A Long Day's Flight

The only bad part about Thanksgiving break is that is has to end :-( Although I did get a fun surprise when I arrived back in town this evening. I was planning on being picked up at the Mattoon train station by Sister Stowell, but as I was walking towards the stairs, who should appear but Mr. Greg! He had to go down to St. Louis today for work, so I was definitely not expecting to see him there, but he decided to swing by on his way back up to Athens. Come to find out, he and Sister Stowell had plotted out the scenario together--so she was in on it too! :-) It was a very fun surprise and helped me not feel bad about having to come back to school after the long break. I'm pretty pooped tonight--it was kind of a long travel day, but I have decided that I like riding trains around Chicago. I'll get to do it again in a few weeks when I head to Utah for Christmas! This morning (which feels like a really long time ago) Sarah, Joel, and Eliza took me to the airport. Miss Eliza was so cute and smiley the whole way, and it was hard to say goodbye. It was a good flight from Greenville to Chicago, but it was quite a shock to my system when I stepped outside into the frigid Chicago air! It was unpleasantly chilly outside. I caught the CTA train to town, and then walked a couple of very cold blocks to Union Station. I didn't actually get to ride on the Christmas CTA train today, even though the Christmas train with Santa Clause on board was running today. I guess that they only have one Christmas train, and about 5 billion other trains running every few minutes, so the odds of actually getting on the Christmas train are quite slim. Maybe in December I'll get lucky? I boarded the train for Mattoon at Union Station, and had a seemingly long train ride. I realized that it takes longer to take the train from Chicago to Mattoon than it does to fly from South Carolina to Chicago! Air travel is certainly a nice convenience that we enjoy. Well, I'm pretty tired--bordering on delirious--so I'd better head to bed. It has been such a fun week, and I'm not really looking forward to the barrage of projects that need to get done this week, but it's all good. I'm happy to be here, and it was a very fun surprise to have Greg pick me up tonight!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

Since it is the day after Thanksgiving, the Christmas season can officially begin (even though in many cases it began the day after Halloween). :-) Tonight Miss Eliza, Sarah, Joel, and I got to go over to the cute town of Pendleton to attend the Christmas tree lighting ceremony there on the town square behind Farmer's Hall. It was so much fun, and Eliza loved getting bundled up and looking at her reflection in the giant Christmas tree ornaments. It was exactly what you would imagine a small town Christmas gathering to be like--there was music, hot apple cider, and hugs and greetings all around. After the Christmas season kick-off, Sarah and Joel took me to their favorite restaurant: Just More Barbecue, which is only open on Fridays and Saturdays--very exclusive! It was a great place--very Southern. The food there was delicious, the people were very nice, and they had a fun blue grass band playing there in the restaurant. Now I can see why they like that place so much. We were all a little sad tonight though because we had to say goodbye to Mom, Dad, and Rich at the airport this afternoon. Here are some fun pictures that we took at Sarah and Joel's earlier today before they flew back to Utah. That is the one downside of going to school in Illinois--it's too far away from the family! I don't know how I'll say goodbye to little Miss Eliza tomorrow!! She is one of the four sweetest babies ever born (the other three are Camden, Riley, and Sidney)! It has been so much fun to spend the week having nothing but fun with the baby. Her hair is adorable, and her big, wide smile is the cutest thing ever. I'm glad we at least have pictures, e-mail, and phones so that we don't seem so far away from everyone--even if we are far away.

Today after we took Mom, Dad, and Rich to the airport, Sar, Joel, Eliza, and I went on an adventure to the Museum and Library of the Confederacy, hidden in a little neighborhood in Greenville. It was so cool! It was this funny little house that had been turned into a museum. Our favorite things to see were the boots of the tallest Confederate soldier, who, for a time, had the record as the tallest man on earth. He was born in Greenville, SC, so he is especially famous in South Carolina. He was seven feet, seven-and-a-half inches tall! His feet were humongous!! The Sons of Confederate Veterans working at the museum were very nice, and one of the men was telling me about some of his ancestors from Paris, Illinois, which is just up the road from Charleston. He said he's going to send me copies of some of his ancestor's letters, which will be very cool. After the museum, we went to this funny store full of Confederate stuff, and I couldn't help but get the flag of the Mississippi Republic! Did you even know that there was such a thing? I hadn't ever seen one of the flags for sale before, so I couldn't resist :-) When Mississippi seceded in 1861 (it was the second state to do so--after South Carolina), they formed the Mississippi Republic and adopted a new flag featuring a magnolia tree--very cool. I won't be flying it from any flagpoles in Illinois (the Land of Lincoln), but it's kind of fun to have. Well, it has certainly been a fun week with the family here in the South, and I'm kind of afraid to head back to cold Illinois, but I'm also looking forward to seeing Greg and the crazy HA classmates again. It's going to be a crazy couple of weeks between now and when the semester ends, but I've gotten some good rest this week and am ready (sort of) to hit the ground running again.

