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?

More of our time in Washington DC

Good day, pleasant readers! This is Marie-Grace. As promised, I am here to tell you more about our Washington DC trip beginning on October 29.

 That rainy day we went to the Federal Mint and the National Museum of Natural History. At the Federal Mint they did not allow pictures, but at the Museum we took a great many pictures! Here are some of them. 1: The famous stuffed elephant named Henry. 2: The famous Hope Diamond. 3: A diamond necklace. 4: A great lump of rose quartz. 5: Stuffed Spider monkey mother and baby. 6: An actual Egyptian mummy. Libby was quite impressed. 7: A stuffed ghost crab. 8: Pieces of a meteorite that fell on Arizona. 9: A stuffed Grizzly bear.

 The next day we left early for our tour of the Capitol. 1: The Capitol. They needed to do some repairs on the dome. They informed us that they should be done in time for the next inauguration. 2:The inside of the dome. 3:A beautiful chandelier inside. 4: the lovely tiled floor. 5:The original Wright Flyer at the Air and Space museum. 6: Another model at the Air and Space museum ( I don't remember what of). 7; Libby rushing past paintings at the art museum across from the Air and Space museum. 8: Myself lingering a long while at the same paintings. 9: Many famous paintings were there, this painting of George Washington being one of them. 10: One of my favorite paintings there by Frederic Edwin Church called El Rio de Loz (The river of Light). 11: Libby looking at the famous "Little Dancer"  statue. She didn't think much of it. 12: The impressive-looking outside of the art museum. 13:People inside the art gallery in the Capitol.

 On Halloween Day, we 1:first shared our lunch with an inquisitive squirrel. 2: Went to see  the outside of the White House, being that we were unable to obtain tickets to the inside. 3: Went to the international spy museum. This is the inside of the elevator. 4: The History of spies. 5; The secret identity I chose while there. If you want to learn more about the Spy Museum, click HERE. 6: Next we went to Ford's Theater. 7: I don't think she found it as interesting as I did. 8: Next we went across the street to the house Lincoln died in. This is part of a huge pile of books that were all written about Lincoln.

Then we rushed home because we were meeting Jewel and her former foster parents. We were quite excited. She came, and Libby immediately plopped down with her two dogs, Cookie dough and Jackson. I held out my hand. "Hello, Jewel. I'm Marie-Grace. What a lovely outfit." Jewel looked at down at her feet and fingered her scarf. "Um, hi. she said, then rushed over to say good bye to her former foster parents. Standing up, Libby whispered: "What was that? Her other foster parents never mentioned extra extreme shyness." I laughed. "She'll probably get used to us in a couple of days." I whispered back.

Have you ever had a foster child?

Our Trip Part 2: Our first day in Washington DC

 Hi all! This is Libby. So Marie and I have finished our Christmas break, and are going back to telling you all about our trip. We are sorry we are taking such a toads long time to "tell you all about it", but oh well, we're doing it now right? So anyway, the day after the last day we posted about (see HERE) we drove to Washington DC and got settled in with some relatives. The next morning we drove around almost till lunch looking for parking. Finally we found a small, free, parking lot over near the Jefferson memorial, right next to the river. We ate lunch there, watching all the planes come in ( by the way, if you have ever been to Washington DC you will know what I'm talking about. Planes always coming in, at this really constant rate like they are coming in then taking right back off again, just to come down yet again! I mean, goodness!) But anyway, going on.

 Here is a picture Marie took of one of the waterfalls in the FDR memorial. Isn't it pretty? I love waterfalls. So, we went here first. And I liked the waterfalls.

 And here, is a picture of Marie and I in front of one of the pools in the Korean War Veterans Memorial. I wanted to take dip in the pool but Dad said no.

 Next we went to the Lincoln memorial. I was so excited. It's super exciting for me to be at a place you have heard about and seen pictures of all your life. It looks almost like it does on the penny except you can barely see the Lincoln statue inside ( unlike on the penny) and of course, all the people. 

 It was a great, big, solemn feeling place inside. There was a little bookstore that I hadn't known about and Marie-Grace bought a postcard for her travel journal in it.

 Marie and I in front of the reflecting pool.

 On our way to the Washington monument, we stopped at this pool and watched the funny geese. We also met a girl named Isabelle who was very pretty and had cute pink highlights.

 As well as the pond, we also quickly stopped at the World War Two Memorial. It was really cool looking, but we didn't stay long. We were impatient to get to the Washington Monument.

 So we climbed all the way up there and when at the base, bent our necks almost at a right angle to see to the top. One of my main disappointments of the trip for me was that we were not able to get tickets to climb to the top. But, oh well.

 While we were still at the base of the Washington Monument, we saw a this helicopter come up. From the place it rose from, Dad guessed it came straight from the White House helipad. Is that cool or what?

 Since there was time before we needed to go to the car, we decided we would go to the National Museum of American History. It wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be, but I think we missed a lot of stuff, like the original ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz. I did like seeing the first lady's dresses though. That red one belonged to Mamie Eisenhower.

 On our way back to the car we stopped at the Jefferson memorial. It was really pretty but not especially memorable.

 That day was super memorable though. I love vacation.

Where do you like to take vacation?