I went to America for the first time in 3 years last month. Here is my trip journal with some pictures:

Sunday July 31st

We finally visited America after not leaving Japan since summer of 2019. Okayama to Haneda then by bus to Narita to Seattle to Philadelphia to Quarryville. 26 hours later we had arrived.

This time it was just me, Tatsuki and Satoshi so that we could spend some extra time with my family and so that Ayumi could get some well-deserved break time.

Mount Rainier seen as we took off from Seattle.

Monday August 1st

We did all of the traveling on Sunday. Monday was just a jet lag recovery day, hanging out around the house, stopping by the supermarket and taking a walk around the neighborhood. At night, we were able to see a few remaining fireflies / lightning bugs in my parent’s yard. Also, we watched the International Space Station traverse the sky.

Tuesday August 2nd

During the day we took the boys to the local library, where my brother Anthony volunteers. There is a summer reading program that Ta and Sa had been tracking for a few weeks, so they got some prizes for completing it.

In the evening, we went to my uncle Rich’s house in the suburbs of Philadelphia. I saw four of my cousins. My youngest cousin will be a senior in high school this year. I think this is funny because I am closer in age to his father than to him.

Wednesday August 3rd

We went to Hersheypark. We only did the water park rides yesterday because we plan to go back another day to ride the rollercoasters. This water park is huge. We were there for the full opening hours of 11am to 7pm and rode almost every attraction. Ta and Sa had an awesome time in all of the pools and rides and rollicking around with their cousin Mia.

The Fulvio brothers were all assembled for the first time in three years (AJ Fulvio, Christopher Fulvio and Michael J Fulvio).

It was gorgeous weather, not too hot. In fact, being all wet and standing in the gentle breeze felt a bit chilly at times. Skin and bones Satoshi has to get warmed up a few times.

The boys conked out in the car on the way home, always a sign of a successful outing.

The main street in Hershey is called Chocolate Avenue

Friday August 5th

We went to the North Museum, a small natural history museum run by Franklin & Marshall University. They had a great collection of stuffed birds and a large selection of rocks from all over the world. Tatsuki has been playing a lot of Minecraft recently and knew a lot of the rock, mineral and gem names.

After the museum, we stopped by the Comic Store, where the boys got some free comics as a prize for completing their summer reading program. I used to be a regular there when I was in junior high.

On the way home we picked up some fresh corn and Uncle Mike taught the boys how to shuck the corn.

It cost about 550 yen for one dozen (12) ears of fresh corn

Saturday-Sunday August 6-7th

In the morning the boys and I took a walk around Quarryville and found an Auntie Anne’s pretzel truck outside of a local store.

In the afternoon I went to Randy Aukamp Jr. and Linda Moyer’s weekend getaway cottage in Northern Maryland. I had no idea that such a great place was so close to Lancaster County.

Even just getting there was fun! We drove down to Port Deposit, which I only ever knew as a one street broken down old town. But now there is a rocking riverside scene with restaurants, bars, a bunch of condos and the marina where Randy keeps his boat.

A 40-minute cruise down the Susquehanna Flats leads to their cottage on the east bank of the Elk River. Their beach community was having a luau that night, so the timing was perfect. We had a magical night with good food, good drinks and good friends. I thought the sunset was spectacular, but they insisted that they had seen better.

On Sunday we tried some SUP, but it was a bit choppy, and we just ended up doing a bunch of headlong flips into the water. As we approached the beach, we saw a bald eagle eating a fish there, flanked by an American flag 🇺🇸 and jet skis cruising by in the background. It was the most American thing I have seen in a long time!

Monday August 8th - Washington DC - day 1 of 4, The National Zoo

We went for the pandas, of course!

This is a great zoo, and since it is part of the Smithsonian Museum system, it is free to enter.

Tuesday August 9th - Washington DC - day 2 of 4, National Museum of American History, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial

The American History Museum looked boring on the first floor but actually had lots of great exhibits throughout, I’m not sure why they start it off so blandly. Lots of real artifacts like Washington’s dress uniform and Lincoln’s top hat. Tatsuki and Satoshi had their curiosity sparked and asked tons of questions.

The Washington Monument now requires a reservation to go up, and has airport style security at the entrance. Luckily my mom Patty Ruch Fulvio was on the case and got us tickets well in advance. The views from the top were incredible, we were lucky with gorgeous but hot weather.

