Archive for 2010

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

A Trip to the Beach

Aug

5

2010

At the risk of alienating my remaining readers with yet another recap of my family’s vacation, I am writing a recap of yet another family vacation. But don’t worry, this is a different kind of recap: little text and many photos.

About halfway between now and the last trip, we visited Lake Michigan for a week. The part of Lake Michigan we visited just happened to be connected to Maranatha.

Background Note (for those unfamiliar with Maranatha): The full name is Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference. The way I usually describe it is that it is somewhere between a resort and a campground. Or VBS for adults.

Now on to the recap:
We went to the beach

picture of the Lake Michigan beach at Maranatha

and dug holes

picture of a child digging a hole at the Lake Michigan beach at Maranatha

and chased seagulls

picture of a child chasing seagulls at the Lake Michigan beach at Maranatha

and went for long walks on the beach.

picture of mother and child walking on the Lake Michigan beach at Maranatha

Beta and I played shuffleboard

picture of a child playing shuffleboard

while Alpha painted some crafts

picture of a child filling a paint tray

There were sunsets over the lake.

picture of a sunset at the Lake Michigan beach at Maranatha

And we finished out the week with the kids’ program, where they recited the verse they learned that week and performed the song (with motions of course) that they also learned that week.

picture of the kids' program final night at Maranatha

Oh, and here is the view out our front door, over the balcony.

picture of the back of the Lodge at Maranatha

And here are the views to the left and right on the balcony. No, I did not make a panorama shot.
picture of the balcony of the Duneside Apartments at Maranathapicture of the balcony of the Duneside Apartments at Maranatha

And there was a lot of preaching. Ron Zappia was a good speaker to have that week. Or any week, for that matter. But I don’t have pictures of any of the sessions because that would be a little rude to be taking pictures during what is essentially a church service.

Conclusion: Everyone had fun (and plenty of ice cream) and no one ever wants to leave Maranatha. But leave we did. Of course, as we did after our trips to Boise and to Wisconsin, we stopped at Bob Evans for lunch on the way home. Now it’s tradition.

The end.

(Well, almost the end. There are two more smaller blog posts planned. Stay tuned.)

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:16

Posted in Travel | 6 Comments »

A Day in the Life of Boys

Aug

3

2010

“Hey look!”

picture of boys looking at a caterpillar

“A caterpillar!”

picture of boys looking at a caterpillar

“Let’s scoop it up with your Croc!”

picture of boys trying to scoop up a caterpillar

“The Croc’s not working!”

picture of boys picking up a caterpillar

Then I transported it to safety underneath a tree, away from the sidewalk. I didn’t get a good picture of the caterpillar itself, but I think it is known as the caterpillar of the polyphemus moth.

And yes, I do believe each statement was spoken with an exclamation point.

Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers;As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.

Isaiah 33:4

Posted in Life | 2 Comments »

Cheesy Pun

Aug

2

2010

Here is my contribution to the world of visual puns:

pictures of prov-together and prov-alone pun using provolone cheese

Prov-together, prov-alone.

That’s a lonely slice of provolone there.

And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.'”

Luke 4:4

Posted in Humor | 1 Comment »

Blueberry Picking

Jul

29

2010

picture of a child picking blueberriesWe went blueberry picking last weekend. Blueberries are early this year because of the heat. So we took advantage of the one nice thing about all this heat and picked a bunch of blueberries.

We had 3 buckets for the 5 of us. Yes, even Gamma picked berries. Some off the bushes, some off the ground…

picture of two children picking blueberries in the rainIt was raining when we started, but it tapered off before we were halfway through. The nice part about that was that the blueberries were then already rinsed when we picked them. But my wife rinsed them in the sink once we got home anyway. No, not actually in the sink…in the colander which was in the sink.

picture of a big container of blueberriesWe wound up with 9.5 lbs. of blueberries. And the total came to $14.06. It was really more like 10 lbs. of blueberries, because there was at least half a pound in the boys’ tummies by the time we checked out.

Let’s see… $14.06 / 9.5 = $1.48 per pound. That seems to be on the better side of the average U-pick price for blueberries.

picture of a blueberry bushThe only downside is that’s too many blueberries to eat at once. Well, we could try that, but the baby’s still in diapers and I do not want to deal with that. So we froze a few pounds of blueberries and we’ll enjoy them in the fall and winter.

Next up: raspberries! Should be ready for picking in a week or so.

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.

Matthew 12:1

Posted in Food | 2 Comments »

Devil’s Lake Photo

Jul

27

2010

I know that yesterday’s entry promised to be the last about our trip to Wisconsin Dells and Chicago. Don’t worry, this one is about photography. The subject of the photograph just happens to be a lake from our travels.

