Hello everybody, currently as I am typing I am sitting on an Airbus A330 flying from Atlanta, Georgia all the way to Amsterdam. My journey began approximately 7 hours ago when we departed John Wayne airport in Southern California on a Boeing 737 all the way to Atlanta Georgia. Now we are on our way to Amsterdam, and finally from Amsterdam we will fly in a Fokker 70 to our final destination Prague, Czech Republic. I sure am excited to land because I was promised by the Lead Flight attendant along with the Captain that I would be able to go into the cockpit of the A330 and talk with the pilots for a little. Seems like a great opportunity to me especially since I have so many questions about the general aviation world and how it operates in other parts of the world such as Europe. Well my laptop is below 6% battery life and it is about to die, I will continue my blog as soon as I can get to an outlet. So it is now Friday night approximately 11:45 at night meaning it is 2:45 in the afternoon in California. We just got back to my aunt’s and uncle’s house where will remain until tomorrow morning. A couple hours after my laptop died we landed in Amsterdam and I went to the cockpit of the A330 and I spoke with the pilots. After speaking with them I was really upset with myself because the Fo (First Officer) aboard told me that I should have been much more sneaky when I asked the flight attendant to speak with them. He also said that if I would have straight up told her that I have my Pilot’s Certificate and will be attending Embry Riddle this fall that I could have went up to the cockpit in flight and stayed for landing!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have 4 seats in the cockpit and on our flight there were only 3 people in there. Apparently they have interns with them from time to time and they do not mind having another person in the cockpit. I was really surprised because I never would have thought that this would be a possibility with all the homeland security regulations, I always thought that because of national security purposes it would be impossible. Oh well, I will just have to try on my way back from the Czech Republic. Currently I am in a little city called Jablonec Nad Nisou, it is located in the north eastern part of Czech Republic. It is up by the Polish border and the German border is just northwest of us and not too far either. My mom, dad, cousin, aunt, uncle, and I just got back from a walk around town and it just reminded me how beautiful this country really is. Tonight we will be sleeping here at my aunt’s and uncle’s house and tomorrow we are heading out to watch the Bohemia Rally race. It is a 3 day race that runs throughout the Czech Republic through little towns and villages and catches everybody’s attention. It is late here and I am going to sleep I will continue my blog later this week.

Two weeks ago, my family and I headed off to Prescott so that Lexie and I could go to Embry-Riddle for the Take Flight volleyball camp.  It was a three day camp, and it was fun to be back at Riddle.  On Thursday, the day before the camp started, I met up with my roommate, Lauren Rice, and we FINALLY signed the lease on our new apartment!!  We were so excited, we had to document.  Ha.

This is our living room.  HAHA!  Just kidding.  This is the office where we signed our papers.  I learned that my dad isn’t that bad of a photographer.  😀

After our signing, my dad and I met up with the rest of my family in Jerome, about an hour and fifteen minutes away from Prescott.  The drive is GORGEOUS!  When we got there, we explored a little of the historic town.

My momma. 🙂

The next day, the camp started.  The girls had a lot of fun while working hard and making friends.  I made friends, too!  I met really awesome people who were coaches and really awesome girls who were loads of fun!  We even had a talent show in the dorms that night.  Granted, we only had one dance, but still!

One session was a beach session.  Here’s my lil sis Lexie getting ready to kick some butt in the sand!

Right after we got home from the Take Flight camp, we packed up and left for… LAKE POWELL!!  WOOOOO!

It was amazing.  I got to see all my family and it was a great family vacation for everybody.  And I didn’t even get that sunburned this year.  A-HA.

My summer was every bit as long and relaxing as I could have hoped.  And now that I’ve had my fabulous summer vacation, I’m ready for preseason.  Next Friday, I leave for Prescott, and then volleyball starts!

“Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.”

-Sam Keen

As mentioned before, I am here to talk about the second half of my time in California, and to finish posting my amazing Disneyland/California Adventure pictures.

