There and Back Again: A Sauve Adventure Part 3

Friday was again a lovely sunny day. We were so blessed by God in the weather department, and it was very nice to be able to be outside enjoying yourself in... January.

Faith, Mumsie, and I decided to take advantage of the weather and took little "peanut butter" Hercules for a walk. We passed Palm trees, prickly pear cactus, and birds of paradise.  "We're not in Michigan anymore." :)

Dad, John, and Josiah were stuck in a risk game, so the rest of us just kind of hung out for the rest of the morning and early afternoon.  For my part, I spent time playing with and capturing on camera the adorableness which was Hercules.

The guys took a break in Risk, and we all trouped out to the vehicles to go to what turned out to be one of the highlights of our time in Texas - The Texas State Aquarium.

While we were waiting for Angie to show up (she had some passes for the aquarium and kindly agreed to come so we could use them) John and Josiah decided to try climbing a palm tree.... the thought was quickly discarded after John did a test run "hug".  Those things are mighty poky!!

It wasn't to long before Angie showed up (with her darling baby, to the delight of all) and we marched into the aquarium to see the sights.

Now, I must explain that as far back as my memory goes I had never been to an aquarium.  Apparently the oldest 2 or 3 had been taken to Sea World when they were very, very little, and we of course had been to Zoo's which always had a small aquarium section (which does not count) but otherwise, nope.  So we had no clue exactly what this was, and were prepared to be impressed.

First we walked through a section that had open tanks full of shells, and crustaceans.  Some of the shells were moving :P and we were thrilled to understand that we could touch any of them. (We are easily amused I guess.)

Another favorite were the Sea Horses.  So delicate and colorful.

We had to run out of that section before we finished, because there was to be a Sea Turtle presentation at the time.

The turtles were very friendly and swam right up to glass to say hi!

You weren't allowed to put your hand in their tanks because... they bite. :)

Because the only small aquariumish places I had been to were obviously up North, I had never to my knowledge seen a dolphin in real life.  They are truly beautiful and intelligent creatures. An absolutely amazing part of creation. 

We made it up in time for the dolphin show.  It was simply marvelous.  The way the dolphins had learned so many different maneuvers just through little hand signals given by their trainers was wonderful, and how strong they were to perform some of the flips etc.; just incredible. 

{One of my favorite parts... the ducky getting a ride on the Dolphin swimming upside down. :D }

Once the dolphin show was over :( we went down to see the other animals. One of our favorites was the otter.  This little guy was so funny and personable. He took a special liking to Faith and would chase her around and put his nose on the glass just on the other side of hers.

After seeing all there was outside, we decided to retrace our steps to the indoor exhibits which we had been forced to quit.  There were so many interesting fish, in tanks along the walls, or in columns in the middle (I did feel a little bad for those particular fish.. no privacy).

My favorite fish in the entire place would have to be... the Cow Fish.  Yup, that little dinky, thumb nail sized, pudgy pale fish in the picture above, was for some reason stuck with the appellation of "Cow Fish".

The Lion fish were beautiful to look at, but the story of how they got here and how they are taking over the area and are destroying the native fish, is rather sad.

There were Sharks and huge Tuna fish just to name a couple.  Oh, and they also had a small display tank with "Nemo" fish. ;) There were 2 Dori fish, lots of little Clown fish, with anemone and 1 funny little Bubble fish.

Two tanks full of different kinds of creepy, yet majestic looking, Jelly Fish, completed the aquatic section and we marched on into the amazon/jungle area.

Here we were able to gaze at: flashy little birds related to Toucans, A Rat-Tailed Porcupine, gaping Piranhas, Poison Dart Frogs, and a big lazy Boa.

{These Silly Putty Frogs were another favorite}

{Poor John getting chewed on by a shark :P)
While we were in the "amazon" section, a voice kept on coming over the intercom reminding us that it was coming near to closing time, so we hurried up, making a quick stop in the gift shop to grab some post cards, then homewards.

Our stop home was just a quick one, (to feed Mr. Hercules) then we all packed off to dinner. John and Mandi had decided that we couldn't leave Texas without a taste of real barbecue, so they took us to Howard's BBQ, a restaurant owned and run by good friends of theirs.