Some of you may recall that we took a trip to Devil’s Lake while we were in the Wisconsin Dells area.

My little point-and-shoot camera didn’t have a wide enough lens to capture the whole lake, so I took a few photos from different angles to get the whole scene.

Note: Most pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Here are the individual photos:
picture of Devil's Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin
picture of Devil's Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin
picture of Devil's Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin
picture of Devil's Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin
picture of Devil's Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin

And is how they look all together:

panorama photo of Devil's Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin

But I didn’t take the photos from precisely the same location. So for the panoramic photo, I had to manually align them:

panorama photo of Devil's Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin

It seems that the panoramic result is a bit skewed. The treeline looks correct but the shoreline wasn’t that curved. So I arranged the photos to match the actual view:

panorama photo of Devil's Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin

That panorama now distorts the background (treeline) and foreground (shoreline) equally. So maybe that’s the best compromise for now. Here is the final result, with spiffy finishing touches:

panorama photo of Devil's Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin

Then, after I did all that work, I learned about AutoStitch. AutoStitch is a program that will create a panorama for you.

Many photos -> Autostitch -> one big photo.

Here is the output of AutoStitch:

panorama photo of Devil's Lake near Baraboo, Wisconsin

AutoStitch doesn’t do much, but it does it well, quickly, easily, and cheaply (it’s free). And my favorite part is that it doesn’t need to install anything. You download the .zip file which contains an .exe. Run the .exe, select the few input files, and it generates an output file and soon as you click ‘Open’ on your input files.

From the top of the mountain the border curved to the spring of the waters of Nephtoah and proceeded to the cities of Mount Ephron, then the border curved to Baalah (that is, Kiriath-jearim).

Joshua 15:9

Posted in Travel | 1 Comment »

May Break – Day 6

Jul

26

2010

Continuation of a previous post

Note: Most pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Day 6 was the last day of our vacation. Because of the awful drive between Schaumberg and Chicago, I was glad that Chicago was on the way home from Schaumberg. That way, we could check out of the hotel, drive to Chicago, and not have to drive back.

Aquarium

picture of the outside of Shedd Aquarium next to Lake MichiganThe only item on our agenda for day 6 was the Shedd Aquarium. Last time, a couple years ago, we arrived at the aquarium via the train (South Shore Line). This time, driving, I noticed that it is a lot more scenic. We parked in a somewhat close lot and walked along Lake Michigan to get to the aquarium. It was scenic but very hot. It was the hottest day of the vacation, and we were glad to be spending it inside. I voted that we stay at the penguin exhibit, but we didn’t get there until later.

picture of children looking at a tank in Shedd Aquariumpicture of children looking at a tank in Shedd Aquarium

The kids enjoyed the aquarium, although Gamma never got to see exactly what he wanted to see.

We brought a lunch/snack and ate that at the main round tank in the center of building. We were going to see one of the shows, but the early ones were sold out and we didn’t want to be there too late. So we skipped the show.

After the aquarium, we enjoyed the scenic views once more:

photo of Shedd Aquarium in the foreground and the Chicago skyline in the background

photo of the Chicago skyline

Then we put the kids in my parents’ van and drove an hour or two to a restaurant for dinner. We always seem to stop at Bob Evans after vacations. We did that after coming home from Boise and we did that now after Chicago too. But they do have great prices on their kid’s meals. After dinner, we took the kids back into our van and we drove home.

Conclusion

Don’t pay full price for anything in a touristy area.

Except for Shedd Aquarium – they didn’t offer any discounts. Everything else did: Lego store (some % off with coupon), Museum of Science and Industry (buy adult pass get kid pass free), Wisconsin Duck Tour (kids free also), etc. But you must get the tourist pamphlets/maps and find the coupons.

It’s kind of like higher education – the prices are so inflated because there are so many subsidies. Everyone gets some sort of grant or scholarship, so the listed price is not indicative of the actual cost. If you find yourself in a touristy area and are wondering why the prices are so high: that should be your clue to look around for a coupon or some discount.

I give Wisconsin Dells 5 stars and Chicago 4 stars. Hey Chicago – if you want to improve your ratings, then get rid of your traffic jams and reduce your prices.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind;

Matthew 13:47

Posted in Travel | 2 Comments »

More Internet Browsing

Jul

22

2010

I left out a number of web browsers in yesterday’s post.

To make up for that, I am displaying some of their logos here. Your job for today’s post is to find the best web bowser logo.

various internet browser logos, including Bowser

No, I did not misspell “browser”. If you don’t know who Bowser is, then you probably didn’t appreciate today’s post.

Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook?Or press down his tongue with a cord?

Job 41:1

Posted in Fun | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »