secconds"! A misprint?

Actually, only a few minutes ago (as I'm writing this), I saw a guy microwaving a cinnamon roll from Panera Bread. He had it in an enclosed plastic box and set for 1 minute, but we told him to stop after 15 seconds. 15 seconds was plenty, so I guess Cinnabon knows what they're talking about.


Once or twice a week, I visit some friends at a software/business group called Atlas. We help each other with programming. Recently, they got a pet praying mantis.

The mantis' name is Darrell (not to be confused with the Atlas founder, Daryl). He (or she?) was just a baby when we got him, so he's been molting. I assumed Darrell would just break out of his old skin, but it's like he just slipped out of his old exoskeleton.

How did he get his legs out?!


We feed flies and crickets to Darrell. Darrell will eat them only if they're alive.

Poor cricket.

From Praying mantis

Here's Darrell!

From Basketball

The church I attend, EBCLA, has a summer basketball league. I didn't play, but several people in my Bible study were on a team, so I watched a couple games. In the last game of the season, they won by one point!

I hope all the teams had fun!


On Labor Day weekend, my Bible study group made a day trip to Santa Barbara. It was my first time there.

Below is a view from the pier.



Doesn't it look beautiful?

Santa Barbara has a main street which is very long and has lots of shops. However, we had lunch at Panino, a sandwich/salad shop a couple blocks away.

I had the curry chicken salad, which was perfectly tasty.




After lunch, we walked up and down the main strip and to the beach. Some people went kayaking, and some went to a coffee shop. Kayaking was only $12 per hour per person, so I may try it next time!

Here, we are waiting for a dinner table at Pascucci. Less than half of our Bible study group came on the trip. On the other hand, almost half our Bible study group came on the trip!

From left to right, it's me, Nancy, Peien, David, Daniel, Nat, and Vince. Daniel, Nat, and Vince were our resident photographers, so that's why these photos look so good. Nat's photos are here, and Vince's are here.

At dinner, I was able to levitate some of the silverware!

(Some of the knives were magnetized, for some reason.)

Pascucci's had gluten-free pasta. Yay!

After dinner, Peien wanted to visit a pub. As he informed me, a pub is quite different than a bar.

We ended up at The James Joyce, an irish bar (pub) featuring live music. They also had infinite peanuts, pool was only $1 per game, and soda was only $1. Nice place!

From Santa Barbara

Vince took this great photo of me playing pool. Thanks, Vince! (How did he do this? Was there a mirror on the ceiling?)

Since this photo looks so cool, let's pretend I made the pool shot. :-)

July 18 - August 14: Hope for Horses, Mt. Shasta, Mom and Grandma, Audrey's egg, relatives, Vacation Bible School

After the Hom cruise to Alaska, I stayed a few days in Seattle.

One place I visited was Hope for Horses, a place I used to volunteer at. Hope for Horses rehabilitates abused horses, but they also work on advocacy, law enforcement, and prevention.

This cat is Sister Mary Agnes. I like cats, but they're even cooler when they're just chilling in a horse paddock.

From Hope for Horses

Here are my friends Anna and Jenny. The two mini donkeys were acquired by Jenny after they were seized by the government from a wealthy person's estate.

If you're interested in helping law enforcement stop people from abusing their animals, check out Chandler Edwards, a related organization.

From Mt. Shasta

I had to drive back from Seattle to LA, so I asked for some riders on craigslist rideshare. I know rideshare can sound scary, but 100% of my rides have worked out. Everyone saves money, I save on driving, and I get to meet new people. Win-win-win!

For example, I was able to take this great photo of Mt. Shasta, because someone else was driving at the time. :-)

From Mom and Grandma

Back in Sacramento, my grandma had *just* moved in with my mom. I think as recently as a year ago, my mom wouldn't have dreamed that that living situation could work. It's a bit of a miracle! Yay!

From Audrey's egg

While in Seattle, it was also a sad time, because my Auntie Audrey died recently. I keep hearing of this book, "The Five Love Languages." I haven't read it, but I think one of Auntie Audrey's love languages was making things for people. Pictured here is a sugar egg that Audrey made for me and my sister when we were kids. (There's a detailed scene inside the opening, but I couldn't get a good photo of it.)

Back in LA, I was hanging out with some relatives recently, and I had to take this photo. On the left are Auntie Suan and Uncle Well; on the right are Caroline and Brandon, whose parents are elsewhere. I like this photo because Caroline is showing Uncle Well how to use an iPad. Isn't that cute?

From Relatives

Later that evening, I went to Olive Garden. I'm still on a gluten-free diet, so I was curious what I could have. They have a special gluten-free menu! There weren't a ton of options, but I was happy with it. Looking at this pasta, can you tell it's gluten-free? (It tasted good, too. :-)

From Vacation Bible School

Today at church, we celebrated the end of VBS: Vacation Bible School. I've never really participated in VBS, but I think it's like summer camp for church kids, except it's held at the church each day. This year's theme was "Superheroes of the Bible." That's why "The Incredibles" led worship today. Note that the children are sitting in the middle of the sanctuary. They were all really well-behaved throughout the service! Amazing!

