Friday, October 15, 2010

Just a reminder note: The cutoff for the free BodyTalk session is Monday, November 22nd, at 9:00 AM. All you have to do, if you'd like a chance to win this free session, is to go to my blog post called CELEBRATING TWO YEARS and leave a comment.

Someone asked me, "How DO I leave a comment?" It's really very simple. Go to the bottom of that post and find the little pencil. Click on the pencil and that will bring up the page to post a comment on. Type your comment inside the white box and then you'll need to identify yourself. If you have a blog of your own, just use that information and if you don't, click on the anonymous box. Then there will be a jumbled up word that you need to retype. Andrew said that this requirement is so that they know this is a real person, who can read..., who is making the post. Then, when you are happy that everything is written as you'd like it to be, click on the bottom of that page where it says that you want to submit the comment.

Sometimes, if you type something wrong, it will show you a new word that you need to type in. Type in the new word and re-submit your comment. When everything is correct, a yellow box will come up on the top of the page saying, "Your comment will be approved after blog owner approval," for those who have their blogs set up that way. Others have theirs set up to automatically approve all comments and then you'll see in the yellow box on the top of the page, "Your comment will appear on the site in a few moments" or something like that. Either way, you need to look for that yellow box on the top of the page to know that your comment has been sent to the blog.

Now, to enter my free-session giveaway, all you need to do is submit any comment on the CELEBRATING TWO YEARS post. You don't even need to say that you want to win the session as ALL comments are considered for eligibility. You could even say, "BodyTalk stinks" and, if your name is drawn, you'll win the session. Of course, I'll do everything within my power to make you change your mind. :)

At first I was going to close the drawing yesterday at dark. However, my intuition tells me that not all have entered who intended to enter. People are busy, I know, and so I am extending this opportunity until Monday morning at 9:00. PLEASE BE IN PRAYER AS TO WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE TO ENTER THE DRAWING. This can truly be life-changing as my friend, Kimberly, tells me who won the drawing last year. I will be praying that God will move in the hearts of anyone out there who is yet to enter and now on to my post.


Friday, October 15th of this year was one of the most exciting days of my entire life! As you may recall, our wonderful children sent Robert and I away for a whole week in honor of our 30th wedding anniversary. They knew that, if they left it up to us, we probably wouldn't think that we "Deserved" a whole week away from the farm. Truthfully it was the first week that we have taken off in 30 years, so I guess it was time for a break.


This day began VERY early. We got up at 3:30 IN THE MORNING; packed our breakfast and lunch; and got into our little Ford Focus that we were renting for the week. We left the hotel parking lot at 4:00 AM. We were utterly shocked to see that the 6 lanes of highway that ran past the hotel was completely EMPTY. I had to take a picture to remember it by--NOT ONE SINGLE CAR FOR BLOCKS AND BLOCKS!!!!!! Finally, when we got closer to the freeway, we did see 2 other early-risers coming towards us, but we had all 3 lanes on our side to ourselves!

We had a 2 hour drive ahead of us for we were heading for the Napa Valley. It was still dark when we arrived in Napa which made it difficult to find our destination--I lost track of how many times we were lost. The business signs which we were instructed to look for were not lit up so, after 3 phone calls to Rosie, we finally made it to the parking lot of the Napa General Store where we were to meet. Rosie said, "Look for a bunch of white vans and that's where we're at." Finally we found them with only 2 minutes to spare.

There were muffins and hot chocolate inside this hallway. Even though I knew that it was pushing the starch bites to the max, I stuffed my pockets with 4 muffins and met up with Robert who was signing the papers that were necessary for us to enjoy the upcoming dream of a lifetime event. We jumped in the back of one of the vans and nibbled our muffins in the dark as the vans carried us through the early morning darkness to our destination. "Who cares about starch bites," I reasoned, "I'm on vacation!"

THIS WAS OUR DESTINATION! For as long as I can remember I have dreamed of going up in a hot air balloon. I think it began when I was a little girl and we were watching, "The Wizard of Oz." I was simply terrified of the wicked witch and I absolutely loved the way that Dorothy got back home in a hot air balloon. So, yes, in case you didn't guess it yet--we went up in a hot air balloon like this one.

Wouldn't you know it, though, for some reason our balloon was the one with the difficulties. We were told that we could climb into the balloon, so we did. We were in the wicker basket for about 10 minutes when I noticed our pilot grimace at one of the men in the land crew and he said something to him. Then the man in charge on the ground announced to us, "Sorry, folks, but there's something wrong with the balloon so you all need to get out of the basket."

