Tag: Family Trips (Page 2 of 6)

St Louis History Museum and Science Center

May 9, 2012 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

The St. Louis History Museum is about

exactly that.. St. Louis History.

I thought that was kinda narcissistic to

have a museum that was only about your city..

until I realized how much history they had to tell.

The city was founded in 1764; making it almost 250 yrs. old.

The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair had a huge impact

on the city and honestly the world, too.

Over 60 nations held exhibits there.

World’s fair exhibit room.

The Fair was held to celebrate the centennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.

The History Museum, Art Museum and
many other buildings were built for the Fair.

Native American Indians and Peoples from other

newly aquired U.S. territories were invited to join in the displays.

The museum had expanded a great deal since we had last visited.

Loved this pink kitchen. It reminded me of our house in San Antonio.

What is it about cars that is so appealing?

These chairs from the Cardinals old stadium could be
the very seats that we sat in last time we attended a game.

They are now a museum piece. Does that make us old?

Congrats to the Cardinals for winning the World Series last year.

Things made in St. Louis.

I didn’t get a photo of one of my favorite exhibits,

a lunch counter displaying the “sit ins” of civil rights movement.

I enjoyed the voice recordings they had of some of the participants

who told of their experience and why they felt compelled
to join the quiet protest. So interesting.. they were allowed
to shop in the store just not eat there.

Seeing this replica in the museum brought on a little déjà vu.

We’d just seen the real one in D.C. a couple of weeks earlier.

The Science Center was one of the kids’

favorite places to go when we lived there.

We used to spend hours at a time there.

Playing with all the exhibits.. including this tornado exhibit.

🙂

They had a bunch of new exhibits..

I thought it was funny to see my ipod photo in this display case.

This time we saw the whole Science Center in less than an hour. 🙁

Makes you miss having little kids.

Jenny

St. Louis Art and History Museums

May 9, 2012 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

Mike and I have different ideas of how vacations should be spent.

I like to plan a head; know what we are going to do;

maps and schedules in hand.

Mike likes to “be lazy and do nothing.”

I don’t know what that means.

I think it means that he wants to sit around

playing on his ipod or lap top or watching the

news in the hotel room until he is bored,

then ask me what I want to do.

Several times it’s turned into hours of driving

looking for a place to eat.. that isn’t there anymore.

We obviously didn’t starve this trip.

James got the Smokehouse Burger at Smokey Bones.

So this trip we tried to carefully balance maps, schedules,

being lazy and knowing where we were going to eat.

I did my homework so I’d know what

I wanted to do.. and not be lost thinking he’d planned it all.

I did some Google research on St. Louis attractions.

After living there for 4 years, you’d think we’d know,

but the kids were really little then and we didn’t have Google

(How’d we live with out Google? I’ll never know.),

so we mostly did whatever was free and kid friendly..

the Zoo, the Science Center..

In my search, I found the Fitz Bottling company

Where you can eat lunch and watch them bottle root beer.

The food was great. Root beer had corn in it.

We called a head to find out if they were bottling that day.

They were.. we expected a tour.. but got a window view.

All in all an enjoyable experience.

The St. Louis Art and History Museum are free..

thanks to St. Louis city taxes.

This statue of St. Louis was given to the city by France.

We had no idea who St. Louis was, so James looked him up for us.

He was a very passionate French king in the 1200’s who helped the Crusaders.

Several cities around the world are named for him.

Judith and Holofernes by Giorgio Vasari

We wondered why there hasn’t been a movie

made about Judith.. a very thrilling story.

The Account Keeper by Nicolaes Maes

I am falling in love with Dutch artist this year.

Can’t go wrong with birds and my favorite color.

Beautiful.

Some modern art.. I actually really liked…

inspired by the opening of the Berlin wall.

I liked this painting of the Crucifixion because it’s so active.

by Tiepolo

And of course this one by Millet

The Knitting Lesson

The art museum was much bigger than I remembered.

I think we only saw 3 rooms the one time we went before.

