Trip to the Sequoias 1988

In August of 1988 I went to visit my parents in California. While I was there we drove their camper up to the Sequoias and King's Canyon national parks. That sequoia forest is a magical place! We also watched the Persaids meteor shower from King's Canyon. We saw over 200 shooting stars.

In the 18 years that my folks lived in California, I made several trips to see them. (They bought me a plane ticket every other year or so.) We took in all the tourist sites -- Catalina Island, the L.A. Arboretum, LaBrea Tar Pits, Lion Country Safari, Roy Rogers Museum, Hearst Castle, Watts Towers, Santa Barbara, Solvang, Sea World San Diego... I can't even remember them all. 

And on every one of those trips my mother gave me a bunch of stuff and also let me raid her closet for whatever clothes or purses I wanted. Both of my brothers also lived in California at one time or another, so I got to see them and their children. My grandparents usually spent part of the winter at my parents' house (they lived in Arkansas), so sometimes I got to see them, too. In 1985 my brother John got married in late September and my grandparents had their 50th wedding anniversary in early October, and I was there for both of those celebrations. One time while I was in California my mom took me to her hairdresser to get a spiral perm -- I was still trying to get Shirley Temple hair. 

 

Trips with Alan

Alan and I have taken quite a few trips. Most of them were to Michigan and Arkansas to visit my family. But in the early years of our marriage we made several trips to Florida. We went to Disneyworld, Sea World, and some other tourist attractions. 

PHOTO: This picture was taken at Sea World on one of our early trips to Florida

The Titanic museum was damaged in a hurricane and was then relocated to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

PHOTO: Sea World (where we saw the Shamu show 3 times a day

Medieval Times (dinner and tournament)

Splendid China (a really fascinating miniature replica of various Chinese sites, which is no longer in existence)

Daytona Beach -- I wanted to dip my feet in the Atlantic Ocean, so I can say I've been to both coasts.

St. Augustine, Florida

Alan at the Florida Air Museum

And we made a few trips specifically to see Cirque du Soleil. The first one of their shows that we saw was before we were married, in Biloxi, Mississippi, at the Beau Rivage casino. The show was called Alegria. We went to that same show again and took my sons. We loved that show so much that we decided to see as many Cirque du Soleil shows as we could manage to get to. We went to one in Atlanta, which was performed under a tent, and we took Alan’s mother. I can’t remember which show it was. We went to one in New Orleans, and one in Pensacola, Florida. In the summer of 2002 we went on a trip out west and saw the 3 or 4 Cirque du Soleil shows that were playing in Las Vegas at that time. 

I think altogether we saw 9 of their shows — Saltimbanco, Alegria, Mystere, O (which involved water and diving and swimming stunts), Quidam, LaNouba, Dralion, Varekai, and Crystal. If we had the money and the energy, we would go now and see all the rest of their shows. Most of them are new, since the last one we saw. 

Trip to the Ozarks 1960

The first “big” trip I took would have been when I was 5 years old. I went with my mother and grandmother (Cleffie) and my grandmother’s sister (Ruby) on a car trip from Michigan to Arkansas and Missouri. I think the whole trip took about a week. I have a few specific memories from that trip. 

First off, I remember getting carsick. We were in the Ozark mountains, and the roads have a lot of curves and ups-and-downs. I was in the back seat of the car with my mother, and suddenly I was vomiting. I don’t remember if I felt nauseated ahead of time or not — if so, I guess I didn’t mention it. I don’t remember anybody getting very upset about it. My grandmother was the one who said it was car sickness — which was a relief to me, because it let me know that I didn’t have a stomach virus or something that was going to keep me sick for the rest of the trip.

The next memory I have from that trip is staying overnight with “Aunt Luveenee” (her name was actually Luvena or Luvenia, but I didn’t know that at the time). She had a small house. I don’t remember much about the house itself. What I remember is when it came time to get ready for bed, my mother took me outside in the dark to use the “bathroom” — it was the first time I had ever heard of, much less used, an outhouse. 

In Missouri we went to visit Aunt Ruby’s daughter Oma Dell and her family. Oma Dell’s daughter Donna Kay was familiar to me. They had come to Michigan a couple times to visit Aunt Ruby. Donna and I were about the same age, and we had already become friends even though we lived 500 miles apart. One thing I remember about our visit there was that the kids — Donna and her brother Mike and I — were eating supper at a card table in the kitchen, and the grownups ate in the dining room. We had green peas on our plates, which we didn’t like. So Donna Kay showed me a little trick … we scraped the peas off and hid them under our plates. It didn’t work, of course. Well, my parents never were “clean your plate or no dessert” parents. But Donna’s were, I guess. I don’t remember what the consequences were for our little trick. I don’t remember having any particular trauma about it. It just seems like a funny memory to me, that we thought hiding our peas under our plates would work.

Road Trip with Cleffie, Wathada, and Oma Dell

Yesterday's post about the PJ party was only one part of a road trip I made with my mother (Wathada), grandmother (Cleffie), and my mother's cousin (Oma Dell). I think this was in 1992. Mom had flown from California where she lived to Michigan where Grandma lived. Then they drove to Arkansas where Oma Dell lived, picked her up and drove to Alabama where I lived. Then we drove back to Michigan. I can't remember the exact logistics of the rest of the trip, but somehow or another we all got back to our respective homes.

Here are a few pictures from that trip.

Cleffie, Ruby (Oma Dell's mother, Cleffie's sister), Wathada, at Oma Dell's house in Arkansas

Wathada, Oma Dell, and me, at my house

Cleffie and Wathada on the pier, Fairhope, Alabama

Me, Oma Dell, Wathada, at the strawberry festival, Loxley, Alabama

Cleffie at Piney Woods School, somewhere in Mississippi

I don't remember how I found out about this school, but it was my idea to stop there. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article about this historic school:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piney_Woods_Country_Life_School

Cleffie and me, at her apartment in Watervliet, Michigan. 

Looks like we are inspecting our loot from a Walmart shopping expedition.

Memorial Day parade in Hartford, Michigan (my hometown)

Memorial Day in Michigan (end of May) - 44 degrees, 40 mph wind.

Pajama Party

Once upon a time, in 1992, My mother, my grandmother, and my mother's cousin were at my house visiting when the electricity went out. There's no narrative, really. The pictures tell the story: Just four grown women in the pitch dark, armed with flash cameras, and a half-hour of hysterical laughter.

I miss these women.

Trips with Grandma and Grandpa Thomas

PHOTO: Bob and Faun McDonald, Bill and Christie Thomas

My Thomas grandparents made a trip to Ohio every summer to visit Grandma’s relatives, and they always took me with them. We drove the old highways — Grandpa didn't like to drive on the interstate — and we stayed in little roadside motels, which are pretty much extinct now. Once we got to Ohio, we stayed at Aunt Faun’s house. She was my grandmother’s favorite cousin, and she and her husband lived in a farmhouse a few miles outside of London, Ohio. Aunt Faun and I had the same birthday, and we sent birthday cards to each other every year until she died. Aunt Faun's husband, Bob McDonald, was a gentle giant of a man. He was so calm and soft-spoken that it was hard for me to believe he was a prison guard. 

I got this picture from Google Earth. I believe it is Bob and Faun's house (as it looks today).

One of the memories I have from those trips was when Aunt Faun asked Grandma if she thought it would bother me to sleep in the bed where Bob's mother had died. (I guess that had happened since our last visit.) Grandma must have said it would be okay, because I did sleep in that bed that night. (Come to think of it, I slept in Grandma's bed where she had died, the night after her funeral. Of course, I was a grown woman by then.)

Another memory from one of our Ohio trips was that I went with one of Aunt Faun's nieces and a friend of hers on a car ride to Columbus. They were teenagers. I don't remember why we were going to Columbus, but what I do remember is that they stopped and picked up a young man who was hitchhiking. I don't know how old I was at the time, but I was old enough to know that it was not a good idea to pick up a hitchhiker.

Another relative we visited was Grandma's uncle Earl Parker and his wife Flossie. They lived in Waverly, Ohio. Uncle Earl was a judge. 