So, my sister, brother-in-law and I stayed at California Adventure for most of the time. We did do a quick trip to Disneyland to get a few fast passes and we went on a couple rides like Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the log ride. Afterwards, we went to California Adventure and enjoyed rides such as Tower of Terror, Scremin’ California, Soarin’ over California, and more. We even watched two newer shows, “World of Color” and “Glow”. They both involved a lot of lighting and color. It was very fun.

Here is the Star Wars ride. That is the ship inside as we waited in line. It was a very short line.

Log Ride at Disneyland. If you look hard enough you can see another log full of people about to go down the big drop! :DAlice in Wonderland. She was really nice and pretty. All the little kids were running towards her, it was cute.

Mary Poppins had on the most beautiful dress. She was nice, but the guy was a lot nicer.

Here is The Queen of Hearts. I love how her face is all mean looking. And the cute bunny. You can also see Goofy's hand, goofy and the queen almost had a show down, it was hilarious.

Mr. Potatoe Head! He was interactive. You could talk to him and he responded. It was a nice addition, especially since waiting in line can be very dull.

Haunted Tower of Terror. This is the lobby, as we wait in line to get in the elevator 😀

California Adventure- Ferris Wheel and Screamin' California (Roller Coaster)

The "Glow" performance in California Adventure started off with a guy doing cool tricks in this HUGE ball!

There were many "Glow" Dancers up on stage. Some did belly dancing and others just crazy "out there" dances. It was pretty cool to see.

At night, after the show there was "Hollywood" in California Adventure, all lit up.

The workers called "Glow" a P-G Rave! It pretty much was. Lights everywhere, dance floor, screen projector, and awesome music!

I took this picture before my phone died. Disney used lighting on the rides to correspond to the show "World of Color," it was brilliant!

There is the big Ferris wheel all lit up, ready for the show..

Yeah, so that was my amazing Disneyland trip. Did I mention I got in for free?! I got a free complimentary ticket last time since a ride closed down on us AFTER we used our fast passes on it. So, my sister complained and since her and my brother-in-law both have passes, she got me a free ticket. It was pretty awesome.

We didn’t get home from D-land until about 1:30 AM, due to a traffic incident. After we got home, we all passed out. Lance, my brother-in-law, then got us donuts in the morning, since one of his jobs is at the donut shop! It was great, I have not had donuts in a long time. Although my stomach wasn’t very happy with me afterwards. All that sugary fatness, why must it taste so delicious?! I then went to my grandma’s house again and just relaxed. A few days later my sister and Brother-in-law came over for 4Th of July with the WII and a new game called Tetris party. My grandma used to play tetris ALL the time, so I invited her to try it out. She was addicted. We played til 11PM. We had so much fun as a family.  We also had a bar-b-que and enjoyed the fireworks from our house. We played some pool (since there is a table in the garage) and also dominoes. It was a great day.

I was supposed to go see my dad and spend time with him before I got back to AZ, but when the towing company finally got my car to Cali, it was too late to get it smogged and get a temp. registration so I could get it all fixed and then get it registered in AZ. So, when my car got fixed I had to buy a one-trip permit and head straight to AZ and get it registered, which is a whole other story in itself. ha ha. It did suck not being able to go take a trip to see my friends, who lived about an hour and a half south from my grandma, but what could I do??? I also really wanted to see my dad in Nevada, I haven’t seen him for over a year now. But I know I’ll have a better opportunity to see everyone again. And next time I’ll have some money saved. Well, this will conclude my California Adventure, but my next blog will be about all that has happened since I’ve been back.

Take care, and enjoy the last bit of the summer!!!

 

White Horse Lake is a beautiful campground in the National Forest outside of Williams, Arizona.  Within a few hours from school, it provides a beautiful place to escape for a wimpy camper like me who likes the basic luxury of a hole in the ground toilet facility and a faucet for running water.  Heck, I was proud of myself for going somewhere overnight with no electricity.

