A Fun Day at the Museum

Last Friday, Marilyn had a day off, so we decided to take a trip to San Diego. We have wanted for some time to see the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit, so we booked tickets to the SD Museum of Natural History. The photography and history of the scrolls was fascinating. And then actually seeing those documents that were on display was awesome. We were amazed once again how God has protected His Word through the ages.

Since no photography was allowed in the exhibit area, we'll just have to encourage each of you to go and enjoy the experience for yourselves!

After a light lunch, we explored the dinosaur museum (and also loved watching all the excited little kids as they explored the area!). Jim made a new friend...
So did Marilyn...
We watched another pendulum--that makes two in one week...
We wandered through the beautiful grounds and buildings surrounding the museum. This whole area is part of Balboa Park (located next to the famous SD Zoo), and it is really a beautiful area.The pools were clear and reflective of the serene surroundings...

The botanical garden house was filled with beautiful plants...

The swaying palm trees provided a lovely backdrop for the architecture that is so unique to this area...
The towering trees provided nice shade in the sunshine. Later in the afternoon, we visited Old Town. Unfortunately, we didn't remember to charge the battery for our camera, so we had to take many pictures "in our mind" instead of with the camera! Hopefully, we can capture some of the sights of old town San Diego, and other interesting places, on our next trip south! We had a wonderful day out!

Tesla Coil

One of the most fastinating exhibits that we saw that evening was the Tesla Coil. Fortunately, we were among the five people in that area that got to see how it operated.

A trip to Griffith Park

Last week, while our son Jamie was attending an inservice in our area, we decided to do something that we had talked about doing earlier this year--to visit the Griffith Observatory in LA! The past few years, the Observatory has been under renovation and just recently re-opened. On Tuesday evening, after Jamie was finished with his classes, he came by our house and drove us to Griffith Park.
After winding our way up the mountainside (by shuttle bus), we arrived at the Observatory, just as the sun was setting. On the way up the hill, we drove by some of the area where wildfires devastated the park earlier this summer. What a blessing that many of the old, towering trees in the center of the park were spared from the fires!
As we walked toward the Observatory, we looked across the valley to our right. The last rays of the sunset provided a beautiful backdrop for this famous "Hollywood" mountain.

Immediately after arriving in the building, we purchased tickets for the evening planetarium show. Then we had a few moments to look at our surroundings. This mural on the entrance ceiling reminded us of some of the cathedrals that we'd visited in Europe.

Suspended from the center of that beautifully painted dome, hung this huge Foucault pendulum, aptly showing once again that our planet tilts on its axis as it moves around our sun. It was almost hypnotic to watch it slowly swinging back and forth...

The highlight of the evening, of course, was the Samuel Oschin Planetarium show (sorry, no photography allowed). It was awesome, and highly recommended to all! Once again, the words of the psalmist came to my mind,

"O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens! When I look at the night sky and see the work of Your fingers--the moon and the stars You set in place--what are mere mortals that You should care for them? Yet You made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor!" (Psalm 8)

Because we arrived later in the evening, we didn't have lots of time to spend looking around at all the exhibits. We'll just have to go back another time and spend the better part of a day there so we can see it all! In the next post, I'll share one of the most interesting displays that we saw.

After the planetarium show, we walked out onto the balcony overlooking the city. As far as the eye could see, there were lights. So many people in one place on earth! The view was spectacular!

An evening in Redlands

One of the last evenings that Lisa was with us, we traveled out to visit J&K. Later we went to the open market and street fair in Redlands. We enjoyed the warm night and also the food from the various vendors along the street. Lots of interesting things to buy--but we refrained...except for the food.

Fun times in SoCal

Since Lisa is only here for this week, we have tried to share some of the fun and beautiful sights of southern California with her. After her hard day of study at the UCI library, we drove down to Huntington Beach to enjoy the beach and the sounds of the surf.
The sun had already set before we arrived at the beach, but we were still able to enjoy the warm evening breeze and the night life all around us.
Sorry for the blurriness of this photo, but it kind of shows you the pier just down from where we were sitting on the beach. The soothing sounds of the waves were very relaxing...