The US Capitol Building at the end of the National Mall, flanked by the many Smithsonian museums, as seen from the top of the Washington Monument

We capped off the day with the Lincoln Memorial. A Netflix movie, Rustin, was being filmed on the steps, but it didn’t interfere with being able to visit the memorial. They were filming the crowd watching Martin Luther Jr’s, “I Have a Dream” speech. Look for the film to be out sometime next year, we were told.

Wednesday August 10th - Washington DC - day 3 of 4, Teddy Roosevelt Island, The US Navy Sea Bees Memorial, The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

Roosevelt Island sits between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery and was designated to honor Teddy Roosevelt’s creation of the National Park system. We walked a short trail to his monument, which was impressive, but not well visited, I fear.

My mother’s father served during World War II as a “Sea Bee”, which were construction battalion (hence, CB) sailors in the US Navy. There is a memorial to all Sea Bees near the entrance to Arlington. It was a great reminder of the struggles of that terrible time in world history, and the men who faced those challenges.

After three laps of the National Mall (which is not a shopping mall) to find parking, we thoroughly enjoyed the Natural History Museum. It had everything: bones, fossils, rocks, the Hope Diamond, some live creatures and tons of interesting interactive displays to play with.

Just as we wanted to leave there was a thunderstorm with very heavy rain. The museum sold a ton of rain ponchos that day.

Thursday August 11th - Washington DC - day 4 of 4, The White House

To get a White House tour, you have to sign up through your member of congress. I guess that’s so they can look like a hero handing out tours to their constituents. There is a cool visitors center down the block that has a lot about the history of the building.

The White House itself is a self-guided tour, but there are secret service agents roaming around every room. They were happy to answer questions and knew a lot about the function and furnishings of each room. The agents outside were all geared up in black swat gear.

Our tour was originally set to be one day earlier, but there was a bill signing and all of the tours were cancelled. Biden then left Washington for vacation, so he wasn’t there to bump into. There was a lot of construction and maintenance going on, they were even cleaning the chimneys.

Friday August 12th - Lancaster Barnstormers baseball game

The Barnstormers are Lancaster's minor league team. We got free tickets for the boys from their summer reading rewards and it was also "Star Wars Night". There were some actors dressed as characters, but there were also a lot of fans that dressed up.

Tatsuki and Satoshi had more fun running around the kids play area whacking people with the balloon swords that a clown was making for kids than they did actually watching the baseball game. (It doesn't help that they don't really know the rules of baseball...)

After the game there was a laser music show and the boys got to run around the bases on the field.

Saturday August 13th - Cherry Crest Farm

Cherry Crest Farm is near Gap, PA and was originally just a corn maze in the 90s but has since expanded to become a fairly large country-style theme park. We spent the whole afternoon there and could have spent even longer. We watched a pig race, climbed on and under giant stacks of hay bales, shot apples out of an air cannon, shot paintball guns, went to the bouncy house (Sa was terribly upset that he was only allowed to go to the younger kids bouncy house…), slid in potato sacks, and saw and fed lots of animals at the petting zoo. This place didn’t exist when I was a kid, so it was my first time there. It was a gorgeous day, and it was perfect to spend it outside. Mike and Amy came down to join us. Uncle Tony borrowed a powered mobility scooter and took it off roading through the corn maze.

At night I met up with Eric Renshaw and Jerry Hecker and went bar hopping in Millersville and Lancaster, it was great to talk about the old times with those guys.

Sunday August 14th - Hershey Park day 2

We went back to Hershey Park, we did the water rides the first time and this time we did the roller coasters. Mike and Amy met us for the third day in a row, they are route 30 veterans! We started strong with the classic Super Dooper Looper. Sa loved it, we rode in the very front row. We stayed the full opening time from 11am to 7pm and did as much as we could. Other than the Jolly Rancher Remix (used to be called the Sidewinder), the lines were not too bad, so we rode almost everything we wanted to. I was dead tired after that and going full speed for over a week straight, so I declared Monday as a day of rest, and we mostly chilled around the house, only going out for a little bit of shopping.

Tuesday August 16th - Bowling and miniature golf

We met up with my brother Chris, his girlfriend Deb and all four of Chris’ kids, Vincent, Alex, Christian and Mia. We went to Leisure Lanes up on Columbia Avenue and bowled a few games. The kids used bumper lanes, which made their scores competitive with mine, my bowling skills were as rusty as an old nail in the rain. Chris still has good hook ball.