I love campground food.  Smores, hotdogs cooked over open flames, and meals cooked all in one pot over a campfire.  And you can’t forget dinner by citronella candle…

Dinner by Citronella Candlelight

Just off of the campground is an easy hike to Sycamore Canyon.  If you don’t want to camp over night, you can also park at the day trip lot and hike from there.  The hike was very peaceful as it wound around the lake and into the pine forest.

Sycamore Canyon

Me at Sycamore Canyon

One of the things that surprised me about the forests of Northern Arizona was the general lack of underbrush.  Back in Southeast Texas, it’s almost impossible to walk through the forest unless there is some kind of path or white tail deer run because of the very thick underbrush.  In Northern Arizona, the space between the towering pine trees is relatively vacant.

Camping in Arizona and camping in Texas is also fairly different.  The biggest surprise for me was the sharp drop in temperature at night.  In my part of Texas, the difference between the high and the low is usually less than 20 degrees, and sometimes less than 10 degrees.  I knew that the drier desert regions of Arizona could experience huge temperature drops after sundown, and that I’d seen 40 degree drops in Prescott (though not always that drastic), but we were camping up near Flagstaff, in the National Forest.  The temperature there wouldn’t drop that much, right? Wrong.

The temperature was about 70 degrees when we reached the campsite at midday. Beautifully perfect for camping, right? That night, the temperature plummeted to 25 degrees. Needless to say, my 40 degree rated sleeping bag (which was always more than enough in Texas) suddenly provided nothing less than a cocoon of ice.  I couldn’t get warm all night and could only doze on and off.

When the hint of sunlight began to illuminate the walls of the tent, I bolted out and began to build a fire in our fire pit.  As I waited for it to really get going, I went to watch the sun rise over the lake. At around 5 a.m. steam rose off the lake in plumes that created a scene that looked like something out of a dream. I took the opportunity to practice some amateur photography.

Steam rising over White Horse Lake in the early hours of the morning

It took me a few hours to warm up next to the fire.  I thoroughly enjoyed my breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon cooked in a cast iron pan over a campfire. When the temperatures reached over 40 degrees and I had warmed by the fire, I returned to the tent to take a nice long nap.

We then enjoyed hiking and a couple more meals before we packed up to return to Prescott. I learned a lot about outdoor adventuring through my camping and hiking trips this summer, and I gained a greater appreciation for the power and beauty of Mother Nature.

Now that summer classes are over, I’m taking a chance to catch up on blogging about all of my weekend activities during Embry-Riddle’s Summer A.

There was a full week between the end of Spring semester finals and the beginning of Summer A classes, and I used this opportunity to take a little break by getting out and seeing some of the outdoor attractions near Prescott.  The first of these events was returning Granite Mountain.

One view from the trail, through the trees, near the summit of Granite Mountain

My first attempt to hike to the top of Granite Mountain back on Valentine ’s Day was a bit of a failure, as I started hiking too late in the day.  The hike takes a beginner to moderate hiker like me about 6 hours to complete.  The hike itself is about 8.5 miles roundtrip and starts ascends about 2000ft to the 7,185ft summit.

Granite Mountain is an awesome hike for a few reasons. First, Granite Mountain is such a dominant feature seen from so many parts of campus that after you make it to the top of the Mountain you can look at it from campus in awe thinking, “hey, I was all the way at the top of that.”  I know that may sound corny, but there is a sense of pride in accomplishing a hike like that.

The second best thing is that the trail itself is gorgeous.  The trail starts at the base of the mountain in a relatively thick pine forest.  During the hike you pass several streams and a small, peaceful pond.  I’ve never seen the trail very crowded, so it’s a good place to get away from people.  As you climb higher up the mountain, the terrain becomes a little more rugged, the winds become a little stronger, and you can’t help but admire the hardy trees that have been growing out of the harsh mountainside for hundreds of years.  There are several pretty places along the path to stop, rest under a tree and enjoy a light snack.   The views from the top of the mountain are spectacular and you can see so much of Prescott that you feel like you’re on top of the world.

Granite Mountain is definitely one of the “places to hike (successfully) before you graduate.”

