The Biggest Ball of Twine

I have a friend who teases me about my love of museums, factory tours and local oddities. When we went on our road trip and this most recent trip to Florida, he kept asking if we were going to visit the biggest ball of twine. What can I say? I love learning about new things.

It became a reality to me when Matt and I were first married and we were driving to visit our friends in Idaho. We stopped in Las Vegas the first night. Matt wanted to eat at a famous buffet and see a show, but the highlight of the city for me was the marshmallow factory tour. Yep, that's right. In Henderson, Nevada right outside of Las Vegas there were several factories and I toured them all. It was awesome! It was then we realized vacation for Matt meant entertainment, but for me, it meant education. Not surprising, since I am an educator and a life long learner.

The boys at Jamestown - 2003

Over the years, we've taken road trips, and gone on vacations to different places. Each place we visit, it is not an option; we must go and learn something. Sometimes it's a major museum. Other times, it is a national park or landmark. And every once in a while, it's a hidden treasure like the marshmallow factory. 

I have a few memories from childhood that include touring ruins in the Mediterranean, seeing a National Forest on Adak where the trees stopped growing, and hiking through tundra and seeing bomb shelters. But the one I remember best is when I was eleven years old and my dad had retired from the Navy. We were driving across country and we stopped in Virginia at the Luray Caverns. Of all the times, my parents had driven from place to place, this is the only time we actually stopped and did a tourist thing. Usually, we drove straight to the next destination. But this one time, my dad insisted we stop, and I saw my first stalactites and stalagmites.I still have the postcard booklet purchased so many years ago at the gift shop.

Gettysburg - 2003

My husband and sons know how much I love learning, so they each tolerate, accept or encourage my obsession to some degree. Whether it's taking me to Bodies - The Exhibition for Mother's Day or enduring a side trip 50 miles off the main road to visit the Little House on the Prairie, my family has patiently put up with me and some have even enjoyed themselves on our adventures.

The experience has also been shared with my friends. During a short cruise with my two dear friends, we spent a day on Catalina Island. We walked through the shops, admired the beautiful scenery, and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the community. When we came upon a museum and of course, I wanted to go in, my friends announced, "We are going to go get some coffee. Come find us when you are done." So while they sipped their hot drinks, I learned that the Chicago Cubs used to have spring training on Catalina Island and so much more.

White Sands, New Mexico - 2011

It's no wonder that I chose Epcot as the theme park to visit when we were in Florida. When given the opportunity, I'm a sucker for learning. I'm grateful for the experiences that have been deposited in my memory bank. I feel so wealthy!

Now, I haven't ever seen the biggest ball of twine (and I really don't want to), but there are still many more things to learn and experience. Anyone up for a trip to the museum?

It's a Small World After All

Yesterday, the boys and I went to Epcot. My sister had mentioned that she wanted to take my nephew to Sea World, but since Shamu is one of our neighbors in San Diego, the boys and I wanted to do something different. So we woke up early, borrowed my dad's car and made the two hour trek to Orlando and the wonderful place called Disney World.


The last time we were in Florida (13 years ago), we spent four days in Disney World and had a great time. We only had one day this year, so we decided to return to Epcot since it was the one theme park that was different than anything we have in California. Both Joe and Zach remember a little of our last visit, but David who was only four years old doesn't have any memories of our previous trip. I was curious to see how much the park had changed.

France

Epcot is an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. That little tidbit of information comes from Joe. He is the king of trivia and regularly shared his knowledge with us throughout the day. We had a fun time exploring the two main areas of the park: World Showcase and Future World.

Morroco

World Showcase was very similar to what I remembered. It didn't seem like it had changed much at all. Even the movies in some of the countries were outdated. It became really obvious when we saw anything with technology. The computer monitors were monster-sized and looked like they were from the 90s. Still, it was fun to meet people from different countries and to learn about the history and culture of 11 places around the world. 

Germany

When we were in France, we took pictures of us wearing berets, and then decided that we needed to take a picture of David wearing a hat in all of the remaining countries. So as we entered each country, we looked for a traditional head covering that David or someone could model. 

Japan

Joe and David enjoyed a refreshing Japanese soda with an intriguing lid and method to open it. The lid was actually a marble that was pushed down into the soda bottle. It rolled around and stayed in the bottom of the bottle while they drank. We were so fascinated with it, that both boys saved their bottles to take home. And the rest of the day, they would shake the bottles and it sounded like they were shaking a can of spray paint.


We were making good progress around the lagoon, until it started raining. We huddled in an alcove eating our lunch and watching the rain come down. Joe bought me a rain poncho, and right on cue, the rain stopped and we resumed our journey.