They are in the process of making it twice as big.

The basement rooms were lots of fun.

Love,

Jenny

St. Louis Trip

May 9, 2012 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

We recently discovered that it is only a 6 hr. drive to St. Louis.

What a nice surprise and I so hope to see more of my friends there.

We stopped for lunch in Kentucky at Kentucky Fried Chicken. 🙂

And made it to the last house we ever rented in Lebanon by late afternoon.

Mike thought it looked smaller and bluer.. it looked just the same to me..

except it has a nice white vinyl fence now and the apple trees are huge.

The towns around had grown up tremendously.

Last time we got gas in this area we paid 78 cents a gallon.

1998 – no kidding.

This house in O’Fallon was the very first house we ever bought.

1100 sq. ft. for $50,000 now worth over $100,000.

I was actually happily surprised at how both houses were holding up.

With rain in the forecast, we planned as many

outdoor activities our first day there.

We went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens for the first time.

Well worth the trip. Would like to go back again.

I got a ton of awesome pictures…

If you don’t want to see them all, skip to my next post.

Amaryllis

My alums with some gorgeous tulips.

Iris

Tons of Azaleas .. we liked the evergreen ones the best.

Did you know pinecones grow all in a row like this?

James by the Japanese Garden

I want one of these.

Bridge over the lake.

It was sunny and cool.. beautiful.

Lots of little birds hopping around.

On to the Art Museum.

Love,

Jenny

Judi and Chloe

May 4, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

Judi and Chloe asked me to go with them for a photo shoot at the play ground ( a first).

Chloe is Judi’s best friend from Spain. She is actually from here but has lived

in Spain as a missionary kid for 14 years.

Saved the best for last. A double backhand spring in the field.

Josh’s Birthday

March 2, 2011 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

The weather here the last couple of weeks has been crazy;
one day warm the next rainy then the next windy and cold.

Josh loves the out doors and we thought it would be nice
to go on a hike with him for his birthday, but not in the rain or cold.
We thought of a place where the weather is always perfect: a near by cave. 🙂

We’ve driven by Cathedral Caverns State Park many times on the way to Chattanooga
and other cities east of us, but had no idea what a treasure we had so close by.

It turns out that it is the 3rd largest cave in the US

and has the largest cave opening in the world.

Most of the time I have an attitude of “You’ve seen one cave you’ve seen them all.”
I think because I was spoiled living near Carlsbad Caverns when I was young
and they are so beautiful that others have a hard time comparing.

But there was something really special about this cave.

The great room with the 45′ high ceilings amazed me.

The atmosphere was so nice, the temperature stays between

58 and 61 degrease year round, and in places you could feel a breeze.

I so see why when Jay Gurley’s wife first saw it in the 50’s

that she thought it looked like a “cathedral.”

A much more fitting name than “Bat Cave.”

One of the coolest parts for me was seeing Goliath, the largest cave column

in the world at 43′ tall and 128′ high, and learning about how

the earthquake of 1912 which caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards

for three weeks had also caused this huge crack.

Judi with her friend Kylie. Joel and Josh and another friend, Nick, looking at Goliath.

Another thing that added to the atmosphere was the Mystery River that ran through it.

I love the sound of flowing water and it makes the humidity

in the cave perfect (I love high humidity).

But maybe not so perfect for the weddings they hold there.

Jay Gurley built this bridge over it for his jeep.

In heavy rains the river floods up to 32′ above this point,

and his bridge is still standing. Crazy right?

One last really cool thing about this cave is that you’ve probably seen it before..
in Disney’s movie “Tom and Huck.” Now I want to see the movie again..
and it’d sure be nice if they sold season passes to the cave.

Jenny

On to the Choo Choo

September 6, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

From the Aquarium we caught the free, electric, city bus to the Chattanooga Choo Choo.

Waiting for the bus.

The actual Chattanooga Choo Choo.

They’ve turned the train station into a hotel with a restaurant and gift shops.

It’s very beautiful.

It was built in 1909.

Look at the chandler.