     I finally get to have some time away from work and be with my family in California. Unfortunately, I am still without my car because it needs to get towed out here so my cousin can fix it. :/  But I have been dealing without my car, so I guess it’s not all bad. I flew in to California Saturday, June 19th. I had to wake up at 4am in Texas to get to the airport by 5am so I could catch my 6am flight. That was an experience I won’t be able to forget. HAHA. I got to California at around 9am and soon after we headed from Fontana, where my grandma, aunt, and uncle live, to Palm Springs area to see our family. There was a big birthday party/family reunion, so everyone was there. It was pretty fun to start my first day back home with all my family.

Sister, brother-in-law, my aunt Susie, and I

My grandma, sister, brother-in-law, and I at my grandma's house

     Then the next week I got to go to the beach and I bought a super cute top and took some beach photos of course. We didn’t stay long because the uncle who lives off the beach had to go to the hospital that day, we came over and he was hardly breathing. You know those relatives who are just too stubborn to ask for help, that’s Uncle Buck for you! So, we got an ambulance and it turns out he had double pneumonia! I mean regular is bad enough, but double?! GEEZ! He is doing better now though, thank goodness.

Newport Beach. This is the pier, near where my uncle lives. I walked here to enjoy the nice cool weather and of course to go buy ice cream<3

OMG! Doesn't this look amazing?! It has brownies and cherries in it. It was delicious!

This is the sidewalk for pedestrians and bikers/skaters. It goes all the way to the pier and beyond to the balboa pier, which has a fair and arcade.

The beautiful beach with blue skies!

Newport Beach. Just walk a block from my uncle's house and you hit the shore.

Me at the beach house in my new shirt<3

     Then Thursday my sister and brother-in-law came over and visited, which I am happy they did so because my sister and I were arguing for a couple of weeks, but now all is well! Before they left my sister asked if I wanted to go to Disneyland with her or not the next day and if I wanted to spend the night, so it would be easier to get there together. I went ahead and spent the night there, and we watched Twilight New Moon together. (finally saw it for the first time, still does not do the book justice!) We also got to see Twilight Eclipse at the midnight showing, it was really good. I’m not a huge fanatic, but it was her friend’s birthday and that is where she wanted to spend it at. So, we went. I really just wish the actress who played Bella did a better job at acting. Her facial expressions and emotions are always off, they never seem genuine, especially when she has to fake cry. BLEH!

     Anyways, the next morning we headed to Disneyland and spent the whole day there- hopping back and forth from Disneyland to California Adventure. My brother-in-law joined us after work, around 3:30pm. Oh yeah, they have annual passes and I had a free complimentary ticket. We went on quite a few rides and saw a couple shows, like the new show “World of Color”. It was so beautiful. It had fountains of water with different colored light and projection screens, so actual pictures would be on the water. There was even fire incorporated in the show. It was amazing, and I so wish I had a significant other there because it was very romantic and exciting. I took many pictures, but sadly my cell died at 10pm, right before the “World of Color” show started. I’m sure people have posted some videos on it on YouTube though, since people in front of me were shooting video. (That was annoying since I’m short. ha ha) We didn’t get home until about 1am and then we just crashed. It was a great day. And so far I am enjoying my vacation in California, I just cannot wait for my car to get here so I can actually go and drive to see some of my friends around here!

"C" for Cassandra

My Sister, Laura and Brother-in-law, Lance

My sister Laura and I waiting to ride the 3-D Toy Story ride

I <3 my dorky 3-D glasses!

Me at "Hollywood" in California Adventure

California Adventure Rides!

My sister ready for her interview, she is gorgeous<3

     I have a lot more photos, but I will make a second part to my adventure since there is a lot more to say.

     Wicked, just in case you want to know, is about the “wicked witch of the west”. It is her side of Wizard of  Oz  story. It gives the audience a new perspective of how one becomes evil in an other’s eye, even though they are good at heart. I recommend seeing this musical, if not live, at least find it on YouTube.

