TODAY MARKS THE COMPLETION 70% OF MY GOAL

GEOCACHING was the activity.

My friend Jimmy gave me a great introduction into the hobby of geocaching.

We went to Carondelt park to look for the hidden treasures of geocaching.

What you need is comfortable walking shoes [we walked between 1.5 miles and 2.0 miles] a hand held GPS unit to allow you to be guided by satellite and a trinket to be placed in the cache that you fine.

We parked the car and headed for our first cache reported to be in the southeast corner of Carondelt park. We hunted in very thick brush for about thirty minutes when Jimmy found the cache in a dead tree that I had inspected only a few minutes before.

The second cache was my responsibility to locate as we headed toward the northeast side of the park.This hike was more challenging than expected due to a construction project going on in that corner of the park.

In the first picture Jimmy is opening the found treasure and is signing the guest book.



In the second photo Jimmy is picking out his trinket and leaving his trinket in the box for the next person.








In this photo I am signing the guest book as [amateur E.A.T,} The trinket I took was a piece of an old sectional Aeronatutical Chart enclosed in a small plastic bag.


In the fourth photo I am looking at what we think is the cache. It is a bottle that was covered in camouflage tape but empty. [have you ever seen a bottle covered in camouflage tape?}We searched for about an hour and the GPS unit said it was close to the spot. We figure a non geocacher found the bottle and took out the trinkets. There was nothing else to be found within fifty feet in each direction.

This is certainly an activity that I might want to get involved in but I want to try it a few more times before investing in a GPS expenditure.

#48 IS THE 1836-1839 STATE CAPITOL of ILLINOIS IN VANDALIA


After leaving Germantown IL we traveled East and North to Vandalia IL.


At one time in the history of Illinois Vandalia was home to three different capitol buildings.We are looking at capitol building number three.


For me the interesting point was in 1836 this building first year Abe Lincoln freshman state represenative sponsored a law moving the capitol to Springfield Illinois.
















I am standing in front of the Supreme court.














Nancy is in front of the Senate.




I am standing in front of the House of Representatives.

Visiting with my friend Abe Lincoln

It was an interesting city and capitol and I found out more about the history of Illinois than I care to know.


We topped off our adventure with a German buffet at the Shrine restaurant. It was a wonderful way to finish off an interesting day of adventure.

This IS beautiful
AND CERTAINLY WORTH THREE MINUTES OF YOUR TIME
ENJOY!!!
(Turn on your sound) Click here: Ecclesiastes

For #47 A GERMAN LAD and AN IRISH LASS ATTEND A SPASSFEST IN GERMANTOWN IL!!!!!!!

Spassfest would be translated funfest in English.

We found it interesting,worth the effort but not necessarily a barrel of fun.

Germantown is the home town of Cardinal great Red Schoendiest.

German music was the music of the day



Believe it or not a washer tournament










Tractor activities









Antique car show










A quilt auction [unbelievable they went for an average of $200.00 each]









At the end of the day we would do a Spassfest again.

FOUR GRAND KIDS---TWO PARKS
Today we went to Francis park with four grand kids and in the evening we went to our park with two grand kids.




The princess is a tomboy









Seventy years old and he can still play catch




The youngster is developing





Great place to ride a scooter




The youngest does it all

A DAY AT Grant's FARM!!!
It was a nice but crowded day at Grant's farm. The guests act as if the farm is closing for good.
The boy's enjoyed feeding the goats, watching the bird show, seeing the many animals and especially the Clydesdale's.

MORE GRAND PARENTING FUN!!!
No idea how much the pool cost but it is a big hit.!!!!
Today Grant's farm was to crowded so we came back to the back yard swimming hole and no one cared.








Manny playing left field


Thursday afternoon Donovan and I witnessed the Cardinal loss to the Dodgers. I was able to see Manny Ramierz play in person and I took a few photos.



Manny at bat

SUMMER FUN AT THE
GRANDPARENTS!!!!!!!!!!!






It may be a little cool for August but they said the water is warm.
"Come on In"

#46 Is completing reading classic book #3
"TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD" by Harper Lee
I will share a few random thoughts that I found interesting.
*** This is the only novel written by Harper Lee
***The title is found buried in the book on page 98 as the father Atticus gives advice to his children Scout and Jem. "Remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up peoples gardens,don't nest in corn cribs. they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us to enjoy.
*** Story is set in an era close to my birth.
***For me the story has many dichotomies
Small town life is similar to neighborhoods of the big city.
The everyday living of children and adults.
Kindness and cruelty of people.
Love and hatred by the society we live in.
The classes of society in rural America
How close the movie is to the book.
It was an interesting read and I am glad I chose it for one of my four classic books to read in 2008.