Our AWESOME vacation!

It dawned on me today that the word "awesome" is overused, and has lost some of its meaning. Dictionarydotcom defines it as "inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear." In my world, TV shows and football game scores (even my beloved Michigan!) do not meet that definition. Once in awhile an extremely talented performer can inspire such feelings, but mostly I am inspired by God's natural world and by people doing profound things.

We recently returned from our vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, where we shared a beach house with my older son Matt and his family. I have been savoring the events of those days, and have put them in some perspective that I want to share, most especially the experiences I had that I can say were truly awesome...

The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides.

          ~Jules Verne 

Living in central Indiana, the largest body of water is a local reservoir. We have to travel over 3 hours to see Lake Michigan. Despite having seen it many times, I never fail to be awestruck by the ocean. The tides, the power of the waves, the beauty of it get me every time. Here is the first view we had of it when we headed to the beach for the first time:

Our fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night."
          ~Henry Beston, The Outermost House - 1933

The Outer Banks are pretty isolated from the rest of civilization. There are a couple towns, but most of this area is a National Wildlife Preserve with no buildings or lights. That means that on a clear night, you can see stars normally unseen. The skies open up to a vastness that exceeds even the ocean. Lanny and I stopped one evening on our way home from an ice cream run and just got out of the car and looked up. We saw the Milky Way and dozens of constellations. We saw several shooting stars. We saw satellites blinking by overhead. We stood for what seemed like forever under the canopy of all this and just stopped and looked. We were awestruck.

Two things inspire me to awe -- the starry heavens above and the moral
universe within.
           ~Albert Einstein 

Spending time with my son and his family was such a joy. The time was way more relaxed and unrushed than usual. We had a chance to not only interact with them as a family and individually, but to share in day-to-day vacation events. One of these was a swimming lesson in the backyard pool with Mom and Dad helping each of the boys. William, at 18 months, is one of those gung-ho kids who isn't afraid of much and who just charges ahead. He loves both the ocean and the pool and jumps into the pool with Mom or Dad without hesitation. His exuberance is a joy to behold, but also a little scary for the adults. We had to watch him like a hawk! Samuel, age almost 3, is totally different. He is thoughtful and tentative, and had to ease into new experiences over time and exposure. I could relate to this because it was exactly how his father was as a child. Sam was fearful in the pool, but he was also still 2 and had a big dose of "ME DO IT!" coursing through his veins. He was clearly wanting very much to just jump in, but his fearful side made him hesitant. Watching this little boy over time conquer his fear, listen and trust his parents that they would keep him safe and support him in the water, and finally watch him kicking and floating on his own almost brought me to tears.  How many people have I known who have conquered their own fears and moved forward to something wonderful? Maybe even me? To see a child of 2 doing it, knowing the internal struggle that was going on, was awe-inspiring indeed...

That's Will with Daddy and Sam with Mommy...

So, when I say we had an AWESOME vacation, this is what I will remember!!!


One last bit of awesomeness to share... sunrise on the Outer Banks....

I got those Back From Vacation Blues...

There is probably no more obnoxious class of citizen, taken end for end, than the returning vacationist.  
          ~Robert Benchley

     We just returned last night from a week long vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, where my son Matt and his family had rented a beach house. They were there for two weeks, and had entertained Amanda's father and brother the first week. As Matt told me, vacation for them is about reconnecting with family-- with each other and the kids, but it is also so much fun to connect with the rest of the family. What a wonderful attitude, and how much I appreciate that they wanted to include us!  And a week with the grandsons?? What could be better?

     It was a great week, filled with memories of the sights and sounds of the beach, of the Outer Banks and all that area has, of fabulous food and of the joys of being together in an unrushed setting with one of my boys and his family.  Both Lanny and I find ourselves feeling that bizarre "day after vacation" feeling today-- we are at loose ends with too much to do and no desire to do it. We are too used to being relaxed, that kicking it up a notch just doesn't feel right yet. And I find myself returning over and over to the photos I took to relive some of the wonderful moments. I took a lot of videos of the boys, thanks to my new "smart" phone, but there were plenty of still photos too. Rather than blab on and on about the great time we had, I am gong to just include some of our photos for your enjoyment. And one thing-- I highly recommend the Outer Banks as a vacation destination, especially after the peak tourist season ends. The beaches were pristinely clean, the weather was perfect and there were no crowds. Just don't forget the sunscreen!!

