God Bless America

Today is Memorial Day. This the day that we as Americans celebrate and honor those who serve to help us continue to live in a free society - those both living and dead. As a military family, having lived and visited in other countries, this holiday is one which we appreciate possibly more than many other Americans. We are so fortunate to have been born in this country of more than plenty and freedoms that most others in the world can only dream of. God has truly blessed us as a people and a country.

Americans celebrate this holiday in a variety of ways, but most often it is a day for family activities, BBQ's and picnics in addition to memorial services honoring the military. We started the day today in Cordele, with Joe running in the Kiwanis 8K run. He was pleased to receive a trophy for finishing second in his age group I might add. After having a late breakfast with Joe's sister, we headed home to hopefully miss all the later traffic, which fortunately we did. Now like so many others, we will cook hotdogs on the grill and eat watermelon we purchased on the way at a local farmers market.

Happy Holiday!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Hope everyone stays safe.

A Homeschool Graduation Day!

Today our firstborn grandchild, Alison, graduated from High School. It was a graduation to remember. You may or may not know that Alison has been home schooled her entire education up to this point. If you have never attended a home school graduation and get the opportunity, please go. It is a very meaningful, family oriented event. For the past four years Alison has attended Koininia, an organized home school group that offers a curriculum that is accredited to award a high school diploma. Parents teach most of the classes, combining their collective specialty areas, and students supplement the courses they take at Koininia with other courses they take at home. So, if a parent is fluent in Spanish, he or she might offer a Spanish language course, and another parent, who may be proficient in another content area, would teach that course to a small group of students. If enough students need a particular subject area, such as an upper level math course, a qualified teacher might be hired to teach that course. When I tell people that Alison and all her siblings have been home schooled since day one, I continue to get the response (or something similar to) "but what about socialization?" If you have ever met Alison, you would know that she is one of the most outgoing and "social" people you will ever encounter, as are all the Turner kids.

You will see here a few pics from the ceremony this morning and tonight's celebration party. Each student that graduates prepares a display table of things that are significant to them personally. Being the photographer that she is, Alison's table was primarily a collage of photos. Alison was especially proud of the fact that both her sets of grandparents and her great grandmother were able to attend the day's events.

As each individual student came forward a previously recorded videotape of personal comments and thank yous by each student was played. Following that each received their diploma. Today, when it was Alison's turn to receive her diploma, it was not a principal or headmaster that presented it to her and each other student. It was the parents, (in her case, Kim and Jimmy), that stood with her on the stage, each of them giving personal comments expressing their pride and joy in her many and varied accomplishments. She has done so many things to be proud of, and is a true leader within her peer group as well as her church. For now, her plans are to attend Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida next year to study communication, youth work, or mission work. Who knows what the future holds? Our entire family is excited to see where the future will take her. Congratulations Alison, we love you!

Seattle Space Needle

After my city tour yesterday, we attended the final event of the convention, which is the awards banquet. The women were dressed in cocktail wear and the men wore mess dress or a tux. It is a fitting way to end every convention. Both military and civilian airmen and women were given awards for safety and bravery- those things that go above and beyond the call of duty. There is not time to relate the many stories of heroism, but leave it to say everyone attending left with a new sense of pride in what this country is and all it stands for. There were so many heroes among us!

You can't come to Seattle without seeing the Space Needle, which has stood in downtown Seattle since the World's Fair that took place here in the early 20th century. We had to take a look at Seattle from the top. What a view! Although it was not as sunny as yesterday, it was quite clear and one could see for miles. After a trip through the gift shop, we headed by foot (not realizing what a walk it was) to Pike Market. We walked along the water front, and saw several docked cruise ships, heading for Alaska no doubt, on the way. The Market was as busy as yesterday and we just meandered through the stalls and enjoyed the musical offerings of local musicians. After we had walked back to our parked rental car at the Space Needle, we figured we had walked at least 4 miles - surely enough to warrant the nice marguerita and Mexican dinner we had later in for dinner.

City Tour

Joe attended seminars again today (after all it is his Daedalian Convention), and I went on a city bus tour. It was a glorious, sunny and warm day! We saw many interesting sites, but my favorite for the day was Pike Market (no doubt a surprise to those of you reading this who know how I "hate" shopping.) It was so interesting. I saw a million colors of fresh flowers, fishmongers hawking and "throwing" the fish around, foods of a variety of nationalities (I had Russian piroshky for lunch), and the original Starbucks store.

Museum of Flight

This evening we went to the fantastic Museum of Flight. We were able to quickly tour the various planes and other relics of air and space travel and the museum was very interesting. The highlight of the evening was the dinner and program which was presented by Captain Wendy Lawrence, a four time shuttle astronaut. Her size might have fooled anyone as she almost needed a footstep to get up to the microphone, but her presentation was great. She talked about attending the Naval Academy and her career moving up through the ranks to Captain and from there to astronaut. Having just viewed her photo mounted on the wall of astronaut photos, it was a little surreal. Since she had trained in Star City, Russia with Russian cosmonauts, and spent over 2000 hours on the Mir space station, it was especially interesting to hear her take on the experience. Joe even got to practice a little of his Russian on her.