Norway

After the World Showcase, we spent the rest of the day and evening in Future World. This part of Epcot was more updated with some fun simulator rides and interesting exhibits. The boys designed their own simulator rides while I experienced the effects of high winds on houses. 

China

One of the most enjoyable activities was in Innoventions. We each had our photos taken while running in place, jumping, and doing a victory dance. Then our images were loaded into a video game, and we got to play a game with our own images as the player in the game. We even e-mailed a link to the game so that we could play it over and over.

Mexico

We made it home and the crawled into bed around 1:30 a.m. All in all it was a fun day, and I'm glad we went. I always enjoy the time with my very grown up sons, and when I get to learn something too that's just the icing on the cake!

Christmas Memories

It's Christmas morning here in Florida and the breakfast dishes are washed and put away, the turkey is in the oven, the dough for the yeast rolls is rising, and the Watergate salad is made. We have a little reprieve before the mad rush to get everything cooked and ready for Christmas dinner.


Spending time with my family brings back memories of Christmases as a kid. I remember the year when my sister and I got new bikes. We were so excited because the bikes had baskets and banana seats! As a teenager,  my best Christmas was the year my parents surprised me with my very own stereo. I played my records over and over on it. But, I think some of my most memorable holidays are the ones as an adult, like the first time I cooked a turkey.


It was 1997 and my parents had moved to Florida. This was the first year that Christmas dinner would be at my house. In the past, we had always gone to my parents' house for the holiday meal, but this year, my parents were flying back to California and the mantle had been passed on to me to prepare the turkey dinner.


Since it was my first time, I was determined that I was going to do everything perfectly. So I started researching and asking friends how to cook the delicious and juicy turkey. My mom said, "Cooking a turkey is easy. Just put it in an oven bag and you don't have to do anything else." I was adamant that I wasn't going to cook the turkey like my mom and dad. I felt confident that I could make a juicy turkey and it wasn't going to happen using a bag!


I bought a fresh (not frozen) 24 pound turkey, lots of butter for basting, and a foil pan to roast it in. In addition, I planned to make homemade gravy, and stuffing from day old bread, and  Aunt Sidney's yeast rolls, an old family recipe from my mother-in-law. It was going to be the best turkey dinner...ever!


I was ready. I created a schedule and everything was planned out. We would eat at 4:00. My parents, uncle, cousin and her family would show up and be in awe of the fabulous meal I had created. My mom kept telling me, "I don't know why you are going to so much trouble. Just stick it in a bag." I remained undaunted and moved forward with my schedule which started the night before.


I cut several loaves of bread into cubes. My largest bowl was overflowing with pieces of bread, celery, onions, and more. Then I added the chicken broth, and my abundant stash of stuffing shrunk into a miniscule mound of mush. Still determined, I proceeded to stuff the turkey.


Then it was time to put the turkey in the pan. I had read that it needed to be put in the pan breast side up, but this turkey was so fat, I couldn't tell which side was the breast and which side was the back! I asked my husband, Matt, but he didn't know either. Eventually, Matt held the turkey up and we imagined it walking, which helped us to identify the breast. Mission accomplished.


The foil pan seemed a bit flimsy for the gargantuan stuffed turkey, so we came up with the brilliant idea of putting an airbake cookie sheet underneath the foil pan. The turkey made it into the oven on schedule, and I proceeded to baste it with a stick of butter...every 30 minutes.


In between the bastings, I continued on schedule with the other preparations until it was close to the time for the turkey to be done. I kept checking the thermometer, but the temperature of the turkey was not even close to 185 degrees. That's when I began to think the my perfect dinner may not be as perfect as I had hoped.


My parents had arrived and I asked my dad his opinion on my turkey. He checked it with his standard "twist the leg and see if the bone pulls away from the meat." No luck. That turkey was not even close to done, so back in the oven it went and I started cooking hors d'oeuvres in our toaster oven. When my very prompt uncle arrived, Matt offered him a pig in the blanket stating, "Hors d'oeuvres is french for dinner's not ready yet."


Time passed and that turkey didn't seem to be getting any more done, and we started questioning my oven My dad fired up our barbecue and announced he would finish cooking the turkey on the barbecue. I quickly scooped out the stuffing which was more like soup it was so soggy. My mom reassured me that we could put it in the oven and the stuffing would dry up some.


With the turkey outside on the grill, my oven was empty and it was definitely time to put the rolls in the oven. They had risen and were hanging over the pan. So in the oven they went with the soggy stuffing. Suddenly my dad rushed in to get water, declaring that he needed some liquid because the juices were boiling away in the foil pan. With a sigh, I said goodbye to my homemade gravy.


