Sunrise at the Beach - Labor Day Weekend

Friday after we all got off work/school, we went to Hobe Sound to visit Grandpa. When we were down in June, Grace, Jenny and I went over to the beach to see the sunrise and wanted to do it again this time.  Here are some pictures from our walk on the beach. It had rained between 5:30 and 6:00 am and we went down to the beach about 6:45 and there were still quite a few clouds on the horizon.

 blue moon

 beach erosion

 Jenny is about 5'6" and the drop off here is at her waist

 Blue moon with sea oats in front of it

 the drop off here is just over shoulder height

 Sea oats and sea grapes

 Sand piper footprints

Shells that were left on a bench

Summer Trip - June 29-July5

This post is especially for Julie! 

The four of us girls left on June 29th to head to Knoxville, TN to visit Uncle Paul & Aunt Ann.  On the way up through Georgia we saw a billboard advertising a Civil War Railroad Tunnel.  We decided to stop and check it out if it wasn't too expensive.  We decided that $7 a person wasn't too bad a price, so we took the tour of the tunnel.  The Clisby-Austin house will soon be included in the tour as well, but at the time we visited it wasn't open yet.

Western & Atlantic Historic Tunnel and Museum Visitor's Center in Tunnel Hill, GA (Near Dalton)

Western & Atlantic Historic Tunnel (The Great Locomotive Chase took place here)

The working tunnel is on the left and the historic tunnel is on the right

Man Hole where workers in the tunnel would go if there was a train coming.  The tunnel is so narrow that trains often got stuck going through it.

We went to Cade's Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park with Uncle Paul and Aunt Ann on Saturday, June 30th.

The four of us on the porch of one of the cabins

John Oliver Place in Cades Cove.  We only got out at this cabin, the visitors center and the picnic area at the entrance from Townsend because it was so hot.  The temps in Cades Cove were around 104* or so. We ate lunch in Townsend after leaving Cades Cove and the temp there was 107*.

The grist mill at the Visitor Center.

Looking out over the valley

Doe and fawn, if you click on the picture you can see the fawn under the doe's belly

Sitting on a rock in the creek

creek at the picnic area (a lot of people had their chairs set up out in the creek, trying to keep cool)

Headed to Uncle Bill & Aunt Marilyn's in Anderson, SC on Monday, July 2nd 

We had gotten off  I-40 near Dandridge and saw this hay field

We followed this truck for a while on I-40 through Newport, TN

Our plan on the way to Anderson, SC was to stop in Sunset, SC at Victorious Valley Homes to purchase some CDs.  We came in a different way than the map we had printed out and never did find the place we were looking for. After we arrived at Uncle Bill & Aunt Marilyn's we looked at the map and decided we would try to find the place on Tuesday, July 3. We finally found it after going up into North Carolina, finding a place to turn around and almost missing the road a second time.  Twin Falls was very close to Victorious Valley, so we decided to go and hike up to the falls.

Us girls on a huge rock by the water - the falls themselves were about 1/8 to 1/4 of a mile further up the path.

Twin Falls from the observation area

Close up of the falls on the left

Down stream from the falls

Jenny with the water behind her

We were very close to Table Rock Mountain, so we went over to the Wesleyan Camp and took some pictures

It was just after lunch time, so we stopped in at the Pumpkintown General Store and Cafe for lunch

Jenny was so tired Monday evening she tried to crash here instead of going on upstairs to bed

Tuesday evening, Julie came from NC to visit with us.  Uncle David, Aunt Roberta, Sylvia and Lydia were to come down on the 4th.  Sylvia didn't end up coming since she wasn't feeling well.

July 4th

Cousins

Julie, Laura, Lydia

Jenny, Rachel, Grace

We can't get together with the David Miller's without having Tea and Krispy Kreme donuts

Aunt Roberta brought some shortbread that she had made, too.

The table set for Tea

my tea and snacks

All of the group

Lydia, Julie, Jenny, Rachel, Grace, Laura

Bill & Marilyn French, Roberta & David Miller

Julie, Lydia, Aunt Roberta & Uncle David

Uncle Bill & Aunt Marilyn French

We headed back home on Thursday, July 5th

We took a bathroom  break in Shady Dale, GA at Champion's General Store.

Old Stagecoach Stop in Shady Dale, GA

Water tower for Monticello, GA

Book Review ** The Scent of Rain by Kristin Billerbeck

I really enjoyed reading The Scent of Rain by Kristin Billerbeck. It is light reading but keeps you in enough suspense that you want to keep reading to find out what will happen next.

What’s worse than showing up for your wedding and the groom is a no-show? How about losing your sense of smell when you’re a professional nose! Daphne Sweeten left her dream job in a Paris perfumery to get married because there were no available jobs for her fiancé, Mark Goodsmith, in Paris. After their wedding, Mark and Daphne were to start new jobs at a company in Dayton, OH. When Mark is a no-show at the wedding, Daphne’s best friend, Shopie, whisks her away in the limo and tries to comfort her. All Daphne wants is to get back the cologne samples that she created for the wedding and send one to her old boss in Paris.