A Water Community

Today I took a lake cruise with some other conference attendees while Joe attended his "Airpower Symposium Seminars". Seattle has some very interesting buidings that line the many lakefront properties in the area. We went by the University of Washington, which is a beautiful campus. I saw many "floating houses" which are not actually floating, but anchored in the water and hooked up to city water, sewage and power. Some even had small trees and shrubs adorning their "yards". Each has it's own personality - no row houses here. One of the more interesting was the floating home that was used to film "Sleepless in Seattle." Points of interest was a large floating bridge, which they say is somewhat unique to Seattle, and seeing Bill Gates home (which has 6 bedrooms and 24 bathrooms by the way). Think you can figure which is which in the pics. I did miss a photo op of a bald eagle sitting on a buoy.

When I returned to the hotel, Joe was having lunch with Michael McKenna, who had coincidentally been a speaker at today's symposium. Joe said he did a great job.

A tour of McChord AFB

We arrived here on Tuesday and wouldn't you know it, it was raining! "Surprise, Surprise" as Gomer Pyle might have said. Never to let rain deter us, Joe went golfing despite an off-and-on drizzle, and I went on a bus tour of McChord AFB. After getting a briefing on the day to day operations of the base, we were able to get on board a C-17, not as big as Joey's c-5, but none the less a big cargo airplane! The loadmasters answered all our questions concerning loading, flying military standby and I decided it probably wouldn't be a lot of fun in the jumpseats that line the aircraft. However, the loadmaster did say that they will let you take a sleeping bag aboard and you can lay down to sleep. It is cheap, but think I will stick with American Airlines for now!

Time to Say Goodbye

Tonight Carol and Mickey took us to the Fairmont Hotsprings Resort for dinner which is located not far from Anaconda. We will be leaving tomorrow for Seattle. We had a relaxed, and delicious, dinner while watching people enjoying the warm springs fed swimming pool and hot tub (which doesn't need a heater I might add - they say sometimes it is too hot!).

Montana Sunshine

Another beautiful day in Montana! The sun has been shining brightly all day. This morning we drove up to Missoula to watch Michel take off in his F-18. It was a wonderful sight and sound, that brought back many memories of our days in the Air Force. After Mickey and Carole showed us around Missoula, including their old house there, and the University of Montana.

We also toured the Big Sky Brewery. For those of you not in the "know", this brewery is home of the following labels: Moose Drool, Honey Bear, Old Blue Hair, and Ivan the Terrible Stout to name a few (see labels below).




























On our way back to Anaconda, we went through Phillipsburg. It is a small, picturesque, restored former turn-of-the-century mining town. We had a wonderful ice cream cone at the local soda fountain and enjoyed visiting with the proprietor. Of interest were a couple of local events that take place during Montana's summer season. One is called "Maggottfest" and the second is the "Testicle Festival." I've included a pic of the signs advertising the events just in case anuone should want to attend. Mickey says he's never attended, but the "Testicle Festival" is a particularly wild shindig. I wonder why???

Big Sky Country Spring

Yesterday it was in the 80's in Atlanta. We arrived in Butte, Montana around noon. There was snow on the ground (left from the 25 inches they had gotten on April 1 and the 8 inches they got last week), it was 32 degrees, and snowing. Today the sun is shining brightly, it is in the high 50's, and Joe is out playing golf (they say the greens and fairways are pretty clear, just a "little" snow in the sandtraps). Carole and Mickey are dear Air Force friends that we have known from our early marriage years at Craig AFB in Selma, Alabama. Although Carole is a native of Mobile, Alabama, Mickey grew up in Montana and so they retired here some years back. They now live in Anaconda, a town of about 3,000 and about 30 miles from Butte.

Yesterday evening we attended a program in Anaconda at the Washoe Theatre. On the outside it appears to be a movie theater straight out of the 50's, bright flashing marquee included. But inside, what a surprise - a beautiful and grand theater with wonderful chandeliers, velvety draperies, and gold filigree. It reminded me a lot of the Fox Theater here in Atlanta, but on a smaller scale. The performance of the Synergy Brass, a brass quintet that tours around the country was fantastic. To see such a talented group of musicians, who have performed with the Boston Pops, Mormon Tabernacle choir, and on PBS, to name only a few venues, perform in this small town was amazing. We both thoroughy enjoyed the performance.

Coincidentally, their son, Michael (Carole reminds me I attended his birth when Mickey was TDY) is here from Whidby Island, Washington where he flies with the Navy, and soon will command a squadron of F-18's. We have had a wonderful time reminiscing, laughing, and telling stories of past military experiences as well as our children and grandchildren.The photo above was taken at the "cabin" of Michael and his brother, Chip. It is up a little higher than Anaconda and thus has more snow. In fact it is very near the ski run where Mickey teaches downhill skiing in the winter. And of course you can see the golfers on the left.