thankful thursday - surf and sunset

Listening to ocean waves pounding the beach is soothing... relaxing... calming. It is why so many people listen to "waves" on their sound machines as they go to sleep. Watching and hearing the real thing takes it up a notch.

We recently spent a week in Southern California with our North Carolina sweethearts and their parents. In addition to the general chaos that comes with five kids, we also spent three days at Disneyland and California Adventure. Alternating Disney days with a beach day and a whale-watching tour day was the perfect way for us to unwind and relax so we could more fully enjoy the next "magical" day.

A beach day is an immersion experience involving all your senses.Watching children build sand castles as the waves roll in. The scent of fresh ocean air. Feeling the ocean spray on your face and the sand between your toes. The salty taste on your lips. Hearing the roar of the waves and the laughter of children.

I think I do some of my best pondering at the beach. I find solitude and energy in the crashing waves and inspiration in the tiny grains of sand. I recognize and appreciate the gift that has been given to me. And I am filled with awe.

The only thing better is being there at sunset!

"I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought." 

~ Helen Keller

thankful thursday - the unplanned things

I am, by nature, a planner... a list-maker... a scheduler. At home I have a "to-do" list every single day and I enjoy crossing the items off my list. It helps me remember what I did at the end of a busy day when it looks like I've done nothing at all. Sometimes my list gets derailed when unexpected things happen like the washing machine going on the fritz or illness.

On vacation, we have an itinerary, a list of places we're going or things we're doing. I research the places we're visiting to discover what there is to do and see. And occasionally we get sidelined due to road closures or traffic.

Some say that man makes plans and God laughs. They mean it in the sense that God is malicious and wants to circumvent our plans, to make life harder for no reason. I think God laughs because He has better things in store for us. Kind of like when my grandparents laughed when they asked my younger sister, who was four-years old at the time, if she'd rather go to Yellowstone Park to see geysers and buffalo or Yellowfront (a neighborhood variety-type store) to pick out something to buy and she chose Yellowfront.

While I am not usually happy about appliances needing repairs or illness or traffic issues, I have learned to appreciate the things I can't schedule or put on a list and cross off at the end of the day. The random things that "just happen." Things like...

... finding a nest full of robin eggs.

We were geocaching in Illinois when we stumbled upon this nest of eggs on the top of a bush. Mama bird was not very happy with us looking in the bushes for the geocache (which we found in a nearby bush) but did allow us a quick peek at her nursery. It was the first time I had ever seen eggs in a nest with mama bird watching over them. Amazing!

... finding a nest full of baby birds.

This is the house that Babe Ruth grew up in in Commerce, Oklahoma. As we were walking up to the porch, I noticed an irate bird squawking at us, then she flew away. It was then I heard a faint cheeping and saw three tiny beaks peaking out of the nest. Mama bird returned with what looked like a worm and after a few moments, began feeding her babies. It was also the first time I had seen baby birds in a nest. Amazing!

... watching the light from a lighthouse at night in the fog.

Two Harbors Lighthouse along Lake Superior is a working lighthouse (the oldest one in Minnesota!) keeping ships safe from the rocky shore. I have seen a dozen or so lighthouses in the daylight. Their lights are bright and I could imagine them piercing the thick darkness. But this was the first time I saw one at night... in the fog. Amazing!

... a snowstorm in May in Arizona with an impromptu snowball fight. 

It was a warmish, overcast morning in the Valley of the Sun as we left town but was snowing up on the Mogollon Rim. We arrived to a blanket of pristine white snow and just had to get out of the car and play a bit! Amazing!

I am thankful for the unexpected opportunities in my life. They are a blessing from God.

thankful thursday - vacation, part 2

One of my favorite things about being on vacation is meeting and talking to new people that God has put in my path - or me in theirs. Most of the time these encounters are brief and the conversations are several minutes long to maybe an hour or so. But my life is enriched by meeting these people.

One of my quirky photo ops is water towers (and that will probably be a blog post for another day!). Not the ordinary, run-of-the-mill water towers but something that makes them unique. Before we left on vacation I heard about a red-and-white-checkered water tower in Minot, North Dakota that was unlike any other checkered water tower. The information I found on it was dated so I called the public  works department in Minot, ND to enquire about the water tower. The woman on the phone assured me the tower was still around - but offered no directions and I didn't think to ask. When we arrived in Minot, I figured we could ask someone at our lunch stop. We eat local when we travel (also another blog post...) and stopped at a regional chain called Burger Time. After we ordered our food I asked the woman helping us if she knew where the red and white checkered water tower was. She laughed and said she just moved there from Florida and had no idea and then she asked the cook. The cook, a middle-aged woman, told us she had lived there her whole life and had no idea where it was. I showed her a picture of it which intrigued her and she went to her computer to see if she could find it. I went outside to call the public works department. The first woman I got had no idea where it was (I was beginning to see a trend...) but said if I could hold a few minutes, she'd ask someone else who has lived there longer. The second woman who came on the line knew exactly where it was and gave us directions. Meanwhile, the ladies at Burger Time were still interested in finding out where this mysterious water tower was so I shared the directions with them. They thanked us for showing them something new about their town and waved as we left to find the water tower. We enjoyed their friendly banter and were thankful for people willing to go the extra mile to answer a question.

It was worth the trouble to locate it! I've seen other checkered water towers but this one is truly the most beautiful.