The First Thanksgiving

Today was Miss Eliza Grace's first Thanksgiving! She tried the yam/turkey baby food mixture for the first time, and she loved it. She especially loved the new bib she got from Aunt Lindy that says "I'm Stuffed!" Everyone else got stuffed today too. This morning Sarah, Joel, and Mom went off to play flicker ball with some of Sar and Joel's professors and classmates. I guess that flicker ball is a traditional football-type game that the department plays each Thanksgiving. The rest of us just slept in and took it easy this morning. We had a tasty Thanksgiving lunch/dinner complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, yam souffle, corn, rolls, and a wide assortment of pies and pumpkin cheesecake. Thanksgiving is surely the greatest and most delicious holiday of the year!! This afternoon we went for a beautiful fall Thanksgiving walk in the nice South Carolina weather. It really is beautiful here with all of the trees and fall colors. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Peas and Poets

Look at cute Eliza eating peas for breakfast! She loves her peas and sweet potatoes. Peas are a little messy, but they surely taste good! Today we had some fun adventures up in North Carolina. We had planned on going to the Biltmore estate in Asheville, but decided instead to go to the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in Flat Rock instead. Carl Sandburg was a famous poet and author who wrote the famous six-volume bio. of Abe Lincoln. We had so much fun there! It was a beautiful fall day, and the tour of the house was great. I especially loved that Carl Sandburg had a house full of books--someone who loved books as much as I do! We love visiting national parks, and this was the closest one to Sarah and Joel, and they hadn't ever been there, so it made the perfect day trip today.

After visiting the house, we went up to Historic Downtown Hendersonville for a late lunch. We ate at this really cool old soda fountain place there on Main Street. It was a fun full day, and we enjoyed seeing the beautiful North Carolina countryside. We are all excited for Thanksgiving Day tomorrow!

Fran, Family, and Fun!

Hooray--Mom, Dad, and Rich came to South Carolina yesterday! It is so fun to have them here. I was able to see Mom when she came to visit me last month, but I haven't seen Dad and Rich since the end of May. I also haven't seen the Barretts since the end of May--that's way too long!! Yesterday Sarah and Joel had class so we took Eliza to her school, then they went to theirs, and I got to hang out at Clemson University. I spent the morning at the library finding stuff for my research paper (no vacation from school work for me!), and then I went to the bookstore and skulked around campus. I even got to meet FRAN MAINELLA, former Director of the National Park Service!! She now works in Sarah and Joel's department, so they introduced me to her. It's kind of funny--she has her Park Service uniform in a frame in her office :-) Sar, Joel, and I had lunch together, then they had more classes, so I hung out for a while and went exploring along College Avenue. Clemson is a really pretty campus, and it's overflowing with history. John C. Calhoun's house, named Fort Hill, is located right in the center of campus. JC's son-in-law, Thomas Clemson, is the one who donated the land for the university. After they were done with classes, we went to the airport over in Greenville to pick up the rest of the fam. We had so much fun together yesterday evening, and Baby Eliza loved having so many people to play with. Today we all slept in (including Eliza!), had yummy bread pudding for breakfast (very Southern!), and then went off for a day of adventures. We first went for a drive through the university's forest retreat located in a beautiful setting right on a lake. The first picture shown up top is of Dad, Mom, me, and Rich there by a pretty little waterfall. Then we went to the little town of Pendleton, which is full of fun antique shops, cool old houses, and historic markers (that's heaven if you ask me!). We ate lunch at this fun little place called Farmer's Hall where the community leaders used to meet to talk politics back before the Civil War. Word on the street is that it was there at Farmer's Hall that John C. Calhoun first started discussing ideas of secession and states' rights with other politicians. We had a really tasty lunch there, and I loved the shrimp and grits I ate. Normally I'm not a huge shrimp fan, but I had shrimp and grits one time in Mississippi and loved it, so I wanted to try it today and it was soooooooo great. After Pendleton, we went over to Clemson and went on a tour of Fort Hill (remember, that's John C. Calhoun's house). I was in historical administration heaven!!! The second picture up there is of the parlor at Fort Hill. JC and Thomas Clemson gathered up a bunch of cool furniture over the years. Today we saw a chair that TC got from Leopold (with Leopold's likeness carved into the arms of the chair), some chairs from Mt. Vernon (one of which was with George Washington during the Revolutionary War), and a sideboard JC got from Henry Clay made out of wood from the USS Constitution! I love touring historic homes and seeing a bunch of things we talk about in class every day. When we went outside at Fort Hill, there was a maintenance guy up on the roof sweeping leaves off. The problem was that he was smoking a cigarette--bad idea on an old, wood home with wood shingles!! Visions of the Windsor Ruins along the Natchez Trace kept flashing through my head. That mansion, one of the biggest in Mississippi, burned down in 1891 when a cigarette was accidentally dropped on the floor. The third picture is of the cutest member of our little touring party, Miss Eliza Grace! She was so cute and happy all day today, even though she's had a bit of a cold. She is so smiley all of the time. Today while the rest of us were in an antique shop, Dad was sitting outside with Eliza and the stroller. Some really old ladies walked by and saw Eliza, and they just couldn't get over how cute she is. They were making such a fuss, and she was smiling from ear to ear. The people at lunch today also thought she was adorable--probably because she is! After hanging out on campus, we went to some of the fun gift shops over on College Avenue to find some Clemson souvenirs. There are Clemson souvenirs everywhere around here! Everything is orange, no matter where you go. It has been such a fun day today, and the adventures will continue tomorrow. We're planning to head up to Asheville, North Carolina, to visit the Biltmore--one of the Vanderbilt estates. Hooray for the Carolinas! It's really pretty here.