June 18 - July 17: Caltech again, chess, granola bars, Anime Expo, a fossilized shell, washed car, family cruise to Alaska

Greetings from Seattle! I was hoping to blog after Anime Expo and before the cruise … oops. Here are some highlights since my last post:

From Caltech

June 18: My friend Andreea, from Caltech, flew in from Chicago for a wedding. I was able to catch up with her and some other Techers. Clockwise from the left, it's Jon (Andreea's boyfriend), Andreea, Erik (fellow Avery alum), Habib (another Averyite), me, and Diana (Erik's wife).

Also, my old clamshell phone was dying, but Habib happened to have exactly the same model that he wasn't using. Habib, thank you!

From Jim & Mark

June 21: Uncle Derek came to visit. He's actually my blood-uncle's wife's brother, so not technically my uncle, but whatever. Anyway, some of my aunt's side got together to see Uncle Derek. Derek makes his own board games, notably Telepathy and Color Fever. During the get-together, my cousins Jim and Mark played a classic board game: chess.

June 30: Anime Expo was coming up, then my drive up to Seattle. I wanted some snacks for both of those. At Albertson's, I came across some granola bars. Little did I know that these would lead to the most epic series of grocery coupons I had ever seen.

Look at the sale signs for the granola bars. The first is that the bars are on sale at 2 for $5, vs. $4.19 for one. That seems like a great sale.

But additionally, the signs say, "Save $5 on your next shopping trip when you buy 4 participating General Mills products in a single transaction using your Preferred Savings Card." I was confused that "$5" was being used for two different things, but it seemed that I could buy 4 boxes for $10, and it would essentially cost me $5. I decided to try this.

At checkout, I paid $10 for my 4 boxes of granola bars, and the coupon dispenser gave me a coupon for $5 off my next purchase. Sweet!

And then it gave me the label shown.

It reads, "Congratulations! Now save even more! Buy Nature Valley Granola Bars. Buy (3) & get $1 or buy (4) & get $2 or buy (5) & get $3 coupon off your next order."

Attached to the label was a second coupon, for $2 off! (Since I had already bought 4 boxes.)

From Granola bars

Then the coupon dispenser gave me a third coupon!

It reads, "Free: Up to $4.50. One gallon of milk. Compliments of General Mills."

I have no idea why this third coupon appeared, but I wasn't complaining.

So would these coupons work? And could I use them all at once? Could I use them to buy more granola? The answers were yes, yes, and yes. I went back and bought 4 more boxes of granola and a gallon of milk. All three coupons worked, so I saved $11.50. (The milk coupon actually deducted $4.50 off the total, so for a $3 galloon, I saved an extra $1.50.) 48 granola bars and a gallon of milk suddenly cost ~$2.

Then the coupon dispenser gave me the same three coupons as before!

In the end, I left Albertson's with a couple hundred granola bars, a couple gallons of milk, a couple coupons for free milk, and a rotisserie chicken. (I had to spend my last coupons on something other than granola bars, or the cycle would never end. :-)

Thank you to Albertson's and General Mills!

July 1-4: Equipped with my vast collection of granola bars, I went to Anime Expo, at the LA Convention Center.

A lot of the fun of Anime Expo is seeing people in costume, both from anime (Japanese cartoons) and related genres (comics, video games, etc.). The people in costume, known as cosplayers, even self-organize by theme. Here is the Pokemon cosplay gathering. (Check out the guy dressed as Giovanni, right side in the orange suit.)

Anime Expo also has a lot of premieres. They showed the first episode of "Last Exile 2" ("Fam, The Silver Wing"), even before it was released in Japan! This photo is of a life-size picture at the Last Exile booth.

The girl dressed as a sky pirate (right) was handing out "Last Exile 2" posters, but one had to do what she said. She told me to do 15 jumping jacks. Exercise, and a free poster! Win-win!

This cute couple dressed as the Ice Climbers from Nintendo.

Ganondorf from the Legend of Zelda series.

There were as many anime costumes as video game costumes, but I haven't watched a lot of the newer anime series, so I didn't recognize a lot of the cosplayers.

Sazh from Final Fantasy XIII! This is my friend Godric, from the Game Developers Conference. Godric, great costume!

Anime Expo has a large "Dealer's Room" where you can buy any and all anime merchandise.

Some of the merchandise isn't even related to anime. This booth sold "Giant microbes," plush versions of microbial organisms. Things like HIV, penicillin, and yeast.

From Anime Expo 2011

For a niche company, they sure had a lot of giant microbes. Included on the list are a brain cell, chickenpox, gangrene, red tide, sleeping sickness, toxic mold, and an ulcer.

Note the upper-right: "Catch them all!"

From Fossil

July 7: After Anime Expo, I drove to Sacramento. My friends Joe and Glenn helped me tune-up my car. Also, I borrowed Joe's chisel to break apart a rock that I had found on the beach in San Diego.

Inside the rock were fossilized seashells! The biggest shell in the photo is about one inch long.

From Car shiny

Joe and Glenn gave my car its 60,000-mile tune-up. (Joe's a Toyota mechanic.) They also helped me vacuum and wash my car, so it was clean inside and out for my drive to Seattle!

