Springtime; A photoshoot

 Good day! Yesterday, as usual, Jewel, Libby and I went into town  for our music lessons.While Jewel and I were waiting for our lessons , we decided we just "needed" to take a photo shoot out under the beautiful tree outside.

 Firstly, myself...

 ...we also took pictures of the pretty rocks strewn with petals.

 Then Libby finished and came to join us...

 The pretty tree...

 Jewel amongst the blossoms...

 The blossoms themselves...

 And all three of us...

 Then Jewel noticed a pretty tree across the street we just "needed" to photograph. Jewel seems better than the rest of us at photography. She said this particular tree was like the ugly duckling to her: "All strange and twisted looking until it burst into bloom." 

 What is your favorite thing about springtime?

The Last Leg of our Journey: The Creation Museum and Pella, Iowa

 Good day, pleasant readers! I am quite sure you are as relieved as we, to end this extremely long accounting of our trip. But, then again, I had better finish. So, in the last few days of our journey, we spent two days at the Creation Museum in Cincinnati. The first was on the November 4. This picture was taken then, of a display explaining quite a few things about the ape Lucy , in a way I hadn't thought about before. By the way, our family  completely recommends the Creation Museum. We found it to be decidedly enjoyable and highly educational.

 This is one of their excellent models of the Garden of Eden. 

 And more of the model.

 I most enjoyed the outside gardens, which we visited the next day.

 As you can see there was a beautiful large pond and long trail that wound about it. There was also an immense zip line called The Screaming Raptor that Libby wanted to go on but the tickets cost to much for us.

 More of the beautiful scenery along the trails.

 This bridge was very marvelous. The bouncing and swaying put a very jungle-y air to the place. 

 On the trail we saw this peacock display his gorgeous plumage. Mother and Libby ran about after it, snapping photographs. Peacocks are one of the things the Creation Museum owns and lets roam around their trails.

 Jewel and I strolled along in silence for a bit, then she told me something most startling. She had already mentioned that she wanted to be an actress when she grew up and she tried to improve her acting skills whenever she could. Now she said she practiced on other people, pretending to have a personality or character quality she did not so as to test her skills.  "You certainly fooled me. I was truly convinced you were an extremely shy girl." I told her She smiled then said, " I thought since I'll be living with you, you guys had better know my real personality."

 After this, we had to rush inside to be in time to hear a talk by Dr. Terry Mortenson, an old friend of Mother and Father's. It was most interesting, but I was a bit distracted and kept taking quick looks at Jewel, astounded by this news from her.

This display we only got a quick look at, since we wanted to get to the gift shop before the museum closed. However, what we saw was very interesting.

 This I couldn't resist taking a picture of. We saw it atop one of the shelves in the gift shop. I apologize for the quality of the photo.

 We stayed in Pella, Iowa on the last night of our journey. We had dinner there with one of Mother's old friends, who's husband collects stoplights and makes model trains. This was in their basement.

 This was his oldest stoplight. He also had one from route 66, but we neglected to take a picture of that.

 The next morning, before heading for home, we looked about the town of Pella. I found it very charming.

 I would have liked to take a tour here, but we were not able to, sadly.

 We did, however, stop at this delightful little bakery (which smelled heavenly) and  bought some little cookies. Also, Mother bought me a new coat. Then, long last, we drove home.

Some say the best part of vacation is coming home, but I disagree. I never thought of being homesick while on our trip, but when we arrived home, it seemed as though we had been away years. Does it ever feel that way to you?

Figuratively speaking, it is quite a burden off our shoulders  to be done posting about this trip. I think after this, I will not want to do any more series for quite a while.

What is your favorite thing about vacation?

Our trip to Washington DC Part 3: Mount Vernon and Gettysburg

 Hi all! This is Libby. So, here we go again on the seemingly unending stream of posts. Ugh. I can't wait until we can post about other things again. Well, I best start. So, early in the morning, we drove to Mount Vernon. This is the outside. Mom commented that she thought it would be bigger. We took a tour of the house first, but  they didn't allow pictures on the inside.

 Next we went to see Washington's tomb.

 We passed by this ewe on the trail. It was enclosed, don't worry.

 Marie-Grace, Jewel and I walking along the trail. I commented to Marie-Grace that Jewel's outfit didn't look like the outfit of a super shy person. 

 This was one of the slave cabins. In this picture you can see how gorgeous the fall colors were then.

Next, we went to the cool gardens.

 Marie-Grace loved taking pictures of the flowers in the gardens.

 This is the smithy. When the guy pounded the plate-thing with that little hammer, it was SOOOOOO loud! We all covered our ears, even Jewel, who had so far been acting far to shy to do anything!

 The next day, we left Washington DC and traveled to Gettysburg. First we watched the cyclorama, telling about the battle of Gettysburg. You can look HERE to find out more about that.

 Then we looked around the museum. This was an interment something like a trumpet, but the horn part would go back over your shoulder so the soldiers marching behind you could hear the music you were playing.

 As you can see, here is the Gettysburg address embedded in a rock.

 In the gift shop, we bought a CD that guided us to different sites of the battlefield, telling us the history of the different sites as we got there.

This was one of the sites were there was a little tower. We stopped and played there for a pretty long while. Well, I better be going. 

Have you ever been to Gettysburg or Mont Vernon?