We did go to the National Museum of Naval Aviation on the Naval Air Base in Pensacola. We got to see our favorite exhibits at the museum, and then the kids went to climb the lighthouse while Sweetie and I went to the forts. We've seen the Blue Angels practice several times in the past few years, so this time, instead of trying to squeeze in with everyone else, the kids watched from near the lighthouse and we watched from Fort Barrancas. You don't see the whole thing, but it's enough.
Soon it was time to get lunch, so the kids headed back to the condo. Since we were in the area and had business to attend, Sweetie and i went to Ever'mans with our local friend. Sweetie was impressed with how they had completely remodeled and changed the whole property, not just the building.
When we left after lunch to try to find the Wells Fargo Bank so we could get the signatures we need (there aren't any branches in Louisiana, and i hate that our mortgage is with a company that isn't local, but there's nothing we can do about it), there was a police barricade blocking us off. Thank heaven for the local friend who was with us, and who has a GPS. We got to come in from the back way, and got the signature we needed.
After that, Sweetie wanted to go see Pensacola Beach. Yes, in all the years we've come down here, we've only seen the beach at Perdido Key, where we stay. He was always told that Pensacola Beach is where the action is. We drove all the way out there, and as far as i am concerned, it's over-commercialized, and the beach itself looks the same as Perdido: sandy, with dune grass. He didn't seem as impressed as he thought he'd be, either. There are a couple of restaurants down there he may want to try someday, but other than that, it's a long drive to a more crowded beach, and that's about it.
The kids spent the rest of the day, after the lighthouse, swimming, bugging Grandma and Grandpa, and going to see a movie in the evening. We ended the day with plans for Wednesday -- it's off to the zoo!
Today is
Audacity to Hope Day -- to encourage all to have the audacity to keep hope
Clean Air Day -- Canada
Emancipation Day -- Tonga (trad.)
Festival for Hercules Custos -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Hercules the Custodian)
Flag Day -- Estonia
Flag Day -- Finland (Armed Forces observe the birth anniversary of Carl Gustaf Mannerheim)
Hug Your Cat Day -- yet another date for this noted on many sites; if you celebrate all of them, your cat will be well hugged!
International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression -- UN
Jarila's Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (Festival of Jarila, god of the sun and fertility)
Lassie Day -- the first dog to play the role of Lassie, in the movie Lassie, Come Home, was born this day in 1940
National Cheese Day -- not to be confused with Cheese Lover's Day earlier in the year
National Cognac Day
National Frozen Yogurt Day -- not to be confused with the Frozen Yogurt Day celebrated on Feb. 6 in Los Angeles, where the temperatures make such a thing possible
National Running Day -- runningday.org
National Unity Day -- Hungary
Old Maid's Day -- supposedly established after WWII, when there were so many eligible young ladies who weren't getting any younger
Plynteria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival in Athens in honor of Athena; date approximate)
Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival -- Sedalia, MO, US (with a variety of free and paid venues, it's a good time for all; through Saturday)
Shavuot -- Judaism (Pentecost, began at sundown yesterday, through sundown tomorrow)
St. Petroc's Day (Patron of Cornwall and Wales, as well as many locations in Cornwall, Wales, and England, and Saint-Meen, France)
Tailor's Day -- the first Wednesday of June is noted on many sites as the day to thank your tailor
The National Tournament -- Spruce Meadows, Calgary, AB, Canada (features the Spruce Meadows Show Jumping Championship and the Nexen Cup, with live entertainment and activities daily; through Sunday)
Turtle Races -- Nisswa, MN, US (Wednesdays through August 10th, go race a turtle, it's only $4 to adopt a turtle for the race and get a participation racing button!)
