HALF-CENTURY EXPEDITION!

Fifty years ago, I embarked on an expedition, unlike any I had ever been on before, or would be again.  It was called childbirth, and it made me the mother of an 8 pound, 8 ounce little boy.  Although I had taken a course in college called "Child Development", I had no real life experience in infant/child care, as I had NEVER done any baby sitting.  However, a few weeks after my son (I will call him G for this blog post) was born, a Registered Nurse came to our home to visit, and give me some pointers.  She was the director of the nursery where I attended church, and she was also the wife of the physician who had delivered my son.  However, after my son was older, and I introduced him to this man as the physician who delivered him, the doctor humbly said, "All I did was catch him!"  I felt comfortable taking my son to the church nursery on Sundays, knowing the Registered Nurse would be there to supervise his care.  Also, there were several ladies in the church nursery who had worked there for decades, and were experts at taking care of babies.  I knew I could learn a lot from them, so I started volunteering in the church nursery on Sunday mornings, and it was very beneficial!  I am very thankful for the opportunity I had to take G to church, and was overjoyed when he made the decision to accept the fact that Jesus had taken the penalty for his sins, by being crucified on the cross.  His decision is assurance that we both will be reunited in heaven, after we die.  

 
I have enjoyed celebrating my son's birthday, from the very first one (shown in circular photo of collage), and on through the years, as he left home, and was living in locations around the country.  Whenever possible, I like to continue the tradition of using the red, tradition-laden,  "YOU ARE SPECIAL TODAY" plate, on such occasions!  These photos bring to mind a favorite verse I like to associate with a photograph of loved ones.  It says, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you."  Philippians 1:3

 I remember a "travel birthday celebration", when my husband and I picked G up at college, and we took a flight to Nevada, to celebrate in Las Vegas. We went to see the famous show, Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage, and stopped to have a photo made at the Harley Davidson Cafe. 

I actually have a thank you note from my son,  that I kept and framed, because it was the only time I have a letter from him, written in cursive!

This blog entry, is about a trip I made from Arkansas, to California, to celebrate my son's 50th birthday.  I flew out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, at sunrise, and started "puddle jumping" across the country, with stops in Denver, Colorado, and San Francisco, California. 

My son picked me up at the Redding airport, and we headed to Costco, to purchase the necessary supplies needed for a weekend of hosting several other family members,  who were also coming to celebrate his birthday.  I was quite hungry, so the first thing we did in Costco, was try out their famous bargain of a footlong hot dog, and beverage, for only $1.50!

My son (G), and his wife (S) were eager to show me the gift S had given G for his birthday, a Pelaton treadmill!  They already had the Pelaton bicycle, which I had tried out on a previous visit.

I use an "old fashioned" treadmill regularly, so I was eager to try out the Pelaton, as was my son's mother in law (J):

The four of us went on a day trip to explore northwest California, and stopped in the tiny town of Etna, to have lunch at a popular spot there, called Denny Bar (www.dennybarcompany.com)

G chose this area to explore because he wanted to see what the landscape looked like, in the area where dams across the Klamath River had been dismantled.  The photo below shows the large, empty reservoir, that used to be full of water that was impounded by the dam.  The body of water you can see flowing through the bottom of the photo is the now-free-flowing, Klamath River. 

Once back at their home, it was time for the always enjoyable mother-son "Show and Tell" update!  G showed me the ship models he as been painting---seems like an appropriate hobby, considering his last name!

I also saw the repair job he was completing on a small cedar chest my father had made. 

It was fun walking on their property with his wife (S), her daughter (K), and grandson (C).  And, or course, their dog, "Indiana Jones", enjoyed sniffing around the woods!

Thankfully, there was not a big snowstorm that impaired my travel, but there WAS enough leftover snow, to show C how to make a snowball, and instigate a snowball fight!

This photo shows S, and her mom (J), teaching C about their container garden, which actually had some green things growing in February! 

Since I like lettuce, C and I posed for a "Lettuce entertain you" photo!

Continuing the outdoor activities, C played in the dirt with his construction toys, then "Pappy G" let him sit on his lap for a photo on the tractor!  The "Pappy G" nickname is a nod to what G called his maternal grandfather---Pappy Joe.

Photo below shows C and his father, D, trying out a "Strider" for the first time.  This device uses the principle of "subtraction", to facilitate a desired outcome.  The goal is to get a youngster comfortable, just walking, with a two-wheeler between their legs, before they possibly become discouraged by trying to learn to pedal a two-wheeler.   Notice there are no pedals to master---the power of subtraction!  The publisher of the theory about the "benefits of subtraction", speculated our culture could have better outcomes in many areas, if we gave more consideration to "subtraction"!

Yippee!  A photo of my son on his fiftieth birthday, with the YOU ARE SPECIAL PLATE, while he enjoys his morning coffee, in a custom-made ceramic mug. 

No birthday celebration is complete without a cake, which K and D "imported" from Oregon.

 

We all got a laugh, whenever C swooped in to blow out the candles before Pappy G!

