Taking "mood pictures"

Olen’s suitcase arrived this morning. We knew when that happened it was going to be a great day. It was much cooler today, overcast, with light rainfall predicted. Undaunted, we picked up our cameras, umbrella, and jackets and left for a day of sightseeing.

Today we took what we refer to as “mood pictures”. That is what we call the experience when the weather isn’t really good for photography, but we take photos anyway…occasionally with positive results. We drove over to the eastern shore of the island to view some of the inlets and harbors instead of the farmlands and hillsides located in the interior of the island. It was drizzling rain by the time we reached our destination, and although the windshield wipers on our trusty travel-truck did work, they seemed to have a mind of their own, and went from slow to fast occasionally for no apparent reason. As long as they kept the windshield clear, it was ok with us.

We went to the harbor at Montaugue (shown in the photo), and then went to the Panmure Island lighthouse (also shown in a photo) where the drizzle was so light it was almost a mist…so fine it looked like tiny snowflakes falling. We followed the coastline most of the day before returning to Charlottetown. While in the downtown area we decided to take an hour-long tour of Charlottetown on a bright red, double-decker bus that was brought to Charlottetown from London in 1973.

While on the tour, the guide pointed out a local Pizza Delight that had set up business in the old jail in Charlottetown. We decided that would be an interesting spot for dinner, after a brief shopping stop at The Anne of Green Gables Store. We made no major purchases, but I would loved to have bought the Anne hat (complete with braids and red hair), but I will lucky to get home with my carry-on and the one piece of checked luggage I now have.

Tomorrow is our last day on Prince Edward Island. The weather report does not look any better for tomorrow, but we will just take more “mood photography”. If it does rain, I am afraid Olen will not get in his round of golf, and I will be sorry about that. We will do whatever we can, but we WILL enjoy our last day here. Enjoy your day!

Back in Charlottetown, PEI

We are back in Charlottetown tonight, after a bright, sunny day that was full of special experiences for us. To begin the day, we ate our lovely breakfast prepared by Kelly and Jon at the Bed and Breakfast. We questioned Kelly about running a B&B, which has been her dream for years. She said she loved what she was doing, but she and Jon had to supplement their income with other jobs in addition. Other than being an innkeeper, Kelly also works as a Yoga instructor, bar tender at a local pub, interior decorator, and does website designs! Whew!

As we were leaving the B&B we got a phone call from Northwest. One of the suitcases has been located! Of course, at this point we are in Nova Scotia, and the suitcase is in Prince Edward Island, but we were thankful that it would be there this evening when we returned. We wondered about whose suitcase it might be…mine with clothes and make-up in it, or Olen’s suitcase with the camera battery charger, GPS unit, binoculars, camera long-lens, and other “useful” items. (We were to find out later in the day that it was, of course, my suitcase that finally showed up. Olen‘s is still AWOL.)

We drove to Kentville for worship service. Mama always taught me to wear my best clothes when I attend worship service “to show respect”. Unfortunately, this morning my “best” was a pair of blue jeans and a Wal-Mart shirt. I was somewhat concerned about my attire for worship until we arrived at the building and noticed that Olen and I were dressed like the regular members. Incidentally, we drove over 400 miles to attend the worship service, and took two days to do it. Of course, to be perfectly fair, we combined this trip to worship with some local sightseeing, but nevertheless, I wonder how many of you readers traveled 400 miles to worship today! There were only about 30 in attendance at the service, but they were extremely friendly, and very sympathetic to our suitcase plight. They had no regular preacher, but one of the elders did a very good job of connecting their daily Bible readings with lessons for life. We were glad we had been there.

After the worship service, we drove to Maitland to view a tidal bore from a platform over the Shubenacadie River. A tidal bore is caused by rapidly rising tides, for which the Bay of Fundy is famous. The rising tide enters bays and inlets so rapidly that it literally “piles up” the water as it moves into the bay because it is being squeezed into a much smaller space. This “pile of water” looks similar to a wave on the beach and can be the size of a ripple or several feet high as the tide flows over outgoing river water. After watching the bore at Maitland, we drove down the road to Truro and found a place to view the bore before it arrived in that area. We were not alone in our chosen viewing area. There were other “bore-ing” people there with us. (Sorry, that one was just too corny, but I was unable to resist.)

