Washington, DC 2023

Washington, DC 2019

Berlin, Germany 2024

Paris, France 2022

Monday, July 7, 2025

3:22 PM SAN to DFW on American Airlines flight 2885

10:50 PM DFW to Doha, Qatar on Qatar Airways

Arrive late on Tuesday, July 8

(I will be taking advantage of Qatar Airways’  free stopover in Doha, Qatar)

• 100 degrees plus in Doha, so museum visits

Thursday, July 10, 2025

6:45 PM Doha, Qatar to Nairobi, Kenya on Qatar Airways; arrive 11:50 PM

Due to arriving so late I will stay overnight at an airport hotel

Rafiki Village Kenya

July 11-August 3, 2025

Monday, August 3

Nairobi, Kenya to Kigali, Rwanda

Leave Nairobi 1:20 PM; arrive

Kigali 1:50 PM (time change)

Kenya Airways

Rafiki Village Rwanda

August 3-September 26, 2025

Thursday, September 25, 2025

4:25 PM Kigali to Doha on RwandAir

1:20 AM Doha to DFW on Qatar Airways

Friday, September 26

1:33 PM DFW to SAN on American Airlines flight 1939; Arrival into SAN at 2:30 PM

(AKA paying to keep Steve out of the USA for the summer)

Go to my page at Rafiki Foundation’s official site (link below). Contributions are used for travel and daily expenses required by Rafiki. Rafiki requires their volunteer short-term missionaries to fund their own transportation to the Village as well as pay a daily fee (that covers meals and housing at the Village). Transportation is about $2,000 and the room and board fee is $30 per day (so a little over $4,700 in total). Should there be a balance in my fund at the end of my service, these funds will be used for Rafiki’s programs.

https://rafikifoundation.org/missionary/steve-whitener-m3318

Just so you know, my service to Rafiki will happen with or without outside financial assistance.

South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, and Zimbabwe

12 minute video from my safari. And I don’t really even like animals.

Excited to take a dozen Calvin Christian HS students on another Presidential Road Trip (two previous ones in 2010 and 2013). Monday and Tuesday, March 28-29, 2016

A busy two days of non-stop history and adventure:

Day 1

• Nixon Museum in Yorba Linda- Boyhood home, grave site, Presidential helicopter, gardens, recreated East Room of the White House
• Independence Hall at Knott’s Berry Farm (a brick-by-brick exact copy)
• Lunch at Phillips the Original (where the French Dip sandwich was invented!)
• Disney Concert Hall
• L.A. City Hall’s 360° observation deck on the 27th Floor
• La Brea Tar Pits (home to Ice Age animals)
• Sculpture Garden at the L.A. County Museum of Art (“Levitating Mass”)
• Dinner at The Grove / L.A. Farmer’s Market
• Overnight hotel accommodation at the Hampton Inn Agoura Hills

Day 2

• Breakfast in our hotel
• Reagan Museum in Simi Valley. Participate in the Discovery Center’s Interactive Cold War exercise where you make the call: diplomacy, liberation, or nothing
• Catered lunch under Air Force One at the Reagan
• Guided tour of the Reagan Museum
• Self-guided tour of the special Vatican treasures exhibit at the Reagan
• Dinner on the way home (TBA)

Your $95 Activity Fee Includes All the Above

Activities, tours, meals, transportation, and hotel

(this activity is funded in part by a grant for Calvin Christian student cultural activities)

If paid by February 29, 2016. Space is limited.  Sold Out

Download the flyer here:  Presidential Roadtrip 2016

New York City Spring Break 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To view a one page itinerary of Spring Break in NYC ’15 click here: 2015SBinNYCFinalItinerary

10 travelers. 6 days/5 nights in Manhattan. $1,950

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Paris, Versailles & Reims FRANCE Summer 2014

 

To view some photos from the 2014 FRANCE tour click here: Paris14iBook (note: 33 MB file)

 

To view a one page .pdf itinerary of the 2014 FRANCE tour click here: France 2014 Final Itinerary

 

12 travelers. 10 days. $2,950

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Presidential Road Trip Spring Break 2013

Two Days / One Night visiting the Nixon and Reagan Presidential Libraries, plus time in Hollywood and The Grove/Farmer’s Market. $220

(here students participate in the interactive Discovery Center activity at the Reagan Library in an exact replica of the Oval Office discussing the 1983 Grenada Liberation)

 

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San Francisco New Years 2013

(With Alcatraz Island in the background, students present themselves on their Segways midway through our tour over the hills and sites of the City on the Bay)

To view a one page .pdf daily itinerary for New Years in San Francisco 2013, click here: SanFranciscoTripItineraryFinal2

