Braving Air Travel

The last big birthday party our sister Vera had was for her 16th birthday eight years ago. Vera is a leap year baby so her true birthdays only come along every four years. Her kids threw her a wonderful Sweet Sixteen party back then. Now they are having an 18th birthday party bash on Saturday. I’ll let you do the math to get to her actual age.

I’m hoping to remember to get all the sisters together for a more current photo. We all will be there, Lord willing.

In searching my archives for Vera’s Sweet Sixteen party I found this wonderful photo of Moisi (our pop) with great grandson Jack.

I’m leaving for Southern California on Friday and I bought a packet of disinfectant wipes for the plane. Don’t know if I’ll have time to check in with my bloggy friends during my travels.

Some quotes from readings of late;

“Wonders of grace to God belong” It is not a small gospel message for small sinners that he has sent us to preach, but ours is a great gospel message for great sinners.” ~Spurgeon

“God’s Word is the authority over religious tradition. Consequently, tradition must yield to Scripture, not the other way around.” ~Nathan Busenitz (We Must Obey God Rather Than Men: Scripture, Authority, and the Reformation)

Also, from the same source above:

“Post Tenebras Lux.” “After Darkness Light” The dark grip of religious tradition gave way to penetrating brilliance of biblical authority. (Mark 7:1-3) “We must obey God rather than man.”

We Booked It

On Saturday we finally clicked on the purchase button for our flights to and from England come September. That first step is always the hardest for me. Now, Lord willing, we’ll be on that plane heading to London Heathrow in September. We also booked an apartment in the Jericho area of North Oxford for 11 nights. 2 bedrooms, full kitchen and living space.

The last time we were in Oxford was in July of 2014. We were only there for several hours and we talked about how much more there was to see and do in this college town and how we’d love to return. We planned our time in Oxford around an Open Day for the Colleges.

We’ll see what is blooming in September compared to July.

Besides Oxford we are venturing back to Canterbury for 2 nights. The photo above is of Dear and me in Canterbury in 1973 or 1974. We will be staying on the Cathedral grounds this time around. From Heathrow we’ll travel to Canterbury and then after 2 nights travel to Oxford for our 11 night stay there. While in Oxford we will explore some neighboring areas on some day trips by bus or train. We are not renting a car.

Update: A woman’s prerogative to change her mind. In thinking about jetlag we are changing our plans and not traveling to Canterbury on this trip. Just thinking about the tube/train and hours it would take was daunting to my brain. We are choosing someplace on the Oxford side of Heathrow to travel to and enjoy for the first two days, instead.

We are excited and Dear is feeling the pressure to finish the construction of his shop by September. Now I’ll look into booking tours of places like “The Kilns” and also some walking tours. We are planning on signing up for a tour with “Go Cotswolds”, too. Decisions, decisions…

So here are some quotes from C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, G.K. Chesterton, all who spent some time in Oxford. There is a Library in Oxford that houses a G.K. Chesterton Collection that we hope to visit.

From Letters to Malcolm, by C.S. Lewis;

“If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart.” And equally, if our heart flatter us, God is greater than our heart. I sometimes pray not for self-knowledge in general but for just so much self-knowledge at the moment as I can bear and use at the moment; the little daily dose.

Have we any reason to suppose that total self-knowledge, if it were given us, would be for our good? Children and fools, we are told, should never look at half-done work; and we are not yet, I trust, even half-done. You and I wouldn’t, at all stages, think it wise to tell a pupil exactly what we thought of his quality. It is much more important that he would know what to do next…

The unfinished picture would so like to jump off the easel and have a look at itself!”

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song over hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”~J.R.R.Tolkien

“He admires, but he won’t clap, which must be very discouraging” Dorothy Sayers in her book, Documents in the Case. This speaks to me on how important spoken or written encouragement is.

“Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labor by which all things live.” G.K. Chesterton

Enjoy the last week of February!

Living Vicariously Disneyland

Tuesday January 21st was Disneyland day for Josh and Laura with the three cousins who took the day off.

Some of the cousins have year long passports to Disneyland.

What a beautiful day in Anaheim!

So thankful my nieces and Laura have such a special relationship.

One of the newest attractions at Disneyland is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge with the Millennium Falcon.

Sisters!

Such a fun photo bomb by Chewbacca!

Josh and Laura ran into our favorite defender from the Seattle Sounders Soccer team who just retired this last year, Chad Marshall. They also met up with Laura’s best friend from college who was there with her family, too.

Dinner at the Blue Bayou with the crickets chirping from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Night time at Disneyland.

Oops! Captured!

An epic day of fun and laughter at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Thanks Kristin, Michelle and Laura for letting me copy and paste your photos from your day at Disneyland!

Living Vicariously Part 1

Our son Josh and our dear DIL, Laura, flew to Southern California for a few days to celebrate Joshua’s birthday. This photo is of our nephew David and his dear wife and our kids at Huntington Beach.

Our niece Melissa and niece Debbee with our kids at Huntington Beach. Debbee and David are siblings, my sister Vera’s kids. Melissa belongs to my sister Kathy. So grateful that many photos were taken and shared.

Newport Beach/Balboa where David and Kristin live.

The guys heading to the gun range. Nephew Tim and Dave. Nephews in law Ryan and Lenny. Our grandnephew, Jackson and our son Josh.

Seriously…

The girls making lotions and such while the guys were shooting. Niece Debbee, Melissa and Michelle. Niece in law, Kristin and grandniece Avery. Daughter in law, Laura. Melissa and Michelle are sisters.

After shooting and lotion making a dinner celebration with cake for Josh.

Breakfast at Juliene, a family favorite in San Marino, California.

