Last week it snowed one day, and then another, and then another and for some reason the snow mostly stayed on the tree branches making the world around us a winter wonderland. For me it was breath-taking. Everywhere you looked the trees were frosted. I tried to capture a few photos.
Continuing my Friday series on memorable hikes…
My husband and I went camping in Itasca State Park. This park is a beautiful treasure in Minnesota. In this park, the headwaters of the Mississippi begin. We camped here with our boys when they were younger, but this year it was just my husband and I.
One afternoon we took off hiking on a trail from the campground, and I was in the lead. As we were walking along I noticed black in the treetops above me, on my right. I stopped to look and noticed there were two black cubs high in the tree…so then I thought…hmmm, where’s mama?
I looked to the left of the path and there she was, staring right at us. At that moment I couldn’t remember what I was suppose to do. We’ve been to so many parks and read so many signs telling one how to react to bears…black bears or grizzly bears… play dead for one and act big for another, but in this moment – when I needed to know – I forgot! So we stood there, and then slowly stepped backwards. The cubs climbed down the tree, walked over the path in front of us and joined their mama, all the while the mama kept her eyes on us. And we kept our eyes on her too!
When the cubs were safely with their mama we watched them scamper off into the woods and we kept going on our hike, happy to have had a safe, and memorable, encounter with the black bears.
I saw this image on a billboard today. After hearing the sad news of Billy Graham’s death this morning, I was surprised to see this billboard already on display along 35W a few hours later.
Billy Graham was 99 years old. Today the world mourns his passing, yet celebrates the amazing life of this good and faithful servant of God. He was a powerful man of prayer, and a man of positive influence. He touched the lives of so many people around the world.
Here is a link to the official obituary for Billy Graham.
In 8th grade my church youth group went to see the movie The Restless Ones, a Billy Graham movie. After the movie I went up to talk to a counselor, but half way there I got nervous and turned around. Years later, when Billy Graham came to Minneapolis in 1996, I went through counselor training for the Minneapolis Crusades so I was available for others if anyone wanted to talk after Billy Graham spoke. What an interesting twist.
My own two sons, and their youth group at the time, went to hear the evangelist. Afterwards kids were running to the bus when my youngest son accidentally ran into a fender and cut open his leg. We wrapped it, got on the bus, and kept his spirits up while we drove back to Northfield Hospital’s emergency room. He had several stitches that left a scar on his leg for many years.
I think I will always remember where I was when I heard the news about Billy Graham’s death; just as I remember where I was when JFK was shot, or when the planes flew into the Twin Towers in NYC on 911.
Sometimes when I’m caught in heavy traffic I have thought about the Jetsons. The Jetsons was a cartoon show on television in the 1960’s and I used to watch it as a little girl: George the father, Jane the mother, Judy the daughter, Elroy the son, and Astro their dog. It made an impression on me.
The Jetsons had the coolest vehicles called spacemobiles…and they traveled fast through the interplanetary expressway. In rush hour traffic I have envisioned being in spacemobile rising above the traffic and zooming home, leaving the mess behind!
The other day I was looking through a box of books and found an old comic book: The Jetsons, Volume 1, January 1963, published quarterly, “Now only 12 cents!” What fun!
Also, the other day a friend, not knowing about this comic book I just uncovered, suggested I look online at pictures of “Starman”, the name of the mannequin dressed in a spacesuit orbiting the universe in a bright red, Tesla Roadster. The photos are interesting, intriguing, and a bit eerie. Click here to see photo. The roadster might even crash into earth some time in the next million years, click here for article and photo with short video of traveling by Earth.
So to see these amazing images from outer space and then look at an antique comic book from 1963 depicting the same theme felt like an intergalactic experience!
Back to the comic book: the Jetsons take nutrition pills as their dinner; George, the father, says in a huff “keep your synthetic shirts on”; they take their dog Astro for a “float” instead of a walk; and when they have to use an airplane to fly to Hawaii because their spacemobile breaks down (darn – I guess there will never be a vehicle that doesn’t break down) the kids think the airplane is an antique. Although not featured in this particular comic book, I do believe the Jetsons had picture phones…like Skype or FaceTime!
Here are a few photos of pages from the comic book.
I’m still wondering if someday we couldn’t find away to rise above all the traffic and use space as our freeway. Hmm, just think…no snow removal… construction zones… no traffic jams…
Continuing my Friday series on memorable hikes…
In 2014, an article in The Washington Post read “An estimated 94 percent of Lake Superior is covered with ice, enabling sightseers to visit the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore’s sea caves for the first time since 2009.”
Before 2014 I did not know there was a possibility of walking on frozen Lake Superior to visit the sea caves. We explored the sea caves while kayaking one summer, but to see them in the wintertime was intriguing. I love Lake Superior and I loved the idea of walking on it. As soon as I learned about this opportunity we recruited some friends and headed to Duluth for dinner and an overnight, and drove to Bayfield, Wisconsin the next day. A beach near Bayfield was the designated entry point for the trail to the sea caves. There were throngs of people with the same idea. It quickly became a very popular attraction that winter, which made for congested parking and long lines – but it was worth it.
We bundled up in our warm, winter gear, grabbed our hiking poles and walked out to see the beautiful dazzling ice formations, crystal caves, and icicles hanging everywhere off the cliff faces along the Apostle Island National Lakeshore. When the lake is not frozen the sea caves are very popular places for exploring with canoeists and kayakers. But at this point in time people could walk through, and crawl under, these same sea caves and it was awesome!
Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature,
O thou of God and man the Son,
Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,
thou, my soul’s glory, joy, and crown.
Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands,
robed in the blooming garb of spring:
Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer
who makes the woeful heart to sing.
