St. Augustine Trip, part 3

July 6

St. Augustine has a cool old fort that is pretty famous.  Turns out that it costs quite a bit to tour it.  So we took the family to another fort on the island (or, across the river, I guess) called Fort Matanzas.  Matanzas means "slaughters".  Plural.  Gotta love history.

Anyway, this itty bitty fort was adorable and we had a great time looking around and learning the history and such.  What most interested and shocked me is that the military men who would have lived at the fort weren't men at all, but young boys.  Seriously, 6- to 9-year-old boys, with a single older boy in charge.  That's alarming.

kids helping raise the Spanish army's flag

We stuck around after our tour to watch them fire off the cannon.  My favorite part was Rob taking a video of the fairly unspectacular event.  Rob took a billion and one pictures while we were on vacation.  His attitude towards pictures and mine have reversed in recent years.  I take very few any more, and Rob has decided to take a ton!  This sometimes annoys me, like when he insists on taking 40 useless pictures of the fireworks and gets way crappy results.  "Rob, our kids aren't even in those pictures."

Anyways, in the video you can hear me grumbling that he's taking the video.  You can hear our kids trying to hold on for a few more minutes, even though they are bored and losing patience.  Then, right before the cannon goes off, the camera gets really shaky and it's hard to watch.  The cannon goes off, and you see a tiny puff of smoke and a bang.  And at the very end you hear Scott Dean say, "Wasn't that worth it?"  Classic.

After that we split up.  Elijah and I chilled at the beach house while Rob, Miciah, and Tank went to the Ripley's Believe it or Not museum.  Miciah in particular really liked the museum and I really liked my nap.  Win for all.

Miciah holding her hand up in front of the largest human hand ever - 12 inches

That night we walked along the ocean during sunset, which is the reason that beaches exist.

July 7
I was determined to see the sunrise.  It rises over the ocean.  And even though I initiated the idea, when I woke up, I knew it was a no go for me.  My sunburn was so painful that I hadn't slept well and I needed the extra few hours.  On top of that, walking was still a challenge, particularly when I woke up.  So the family went without me and Rob took 150 pictures of the event.  I will now post all of them:

Just kidding.  But he did take 150 pictures.  He said, "I wanted you to feel like you'd experienced it a little bit."  Umm, thanks?  I guess it's cute.

Anyways, we finally have arrived at the reason for our trip:  Church.  You think I'm joking, but I'm not.  The Deans spend most of their time in Cincinnati, but the remainder is spent in St. Augustine.  A good number in their congregation are Deaf.  They thought to invite us down because they thought I would like the immersion kind of experience that church would offer.

And they were totally right!  I loved, loved, loved it!  First off, there was this great interpreter who took the first hour.  Her husband is Deaf, and she is a professional interpreter by trade.  I was drooling.  Next came an all-ASL Sunday School meeting!  The least ASL of us at least sim-comed (signed and spoke at the same time) while she got out her own thoughts.  I even got to make a few comments in ASL!  Heaven.  Then, in Relief Society, the woman conducting was just speaking at first, but then when the 1 Deaf person of the group entered the room, she started immediately sim-coming!  She then interpreted the meeting.

I know that some of you won't really appreciate how meaningful this is, but just know that all this is amazing.  These are things that we try to teach people - respect for the Deaf Community.  The importance of equal access.  Doing your best.

Then, the icing on the cake is that right after church a Deaf man got baptized.  The meeting was conducted in ASL and then voice interpreted!  So cool.  At one point, there were 2 different interpreters going!  The blessing was signed, but the signer had his back to the audience.  The interpreter voiced for her husband, and then another interpreter took the English and signed it back into ASL for the Deaf in the audience!

One of the best parts, for me, is that all throughout the day there were maybe 5 different interpreters, and none of them was me.  I don't mind interpreting, but it's a fact of life that here in Cincinnati there are scarce LDS interpreting resources.  Now that I am formally trained and currently working as an interpreter, I am at the front of the pack.  I don't mind this (if I did mind it, I wouldn't have become an interpreter.  I knew it would happen.  It was part of the plan), but it's sometimes a little taxing.

It was awesome to see such a vibrant support group.  There were Deaf men with hearing wives, some of whom were interpreters by trade.  There were CODAs (Child of Deaf Adult).  There were hearing people who could sign.  There were parents of Deaf children who were proficient in ASL.  And the entire ward was supportive and understanding.  It was just really, really cool.

... to be continued.  1 last leg to go.