Getting there took us through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park!

We stopped in Charlotte to stay with my sister and her husband. Had a wonderful dinner with them and my niece and her husband. Here is Andi serving up some of the Family Recipe... 

The first view of the Outer Banks as we drove across the causeway at Manteo. The water is so blue!

No trip to the Outer Banks is complete without a visit to the Hatteras Lighthouse!

or a trip on the ferry to Ocracoke Island...

where the oldest lighthouse in the US lives!

We also took a day trip to Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills, where Wilbur and Orville Wright flew that first plane!

The first monument marks where Orville took off. He  only flew as far as the second. By the end of the day he had flown all the way to the farthest monument that is that tiny white dot against the tree line.

But most of all there was the beach... and time was spent every day here. This is Sam looking for sea shells.

This is Will with his mommy and daddy learning to enjoy the ocean waves... he loved it!

Both boys playing in the sand

Sam

Will

Vacation means getting to do stuff like have popsicles for breakfast...

and swimming in the beach house pool with Mommy and Daddy

and playing "nice" with each other and some new toys bought just for vacation!

Grandma and Grandpa got up early to watch the sun rise... spectacular!

 

No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one.  
          ~Elbert Hubbard

Unexpected treasures!

Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.

          ~Carl Sandburg

This garden, shown here in May, with acorn squash, cantaloup and cucumbers...

was hit hard by the draught! (the garden is in the background to the right of the tree)

     This summer has been a very difficult one for this novice gardener. The draught we have experienced in central Indiana is a record breaker, with literally no rain for a period of over 6 weeks and more 90+ degree days than ever recorded. There was a period of time when we broke 100 for days on end.  I had planted 3 raised beds of vegetables in the back yarn, planting tomatoes in one, hot and green peppers in another, and the third had one acorn squash, one cantaloup and one cucumber plant in it. As the draught wore on, I spent every morning hauling water out to the garden. At first I included the flowers too, but over time realized that our well was also suffering, and setting a difficult priority, I stopped watering the flowers and focused on the vegetables. 

     As a result of this difficult growing environment, our crop of tomatoes has been almost nonexistent. Of the five plants, we've had maybe 5 tomatoes total. The green peppers fared a little better, but they were small and not too many of them. The hot peppers seemed to enjoy the heat better, we've had more than we could eat. The acorn squash delivered up one very small squash which we ate and enjoyed, and then it dried up and literally broke off at the ground. The cantaloup plant never seemed to grow much at all, and despite lots of blooms, I gave up hope of any harvest. The cucumber plant has gone crazy though and we've had fresh cucumbers literally every day all summer. 

     Lanny has kept the bird feeders full all summer too, as there has been little for the birds to eat. He fills three feeders about twice a week, and we have had all manner of birds stop by for a meal. Birds are naturally messy eaters, scattering seeds all over the place. Under the feeder can become a huge mess!

     About mid July I noticed a very large weed growing directly under one of the feeders. It was so hot I didn't get out to pull it until it was about 2 1/2 feet tall, and when I went out I realized that this was no weed... it was a sunflower! I had tried to grow sunflowers with very limited success several years before, so when I saw the giant bloom coming I just couldn't pull it. I left it where it grew and watched as it grew a little more, flowered and then burst into seeds. Now the birds enjoy sitting on the edge of the big bloom and leaning over to pull fresh seeds from the center of the flower. 

 

     And likewise, on a visit to the vegetable garden last week I discovered a hidden treasure-- down in the foliage from what I thought was part of the cucumber vines, I found a cantaloup growing! When I leaned over to admire it, I reached in to touch it, and it broke off the vine. It looked like a regular cantaloup except it was only the size of a softball. I carried it in and showed it to Lanny. We let it sit on the counter for a couple days and it quickly ripened. We joked about our "personal sized" cantaloup. I cut it open and enjoyed what must be the juiciest, sweetest cantaloup I have ever tasted! 

 

     Both of these small little unexpected treasures have prompted a little thought this morning... How true it is that some of life's sweetest moments are unplanned. Moments of pure joy are often unexpected gifts to us-- some arrive because we sowed the seeds long ago and are reaping a harvest we'd forgotten about, others are gifts to us from God via his angels on earth-- in this case the birds who scattered the birdseed. 

     Take the time now to sow some seeds for unexpected joy later, and take the time to stop and enjoy the gifts God gives you each day. It will make life so much sweeter!!