Home Again

Another great trip but is good to be back in my beautiful flowering yard and to plant my vegetable garden.  I did get a bit road weary.  Have to start planning the next one...

Dr Mary E Walker Statue Dedication Oswego NY

Met my dad at the Denver airport then to Oswego for quick trip diversion – reception on Friday evening; dedication on Saturday morning. Cousin George was MC, got to visit with several relatives and meet some new ones. Best news article is http://oswegocountytoday.com/?p=87268.


Trip sound familiar? Well, travels last year were to include dedication of this same statue but the statue was not ready. Was well worth the wait!!

Ceremony speakers & honorees

Statue & her relative

Reenactors who came, note the woman playing role of Dr Mary Walker

Close up Medal of Honor

Museum Legs in Denver CO

Yup, the rain caught up with me again so took a day to see Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  Liked that so well, took another day to see part of downtown Denver – Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver Art Museum, Byers-Evans House Museum, Molly Brown House Museum.  Nice not to be driving so much.

Civic Center view; Dever Art Museum on left & front

Byers-Evans House original entrance

Molly Brown House of "Unsinkable Molly Brown" fame

Pikes Peak and Pike National Forest CO

Celebrate with me – I made it!!  Okay, the van made it; I was just along for the drive – the white-knuckle drive.  Beautiful scenes all the way until top which was shrouded in clouds.

Pikes Peak from Crystal Reservoir

happy traveler at summit

View from along the way

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument CO

I have seen lots of fossils but some of these are huge.  As the ones you see in the pictures are just the stumps, scientists hypothesize that they were killed at the end of the extent of a volcanic lahar flow that did not knock the trees down and only covered about 15 feet in the valley.  Not much fossils beyond the stumps as the visitor center is a trailer while new is being built.

huge stump; is hacked up by early souveigner hunters

happy traveler

Brown v Board of Education National Historic Site KS

The Monroe Elementary School now is home to many exhibits documenting the civil rights movement as it affected the schools of the USA.  At the start of the country, there had always been some limits on who could receive a public education with minorities generally being excluded.  While some exhibits were uplifting, for me in general I recalled witnessing horrific scenes and stories through the TV and print news of the day being replayed through those exhibits.  All those feelings came back even though much has changed.  And I wonder with all of the bitterness and hopeless feelings of today, could we revert back to some of our bad old times.

school now a visitor center

U. S. Grant National Historic Site MO

Ulysses’s wife, Julia, grew up in White Haven house and met Ulysses through her brother as young officers.  After marriage, they lived here with her slave-owning family off and on as Ulysses established himself militarily.  The exhibits are wonderful but no photos of the contents of the house were permitted.  Like much of the historic sites I have visited, the structures and grounds are beautiful but the exhibits and message abo is bittersweet.

White Haven home