Meanwhile, I realized that I hadn't paid attention to the time when the rolls went into the oven. I checked them, and they were getting brown, so took them out of the oven and turned the pan over. Normally, the rolls fall out of the pan and I separate them into their individual rolls. This time, the top half fell out, the bottom half stayed in the pan, and the middle was sticky dough. It was the final straw. I quickly picked up the top half off the counter, returned it to pan, patted it down a bit and shoved it back in the oven.


We finally sat down to dinner two hours late. The misshapen rolls, flame broiled turkey, and wet stuffing were added to the table along with the rest of the Christmas meal. It all ended up tasting pretty good, or perhaps we were just very hungry.


I had humble pie for dessert while my mom repeated, "I told you; just stick it in a bag!"

Twas the Day Before Christmas

Stylin' Zach at Cracker Barrel

I'm sitting in my parents' house in Florida and it's about 80 degrees outside. So much for my Christmas sweaters! Good thing I brought some short sleeved shirts with me.


We arrived here on Thursday, the 22nd and have been relaxing and waiting for my sister to arrive with her family. They fly in tonight and then the fun begins. My sister is a presence that can't be ignored. She is loud and boisterous making her opinion known to anyone and everyone. When we were kids, we fought and argued all the time.  Now as middle aged adults, I love and appreciate my sister and I always treasure  the time spent with her.


This is the first Christmas we have spent in Florida. Normally, the family celebrates Christmas in San Diego at our house or in Nebraska at my sister's. In fact, the last time we were in Florida at all was when the boys were very young 13 years ago. So this is a special treat to see my parents' new home, and visit with their friends.


Last night we had dinner with my parents' long time friend, Bonnie. She made us a lovely meal served on her brand new Christmas dishes. She insisted that we use all of the dishes, so we had our sodas in the tea cups, and the gravy was in the tea pot. She is very fun loving and a big lover of Disney and Elvis. As a result we got to see her Mickey collections and listen to her Elvis hits on a real jukebox (complete with 45 singles).


We'll spend a week here and will hopefully do a few touristy kind of activities. I know Matt wants to go to a movie or two. But for now the focus is on Christmas: baking some cookies, and getting the preparations for the holiday meal done. I'm working on thumbprint cookies (my sister's favorite), and playing games as we pass the afternoon. Mexican Train, anyone?

It's all about how you look at it...

Perspective. It makes a difference. I've been thinking about perspective recently in different contexts - work, home, marriage, spiritual. There are many common cliches that address perspective.

"The grass is always greener", "Seeing the glass half full", "Get a bird's eye view", "Hindsight is 20/20" - well you get the picture. 

Perspective changes from person to person. The way I view the ants marching by the hundreds through my house is very different than the way my husband sees it. My opinion of how fast to drive and how close to follow definitely changes depending on who's driving! And of course if you speak to my sons, their perspective is completely different.

Bright Angel Trail

The way I perceive things also changes depending on when or how I look at them. When we took our little jaunt down Bright Angel Trail descending 800 feet or so into the Grand Canyon, I enjoyed the view. It was gorgeous with varying colors that changed as the shadows moved.  When we started back up the trail, my eyes and thoughts were fixed on the trail in front of me and only occasionally did I look up to see how much farther I had to go. It was discouraging to see the canyon walls looming above. But once I made it back to the top, I looked back down at where I once had been and stood amazed that I had trudged along that zig zagged trail and made it to where I was standing. 

Later when I looked at the photo that my son, Zach took of me as I hiked up the trail, I thought about my life journey. When I am in the midst of the details of life, I forget that I really am making progress and that God is at work in my life. When I step back and take a look at where I've been and where I am now, I can see that there really is a difference. When I was climbing that trail, it seemed like it would go on forever, but once at the top, I could see how far I had really gone. It's the same in my life. Sometimes I feel like there is no progress, no growth, no difference, but then I think back to who I was 30 years ago,  and I know I have changed (and for the better). Even the way I handle situations or deal with people that hurt or anger me has changed significantly in the past 10 years, and that encourages me.


So to end this thought by mixing metaphors - just as the Colorado River and other natural forces have been eroding and shaping the Grand Canyon over the years, I believe God has been shaping me, smoothing some of the rough edges, and molding me into a grown up who is more like Jesus. 

The trail hasn't ended yet, and I don't know how much longer I have on this hike called life, but I want to make the best of it and enjoy the journey as I go, because you know, it's all about perspective.

There's no place like home

We're home! After a long day of driving, we pulled into the driveway at 7:40. Matt had pizza and salad waiting for us which was nice since the last time we ate was at noon when we stopped at Cracker Barrel in Kingman, Arizona.