Fair is the sunshine, fairer still the moonlight,
and all the twinkling starry host:
Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer
than all the angels heaven can boast.
Beautiful Savior! Lord of all the nations!
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor, praise, adoration,
now and forevermore be thine.
We sang this hymn in the worship service we attended for our granddaughter’s baptism on Sunday. The ceremony was precious, and brought tears to my eyes. More tears of joy surfaced as we sang this closing hymn. It touched my heart in a special way as it brought me back to my childhood. I remember it as one of the first hymns I loved singing when I was a child. Songs are powerful and stay in our minds; they often trigger certain feelings and memories. I was happy to have this special memory from my childhood church be brought to my mind on this very special day.
Continuing my Friday series on memorable hikes…
This is about the hike that wasn’t.
Our youngest son, Tim, planned our first trip to Africa. He was living there when my husband, oldest son and myself went to visit. Tim met us at the airport as we stepped off the plane. It was so exciting to be in Africa!
We met the rep from the rental car company and picked up our car. We were soon on the road starting our adventures. The first days were spent at a rustic lodge in Liwonde National Park in Malawi, Africa. We went on an exciting canoe safari and saw hippopotamus’ up close, and in this park we saw elephants in the wild for our first time (but not our last).
After a couple of nights it was time to head to the country of Mozambique to see where our son lived. However, the morning we were to leave we had trouble starting our vehicle at the lodge. After several attempts the car finally started and we drove to the park entrance. We had to turn in our permit to the park ranger and by automatic reflex we turned off the car. This time it wouldn’t start again.
We called the rental company and they said they would send someone right away but of course we were a couple of hours from the city, so we each took out our books and started to read. After a while I decided I wanted to take a walk. My oldest son said he’d go along so we started walking down the road. Immediately the park ranger came running after us and said in broken English…”No! No walk…elephants.” So, of course we had to go back to the car.
Finally two mechanics showed up at the park to fix our car. Thankfully they could do it on the spot and they worked quickly. Soon we were on the road again driving to Mozambique.
Shortly after we arrived home to the USA I noticed an article in the newspaper about a young mom and her baby attacked by an elephant in Kenya, Africa and they died. Of course I immediately thought about our attempted hike in Liwonde National Park. I guess the ranger knew what he was talking about.
The sun was shining, the snow was glistening and the woods were calling. Fortunately, we had no where we needed to be so we headed out to Big Woods State Park to hike in the winter wonderland.
It’s February and it’s I Love To Read” month.
Reading is a wonderful thing to celebrate. I’m so grateful I can read.
I don’t have childhood memories of reading every chance I could get, or under the tree, or in a secret place like a lot of adults talk about, but at some point in time I started to read more and became aware of how much I love to read. It’s a wonderful thing.
I do have lots of memories from reading to my boys in their childhood. Reading was a very precious time. I loved reading to them, and we read to them a lot. Our reading times are some of my fondest memories. I can picture me sitting on the sofa with a boy at each side, cuddling up, by the light and reading and reading…many books, many times, including every night before bed. I cherish those remembrances.
I have always liked books but I believe my love of books began when I started reading to my children. I started learning about, and buying, books to read to our boys. I’ve acquired a small collection of children’s books, which I continue to enjoy to this day (and still add to my collection).
I am in a book club, which I enjoy very much. I have read so many books over the years that I would probably never have picked out to read on my own. It has been, and continues to be, a wonderful experience. I borrow most of the books I read for our book club from our local library. However, there are certain other books I buy so I can highlight or underline ideas or thoughts as I read. My husband loves to read too, so we do have our own collection of books on bookshelves at home.
I wrote a children’s book. The story line is about skyping and I used clip art for the illustrations because it is about using computers so I thought clip art was appropriate. I had a print center in town print, laminate, and bind the book for my granddaughter whom I skype with – in Africa – and now, with her brother too. I’ve sent it to publishers but so far no one is interested. It was a fun project.
There’s so many more thoughts to share on reading. I love to read…here’s to “I love to read” month!
When I told others we were taking a road trip to Southern Texas many asked if I was stopping in Waco, Texas. I wondered why would we do that? I soon learned about Magnolia.
It’s a small complex in downtown Waco with two large, historic silos, an old grain warehouse converted to a home goods store, and a small bakery in the old office. Apparently there is a popular program on cable TV called Fixer Upper that Chip and Joanna Gaines, a Texan couple, are famous for – a reality show about fixing up and “flipping” houses, with a touch of humor.
The friends we traveled with to Texas knew of Magnolia and had seen a few episodes of Fixer Upper so were intrigued to stop and see this attraction. It was very close to the 35 W exit (unlike the Salt Lick BBQ restaurant) and so we pulled off the exit early one morning on our return trip from Mission, Texas. After parking the car, we headed for the bakery first, and it was a good thing because later, as we drove away from Magnolia, the line spilled outside the bakery door and continued down the block. This is a popular place.
It was interesting complex and it’s always nice to get a delicious bakery treat and browse in a home store. It was certainly unique. But, I think the person who enjoyed our visit to Magnolia the most was my husband. He’s not a shopper, and he barely set foot in the store, but he was intrigued by the two historic grain silos outside, on the grounds.
He learned this site Magnolia now owns had been a cottonseed oil mill. Although many of the original buildings were no longer standing, Gary liked to see the old silos with their rusty conveying systems. At his first job out of college, he worked in oil-seed processing with Cargill and was intimately familiar with the types of conveyors and silos left standing, so he stood their visualizing what the site looked like in its heyday of pressing oil from the cottonseed, and the handling of the seed, oil, and byproducts. It brought back lots of memories for him.
So…at this fun stop off 35W in Waco, Texas we had an interesting twist to our visit to Magnolia.