Ta-May-Toe vs. Ta-Ma-Toe

First canning of 2019!  Looking good as last year I think we only canned 3 or 4 quarts on the first effort.

2019 Mini-Vaca2, Eastern Iowa, Pt 3 - Dubuque River Museum

So after a big day of driving, eating and eventually hiking, what do we have planned? Some driving. A Museum. Some hiking and of course, some driving to get back and forth. Not nearly as much driving as day 1 though.

Today we got up, had some breakfast at Richman's Cafe.  It's a little cafe that at the time we got there, was run by one young woman who was doing it all.  In fact, at one point, one of what I would call the locals, got up and asked her about the coffee machine.  Once he had the hang of it, he came to our table and was refilling our cups while she was back cooking the four of us breakfast.

By the time we left, two youngsters had come in to help out waiting tables and taking orders but that original gal was still carrying the load!  Pretty dang impressive!!

After that, we drove up the curvy road to Dubuque, IA to find our way to the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium.  We got there right at opening.  In fact, we were so on time that the person trying to balance the drawer at the beginning of the day, asked us to step off to the side for a few minutes while they got things in order...  Someone was late for work.

We first saw this technology while we were in China adopting this fantastic human being!  It not only responds to you stepping on it, but it also responds to how hard you step on it or as I tested, STOMP on it!  I'm still amazed as it is some stunning real-time processing that's going on.

I think this is the tank where you could pet a sturgeon... maybe?  Rob was the only one who did it.  I'm good with just watching them swim...

He was hesitant, which I would suspect as he is my son, so I went and looked at other exhibits and took a picture or two.

You tell by both boys' body language that neither is comfortable with the current proceedings!  But to his credit, Rob actually petted the sturgeon.

Then there's this guy...  no petting him (or her)!

The wall of learning!  Mama, Rob and Caleb from left to right.

Not sure what these are, but there were thousands of dead ones out in the parking lot when we first got here.  There were hundreds more on the windows of the museums.  What's truly interesting is that there was one day,  Aug 7th, where they were thick on the skywalk windows in downtown Des Moines.  Just that one day tho that I noticed.

This was outside the museum and closed at the time we visited, which was fine as it seemed the boys were losing interest by this point.

This was kind of cool as we had just saw a similar style boat on our previous camping trip at the Lewis and Clark campgrounds over by Onawa, Ia.

Schmitz 2018 Vaca, Post 14 - Acadia Ntl. Park, Part 5

The boys (mostly Rob, but some Caleb) were wanting to go swimming.  Not a problem, but also not gonna lie,  I'm not a big fan of swimming in the ocean.  I like to think that I'm a pretty "situationally  aware" person, overall,  and when the regular, non-violent ocean waves toss me about like my big fat butt is nothing,  I tend to think about how easily I could perish.

After a near drowning event when I was about 5 years old,  the thought of death by drowning is something that terrifies me.   The concept that an element that EVERYBODY on the planet needs, but so many lack a clean source of, could kill me easily is not lost on me.

To be honest,  the thought of my kids swimming in the ocean is not something I care much for, but I know that they'll be alright probably 99.9% of the time and there's truly nothing to worry about.

Back to the post and the pictures below...

Robby, fearless of water, which causes me heart palpatations, out in the water past where an old man would say "the bottom drops off and you can dang well see it!".  

I wasn't swimming and there was no place to sit for a fella with back issues, so what did I do?  I went hiking on the opposite side of the road.

It was pretty amazing and wished that all four of us were here but some peeps like/love swimming so it was kinda cool to head out on my own.

That's part of the trail.  Can you spot the people up on the mountain?  I can see at least 5.

Different angle of peeps up on the mountain. Surely, you can see the guy in the orange shirt.

So much cool terrain to traverse.

Back at the swimming hole!

More peeps now...  less deserable.

Hey Baby, It's the 4th of July

A bit late, but while sifting thru pictures tonight, I ran across these.

This was the first of what is supposed to be an annual 4th of July party.  We did not make it this year as Mama worked and I was on-call for work, but Calebber went with our friends and had a great time!

Lighting off some smaller grade explosives while waiting for the sun to go down.

Higher grade explosives.   That's Caleb in the back with the black shorts and green striped shirt.

Some of the friendly family who took Caleb with them.  Jill on the left, Caleb and Mikelle.

This is from a different day, but I love the pic so it's getting included!  Caleb on the left, Jack and Max who have shown up in previous blog posts.  That's two of the other members of the family mentioned above.  These two boys hold the distinction of being the most frequent visitors at our house and it's probably not even close!

I Got Some Air On That One!

This is how the boys spent their Friday morning.  Dear ol' Dad was at work so I don't really know much about it other than they did some things, then had lunch, then got to go fly in this thing!

Hard to see, but that's them in the plane behind the plane on the plain.  The plane on the plain technically on a pole that is mounted on a concrete footing.

And safely back to terra firma.

Where the Grandpa ends..

Spot the cigarette butts...

An easier game.  Uh, spot his actual spot of engagement...

Schmitz 2018 Vaca, Post 13 - Acadia Ntl. Park, Part 4

Ah, fond memories of this from back when Lesley and I, along with my sister Doris, hiked Bubble Rock.

 A storm was blowing up while we were on top and a local fella politely reminded us that we should start down with the weather rolling in.

We heeded his message and started our descent with the rain picking up slowly as we made our way back to our vehicle.

That was the beginning of a very long, stormy night.  But that is a story for another time!

Today, Lesley and I are back on Bubble Rock but this time we have our varmints!

The varmint who loves hiking!  Caleb is ready to go!

I didn't take many pictures on the way up as I was far more focused on breathing, but here's the lad on top of the first "bubble".

The little "mountain goat" hiking his way happily across the terrain.

And the other boy who was enjoying himself but was nowhere near as enthusiastic as the smaller Chinese boy.

Rob would sometimes pride himself on taking the path less traveled, which would occasionally cause heart palpatations for his parental types.

Caleb and Mama blazing the trail.

One of SO MANY cool views!

Those low clouds moving in are a bit reminiscent of the storm that rolled in some 20 years back that I mentioned earlier.  These were not nearly as ominous looking though.

The rock that looks like it's sitting on the edge of the world.

This may be the point where Caleb was dancing, or rather, Flossing, when he stumbled and nearly went over the edge...  He thought it was quite funny and the other 3 of us had to restart our hearts.

Another angle.  Seriously can't believe that vandals haven't sent this over the edge yet...

Another view of why I love Maine.

Calebber and Dear ol' Dad!

We got them to stand mostly still and mostly smile for a pic at the top.

Ran into some other folks who were happy to take a fam pic for us!

I believe that sign says, "North Bubble Elev 9722 ft"

The sign says the same thing here.

There's hikers over there if you can squint hard enough to find them!

And so ends our hiking of North and South Bubble Rock.  Fun, fun times and the boys both enjoyed themselves, which is always a plus!