I don't have any pictures that we took of Uncle Earl. This picture of Aunt Flossie was taken at their house. I remember us sitting in the back yard in lawn chairs and Aunt Flossie spotted a 4-leaf clover. Grandma made a comment that Aunt Flossie could always find 4-leaf clovers. (That's another odd little snippet of memory that's stuck in my head all these years.)

I also made at least one trip with Grandma and Grandpa up to the Mackinac bridge and across the upper peninsula of Michigan to the straits of Sault Ste. Marie where we watched a ship go through the locks from Lake Huron to Lake Superior. (I'm pretty sure we went over into Canada once, too. It was easy back then. You didn't have to have a passport or anything.)

Tour '76

Yesterday I thought I would make a post about trips that I've taken in my life. Much to my surprise, though, I've taken a whole lot more trips than I realized -- more than would fit in one blog post. So I guess I'll do them one at a time, in no particular order. Today's post is about the only time I've ever been to Europe.

The Harding College A Cappella Chorus took a European tour every few years, and I was fortunate to be able to go with them right after my graduation in 1976. We went to Germany, France, and Spain. Unfortunately, I did not take a camera with me on that trip. I can't even believe I did that! It didn't even cross my mind to buy a cheap disposable camera while we were there. (Remember those? You could buy one in any drugstore at that time. Take the pictures, leave the film in the camera and turn the whole thing in to get the pictures developed.) So the pictures I'm going to post here are downloaded from other sources.

PHOTO: This was our official choir portrait that year. We didn't wear robes for our performances in Europe, although we usually did for concerts on our usual domestic tours. (That's me, always front row center, right beside my best friend Becky Curtis, who was also short like me.)

PHOTO: My passport picture

 

PHOTO: Our choir director, Dr. Kenneth Davis, Jr. (Everyone called him "Uncle Bud")

He was a major influence in my life during my college years. He taught us a lot more than just music.

Here are some of the places we went on the tour:

Munich, Germany

This fountain was in the heart of the city at Marienplatz. We would stand on the plaza in front of the fountain and sing a few hymns to attract a crowd, and hand out flyers to the people to advertise the Gospel Meeting at the church where we were staying.

PHOTOS: Town hall (rathaus) in Marienplatz, Munich. It has a very famous animated clock (glockenspiel) built into the tower. Here is a great video of the glockenspiel in motion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsfxTyhCzr8

We took a day trip into Bavaria one day to see Neuschwanstein castle

After Munich we went to Lubeck, in northern Germany (on the Baltic Sea). There we stayed with host families, which was fun because -- language barrier. What I remember most was that the room I slept in had a goose down duvet on the bed, and in the morning they hung it out the window to air. I can still remember that fresh crisp sea air fragrance.

After Germany, we went through France, briefly, on our way to Spain. We only spent one night in Paris and didn't have much time for sightseeing. One of our choir directors (who had been there many times before) took us on a very quick walking tour of the main attractions: the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame cathedral.

Our destination in Spain was Barcelona, where we stayed a week in a Catholic seminary which was not in session in the summertime. (It is now a retreat center.) The building where we stayed is directly underneath the Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor (temple of the sacred heart of Jesus). It is situated on Mount Tibidabo, northwest of the city. Next to the temple is an amusement park, which has been there since 1905 and is still in operation today.

To get to Tibidabo from the city, we took an aerial cable car

In the background you can see the Sagrada Familia in the center of the city. 

We were able to go to the park where it is located, but the cathedral was still under construction, so we couldn't go inside. (It was under construction from 1882 until the present, although it was opened to the public and has been in use for Sunday masses since 2010.)

While we were there, our bus was broken into and looted. We didn't have a lot of valuable stuff with us, but it was upsetting to be victimized like that. The main thing I remember that was stolen was a necklace that belonged to the wife of one of our choir directors. She had had it since she was a baby, and the tiny gold heart pendant had a dent from where she had bit it once when she was a child. She was heartbroken to lose it.

PHOTO: Cliff and Debbie Ganus

Cliff was one of our choir directors on the tour, and Debbie is the one whose necklace was stolen. This picture was taken probably very near the year we were on tour.

Here is an actual picture of our tour group rehearsing for a performance in Barcelona.

You can't see me because I was standing right in front of Uncle Bud.