Get Thee To The Woods Vol. 10: Let's Go Racing!

What does auto racing have to do with the great outdoors, you ask? Plenty.

When we decided to plan a weekend trip to Ohio for an Indy Car race, I called a dear friend from high school who lives just outside of Columbus, an hour's drive from the race course. We hadn't seen each other since our 20-year class reunion several years ago, and I hadn't seen her kids since they were little. Even though they didn't come to the race with us (most people we know aren't as fanatical about Indy Car racing as we are) they invited us to stay with them. It was great too see her and her family again, and our kids all got along wonderfully. My friend has a fabulous collection of plants and flowers in her garden and on her deck (which, I might add, her husband built for her with his bare hands).

They lived in Japan for four years, and their house and yard are full of beautiful things from that country.

She has a beautiful Rose of Sharon bush
that the bumblebees just love. (That reminds me of a story my Ohio friend told me about her son when he was little. One day, her mother said, "Look, A., a bumblebee!" "I see the bee, Grandma," the little tyke replied, "but, where's the bumble?")




Do you see a hummingbird? Me neither. They apparently don't like to have their pictures taken. They kept us entertained while we ate dinner and breakfast on their screened porch (which, by the way, her husband also built with his bare hands.)



The kids had fun running around in the soft grass. We don't have nice grass like this at our house.






Someone told us that there were no trees at this racetrack.

I don't know why we believed him.

*UPDATE: Click here for the saga of Moe's ever-present red hat!

30-Minute Blog Challenge Vol. 2 (harder than it souds)

Last week, I took up Mary's challenge to try and write, edit, and post a blog in 30 minutes. I forgot to mention that we're invited to do this every TUESDAY. As you can see, I didn't make the deadline this week. (Thanks to Jamie from Steady Mom for starting this great meme!)

My mother, who will be the first to tell you that she's technologically challenged, left a comment on my blog! When we visited my parents a couple of weeks ago, I showed her how to bookmark my blog page on her computer so I wouldn't have to email her every time I posted something she might be interested in reading. Yesterday I was talking with her on the phone, telling her all about our weekend in Shenandoah National Park, and we were reminiscing about a similar trip we took when I was a teenager. I decided to email her my blog link anyway, because after all, she might also want to see my post about our recent visit with them as well. I am so proud of my mom--she figured out how to leave a comment! (Although, her comment was about our Shenandoah weekend, and she left it on the post about our visit with them. No matter!) Now perhaps I'll try and help her set up a blog of her own...Hmmm.....

If you've been following Elizabeth Mahlou's blog "Blest Atheist," you might want to know that she changed the name of her blog and the url; now you can find her at her new site, "100th Lamb." Check it out!

I realized as I was thinking about what to post here (What could I possibly blog about in only 30 minutes?) that today's post might read a little like "7 Quick Takes." (Yikes, I'm suddenly having writer's bloc; I only have 20 minutes left!) I'll go ahead and post the things I had planned to save for Friday.

7 things to remember when you go camping:

1. Towels. Without them no one can take a shower, and you'll all have to go to Mass smelling like bug spray and sweat.

2. Soap. You thought you were so clever, buying those little travel shampoos. But without a towel, soap won't do you much good anyway.

3. Marshmallows. Imagine your childrens' disappointment when you've got a great fire going, you've already roasted and eaten enough hot dogs to make you want to burst, and you pull out the graham crackers and Hershey bars you brought for S'mores... Dang! We forgot to pack marshmallows!

4. Whatever you decide to buy at the camp store because you forgot to bring it, you'll have to pay three times as much. Just sayin.

5. Before you leave, make sure your 40-year-old Coleman stove actually works. Just because it heated your coffee for you two years ago doesn't mean it will this time. Those two great big cans of Coleman fuel you bought are useless if the fuel line is clogged and/or leaking.

6. Just remember, if you can't make coffee, you can get a fresh cup of Starbucks at the wayside grill right beside the camp store. If you don't mind waiting until the place opens at 8 am, and you're willing to pay $2.50 a cup.

7. Dang, I forgot the seventh thing to remember! Is it cheating if I push the "pause" button on my timer until I think of something?

I have five minutes left, and the dog is pestering me to go out. OK, I'll pause it just this once...I'm back. Well, I've sat here for two minutes not writing anything. I wanted to tell you about a great online resource for praying the Rosary, but I think I'll save that one for another post. I'll have to settle for having no pictures with this one; (they say good bloggers ALWAYS include pictures with their posts. I usually do, but hopefully this post is short enough, you'll read it anyway.)

I only have one minute to edit, so it's goodbye for now. Have a blessed Wednesday!

Get Thee To The Woods, Vol. 9: A Blessed Camping Weekend

Shenandoah National Park is one of our favorite places to go camping. We don't camp as often as we would like, and even though Shenandoah is reasonably close to where we live, we don't get many chances to visit. Our trip there over the weekend was filled with many blessings!

The many deer, which were a constant presence in the campground...

The little chipmunks who tried to stay out of sight; this one stayed still long enough for us to snap his picture.

When Curly and Moe went exploring near our camp,


...they found the Appalachian Trail,


...and a spring. Presumably this sign is to direct thirsty hikers to a nice fresh source of water.








We took a lovely hike through the forest

to see this pretty waterfall.

The views from the trail (and from all over the park) are spectacular.

Moe had fun climbing on the rocks.

We even spotted a black bear. Can you see it?

I think he was looking at us.

(When we saw the grizzly bear on our trip to Yellowstone last summer, the best pictures only showed a small brown blob in the distance. Joe and the kids decided to buy me a telephoto lens for my next birthday. Even with this, it was hard to get a good shot; maybe the fact that Joe was impatient for me to hurry up and leave the premises before the bear spotted us had something to do with it.)


There were NO video games allowed in camp!

Hey, who snuck in that MP3 player??

We took a lovely walk in the Big Meadow,

...where there were scads of wild blueberries.

The deer were munching them happily.

This one just wanted to relax.

There were so many bumblebees, we could hear them buzzing all around us.

(When we got back to camp, I found a bumblebee between my sock and the top of my hiking boot. I almost wore sandals to the meadow; now I'm thankful I did not!)

Everywhere we went this weekend, there were scores of butterflies (and other insect friends) gathering nectar from the countless wildflowers.

The evenings were just as much fun; the kids roasted marshmallows,

had smoke-saber battles,

and played with sparklers.

(I swear, this was NOT my idea. I'm sure we were breaking the rules with this one.)

I wish I could have taken a picture of the stars that were so bright on Friday night, or the shooting star I spotted just above the trees. Even though sleeping on the ground with nothing but a thin air mattress under you isn't very comfortable, the sounds of the night insects, the gentle rain on the tent roof (despite the leak in our brand-new tent...grrr...) and the wind in the trees makes it all worth it.

Last week my friend Ginny of the "Small Things" blog took her family here; check out her post about their Shenandoah adventure. (Believe me, you don't want to miss it; her photos are much better than mine.) Without planning it, we both took our families to the same place and saw some of the same things. (We think we both saw the same bear, too.) I only wish we had stopped at the Barbecue place where they went on the way home. Next time.

UPDATE, JULY 2011: We just returned from another wonderful Shenandoah weekend. Click here for some of the highlights!

(We passed the barbecue place in Sperryville today on our way back. We weren't hungry, so we kept driving. One of these days we'll stop there.)

Lisa at 5 Orange Potatoes posted some lovely photos this week of an afternoon she spent at a little pond with her daughter. Check it out!