Family Vacations

June brings to mind family vacations. A trip to the mountains, the lake, or the ocean with the people you love the most.  Family vacations should be stressless. They are not.

Stressless vacations

We are God's creatures used to having our own space and wanting, like Greta Garbo, to be alone in a Stressless recliner with a cup of coffee and a good book.


Vacations are marred with uncertain moments - reacquainting yourself with parents, siblings, cousins, nephews and nieces, and the occasional girl or boyfriend brought along. Who is this stranger?  Is he or she the real one? And what do they think of this odd lot we call family?

When time began
God made a family
As only God can,
Thankfully

In the mountains

Now throw too many people into too small a space. There are not enough bathrooms to go around.  So we fidget. Meanwhile, do we talk politics or religion?  Does so and so have a bigger house or a better job? Are there old scores to settle? Thank goodness for the times when everyone is out of the house and again, for the moment, you have time to yourself.

At the ocean

At the end of the day after the evening meal, the family gathers in the living room to tell tales or play games. One of our favorites games is "Choose this or that".

Suppose you had to choose only one of two things you dearly love, for all time.

Would it be vacations at the ocean or in the mountains? Other suggestions include chocolate or vanilla, television or computers, chairs or sofas, cars or trucks, chicken or steak, wine or beer, Angelina Jolie or Marilyn Monroe.

You get the idea, now make up your own pairings. That is the fun of it.

On the Rocky Mountain National Park Trail Ridge Road

Clouds are beautiful.

Clouds one, the coast of north Africa

Lucy Van Pelt: Clouds are beautiful. They look like big balls of cotton. I could just lie here in the grass all day and watch them drift by. With imagination you can see lots of things. What do you you see, Linus?

Clouds two, the Eye of God

Linus Van Pelt: Well, those clouds up there look to me look like a Caribbean island, those a painting by Thomas Eakins, and those over there the Apostle Paul viewing the stoning of Stephan.

Cloud three, heavenly comfort

Memorial Day

Who will you remember?

Elmer Van Huss, 543 Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment

Memorial Day is celebrated every year on the final Monday of May, a day to remember the men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces. Elmer Van Huss is one.

He enlisted on the 23rd of June 1942 when he was almost 41 years of age. He was assigned to the 543rd Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment, part of the 3rd Engineer Special Brigade, commanded by David Ayres Depue Ogden. The 3rd ESB landed on New Guinea on February 24, 1944; Biak Island on September 30; and the Philippine Islands on July 24, 1945. It returned to the United States on December 20, 1945.

Elmer Van Huss is buried in Latham Cemetery in Butler County, Kansas. He is my wife's great uncle.

There are others. They touch every family in America. Will you remember them?

Arlington Cemetery

Each year volunteers put flags and flowers on many graves.

The 45th KC Symphony Showhouse

45th Symphony Designers' Showhouse

The 45th Symphony Designers' Showhouse is an impressive Jacobean house at 1246 W. 59th Street in the Country Club District. It opens April 26th and runs through May 18th. Buy your tickets at the door and have a great time.

Need prompting?

This three story home was designed by the architectural firm of Hoit, Price and Barnes and built in 1921 . It is built of native limestone and features four friendly griffins who guard the twin porches. The front yard has been beautifully re-landscaped for spring. The backyard has a wishing well.

The interior has several beautiful chandeliers to light the way. There are mullioned windows throughout the house. The newly remodeled kitchen is stunning. Throughout the house discover rooms decorated by some of Kansas City's finest designers. 

Visit the dining room, designed by Traditions Furniture using Stickley Traditional, of course.

The Designers Showhouse is sponsored by the Kansas City Symphony Alliance, a non-profit organization, supporting the Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, musical director. 



Click here for a calendar of events for the 2014 Kansas City Symphony. 

Spring Birds

Turtle Doves

Spring Birds

The birds of Spring do sing to anyone who’ll hear,

“In Spring, Life begins anew”

Sparrows jump
now here now there
and chirp, “So sweet love seems, this bright April morn”

Turtle doves in pairs
know how to show their love

and softly coo, “To you my love and no one else I sing my song.”

Robins look for worms
but when they’re fed,
warble, “winter’s fled, grass is green, skies are blue ‘tis time to build a nest,"

"Let life begin anew”

Arabesque

 "The arabesque was born from the idea of a leafy stem, but just as branches turn into unreal waves and spirals, so do leaves [bi]furcate and split into forms that do not occur in nature."

Ernest Kühnel, born: 1882, curator of Islamic Art, Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin.

Arabesque, a movement in ballet in which the body is supported on one leg, and the other leg is extended horizontally backward.

Casa Fina Arabesque stone ware, an elegant, neo-classical scroll design and hand applied patina in colors white and maize.

Arabesque by Casa Fina

Arabesque, Casa Fina, white

The SPAD of World War I

In 1916, The French Air Force replaced the Nieuport with the SPAD. Like the Nieuport, the SPAD was a single engined biplane of mostly wooden frame construction with fabric covering. Disadvantaged by poor  visibility below and forward, the SPAD was nevertheless, fast, durable and difficult to shoot down. The plane was a good performer, flown by nearly all the French aces, including Georges Guynemer, Jean Chaput, and René Fonck, and by American ace Eddie Rickenbacker.

WWI SPAD, British Roundel

The plane was powered by a Hispano-Suiza water cooled V-8 engine. The new  SPAD could rach a speed of 119 mph. Later engine improvements got the speed up to 135 mph. Armament, eventually two Vickers machine guns with 400 rounds per gun replaced the single gun of the earlier aircraft.

 Hispano-Suiza water cooled V-8 engine