Washougal East Coast Tour of Discovery

06/26/2026

Our last evening in New York.

06/26/2026

Touring through lower Manhattan.

06/26/2026

06/26/2026

One of the things I constantly remind the student travelers of is the importance of keeping track of your personal items. "If you leave it here (wherever we happen to be departing from), you'll probably never see it again."

So, yesterday afternoon, after getting all the kids to Newark Airport safely and getting them all checked in, I instinctively reached into the front pocket of my cargo shorts for my phone.

It wasn't there.

"No problem," I thought, and I opened up the settings on my watch and tapped "Find my phone," which sets off a loud alarm and turns on the screen and vibration on the phone regardless of any "do not disturb" settings. "Found your phone!" my watch dutifully reported.

But I didn't hear any alarm, nor did I note any vibration.

Curious.

I tried "Find my phone" again. Almost instantly, I got the same cheerfully reassuring "Found your phone!" message.

I began going through my pockets, and then my backpack, and then my Central Park Conservancy totebag - no phone.

Now, this is the first watch I've had that has its own connectivity as a phone, a la Dick Tracy's two-way wrist radio (look it up, kids). And I had always been under the impression that the "Find my phone" feature only worked within Bluetooth range (mostly because that's how I've always used it, primarily to find where I've left my phone in the house).

Turns out this 21st Century, 5G-enabled marvel on my wrist will connect to my phone anywhere the phone is able to connect to a network.

So, I called Katrina, and she got online and used the "Track My Android" function within Google. "Uh, your phone is on Interstate 78," she reported. "And it's just now crossing the Hudson through the Holland Tunnel." A while later, she texted to my watch that my phone was "almost dead and in Brooklyn," which sounds like a line out of a novel I'd really like to read.

So, long story short, in the hustle and bustle to get the kids into the airport, I left my phone on the bus. Never to fear, though, as the driver retrieved it and is sending it home with a representative from ETSI, and I'll be retrieving it on Sunday or Monday.

06/26/2026

A quick link to the 2024 East Coast Tour of Discovery gallery.

Shared album · Tap to view!

06/25/2026

Hamilton!!!!🇺🇸

06/24/2026

All of NYC has World Cup fever, and Brazil is playing Scotland right now. A ton of jersey-clad Brazil fans are here.

06/24/2026

FDNY Station 10 is right across from Ground Zero. Six firefighters lost their lives in the collapse of the towers. On the wall in the background is part of the side panel from their firetruck recovered from the rubble.

These students all have firefighters in their families.

06/24/2026

9/11 Memorial and 1 World Trade Center.

06/24/2026

The Hamilton nerds at Alexander Hamilton's grave in the churchyard at Trinity Church on Wall Street.