I was expecting to view a tidal bore of epic proportions; something I could photograph and use as a visual in Bible class to illustrate the Israelites crossing the Red Sea (which was a miracle, not a tidal bore), but what I saw today was interesting, but the bore itself was only about a foot high. Not what I expected, but I do understand that sometimes the bores are much more impressive.

We drove through Nova Scotia and a portion of another Canadian province, New Brunswick, until we reached the Confederation Bridge which connects New Brunswick on the mainland to Prince Edward Island. Built in 1997, it is one of the longest bridges in the world, about 7.8 miles. Photos for today include shots of the tidal bore and the Confederation Bridge.

The farmers here are cutting hay and baling it. On the hillside fields it makes lovely sights to enjoy, but also reminds us that the summer is drawing to a close much too fast.

We are thinking about the grandchildren tonight. At home, school starts tomorrow. When the doors open at Athens Bible School in the morning, nine of our ten grandchildren will be in classes there. We are thankful that they have this opportunity and want to wish them all a happy and successful year. Special thoughts are with little Elizabeth Ann, who will be marking her first day of kindergarten tomorrow. The rest of you children know the ropes at school. Study, work hard, and makes lots of friends this year. Love to all of you.

On to Nova Scotia

This is the post for Saturday. We had some difficulties with the internet lat evening, but it is fine this morning.

We had heavy rains and thunder storms during the night last night, and the skies were still in the process of clearing most of the day. This morning we drove from Charlottetown to Woods Island where we took the ferry across the Northumberland Strait from Prince Edward Island to Nova Scotia, another of Canada’s provinces. The car ferry was fairly expensive, and they did not give any discount for our truck. You would have thought it would have earned a senior discount or rattletrap ticket or something! Not so. We paid the same as any “normal” vehicle!

After the rains of last night, it has been cooler today. As we were leaving Prince Edward Island I took the snapshot of the dock shown in the photo. All of those “boxes” on the dock are lobster traps. Needless to say, lobster fishing is a big industry on the island.

The crossing took over an hour. We landed at Pictou, drove to Truro, and then followed the coast road along the southern edge of the Bay of Fundy, stopping a few times for photos and sightseeing. One was a stop at Burncoat Head in the Minas Basin, where they have the greatest average tide in the world (47.5 ft.) and have actually recorded a high tide of 53.6 feet! We were there during low tide and I took four of the photos there, experimenting with shots when the sun was out, and some with cloud cover.

Tonight we are staying at a Bed and Breakfast called the Phoenix Hollow Bed and Breakfast in Windsor, Nova Scotia. This is a lovely home, built in 1873, but recently purchased by an interesting young couple who have totally renovated the property. It still has the charm of days gone by with modern conveniences like flat-screen TV sets, and even high-speed, wireless internet in the guest rooms.

Tomorrow we plan to enjoy our lovely breakfast and then drive to Kentville for worship. Our plan is to return to Truro that afternoon, and hopefully view the tidal bore (more on that tomorrow) before returning to Prince Edward Island for the remainder of our trip.

Interesting (?) events of the day: Still no word on the suitcases. Same old story there. We have stopped worrying about them…most of the time. This evening Olen helped himself to a piece of toffee candy from the bowl on the desk in the parlor and managed to pull out two of his crowns. He stuck them back in using the toothpaste that was given to us by the motel in Charlottetown when our suitcases didn’t arrive. Talk about “making do”…

Hopefully all of you enjoyed your Saturday as much as we did.

Today: Lobster,rainbow, and clean clothes!

We spent the morning taking care of odds and ends (answering e-mail, making telephone calls about lost luggage, trying to locate a place to worship on Sunday morning, etc.) In the afternoon we drove to the little village of North Rustico to enjoy one of their “world famous” lobster suppers.

On the way to North Rustico we drove through some of the most beautiful farmlands on the island. This time of the yearwhen the crops look rich and approaching the time for harvest. Along the edges of the highway the wildflowers are in full bloom, making a striking picture by anyone’s standards. This afternoon we saw storm clouds rolling in, but only sprinkles of rain fell in the areas where we were. However, we decided we need to repeat this drive on a day when the sun is out.

We drove to a rather swanky-looking golf course (Glascow Hills) and Olen went in to investigate the situation to see if golfing might be an option early next week. We are still driving our “Rent a Wreck”, so he was careful to park in the back of the parking lot so no one at the clubhouse could see what type of transportation we are using. It might influence their decision as to whether they will let him play or not. He got the information and perhaps that will become part of a future plan. (After all, I can drive a golf cart, you know! I have had lots of practice driving our more-than-slightly-beat-up one we use for toting tools across our property in Limestone County!)

