Cam'Ronicles Part II: Documenting "The Area"

When I was growing up, my dream was to play professional basketball for the Utah Jazz. Later in life when I realized that my physical attribute were not up to snuff for the NBA, my second love became communications. I knew a profession in public relations could land me in a variety of career fields, but I never imagined I'd do anything science-related, let alone end up at a nuclear cleanup site. 


In a matter of weeks, my supervisor expected me to guide public tours of a former plutonium production site which is larger than the city of Houston. I had a lot to learn. My idea was to pick the brain of Hanford experts and to bring a videographer along as I did so. What a fascinating experience this was! 


The story of the Hanford Site has it all: history, war, culture, science, nature and now a valiant environmental remediation effort. 


Please take the time to check out this documentary at www.youtube.com/hanfordsite.   


Film Summary
A recent graduate from Utah State University (Cameron Salony) accepts a job with the Department of Energy at Hanford and soon finds that his new workplace is a former site of plutonium production during WWII and the Cold War, but today is part of the world‟s largest environmental cleanup. However, he soon realizes that the history runs even deeper at Hanford as he meets with members of local tribes whose ancestors inhabited the region thousands of years before settlers began moving into the area in the 1860s. Eventually the government would take the land from both the Native Americans and the settlers for war purposes in the 1940s. Today some of the best-educated scientists and engineers in the country are working together to clean up what remains after 45 years of plutonium production in an effort to restore the land. Join Cameron as he explores the history and issues of Hanford as he interviews local tribal members, a citizen advisory board member, former and current workers, Hanford management, regulators and more.

Cam’ronicles Part 1: The University Whose Mascot is a Color

So I promised Heather that I would write some entries about a few of my work adventures. I was lucky enough to get to travel to some pretty cool locales across the country.

Heather has already blogged about our month-long adventure we had in DC during my work orientation, so let’s move on to the next story: Stanford University.

 One of my first assignments in my new job was to make a 30-minute documentary about the Hanford Site, a former Manhattan Project site in southeastern Washington State.  It’s a pretty complex nuclear cleanup site with a fascinating history.  Before this I had almost no video production experience, so I needed to learn fast. Lucky for me that my friends at Stanford and the Digital Media Academy offered a week-long crash course on things I would need to know in order to produce an effective and appealing piece.

As part of the class, a group of us made a documentary about the Stanford University Equestrian team. The team is very talented and is under the direction of great leadership and has an excellent farrier to take care of the precious horses.

Did you know that Utah State University has almost twice the amount of students as Stanford? Little tidbit I learned. Check out Stanford’s beautiful campus.

One of the members of my group had a car. This was an omen that we were supposed to go check out Frisco. My new friends Calvin and Ricardo. 

We jetted across the Golden Gate Bridge, but unfortunately the fog was a barrier to our view.

It’s really there, I promise.

Then we cruised down Lombard Street: the windiest road in America. Sorry it was dark and I was in a car, so I don't have a good picture of it. 

Reptiles in SF come in the form of sourdough.

Just a hop, skip and a swim from Alcatraz.

Though my San Francisco experience was short and sweet, I tend to agree with the famous newsman who said, "Leaving San Francisco is like saying goodbye to an old sweetheart.  You want to linger as long as possible." - Walter Cronkite

P.S. The Hanford documentary will be posted to YouTube soon. 

What's Up Pussy Cat? Whoa--oa

I sort of forgot that I never posted about our Labor Day adventures. It was a great weekend! We were lucky enough to catch a ride with the Morris' to Utah and while we were there we had fun spending time with our family.  On Friday we went to lunch at a family favorite, Robintino's, in Bountiful, Utah. As you can see, I got to sit across the table from this hunk, look at those muscles! 

After lunch we headed up to Lakeview Memorial Cemetery to look at the headstone for Cameron's Mom, Julie. The boys and I had some 'adventures' outside exploring while Cameron and Melisa were inside.  It was actually pretty cool because I got a dragonfly to land on Matt's hand but didn't have my camera there to snap a picture.

We had a lot of fun on Friday and love these boys!

