Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Fun at Longwood Gardens





Chelsea and Johnny call me 
their Paparazzi.

They invite me to come along to the gardens
because they know I will gladly shoot photo after photo.

 In search of a new Facebook Profile picture Chelsea loved this cheery spot.
It worked quite nicely.


Every time we try to take photos they end up making
silly faces and giggles.


Chelsea took this one.
Cute, huh?

We were happy to see the roses in full bloom.
What a special thing to look forward to each year.


They may look comfy and cool
but it was pretty hot and humid in the sun.


Apparently I am quite funny in trying to coax
genuine smiles.

Flowers, real flowers.
This is a garden after all.
I am very much entranced by the ever changing
beauty in this place.






And then came lunch.
Johnny chose well.

 Chelsea took the camera to work on a new 
Facebook profile pic for Johnny.





 The winner.


I love, love, love the veggie garden.
Just look at this lettuce.
Doesn't it just make you happy?

 In the middle of the veggie garden is this
 adorable little
"cottage".

Johnny found it as charming as I do.
I just knew he had good taste.

 Chelsea discovers the fun.


 Wishing for some iced coffee, I imagine.

 Then Chelsea spotted this interesting flower and 
took the camera from me once again. 




 When it comes to personality types
Johnny and I are very much alike.
Chelsea and Warren are very similar.
And so, Johnny and I have a blast together.
We both love to tease and laugh.
 I wanted a couple of photos to remember this craziness.
These aren't the craziest but a couple that Chelsea took.
 Then we forgot we were posing and Chelsea snuck behind us
and snapped this.

 Up next mother and daughter as shot by Johnny.




 We are so blessed to call this girl daughter.
She is seeking God's will for the next phase of her life.
Is it Culinary School?
Continuation of her job and working with local refugees from Burma?
Something she doesn't even know about yet?
All she wants to know is what it will be.
So, prayers are so welcome!

 I got the camera back.  
Ha.




 This will make  more sense in just a moment.
 Matching Roses photos.
My goodness, these two are fun.
Hope you enjoyed this photo journal of our day.

And now....
keeping it low key I am whispering.
Today is Warren's 50th birthday.

Happy Birthday to my awesome husband.
I love you to pieces.

God truly blessed me when He gave me you.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

One Huge Day in New York City

Our family is generally not very adventurous.
Normally we visit the same places for vacation because 
we know how to get there and what to expect.
But as the kids have gotten older it seems we are stretching our wings.
I mean, sending Chelsea off to Australia and Thailand isn't 
exactly boring, right?

And, of course, when we have a guest who wants to see
America and they think of our big cities as attractive to visit
we have to put on our adventurous spirits and go with that.
Boy are we glad we did.

We have had a wonderful time over the past few weeks.
We were somewhat accustomed to Baltimore and Washington DC
but New York City was all new to me.
Warren has gone a few times for work but only in a very limited way.

I was pretty much lost as to where to begin planning this day 
when I thought of my blogging friend, Carol.
She lives in the city and shares on Buttercup Counts Her Blessings
a bit about her life in the Big Apple.

I had met Carol a few years ago when another blog friend, 
Marydon, had invited both of us to a meet up in Maryland.
I know...this wonderful world of blogging is amazing.
And so, I gathered my nerve and sent Carol a message asking her if 
she would be willing to show us around her town.
Amazingly...well not really....because she is the BEST,
Carol said yes.
And then set about making a plan for our day 
putting Johnny's priorities first.

New Jersey and New York as we first saw
it on Monday morning.


And after experiencing the "joy" of losing our GPS as soon as we entered the city we 
ended up parking at the wrong parking garage.
Mind you, it was the third one we tried as the first two were full.
But they would have been the wrong ones as well
because we were on the wrong side of the highway.

This is where it became so important that we had someone who 
knew the area so well.
With my confused utterances of seeing water and street names
Carol guided us by phone to a walking bridge over the highway and met us
on the other side.
I was so happy to see her.
Let me tell you!

With that we were on our way.
We passed by Trinity Church where I found out that our local
hero Robert Fulton is buried.  
I took a rather poor photo of his tombstone so you can just 
imagine it if you like.
I'm not planning to post it.

We saw this on the way to the Ferry.
Wall Street!!
And the famous bull.

Chelsea and Johnny waited in line for their photo opp.


A stop at Starbucks, which should surprise no one, 
and then we were off to the Staten Island Ferry.
We LOVED it!!







I was taking photos of Johnny with the Statue of Liberty when I saw the opportunity for this.
You know I couldn't resist.  The Statue of Liberty on his head. 
I'm sorry....but aren't they just too cute?

This is Carol. 
She is such a wonderful lady.
We all agree that we love her and are so glad that she shared her day, 
her knowledge and her love of the city with us.

Thanks, so much, Carol!!!


When you arrive at Staten Island you must disembark and get in line again
to ride back across to Manhattan.
I loved seeing this scene as we waited in line to get back on this ferry.



Lunch was next.
Carol knew the perfect place.
Salad and sandwiches were delicious and the employees were friendly 
while being very efficient.

Very special while we were there was an opportunity to read Psalm 130
in a special remembrance and prayer for three teenage boys who have been kidnapped
in Israel.  I read it out loud and very nearly didn't make it through because 
it is the passage that talks about Watchmen in the night.
My Dad used to preach a sermon entitled, 
"Watchman, What of the Night?".
I would hear him preach it at revival meetings or other speaking 
engagements and it was the only sermon that I readily remember being familiar with.
He wasn't much of one for repeating sermons.
So, when Carol shared that a group she is involved with was 
reading this Psalm on that day and I read it....
well, let's just say that it was a double blessing.
Seriously.
I will now remember to pray for these boys and their safe return.

Next in our journey was Central Park.


A true respite in a large and busy city.


You know we had to do it.
A cute couple pic.

 As soon as I saw the bridge...I knew.
They had to go and pose.

Then we crossed over to Columbus Circle.
A wonderfully air conditioned mall offered several comforts.
Most importantly being free clean public restrooms.
Very hard to come by in New York City.
Although, I have to say we managed pretty well in our day.


Chelsea was thrilled to find that Carol loves Gelato.
In fact she knows where to get the best Gelato in New York City....
GROM.
Now, personally, I was confused at why they would name their shop GROM because
I wouldn't have recognized it as a Gelato shop....
but people definitely find it.  
There were lines.
Mostly behind us for which we were thankful.


Onto the subway
to head to Times Square.
Yes, this was a seriously full day.
We saw a LOT.


This is probably my least favorite spot we visited.
Not that it isn't fascinating....
but it was crowded.
I'm really a country girl at heart.
Country girls are more comfy with cows across the street
than flashing lights and naked cowboys.
Yep, we saw him. 
Live and just a few feet away.
As Chelsea put it...
"Unfortunately".
If you don't know who I am referring to 
you can Google it.
:-)


We were happy to find the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
We may visit the one in Baltimore to actually eat.
Johnny, Warren and Jonathan all love shrimp.
But for photo opportunity this was perfect.





Finally, we took our very tired selves back to the subway and then back to our car.
Carol, bless her heart, rode with us to make sure we got off at the right stop 
and knew how to return to our parking garage.
She was the perfect hostess.


We were parked right by the water and so procrastinated leaving by just 
a bit since it had been such a lovely day and we really didn't want it to end.





Thanks for taking the tour "with us".
Have a wonderful day!