Birthdays Today:
Evan Lysacek, 1985
Russell Brand, 1975
Angelina Jolie, 1975
Noah Wyle, 1971
James Callis, 1971
Scott Wolf, 1968
Cecilia Bartoli, 1966
Sam Harris, 1961
Eldra DeBarge, 1961
Keith David, 1956
Parker Stevenson, 1953
George Noory, 1950
Bettina Gregory, 1946
Michelle Phillips, 1944
Joyce Meyer, 1943
Freddy Fender, 1937
Bruce Dern, 1936
John Drew Barrymore, 1932
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, 1928
Dennis Weaver, 1924
Robert Merrill, 1919
Rosalind Russell, 1907
George III, 1738
Aesop, BCE620 (not certain, but close enough)
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Born in the USA"(Album release), 1984
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan(Film), 1982
"Cavalcade of Stars"(TV), 1949
Today in History:
Chinese astronomers make the first recording of a solar eclipse, BC781
Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the first English colony on Roanoke Island, old Virginia (now North Carolina), 1584
Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan, 1615
New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia, Canada taken from the Acadians, 1760
A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history, 1769
The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon), 1783
Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain, 1792
The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus
to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title, 1878
Henry Ford test drives his first prototype automobile, the Ford Quadricycle, 1896
Massachusetts becomes the first state of the United States to set a minimum wage, 1912
A patent for the ATM is granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain, 1973
The Tiananmen Square protests are violently ended in Beijing by the People's Liberation Army, 1989
Solidarity's victory in the first (somewhat) free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparks off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe, 1989
Falcon 9 Flight 1 was the maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, 2010
Weird dreams don't usually wake me up, but i had a doozy. A group had figured out how to steal people's computer passwords, and i had figured out how to stop them. Apparently while i was calling attention to the authorities in my dreams, i was also thrashing around and Sweetie woke me up. That was 3am, and that was all the sleep i got.
My sunrise walk was the cloudiest yet, but still pretty. We spent our morning swimming and playing and doing the laundry and running the dishwasher and running up and down and everywhere around. By about noon, i rounded up everyone who wanted to go to the Naval Air Museum, and away we went.
Going aboard the Navy Base is always interesting, and on this day they had some kind of an event that had just ended, and the Museum was very crowded. We had a blast, especially Dre. His father had been more than happy to send the kids to the museum so he could have some time off, so while Bryn and Little Girl wandered to see what they wanted, occasionally meeting up with #2 Son and Bigger Girl, Dre and i played.
He is a hands on kid. Everything he could climb into, he did. Everything he could go up the stairs to get closer to, he did. Everything you are allowed to touch or mess with, he did so. When we got to the exhibit that shows a typical town during WWII, and i told him that this was what things looked like when Doc and Miss Prissy were very young, he was fascinated. He ran me all over that place for a couple of hours, and we had so much fun.
When we had all seen everything we really wanted to see, the girls headed out to do a few things on their own, and i took the boys back with me. Dre was ravenous, so i fed him chips and a corn dog and candy. He asked if he could eat the candy first. Not a problem, i told him, you aren't my kid, i get to spoil you! Ah, the fun of being the aunt.
After i took him back to his dad at the pool, i got back upstairs to find a pink flamingo in my bed. Her name is George, i was told by Bigger Girl, and she is mine. For many year's i've threatened to get a pink flamingo and take pictures of it all over whenever we go on vacation, and now i can actually do it!
By evening, i was tired of chores and running up and down with everyone and all of the crazy mess that is our vacation, and i really wanted a "piece of quiet" as Dolly from The Family Circus always says. So i sent a text message to Di that read: Help -- i'm being held captive by a family that can't fend for themselves for more than five minutes! She texted me back inviting me to go visit her place, and as soon as i could get away, i took her up on the offer.
Her directions were interesting. Get on the island and take a right, then there will be a stop sign after a while and take another right, and then a right at the fire station, and when you get there call me and i'll walk down to the road to meet you. Reminded me of the people who tell you to turn by the old tree that used to be at Such-and-Such road, you know the one. Anyway, i managed to find it (it's not that big an island, i think you would drive around in a circle and eventually get back where you started anyway) and i got to see the house she is house sitting.
Also, i got to meet the dogs, Lulu, the geriatric Golden Lab that lives there full time, and the dogs that belong to the girl she nannies, the mutt Doodle, and The Terrorist Terrier, a Yorkie who actually adores children (most of them don't). All three are friendly, and somewhat crazy. We had to walk next door to get them when they decided that children next door meant it was time to go visit, and Di says she spends a lot of time bathing them because they play in the sand and won't stay out of the water. The vegetation around there is not lawns, not on the beaches, but it is tall, taller than the Terrorist Terrier who disappears into it, then pops up to see the lay of the land, runs a ways further, then pops up again to have a look see, looking for all the world like a rabbit hopping up from behind bushes.
