Weekend Roundup “I”

Weekend Roundup “I”~  Starts with “I.”  A Favorite.  Inside.

1. Starts with “I”.

Iwo Jima starts with I. The anniversary of the Flag raising at Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima is on February 23rd. I visited the monument in D.C. in 1970 for the first time. I was nineteen in this photo.

img316-0012. A favorite: Our day in St. Ives, England in September of 2013 with our oldest and his wife.

2013-09-18 St6As I was going to Saint Ives,
I crossed the path of seven wives.
Every wife had seven sacks,
Every sack had seven cats,
Every cat had seven kittens,
Kittens, cats, sacks, wives,
How many were going to Saint Ives?

2013-09-18 St4

St. Ives sunny 0263. Inside:

Inside the heart of our home, the kitchen. Lots of activity happens around the kitchen Island.

Next weeks prompts: Starts with “J.”  A Favorite.  Joy.

Linking up with Tom The Backroads Traveller for Weekend Roundup.

Even though we had rain through our sleep hours the day dawned with no more sprinkles. Happy to run several errands without the need of a rain coat and all accomplished by the early afternoon. This weekend there are two events that are out of the ordinary and that I’m looking forward to. What are you looking forward to?

I is for Iwo Jima

The anniversary of the Flag raising at Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima is on February 23rd. I visited the monument in D.C. in 1970 for the first time.

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Retro Ellen b. , I’m 19 in this photo.

I visited the monument again in May of 2011 on a night tour and took this photo on the opposite side of the monument. We won’t publish how old I was on this visit but you can do the math!

This is a replica of the monument at the MCRD, Parris Island, S.C. (Marine Corps Recruit Depot) when my daughter and I attended her future husband’s India Company graduation in September of 2010.

I is for Iwo Jima for ABC Wednesday. Thank you Mrs. Nesbitt and the ABC team!

I’m a little fuzzy in the brain since all the fun activities from this past weekend and the time change always takes a few days to get oriented to. I am enjoying the longer daylight hours here in the Pacific Northwest.

My First Plane Ride…

In 1970 my best friend and I were able to plan a trip east to see her family and meet up with friends for a wonderful tour including Mackinac Island, New Jersey, New York City, Buffalo, Boston, Connecticut and Washington D.C.  This would be the first time I took a trip that included flying in a plane. Here are my old photos from that trip.

img327I’m really not sure exactly where we started from and where we ended this trip. My friend Heidi and I traveled from Los Angeles. One of the spots we stayed was in Michigan at our friend Faye’s home. Faye’s dad was our pastor at Bethany Baptist in L.A. for several years. When they left L.A. they settled in Troy, Michigan. Faye and Heidi were best friends through high school. We also spent time on the lake at Peter and Ruth Leonovich’s home. Peter and Ruth took the three of us to Mackinac Island for a day.

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We had loads of fun riding bikes around the island. On the way to the island there were threats of rain and I remember Pete stopping the car so the 3 of us could do sun dances instead of rain dances. Looks like it worked.

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img324In New Jersey after we visited Heidi’s grandmother and uncles and aunts we were guests at Peter Leonovich’s brother’s home. Al and Babs treated us to wonderful meals and a trip into New York City to see the sights including the Statue of Liberty.

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img306Somehow we also ended up in Buffalo New York with more “friends of friends” who took us to see Niagara Falls and we had the most delicious barbecued corn during a backyard barbecue that I had ever tasted.

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img308Andy Semenchuk was our amazing tour guide to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Washington D.C.

img309Boston was beautiful. I remember how shocked I was at seeing how small Plymouth Rock was.

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img314Because we were from California we had to pose next to Junipero Serra in the National Statuary Room. Turns out the first school Dear and my two sons attended was Junipero Serra Elementary School in Ventura, California.

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img317George Washington’s Mount Vernon

img318Looking back I’m so humbled at how hospitable everyone was to us. A place to lay our heads, food, sightseeing trips, and transportation everywhere we needed to go and didn’t need to go but these amazing people wanted to treat us to these sights. Thank you, thank you, to Andy Semenchuk, the Al Leonovich Family, Peter and Ruth Leonovich, and the Chechowich family. You broadened our horizons and our world view and modeled hospitality to us! I am forever grateful…

Photo Shoot Monday ~ Night Photography

 

This weeks photo challenge from Carly at Ellipsis is Night Photography. I’m sharing some of my Washington D.C. Moonlight Tour photos.

 

 

This can be considered dusk as well as the next photo.

 

 

 

 

Now for a flashback…

 

Our daughter Katie at night outside a Seattle restaurant after celebrating the completion of her degree. This next photo shows her backdrop.

 

Thanks Carly for the prompt.

To everyone who visits here I’d like you to know I appreciate it and the kind comments you leave. Today I’m enjoying the after effects of a relaxation massage my kids gifted me with on my 60th birthday last March. Tomorrow is the first day of summer and we’re still waiting for Spring around here. We are hoping for a good stretch of sunshine soon! Blessings!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

A Day to Remember ~ Arlington National Cemetery

 

Remembering those who sacrificed for our country and praying for those who are serving our country now in harms way.

 

“Arlington, this place of so many memories, is a fitting place for some remembering. So many wonderful men and women rest here, men and women who led colorful, vivid, and passionate lives.” ~ Ronald Reagan

 

“All of these men were different, but they shared this in common: They loved America very much. There was nothing they wouldn’t do for her. And they loved with the sureness of the young. It’s hard not to think of the young in a place like this, for it’s the young who do the fighting and dying when a peace fails and a war begins.” ~ President Ronald Reagan

 

 

 

“Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It’s a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It’s a day to be with the family and remember.” President Ronald Reagan

This next photo is not from the Arlington National Cemetery but one I took at a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C.

 

“The monument was created as a service to those who might never travel to the nation’s capital to experience the Vietnam Veterans Memorial firsthand,” said Donna Wagner, director of Dignity Memorial providers in Seattle. “Our replica offers visitors a chance for healing and reflections, and we are very pleased to be able to share it with the community.”  ~ Donna Wagner

Another quote from President Ronald Reagan ~ May 25, 2009

“I know that many veterans of Vietnam will gather today, some of them perhaps by the wall. And they’re still helping each other on. They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam — boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.

And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong.” ~ Ronald Reagan

 

 

 

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Prayers are always in our hearts and minds for our Son-in-law Andrew serving with the Marines!

We’re flying the flags for you Andrew!

Semper Fi!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Then and Now ~ D.C. Mosaics

 

 

As you can see I didn’t study my then photos very well as I stood on the opposite side of the Marine Memorial. You also have to look real hard to see me in the now photo at the right of the statue. The only chance we got to get to the Marine Memorial was during the moonlight tour. In my Capitol shots you can see how things have changed from 40 years ago.

Across the road from the Capitol you can visit the United States Botanic Garden. Here are two mosaics of some of the flowers in the garden.

 

 

My last mosaic is for my Canadian friends. Happy Victoria Day to all of you!

 

Join us and Mary at Little Red House to share your Mosaics.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Armed Forces Day

Please pray for Andrew, our son in law in the Marines. If you have someone in the military I could pray for let me know in your comment. Thank you…

 

I’d also like to wish our Canadian neighbors a wonderful long weekend celebrating Victoria Day.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.