And a rare treat to be able to get together with two of our nieces on Dear’s side of the family. Kacie was in Southern California visiting from North Carolina and our niece Annie is now living in Long Beach moving from North Carolina recently. Their sister Jenna lives in New York.

Our kids filled up their days in California enjoying their cousins. Their Dzeda, our pop, told them all before he died to “stay together, love each other.” It fills me with joy to see them doing just that. I’m thankful for social media so I can see things like this and (steal) share the photos to memorialize them on my blog.

My next post will be all about cousin time at Disneyland with other encounters, too.

Signs on Highway 2

A day late and a dollar short, as the saying goes. These were some signs that stood out to me while zipping along on Highway 2 in Washington State from Eastern Washington to Western Washington on December 6th, 2019. These collages will give me an idea of where along Highway 2 the Dr. Pierce barns were. Billy Burgers was in Wilbur.

We drove through several little towns like Wilbur that were established in the late 1800’s.

Between the little towns the landscape was for the most part pretty desolate.

It was just outside of Waterville going west that we saw the Dr. Pierce Barns.

Bottom right photo is between Orondo and Sunnyslope. We are on the east side of the Columbia river here. This area along Highway 2 is filled with apple and other orchards. We cross the Columbia river at Sunnyslope and start our ascent up and over the Cascade Mountain range through the Bavarian Village of Leavenworth and on into Western Washington.

I’m linking up to Sign2 with Tom The Backroads Traveller. Oops I couldn’t link up successfully.

Speaking of a day late and dollar short I’m way behind in visiting blogs. But I’ll remedy that soon!

First Mukilteo Ferry Ride…

Way back in November of 2019 the girls and Jaymison had a little trip to Whidbey Island on the Mukilteo Ferry. This was Jaymison’s first ride on a ferry but I think it might have been Addy’s 2nd ride.

Some time at the park and then a stop in the village of Langley…

…for ice cream!

Front row seats for the ride back to the mainland.

This is a catch-up post for future reference. Our blogs really are a great source of family history!

Dr. Pierce Barn

Thinking of Tom The Backroads Traveller in posting these barn advertisements.

Sallie at A Full Time Life also has posted one of the Dr. Pierce Barns in Oregon. There is another interesting post about Dr. Pierce on Peachridge Glass.

When I took these photos on December 6th of 2019 traveling to the Seattle area from Colville along Highway 2, I wasn’t familiar with the history of Dr. Pierce Advertisements on barns. You can google Dr. Pierce or click on the Peachridge Glass post to get lots of good information.

I’ll be adding this post to Tom’s Barn link party this coming Saturday. Thanks for your comment, Tom. It made me do a search about Dr. Pierce.

This is another part of road tripping that is so much fun to experience. History along the back roads…

Issues

I’m having some difficulty with uploading images to my blog today and these two are the last that I could upload successfully. These are from our road trip to the Coast at the beginning of December.

I’ll need to sort through some issues and see what I can come up with to remedy the problem.

So far it’s been easy to remember to write 2020 on checks and other documents. Hope the new year is starting well for you.

Canada to the USA…

We had a beautiful drive from Chilliwack B.C. back to the USA last Sunday. After I took these photos we encountered fog. We were happy to have the blue skies and lovely clouds before we entered the fog. Another trip, two border crossings with pleasantries from both sides. We are always happy to have easy crossings.

After church today we headed to Spokane for one last shopping trip before Christmas. On Monday my car goes in for repairs from my deer encounter for the rest of the week. I will have a relaxing week at home without a vehicle so maybe I’ll do some baking. For sure I’ll do some wrapping of gifts. The Christmas Cd’s will be playing in the background no matter what I’ll be doing.

Happy new week to all of you.

The Highways Less Traveled

On Friday the 6th of December we left our home early to drive to the Coast via highway 25 and US Route 2 in Washington State.

U.S. Route 2 is a component of the United States Numbered Highway System that connects the city of Everett in the U.S. state of Washington to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, with a separate segment that runs from Rouses Point, New York, to Houlton, Maine.

The only hazards on the roads that we encountered 4 separate times on highway 25 were flocks of wild turkeys that decided to cross the road in a line and not in a hurry.

We passed through many small towns miles apart with limited services.

When we finally got to US Route 2 we found a great little Corner Cafe in Creston, Washington.

Now we were starting the climb over the Cascade Mountain Range.

Leavenworth was decorated and ready for their annual Christmas tree lighting. There were many people milling about. We drove right through without stopping.

We arrived to Josh and Laura’s home for the late afternoon and night. On Friday evening Josh and Laura took us out for our anniversary to a new spot to us, Emory’s on the Lake. It’s such a blessing to have a home base on the other side of the Cascades where we are always welcomed.

On Saturday we met up with friends for breakfast and then packed up the car for our trip to Chilliwack, British Columbia for our annual Mennonite Girls Can Cook Christmas celebration. I’ll save that for a separate post.

On the way home from the Coast on Monday we stopped in Spokane and purchased our Mystery Tree for 2019. It’s still in the car while I type and as soon as we put it in it’s spot we’ll have the reveal and see what it looks like in it’s stand.

We made it back to our country bungalow before dark after stopping for Linner in Chewelah at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Our drive back from the Coast was on Interstate 90 and we encountered several miles of fog which was hard on our eyes. We were so happy to see some clearing after Ritzville. We did not see blue skies until we came down into the valley before Chewelah. That was a welcomed sight for sure.

Now that we are home for the rest of December my Christmas decorating will begin in earnest. Are you all decked out yet? I’m working on our Christmas letter. When that is copied off I’ll be able to send our Christmas cards. I’m happy to say they are all addressed already. Do you still send cards?

I’m headed out the door to a Bible Study and lunch. I hope to make some visits to blogs this evening.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Travel