Judi and I decided to check out the bathroom. Wow!

When you stay the night, you actually stay in a train car that looks like this:

Judi’s still not feeling photogenic.

I always think her hair looks nice.

Doesn’t Mike look comfortable.

They have a couple different restaurants.

This one looked especially expensive.

Don’t you want to visit Chattanooga now? I hear they have a zoo, too.

Traveling through Chattanooga Part 1: The Aquarium

September 6, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

We went home through Chattanooga so that we could

eat at Smokey Bones and see the TN Aquarium again.

We have season passes and wanted to see it again while we could.

Down stairs is my favorite part.. the sea horses.

I took that picture.. can you believe it??

After going down to see the sea horses you ride 4 flights up an escalator and work your way back down.

Good think my mom never dropped me down an escalator and I am not afraid of them.

I used the sports feature on my camera and actually got a photo of this little guy.
He was fast. I got lots of pictures of the water before I actually caught him.

The divers were in the tanks feeding the sting rays.

Loved the jealous, giant sea turtle.

Doesn’t James look like he’s having a nice time?

Joel, too. Right?

Judi’s wearing my hoodie.

Not because it’s cold.

Or so cute.

but..

I am guessing because..

She’s having a bad hair day??

I tried to sneak a picture.. but my camera has this auto focus that

shines a red light on you.. and she saw it EVERY time.

If only she could be as fast as these butterflies.. then they’d be blurry, too.

On the last floor of the second aquarium building are several kinds of jelly fish.

These are upside down jelly fish. They stand on their heads at the bottom of the ocean.

They also have a whole section of jelly fish art. You can actually buy one similar to these.

I loved them but couldn’t think where to put one in my house.

James took this picture for us.

Got a picture of a river boat from the top floor.

Outside the aquarium a country band played under the bridge.

I couldn’t pass up getting a picture of the dalmatian that rides the carriage.

Most of the carriage drivers that we saw that day were women.

Chattanooga is really a pretty town.

More to come..

Helen, Georgia

September 6, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 0 Comments

I wanted to go to Helen was because I heard that it was a really

cute “Alpine” town, and I especially like tubing.

It lived up to it’s reputation.. flowers.. ton’s of shops.. and great tubing.

The Chattahoochee River runs right though the town.

Guess I should be glad they stood still for the photo below.

Smiling is just too much to ask.

I got half a smile.

Exploring the shops was fun.

See the mural painted on the wall?

Great flowers.

Some people tubing and playing in the river.

Lots of German wares.

I hear that it looks it’s best at Christmas.

I wasn’t brave enough to take my camera tubing.

We all had a good time. The river and the weather was perfect.

There were plenty of boulders to keep us busy navigating the river.

Joel had to pick up his tube and walk over to the wider part of the river once.

He used his flip flops to paddle. Judi successfully dumped James out of his tube once.

I tethered my tube to Mike’s and we kept getting hung up on opposite sides of the boulders..

Great fun. Can’t wait till we can do it again.

Afterwards we decided to drive across the mountains to Hiawassee, GA.

Driving over the mountains was pretty scary, but we were glad we did.

The town was beautiful. Lake Chatuge sat in the middle of it.

It was so beautiful. We were only a few miles from North Carolina but didn’t realize it at the time.

Judi is collecting states that she’s driven in. 7 so far.

They had a really nice family fun center there.

It had putt putt, laser tag, batting cages, go carts and all kinds of video games.

You paid by the hour. We had a great time.

Camping Part 2

September 6, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 1 Comment

Once I got us across town into the mountains Joel took a turn driving.

Isn’t it a beautiful drive?

We purposely drove through Rome, GA so we could eat at Fuddruckers. Yumm.

Then it was Judi’s turn to drive.

Everyone in the back asked me not to let her drive again.

I am not sure why. We did get stuck behind an old truck

for quite a while that was really slow around the mountains.

We stayed at Yonah Mountain camp ground. First thing we set up the tent.

And since I was into documenting everything.. here’s the inside:

Joel and James slept in the middle.