On our drive back to Charlottetown the storm had passed and left behind a beautiful rainbow for us to enjoy. How perfect to see a rainbow while in PEI where there is so much rich Irish culture. (FYI: We saw no “pot of gold”.)

Tonight I am taking advantage of the washers and dryers at the motel. Clean clothes tomorrow! What excitement! We have had a wonderful day…great food, and a beautiful rainbow. What else could we want? (Well, suitcases would be nice, but still, it is great to be here and get to share this day.) Today’s photos explain themselves. We hope all of you are sharing this day with your special “someone”.

A truck ride, a bike ride, and hiking shoes...

We thoroughly enjoyed “Mama’s” breakfast before leaving the farm. We ate breakfast with two other couples, and of course our travel and luggage situation became a major topic of conversation. “Mama” prepared a delicious dish which she called “baked oatmeal”, and it was wonderful. Her sons farm organically, and the oats and other ingredients were from the farm.

After breakfast we drove back to Charlottetown and located a room at the Holiday Inn Express, which is extremely nice. We ran several other errands in town (including a stop at the airport with no success) and then left to drive to the northeastern part of the island.

Prince Edward Island has an extensive system of bicycle and walking trails called the Confederation Trail. It is a part of the rails-to-trails program, so the paths are level and fairly easy to navigate. As we were driving down the highway, we noticed several bikers and walkers just over the hill near the waters of St. Peters’ Bay. The day was bright and sunny with deep blue sky, so we decided that a bike ride would be a lovely addition to our day. We stopped at the little village of St. Peters, located a bike shop and inquired about renting bicycles. Obviously, we were not the only people who thought this was a lovely day for a bike ride! She had only one adult bicycle left, but she had a “kid’s bike” that fit me perfectly…except the seat was too high and had to be lowered to I could ride it! This is the only time in my life I found it an advantage to have short legs!

So, we rented the bikes and headed out to the next little village, Morell, which was 11 km (I think that is about 7 miles away.) Of course, once we reached Morell, we stopped at a local marked, bought fruit and water, rested a little while and headed back to St. Peters, making the total trip about 14 miles long. The ride was simply wonderful. We rode beside wheat fields as picturesque as those shown in National Geographic; we rode over bridges spanning the waters of St. Peter’s Bay, and passed lovely farmlands. The “Welcome Center” in Morell referred to this section of the Confederation Trail as the “most picturesque on PEI”, and we can‘t argue with that.

To answer your next question, yes, we were tired after the bike ride, but it was an experience we thoroughly enjoyed. We would highly recommend it to anyone coming to the area. Since it is daylight here until after 9 PM, we decided to continue on with our sightseeing, and drive on to Greenwich National Park where it was reported that there were spectacular sand dunes.

The detail we did not have until we arrived at Greenwich is that the dunes are only accessible by a 3-mile walking trail. Now, remember, we had just ridden bicycles for 14 miles, but we were there, so, off we went! The walk was nice, and the dunes reached by walking over floating wooden walkways over the marshy areas. By the time we had seen the dunes and returned to the truck, we were pretty much done in for the day, so we drove back to our motel in Charlottetown, and were extremely glad to see the shower and the bed!

PEI is a wonderful place to visit, and we would do it all again, even considering our lack of suitcases and the rather shop-worn truck we are using for sightseeing. We are having a great time. Everyone should have as much fun on vacation as we have! Don’t sweat the little things today! We aren’t!

Photos of the day include two taken the previous night at the ceilidh (one of the singing with rhythm instruments, and another of the group outside trying to learn a folk dance…hilarious!). Three photos were taken on the bike ride on the Confederation Trail (one is an example of the lovely views, and two to prove we actually rode the bikes). The other photo shows the wooden walkways at Greenwich National Park. As the old saying goes, “having a great time, wish you were here!”

Truth really is stranger than fiction!

I could not possibly make up the events of this trip. They have to be true! The suitcases did not come in last night, as you may have guessed. And, to add to the confusion (and lack of day-to-day necessities), by the time we got back to the motel, the room had been cleaned, and I do mean “cleaned”. We had left the handy-dandy overnight bags Delta had given us, but taken our carry-on bags with us during the day because we wanted to have our cameras and computers with us. When the maids came in our room to clean, they assumed that since there were no suitcases and no clothing in the room we had checked out and wanted the items we had left in the room to be disposed of.

