Our Vacation and Other Things

The first leg of the trip was flying to Memphis, TN for business.  While there, Nick and I saw where Martin Luther King was assassinated, an underground home that took in runaway slaves, and the King of Rock and Roll's mansion.

Graceland, Memphis, TN

The second leg and most important was visiting Xela in the Adirondacks.  She lives in Saranac Lake, New York. We spent an afternoon picking pumpkins and apples. We canned the apples after making applesauce and apple butter. Plus we made apple pies, apple muffins and apple crisp. Oh, and we ate plenty.  

 

The leaves had just turned to their bright autumn colors a couple of weeks before we got there, and within a week began to change to a winter brown color, falling to the ground.

Xela

We hiked to waterfalls, mountains, and the bogs.  We saw wild turkeys, a road kill porcupine (wonder what the tires looked like), deer, beaver trails, and more!

Moose!

We spent a couple of hours in a corn maze trying to find the clues.  Nick is perplexed with what direction we need to go! 

Xela was a great hostess!  We loved spending time on her turf; it helps me to have a visual when she's sharing her surroundings with us.

Our last stop was Montreal, Quebeck, Canada.  What a beautiful, totally French city.  We walked, we rode busses, we ate, we went to museums, and we had a wonderful, enlightening couple of days in a very large metropolitan city.

I realized some stuff while on this trip.  Passing the baton is some of it.  I'll save the rest for another day, another post.  But I've been happy with my thoughts and decision since we've been home.  I love how prayer works.  We study, we make a decision, we go to our Father in heaven and share that decision, asking if it is right, then we wait for the good feeling or the "stuper of thought."  I'm content.

Passing the Baton

 Xela Rue Goodman - 14 months old - 1983

             Xela, Mom and Dad, Montreal, Quebec 2012           

We have been visiting Xela for a week on her turf in the Adirondacks, upper state New York.  It is fall of the year so really beautiful back here.  The trees are a blaze with the colors of autumn.  I have loved seeing her as a grown-up woman, not in school, but making a productive life for herself.  It is gratifying for a parent when their child makes those choices that take them to places where they spend their talents and time helping others.

When a relay team runs a race, one runner will pass off a baton to the next runner and so on until the finish.  Today Nick, Xela, and I spent the day touring the metropolis of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  We wanted to do a walking tour of  "old Montreal," which is a large area by the harbor.  For some reason Nick and I kept heading in the wrong direction even after reading the guidebook map whether right side up or upside down!   Xela would let us know we needed to go the other way to get to our destination.  The thought occurred to me that we had just passed the baton to our daughter.  There have been many years and many miles that she  traveled with us. We were her guides.  We held the baton.  Today she became the next runner, the  new guide while traveling in new places.