Visiting New Places

Hello, All!
I am going through pictures, and thought of putting some on the blog. Somehow half the summer has zipped on by! Today is definitely in the "summer" category, with temps in the 90s and the humidity is almost that high. Phew!

GOAL FOR THE YEAR. Frank turned 50 this year, and he is following the example of some of our friends who had a "50 by 50" goal. Visiting all 50 states by the time you are 50 years old.

Of course, his birthday was already in March, and he still had a few left, so we are modifying the goal. "50 states by the end of the year I TURN 50," maybe it should say...? He had 6 states left, and I had 11.

WV AND KY. To help us with that goal, last weekend we went to West Virginia (for me) and Kentucky, a state neither of us had visited before. It was a fun long weekend!

yep that's our plane, and Frank's sleeve

Ha. That is, after rescheduling when our first flight was cancelled because of thunderstorms. It bumped us a day so the trip was shortened, so that was lame.

Women Veterans monument

But we flew in to West Virginia, this tiny airport.

CAPITOL BUILDING. Then we drove to Charleston, the capital of W.V. Their capitol building is being renovated so we got a cool shot of us in front of scaffolding :D

Charleston also has some really touching and elaborate war memorials. Vietnam, WWI, WWII, Women Veterans. It was awesome.

Then we drove to Kentucky--we started with Mammoth Caves, a national park that is very cool.

dome in the back is wrapped in white

HORSE RACING. Then back up to Louisville, where they hold the Kentucky Derby...that was also a fun tour and museum. It's a pretty big deal, a 2-week festival at the beginning of each May. It ends with the horse race.

All horses who race must be 3 years old.

All horses age to the next year on January 1, no matter what their actual birthday is. So they aim to have horses born early in the year, to give them more time to grow, mature, and train.

race track

LINCOLN's BIRTHPLACE. Can't forget about this cool national monument! Lincoln is someone I would like to meet and talk to in the next life. Such a pivotal part he played in the shaping of our country.

steps leading up to the monument...

inside is a replica of the cabin where
Abe Lincoln was born

SLUGGER MUSEUM. And it's also home of the Louisville Slugger, where you can tour the manufacturing plant and see the museum and history. Family-owned for 120 years! Very cool.

nope we don't know these kids but you can
see the size of the glove!

I just looked it up, tho, and they were bought out 4 years ago by Wilson Sporting Goods, which is actually Chinese-owned. (Of course it is)...they didn't include THAT in the tour... haha!

before they are carved into bats

"Bat Vault" -- these are famous
or something

120 FOOT TALL BAT!

Anyway they have a gargantuan baseball bat in front of the museum.

We had a nice stay at a Bed & Breakfast in Louisville, and went to church in one of their congregations there. Flew home, so Frank could turn around and go to Denver for work the next day.

Kids update:
We get to see Teresa in a week! She's coming to visit. Her job in Salt Lake will go through August, and she's taking a few days to come visit us in humid Massachusetts :)

David finished his internship downtown and now has a "seasonal" job for a few weeks, with the Wayland Department of Public Works. Basically landscaping, on town projects for the 5 (or 6?) more weeks left before school starts the end of August. His LAST semester at BYU is approaching!

Kara will work through August too, same job. This week she had her orientation at USC, a 2-day overnight program where they stayed in dorms for 1 night, and also met with counselors to figure out class schedules.

I get to spend 3 days at camp this week, helping cook meals for 180 youth! It's a big group since we combined stakes.

Have a great week!
Kari