2010 Trip Part 5

I promise you, our vacation was not nearly as long as the time it is taking me to post it!  I am losing interest in this series, but how can I quit?  We have not gotten to PlainJane's house yet, and oh dear, I AM late.  She and her family just left our house!

After leaving my beloved North Dakota (beloved except, as one astute person pointed out, for its homeschooling laws, as we are wonderfully spoiled that way in AZ), we headed for Minnesota's North Shore.  Lake Superior holds many fond memories for both my husband and me.   When we first began to plan this trip, it was going to be a little family trip to Minnesota.  By the time it was done,  it was a BIG family trip!  We were joined at beautiful Lake Superior shore by my in-laws and my husband's brother and sister and their families.  Such fun we had!  Here's a quick recap.

All the cousins on this side were together for the first time in... eight years.  But two were not born yet back then, and one of those is a brand new little niece.  We all got to know each other again!  What a nice bunch of kids.  (Look at all those BOYS!)  My most techie child picked up all sorts of interesting information from her techie cousins, things like "jailbreaking" and cool things you can do with an iPhone.  We played Pit, ate ice cream, grilled steaks, played in the water, slid down a mountain, rubber stamped post cards, talked, laughed, and all that fun stuff you do with family.

Ooops, they aren't all in that photo.  Two girls and some adults missing.

We had two groups of hikers at Gooseberry Falls, the A team and the B team.  The A team was for active teenagers, fit forty-some-year-olds, and some smaller ones with good endurance.  The B team did a short little walk to the falls, collected a few rocks, walked back to the parking lot, and went to buy a pie. That's my kind of hiking.  :D

We all went to see Split Rock Lighthouse.  It has a very interesting history, and of course there are lots of shipwreck stories to be heard at Lake Superior.  It is a most treacherous body of water.  Remember the doomed Edmund Fitzgerald?

As a matter of fact, we visited several lighthouses:



We watched a fancy sailboat leave the harbor. (If I'd have written this two months ago I might remember what it's called.)

AND, for our first time ever, in spite of this being one of many trips to Duluth, we got to see the largest ore boat on Lake Superior come into the harbor.  This made John Garrison's day.

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Our girls talked their daddy into taking them to an alpine slide, and we had planned to do that in the Black Hills.  That was before the van broke down and we were forced to reroute our travels.  A quick Google  search assured us it would still be possible -- in Minnesota!  Who knew Minnesota had anything remotely alpine?  If you ever decide to do this, don't think you can just buy the cheap package and be satisfied.  Get the all day ticket.  Of course, the best thing about all these Lake Superior adventures was the fact that all the relatives were with us.  Emily was blessed with several big "brothers" to escort her down the slide.

The more prudent John Garrison entertained himself with his new niece, Elly.

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Isn't he goofy? :D  Emily did talk her Daddy into one ride, at the very end.  The nice people at the ticket booth let him take his little girl at no charge.  Later, while rubbing his aching back, he said he was glad he did not pay for that kind of treatment.  I think alpine slides are for people with younger bodies.

We had lots of fun times.  The best of it all was just being with people we love. ♥

Next stop, PlainJane's!

2010 Trip Part 4

Are you ready for this?  I fell in love with, of all places, North Dakota.  (No, it was not January, I'm sure that had a lot to do with it.)  Before we could get there, though, we had to pass through lovely Wyoming (I am not being facetious.  It was lovely.) and South Dakota, where my children had their first experience with mosquitoes after dark.  They acted just like girls, which is understandable.  They are girls.  We stayed in a teeny tiny town, Buffalo, which has just one motel, and a decent one at that.  (File that away in case you ever need to stay in that vicinity, but be warned about the mosquitoes!)

I don't know what it is that I love about hay fields, certainly not the  allergens.  But I just adore a rolling landscape and wide open spaces with big, fresh, round hay bales scattered about.  (Bale, not Baal -- that's for Short) :)  A picture's worth a thousand words, and to me this picture speaks  of freedom and of clean-living, hard-working, orderly, family-oriented, patriotic people.  I know, there is sin everywhere, and LOTS of it, but if I had enough leg room and a comfortable seat, I could drive through baled hay fields all day, enjoying my delusion.  I could even call it home.  In July, that is.  Or August. In North Dakota.  I can't believe my resident photographer did not get even ONE hay bale photo for me.

Our entire route was planned and timed around the location of Little Caesar's restaurants, for where else can you fill up a family of six for $10 ($12 in pricey Bismark)?  Not even McDonalds, thankfully. :)  John Garrison, on location:

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At the same time we were driving all day across ND, our hosts, who are friends in the ministry, were driving home all day from Iowa.   This visit was so awkwardly timed, with us arriving between back-to-back weddings, but the Custers were top-notch in gracious hospitality.  We were to meet them at their church in Grand Forks and follow them to their home on the Minnesota side of the Red River.  While we waited for our friends, we were treated to a real live life-threatening ND thunderstorm!  John Garrison, knowledgeable amateur weatherman that he is, had his poor children all worked up over the ominous black clouds that were speeding our way.  The wind picked up, the sky blackened, the rain pelted us. Just in time our hosts pulled into the parking lot.  As we followed them to their home, my husband learned a good lesson.  If you do now follow the pastor, you may get lost or even crash. :)  We were completely blinded by the rain, having only the tail lights ahead of us to follow.  I love a good mid-west storm! It was so exciting.

Sunday morning was perfect.  We had  beautiful weather, maybe about 75º, a hot summer day up there in the north country.  (I know I can trust Weather Truth Man to comment if I am wrong about the temperature.)  Anyway, the air conditioning at Bible Baptist was on full blast, and my poor husband, though he was equipped with long underwear, had to go outside to warm up between Sunday School and the preaching service!  He preached the evening service, and a dear, thoughtful brother brought the desert-acclimated preacher a space heater for the platform. :D

Since the church is undergoing a major remodel, there is room for only half the orchestra to play at each service.  You all know Alison's longstanding dream has been to play her violin in an orchestra. In anticipation of that possibility, she squeezed her instrument into the seat with her for 5000+ miles.  Well, her dream came true!  :D  Space was made for her to play along.  She was one very happy young lady!

Emily Custer, who is the piano accompanist on her brother Seth's beautiful soprano saxophone CD, Come Thou Fount (produced by Soundforth), graced Alison with her company at the piano and violin.  Besides being quite an accomplished musician, she is a graceful servant of Jesus Christ.  Our girls enjoyed her so much!  They all slept out in a TENT for the first time ever, thanks to Emily C.  Yet another trip highlight!  Sleeping in a tent is something every kid should get to do at least once in her life.

Elisabeth found a haven up in the old attic school room.  Come to think of it, all the girls did!  What a treasure trove of good old books.

My Emily made a new best friend whose name is Lollypop.  That's Lolly, for short.  She is  a Pomeranian/Bichon Frise mix, and soooo sweet!  I normally do not like small dogs.  They are all high-strung type A personalities, yippers, ankle biters.  (All except yours, of course!)  I am now developing a theory that dogs are much like their owners; this one certainly is.  I anticipated Emily's subsequent request for a dog, but she was smart.  Knowing her chances of getting a dog were nil, she asked for a FISH instead!!  The answer was still no. Poor kid.

Something else every kid should do -- go frog catching!  The salamander was a bonus. :D

Ah, a  real campfire with hot dogs and smores.  These dear people really know how to show desert dwellers a good time! Thank you, Custer family!  We love you!

I love North Dakota.  I love the people.  I could live there.  In August. :D

But I am resolved "in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."  Philippians 4:11

2010 Trip Part 3

The momentum on my vacation posts disappeared!  I have to finish them, just for my own sake -- my blog is sort of my travel log.