July 10 - 17: Cruise from Seattle to Alaska, on the Sapphire Princess. This was a Hom reunion, and there were 35 of us!

My sister Mary. In the background is the Seattle skyline.

I had started a gluten-free (no wheat, etc.) diet a few days before the cruise. At first, I was bummed about this. But then I thought, "At least on a cruise, they should have plenty of options!" Here, the waitstaff brought me gluten-free bread (left). The regular bread is on the right.

Our first stop was Ketchikan, Alaska. And my first stop there was the McDonald's! Thank you McDonald's for free Wi-Fi and refills on soda!

I saw this sign on the Ketchikan docks and immediately thought, "PSP: PlayStation Portable." But it's actually an alert for Paralytic Shellfish Poison.

Ketchikan was full of seaplanes. As a kid, I loved watching the Disney cartoon, "Tail Spin," which borrowed heavily from the Miyazaki anime film, "Porco Rosso," which is one of my all-time favorites. Both make seaplanes seem *awesome*.

The cruise ship had many entertainment options, including fancy shows in a theater. This photo is from the Cruise Staff Talent Show. On the left is the Cruise Director, who is in charge of entertainment. I can't really describe this skit adequately, but it featured lots of water spitting and the Enya song, "Only Time." Actually, the skit was clever, cute, and funny, and my favorite entertainment memory of the whole cruise.

After Ketchikan, we went to the Tracy Arm Fjord.

The scenery was breathtaking, literally.

The bright white part in the middle-top is a glacier, slowly melting to the water below.

At the end of the Tracy Arm Fjord is a huge glacier. This was as close as we got, but I think other cruises have gotten much closer. Maybe next time!

I think one reason we turned back was that we saw this pregnant seal on an ice floe. (The onboard naturalist said she didn't run away when the ship got close, because she was about to give birth.)

The ice floes in the fjord were amazing. Apparently they had all come off the glacier that day. Some ice floes had this amazing sequence of blues.

Here, you can see the melt-off from the glacier mixing with the existing water.

During the cruise, we had a couple of Hom gatherings to make sure that we didn't just keep to ourselves. You might have to know us to appreciate this photo, but it's several different Homs just hanging out with one another. Love it.

After Tracy Arm, we sailed to Juneau, where we saw the Sea Princess, an older Princess ship that still looks great. I find it fascinating a ship can be so large as to carry other ships on it. The orange boats in the middle of the ship are called tenders. Here, the tenders were being used to ferry people to shore, since there weren't enough ports.

In Juneau, I did a little souvenir shopping. I really liked these piggy-bank variants: moose bank and …? They were only $13, but I realized I didn't need a piggy bank. Er, moose bank.

On our ship, my mom, Mary, and I slept in one room. But we had a great room with a balcony. In the photo, look at the sizes of the balconies. Notice the ones in the middle have larger balconies (and thus larger rooms)? One of those was ours; I think they're for handicapped people. My mom didn't need a walker or wheelchair on the cruise, so I think we just lucked out with an upgrade.

After Juneau, we sailed to Skagway. They have a small but dense museum, which includes this bear.

Notice the shadow of the bear. Isn't that interesting?

The Skagway museum had an old map showing where gold was in Alaska. The map seems to indicate that gold was everywhere, which would make the map a bit irrelevant.

Uncle Well and my mom rest from walking around Skagway. Skagway is a small, quaint town of 700. I really liked it; it felt like the show, "Northern Exposure," in a good way.

Skagway has a train that runs for tourists. Next to the train is this ice digger, which just looks awesome. Like something out of a Jules Verne novel, except this was real!

A couple nights on the cruise are designated as "formal nights," in which everyone is supposed to dress up. It's a good opportunity for formal pictures. Here is a small fraction of the Hom generation after mine. Five families (out of 30+) are represented here.

On the cruise, one can eat at a buffet or experience "traditional dining." We all had the latter, so we would eat together. This fancy appetizer had caviar and salmon eggs.

On the last night of the cruise, some of us gathered together to eat some more and play some games. This is nine (or ten) Homs, from three different families, playing the game "Sequence."

I hauled that game up all the way from LA. (Kristen and Mike, thank you for letting me borrow it!)

The last night wasn't over yet. My sister wanted to check out the "Farewell Party" in Club Fusion on the ship. She said no one else was dancing, so we should. Surprisingly, some of my other relatives really wanted to go, too, and I also went. Here are my Auntie Valerie, cousin Jonady, cousin Adrienne, and Mary dancing. In the background is Uncle John.

There's actually a video of this scene. (I can't believe I'm linking this.)

From Hom cruise 2011

A post-cruise tradition: checking our cell phones. This is my mom, my cousin Lance's wife Jonelle, and my cousin Lance.

This was our second Hom-reunion cruise; the first one was to Mexico in December, 2005 and had ~60 Homs. That cruise was life-changing, but I enjoyed this cruise to Alaska just as much.

Thank you to Uncle Al, Aunty Loretta, and everyone else for organizing such a wonderful time!