It was definitely an experience, good food, and friendly service for sure. :)

 Later that evening, John and Mandi taught us how to play Qwirkle, a fun game, basically matching shapes and colors.  While we were relaxing and enjoying the game, John received a call... from his work. You see, John wasn't scheduled to go back into work till Sunday afternoon, and the next day (Saturday) was his Birthday, and the only reason they would call him would be if they really needed him in.  He ended up letting them leave a message and then called them back, and sure enough they wanted him to come in to work at 3 AM in the morning.  After the first bout of depression, we all rallied and figured out how we would fit in his Birthday celebration, and make the best of it.
So this is how we ended our second day in Texas, and we all headed to bed, expecting not to see John till the afternoon....

Tune in soon, to hear how God always works things out for good. :)

~Chs

There and Back Again: A Sauve Adventure Part 2

Oh, my! Where to begin on the wonderful 3 plus days we spent in the warm state of Texas.  You must realize that I have over 700 pictures (pared down from nearly 800) so I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post.

Thursday morning dawned bright and beautiful.  We all went out on the back deck to enjoy the sunshine, and play with little dude Hercules.

Later that morning John and Josiah played a competitive game of chess.. not sure who won this round.

That afternoon, Mandi's sister Angie stopped by to say hi with her adorable little daughter, Selah.

Isn't she just a doll??  She was a very sweet, happy baby, and loved all the attention, being passed around for everybody to hold.

Later that afternoon John and Mandi took us all to the beach, and the threesome were kind enough to let me snap a shot of them before we ran off.

The beach was lovely, we drove right out to the edge of the water. The wind was a bit chilly, but the sunshine counteracted that nicely.  Some of us waded in the water a little, but it was SO cold. If you stayed in long enough your legs became numb, so that it actually felt nice! :P

God's creation never ceases to amaze me.  Beautiful doesn't begin to describe it.

John wanted Hercules to get used to water, so he carried him into the ocean.... and dropped him in. The poor thing panicked and just dashed onto shore. Afterward John would run right along the water, and Hercules would be sprinting perfectly parallel to him, but about 10-15 feet up shore. Definitely not a swimming fan.

Soon after Hercules swimming lesson fail, John and Josiah had a race up the dunes, with us girls and Hercules following on behind.

King of the mountain! Quite the view from up there.

We had quite the neat collection of sea creatures, including sand dollars, star fish, and pieces of coral.

Before we left, we decided to take a walk out on the pier. 

There was this dashing little egret, that desperately wanted to sit on the rail, but also didn't want to let us get too close.  So he would stand there all brave until we were almost right next to him, then off he would sail, circle around, and land farther down on the rail.  Only to repeat this process again and again.

There were all sorts of neat sea birds about. Including different types of gulls, egrets, and pelicans.

We finally decided to head on home (after Hercules had a dreaded "bath" to get the sand off) and can now say that we have been on a beach in January. :)

Faith, Josiah and I had fun tagging along with John to take Hercules to puppy school that evening. Hercules is such a well behaved puppy, the best in class I think (of course it did help that he was dead tired from his run at the beach..).   We had a wonderful dinner prepared by Mandi, and then had some delightfully deep conversations and some random take away games (only version of chess I'm good at) before heading to bed.

Thus ended our first full day in the strange land of Texas.

To be continued....

~Chs

Wednesday's Wisdom: Abner Americanus

Predictions for 1957 

By Abner Americanus

{Supposedly written by a man in 1857 under the alibi Abner Americanus, these "predictions" for the year 1957 are almost contemporary in their essence. Have a look}

"I predict that in the year 1957 people will pay more heed to price than to value; will spend more for their playthings than their tools; will give more excuses than money to charity, and will invent 20 times as many ways to evade duty as they find reasons to fulfill it.

Parents will cry that their children have failed them, when it will be the parents more often who have tainted the lives of their children by low example. Science will make people live longer, but to many these added years will be more vexing than their former allotted span; the world will have learned what to do to lengthen life, but not how to brighten old age.

Men will have captured new forms of energy, but will not have conquered himself."

There and Back Again: A Sauve Adventure Part 1

Once upon a time, a little over a week ago, our family: Father (head driver), Mother (encourager, and motivator), Charity (navigator), Faith (best bad weather driver), Josiah (trouble shooter and back up driver) and myself (backseat kitchen crew), began on a journey. 

* Our destination - Corpus Christi Texas. 

