First it was Washington D.C. cherry blossom trip (no cherry...not really). Too late for cherry blossom. I have learned since that cherry blossom is a sensitive seasonal occurrence. I should confirm it to the exact week next time.
This time, I wasn't the only one going. We had Myself & Nadia, Becky, Jiang Hui and his daugther. Finding the cheapest mean of touring the city in 2 days 1 night. Found a great hotel (I would give it 5 stars) 20 minute drive away from the city. Ordered 2 rooms, one for Nadia and Becky. Cost per room was around $66 per night. We had a free upgrade from single kingsize bedroom to double Queensize bedroom due to the fact that they ran out of kingsize bedroom which was what I initially booked. Could this be due to the fact that I also ordered joining rooms (kingsize) and that they only had kingsize separate rooms available? Joining room was definitely a good call. As during the evening, Nadia was able to graciously travel between two rooms making instant noodles for all of us, after a great time at the swimming pool as well as Jacuzzi.
Arriving D.C. on Friday (April 6th), we did not spend much time in the city, since it was kind of disappointing to realize we could only see green cherry (green leaves). Though we did come across quite a few good pink and white blossoms along the trip on the road. It was understood that being situated more south, D.C.'s cherry blossoms before NJ and NY, and we've missed it by a week or two. So, after a quick browse around the Tidal Basin and glance at some buildings, we decided to check-in to our hotel and rest.
I woke up around 6am in the morning. Went to the hotel gymn, did my treadmill run for the first time, for about 20 minutes. We checked out at around 8-9am. Although the choice of Jiang Hui's car (hybrid) was excellent, we made a bad decision on the parking spot, which allowed only 2 hour max toll. Such was common on most streets with some up to 4 hours. We should have gone into a private parking area for $12 a whole day. I felt sorry that Jiang Hui had to refill the parking meter (3 times). Good thing we rented bicycles.
*** Due to accidentally shutting down the window I had to rewrite about 60% of the total entry ***
We visited most buildings and monuments I have visted in my first trip. It is more crowded because I went at 7am during my first. We tried to wrap everything up early including a drive-by by the Pentagon so that we could avoid the afternoon crowd as well as go home early. We left D.C. at around 4pm. Spent our dinner at Noodlelicious, a Taiwanese restaurant in Edison, NJ, on Jiang Hui's treat, I think. On Sunday, Gabby enjoyed the trip so much that she gave me and Nadia each a handmade card.
On the following weekend, I went to Philadelphia on my own, via Megabus. Caleb was my host, whom I found via couchsurfing.org, a free web service I used for the first time. He was incredibly generous. Not only did he picked me up from Norristown to his place, made me baked turkey (Did he prepared the whole turkey just for me? seemed like no one else was eating that much turkey - I tried not to have too much since I wanted a healthy diet and convinced myself that with a dog around, those meat wouldn't go to waste), 4 loafs of breads which I had only 4-5 slices total and almond milk, he even borrowed me his bicycle to the pre-event at the ACE Conference Center, which was the point of my Philadelphia trip. It is a two day workshop (Friday being the free pre-event for everyone) on Science, Human Origins, & Human Dignity. This was hosted the Discovery Institute and Westminster Theological Seminary. The speakers (John "Jack" Collins & Denis Lamoureux) for the pre-event were theistic evolutionists. I imagine it was shocking to many of the audience as I had a brief discussion with a conservative guy, "Len" the engineer from NJ, the next day when he found out that the pre-event that he didn't attend would allow such speakers. I told him that Peter Lillback, President of WTS, had made disclaimer on both days that all speakers do not represent WTS' belief but their own. Since WTS co-hosts with Discovery Institute, I supposed certain clarity must be made, although I believe it could be less vague as far as where WTS stands on such issues - unless, it has yet reached a conclusion on challenges against Genesis 1-2.
Despite the special bike lane which was during the season of flies so I had flies buffet while riding the bike through the flies, the bicycle was a bad idea. I should have used the bus, which I did on my way back that night after the pre-event. Thanks to a seemingly broken down bus, I learned from the driver that all PA buses have mechanisms that allow 2 bikes storage in front of the buses. I then hurried to wait at the right bus stop. It was scary to bike on the streets at that time (I decided not to use the bike lane, believing that there would be no lights). After 40-45 minutes bus ride, I arrived at the Norristown Transportation Center which is 10 minute bike ride from Caleb's home or 25 minute walk. On the side note, I had some old guy after the pre-event asked but tried to convince me that the bright star at 9pm was Jupiter and not Venus, which I answered him at first as we walked out of the ACE Center. It was too bright to be Jupiter, but I wasn't sure as he insisted that it was too late for Venus at 9pm. I only confirmed that I was right with my smartphone when he and perhaps his wife left. I was rather tired and having the night bike worry at the time.
The Saturday workshop was more like what I wanted. Though, I would say I understood only 60% of what's being spoken. Most topics were biologically scientific. I had some books and references to take home to ponder at my own pace. Ann Gauger's direction was impressive inspite of the beyond me technical contents she used. If I have not mistaken, she was a theistic evolutionist converted creationist. Though I cannot be sure what type of creationist as she tried to make it mysterious. Despite Ken Ham's strong young-earth creation theory influence in the evangelical community such as the likes of Caleb, Sean Ho, etc., I can see from Tim Keller's book, and books from professors from Calvin College, WTS, and other orthodox churches, that these would prefer to take it slow, careful, as Neo-Darwinians try to regain what they once lost. I considered Evolutionism (common descent) was lost to Creationism as preachers like Stephen Tong had revealed its fallacy years ago, and I believe there's not much mention of it by these old preachers not because evolutionism has come back to triumph, but because certain lectures need not be repeated.
But there seems to be claims such as by Lamoureux that recent biology discoveries have caused many christian students to falter in their faith, these are what I believe to cause these western reformed scholars to "not jump" to any conclusion, while the evangelical like Ken Ham and MacArthur boldly proclaim 6 24-hour days of creation. I think one is being too careful (not surprising considering their 'evangelical' works) while the other being too shallow in their approach or answer, whether they are right nor not eventually.
Being careful is good, which was why I admire WTS for offering scholarships to students with science degree background, as Lillback announced at the end of the workshop. I gather he wanted to encourage and not discourage especially biologists in reformed studies, in spite of foreseeable danger in allowing so.
My sorrow for WTS faculties is that while they firmly love the evangelicals (I overheard Lillback and William Edgar were just in Indonesia at Rev. Tong's church for Easter), they couldn't give birth to new evangelicals from their own midst. Because as Dr. Tong once said it at a speech in WTS, the teachers themselves do not evangelize, how can the students be expected to evangelize. What's hopeful is that at least these reformers are the ones who would not take the extreme path introduced by the liberals and the Karl Barthians.
Going back to NYC, I had finally got the front row seat upstairs on the Megabus.