Summer Days

The sultry summer evenings are disappearing, and a crispness in the air is emerging~autumn is coming.

I look back with nostalgia at what this summer looked like...

Swim team

Fishing in the backyard

Hockey Camp (and a serious growth spurt)

Pittsburgh revisited...old friends...familiar streets...

...infamous sandwiches and fancy nails.

 A favorite city scape with old friends after a late night run on the incline car!

Road trip with friends

Badlands ballerina~Dances in Sky (bestowed upon her by her brother)

Laugher...

The Black Hills of home...

with one of my girls.

Did I happen to mention fishing?

With an uncle?

And more laughter?

Historic Deadwood~Days of '76

 Two Top juts out of the South Dakota prairie marking the region my great-grandparents homesteaded...

And generations later the love of family!

Quiet country roads

I may have forgotten, but bow fishing...

Friends pondering the meaning of life...

or perhaps more likely~ why summer days are so fleeting?

Christmas Road Trip

Christmas vacation continued with a trip to Nashville, Tennessee. 

Our first stop was lunch~Tennessee BBQ!

The dry rub ribs were amazing! My grandpa and grandma loved them, as did we!

Then we were off to tour the Ryman Auditorium where early country legends oft performed. 

Afterwards, we walked the streets of Nashville past the honky tonks and bars. Music blared into the streets. 

Later we returned to the Ryman again for a performance of the Grand Ol' Opry.

The next morning we ventured down to the Belle Meade Plantation. 

Crazy girl!

Pausing along the train will my big girls!

The cozy cabin was a stark contrast to the opulence of the mansion.

Afterwards, we headed south to Franklin, Tennessee. Clouds were gathering when we arrived and purchased our tickets to tour the Carnton Plantation. Then the story of how the bloodiest battle of the Civil War unfolded, resulting in the mansion becoming a makeshift hospital. 

Afterwards we walked over to the Confederate Cemetery in the drizzle. We saw the rows and rows of headstones~proof of the carnage of battle. As we embraced the somber reality the rain came pouring down.

Then we settled in for the ride home in the rain.