Let's see, I left off with southern Utah and the National Parks.  Ha ha, that is also where I started these posts.  Oh I have a long way to go!  Next we drove from America's playland, Moab, UT, to somewhere near Greely, Colorado.  GORGEOUS scenic drive the entire way!!!  I know I have said that several times, but it's true.  I couldn't even get into a book that day.  Our faithful old van ground up the freeway over Vail Pass with a worn-out bearing, creating a huge racket, but the Lord got us to our destination.  While we waited for work on the van to be done, we visited Platteville Baptist Church and had a good meeting.  The preacher and his wife, the Smiths, treated us to a late-night buffet where the girls innocently and adventurously tasted Rocky Mountain oysters. *blechhh*  They decided "oysters" are pretty good, even if these were rather chewy.  *~~shudder~~* Those folks were a blessing!  One of the church members, bless his heart, loaned us a car so that we could spend the next day visiting Rocky Mountain National Park.

If you ever get close to Denver, you must see RMNP.  My camera just does not do the place justice -- it is so huge and so magnificent, and it made me feel like such an infinitesimal part of God's creation!  There was still snow in spots -- in mid-July -- and we needed our jackets as we climbed to the 12,000 ft+ peak of  ... can't remember the name of it...  That's what I get for not writing things down.  Anyway, it really did seem like we had our heads in the clouds.  Delicate arctic plants lined the trail, and we saw several animal species that were new to us.  Real campers and hikers could spend weeks here, but we just stayed one day.  We like the convenience and comfort of a motel room, especially when it is raining. :D

Here's Amy, the indomitable photographer, scaring me to death again:



And the resulting photo:

We parked and took a bus to a trailhead, where we met dozens of soaking wet hikers.  Assuming they must have all ducked under the Alberta Falls,  we adventurously headed up the trail in the drizzle.

The bus ride was as big an attraction to some people as the scenery was to the rest of us!

This is my kind of hiking, a nice smooth path with little elevation gain:



A rare photo of Amy without her eye behind a camera:



Gummy worm break!  It's important when hiking, to keep up one's energy.



John Garrison at Alberta Falls:

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Would you believe that guy was planning, at one time, to be a TV weatherman? :)

We finished the hike soaking wet, not from the falls, but from the drizzle, like all the hikers who had gone on before us.  More exploring, another bus ride, a great picnic, and a drive through Estes Park finished the day off.  We had as much fun watching people as we did viewing God's handiwork.  :)

Had we known our van repair was going to take the entire morning of the next day, we'd have invited Wendy and her daughter, Laurie, to come and visit us in Greely!  But we expected it to be done first thing in the morning.  The motel pool kept the kids happy, comfortable, and entertained in the meantime.  The longer stay in Colorado required a rerouting of our itinerary, and we missed Mount Rushmore.  Instead we made a beeline for eastern North Dakota.

Stay tuned for more excitement!

2010 Summer Trip, part 2

Day two we rushed off to Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef and Arches National Parks, all of which are beautiful (sorry, overused word regarding scenery, but necessary). We got out of the car all three places and hiked around a bit -- nothing strenuous -- just enough to snap some amateur photos and be on our way. But there's lots to do -- camping, mountain biking, hiking, etc. Both the landscapes and skyscapes were incredible! Of course, the pamphlets they give you at the park entrances are full of "science falsely so called", with their claims of billions and billions of years... looking at this stuff it is so obvious that water designed it fast and furiously. If you've ever built a complicated sand castle and then watched the tide come in on it, you've seen this on a comparatively microscopic scale. God's artistry is beyond anything we can imagine, and yet here he shows us his handiwork plainly! Anyone know how to do one of those collages, where, when you mouse over a photo, you can see the larger version of it? I'd love for you to see some of the detail! (It would help if I took better photos!)