No road trip is complete without seeing some of the kitschy things along the way. I researched some before we left using my favorite source, Roadside America, and found the largest ball of twine (by weight) according to the Guiness Book of World Records would be more-or-less on our route through Lake Nebagamon, Wisconsin. The creator of the giant ball of twine is James Frank Kotera (he calls himself JFK) and he built it in his backyard. He came out to talk to us when we arrived and told us how he got started and how he does it. He started making the twine ball after God told him to stop drinking and turn his life around and then God would make JFK famous as the Twine Man of the World. Four years later, clean and sober, JFK began making his twine ball and it quickly made him famous, just as God had told him it would. Each twine piece is knotted to and through the next one to keep it together. Although he works on it many hours a day, his hands are smooth and soft, something he attributes to it being God's work. We enjoyed hearing his story and seeing his handiwork.  

His ball of twine is HUGE - over 8-feet high and 22-feet wide with a weight of 21,280 pounds! 

We stayed in 19 different hotels/motels on our 21-day road trip. Fourteen were chain hotels (Marriott or Hilton) and one was La Posada (originally a Fred Harvey hotel but now owned by private citizens) in Winslow, Arizona. But four were small mom & pop motels and we were blessed to spend some time talking with the owners. The motels were all around  during Route 66's heyday and are located in small towns.   All these motels have "outside entrances" which allowed us to park our car right outside our room making it much easier to get all our stuff from the car to the room. They have classic neon signs or large marquees advertising their amenities (color tv, air conditioning, etc.). Although the motels have been updated since they were built, the rooms and bathrooms are small compared to bigger chain hotels. But what they lack in space they more than make up for in character. The owners work the front desk and usually live on the premises. They were interested in knowing "our story" - where we live, why we were there, what we enjoyed so far - and also shared their story - how they came to own the motel, something about it's history and recommendations on where to eat (or not eat). It was a refreshing change from the very professional but hurried twenty-something behind the front desk of the big chain hotels.

Both owners and motels were all very different. We appreciated that the character of the motels was maintained during remodeling. The Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri was built in the 1920's and has the most beautiful cut-glass door handles in the rooms. The Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico was built in the 1940's and has real rotary phones in the rooms along with instructions on how to use it. The Route 66 Motel in Shamrock, Texas (top right) was built in the 1950's and has slightly larger rooms and traditional decor. The Canyon Lodge Motel in Seligman, Arizona has themed-rooms - ours was the Hollywood room and had posters of famous movie stars as well as a headboard that looked like the curtains on a stage - which was their claim to fame when they opened in the 1960's. 

As we were leaving Kansas we made a u-turn so I could take a photo of the "Welcome to Kansas" sign since the tiny road we entered Kansas on didn't have one. I just finished getting my photo when a great classic car pulled up behind us and a woman jumped out with her camera. I asked her if I could take a photo of the hood ornament (another of my quirky photo ops...) on their car. She said I could and then offered to take one of me by the car. We introduced ourselves and chatted for about ten or fifteen minutes. During that time I learned that Sheila and her husband were also driving Route 66 but going west to east and doing it in the car she bought when she was in high school, we are both believers and enjoy seeing God's creation, we both take a lot of photos and that we have both met many more Europeans traveling Route 66 than Americans. I took a photo of her by the "Welcome to Kansas" sign and then we went our separate ways. Although our time together was short, I will always fondly remember Sheila when I think about this trip.

Isn't it a gorgeous hood ornament? And the car was built the year I was born!

I like talking with people - getting a different perspective on something or learning what's going on in their lives. For me, it's one of the things that makes vacation fun.  And thankfully, we were blessed with lots of fun opportunities!

thankful thursday - vacation, part 1

For many people, summer means vacation. It's a time to slow down and relax. Or maybe go like crazy to fit as much into a few days or weeks as possible. It might be a destination vacation like Disneyland or Paris. Or a cruise. Or some time in the mountains in a secluded cabin or tent.

Or... it might be the all-American road trip!

We recently returned from a three-week road trip across the country and back logging 6,571 miles as we traversed 15 states and three time zones. Along the way, we learned some important lessons about enjoying vacation.

1. Stick your feet out the car window for a few minutes and relax! (Okay, only do this if you are NOT the driver! And wear your seatbelt properly while you do this.) Taking off your shoes and socks and letting the wind rush through your toes is relaxing. It reminds you that the "normal routine" has been suspended for a time. And besides, it's fun!

Don't you just love indentations on your feet from your socks?

2. Pack food and drinks to have a quiet, impromptu picnic! We had picnic lunches quite a few times, mostly because we were in the middle of nowhere at lunchtime. Once we ate in the car because it was raining, but the rest of the time is was wonderful to sit by a river or along the side of a road and enjoy the quiet, the beauty of nature and each other.

Nacho Doritos... my favorite vacation food!

3. Enjoy the solitude. We get so caught up in the busyness of life, in the noise of living that sometimes it's refreshing to just be alone (okay, we were together but there was no one else!). No bright screens flashing, no text or email alerts, no cars zooming by - just peace and quiet. It's good to spend some time alone with your thoughts, to let your mind wander, to appreciate the beauty of the world.

Yep, that's a dirt road!

4. Seek shelter when things get too rough. We got caught in a downpour on I-55 near Wilson Heights, Illinois. Buckets of rain and hail pummeled our car as Richard tried to keep it on the road. We finally came to an overpass  and pulled waaaay off to the side underneath it right behind another car. And the car behind us and the one behind them did the same thing. Sometimes it's just not worth it to keep going.

After ten minutes or so, the storm let up some and we were able to safely continue on our way.

5. Enjoy the sunsets. Spend a couple of minutes reflecting on your day. Enjoy the beauty of a colorful sunset. Relax. Be grateful.

God paints a new picture for us every night!

I am thankful God gives us times of relaxation and fun as well as work to be done. I am thankful for the simple things - a cool breeze on my feet and a surreal sunset - not just the "big" things.