By the time we discovered what had happened, it was after midnight and the housekeeping staff was long gone for the day. The desk clerk did give Olen two toothbrushes for us to use. Now we have two small, white toothbrushes to replace the two substitute toothbrushes Delta gave us to replace our very own toothbrushes that are still in suitcases touring the eastern United States! How bizarre can this story get?

Still, we are having a great time, and laughing all the way. Olen went out to the truck this morning and started the engine. He came back into room wearing a big grin. “It cranked again today. That’s a good sign!”

Before leaving Charlottetown, we stopped at Wal-Mart and I purchased the best $7 shirt I could locate in the ten minutes we had allowed for shopping for socks and a shirt. Then we were off to enjoy the day. The weather was still very warm, but there was a nice breeze off the ocean. The sky was a bit hazy today, so not as good for photos.

We headed east of Charlottetown and stopped at historic Orwell Corner Village, which has been in that location since the early 1800s. We toured the buildings (church building, schoolhouse, town hall, store) and a small farm on the property. We ate lunch at their “tearoom”, which consisted of four tables set up in the town hall. We had chicken salad sandwiches, which were wonderful…along with the homemade cinnamon roll.

After lunch we located a place to stay tonight. We are staying at a cottage on the Craigview Farm which is somewhat primitive, but clean. We asked the young man who showed us our room where we might go for breakfast in the morning, since the farm is located miles out in the country. He replied by telling us where we could drive to find breakfast, but ended up saying that “Mama can cook your breakfast”. We replied very quickly that we most definitely would let “Mama” do it! “Just come up to the farmhouse about eight,” he said. Deal!

We decided to do a little more sightseeing, and drove out to Prim Point Lighthouse, which is the oldest lighthouse on PEI, and the only round brick lighthouse in Canada. After dinner at a wonderful restaurant overlooking the water, we went to a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) in Orwell. A ceilidh is a very casual musical show that features humorous stories, Irish folk music, folk dancing, and plenty of fiddle music and audience participation with singing and rhythm instruments. It really is a lot of fun, and this ceilidh was held in a historic building that only recently got electric lighting, with the gas lamps still hanging from the ceiling and the walls. The ceilidh ended with the entire audience forming a huge circle, joining hands and singing, “Goon Night, Irene”. As we walked to our truck in the parking lot after the ceilidh we noticed the beautiful full moon. The end of a lovely day.

Thanks to our Wal Mart purchases this morning…tomorrow will be a big day. Tomorrow we get clean socks!

Photos for today include an inside view of the old schoolhouse at the historic village. ( I am not quite old enough to have taught in that situation.) One view is of the farmland of the area, and another of the farm where we are staying tonight. Our cottage is in the far background. The lighthouse photo is important because for the first time during this trip we have on “new” (different) shirts. You probably didn’t even recognize us! We discovered an old boat on the shore near the lighthouse and could not resist posing a “Gilligan” photo to send home.

‘Having fun…wish our suitcases were here!

We have had an absolutley delightful day! It was very warm here. The sun was shining, and there has not been a cloud in the sky. Perfect for sightseeing! Tonight we are tired, but extremely thankful for the perfect day we have been blessed with.

While we were enjoying our continental breakfast this morning our rental "vehicle" arrived. Olen signed for it, but had to take the young man back to the office. On the ride back, the young man said, "You must be desperate for a vehicle. We never rent this one." Right on both counts, I guess. Nevertheless, we are extremely thankful for our transportation. I am posting a photo of Olen proudly standing beside our "wheels". Actually, it (the truck, not Olen!) is in fair condition. We had to get adjusted to a few things, like the 5-speed manual transmission, and the fact that the windows have to be cranked up and down by hand. Did I mention that it is not air conditioned? However, it gets us from point A to point B, which is a big improvement over having to spend our entire vacation in a slightly tired-looking motel room.. Our room is clean, just has not been updated since the mid-sixties

We returned to the airport this morning to check on the suitcase problem, but the Delta/Northwest counter was completely closed and the lights out. We spotted a man sitting at a desk in the center of the airport (very small airport!). A sign over his head read "information" so we decided to test him. After we explained our situation one more time, he nodded and told us that if we wanted to talk to a Delta or Northwest agent we would have to come back after 9:00 tonight since there is only one flight a day and the representative (singular) for Delta/Northwest would not be at the airport until then. Translation: No hope to get our luggage until the ONE fight comes in tonight.