This evening, we went to the "Block of Orange" a beautiful outdoor mall in Orange, CA. After we ate supper, we did some shopping. It was just fun strolling down the different walkways, popping into the various shops, and just watching people! AND, Lisa even found some great buys! (We also had to splurge on some chocolate delicacies!)
Another fun place to visit at the "Block" was the skate park at Vans. We enjoyed watching the kids on their skateboards performing tricks.
On our drive back to the house, we were treated to the Disneyland Fireworks show! (Every evening, at about 9:30, Disneyland has a seven minute Fireworks show. We can always hear the explosions from our house, but are unable to see the display in the sky. Tonight, as we drove home, we saw and heard the show!)

Our niece comes to visit

Yesterday, our niece Lisa came to spend the week with us. She is doing research for her thesis at a nearby university library. She will be studying hard during the day and hopefully can enjoy seeing some of our SoCal sights in the evenings!
Jamie and Lisa haven't seen each other in several years, so they enjoyed some "catching up time" yesterday.

Birds and Trees...

About two months ago, I was startled one day by a "knocking" near the front door. When I went to investigate, I discovered this little bird pecking at the window next to the front door. We have no idea what kind of bird she is, but she comes daily now and notifies us of her presence throughout the day, by gently tapping on the window pane. She no longer limits herself to the front door, now she also pecks at the kitchen window and also the corner window in the family room. (We have tried unsuccessfully for over a month to get a picture of her, and finally today Jim succeeded!) We do not know what she sees inside the house, but she loves to let us know that she is "on the outside and looking in!"

In our backyard, we have 4 fruit trees. The avocado tree is small and will not produce fruit this year. But the apple persimmon tree (below) is loaded with fruit. This was a new fruit to us before we moved here, but we learned to appreciate the taste and are looking forward to later this fall when the fruit will be ready to eat. (It turns a bright red when ripe.)
Shortly after we moved to California, our good friends Steve and Doreen brought us a "welcome" gift that only "fellow africans" could appreciate--a guava tree! We actually planted it the week before our cold spell in January (when we had frost for three nights in a row), and were afraid that we had killed the tree. But several months later, this hearty little guava tree burst forth with leaves.
All summer long, we have been watering and nursing it along, and are pleased with the growth that it has made. Last week, as I was peering out the kitchen window, I noticed little blossoms on the tree!

I actually counted nine flowers on this little tree! We are amazed that the tree would bear fruit in this first year, but we honestly don't know how old the tree really is. It is just fun to watch the progress as this little tree grows.

We also have a little orange tree, that gave us a few oranges (very sweet and juicy) last winter, shortly after we moved into this house. The tree has a lot of fruit on it compared to its small size. We even had to prop up one of the main branches, as the oranges were weighing it down too much!

Big News!

It's official! We are going to be grandparents next spring! A few weeks ago, Jamie and Krista presented us with these bibs that we will be pleased to use on babyE come next March. We are very excited!

This last week, our ladies group planned a "Christmas in July" party with a western theme! We tried to dress in accordance with the western theme, and it was fun to see the creative outfits that were modeled. Even though it was a hot day (and evening) we had a great time, and it was truly warm fellowship!

The youngest "cowgirls" loved "panning for gold" (I don't know what treasures were hidden under all that rice, but they certainly were entertained for a long time~)
There were also pony races--the youngest ones stole the show, even if they didn't win the race!
Of course, the older cowgirls also had to race their ponies...
We had lots of sweet snacks to choose from: sassefrass floats, cowpie cakes, etc. Lots of sugar and spice and everything nice...just like our precious little ranch hand above!

We ended our evening with a devotional (the Christmas story), reflecting anew on the Savior's birth and why He came to this earth; and then we exchanged "white pony" gifts.