A Mountain Wedding

We arrived in Georgia to attend the wedding of Erin and Mike.  Erin is the daughter of Al's niece Beth. 

A sign at at rest stop in Georgia.

A view of Dahlonega, Georgia.  How did you say you pronounce that?  Dah-LON-ega seems to be the correct or local way of saying it.  Probably open to interpretation.

Every town in the Mid to Deep South has a court house surrounded by stores and shops.  This one for Lumpkin County was built in 1836 and now is a museum.  Apparently there was gold in these hills for the word "gold" appears often in markers around town.

The ruins are of a school dormitory built by a niece of Andrew Carnegie along with a home which still stands apparently.  In 1928, the school and dormitory burned, leaving the beautiful stone foundations and chimneys as testament to a bygone era.
 History taken from the local website.  See http://www.kellumvalleyfarm.com/history/

Today it is a popular site for destination weddings.

 A view from the ruins.

The site and the musician is rehearsing.

The program was printed as a fan in expectation of very hot weather in late August.

Here are some folks trying out the fans.  Fortunately the temperatures were moderate and the rain that fell at lower elevations did not reach the event.

 This was the bus that could "not climb the hill to our motel" and we would have had to drive to another motel.  But in the end we drove ourselves to the event.

Really good h'orderves served.

The wedding party.

A toast to the bride and groom.

Hendersonville, NC

We went to Hendersonville, NC, to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of Mark and Jean.  Mark is the brother of Sue and we enjoyed the time there.

Here is the happy couple at a dinner at the Hubba Hubba barbeque joint in Flat Rock, NC, near Hendersonville. 

Here is the place for good barbeque.

The family gathers.

Jean receiving a special gift.  Ezra in front sees something really interesting.

Here is the whole gang doing the celebration.

The "green" is taking over the property where Mark and Jean live.

Altenburg, MO

Hamilton, Missouri and Missouri Star Quilters

On our way to the family reunion we had to stop in Hamilton, Missouri. This is the new center of attraction for many quilters currently. As we announced the destination of our trip, many women in Minnesota said "you must stop at Missouri Star Quilters in Hamilton".

So here is our model, Susan, showing off her trophy for the visit.

This is downtown Hamilton. Buildings like these were built all over the Midwest in the 1880s and 1890s. Many downtown areas have fallen into disrepair.

On this mural we can see the bragging points about Hamilton. It is the self proclaimed Quilt Town, USA and is the birthplace of JC Penney.

  Across the street we see similar buildings with a huge quilt mural. Most of the buildings on this street are owned by the proprietor of Missouri Star Quilters.

This is the inside of the original Penney's store. Each shop on the street has a different theme.

 What a bargain!

What do guys do when wives are shopping?  Here you see Mans-Land with the chairs, TVs and all kinds of relaxing methods.

 Here is Ariel with perhaps a dream of success. 

Look this up for a great story:
http://www.npr.org/2015/05/21/408452759/one-family-revitalizes-a-small-town-with-yes-quilts

The Tacoma Glass Museum

We visited the Glass Museum in downtown Tacoma.

The location of the Glass Museum is in an old manufacturing area with this building used for milling and now converted to lofts with a newer section in the back.  

This is is a view of the glass museum and this serves as a chimney for the "Hot Zone" where glass blowing demonstrations are given.

The glass blowing demonstration area.

Drawing glass from the furnace.  As a result of watching this demonstration, Al has signed up for a class in glass blowing near his home in Minnesota.

Samples of glass work by various artists done from the earliest years of the 20th century until present.

Examples of what can be done by artisans.  

A necklace of glass and gold.

Al will have to work many years to approach this level of craftsmanship.

A detail and the complete work of art.

Bremerton Naval Shipyard

We went to Bremerton for our "Naval" visit to the Seattle area.  

We visited the Navy Museum which has free admittance.

We found a hat in the store that commemorates the carrier that Al served on from 1955 to 1957.  Al had just graduated from the 26 week Navy "A" school for Electronics Technicians when he went aboard for recommissioning after a complete work-over in a shipyard in San Francisco. 

They had a display of the USS Nimitz with lots of photos.  This is pretty much what he looked like as he joined ship's company as a nineteen year old. By comparison, we had about 2500 Sailors on board and no females.

This is a generous display of a breakfast with eggs and pancakes.  We would have wished for such a meal.

When Sue and Al arrive at a restaurant with a full lobby and a 20 minute wait, Al votes for leaving for another venue.  Here is an example of why Al hates lines for in addition to the chow line wait, we waited for pay, sickbay attendance and other events.  We did not however feel that our time to eat was limited to any time but what we needed to rest and have a bit of a chat with shipmates.

After his time in the Navy, Al received and engineering degree from the University of Illinois.  At that time we used slide rules for calculation but he never saw a calculator like this one.

The USS Yorktown was sunk at the Battle of Midway.   Initially to have been named Bon Homme Richard, she was renamed Yorktown while under construction to commemorate USS Yorktown (CV-5), lost at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. [And to confuse the Japanese Naval Fleet] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Yorktown_(CV-10)

The USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA 31) was built in 1944 and fought in three wars, WW2, Korea and Vietnam. 

Al was transferred to the USS Pascagoula (PCE 874) in New Orleans in 1957 and served aboard until 1958 when he was released from active duty.  Perhaps the Bon Homme Richard was two thirds the length of the Nimitz shown here but it was quite a change to serve aboard a ship of 180 feet in length. 

Olympic National Park

We waited a day to go up to Hurricane Ridge, a driving trip of fifteen miles or so to an elevation of 5242 feet.  From Port Angeles, the day before was so cloudy we could see nothing of the peaks nearby.  

 So we began our journey up to the ridge.  It was a twisting and curving road but wide and well maintained. In the model above taken at the visitors center our road cam be made out as the one that curves left around the mountain. 

We parked at the visitor's center and here is a shout out to Alexis who we met and chatted with for a while.

Sue took this iPhoto near the visitor's center.

Clouds began to appear as we went down the road.

We did make it to the Lavender Festival.

Some talented musicians doing bluegrass written by the woman herself.

Everything about the lavender plant that both grows wild and is cultivated in this area. 

What do you think Sue is doing?  We also bought two plants for Anna's front yard, purchasing the the type that Anna had commented on.  After showing the vendor the lavender photo taken in Coupeville a few days before, he identified it immediately and we hope they are as beautiful for Anna and the photo.