Well, here I go again. Our blog would have been updated sooner, but I didn’t compose it in Word and, as I was adding the pictures to it, “something" happened and I lost it all. This time, I’m doing it in Word first; then, I’ll copy it over to our blog. I apologize for the length, but it brings us up to date.
We had a fantastic week approaching Thanksgiving. Michelle and Logan drove up on Friday, the 18th, to spend the week with us, and Mike, April and the two boys drove up the following Thursday (Thanksgiving), to spend Friday and leave Saturday morning. Thanksgiving week was full of activities and good family visitation.
The Saturday morning before Thanksgiving, we headed for Waco to the Downtown Farmer’s Market that had its opening weekend. It was super easy to find and parking was ample but, still, we were not early enough to avoid missing the good stuff. There were tons of people and I personally was surprised at the variety of meats that were being sold by a number of area organic farms. Everything from chickens to goat was being sold and we were told repeatedly the turnout was way beyond anything that was expected and, hence, everyone was selling out early. Product variety was amazing and included honey, jellies, jams, preserves, pickles, delicious-looking mushrooms and mushroom kits, winter greens, flowers, cheeses, nuts, fruit and much more. This is one market we are definitely planning on returning to, only making it an earlier visit.
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| Area Honey |
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The mushrooms were only samples
for the growing kits. Really looked
yummee good! |
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| Just Lookin' |
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| Barnyard (free range) chicken |
We left the market and drove up to Hillsboro to attend the holiday crafts fair being held at the factory shops. This mall has suffered so badly that only one in five shops is now open, but the fair attracted hundreds of people and it looked alive and well. Judy and Michelle used this as an opportunity to pick up a few Christmas gifts, and I found a booth manned by the Lone Oak Winery from Burleson, TX. There, I picked up a bottle of port to sip with after dinner chocolates. My initial tasting said “buy it” but, after getting home and having a glass, I realized that I’ve had ports costing less than half of what I paid and tasting far better. Lesson learned!
We returned to the campground early that evening to sit out on the patio and visit when a group of scouts who were bivouacked here stopped by to invite us to attend a Flag Retirement Ceremony and guitar singalong. This was the first time any of us had ever seen this and it was really interesting. After some patriotic songs, the group of scouts gathered around the flag, stretching it out. One of the scouts with scissors began by cutting the stripes, one at a time and the others, each in turn, would take that stripe to the fire and lay it atop to burn completely. When one had burned, the process would be repeated, until all 13 stripes signifying the 13 original colonies in their order of statehood had been burned. Then, the remaining field of blue with its 50 stars, representing the great union this country has grown into, was laid atop the pyre and burned to ashes. Nothing else was burned in the fire and, when cooled, the ashes were recovered to be buried as prescribed in the scout policy. Afterwards, the scouts gathered round the guitar and America the Beautiful was sung to finish the ceremony. As we mingled about afterwards, I was able to pick up some great scout recipes for fruit cobblers in a Dutch oven that I can’t wait to try out!
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The flag was held as the stripes were
carefully and individually cut out. |
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After each stripe was cut,
a scout carried it to the fire to be consumed. |
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| Finally the blue field, with the stars, was placed atop the fire. |
After leaving the Mayborn Museum, we drove downtown to The Dr. Pepper Museum where the original Dr. Pepper was bottled and sold. It was pretty neat, but I would have liked to have seen the actual bottling operation in action the way it was back then. A real point of interest was all the other soda companies under the Dr. Pepper umbrella. Jones Sodas, which includes “Turkey and Gravy” and “Candied Sweet Potato” flavors, all of the “Crush” sodas, and many other root beer brands.
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| Site of the original drugstore and plant |
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| Judy had to buy our way in |
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| The Pharmacy |
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| Turn of the century soda fountain |
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| Need anything be said? |
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| Ice-cream float break |
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| It's scary, but I remember these. And it's in a museum... |
Our next stop was the Texas Ranger Museum. This was an interesting exhibit that featured some of the more famous Texas Rangers. Sorry folks, but Walker was not one of them! Here again, Logan was presented with an informational scavenger hunt that kept his interest up and gave him an education on the Rangers. One thing I found amusing was a display of Bonnie and Clyde. The museum displayed a picture (I have an original that I picked up a number of years ago.) of the guns that were taken from the couple when they were killed. The display seems to lead visitors into believing they were captured (killed) in Texas. If you read the really fine print under the picture, you see that they were actually ambushed in Louisiana…Oh, well…!
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| Logan wanted to practice his art |
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| Bonnie and Clyde's legacy |
On Tuesday, we headed for the Dallas World Aquarium that we had heard so much about. This is a “must see” for anyone visiting the Dallas downtown area. Not only is this a phenomenal aquarium, but it has a great series of zoological exhibits that top some we have seen in actual zoos. For Michelle, the highlight was the live manatees, which she was able to view from only inches away through the Plexiglas enclosures. For photographers, the presence of Plexiglas enclosures, rather than wire fencing, made capturing images as though in the wild much more pleasurable. I think Judy’s pleasure here was seeing the way Logan bounced from one display to another, thoroughly enjoying himself. All of us liked the “tunnel” under the aquarium that allowed you to sit and let the fish (sharks, saw fish. rays, turtles, etc.) swim all around you. This was “quiet fun” as well as an educational place to visit.
Judy and I had to work on Thursday but, since she took the first shift, I began preparations for the campground Thanksgiving dinner . It was a potluck dinner and she and I were to bring a dirty rice dressing and Shelly wanted to make her green bean casserole from scratch. Charles had me close up early and we all gathered in the rec room to give thanks and share the meal. John, Joan, Charles and Mindy supplied the turkey, gravy, a delicious cornbread dressing and Logan’s favorite, candied yams. Jodie, Carl and Jerry showed up with some really good deviled eggs, and Valerie and Austin brought a corn casserole that her Aunt had made. All-in-all, it was a super Thanksgiving get-together.
While dinner was going on, Mike and April arrived and April came over to the rec room to meet everyone. Colby pulled a “shy" guy on everyone while Ben was “Mr. Personality.” Valerie went out to get “Wilber”, her pet miniature hog. I hate to say it, but this was the cutest little thing ever.
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| This is Valerie with Wilber |
Although we had to work Friday, I had prepared a stuffed pork roast Wednesday and put it on for our family dinner here on Friday night. Friday was a day for "catching up" and talking about "things" while the kids played and the adults talked.
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| Why does school have to be two days away? |
Sunday morning, Michelle and Logan were packed up and ready to roll on back to Houston by the time I got up. Strangely enough, she only left behind a couple of items this time.
Until next time! ~dick~