On Saturday afternoon Mom, Cameron & I went to Antelope Island for their Hot Air Balloon Festival (there were some pretty cool kites too but we didn't get any pictures).  After waiting for a bit they announced that the balloons would take off from another part of the island and land over by the entertainment stage. We followed the trucks to where they'd be taking off and found a vantage point were we could see all four get in the air.

It was fun to watch as one by one they filled up with hot air and took off.

It was a pretty night and as the balloons disappeared on one side of us, the sun was sinking down over the water on our other side.

The rest of our weekend was spent with family and of course playing games with Mom & Dad and getting some fresh Perry Peaches to bring back to Washington.

So Cal

Yup, I'm just flying through these posts... Cameron has said if I catch up then he'll do some posts about his fun work trips, so I'm motivated to be up to date.

Just two weeks ago we 'jetted' down to California to visit Ron and Maria.  It had been about two and half years since I had been down and we were excited to visit. We also decided that we didn't want to go to any amusement parks or anything so we found some different attractions to visit. Also during the trip we gave Ron and Maria some 'firsts.'

We arrived late on Thursday night and on Friday we headed down to San Diego for the day.  Our first stop was the Olympic training center, a 155 acre facility.  It was really neat, a great facility, and we had a great tour.  They operate solely on donations, so visit www.teamusa.org to donate.

This is their BMX track...

Field Hockey...

Archery...

A funny/cool statue...

Rowing...

It's a great place, here's a picture of Cameron and Ron.

And we got a few pictures out front before we left.

Then we headed to Cabrillo National Monument and the Point Loma Lighthouse. I didn't realize until we got there that I had visited back in 2005 on a family vacation.

Ron loves lighthouses, but had never actually been to one, so we were happy we got to take him to his first one.

The view of San Diego behind us.

I liked this picture because the lighthouse is just small up there on the hill.

This is the National Monument.

Cameron took this funny picture of a picture :) Ron loves to snap pictures of everything, and I was just sitting here when he came up to take my picture, so it's very true to life.

After the park closed we headed to the beach for a picnic dinner.

And a shot of the sun streaming through the clouds and the light bouncing off the water.

That night we went to an improv show similar to "Who's Line is it Anyway." It's called "National Comedy Theatre" and they were clean, funny, and well priced.

Those are all the pictures I have, but on Saturday we stayed local and had authentic Mole with Maria's family and then did some shopping at the Mall. We also played card games that night and it was Maria's first time playing with face cards.

Can you believe we did all of that in one weekend, we didn't even have to take off any work thanks to our rotating Friday's off!  It was a great little trip.

A Day on the Columbia

A couple weeks ago we borrowed some Kayak's and spent some time on the river. We invited the Blodgett's and took turns paddling around and exploring. There was a wake boarding competition happening near the spot we put in so it was fun to watch that too.  

Here's Kyle and Carrie

And here's Cameron and I

It was fun, and a workout!!

Whirlwind Wedding, Birthday, Reunion Weekend

The weekend of July 16th we went home for Jonathan & Holli's wedding, Macai's Birthday, and to see Brian, who had just returned from his mission to New Zealand. It was a busy, fun, beautiful, and quick weekend.  On Friday the 15th we went boating on Willard Bay.

Here I am with Cohen and Elise.

This second time I'm with Cohen and Cameron.

This is Brian when he flew off the tube and was skipping across the water like a rock. 

It was funny when Brian was getting off the boat and onto the tube Cameron faked him out and pulled the tube out from under him as Brain jumped so he ended up in the water. 

After boating we went down to celebrate Macai's 1st Birthday. He's such a cutie, check out that smile and those eyes.

And to finish the night we had family pictures as well. The first time the Curtis clan has all been together since November of 2007.

Saturday, the 16th, was wedding day. Here's Beckett and Matt waiting for the Newlywed's to come out of the temple.

Ta-Da, and here they are!

That evening they had a ring ceremony and dinner at the Lodge in Perry. It was a beautiful day and coincidentally Elise and Matt were married on 6/16, Cameron and I on 8/16, and now Jonathan and Holli are 7/16.

On Sunday, Brain spoke in church and then we had everyone over for lunch. This is a fun picture we got of Matty dressing up as a clown football player.

Even though it was a busy weekend it's always good to be with family and get to see everyone.