We all crawled out then and waited some more in the chilly, morning air. In the meantime, other of the balloons in our field (for that is where we were taking off from) got up in the air. I got some great shots as the morning air grew lovely with more and more of these lovely air vessels. It was all so peaceful and, oh, so beautiful.

It took about 10 minutes and then we were told that we could all crawl into the basket again. There was a tense moment while we watched our pilot's face. He groaned a big groan and said, "I'm sorry, folks, but it just is not sealing up. I need you to all crawl out and we need to lay the balloon down AGAIN." BIG GROANS FROM ALL 16 OF US PASSENGERS.

This time, while we waited, I wandered back to where the vans were parked as I had noticed that they had some rather interesting license plates. I got a picture of the most interesting ones and will post them throughout this short story.

I'm sure that you saw, "Love goin' high," in this one. How about this one.

"Be up 'n flyin" "YES," I thought, "That's what we're waitin' for!!!!!"

I went back to Robert to see how things were progressing with repairing the leak.

"Might as well go take some more pictures of license plates," he said.

"Love 2 go up," I read, and wondered what it would be like to have a life-time dream come true.
Then I got curious. "What on earth IS the problem?" I wondered as I noticed that ours was the only balloon left on the ground.

I walked closer to the balloon and, seeing as nobody noticed me, I walked right up to it as it lay on it's side on the ground. Finally I saw that the piece of Velcro that held that little piece of fabric shut had come lose. Our pilot kept shooting blasts of propane up towards it until finally the fabric pushed hard enough against the Velcro and the hole was closed. HOORAY!

This is what those blasts of propane in the early morning darkness looked like.

Finally, just as the sun began to show it's face over the Napa Valley,

we were told for the third time that we could climb up into the wicker basket--just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

You can see the places where we put our feet in to climb up into the baskets. The men went in first and then assisted their wives as we put our legs over the top and slid down into the basket. There were 5 compartments in the basket. Each outside compartment held 2 couples and the pilot was in the middle compartment with his propane tanks and other equipment.

Just before we took off, one of the workers named Donna, came around and took each of our pictures. As we learned quickly enough, all of the tourist traps do this at the beginning of their events. As you near the end of your experience, you're presented with a beautiful picture of you which you can purchase for ONLY $20. Most places also offered a 4 X 6 for an additional $10. I am happy to say that we did NOT resist the temptation to buy the pictures of our hot-air balloon ride. I have looked at it hundreds of times since then and if you should happen to come by for a visit, you can see them too.

I have a couple more license plates pictures to show you before I take you up in the air to show you the ride of my life.

WE LOVE FLYN!!

"I see you flyin."

UP, UP, AND AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the inside view of our balloon as we took off.

Our nearest neighbors,

our pilot, Scott,

Donna, whom we left behind on the ground but whom we'd see again as we landed,

and Robert at my side, all made this an unforgettable memory that I will cherish forever. Yes, this IS taken up in the air by our neighbors on the other side of the basket. Everyone was taking each other's pictures to show to loved ones later on.

This is another picture of Scott who has flown hot-air balloons for 17 years. Later, after we'd landed, I asked him how one learns and he said that there actually is a school to learn how to fly hot air balloons.

Here you can see how high we were as you measure the size of the vehicles on the road far below us.

This is a closer view of one of the grape fields which stretched out as far as you could see.

Donna, the gal that we talked to from BALLOONS OVER THE VALLEY, told us that there are 4 companies who send up balloons on a regular basis. She said that altogether these 4 companies own 17 balloons. These are some of the competitor's. That is the shadow of our balloon to the right.

Scott, our pilot, was talking quite a bit with our ground crew. Each balloon had it's own ground crew. I heard him say once, "I see you guys by the trailer court." A little later we flew over this.

We stayed between 1,000 and 3,000 feet of elevation depending on the wind currents. This would be a good place to put in that we learned why the flights must take place in the mornings.

You see, as the earth cools overnight, the air separates into different layers of air with varying temperatures. This allows the ballonist to go in different directions. If he is going too far in one direction, he can give the balloon a burst of hot air and raise to another layer of air which will take him in the direction that he wants to go. Isn't that awesome?

As the day warms up, these layers of air get mixed together and eventually disappear. This means that there would be no way for the pilot to have some control over where he is going which, obviously, could be dangerous. We learned that no smart hot-air balloon pilot would be caught in the sky after 11:00 in the morning--in California that is. Things may well be different in different parts of the world.

Basically, the way it feels up there is that the pilot warms the air with the torch; the balloon rises and floats along in that level of air. As the air in the balloon cools down, the balloon drops until you're in another blanket of air going another direction. If the pilot doesn't wish to go that direction, he gives the balloon a lift by blasting some more hot air from the propane torch upwards and away you go. This is a closeup of the park as we had dropped considerably here.

