Adventures at Eagle's Aerie: Mighty Mississippi

The closest we have come to everyone being together at once is when we went on a riverboat tour of the Mississippi.

Eagle and i had walked to the farmer's market in the park that morning, where she got apples and a few other items. Even i picked up a nice cinnamon bread loaf to put on the table for anyone to share and a jar of home made bread and butter pickles for Sweetie. He loves those.

Then brunch, and off to the River.

It was beautiful, windy, cool, and the weather cooperated and rain held off until it was over and we were driving back to Eagle's to regroup.

Brunch Saturday morning was 10 of us -- Eagle, Mr. Eagle, Westie, Ninja, Script, Dawn, SleepyMom, SG, Mickey, and me. Then we regrouped at the Aerie and drove to Bigtown to take a sightseeing cruise on the River.

Linnie and Celestine met us at the River, but Mr. Eagle had to leave after brunch to get ready for work. Thus there were eleven on the cruise, and it meant that at no one time were all dozen of us together, which made me a bit sad in the sentimental way of missing that perfect opportunity always does. Yes, i got over it.

The River up here is clearer, and used to even have rapids. The locks have changed that, but it is still a far cry from the wide, muddy, and very dangerous thing it is nearer the Gulf. Up here, there is recreation on the River, including swimming, and water skiing was invented up here. Where i live, you jump in the River, you won't ever be heard from again unless you are a very lucky duck indeed.

All good cruises end too soon, so Celestine headed home, and SG and Mickey headed to visit relatives nearby. Linnie visited for a good while, but has had surgery recently and finally needed to get home to rest. Dinner plans were discussed, and Italian was chosen.

There is a nice little Italian restaurant in Smalltown, started many years ago by a native Italian whose family was here and he came over to join them. He died a few years ago, but the family still runs the place, and they have a salad bar. It was a fun dinner, with Mr. Eagle joining us about halfway through when he got off work. It was busy, as Saturday nights usually are. Apparently this is the place to come after local football games, and many people in town grew up working here when they were teens. Smalltown. Everyone's a friend or relative.


Today is:

Ancestor Appreciation Day

Crush a Can Day -- internet generated, so have fun seeing how many (safe) ways you can crush a can, and how flat you can get it!

French Community Holiday -- French community of Belgium

Iroquois Squash Ceremony -- Iroquois Native Americans (thanksgiving for the squash harvest and the secret Little Water Ceremony to preserve the potency of medicine and the Dark Dance for appeasing the spirits; through the 30th)

Meskel -- Ethiopian/Eritrian Orthodox Christian (True Cross Day)

National Milk Chocolate Day

National Corned Beef Hash Day

Phuket Vegetarian Festival -- Phuket, Thailand (9 days of purification by eating vegetarian/vegan and performing sacred rituals like walking barefoot on hot coals and climbing ladders with razor rungs)

St. Vincent De Paul's Day (patron of Madagascar, hospital workers, prisoners)

Thanksgiving Day for Disappearance of Kelp-Koli Again -- Fairy Calendar

World Tourism Day


Birthdays Today:

Avril Lavigne, 1984
Gwyneth Paltrow, 1972
Sophia Milos, 1965
Shaun Cassidy, 1958
Mike Schmidt, 1949
Wilford Brimley, 1934
Greg Morris, 1934
Arthur Penn, 1922
William Conrad, 1920
Jayne Meadows, 1920
Thomas Nast, 1840
George Muller, 1805
Samuel Adams, 1722


Today in History:

Severe earthquake in the Gulf of Chili, China; reports of 100,000 killed, 1290
Jesuits founded by Ignatius Loyola, 1540
John Adams negotiates peace terms with Britain, 1779
Constitution submitted to the states for ratification, 1787
Jean-Francois Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta Stone, 1822
The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens, and begins operation of the world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains, 1825
The physics journal Annalen der Physik published Albert Einstein's paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc²,1905
The first production of a Ford Model T automobile rolls off the line at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan, 1908
First test of a twin engine airplane, in France, 1910
Native American Day is first celebrated, 1916
Democratic National Committee votes to allow female members, 1919
The first Santa Clause Training School opens in Albion, NY, 1937
The Balinese tiger is declared to be an extinct species, 1937
Sierra Leone joins the United Nations, 1961
Richard Stallman announces the GNU project to develop a free Unix-like operating system, 1983
Google is founded, 1998
East Timor joins the United Nations, 2002
CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang becomes the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk while flying on Shenzhou 7, 2008