Nickajack Cave

We took the kids to Coolidge Park in Chattanooga and to Nickajack Caves this evening.  Emily Stone and her three adorable children met us there.  The caves are home to one of the largest bevies of gray bats in the eastern USA.  It is also the place where Johnny Cash had a transforming encounter with God.

TGIF

Its Friday.  I spent the morning at the Seminary.  My sister Shirley drove up from Atlanta and spent the afternoon with us.

Blue Hole

We took the kids to the Blue Hole this afternoon.  Charlie is fearless.  Camdyn took a few minutes to accept swimming in a river but soon became a fish.

Journey Home

We drove home today.  Cheryl rode with Alethea and the kids except Charlie rode with me the first couple of hours.  We stopped at Natural Bridge, Virginia to visit the Toy Museum.  It is an iteresting collection of dolls and toys, but not one I would highly recommend.  One of Alethea's neighbors just inherited it an we stopped in for support.  The Natural Bridge interprise includes tours of the natural bridge, a wax museum and factory, the toy museum, a hotel, and a gift and snack shop.  It was worth the stop just for the ice cream. 

Overheard

Cheryl and I were walking through Central Park when two middle-aged, well-to-do power walkers passed us.  One said, "No I'm not getting one of those.  I wouldn't have a dog smaller than 60 pounds.  Anything less than 60 pounds isn't a dog. It's just a rodent."

When we got to Alethea's we gave Camdyn and Charlie their gifts.  Charlie had just gotten his Lego set open and explored when he looked at Cheyl and with disappointment said, "Nanny, I like Legos with weapons."

New York - Day 6

We left New York this afternoon.  The morning was spent cleaning the apartment and packing.  We walked up to Madison and 90th but the shop Cheryl wanted was closed.  We had a nice lunch at the same diner where we had beakfast a few days ago.  We hailed a cab at 1:30 (first picture of Cheryl) and boarded our bus at 2:30.  We arrived at Union Station in Washington at 7:10.  Alethea, Camdyn, and Charlie were waiting for us.  We played "I see something (color)" on the ride to Haymarket.

New York - Day 5

Today, we alked through Central Park on our way to Line 1 of the subway.  We took the subway to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhatten.  From there we took a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  I bought the tickeys on-line which is the best way to go.  You get reserve tickets which shortens the wait time once you get there.  However, purchase them well in advance.  You have to purchase special tickets to enter the statue and an additional ticket to climb the stairs to the cown of the statue.  They must be purchased before you get on the ferry.  They were sold out sometime before I purchased our tckets on Saturday.  We stopped at 59th street on the ride back to the apartment for some shopping.  Joy to the world, another fifteen blocks of walking. 

The photos reveal it was was a cloudy and hazy day.  I also recommend the rental of the audio tour.  It provides insight to the immigrant experience.  Also, don't miss the free movie on Ellis Island.  It is a good intro to the tour.

New York - Day 4

There are no pictures today.  We went to worship this morning here at the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (see Jackie Speaks).  We planned to go to the Times Square Church this evening but it stormed and we are several blocks from the subway.  After the rain I took Cheryl out so she could score a fix, i.e., her daily walk through Central Park.  It calms her down.  We ended up walking down to 60th Street and over to 2nd Avenue.  The restaurant had a long wait so we went looking for a bakery, all the way up to 77th Street.  That's 17 blocks down and 17 back and five or six blocks both ways east and west.  Cheryl tries to walk 4 miles every day.  The walk eded up costing me $50.00 in stops at a bakery, a deli and a boutique.  Cheryl had a great time; she "forgot" her purse in the apartment.

New York - Day 3

Today, we took the subway to the Staten Island Ferry and road over to Staten Island to see Danny and Rachel Alrarez. Rachel prepared a wonderful Thai meal for us. It was close to 5 when we got back. We stayed in an watched a movie.

New York - Day 2

We had a wonderful day: late breakfast at a local diner, a few hours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, walk through Central Park, afternoon nap, fabulous dinner on 44th Street, stroll to Times Square and down to Grand Central Station and back, climaxed with going to see Denzel Washington in the play "Fences," followed by a leisurely walk back to the apartment (4 blocks over, 25 blocks up).

New York - Day 1

On Day One we had breakfast in the apartment.  At mid-morning we went out and walked through Central Park, caught the subway south to 66th Avenue, went to Best Buy to purchase a camera (Someone has misplaced my travel camera), dropped in at the American Bible Society and spent a few minutes with Lamar Vest and Debbie Davis, had lunch at an Indian restaurant (Sapphire), walked south twenty blocks looking for the theater where Denzel Washington is playing (didn't find it), and walked back thirty one blocks.  In the afternoon it rained (hard) so we took naps.  This evening we walked through Central Park (see picture of Cheryl -- it was muggy) to the west side where we purchased milk shakes (the Shake Shack -- no kidding).  I took the picture of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (where we are staying) when we returned. 

Cheryl

Short Visit with Camdyn & Charlie

On my way up to New York I spent one evening with Alethea, Justin, Camdyn, and Charlie.  I gained a couple of words of wisdom.

When I first arrived I met the family at a restaurant where Camdyn's soccer team was having their year end celebration (Justin was the Assistant Coach).  I picked Charlie up in my left arm and Camdyn in my right arm for hugs and carried them into the restaurant.  As we were walking in I commented, "My, you kids are getting big."

Camdyn replied "I know I am, Papa."

"How do you know that," I asked.

"Because your arm is really shaking, Papa," came her response.  I'll just blame my fragility on the virus Cheryl brought back from Sweden.  I'm getting a lot of milage out of that virus.

Yesterday morning I played trains with Charlie and Camdyn.  Each engine has a name and therefore a gender.  Camdyn loves to organize them according to gender and size.  She lined all of the female engines up from smallest to largest.  If my bones were not aching so much sitting on the floor I might of had the presence of mind to explore her thought processes.  Charlie was not at all interested in his sister's ability to sequence and catagorize.  He just knew she was taking his cars off his track.

After Camdyn went to school Charlie and I went to his room to play with blocks, again on the floor.

At one point during the visit Charlie said something about Johnny Cash.  He informed me he had never seen the Man in Black and wanted to know if I had.  He wants to visit the bat caves at Nickajack Lake where "Johnny Cash died."  Somehow he has reached that conclusion from a Cash video he watches.  In the conversation he instructed me, "If you want to see Johnny Cash you will have to go to heaven.  That's where he sings now."

My thoughts went to a comment I heard Cash's son make about him, "my Dad was the most Godly of great sinners who ever lived."  I hope I hear him sing in person someday, unless he went down to that other "burning ring of fire."