I know that we're not supposed to love things but I did find myself saying to Robert, "Oh look, I love that house. Doesn't it look a little bit like our Temvik house?"

This house reminded me of what our Temvik house looks like in our imaginations. We started building on it 19 years ago, but never finished it as a chance to rent a farm came up 12 years ago and we left it unfinished. I'll have to find a picture of that house to share sometime. Had we finished it, the house would have been somewhat like the front of this house.

This is the inside of our balloon with the flap fixed.

After about an hour and a half of the most incredible experience I'd ever had up in the air, I heard Scott say to our land crew, "How does Abruzzini Park look?" It must have looked good, because soon we saw it from the air,

and soon we landed our balloon in it.

Scott said, "Now don't go hopping out of here folks. We need you." We all chuckled understanding that our weight was needed to keep the balloon on the ground until some of the air could be let out--lest we get a flight that we didn't want to take.

Donna appeared at our corner of the basket and asked how we liked our flight. I just LOVED it!!At a certain point it was safe to get out of the whicker basket, so out we came. Donna told us that there was a land crew member on the other side of the balloon who was stretching it out. She was laughing as she told us that the young man right up against the balloon wasn't too happy just then.

Donna said that the young man twisted the fabric tighter and tighter forcing the air out of the balloon. His assistant was supposed to come behind him and help with the twisting process as it takes a LOT of energy to do this. Donna told us that the first man had been trying to get it done in just one minute all Summer long. He hadn't done it yet and his new assistant wasn't doing much to help him to reach his goal. :)

Here's another license plate that I caught as we made our way back to the vans.

"Love to go higher." NO KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The balloon company then took us back to the Napa General Stored for a brunch buffet. We found our tables by finding our pictures. I simply could NOT resist taking one of them home but we decided that one was enough. We also were given an ink pen with their business name on it. Now, I've never been much into reading logos on ink pens, but I smile every time that I pick that one up. :)

Now, if you ever have a chance to go on a hot-air balloon ride, TAKE IT! It's very difficult to describe what it's like, but I would say that it was the most peaceful exerperinece of my life! Several people have asked me, after I showed them our picture, "Weren't you scared?" Do you know that not once did I ever think to be scared. I TOTALLY LOVED BEING UP HIGH FLOATING OVER THE NAPA VALLEY!!! It is one of life's experiences that measured up to my expectations of it. I have never felt that kind of peace before and the $400 that it cost was definitely worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! at least once!

From there, Robert and I headed out to find none other than the Jelly Belly factory. FOR REAL! Here it is!

They give free tours, so we got in line. Of course, nobody is allowed to go through the factory without receiving their very own free Jelly Belly paper cap which you are REQUIRED to wear. I'm not sure why as the whole plant was enclosed in glass. Here's my sweetie with his.

I'm sorry to say that no pictures were allowed inside the factory--lest me give them to the competition. I have always wanted to tour a factory ever since watching Mr. Roger's tours with the children years ago. It was very neat to see the steps that the cancy goes through. At one point the robot, who was moving the trays filled with 30,000 jelly belly candies, stopped his work and "Waved" at us in the upper level. It was so cute.

To me, the most amazing part of the factory was it's hall of fame. There were about 75 of these large pictures made completely of Jelly Bellys. This is our former president, Ronald Reagon, who was mentioned in the tour as being a great promoter of their candy. I can't recall now how many truckloads of them they had hauled to the White House for his inaguration. I also snapped John Wayne which you can see at Jacob's blog.

When the tour was over, we found ourselves here in the Jelly Belly store. They have some marvelous fudge, which we sampled, but felt that we could live without $3.50 a piece fudge. However, we found a rack full of 2 pound bags of candies. These were the ones that were not perfect in some way. Some were a little small; some a little large; some a little round instead of oblong; and some (GASP) failed to receive the Jelly Belly stamp.

We both laughed when we saw the name that the company had chosen for these less-than-perfect candies which still taste the way they were intended. I'm chuckling now as I think of how we enjoyed those BELLY FLOPS for several weeks after our return home.

At last there was no more candy to be seen, or taste tested, and with our Belly Flops in a mammoth bag we headed out the door. That was when Robert begged me to take this picture. Now he's not one to beg for a picture but certainly you can see why this one just HAD to be taken. WOW--NOW THAT'S SOME PICKUP!

Robert took my picture under the big sign overhead, but he had to get so far back to get it that I looked like a midget. I'll spare you that picture and take you to an awesome picture that I took of the fog.