With Judi on one end and us on the other.

In TX we’d take several tents.. but around here they only allow you to have one.

We’re on our 3rd or 4th air mattress. Seems like they are always getting holes in them,

but it sure beats sleeping on the ground. Judi wanted to know where her air mattress was.

I’ll have to remember to pack her one next time.

Hanging out.

We decided it was time to take a dip in the pool to cool off.

From the pool we could see the mountain.

It was pretty impressive. James thought for sure we’d planned to climb it.

All I was interested in was floating down river in a tube.

It threatened to rain on us.. thundered in the middle of the night..

but God answered our prayers and we stayed dry. 🙂

Camping Part 1: Packing the Van

September 6, 2010 / Jennifer Coleman / 2 Comments

Once upon a time, when we lived in Texas, we went camping quite often.

We had a full sized van and families from church who camped with us

and we had a wonderful time.. especially at Mo Ranch..

where I’d like my ashes spread one day far in the future after I’ve had many grand children.

Then we got a Kia and moved to FL, where “The mosquitoes will pick you up and carry you away.”

We only camped there 3 times. The first time was almost our last

thanks to the mosquitoes who lived in the near by swamp.

Our last camping trip it rained, and rained, and rained, and finally at 2 AM we

were going crazy from the little drips of water raining in our “weather proof” tent

and we packed up all our drenched stuff by flashlight and went home to sleep in our dry beds.

Now we live in Alabama the beautiful.. and it’s easy to find beautiful camping spots..

but my wonderful, dear, husband has become accustomed to the air conditioning

and we’ve both sworn never to camp in the rain again.. we are getting picky in our old age.

Ever since we moved here I’ve been dying to go tubing in Helen, GA.

The chance of rain diminished, so we decided to try camping again.

One of Mike’s dislikes about camping is all the packing and meal planing that’s involved.

This baffles me because I am the one that does it all and I never complain.

I think the family time we get is worth it.

One thing that has always helped make it easier is that I made this list years ago.

I always print off a new one and cross off stuff as I get it packed.

It has EVERYTHING on it.

I lists for staying in a cabin and visiting family, too.

You can tell that the one above was pretty old by some of the things on it like film

and a rod (for spankings). It used to have sippy cups, too.

I decided it was time to up date it again:

I was inspired by a photo blog talking about taking pictures of your packed car.. so here they are:

We got this luggage tail gate thingy at a neighbor’s garage sale for a

fraction of what it was worth.. it can cary bikes too.

It’s a life saver.. as you will see the inside of the car soon.

I tried to think of things that were weather and dirt resistant to put out on it.

I wrapped our camp chairs in the foam mats the kids sleep on

and then our box of cereal and chips out there, too.

I tie it down SUPER well with a bungee net and close line.

We’ve used it on several trips and moves

and no one has ever stolen anything off of it. Thank you, Jesus.

Here’s the back of the car.. full to the brim. I put the kids’ sleeping bags in pillow cases this time.

They are pretty old and don’t have the strings that keep them rolled up any more.

We took out the seat behind the passenger seat because it’s broken and to make more room.

Josh had class and couldn’t come with us. 🙁

Flash lights, more lights, extension cord for the lights, hammer and mallet for the tent stakes.

The red Dirt Devil vacuum is for blowing up our air mattress.

Sun Chips from Costco, a grill, and in the blue tub more food, paper towels, plates, lighters and stuff.

I like to hang my clothes. Judi’s put in her back pack and purse so far.

Here are my lovely knees, my bag of books,

my backpack has my blow dryer and other stuff for when we hit the showers, and my purse.

Not much room left for feet.

Joel’s ready to go. He actually has the most room in the car when Josh’s seat is out.

James is sitting up his ipod charger.

It’s covered in electrical tape because he did something to modify it.

Mike’s setting up the Nuvi. I get the first driving shift.

Judi’s in and ready to go.. she and Joel are having gogurt and grape juice for breakfast.

And we are off..

🙂