As Ferrell has taught us, on a trip there are no "problems", just unexpected situations. So, we decided to use the day enjoying ourselves and forget that we were wearing the same clothes we put on Sunday afternoon. We met the cutest young lady at the "Welcome" desk. Her name was Keltie (how perfect for a Scottish-heritage island!) She had shoulder-length neatly braided hair and looked for the world like Anne of Green Gables herself. She offered excellent suggestions about how we might spend the day while waiting for the Delta agent to arrive tonight. We thanked her, jumped in our sightseeing vehicle and were off for the day.

Before leaving Charlottetown we did make a stop at Wal Mart for a few items we deemed as absolutely necessary, and then headed out on the coastal drive around the central part of the island...about 130-mile drive. It was absolutely georgeous! I have included photos of the Blockhouse Lighthouse at Rocky Point, a view of Victoria By the Sea (where we had lunch), several lovely views, and some of the red cliffs in the area of Cavendish. Those of you who are Anne of Green Gables fans will remember those from the movie.

We are back at the motel, but will leave about 10 PM to meet the one plane that might have our bags on it. I will report the success or failure of that venture tomorrow.

Our day was perfect, and we hope yours was, also. We are having fun and enjoying ourselves, with or without suitcases. Who needs make-up on vacation anyway?

Prince Edward Island, but...

Time for another chapter in the “mystery tour”. We spent most of the morning trying to locate a place to stay and a rental vehicle on Prince Edward Island. As it turns out, that is not as easy as it sounds.

With Olen on one cell phone and one laptop, and me on the other cell phone with the other laptop, we contacted motels and car rentals in various parts of Prince Edward Island. I finally found a motel in Charlottetown…definitely not a four-star facility. Not sure there are any stars involved, but they did have a vacancy for tonight.

Meanwhile, Olen called all the major car-rental agencies he could find, and absolutely everything was booked. However, my clever husband contacted “Rent-a-Wreck” (I’m very serious about this, so don’t laugh!). The proprietor of that booming business had one vehicle left. So, we rented it. As of this date he is holding a 1999 pickup truck for our use, starting tomorrow. Now get this picture: Because of the airline difficulties we had yesterday, we are flying FIRST CLASS into Charlottetown. From there we will go to a slightly below-average motel for the night and in the morning we will begin sightseeing using a truck from Rent-a-Wreck that was not even built in the current century.

About noon today we returned to the Detroit airport and went to claim our suitcases. Surprise! The suitcases were in Portland! Somehow the suitcases could get on a plane headed for Portland last night, but there was not room for us. At our request the bags were to be sent back to Detroit, and they were to be put on the next plane to Charlottetown…the same one we were to be on!

Nice plan, but of course it did not work. Once we got to Charlottetown the suitcases were elsewhere. Not to worry. We got another “overnight bag” from the Delta agent in Charlottetown, who also paid our taxi fare from the airport to the hotel. However, now we have new “two-uses” toothbrushes and two more tee shirts, so I guess we are good for one more night.

All that having been said, we are having a great time, laughing a lot because each time we try to make some change in reservations, etc. we are required to re-tell the entire story, and with each event the story gets less and less believable.

As for the photos above...Now you have proof that we are actually on Prince Edward Island...waiting for our suticases. The other photo is of the airport in Detroit where we spent quality time today. It has a great fountain and bright red tram.

The great mystery vacation

As I stated in a prior post, this trip is 'way out of my comfort zone. We are flying by the seat of our pants, except for the plane reservation and the first night's lodging. That was the plan. However, the only things that were pre-planned have now changed...drastically. If you know me very well, you had better sit down to continue reading.

Our plane out of Huntsville was delayed 30 minutes. No problem, except the connecting flight left Detroit a few minutes early. Something about fog on the east coast and timing. Two helpful young people struggled for quite a while to get us to Portland. No luck. Bangor? No luck. We told them we were on vacation and were flexible. Then they tried about a dozen cities in the northeast. All were booked. No flights anywhere near where we had planned to be until Tuesday. Finally, in desperation, they asked if we had passports with us. We did!

