Now into week five of our family’s new adventure I am pretty busy the next three weeks or so! I am amazed at how many local leaders and friends from all over the place have been an encouragement to me and my family. As the Kirkpatrick clan is praying about our next step for employment or ministry–it is a family affair by the way–we are excited to watch God begin to unfold some things.

• Intersection Road Trip: Vince from Gateway Church Austin runs the Internet Campus there and he invited me to join him on a “blog tour” from Austin to Chicago. We will see or interview the likes of Jon Acuff, Pete Wilson and creative mentor and friend Randy Elrod. We end up in Chicago at the Story conference. Look for some live streaming and some great stuff!
• I will be guest worship leading at some very impressive ministries the next weeks as well. I’ll be leading all three services at TheMET Jones Road Campus in Houston on September 26, the three contemporary services of Rancho Community Church in Temecula on October 2-3, and all four services of Lamb’s Fellowship in Murrieta the 10-11th of October.
• I am working on writing for some websites and starting a business. That I will have to tell you about later.

Anyway, please be praying for me this week and the following weeks. I’ll be updating here occasionally.

We are enjoying our stay in Canada. I thought a list of some favorite things might be in order, even if just to remind myself.

Here is a random list of 10 COOL Canadian things in Victoria, British Columbia:

• Ketchup flavored Lays Potato chips and ketchup by Heinz that is made with no cane sugar which with that and whatever else they do to it makes it taste better.
• Currency that actually is easy to recognize and the fact that they have a $1 and $2 coin. With expenses, the exchange rate is near even right now.
• Parking was cheap or free most of the time or we could walk to most places.
• The polite Canadian border officers who when for some reason I misheard the officer’s question about “mace” (or a”BOOT” mace) led them to do a cavity search of our vehicle.
• The pride for their country and region of British Columbia which reminded me of Texas people when I lived there a few years ago. The museum docents where entertaining with that and their passion. Of course, I am enchanted by history and a good story. We ate it up.
• Moxie’s restaurant, and Swan’s Pub in Victoria were both good. One for the food and service and the other for their brew and ambience. Actually, the food was good at the latter and the brew good at the former. Thumbs up on almost all our food and beverage experiences. Also, Cuban cigars are an added bonus..
• The weather has been amazing here.
• The town of Sidney was a nice diversion from Victoria, with a pleasant on-the-pier bistro and an air museum we enjoyed.
• The Royal BC Museum was a good stop. We decided to skip the garden thing everyone is trapped to tour.
• The locals may not like this for business, but for peak season we were not worn down by crowds in the slightest.

Any of you have some experiences or other suggestions for Victoria or your vacation spot this summer you can share?

We have logged in over 1600 miles, plus a ferry ride to the island of Vancouver in British Columbia. So far, our trip has been a great time for the four of us. Victoria is simply an amazing place. Here are some bullets about our trip so far:

• Staying with friends and family is a huge highlight…we have not seen some of these very important people in our lives for over two years! Priceless conversations.
• Our new car (Nissan Pathfinder) was a good choice. Plenty of room and having more seat belts (7 total) is important–keeps us four and friends together when out on the town.
• Wiring an inverter to the battery to run the Xbox in the car was a massive win for my 12-year old son. Actually, when my wife was driving, playing Modern Warfare 2 with my son in the backseat rocks!
• It is fun to take lots of photos and have friends and family comment on them on Facebook.
• We wish we had more time.

Anyway, I might sneak in a blog post on our way back down…or not. What is your favorite road trip experience as of late?

We spent the day today at the USS Midway museum in San Diego.

Uhmm… any caption ideas for this photo?

Google Earth lets people virtually fly around a 3D view of the world made from satellite and aerial imagery mapped onto the planet’s mountains and valleys. The iPhone version reproduces this core experience, downloading imagery from Google’s servers as the perspective shifts and dotting the map with landmarks, photos, and other information.

What is your favorite application for the iPhone, Treo, or G1 phone?  Or what do you wish they come up with next?

HT:  CNET – Google Earth brings virtual tourism to the iPhone

For my mom and, once again, you stalkers, here are photos.

The campus of the Villa beautifully complimented the art.  Getty says
that art is one of the only lasting things of human endeavor and with
stark nature of the ancient artifacts was pretty depressing if “this”
is all that we leave behind.

However, that thought reminded me of how important it is for us
Christians to create art and culture–not a substitute or alternate
one, but one that tells the better story.  The pre-Christian era really
tells a story of a lost people–the kind of people the original
Apostles met and lived among.  It seems full circle that we live once
again in a lost culture.  Its about time Christians realize that and
instead of fighting the culture, we make the culture.

Also, the Cold War stuff is history and my kids are learning about it.  Really, those days were scary compared to today’s security threats.  I loved these two pics I put up on this post:  Leninade drink, and my son exploding.

A much better day, with a drive down PCH to LAX where we are staying.  Seeing the Getty museum today.

For my mom and stalkers…picasa and facebook photos.

Any of you remember the Cold War?

Last weekend before the Southern California Firestorms broke out my
family and I took an afternoon trip to San Clemente, CA.  We took the
mountain pass route (CA highway 74 “Ortega Highway) to get there, since
it seemed like a good idea to drive through mountains and we were not
in any hurry.

Our first stop was the amazing Pedro’s Tacos
in San Clemente, a favorite of mine from the time Tammy and I lived in
OC.  We ate our tacos on the beach and had a nice afternoon taking a
walk to the pier and beach.  Having just moved, this past weekend was
our first mini-getaway.  So many things to do to be together.  Being together as a family and enjoying choice fish tacos on the beach makes for a good memory.

We are on the last legs of our 2nd 650 mile trip from Redding to Temecula. This trip was the getting the house ready to sell trip…paint, clean and sparkle.

Our trip so far has had only one Monster drink, one object hit and dent the car and one stop…Santa Nella (200 miles north of LA).

We simply want the endless road trip to end. Anyone recommend a good body shop in Temecula.

I already mentioned a bit about my trip, but you really need to see these pictures. Minutes and hours from where we live in Redding, the most beautiful scenery exists to wow the eyes and calm the soul.  Beyond that, it was fun to break in my new car and get a weekend off.  Here are some highlights:

• Drove onto Clam Beach near Eureka and almost got stuck in my new Honda 4WD Element!  Imagine calling AAA to pull you off the sandy beach, hoping that the tide is slow in rising.
• We took an eight-mile drive on a dirt road which my son coins as "hiking with the car" to see Gold Bluffs Beach and Fern Canyon.  The elks were huge, by the way.
• We saw the tide pools and froze in Crescent City.
• The Lady Bird Johnson Grove served both as an activity and our church service.
• We ate in Trinidad at "The Eatery" and loved the food.

"SURPRISE!!" was heard on Monday night.  Some dear people
decided to test my aging cardiac condition by putting on a little
gathering.  I have never been surprised for a party before.  It is
amazing how those who love you can lie so well and conceal such a
thing!  Or, am I just getting older and my mind wasn’t quick enough to
figure it out?  Ever been "surprised"?