Vince had to head to work after bowling, so we said goodbye and then went outside to play a round of miniature golf. The boys had fun, I’m not sure if Satoshi has ever done it before, it might have been his first time.

We got some lunch and went back to Chris’ place to hang out for a few hours. Ta and Sa had fun talking about and playing Minecraft with their cousins, this is a game that has true worldwide popularity.

Wednesday August 17th - My father’s 73rd birthday

Big Al turned 73 but didn’t want any fanfare and requested a home cooked spaghetti dinner instead of a restaurant celebration. Mike came down to celebrate with us. My dad is hard to shop for and I floated a few ideas for gifts by him but came up empty handed. I do have a possibly good idea to send him as a gift later, however.

Thursday August 18th - Penn State

I was going up to Centre County to go to camping, so I decided to go early and walk around State College and the Penn State campus to relive my glory days.

It turns out that it was the first day that freshman could show up to move into the dorms, so the whole town was full of parents and fresh-faced freshmen, ready for their collegiate adventure. It was a beautiful day, and the town and campus were full of energy and good vibes.

I parked at a parking deck on Pugh Street and walked to my old fraternity house on Locust Lane. The Delta Sigma Phi house wasn’t open for brothers to move in just yet, but I found the back door open, and the kitchen staff and some construction workers were getting the house ready for residence. Some parts looked almost the same as when I was there 20+ years ago and some parts looked pretty beat up and worn. I’m hoping that it will eventually get into shape.

The house I lived in for three years during college

I did run into one young brother who had just finished his pledging last semester. He showed me around the house, and we talked a bit about the brotherhood and I told him some stories from my days there. He seemed very excited about the upcoming semester. I found my picture on one of the composites hanging in the library, I am hardly recognizable, even to myself.

After that I walk past the HUB and Old Main and took a few pictures at the Nittany Lion Shrine. It was apparently damaged recently, somebody knocked an ear off, but it was fixed so expertly that I couldn’t even see where it had been broken.

I contemplated taking the Loop bus to the stadium, but decide to just walk it. It’s a bit far, but luckily the Penn State Creamery is about halfway, so I stopped to treat myself to a one million calorie ice cream cone. I walked by East Halls (which I never lived in, I lived in Center Halls as a freshman) and watched parents and students lugging endless milk crates and containers full of things into the dorms.

At the stadium I went shopping at the gift shop, then went into the sports museum after I learned that the staff would take visitors out to the stadium to get a view of the field. I touched a Heisman Trophy with my bare hands and then went with a super friendly staffer to the upper deck and got to see a totally empty Beaver Stadium. Not as good as a game, but I was excited for the chance.

Beaver Stadium, capacity: 107,000 people

August 18-22nd - East Coast Festival of Strenuosity

At the end of 2019 I joined “The Strenuous Life”. While there are just a handful of people in TSL living in Japan, there are lots more in the States. My visit to America coincided with an annual event called the East Coast Festival of Strenuosity. ECFoS is held at Bald Eagle State Park, about 30 minutes from State College, PA.

The five-day event was for members only, so I entrusted the boys to my parents and joined everybody camping out together in the “rustic” campground that has no paved roads, no power, no showers, no wifi, no lighting and just water pumps and pit toilets. My $30 Walmart tent held up surprisingly well, even though some thunderstorm downpours.

There was an extensive schedule that had us practicing a multitude of skills including:

water rescues and general water/swimming skills in the lake, a first aid & CPR seminar taught by an experienced firefighter/EMT, a nighttime astronomy session in which we got to see the Milky Way and a string of Starlink satellites with the naked eye, and the rings of Saturn and 4 moons of Jupiter through a telescope, wilderness tracking and navigation practice, along with some basic map skills, tailoring, woodcarving – I made a rudimentary spoon, personal finances, martial arts practice, Shakespeare readings, and more!

Trying to track a human in the wilderness

Reciting a scene from a Shakespeare play

There were about 19 people who participated and while I had met some of them online before, it was my first time to meet any of them in person. It was a truly wonderful group of people, I felt welcomed and familiar immediately and I feel like I have gained some really good friends from this event. The camaraderie that we experienced during activities and chilling out around the campfire each night was amazing.

The time passed by all too quickly and I drove back to Lancaster Country, straight to my COVID test so that I could board my flight to Japan the next day.

My entire trip back the US was so awesome! Three weeks flew by in a blink and I’m waiting to visit again next year.

Dave's trip to the USA

始めてみよう！