I jokingly asked if we could go to Charlottetown on PEI(We had priced tickets from Huntsville to PEI for this very trip, but they were over twice as expensive as the tickets to Portland.) Could they send us to Charlottetown? The answer was "yes"! To make a long story short, we are spending the night in Detroit (at the airline's expense), have food vouchers for three meals tomorrow and will fly out tomorrow evening to Charlottetown, PEI. Incidentally, they booked us first class to Charlottetown. I have never flown first class before, and Olen has assured me I should not get used to it.

Keep in mind that we have no reservations in Charlottetown, and no rental car. We will face those hurdles tomorrow...but we are going to Prince Edward Island!

We went to claim our suitcases after all the changes in plans, and the nice man at that desk told us that our suitcases had been taken to a warehouse along with 25,000 others (bad night for airline connections) and he could get them for us, but it might take 2-3 hours. We decided we could do without them for one night. He gave us overnight kits which included (in his words)"a few items, a tee shirt to sleep in, and a toothbrush good for about two brushings."

So, here we are on the first night of our free-form vacation, spending the night in Detroit, sleeping in our new tee shirts, and carefully brushing our teeth only twice between now and time to check out tomorrow!

You might want to stay tuned for the adventures ahead. Tonight, Detroit. Tomorrow night, Prince Edward Island and possibly my very own toothbrush.

Where did we put those suitcases?

When we found it necessary to cancel our trip to Egypt earlier this year, we got credit for our plane tickets to New York City, where we had plans to join the others in the tour group. We realized a few days ago that the credit for those tickets was about to expire, so we quickly booked flights to get our value out of the pre-purchased tickets. We ended up with tickets from Huntsville to Portland, Maine. (That is our story, and we are sticking to it!)

Because this opportunity came up so suddenly, we have no plans to speak of. We have the plane tickets, a room reservation for the first night, a rental car, and from there on the plan is to play the rest of the trip by ear. This should be interesting, since we usually have plans and reservations. This is the first time Olen and I have thought we could both get away at the same time since his Dad got so sick in January.

We are scheduled to leave late, and arrive in Portland even later. I hope to write posts and send photos through this blog, so if you want to travel along with us on the “trip with no plans”, stay connected. I am basically a “Plan and Schedule” person, so this will take me ’way out of my comfort zone. It should be interesting.

A brief, but memorable, "journey"

It has been a long time since I wrote any posts for my blog. Several of you check periodically, and even Ferrell http://ferrelljenkins.wordpress.com/ says I need to “jumpstart” my blog. However, my blog is a travel blog…hence “journeys” with Jane, and Jane has not been on a journey for quite a while. Hopefully, that is about to change!

Beginning next Sunday evening (August 2), Olen and I plan to fly to Maine for a few days exploring that area, and then in September I plan to travel to Switzerland, Austria and Italy...but more on those "journeys" later.

Ordinarily, I would not refer to an overnight trip as a “journey”, but this one is different. Several years ago we heard of some sort of Biblical museum that was being constructed in LaGrange Georgia, but we decided to wait a while and let it get established before exploring what was there to see.

Recently David Padfield has been there and has written several excellent comments and posted photos on Ferrell’s blog. That was all the encouragement we needed, so we scheduled an overnight trip to see the Explorations in Antiquity Center exhibit. http://www.explorationsinantiquity.net/index.htm. We did not go alone. Oh, no! It is so much fun to travel to exciting places with people you love, especially when those people are grandchildren. Young children are often the excuse we adults need in order to do things we really wanted to do in the first place!

So, on Monday afternoon (July 27) we left Athens with two of our children, their spouses, and nine of our ten grandchildren. (#10 was just too young to enjoy this outing, so she and her parents did not accompany us on this trip. What that obviously means is that in a few years we will have to do it all again! I don't see a problem with that at all!)

The experience was much more than we had even hoped for! It was a long (4 ½ hour) drive over there, included an overnight stay, and long drive back, but worth all the time involved. The exhibit itself is a bargain, and extremely educational for both adults and children. We are ready to go back whenever we have the opportunity. We are thankful for the safety during our travels on this brief “journey” and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the Bible or history of that era.

The children pose on the roof of a Bible house.

Our guide, Mr. Pinto, explained about how grapes are grown and how the juice was extracted in Bible times.

Samuel, Jacob and Kara demonstrate how the olive press works. Lacey Beth and Maggie watch the process.

Inside the shepherds' tent Jacob, Elizabeth Ann, Sabrina, Maggie and Emily make shepherds' bread.

No Biblical museum would be complete without an actual-size tomb with a rolling stone. We were able to walk through the tomb.