We did the world's fastest tour though these parks and enjoyed the entire drive to our next motel, which was in Moab, Utah, the mountain biking Mecca of the USA.  My husband cried, as we had no bicycle along.   The motels even have bike washes for your mountain biking convenience.  That area is another playground, with 4x rentals, kayaking, hiking, cycling, river fun, just everything.  And all gorgeous, too!

Here's Bryce Canyon. We were there early in the morning, and it was surprising how many other people were, too. There are lots and lots of neat hiking trails through the hoodoos. (Those are those orange spire-looking things.) I imagine they are rather spooky-looking at night, in the light of a full moon. Doesn't "hoodoo" sound kind of spooky? See the teeny tiny crowd at the lookout?

Just above center in the photo below, there are three hikers waaaaay down there on the trail. It's really hard to get a good perspective of how high up this is!

The rest of these photos were taken at Arches NP's.

Balancing Rock.  See the size of this thing?  Look for the people on the lower right.

My family at Arches.

The famous Delicate Arch, waaay out there.  Lots of people made the hike (they are too small to see), but we weren't equipped for it.  Too bad.

And I just like this one because Amy appears to be Photoshopped in. :D

He putteth forth his hand upon the rock;

he overturneth the mountains by the roots.

He cutteth out rivers among the rocks;

and his eye seeth every precious thing.

Job 28:9,10

To be cont'd.

2010 Family Vacation, Day One

Something I should have done, but stubbornly refused to do for myself, was keep a journal of our vacation.  I thought I would capture it all on "film".... but alas, only the visible things can be captured that way.  Here's Installment #1 of my attempt to reconstruct the highlights of our trip.

Our first day on the road we had planned to see Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.   We traveled a good part of the day with happy kids, the entire family looking forward to all the fun days ahead.  We had to drive through Las Vegas (what a pit), and I couldn't help noticing the inordinate number of billboards advertising drunkenness, immodesty, and licentiousness, and the services for help getting out of the holes people dig for themselves when their love of money exceeds their love of God:  cheap divorce, bail bonds, criminal attorneys, cash advances.  It all comes back to the love of money, for the love of money is the root of all evil. God forbid my dependence on it would lead me to a life of sorrows, and may he draw my heart ever closer to himself in its place!

As we entered southern Utah (and as was confirmed to me the longer we were there), I realized why God moved me to western Arizona.  It is so that I will continue to look forward to heaven!  If he had moved me to one of the many GORGEOUS locales in southern Utah (after all, stuff grows there), I might have thought I was already in heaven.  :D  Western Arizona is definitely NOT heaven.

Sorry, I digressed again.  After checking into our motel in Panguich, UT, we attempted to get to Bryce Canyon.  This is what we found:

We took our chances on driving through this flash flood (foolish we were, but the other guy made it okay...) and proceeded towards the park, only to be stopped in a loooong line of traffic.  Boulders had fallen across the road somewhere way up ahead, and it would be hours before they could be cleared.  My newscaster companion explains:

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As the camera ran, the rain fell harder and harder until we were in a deluge.    We turned around and whipped together a Plan B.  Emily picked up this very temporal souvenir of the storm.  Fun stuff for a desert kid!

Plan B was to go in the opposite direction, to Cedar Breaks National Monument, sort of a miniature Bryce Canyon.   It appears in the middle of nowhere.  You turn a bend and there it is, like so many other remarkable sights in Utah. The drive was just beautiful.  (All the drives on this trip were beautiful!)

We ate our picnic supper in this verdant, flowery meadow:

And, on the road home (home to our motel), as we came around a bend in the road, we encountered a large flock of sheep!   We stopped to watch the trusty sheepdog doing his job.  Doesn't he look like a good dog?  He was watching us carefully, since the kids had dared to escape their confining vehicle and photograph his charges.

More rain and a cool night made for a fresh start on Day 2.  More to come!

In his hand are the deep places of the earth:

the strength of the hills is his also.

The sea is his, and he made it:

and his hands formed the dry land.

Psalm 95:4,5