* The reason - to visit John, his wife Mandi, and their puppy Hercules, and to celebrate John's birthday.
* Our ETD was 6:00am Tuesday morning (and we almost hit it! 6:07). 

* Planned layover in Arkansas Tuesday night at a relative's house. 

* ETA 9ish Wednesday night. 

Below is the story of our travels, as directly and briefly recorded during the trip. 

Day 1: Left at 6:07! Stopped at fire station to tighten luggage carrier straps cause it was buzzing awfully. :  {I must insert, that this was NOT just a little minor noise. No, this was a nearly deafening, bone grinding, head throbbing noise. Not the most pleasant companion to our early trip.} 

Stopped again at a store before freeway to tighten again. : Made it on freeway by 6:25am. Still buzzes every once and a while like a large hornet. : {A very very large hornet!}

9:30am - stopped at Indiana welcome center. : Time changed now. 11:15am new time - stopped at gas station in middle of nowhere. : Buzzing has been worse since gas station, stopped on side of freeway to try to fix... Didn't work.

{Truthfully, we weren't spending all our time just sitting there being annoyed to death by the buzzing.  We did have music, and audio dramas, and conference tapes to listen to, but it just made it that much more difficult!} 

12:30 - stopped at rest stop while we tied a rag on.. didn't help. : {This was truly depressing. I thought for SURE the rag would help. We tried plugging our ears, plugging our noses, stuffing pillows over our heads. The buzzing penetrated everything!} 

3:00ish - stopped at rest stop in Illinois, very nice spot.  Tied rag on front strap.  WORKS!!!! {Oh happy day! You see, we had thought the noise had come from the back strap... nope, we had been fiddling and "fixing" the wrong strap! We kept on looking at each other and saying "you hear that???.... Exactly, silence.. the most beautiful sound ever". We truly have never appreciated lack of sound before} 

 6:00pm stopped for gas in Arkansas and had dinner. : 9:05pm - arrived at Carrie's in the mountains. {We meant to go straight to bed, but we ended up talking for quite a while. :P We were very grateful to Bobby and Carrie for their hospitality. We actually didn't really know them much, and it was wonderful to spend some time and get to know them!}

 Day 2: Left Carrie's at 9:10am. Had lots of fun seeing their chickens, rabbit, dog and horse.

 {Despite it being a bit chilly, they all trooped out with us, to introduce us to their horse Trust, and to see their chicken coop.  It was such a delight walking around with the kids, and talking.

 Three of their chickens even laid eggs while we were there.. :D }

{Heading out}

Crossed into Texas 12:00. {It is just a little bit depressing when you arrive in the state of your destination and you still have over 8 hours to go to your journeys end}

 Stopped for gas 1:00pm and got out lunch. : 4:00pm stopped at Polk park rest stop to switch drivers. 57 degrees, SO nice! {It really was a nice park, Josiah and Faith played Tic Tac Toe, and we were able to stretch out a little.}

 Got stuck in awful Houston traffic, around 6ish. {We stayed stuck in that horrid traffic for almost an hour} : 8:20pm stopped at gas station, bought coffee to drink with cookies. :
 Called John for directions right before we saw a police car who turned his lights on and pulled us over. He said we were going 7 over the limit. {Insert: It was pitch black at this point, and Texas roads have a way of jumping from 75 to 70 to 55 in a very short space} He was nice, from Chicago. Talked to us about the weather, and told us that we should go to the beach and take a picture and send it to all our northern friends. He let us off with a warning...

9:50ish arrived at John and Mandi's!!  Hercules is SOoo cute! 

So that is the end of the first leg of our trip... but there is much much more!

~Chs

The First Sighting

 Every year, we go on a hunt to see the first Skunk Cabbage.  This stinky, rather early fore-teller of spring, is usually hidden along stream banks or in marshy areas.  We figured it was warm enough to find some but, we forgot about the still huge drifts of snow hanging over the banks of the stream.

It was a beautiful evening for a walk; the sun cast a golden glow over God's beautiful world, and the temperature was just high enough to make it very enjoyable. 

Finally after much searching, and after we had really given up and were actually heading back homewards, Josiah shouted "there she blows!".

The first little skunk cabbage had been sighted.  

So, to all you pessimist out there, spring is coming for sure! :)

~Chs