Di and I sat on the porch and talked "of shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings." Well, kings anyway, specifically Crusades, and Richard the Lionheart, and how history is written by the winners. We discussed families and friends and ideas and events and watched as the light faded from the sky.
It's that moment you never catch. You look up, and there is light, and the sun is going down, or it has but there is still that glow and color, and the next moment, after you've looked down and looked back up, the dusk is gone and the stars are out.
Same with good times with friends, or with an eight year old nephew, or with a daughter whose sense of humor provides you with a pink flamingo named George. You enjoy the times, and wish they could last forever. All you can hope to do, really, is catch the moment.
Today is:
Bonza Bottler Day
Chicago Blues Festival -- Chicago, IL, US (the largest free blues festival in the world; through Sunday)
Curwood Festival -- Owosso, MI, US (over 40 events commemorate the life and work of James Oliver Curwood, the Owosso-born author and conservationist; through Sunday)
D-Day -- 69th Anniversary
Drive-In Movie Day*
Fardagar -- Traditional Icelandic Calendar (time when farm workers moved from one farm to another, the time to settle debts, and until the 20th-Century, the day to start the fiscal year; always the Thursday through Sunday of the 7th week of summer)
Helicopter Day -- the first one was tested in Berlin on this day in 1936
Hyun Choong Il -- South Korea (Memorial Day)
Judgement Day -- Fairy Calendar (Petal Hats)
June Bug Days -- Baldwin, WI, US (music, tractor pull, free outdoor movie night, and more; through Sunday)
National Applesauce Cake Day
Nationaldagen -- Sweden (National Day)
National Gardening Exercise Day -- because gardening is good for the body and soul
National Huntington's Disease Awareness Day -- US
National Yo-Yo Day -- Donald F. Duncan, Sr.'s, birth anniversary; go get out your old Duncan and see if you still remember how to go around the world (but not near Great Aunt Mabel's antique lamp she left you, please)
Shelburne County Lobster Festival -- Shelburne County, NS, Canada (celebrating the Lobster Capital of Canada; through Sunday)
Shirane Takogassen -- along the Nakanokuchi river bank in Shirone, Japan (kite flying and kite fighting; through the 10th)
Stevenson Depot Days -- Stevenson, AL, US (bringing back the days when the Iron Horse of the Rails was king of transportation; through Sunday)
St. Norbert of Xanten's Day (Patron of peace; Bohemia; Madgeburg, Germany; against birth complications)
Superman Celebration -- Metropolis, IL, US (only in Metropolis, right? through Sunday)
Teachers' Day -- Bolivia
Winnipeg International Children's Festival -- The Forks, Winnipeg, MB, CA (a premier family festival with incomparable entertainment and activities; through Sunday)
Birthdays Today:
Staci Keanan, 1975
Max Casella, 1967
Ena, 1966
Bjorn Borg, 1956
Sandra Bernhard, 1955
Harvey Fierstein, 1952
Robert Englund, 1947
Gary U.S. Bonds, 1939
Thomas Mann, 1875
Nathan Hale, 1755
Today in History:
Twenty-four wagonloads of Talmudic books are burned in Paris, 1242
The Qing Dynasty Manchu forces led by the Shunzhi Emperor capture Beijing during the collapse of the Ming Dynasty; the Manchus would rule China until 1912 when the Republic of China is established, 1644
The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, opens as the world's first university museum, 1683
A devastating fire destroys one-third of Moscow, including 18,000 homes, 1752
Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte is crowned King of Spain, 1808
The Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London, 1844
More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay are killed as a cyclone in the Arabian Sea pushes huge waves into the harbour, 1882
The eruption of Novarupta in Alaska begins, the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century, 1912
The Chrysler Corporation is founded by Walter Percy Chrysler, 1925
*The first drive-in theater opens, in Camden, New Jersey, United States, 1933
A new Instrument of Government is promulgated making Sweden a parliamentary monarchy, 1974
Mongolia holds its first direct presidential elections, 1993
A near-Earth asteroid estimated at 10 meters diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya with an estimated force slightly greater than the Nagasaki nuclear bomb, 2002
Tamil is established as a Classical Language in India, 2004
