A few more Florida trip pictures

I left off telling about our day with the Blue Angels. The following day, Thursday, we went with Alisha and Drew to Mobile Bay in Alabama, about an hour from Pensacola. There in the bay is Battleship Park, a unique military museum. We didn't go for the military emphasis, but for the history emphasis. Among the things the kids got to do was explore the inside and outside of the USS Alabama, a battleship from World War 2. They got to climb inside the massive 16" gun turrets and see the galley and even use the head (aka privy). Also at the park is the USS Drum, a submarine from the same era--touring that ship is not for the claustrophobic!

Perhaps the most special thing was for the kids to meet a World War 2 veteran. Glenn Frazier was in the museum store signing a book he had written. He was in the Philippines early in the war and was captured by the Japanese when the islands fell. He survived the infamous Bataan Death March, where many Americans (himself included) were beaten and many others brutally killed. His book, Hell's Guest, is about his 3 1/2 years in prison camps and how he eventually was able to forgive the Japanese for their treatment of him. [At one point, he was about to be beheaded like many others, but told the executioner that he would come back and--in a sense--"haunt him." For some reason the executioner relented. Frazier had never seen that happen before!] He now spends his time speaking to churches and schools about the past, and said he will continue to do so "until he croaks."

The kids with Glenn Frazier.

On board the USS Alabama.

Regretfully, we left Friday morning for home. The 6 days had gone so quickly. But this time we weren't making the drive in one shot. Sharon's grandmother lives in Black Mountain, NC, just east of Asheville. While she is in a retirement home, Sharon's cousin Dodi lives 5 minutes away and we stay with her when we are in the area. What a change in 9 hours from the heat of sunny Florida to the cool mountains of North Carolina!

Diagonally across the street from Dodi's house is Lake Tomahawk, with the "Seven Sisters" mountain range on the horizon. Each peak has a name.

One of Dodi's sons, Yonie, still lives at home and is a favorite of ours (and of course the kids)! Early Saturday morning we went over to the lake where the children enjoyed watching mother ducks with their ducklings. And yes, just like the story, one duckling got separated from mom and tried to hook up with another family-- and of course Mom #2 started a-pecking and a-fluttering!

Great-grandma and the kids. She will be 98 this August and is only just now starting to show signs of her memory coming and going. I'm not sure she knew who we were, but she had a great time and enjoyed our time together. Lydia played the piano for her and she clapped and smiled. She even wondered if Philip might be a violinist one day, as she was for over 80 years.

We left around noon, with about 9 hours of driving ahead of us. That part went well, and we got home about 11 that night. I guess this next picture sums it all up--vacations are fun, but you always pay for them later! (Our neighbor kindly came over Monday night and we spent about 2 hours mowing with his bagging mower. I had told him I needed to buy a baler, and I think we almost got about 4 bales worth out of our little lawn!)

As we were sitting here and entering these pictures, we talked about how quickly trips like this go and how quickly life gets back to "normal," as if we hadn't even gone. But there is a lesson here. I believe God wants us to enjoy incredibly special times in life, because he is good and wants to give us good things. Every good thing on this earth always comes to an end, but he gives them to us as glimmers of what heaven will be like. I think these feelings of euphoria and joy are given so that we can anticipate those same feelings (only stronger) in a place where those joys will not end as they always do here.



1 Peter 1:4, "to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you."