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Heidi and I were having a grand old time at the Magic House in St. Louis, about 29 years ago! Today we are going to have another Mom/daughter day, but we'll have to figure out some other way to do "matching hair"... scarves maybe. We're heading into Austin for a little breakfast, then facials, then afternoon DimSum!! But mostly we'll just be celebrating the day we first met. Heidi turns 30 this week!  Favorite Mom/Daughter Times: I loved going to concerts with Heidi when she was young and had the inside scoop on all up and coming bands... Volunteering together at Sundance film festival... Laughing, while we play piano duets... Playing ANY game, even though she beats me at everything... sharing margaritas in Mexico and there is a bigger story there...
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Don and I spent a week at Inks Lake State Park in Texas. It was peaceful in the fall, on a weekday. A sudden storm had us closing up chairs and pulling things inside. But after the storm there was such a lovely glow on the lake. By the weekend the park was swarming and we were surrounded by families. After all the quiet, the tricycles and balls and toddlers wandering onto our site, was downright amusing.  Favorite Trallers: Our sweet little Airstream, "Bambi"... Jennifer & Kate's, vintage "Tear Drop" trailer... The "Long, Long Trailer" in the silly '50's movie, starring Lucy and Ricky... The shiny Airstream topped with a cupcake, along with many food trailers in Austin... A vintage Cozy Coach we rented in Marta,TX...
I think this was taken about 1981. I can't remember why Don was kissing this fish. Maybe he was getting ready to release it. Maybe it was just a silly photo pose. But the photo makes me smile and reminds me of a few fishing memories in my past.  Fish Memories: Using cane pole and bread to catch a flounder off the dock in Sarasota, FL... In Missouri, my only time fishing for trout. I was yawning, before dawn, wearing waders and tangling my line with serious fishermen... Don, catching a small shark off the jetty in Galveston and needing some help from some old timer fishermen...
I love this purple door at our B & B in Marathon, Texas. The place was appropriately named, Eve's Garden. The guest rooms opened to the greenhouse/courtyard, but there were many doors and gates that I was not clear about. It was January and there was ice covering the ground and trees just outside. These flowers and bright colors made the world feel like spring!  Mystery Doors I recall: In Italy as a child, I was intrigued by so many tiny doors, within large doors... We had a bookcase in our Oklahoma home, that was really a door leading to a small storage/hiding space.... As a kid, I loved watching those mystery doors on "Let's Make a Deal"... My childhood playhouse (once a shed) had an extra door, too small for me to squeeze through. I'd never seen a pet door...
Years ago, Heidi had quite a time wearing her Grandpa's hat, along with the funny glasses & nose get-up.It's amazing how much fun you can have with some mask or clothing props. I remember a few from over the years!
Disguise Adventures: My friend Diane and I were 7 when we wore glasses, nose & mustache disguises and knocked on a neighbor's door. We claimed to be furnace repairmen... In the late '70's, my friend and I wore hideous, vintage cocktail dresses to distract the club bouncer, since we didn't have I.D.s... Claire and I wore roller skates and "roller derby" hard hats, then skated through the drive-thru at Jack-in-the- Box... Every day that I go out in a wig, I feel a bit like I'm in disguise! I drew this, early morning on Galveston Beach a few years ago. There's something so fun about making something temporary, that will be soon be removed by nature. I love that feeling of dragging a stick in the sand and watching it slice out a picture or design.  Sand Fun Memories: Making castles with the kids in Florida... Finding an elaborate structure all alone on the beach near Del Coranado Hotel... The kids scooping and pouring dry sand in the backyard sandbox... Digging as deep as we could in the sand... Scampering and screaming in bare feet, over burning hot sand...
This photo cracks me up... when you look at the feet. Last May, Scott and I decided to swap shoes for some reason. I'd been wearing uncomfortable shoes all day and evening during my nephew's graduation festivities. Scott's desert boots looked like clown shoes on my feet!  Shoe Memories: Go-Go boots and fishnet stocking at age 9... Wearing wooden Dutch shoes as a teen, even thought the tips were gnawed off by our dog... My Dr. Scholl's sandals, with soles worn thin so my heel touched the ground... dancing in my tap shoes in the kitchen... And Scott at 3, wearing his green rubber boots, daily!
This sweet cat visited with Don and me when we stayed at the Shack Up Inn in Mississippi. We sat on the porch of our rental, a former sharecropper's house and patted the gray cat while rain poured on the tin roof. I do love kitties and they make me smile.  Favorite Cats: Storybook kitties, The Cat in the Hat & Cheshire Cat... Movie star cats from Milo and Otis & The Incredible Journey... My own cats from childhood on, Smokey, Simon, Garfunkel, Pasha, Milo...