We had a nice time chatting about all that we'd seen and done. As we neared the city, however, I got a little spooked. Just up ahead I saw something that looked like smoke--a LOT of it. "WHAT IS THAT?" I asked Robert. He was puzzled too until he figured it out--then he started laughing.

"That is the FOG that you always hear rolls in from the ocean," he answered. I got some great pictures then as we watched the weather change from sunny and warm to drizzly and cool INSTANTLY!

I see that I neglected to put in the picture of the Golden Gate Bridge lost in the fog. Oh well, I will just add them when I post about the bridge itself. It truly is quite an experience to go over it--especially in the fog when you can't see if it's still there or not.

After we paid our $6 toll for use of the bridge, we made our way towards an educational part of the city. Cora had highly recommended that we tour the San Francisco Academy of Sciences, so that is where we were headed.

Now, this is the only time that Robert and I were truly frustrated in regards to our location. We just could NOT find the street that we were supposed to get off on. I lost track of how many times we turned around in an attempt to find the street. Finally we realized that we were ON it, but it just wasn't marked. Actually, very few of the streets in this lovely part of the city were marked. I told a native of the area the next day that we kept getting lost because the streets just were not marked. She smiled and said, "Yes, but that is such a lovely place to get lost in." ):

Finally we found the area but we only had 2 hours to decide between the art museum and the science museum. We chose the science museum as Cora had highly recommened it. Other than all of the evolution rubbish, the place was quite astounding with 2 huge domes inside the building.

First, again following Cora's suggestion that we must not miss it, we went inside the planetarium which deserves a post of its own. It was a huge auditorium with the whole ceiling being a screen representing the heavens. This was incredible but, to be honest, we were both so tired at that point. We took turns poking each other to keep awake. :)

There were aquariums everywhere in San Francisco. I think that this was my favorite. There were all kinds of yellow fish in here and it was HUGE! It took up the whole corner of 2 walls and I asked Robert to take my picture here.

This was a cool demonstration of the earth's being in motion. This massive ball, slowly moved it's way around a circle every day. As it moved, it knocked down small pegs that were re-set every morning. We decided not to wait to see a peg get knocked down as there was much to be seen here. Again, the evolution theary was represented as truth everywhere here. ):

Aren't these little penguins cute?

Like I said, there were 2 large domes inside the building. This is looking up at the rood of one of them.

This is an aquarium that Robert couldn't resist gazing into.

Up at the top of the dome, you find the butterflies. There were hundreds of butterflies all around in this tropical environment. THEY WERE HUGE!!!

We were enjoying the lovely butterflies, when we heard the announcement that the building would be closing in 15 minutes. Before we could take the elevator down to first floor, though, we were requested to check if any of the butterflies had landed on us and to gently brush them off if they did. Finding none, they let us get on the elevator.

This is the last picture that I took here. I am so glad that these beasts don't live on the earth with US.

This was a community amphitheather that I thought was so lovely.

Looking down the central corrider of the complex, we saw 3 of these lovely fountains.

We were tired now, so we headed home for the El Camino Reel in San Bruno. It did NOT look like it did when we left it at 4 AM.

After getting safely back into our parking lot, Robert and I unwound by walking across the street to get a few pictures of our hotel. I'll make a seperate post of our hotel later, but I'll just say that I was so happy to be on foot instead of in one of those cars in those 6 lanes of traffic. I simply loved being in California, but the traffic was VERY unnerving.

We headed back to our room to unwind a little bit and to talk about what to do for supper. We had been eating out of our refrigerator all week and it was time for a Sabbath feast. All week, I'd been feeling led to check out the restaurant, Celia's, which was on the other side of those 6 lanes of traffic. Did I want to check it out badly enough to have to cross on foot those 6 lanes of traffic AGAIN? The answer is, "Yes."

This is what I had. It was the larges enchilada I ahve ever seen. I still can't believe that I found room for it all but I was VERY hungry after a big day of touristing. :)

This is how I looked after 16 hours of adventure. It was so loud in there that it would have been impossible to sleep, but it didn't take long after we walked back across the street to our room. It was an incredible exciting day but it was the only time that I was truly homesick for the children. It just didn't feel right to be in California on Sabbath feast night. I was so thankful for technology that night as I feasted my eyes on the children on the laptop. In minutes after my head hit the pillow, I was out.

Now it is another Sabbath and my precious Cora is the one who isn't with us. She's in good hands, though, as she went to visit the Weichmann family near Lemmon, SD. My guys are anxious to get to playing Andrew's new game, so I'd best finish this up.

I hope that you enjoyed being a part of my life as you read this! It was a trip down memory lane I'll take again and again as long as I live.

Blessings for a wonderful new week!

Dawn