Greetings. This is our first blog entry for our 2013 summer travels. We are 2/3rds of the way through the grandkid phase of our summer. We departed Punta Gorda on June 3rd and arrived in Charleston, SC on the 5th in time for our granddaughter Callan's high school senior awards and graduation ceremonies. She is now a graduate of Charleston's School of the Arts and will be attending Eugene Lang College in Greenwich Village, New York with a full tuition scholarship. We are so proud of Callan. Her brother, Brock, just completed his freshman year at Wando High School where, as a straight A student, he now ranks 22nd out of 900 classmates. Clearly he is positioning himself to follow in Callan's footsteps in writing his own college ticket.

Callan's graduation picture

 

Callan and Brock

Next, we landed in Concord, NC where we spent two nights watching Ryan race his Legend car in the Pro series. This is Ryan's first year in the pros and he is clearly a top rookie. With fields of about18-20 cars he finished 4th and 6th. This guy can drive a car and is also a straight A student.

Ryan standing by his car hauler. Check out the small print on the hauler. WOW

Now we are in Madison, WI with the Falkowski family. Jennifer, Matt and Ella joined us for a day at The House on the Rock. The House is an amazing place developed by a guy with unbelieveable creativity and imagination. Anyone traveling in south central Wisconsin should spend a day at the House on the Rock. Everything there works for people of all ages. The following picture was taken in the Infinity Room, a structure that extends away from the House about 150' out over the surrounding forest.

 

The next picture is the made in place carousel. It weighs over 34 tons and has 20,000 lights. Humans only watch this carousel. They do not ride it. It features all sorts of creatures but no horses.

 

 

If you look closely above the carousel you may notice some winged creatures. About 100 of them fly around the huge room housing the carousel. The following picture offers a closer look at these "birds".

 

 

How about them apples? Apples? Birds?  I don't think so.