Eight participants. 4 days/3 nights staying at the Hilton Union Square. $590 

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CCHS Student Travel Tours – Trips Prior to 2013:

2012	New York City – Spring Break Click to see the itinerary: nycsb12itinfinalC
2010	Summer Kick-Off Roadtrip – Nevada & Arizona Click to see the itinerary: Summer Kick-Off 2010 finala
2010	Presidential Roadtrip
2009	New York City – Spring Break
2008	Paris, France
2007	Berlin, Germany
2006	New York City – Spring Break
2005	Rome, Italy
2004	London, England

After my time in Africa I went to Milan for a couple of days. Why you ask? Well, it’s all about using my free frequent flyer ticket- in my case from United’s Mileageplus program. When I attempted to book my 7/4/15 flight from San Diego to Lilongwe, Malawi, East Africa (the closest airport to Rafiki’s Mzuzu village), I had no problem. But trying to book my return flight from Cape Town to San Diego was problematic. I could not seem to find any available flight combinations to get home. Researching it a bit, I discovered that United allows one international stop-over. The options were very broad. Where would I spend my international stop-over? Istanbul? Paris? London? Frankfurt? I was able to find a flight from Cape Town to Milan, then three days later, get a flight from Milan to San Diego. Problem solved. And why Milan? Because that’s where the 2015 World’s Fair would be. So it’s a couple of days in Milan. Now, I’ve been to Milan a few times. My first time was in 1990 for a couple of hours as I joined a tour of Italy there late. The next time was many years later where I saw the famous Duomo, Da Vinci’s Last Supper painting, and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the world’s oldest shopping mall. So this time it just for the World’s Fair. But, one can’t come to Milan and not spend at least a bit of time admiring the Duomo.

As with my Africa post, here’s some Signs of the Times – in Milan

This being an Italian based event, Expo 2015 Milan had two large buildings full of authentic restaurants from every region in Italy. Amazing food.

The American pavilion was focused on food (not surprising as that was the fair’s theme). I thought the flag logo was clever.

Finally, sign-wise, I present the Austrian Pavilion. The entrance was just a dense forest. Suddenly you could see the sign presented at various locations come into coherence: breathe. Clever.

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This poster was sighted in a subway station. So this is what Italians think of America? (sorry for the quality- taken with my old iPhone 4)

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One morning I took the subway to the southern part of Milan to visit the new Prada Foundation museum, renovated buildings that were once a distillery. The cafe in the museum was designed by American film director Wes Anderson (Grand Budapest, Moonrise Kingdom, etc.). Despite the interior being very stylized (think Italy in the 1950s as only Wes Anderson could imagine), the exterior is very minimalistic, just a small neon “bar” sign.

 

Above: outside with sign (btw, the tallish building is part of the museum and completely clan in 24-karat gold leaf). Below: Inside- much more lively and interesting. Drank a cappuccino and people watched:

So what did this little Milanese trip cost? flight: free; hotel: free (cashed in Hilton points); subway/tram tickets for three days $15; two days at Expo 2015: $80 (thanks dollar/euro exchange rate), plus food at $50. Total: $145. Not bad for three days to experience the World’s Fair and a bit of Milan.

   The Adventure Continues … in Florida

This June 13, 2016, I plan on taking a handful of high school students with supplies destined for Rafiki Foundation’s Malawi Village to Rafiki Foundation’s head office in Eustis, Florida.

After a day of Rafiki-ing in Eustis, we will spend a few days enjoying the unique sites of Central Florida:

• Experience a thrilling airboat tour of the Central Florida’s Everglades on the legendary St. John’s River,  a natural paradise teeming with wildlife

• Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral
• Splashing around in the Atlantic (just to say we did)
• Worship services at St. Andrew’s Chapel (PCA), the home church of R.C. Sproul
• Disney’s Epcot
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Wizarding World of Harry Potter (at Universal Studios Orlando and Universal’s Islands of Adventure)

7 days / 6 nights $980 for air, hotel, all breakfasts, all dinners, theme park/Kennedy Space Center/Airboat ride tickets, taxes, tips.

Here’s the flyer and application to participate:

2016FloridaJuneflyer112115

Hotel booked: Embassy Suites Lake Buena Vista Resort

 

One boys’ suite; one girls’ suite

 

Strange, but true (at least says WordPress). The number one source of recent visitors to this site are from Brazil. Here’s the data:

Brazil	20
United States	10
Italy	4
Mexico	3
France	3
Portugal	2
Malawi	2
South Africa	1
Argentina	1
Romania	1
Colombia	1
Tunisia	1
Thailand	1
Spain	1
Angola	1
Bolivia	1
Peru	1
Serbia	1
Morocco	1