Mediterranean Tour

It was foggy as we started our tour and headed out for the day.
Our first stop was Athens and the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.
This cool sculpture was made out of old truck parts.
This guy didn't seem to mind everyone staring at him.
We need an aquarium like this at home!
Never miss an opportunity to play Pooh-sticks.
We stopped next in Corsicana (named after the island of Corsica). We stopped at the frontier village and toured the log cabins and displays. There were some unsavory characters there. We then drove thru Italy on the final leg of the journey and then ate supper in Waxahachie before heading home.

Saturday- Part One- The Baseball Game

The Maypearl varsity baseball team was in Glen Rose for a tournament this week. We went Saturday morning to watch the final game. Drove all the way to Glen Rose to watch Maypearl play Venus. That's Andy playing center field.

Here he is on deck waiting to bat.

Getting the signs from the coach.

And striking out. Just kidding. It was a sacrifice fly to right field. He did get an RBI out of it. Not long after this the mercy rule went into effect and they called the game. Maypearl won 12-0.

Saturday- Part Two- The Trains

We then headed north toward Mineral Wells. Clark Gardens was having their third annual Garden Railroad day. Last year we went and it was cold, rainy, and windy. This year it was hot, dry, and still.
These locomotives were brought by the live steam guys. The track they run on is 7 1/2 inch gauge and you can ride on them. They couldn't steam them up because of insurance reasons but the green one was running on compressed air.
That's Lynne, Jesse, and me on the right. They had a short track to run the trains back and forth on.
He ran this one for us. It has a Honda gas engine and hydraulic drive. It sounded about like a lawn mower going back and forth. It cost more than the Saturn I just bought! Wouldn't one of these be fun running around the house?
This one was battery powered. It had a sound system to make it sound like it was really running. He had a remote control to run it with.
Here are a couple of shots from the permanent garden railroad at the gardens. The boys took all these pictures.

There was a Shay locomotive running on the high line.

The garden railroad club from the D/FW area was there set up in the tent. They had 5 or 6 trains running in the floor. Granma saw a great wreck after a kid kicked one over.

Saturday- Part Three- The Flowers

Oh yeah, there were flowers at the garden too.

There wasn't alot in bloom yet, but what was in bloom was really pretty.
We'll have to go back latter in the year when the irises, daylilies, roses, and other flowers are all in bloom. The gave us a list of what was in bloom when.

On the way home we drove by and saw the largest cedar rocking chair in the world.

Lunar Eclipse

In case you didn't know there was a total eclipse of the moon tonight. We didn't get to see all of it here. By the time it came up in Texas the eclipse was half over. The picture above was taken with my digital camera on full optical zoom (only 3X). The digital zoom pictures were just orange smudges.
The next two pictures were taken full optical zoom through my binoculars. They're a little fuzzy. It's hard to hold everything still long enough to get good picture in such little light.
Thanks to my little sister for posting on her blog that this was coming up. I called her after I had taken the pictures to see if the moon was up in San Angelo yet and she had forgotten about it! Good thing I called her.

Independence Day!

If you've never read the Texas Declaration of Independence you can find a copy of it here. It was written and signed in the village of Washington on the Brazos.