We were all anxious to get home, so except for a few stops for gas and the final Cracker Barrel meal, we drove and drove and drove. Our route was I-40 to I-15 and it was mostly barren desert. When we hit Murrieta, I started pointing out all my work stomping grounds to the boys - the Resource Center, and the Murrieta Academies as well as the exits for the old locations of these two facilities. I also showed them the motel I always stay at when I spend the night up there. They weren't too interested, but it made me realize how very close to home we really were.

Today we finished the third book, Mockingjay, and Zach's playlist of traveling songs. Our trip has come to an end. The boys unloaded the car and gave their dad the gifts we'd picked up for him along the way - a bottle of Dublin Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce, Zapp's Potato Chips (Spicy Cajun Crawtators) from New Orleans, and some leftover cinnamon roll from Lulu's Bakery. Our living room is filled with dirty laundry, suitcases, and the rest of the stuff from my little red car. We'll deal with it all tomorrow.

For now, Joe is watching a recording of the All Star Game, Zach and David are upstairs watching an episode of Chuck, and Matt is filling me in on the ant attack and refrigerator issues he experience while we were gone. We've been home about 2 hours and things are already returning to normal.

I, however, want to soak a bit in the experiences of our fantastic road trip. Tomorrow will be busy with laundry, catching up on e-mails, and getting back into work mode. But tonight when I lay down in my bed, it will be with a contented sigh, and as I reflect on our trip in the coming days, I know that the memories will wash over me and flood my heart and soul with gratitude for such a lovely vacation.


 

It's a long long road...

There's a reason why it is called the Grand Canyon. Every time I see it, I'm awestruck by the large scale and impressive views. It really is a grand canyon.

Our little camera doesn't do justice to the magnificent views

Yesterday we drove the 90 minutes from Flagstaff to our last stop on this 16-day road trip. I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do, when we got there, but I was pretty sure I wanted to hike part way into the Canyon. After watching a short film and consulting the map, we started walking along the Rim Trail toward Bright Angel Trail.

Along the rim

It was a 2.5 mile hike along the rim until we reached the trail head to Bright Angel. Bright Angel Trail is a popular trail that goes down to the bottom of the Canyon. I thought we'd hike down to the first water stop which is 1.5 miles along switch backs. Yeah, I was dreaming.

On the way down Bright Angel Trail

As we started along the trail, we were greeted with the aroma of mule manure. There was a generous supply along the trail and some was fairly fresh. Fortunately, it wasn't constant and there were only about three places where it was really smelly.

The first quarter mile of the hike wasn't bad with a decent amount of shade. We were hiking down at a fairly good clip and feeling pretty good. Then the trail started getting steeper, and I noticed the people coming up the trail were pretty red in the face and short of breath, but we kept walking. After a while, we passed a ranger on his way up the trail and he asked us how far we were going. He told us we were about halfway to the water stop. It was 3:45 and we'd been walking about 30-40 minutes on the trail. It was then I decided we were going to turn around and start back up the trail. Only Zach was disappointed.

I'm the one in the middle of the picture trudging up the trail

It took me longer to get back to the top then the rest of them. David was the first to pull ahead. He was determined to get the top in the same amount of time it took for us to walk down, and he did it. Zach kept stopping and waiting until he could see Joe and me off in the distance, and then he'd start off again. Eventually, Joe decided he wasn't going to let this Canyon get the best of him, so he pushed himself and made it to the top second. Zach continued to wait for me and took pictures. I made a lot of rest stops and chatted with two middle aged ladies who had started hiking from the bottom at 6:00 a.m. They stopped even more than I did, but who can blame them? I was totally impressed they had hiked down a few days before and were now hiking back up.

When we had all made it to the top, it started to rain. It was one of the best things I'd ever felt. Cool gentle rain on our hot, sunburned skin was just fabulous. We rode the shuttle bus back to the visitor center where our car was parked and drove to Williams, Arizona where we were staying the night.

We ate dinner in the motel restaurant and were serenaded by a one man band. He played guitar, harmonica, chimes, and maybe some other instruments as he sang an assortment of oldies from "Cat's in the Cradle" to "Norwegian Wood." We had a great discussion about what our favorite parts of the trip were. We all agreed that meeting and spending time with family was one of the best. Zach liked the National Parks we visited. David said leaving New Orleans was the best. Joe was happy he got to attend some baseball games, and I enjoyed all of the views along the Mississippi river and other waterways.

By 10:00, we were falling asleep. It had been an exhausting day and we were beat. Even now as I write this post, the boys are still asleep and it's close to 9:00 a.m. We need to get on the road soon, since we have a long drive home, but I didn't have the heart to wake them yet. As I type this in our darkened room, they are now beginning to stir and rise.

Our own beds are calling our names, and we still have 9 chapters of Mockingjay to finish. It's time to hit the road for one last drive!