A couple of weeks ago I was finally able to get down to see Clara and her teammates in action. No action photos – the matches were too excited – but I did manage to get this one of her with what appears to be most of her teammates when we went out to eat lunch between games 🙂

And leaving the field with a couple of them after the second game. You’ll notice Clara doesn’t have team name on her jersey. She and one other little girl’s didn’t come in with all of the others. Luckily it got here last week – with about two matches left in the season 🙂

Last month my friends Charlotte and Sherry both turned 70, so we celebrated with a birthday trip to take in part of the Frescoes Trail. At our first stop, St Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wilkesboro, NC, we asked a lady who was walking down the sidewalk if she knew which door at the church we needed to go in. Not only did she know, but she suggested that after we saw the frescoes, to go down the path to the park and visit the labyrinth. I am so, so glad she did. What an unexpected blessing. The history of labyrinths was so interesting, as was the other information, and walking it was so preaceful. We had traveling labyrinths at our church a couple of different times over the years, but this one was just so beautiful.

From there we were off to Glendale Springs and Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, and this incredible frescoe behind the altar there. Really, no picture could do it justice. And there was a recording to listen to that told all about the painting – both the process, and every single figure that was in it. Such a beautiful day.

Mallory and Clara had their last home match a couple of weeks ago – just now getting the couple of pictures I took downloaded. I did manage to get this one of Clara in action.

Actually Adam’s first game was when I was on my trip, but the first game we attended was the week after I got home. He has never played football at all before, but the coach asked him to come try out, and he has loved every minute of it. Unfortunately, due to so many kids being quarantined from Covid, they had to combine the 7th and 8th grade teams, so Adam, as a 7th grader, hasn’t seen any playing time yet. We are still proud of his hard work and stick-to-itiveness. Plus it’s fun watching the games. He’s #28, standing behind the coach on the sidelines.

When we pulled in the driveway coming home from our trip – Meg’s husband Mike picked us all up & brought us home – Mason was in the middle of his birthday party. He has had it here at our house every year for many years – what could be better than nerf gun wars in the woods 🙂 His buddy Austin had to leave before we thought to get a picture, but here he is with Felix, in the white shirt (new at the party this year. They had always gone to the same elementary school together, but had never been in classes together until they got to middle school this year), Brayden (his mom Katie and her twin brother Josh went all the way through school & were good friends with Andrew), and Branson (his aunt is my dear friend Pam’s daughter-in-law). Good bunch of kids.

Our day in Frankenmuth started out with a German pretzel making class. They had us all set up for the adventure, including providing us with these fantastic glasses 🙂

And our very last stop of the trip was to do a little shopping at the Frankenmuth Cheese Haus. They had a brand new mural painted on the building celebrating a Bavarian festival called some word I can’t remember, but it means Bringing Home the Cows. It was when the farmers would bring their cattle down out of the mountains – I guess the Alps? – where they’d been grazing all summer. The people in the mural are pictures of the 3rd and 4th generations of the family that owns and runs the Cheese Haus. Pretty cool.

After lunch, when we were in Frankenmuth, we took a ride on the Cass River. It was a lovely ride and the captain was so interesting telling us about the history of the area. He pointed out this dock, and the handicapped accessible kayak launch. I had never heard of anything like that.

I was unaware that onion domes are also prominent in Bavarian architecture until the captain pointed it out. I strictly think of them as Russian. It seems that they were originally used in Bavaria to keep snow off the roofs. I had no idea.

The last stop on our trip was in Frankenmuth, Michigan, a town with very deep German roots. We started off our day there with a pretzel making class at the Bavarian Inn. Originally it was scheduled to be a strudel making class, but they didn’t have enough instructors to help us – apparently strudel requires more assistance than pretzels. We each started off with a ball of dough that was already made up. Next step was rolling it out into a snake, and then we made it into a U, which is pictured here.

A couple of more pictures from the ferry as we were leaving Mackinac Island. Perfect day to be out on the water, even in a ferry.