So now, my collage of birthday celebrations for G, spans from the age of one year to fifty years!

That little boy that was 19 inches long when he was born, is now LOTS taller than the mother who birthed him!

This wooden high chair has quite a history in G's family, and continues to be a good photo prop!

I was very thankful that D got the set up arranged, so we could get a group photo outside, during the short period of my visit, when there was not precipitation falling from the sky!  That beautiful red beard belongs to S's son, who also has a "C" name.  Could there be Vikings in his ancestry??

One of our indoor activities during my visit, was making bread, and S shows C a loaf just out of the oven, that is almost as big as he is!

I was very impressed with this bread machine, because it accidentally vibrated itself off the kitchen counter, and sustained a dent, and broken-off lid.  But amazingly, with the help of a bungee cord to fasten down the lid, it continued to work!  The incident gave a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Breaking bread together!"

One of the places everyone wanted to have a breakfast item from, was the Seven Suns coffee shop.  It was President's Weekend, meaning the town was overflowing with tourists, so we placed our orders by phone, then D and I went to pick up the yummy breakfast burritos.  Notice the quarried volcanic stone, and river rock, used to make this historic facade. 

 

The rain continued, so we treated G to an indoor game of bowling for his birthday, in the town with the worrisome sounding name of "Weed".  G's father once bowled a perfect 300 game in a tournament in Springfield, Missouri, but that was not to be the case for G on his birthday!

G took a video, of C's mom and dad showing him how to use the "dinosaur" slide, to give the bowling ball the necessary speed it would need to make it, to the end of the lane. 

Another table game we played was called "Wingspan".   It will teach you facts about birds and their habitat that can be fascinating, but overwhelming!

•  
• One reason my son moved out west when he finished medical school, was for the rock climbing opportunities.  He has built an indoor practice climbing wall everywhere he has lived, since he left his childhood home, so it is not surprising that he has now built one at his newest location!  (At one point, he even invested in building a commercial climbing wall, as a part of a venture into retail business)
  
  
  His Pappy Joe also enjoyed building things (as well as fishing!), and is shown in this photo with youngster G, with a fish Pappy Joe caught, and the house he built in the 1940's.  That style of stone work is common in the Ozarks, and is called "giraffe style". 
  
  
  
  Although it is a different kind of "fish", the photo below shows Pappy G and C, as they practice "fishing"!
  

There was a pool table in the downstairs recreation room of G's childhood home, so it is only fitting that there is also a pool table in his present home!  It was fun playing the game with G, S, and J. 

 

I think I could have been a better player all those years ago, if I had seen one of these "training balls", like G has with his present table!

After a fantastic visit with family, G and S drove me to the airport in Redding, where I boarded a plane going eastward, with the first stop being in San Francisco.  I have a much greater appreciation for the famous Golden Gate Bridge leading to that city, after I walked across it, and back, as part of a Road Scholar (www.roadscholar.org) program I attended.  That same Road Scholar program facilitated hiking many of the areas of Marin County, shown in the photo below, that I took from my airplane window. (See the photos I posted about that adventure, in the archives of this blog.  It is entitled "Hiking the Golden Gate Bridge Expedition!", and has a date of June 15, 2019.)

The next stop on my journey eastward was the iconic Denver International Airport.  It is a dramatic sight at any time of the day, but I found it to be especially photogenic from my airplane window at nighttime. 

Speaking of nighttime, it was around midnight when my plane finally landed at the Tulsa, Oklahoma airport.  I retrieved my car from the airport covered parking lot, and made the short drive to the adjacent Hilton Hotel.  A night of restful sleep enabled me to complete a "bucket list" item, that has been in my mind, ever since I heard about the completion of the Tulsa Riverwalk Trail.  A while back I had hoped to walk it on a day I was in Tulsa, but the highway I needed to use to get to the access of it, was closed for circumstances beyond my control.  Hence, the delay!  Fortunately, this time, the highway was open, my GPS took me straight to the parking lot, the skies were clear with no rain/snow, and the temperature was perfect for walking in the outdoors!  The paved trail is used by both pedestrians and bicyclists, and follows the meandering of the Arkansas River, through the Tulsa area.  You can get more details at www.visittulsa.com

The photo below shows my shadow, waving farewell, and saying a prayer of gratitude, that I was able to be with my son on his fiftieth birthday!  This "Half-Century Expedition" gave me MILES OF SMILES!  Tricia

HIKING THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE EXPEDITION!

This photo

 shows the very knowledgeable, Don McLaurin, giving some last minute guidelines to one of the group participants, shortly before we started our trek across the Golden Gate Bridge in California.

The experience was part of Road Scholar program ( roadscholar.org ) #21900CGT that I participated in April 7-12, 2019.  The program was called "Hiking the Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods and Point Reyes".  We are standing in the parking lot that is provided near the pedestrian entrance, on the Marin County side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

From the parking lot, walkers go down stairs to a passageway beneath the bridge surface, and slightly elevated from the stone embankment that makes up the edge of the land mass.

The passage way under the bridge makes a turn to the left near the end, which leads out to steps that will take the walker up to the entrance of the pedestrian walkway of the Golden Gate Bridge.  All these measures are necessary because pedestrians are only permitted to walk on ONE side of the bridge---not both.

I took this photo to show the extensive labyrinth of steel girders that forms the support for the base of the bridge, while it is still passing over land.

Most readers will recognize this as Alcatraz Island, which was once the home of notorious prisoners.  It is now visited by thousands of people who are NOT prisoners, but rather taking a tour of the facility through the National Park Service. 

As the walker gets closer to the San Francisco side, they will be able to recognize the familiar sight of the Coit Tower, which is located atop one of San Francisco's famous hills.

I took this photo to give the reader a sense of how close the pedestrians are to the car traffic.  We were given strict instructions to stay as close to the railing as possible on the left side of the walkway, leaving the rest of the enclosure for the use of bicyclists.  Don also reminded us to NOT mindlessly step out of line to take a photo, or we might get an unexpected bump from a bicycler pedaling up from behind us.  We were told to look BOTH ways, before stepping to the right to take a photo.  Since Don has been leading these programs quite some time, I can only assume he was speaking from experience from a previous program!

This is a photo of one of the areas of the pedestrian walkway that expands a bit, to facilitate folks stopping to get a closer look at their surroundings, regroup, take photos, etc.; in the photo you can see the red rectangle hanging on the front of Don's jacket.  That is the sound transmitter that he used throughout our trek, so that he could be talking to us as we walked across, and we could hear him, in spite of the deafening noise of traffic beside us.  Each of the Road Scholar participants had a listening device in our ear, that made this possible. 

We made our trip across the bay on a weekday, and saw a few pleasure boats, such as this sailboat, taking advantage of a very windy day!

When we reached the San Francisco side of the bridge, Don led us through a plaza that had a metal replica of the bridge we had just walked across.  The visual aid helped us understand the physics principles, that made this historic structure such an engineering marvel.  Likewise, there were explanatory placards scattered all around the plaza that interpreted views that could be seen from various locations, and told interesting facets of the bridge's construction.  The plaza also had food and beverage concessions, gift kiosks, and restrooms. 

Bicycling across the bridge is very popular, and bikes are available for rent near the pedestrian entrances.  Because there are no license or skill requirements necessary to rent a bicycle, it is another reason our leader told us to be on the constant lookout for an inexperienced bicycler, as we were traversing the walkway. 

Notice the large orange backpack Don is wearing?  In case one is wondering why that is necessary, it is because he is a very prepared, and organized leader.  It had extra batteries and listening devices, in case one of his participants needed it mid-hike.  Likewise, he carried first aid supplies, and participant's emergency contact information 

This photo shows that we had an absolutely beautiful, sunshiny day to walk across the bridge, without a cloud in the sky!

This view is seen from the pedestrian walkway, and would be puzzling for the uninformed.  However, Don told us that the orange "arms" extending out over the water were to be the supports for a "suicide prevention net" that was currently under construction, on the bridge.  It is said that the Golden Gate Bridge is a "suicide magnet" for some, and that about 500 people have jumped to their death since the bridge opened in 1937.  Statistics say that 40 known people jumped to their death in 2016.  The Bridge administration is spending $200 million to change that, as it works to get the suicide prevention net completed by 2021.  It will extend over 1.5 miles of open water, and will be made of stainless steel mesh, located about 2o feet below the bridge, and stick out 20 feet from the edge of the bridge.  A jumper could still crawl to the edge of the net to jump off again, although designers predict that the fall from the bridge surface to the net would incapacitate the person, allowing rescuers to retrieve them.

There are commercial tourist boats that take visitors out on the waters, and cruise them beneath the bridge.   I was able to take one of those sightseeing cruises on past visits, and gave a big wave to the tourists I saw below in this boat, who were also waving up at me!

Besides tourist boats, there are plenty of commercial vessels, such as this container ship, that use the shipping lanes of the San Francisco Bay.

Once we had walked across the bridge in the afternoon, visited the San Francisco plaza side, and made our way back to the tunnel that would lead us to the Road Scholar van in the parking lot, we had completed four miles of bridge walking.  Hurrah!  I got my 10,000 steps in that day, since we had already walked four miles on the Marin hiking trails in the morning!

It has been said that the Golden Gate Bridge is the most photographed man-made structure in the world, and I know I certainly took more than my share of those photos during the week I visited the area!  Seeing how the bridge provides a means to connect that which is separated, is a visual aid for me, reminding me of how Jesus  is also a "bridge" to separate that which is separated.   We as a people have become separated from a righteous God because of our sins.  But Jesus came to take the penalty for our sins---to be the living sacrifice---that could form a "bridge" so that we could once again have fellowship with our Creator.  The bridge Jesus provided is there for EVERYONE, but some will choose not to use the bridge that has been provided for us.  Though this Road Scholar program, I made the choice to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Likewise, knowing that I have also made the choice to walk across the "Golden Grace Bridge" of salvation, that Jesus has provided, gives me MILES OF SMILES!   Tricia