Blog – Page 7

“For the beauty of the earth,” words from an old hymn kept running through my mind on my recent trip to Seattle last week. Two of my widow friends accompanied me to attend old family friends son’s wedding and do some sight seeing.

Seattle is a beautiful city. We rented a quaint house through Airbnb. It was located close to the buses, rail system, lots of restaurants, grocery stores and a beautiful park. I was surprised at how steep some of the roads were, reminding me of San Fransisco.

Thankfully, we were able to park behind our house and not on the streets. You know from previous posts that I don't parallel park! Only one direction of traffic could travel down the road at a time causing the other car to move over until the other car passed. — Thankfully, we were able to park behind our house and not on the streets. You know from previous posts that I don’t parallel park! Only one direction of traffic could travel down the road at a time causing the other car to move over until the other car passed.

We enjoyed the typical sight seeing one does in Seattle. On the ferry over to Tillicum Indian Village we spotted some whales!

“For the beauty of the skies, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies; Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise…”

Adding gum to the "Gum Wall" at Pike Market — Adding gum to the “Gum Wall” at Pike Market

Our salmon being cooked for lunch at Tillicum

One day we took the Victoria Clipper over to Victoria, BC. I had booked the day’s activities through clippervacations.com. After the 2 1/2 hour ride we boarded a bus for a city tour and were dropped off to visit the beautiful Buchart Gardens.

Many beautiful flowers... — Many beautiful flowers….

“For the beauty of each hour, of the day and of the night, hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon, and stars of light; Lord of all, to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise…”

One of the first things you saw as you walked into the Buchart Gardens was a giant chess set.

I wondered at its significance. This is what I came up with:

While in Victoria we had high tea at the famous Empress Hotel.

To help pass the time on the ferry, we played cards

Before dinner one night we did an unusual activity: Sherlocked Room Escape Game in Seattle. We joined a group of 4 other women and were locked in an office room for one hour. We had to locate 10-12 clues, solve them, unlock things, crack codes, find a safe that had the final clue. Upon solving all that we had to crack the code to unlock the door to let us out. We got as far as figuring out the code to let us out of the room. We were told there was only a 30% success rate!

“For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind’s delight, for the mystic harmony, linking sense to sound and sight…”

After Neal died I prayed for some other widows closer to my age. God has provided Julie and Sherry, among others, who are great traveling buddies. They graciously went with me to the wedding. This wedding was an old friend’s son Neal first met in Zambia on a medical mission trip back in 1996. We maintained a friendship over the years them visiting us on numerous occasions. In 2000 our whole family went to Zambia on a medical mission trip with this family hosting.

David and Abby the night before the wedding.

“For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child, friends on earth and friends above, for all the gentle thoughts and mild; Lord of all, to thee we raise our grateful hymn of grateful praise…”

Another highlight of the trip was visiting my mom’s oldest brother and his wife, my cousin and her daughter.

I am trying to embrace this stage of life I find myself in. Each day is a choice how I will spend my time. I am so blessed to have Julie and Sherry in my life to join my journey of traveling. Embrace where God has you….

On the journey,

Trish

Last week I had my four oldest grandsons for Grammy Camp. It’s a time for the teacher in me to come out and to spend intentional time with my grandsons. Sunday night we made our passports, and decorated their suitcases so we could travel to a new country every day.

Inside each boy had his picture and personal information just like the real passports.

After breakfast we boarded our airplane (golf cart) and “flew” to our country.

Ready to fly to our country for the day!

“Prepare for landing, make sure your seats are in the upright position and your seat belt are fastened. Remain in your seat until the airplane comes to a complete stop. Thank you for flying Smith Airlines.” Can you guess where we are going today???

MONDAY: This country worshiped cats. In ancient times both men and women wore eye make-up. They are famous for mummies and pyramids. Their rulers were called Pharoahs….EGYPT! This day we made Pharoah headdresses and drums.

We tried to mummify action figures. The boys were hesitant to do this. I think if we had used Barbies they would have been more willing!

We enjoyed mummy hotdogs and cheese and cracker pyramids for lunch. For dinner this day we tried Kofta, stewed fava beans, salatit zabadi, flatbread and tiger nut sweets.

We talked about the story of Moses from the Bible and how he freed the Egyptians from Pharoah after all the plaques.

TUESDAY: This country is famous for bullfighting; introducing the world to chocolate,chilies and corn (maize); and has many volcanoes…MEXICO! We read about the Day of the Dead, which was a time they remembered their loved ones that have died. We talked about Grandad and DiDi (Neal’s dad) that have died.

Part of the fun today was going down to the beach to make volcanoes erupt!

This day was Caleb’s 4th birthday is we went to a Mexican resturant in the back of a Merxican grocery store! No, I didn’t serve them beer!

The day ended with a pinata to celebrate Caleb’s birthday!

WEDNESDAY: This country uses chopsticks, is the home of pandas, block printing, a HUGE wall and lots of rice…CHINA! We couldn’t go to the beach today because of an ecoli scare so good thing I had lots of activities planned.

We made Chinese dragons for the Chinese New Year celebration and rice farmer hats.

I am the year of the dog. One grandson was the year of the Ox, one the Tiger, one the Rabbit and one the Dragon. We talked about how God created us each unique and special. We read a great book about Emporer Qin (Chin) who was 13 when he came into power. He was afraid of death so he slept in a different room each night. He built an army of about 9,000 soldiers, archeologists suspect, and buried them 10 feet under next to the tomb built for him. He believed that once he died the soldiers would come to life and protect him and his valuables that he would be buried with. Of course we know that didn’t happen. The boys and I talked about that once we die we are in the presence of God and we can’t take out “stuff” with us.

Elise, my wonderful helper for Monday - Wednesday!! — Elise, my wonderful helper for Monday – Wednesday!!

We also did block printing with meat trays where the boys drew a design on the trays. After we painted the trays we put a piece of paper on top and rubbed the design onto the paper.

THURSDAY: This country is home to a 2200 mile bike race, invented soap, produced many famous artists, is home to a famous monument built by the same man who did the Statue of Liberty…FRANCE! This day started with crepes and later we enjoyed beef bourguignon, ratatouille, cherry clafoutis, and macaroons. We talked about Leonardo DaVinci’s Last Supper painting and the significance of The Lord’s Supper remembering what Christ has done for us, is doing for us and will do for us. We made soap, which I forgot to take pictures of!

Monet's Garden painting — Monet’s Garden painting

Our versions of Monet's painting — Our versions of Monet’s painting

This day we enjoyed lunch at Bridgman’s public beach house.

FRIDAY: This country is famous for nesting dolls, colorful eggs, a place where Grammy and Granddad have visited, has many fairy tales illustrated on black lacquer boxes…RUSSIA!

Lane wearing Neal's shopka. — Lane wearing Neal’s shopka.

The boy's versions of nesting dolls — The boy’s versions of nesting dolls

Today we talked about the onion domes on St. Basil’s Cathedral. The domes remind us that our prayers are always heard by God. P Yanitas was a card game similar to the card game War we enjoyed playing before parents came.

The boy's version of artist Kandinsky's circles — The boy’s version of artist Kandinsky’s circles

Over all, our week was fun! I’m already thinking about next year’s theme!

On the journey,

Trish

Category: Blog

For the beauty of the earth…

Grammy Camp 2016!