This is the cover of the CD they sell after the musical. I believe some of the books use this as the cover as well. I am reading Wicked right now, it's really good.

This is Glinda "the Good Witch" and Elphaba the "Wicked Witch" together at the Emerald City. The lighting and costumes were amazing!

This is the scene of my favorite song in the musical called "Defying Gravity". We sang it at my high school, but WOW it gave me chills when Elphaba sang it!

This past week, Lexie’s team played in the District tournament for softball.  It was a blast helping my dad coach and to get to hang out with all my girls again.  They played great, but unfortunately lost in the finals to Taylor, a town about forty five minutes away.  The tournament was in Winslow though, and even though I’d been there a million times for all sorts of sports games and such, I got to explore the culture and history a little more this time.  My family and I explored the famous La Posada Hotel.  It was built in the 1930’s, and it’s gorgeous!  There’s an art gallery in one of the main sections, a restaurant, a gift shop full of brightly colored things from all over the world, AND a hotel part where famous people (Jimmy Stewart, for one) stayed in.  I loved it.  It was so rich in culture, and just dripping with history.

That’s the restaurant, called The Turqoise Room.  Below is the fabulous gift shop.  Amazing, right?

So that was my adventure in Winslow.  Who knew that Arizona’s oldest towns could be so cool?  I’ll have to snoop around Prescott a little more to see if I can find somewhere cool like the La Posada!

Speaking of Prescott, I’m going down there with my little sis this weekend to go to the Embry-Riddle Take Flight Volleyball Camp.  Lexie will be participating, and I’ll be helping to coach the girls who come.   And after that, LAKE POWELL!! WOOOO HOOOO!  Wish us luck!!

“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”

-Pearl Buck

It is mid-week Wednesday night or should I say early Thursday morning, I have really procrastinated on writing my blog because I have been extremely busy all week. It is 3:30 in the morning and I feel like I am staying up to finish an English essay that is due in a couple hours lol. Except this is better because writing these blogs is way more fun and I get to write about anything and everything (well almost :D). Anyways, another great week has passed and to this day it is exactly 2 weeks since graduation!!! It seems almost unreal that my fellow classmates and I have already graduated. I can honestly say that it still has not hit me that high school is over nor has it occurred to me that this fall we will all be young adults attending college. It is crazy how time seems to fly by especially when you have something to look forward to. In my case ever since my sophomore year in high school I have been counting down the years before I would be able to attend Embry Riddle. Now that it is here it feels great but at the same time I am slightly nervous, in my opinion it is the fear of the unknown. I know what to expect however it is an experience completely new to me and most of us, which is why it is just a little nerve racking. Even though this week was pretty busy it sure has been a great one so far. After a whole week of helping out on a 100 hour alongside with an Annual inspection on a Cessna 170B with my buddies we sure are happy to be done. It was a great experience and I could not be more thankful to Daniel Wotring and Brian Lepkowski, those that made all of it possible and always give me great opportunities around the airport. While working on the inspection all week I was looking forward to Sunday afternoon because I was taking a really cute girl on a surprise date and flying her out to Catalina for lunch/dinner 😉 Sunday came along and I was excited the whole day, until I called the weather briefer and found out that there was pretty bad overcast at approximately 3000ft from the coast all the way to Catalina. I decided to go anyways and if it was overcast all the way to Catalina I would change my destination airport. We ended up taking off and flying above Seal Beach Vor and the overcast had become worse. In my opinion it looked so bad that Catalina was below IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) minimums. I contacted Socal and diverted down to Palomar airport southward by Oceanside. However upon our arrival there Palomar was reporting clouds at 1500ft, visibility 6 with mist, with a westward movement of clouds. After hearing that I cancelled landing intentions because I did not want to land there get lunch and get socked in by the overcast. So we finally diverted north east bound up to French Valley where we ate lunch. Lunch at French valley was really good as it is at most airports. It sure was a great flight and I am pretty sure I was not the only one that liked it aha 😉 Even with all of the zero G’s and steep turns, Emily the girl I took with me agreed that she liked it, she sure is brave for flying with me hahaha jk. Afterwards we went for some ice cream and hung out. It sure was a great day and even though we could not go out to Catalina it still ended up being fun, at least we got to fly VFR (Visual Flight Rules) on top. Monday came along pretty well besides the fact that my mom made me wake up at 7:00 to get blood work done for my annual checkup, oh it was horrible getting up so early. Afterwards, I was busy getting ready for my trip to the Czech Republic, so I ran around buying clothing and supplies and then I also stopped by the airport to hangout for a while with my buddies and relaxed. Later on that day Emily surprised me and took me on a surprise date. It was a lot of fun, we ended up going to an El torrito on a pier and afterwards she showed me some really cool spots around her area. It was so much fun (: Tuesday was a great day spent at the airport, getting ready for Czech, hanging out with friends, and then later we spent the night eating at TK burger and walking down main street and the pier. Finally today went by really quick I packed all of my stuff or should I say Emily packed all of my stuff haha but we got it all packed up and then we went to the beach just before my departure to the Czech Republic tomorrow morning. I have to say that I am really excited for the Czech Republic. I mean all of my family and some close friends live there and every opportunity I get to spend with them I enjoy. It is almost 4:30 in the morning now and our plane departs in about 8 hours so I really have to get some sleep. Goodnight everybody and thank you for reading my blog. I will post new blogs whenever I can (sometimes it is really hard to get connected to the internet because not everybody has a computer over there) and keep everybody updated on my 5 week journey throughout the Czech Republic.

