July trips

As the rains from former Hurricane Barry fall upon us in southeastern Arkansas, I'm taking advantage of the wet weather to catch up on the adventures of Bragg Family South over the past month.  The picture above is one of several I took to be sure I've got a current photo of my crew in my cell phone to share with friends and family...the kids grow so fast that an image from even 6 months ago isn't very relevant!

The pictures below are from an exhibit at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center (https://www.mosaictemplarscenter.com/) in Little Rock on African-Americans in the Arkansas timber industry that I helped advise them on the development of, and contributed historical pictures and other materials:

The top picture is a display of the Crossett Lumber Company's operations in the 1920s, with a small working scale train and a number of associated images.  The picture below is of an old (1950s?) vintage 2-man chainsaw with a very long bar that was used to cut the huge cypress trees in the bottomlands of eastern Arkansas.  This exhibit will continue into the fall, so if you get a chance to visit, take advantage of it!

We also took advantage of an offer of some friends of ours to pick freshly ripened blueberries from their patch:

Blueberry picking is not as common or popular down here in the south as it is up north, but these were still very good, and worth all the bug bites we got picking them!  The picture below is of Stephen and his grandfather Rich Pruden picking cherries in southwestern Michigan:

I took this picture a couple weeks ago when Stephen and I were visiting Rich...If you remember from last month's post, I had made a business trip up north and we visited family as part of separate trips...Well, more of the same to report for this July!  We had similarly complicated travel plans that emerged because of a combination of work and family needs.  I had to be in Auburn (Alabama) for a week to get a new scientist in one of my units hired, and that exact same week Hope was taking Beth and Kenny (and dozens of other 4H kids and chaperones) on a trip to Washington, D.C.  That meant we needed to find someone to keep an eye on Stephen...He couldn't be with me at Auburn, and he was too young to join the rest of the 4H group.

Our solution--I drove Stephen up to Rich's place in Michigan, and then caught a flight out of the Detroit airport to Atlanta, from which I rented a car to drive to Auburn.  Stephen and I drove up right before the 4th of July and spent several days on several different adventures...Below is a picture of an old pickup truck at the cherry orchard we visited that has become overgrown with vegetation:

On the same trip to the cherry orchard we drove a few miles further west to Warren Dunes, a state park on the shores of Lake Michigan known for its towering sand dunes and nice beaches.  Below, the pictures of these dunes do not do their size justice:

The picture above makes them look only a few times taller than Rich, but in reality they are probably a couple hundred feet tall--the picture below from the wooded patch near the top shows this better...

You can see the packed swimming beach in the distance...Below, Stephen catches his breath from the arduous trudge up the steep, shifting sand face...The sun was pretty intense that day, and it was warm and muggy...We had planned to swim at the beach, but so had hundreds and hundreds of other visitors...so we opted for the car's air conditioner and some ice cream later!

So I left Stephen with Rich and flew back south...Stephen and Rich had their own big adventure, going over into Canada and driving up along the east side of Lake Huron over a couple of days.  They tent camped one night, and did touristy things during the days, including:

Taking selfies:

Hiking trails:

Hunting fossils (a partial trilobite Stephen found):

Enjoying the sunrise:

and a car ferry adventure:

In the meantime, while I was in Auburn, and Stephen and Rich were in Ontario, Hope, Beth, and Kenny were "representing" Arkansas 4H in Washington, D.C.:

This was an annual trip 4H hosts for high school students to get exposed to citizenship and activities in Washington.  So, needless to say, there were a lot of visits to monuments, museums, and other similar programs:

The U.S. Capitol, of course:

The National Cathedral:

Plenty of veteran monuments:

And, of course, another mainstay of a D.C. visit--a swing past the Forest Service's Washington Office!

Beth found plenty of chances to ham things up:

But she was also a good trooper when it comes to schmoozing with politicians:

The gentleman in the black suit she is standing by is Senator John Boozman, one of the Arkansas senators...the 4H group also got to meet all of the rest of the Arkansas congressional delegation (politicians love photo ops with 4H kids!!!).

Everyone is pretty tired from our adventures...we all arrived back in Arkansas yesterday afternoon or evening.  Hope, Beth, and Kenny are probably the most exhausted--they rode to and from D.C. in a charter bus, which didn't lend itself to good sleeping!  We've been spending most of the past 24 hours catching up on sleep, laundry, and buying groceries.  We'll have a little time at home before our next set of big adventures, fortunately!!