Jesse Lightner, Daphne’s new boss, is a widower with a young son. His biggest regret is that he was so busy at work; he didn’t recognize the signs that his wife was going through postpartum depression and that she died from an allergic reaction to an ingredient in a sleeping pill that she took. Jesse is already struggling in his department and the last thing he wants is a professional nose on the payroll.

Daphne starts her new job and does her best to rely on her chemistry background to compensate for the loss of her sense of smell and agrees to stay on for six months. Jesse realizes that something is very wrong, when she makes no comment about the sour milk smell in his car or the smell of gas in her new house. A reminder of not being able to help his wife makes him go back to Daphne’s house just in time. He finds her unconscious from the gas fumes and gets help for her, but because she wasn’t truthful about loss of smell, he fires her. Can Jesse rebuild his trust in Daphne? What will happen when Daphne finds out that her ex-fiancé has her old job back in Paris? Will Jesse and Daphne realize that they are perfect for each other?

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson through the BookSneeze® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

This Scarlet Cord ** Book Review

This Scarlet Cord by Joan Wolf is the love story of Rahab from Joshua. Joan has taken a story contained in about five paragraphs of scripture and turned it into an 85,000 word book according to her explanation in the back of the book. She also took the liberty to use a modern translation of Salmon’s name, Sala, in her story.

This Scarlet Cord is divided into three parts. In the first section, twelve year old Rahab is kidnapped from a caravan that her family is traveling with. Sala’s father is a merchant and part of the Israeli remnant that stayed behind in Canaan when Isaac’s family went to Egypt with Joseph. Rahab and Sala meet for the first time in Gaza where she has just escaped from kidnappers who want to sell her into Egypt. Sala takes Rahab to his father for protection and get word to her family as to a meeting place to return Rahab to her family. The second part of the story takes place two years later in Jericho. Rahab is now eligible for marriage and her father wants someone more influential than just a farmer for her husband, so he takes some of his family along with Rahab to Jericho. Sala and his father are in Jericho under the guise of business, while checking out Jericho’s strengths and weaknesses to pass on to the Israeli spies that Joshua will send in. The third part of the story contains the Israelites conquering of Jericho and the saving of Rahab’s story.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I had previously read A Reluctant Queen: The Love Story of Esther and thought that this book would probably be just as good. Joan Wolf didn’t disappoint me. She keeps the reader spell bound and has thoroughly researched the time period and historical background. In this story she weaves in some of the religious customs of the Canaanites to give insight into Rahab’s background. While the author has deviated somewhat from the Biblical account of Exodus and Joshua, by placing Sala’s family still in a Israelite town in Canaan instead of with the refugees from Egypt with Joshua, she uses this to bring into the story how Rahab could have come to believe in the One True God.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson through the BookSneeze® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Book Review **Dawn Comes Early

Dawn Comes Early by Margaret Brownley is an interesting book. Kate Tenney is a disgraced Dime Novelist from Boston who has answered an ad for a professional woman to be “heiress” to a cattle ranch in Cactus Patch, Arizona Territory. When Kate steps off the train, she wonders why the town seems to be deserted and no one is there to meet her, especially when the telegram she has specifically says that a ranch hand would be there to take her to Last Chance Ranch. Kate proceeds to drag her trunk down the street looking for anyone she can ask for help. Unbeknownst to Kate, outlaw Cactus Joe had chosen this day to come to town. Kate finally gets a ride out to Last Chance Ranch from blacksmith Luke Adams. Kate meets Eleanor Walker, the ranch owner, and all the hands and begins learning the ropes of running a ranch. Eleanor Walker is looking for a woman to take over the ranch who will agree to never marry. What will happen when Kate is abducted by Cactus Joe, who demands that she write his life story? Will Kate fall in love with Luke Adams or will she end up agreeing to the stipulations that Eleanor Walker has for inheriting the ranch? Will Kate end up living her life in Boston or Arizona Territory? Pick up this book and read it to find out for yourself.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson through the BookSneeze® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Book Review** Heart of Gold

Heart of Gold by Robin Lee Hatcher, is an excellent book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It is set in Idaho Territory during the Civil War. Shannon Adair and her father have come to Grand Coeur to pastor the church there. Matthew Dubois is a Well Fargo stagecoach driver who has taken an office position in Grand Coeur so that his widowed sister, Alice, and nine year old nephew, Todd, can come live with him. Shannon and her father have left their beloved home in Virginia and Shannon resents having to leave the nursing that she had been doing with the wounded Confederate soldiers. Alice knows that she is dying of cancer and Shannon volunteers to be a nurse and companion for her. As Alice gets to know Shannon, she begins to hint to Matthew that he needs to take a wife – someone like Shannon.

Will Shannon be able to put aside her feelings about Yankees and come to care for Alice, Matthew and Todd? Will Matthew win Shannon’s heart or will one of the Southern men in town woo her? Will Matthew decide to give up driving the stage and settle down? Read this book and find out! I think you’ll like it as much as I did.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson through the BookSneeze® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.