2017 Week 25: Travels

Many comings and goings this week. Elijah spent all week having a blast at Miracle Camp. I was amused by how appropriate the t-shirt message is for this action shot.

Miracle Camp photo credit

Monday and Friday groups of Cornerstone summer campers made their way across the street to MadJax for a robotics demo. The students ran the show; Mike observed on the sideline.

Tuesday I went to see Mother and had another delightful visit. We read three more letters from the past; visited "Aunt Margaret" and had dinner with the ladies at her table. There is a new resident, a cheery little 82 year-old, already a great great great grandmother--María originally from Texas, speaks Spanish and lives across the hall from Mother!



Wednesday Michael and the Taylor U and PhyXTGears Thin Sat teams left early for a day trip to Morehead State University to visit the Earth and Space Sciences deprtment, the ones who will be testing the components (thin satellites, designed and made by TU and robotics students) to be launched for space exploration.

Morehead focuses solely on space engineering, so they have state of the art equipment such as this radio telescope.

Moriah is the robotics student graduate who is working full-time at Taylor on this project this summer, and will be attending TU in the fall and living with us.

While Mike was gone, friend Debbie helped me clean house in readiness for Saturday's Team 1720 social, "Koch-Out."
Rebecca helped  as well! Nanna was really sick so while Mommy went to work at Cornerstone summer camp, the busy little one sprayed and wiped deck furniture with me, each with a spray bottle.
Looks like she overworked and quickly lost appetite.

Thursday very early, it was my turn to travel. My neighbor, Petey, had invited me to join her on a bus tour of three Historic Indiana River Towns with Ambassadair--Aurora, Lawrenceburg, and Madison--two full days of very well-planned activities.

The first stop was an art studio, home of 32 local artist in Aurora, where we painted bird houses. Mine is in the center. Can you guess which one?

Next we went to the Great Crescent Brewery for a wonderful lunch and a beer bread baking demo.

Owner's wife gives bread demo; Owner tells history of the place; delicious samples, variations of the beer bread.

Then, happily well-fed, we were on our way to Greystone Farm for a very interesting presentation by a master beekeeper with the Southeastern Indiana Beekeepers Association,and honey tasting.

Master beekeeper presentation; back of display pannel; marked queen bee and her adoring subjects

Back to the historic jail and Council Chambers for a tour and to hear from Dr. Jacob Ebersole, back from the dead to tell us about his life in Aurora during the Civil War.

Historian, Ray, as Dr. Ebersole; me languishing in an old jail cell; restored early 1900's fire engine.

Aurora is called the City of Spires. I tried to capture a few of them as we rode by.

Dinner was at the Hillforest Victorian House Museum.

Dessert was in the formal dining room of the Veraestau Estate. At this location we were allowed to touch things and take pictures. Of course, I took way too many. For blog story-telling purposes I will only include one--my friend donning a hat, at my insistence, in the 1810 area of the estate.

Friday, after a good night's sleep in the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel Lawrenceberg, we headed out on a rainy day to visit Stream Cliff Herb Farm. We were only the second event in the big old barn where we heard about the family history of the place and their many events and offerings. We then blended our own potpourri.

Lunch in the tea room was delightful. I explored the gardens, chapel, shops, and gathering places and, once again, I have way too many photos. I chose one for the heading of this blog post.

The tour bus drove us to Madison and around the historic downtown including a talk by the local tourist guide. Then we had two hours to tour the fascinating city. Many chose to stay on the bus. Petey and I ventured out in the pouring rain. A favorite stop was the Galena Garlic Company where we sampled nearly all the balsamic vinagres.

Enough about my trip, well worth the money. Thank you, Petey for inviting me!

Saturday was the big day we'd long been preparing for, the team social. Good fun, food and fellowship, great way to get to know one another better--students, mentors and families.

If you made it this far--THANK YOU for reading!!!