Sunday Morning again, so we headed to 1st Place Meeting with the ladies of the church. We always have such a good discussion and time of learning. This is probably the thing I miss the most while on the road. I love these women.
Then we went into Sunday school and then Worship Service. Jeff preached a good sermon as he always does. And then we enjoyed the weekly fellowship meal. A good many of our people stayed to eat and the food was good too. It was announced that next weeks meal was the theme meal and the theme was, “Texas.” Ok, they eat a lot of barbeque and beans and hot stuff. This should be interesting.
After church we went home and watched some movies and lounged around until time to pick the kids up. Evening services were starting early tonight, I thought because of the big football game and we were having a guest speaker, Bob Long, from the Laurel Highlands Church.
We picked the kids up at 4:30 and headed to the church. But church turned out to be a surprise birthday party for me and many people from the other local churches were there along with Ruth and Carol, and Mary Shaffer and Bill’s Aunt Sharon and other people that are close to me. I loved the cake, it had a fedex truck going “over the hill.” And there were black balloons all around the room and of course someone had gotten me a cane. It was great! What good friends I have.
Monday was another “free day.” We planned to watch holiday movies from the Hallmark channel and clean the house. It felt good to not have anywhere to go. So we just relaxed the day away. How nice.
Tuesday morning was the day I had been looking forward to for my whole vacation. Starla, Tom and Drew and I were going to Washington, DC. I picked the boys up at 7:30 and after a quick coffee grab from McDonalds we were on the road. It took us less than 2 hours to get to where we were parking, but that was still 10 miles outside the city.
We bought train tickets and wanted an all day pass for $9.00, but I pushed wrong buttons and ended up with a $20 ticket instead. I did get to trade it in for 2- $10 tickets and gave Starla one of those and we boarded the train. It took about 20 minutes for us to get to the train stop that was closest to the Capital. And once we got off we needed a restroom so we went into McDonalds along the street to use theirs. But once inside we saw that to use their restroom you needed to insert a quarter into the lock. And none of us had any quarters so we continued walking along until we found a mall and walked around in there until we spotted a restroom. Ok, so now we are good to go.
It was only about 2 blocks until we came upon the Dept. of the Treasury, and then the Dept. of the Interior. Of course, you could see the Washington Monument from all over the city.
Starla was having problems with her camera and couldn’t get it to take pictures, but when the boys tried, they could. She was getting really frustrated and we wondered if her having a pace maker was affecting her camera. Well, Drew had his camera too and we all had a phone so it would be ok, but I understood her disappointment.
Next we saw the White House and the famous, “South Lawn.” This is where the annual Easter Egg Hunt is always held and this is also where Michele Obama’s vegetable garden is. We took a few pictures and then walked on.
We walked through many parks and saw a lot of squirrels. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. The sun was shining and the trees there still had their leaves and they were beautifully colored. It was so pretty.
We saw so many of the war memorials, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, Martin Luther King Memorial, and it was there that we saw 3 helicopters fly over and the Park Ranger told us that the front helicopter was carrying the President to the White House. Cool. We also saw the Korean War Memorial which consisted of life-sized statues of the soldiers walking through the high grass, but the statues were white with hollow eyes and they looked like ghosts. It was quite spooky.
Then we spent a lot of time in the park, resting and taking pictures. And then we walked down toward the museums.
We went into the American History Museum and I got to see Julia Child’s Kitchen. And we went into the Natural History Museum and I saw the Hope Diamond. Then we went into the Air and Space Museum and we got on and off the planes and rockets and played with some of the hands on experiments they have there.
Wow, we were getting tired by now and hungry. It was getting a little late in the day too.
So we walked on over to the capital building and took many more pictures and just enjoyed the remainder of our day right there. But before heading back to the train we went and got a bite to eat. We sat at the umbrella tables outside and ate our sandwiches and it was nice to sit down for awhile.
Then we got back on the train and headed back to the parking lot. The train was crowded because it was now rush hour. So we had to stand the whole time and hang on the rail. That made for a long trip and by the end I sure was ready to sit down in my car and relax.
It was easy coming out of the city and traffic wasn’t too bad because of where we had parked so with one short bathroom break we made it back home in 2 hours. I dropped the boys off and then Starla and I went home. Boy, am I going to sleep good this night.
Wednesday morning Starla and I got up early and drove to visit my dad. We got there just after they were finishing up with their breakfast and had a good visit with him and a couple of others that live there. I know I won’t be seeing him again until Christmas time so it was hard to leave this time.
Wednesday evening we went to the church. They are still working on the artifacts that prove the Bible true. It is a very interesting study.
Thursday morning I woke up and cleaned the kitchen really good. Today is the day that the boys are coming up to the house and we are having our Turkey Dinner. So I washed the turkey and made the stuffing and put it in the oven. Then I peeled potatoes and sat them in a pan of water for later. We had baked 2 pumpkin rolls yesterday after coming back from seeing dad. So the meal was coming together.
The boys came around 3pm and we ate and ate til we could eat no more than they packed up some food to take home. They stuck around and visited and watched tv for awhile before they left. It was a wonderful day.
Friday morning was another early morning. We had to be in Meyersdale, PA by 8am. We were meeting up with our good friends from our former place of work. We were first to the restaurant and we waited in the car until the others showed up. We were meeting with Ruth, Carol and Margo. I was so excited to be with them.
Margo brought us each a dozen of brown eggs. Turns out that she has chickens and she is enjoying her farming.
After breakfast we all went back to Ruth’s house to finish visiting. We stayed for several hours until Ruth and Carol had to leave for a work meeting. I miss these ladies and am so glad that we remain good friends.
Starla and I spent the rest of the day making more fudge for her to sell. She is using the money to help pay for a surgery that she needs. We have made a lot of fudge in these last two weeks, probably close to 100 pounds. Our house smells so good.
Friday evening Starla’s stepkids came for their weekend.
Saturday morning was kind of slow. We mostly just lazed around and watched tv. Around noon Starla got the kids ready, she was doing their pictures for school. Hopefully her camera will work for her. It does sometimes.
The pictures came out well. And then we had to take Kailey to Cumberland for her sports. She had a game today and then one tomorrow, so she would not be coming back to the house.
Later that evening we attended the Harvest Party at the church and the kids had so much fun playing games and getting candy and there was so much good food there, oh my. When we got home from the party we saw that Pops and Bill had returned from their vacation in Ohio. So we all talked and laughed and got all caught up with other before bed.
Sunday, this is our last day of vacation. We went to church and heard a good sermon by Mark Meekins on Policies and Procedures of Salvation. It was so good to see him and Molly again too.
After church we had our Texas dinner and it was good. We had tons of food left from last night too. Mary S. from the church brought a cake in the shape of Texas, decorated red, white and blue with a big star. It was pretty. Oh the food was good. There was no Sunday Evening Service so we did laundry and packed up our truck and Starla and Bill worked on their jeep and the kids just hung out helping wherever they could. And then about 5:30 they left to go back to their mother’s. I hated to see them go and I gave big hugs that would have to last a long time.
So, vacation is over! It went by so quickly. But I had a blast. Each and every day was a good one and packed so full of just what was needed.
So where do we go from here? Guess we’ll wait and see.
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