This is as close as I've gotten to The Pleasure Pier in Galveston. They charge way too much to walk through the gates. But I still adore the sight of a carnival from a distance. Even the carnivals that pop up in sketchy shopping center lots, look magical when you spot them from the road at night. So many wonderful shapes squiggling like a scratchpad doodle, blinking and glowing with colorful lights!  Carnival Memories: My Scott at 2, freaking me out with his squirminess on a Ferris wheel... Applying (on a dare) for position of Snake Girl at a carnival in New Hampshire... Feeling battered with my sister, on the old wooden roller coaster at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk... Getting reprimanded by attendant for standing on my carousel horse. I was 4 and just trying to do a trick to show Mom!
The first day of summer was yesterday, but Houston is still in the 90's. I need to see things that are cool and refreshing. This photo was taken at the park near our apartment building, in Staten Island. I was 6 and I loved this fancy sprinkler... so much more deluxe than playing with the hose!  Ways to Cool Off: Dipping bandanas into a mix of water, ice and some fragrant dashes of "Florida Water"... Wading in the spring-fed Eleven Point River in Missouri, to chill the body of 100-degree temps... Grandma "Daw's" attic fan, sucking cool night air, through the open windows... Paying my little brother a dollar, one summer night, to use a paper fan to cool me till I fell asleep... Running through sprinklers on the golf course...
I'm not a big shopper, but I actually do love little stores. The older the better. This great shop in Alpine, Texas specializes in Raspas, a Mexican shaved ice treat. They also have Mexican pottery and imported crafts for sale. And lots of chairs for hanging around while you eat or drink.  Favorite Small Stores: The "Little Store" down the street in Grinnell, where we turned in pop bottles to pay for our candy... The Hanneke Market, just a walk away from our home in Glendale, MO. I walked my kids in their wagon and you could still, "charge it". The Milkman's store, down the street from our apt in Italy. The sweet milkman delivered our bottles by bike in the morning and we stopped by for ice cream some afternoons...
My little bro and I were hamming for cameras in both photos. We were coming out of a bowling alley in the top photo and exploring Roman ruins in the bottom. I have way too many stories of laughing through interesting places with my brother. So I'll save those stories and let one of these 2 places inspire my list!  Columns I Remember: Somebody.... (not me) climbing up the columns inside our guest room, at Austin's Driskill Hotel. The marble and gold leaf columns in the lobby of Hotel Finlen in Butte, MT... The classic Greek columns surrounding Lincoln Memorial... The line-up of ancient stone columns at Chichen Itza... 20 iron columns, (painted in pastel colors) on a home, owned by my Great-Great Uncle Harry... A marble, pedestal column purchased by great grandparents at 1904 World's Fair...
I've loved towers since I was a kid, absorbed in fairytales. The Desert View Watchtower at The Grand Canyon's south rim puts a real smile on my face. Five years ago, we arrived early, but stayed through sunset. We climbed inside for spectacular views and we sat beside it to watch the sun sink into the canyon. Impressive to know that a woman, Mary Colter was the architect in 1932!  Towers I Love: Climbing Giotto's bell tower in Florence... The 3 grand, stone & brick water towers still standing tall in St. Louis... The vintage water tower beside old sugar mill in Sugar Land, TX... Shanghai's Oriental Pearl Tower... The Eiffel Tower and Pisa's Leaning Tower of course!
Scott was about 3 when he participated in a sack race at a company picnic in Oklahoma. I don't remember the outcome, but I know there were no tears, or injuries. He does seem to have a determined smile, in this photo that I love!  Jumping Kids: My kids leaping about in bounce-houses, at kid parties over the years... Myself, jumping back & forth between hotel beds, when I was old enough to know better... At 14, I was on the school trampoline team for 1 week, before realizing I was the only one without experience... In P.E., doing the broad jump, (poorly) every year for the President's Fitness Award... Watching each of my kiddos, with arm-floaties, jump off the board for the first time!
MUST ADD: Scott read and reminded me of 2 good ones. The only time I jumped from a plane and watching my kids jump from a rock ledge into the waters of a Mexican cenote! This merry-go-round, needs some weed trimming and some kids to cheer it up. But it was a fun thing to spot last spring, resting in the grass beside an old schoolhouse in Missouri. As a kid, I adored all the "dangerous equipment" that has since disappeared. (Swings are becoming scarce in schools, now) Some of the crazy stuff I remember playing on, was built at the Miracle Company, just outside of Grinnell, Iowa. Miracle introduced so much of the colorful, fiberglass equipment... whimsical elephant slides and horse swings with pumping bars!  Equipment I Loved: Cooper School's, circulating-Maypole-type structure where kids held hoops at the end of each chain... Teeter-totters, even though I was small and often got held up and teased... my friend Debbie's real jungle gym in her yard... Blackburn Park's human "hamster wheel", enclosed in a tiny house... Rocket Slides, made in Grinnell but still found many places... The Miracle Whirl that replaced the wooden merry-go-round, with metal platform and tubing handrails. "Hold the bar and and run, run, run in the grass, until it's time to jump on for the ride!!"
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