Dear Reader,

I would like to start off my first post by saying thank you to Doug Dickey, Sara Bofferding, and the Admissions office, alongside with everybody who has given me this great opportunity of becoming a student blogger for ERAU.  

Hello to everybody reading my blog. My name is Petr Stepan Jr., somebody is constantly telling me that I spelled my name wrong (I think I know how to spell my name I tell them haha) I was born in the Czech Republic on October 1^st, 1992 which is why Petr is spelled without the second “E”. I came to America or more specifically to California with my parents in the fall of 1996 when I was almost 4 years old. Everybody has a purpose in this world and my parents came here with the hopes of providing their only son with a galaxy of opportunity to be able to do whatever he so desired with his life. However I was not the only determining force in the decision to come overseas. The web of opportunity and success is incomparable to that in the Czech Republic. My mom Stephanie and my dad Petr are two of the most hardworking people I have yet seen on this earth, failure to succeed in this world is not an option in their eyes, nor should it be in any of our eyes. Their hardworking characteristics over the years has put them where they are today as two successful individuals who have their heart set on the right things in life. The Czech Republic is a fairly tough country to prosper and to pursue one’s career goals in, which is why we live where we do today in the “Land of Opportunity “as so America is called. I have high ambitions and goals for myself, some that I have already achieved, others I will yet strive to achieve. This world is full of opportunity and of course new doors open up as our careers progress, our transition from high school to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University will be only the beginning, and a key to the “Land of opportunity”. I have not yet fully planned out my future in detail nor should anybody, we should all know what we want and go after it. Having a direction to guide us is the safest bet; however so much is yet to come our way it would be almost unrealistic from day one to know what somebody wants in detail. Over the years I have come to this; I am open minded to anything that comes my way, however if there is something that has heart and has my name on it, it is flying. My major at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University will be Aerospace Engineering and my minor will be flight. My dream job would be combining the field of Engineering and Flight into one area and becoming a civilian contracted test pilot for the military or for any experimental agency/corporation. As a side job I would love to be a CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) and help young ambitious pilots as myself come closer to reaching their goals and attaining true happiness. High School is now over, a new segment of mine, in conjunction with my classmate’s lives is about to begin. The years where we will build strong lifelong relationships that will help guide us throughout our careers are about to begin. Good luck to everyone and I hope to see you guys on campus in the fall please comment my blogs and let me know if there is anything I could improve.

My Favorite Birdie the Marchetti SF260 🙂