The best part was the archaeological dig. We went to prepared areas and were instructed on archaeological techniques. Then we dug and sifted through our diggings to locate artifacts (some real and some replicas) which we would learn about later. Sabrina, Jacob and Emily sift their buckets of sand in this photo.

Bailey discovered a pottery shard where he was digging.

Elizabeth Ann found a large piece slag from copper smelting where she was digging. Nice, find!

We were honored that Dr. Fleming took time to tell us about the artifacts we had discovered on our dig, and relate them to different periods of history.

A "dig" is hard work! So much digging, lifting, sifting, studying! Kara, Jacob and Maggie sift their findings. Bailey and others dig in the background.

The area for our dig was divided into squares with string. Each artifact had to be put is a special bucket for items found in that area. Here we see Samuel, Bailey, Emily and Jacob in the front; Elizabeth Ann, Sabrina (standing), Lacey Beth and Kara in the background.

Emily

There was so much to do that we were not able to do all of it in the time we had. They offer a Bible meal, and have a wonderful gift shop. Plus, there are photo opportunities for Bible class teachers at every turn. It was a brief "journey", but one we highly recommend.

Family first

We have looked forward to our exciting trip to Egypt for a long time, but now that it is scheduled for two days from now we are finding that it will be necessary to cancel our plans.

Over the past several weeks Olen's dad (Eugene) has developed health issues we have been dealing with through various doctors. In the process of this they hospitalized him and after running many tests they located several issues we needed to deal with. They discovered a heart valve that was not working properly and which had to be surgically replaced. Prior to the scheduled surgery they did a heart catheterization and found a heart artery was almost completely blocked. The situation in that artery could have resulted in a fatal heart attack. Therefore open heart surgery was scheduled to correct both major issues. (In a few days he will probably also have a pacemaker implanted, but the doctor preferred not to do that at this time.)

He was in surgery five hours or more, but he did very well and both repairs were successful, a fact we are very thankful for. We are also thankful for the many calls, visits and especially the prayers.

However, our trip to Egypt must be cancelled. We are needed to help with Pap's care and drive Olen's mom back and forth to the hospital for visiting sessions. Whenever he is dismissed to go home he will need our help there, and his mom will need assistance.

So, although we are extremely disappointed about having to miss the trip, we are thankful that these problems have been corrected and an 84-year-old preacher has been granted extra time to continue his work for the Lord. We will miss being with all of you who are going on the trip, but perhaps we can follow through with these plans at another time. In the meantime, those of you who are going, please enjoy it double-measure for us.

The blog? Check out http://scenewithsharon.blogspot.com/. Some of you may remember Sharon... (she's the "cutie" seated among the flowers in Pergamum that I photographed for my blog on the "Steps of Paul and John"). Sharon has plans to blog this trip on a daily basis, and I am sure there are others. If anyone else plans to do this, just send me the address for your blog and I will list it here. This time Olen and I will enjoy the trip vicariously through the blogs of others.


To all of you who are actually making the trip: have a wonderful time, and a safe trip. To the readers who were going to travel with me vicariously, tune in to Sharon's thoughts through her blog. I am sure you will NOT be disappointed. She is an outstanding photographer.


So, until I actually go on another journey (September...Italy!), God bless!

Getting Ready for Another Journey!

We woke up this morning to a brand new year! Who knows what adventures lie ahead? We do have plans, and one of our plans includes a trip to Egypt! We have been so busy lately that we have not had time to dwell of the excitement ahead of us, but two weeks from tomorrow we should be on a plane heading non-stop from JFK in New York to Cairo in Egypt!

We made a trip to Egypt in 2005. We loved it, and there is so much to see and experience there that we wanted to go back. This trip includes a bus tour and also a cruise for several days on the Nile River. We are planning a trip-extension this time. We plan to stay three days longer than the group and go to the Sinai peninsula...and possibly climb Mt. Sinai. That sounds very exciting, so we are counting the days.

So, if you keep up with the blog and are interested in joining us for another "journey", we will try to keep you posted on our activities by posting words and photos. As always, I do not know what internet capabilities will be available, so there may be some days I will not be able to post. My blog is for fun, so you may see photos of your friends who will be on the tour with us. If you want to follow a more scholarly blog, log on to http://ferrelljenkins.wordpress.com.

That is the plan. Right now I need to begin to locate items to be packed and get the passport out of the lockbox! It is getting exciting!