Anna Ruby Falls and Unicoi State Park

We met up with friends at Perimeter Church in John's Creek on Sunday. It's a huge megachurch with a beautiful building, multiple sites, and a vision to reach "the perimeter" of Atlanta. I liked their vision and the service, but I'm happy with our much smaller congregation at home.

After lunch with our friends, it was such a gorgeous afternoon that we headed for Anna Ruby Falls. Only we had had such a good time talking over Chinese, that we didn't get there until about 4:05. The gates close at 4. 

Supper was our usual Sunday night popcorn and apples with Burnett Dairy cheese, only this time the popcorn was made in the microwave. Not bad.

 We headed back to Anna Ruby Falls this morning and were pleased to find that our National Parks card got us in for free. (Best investment we ever made, says Steve.)

The path to the falls is steep, but it's paved and only about half a mile. Besides, it follows a delightful cascading stream.

And then there are the rocks...

and the flowers...

The falls are well worth the climb. 

I posted a video here on YouTube.

I took a picture for someone's Christmas card, and they offered to take one of us, so in case you forgot what we look like or need proof we really did make the climb...

I bought a couple Christmas presents in the gift shop. Not saying for whom. :-)

Next stop was a trail around the lake in Unicoi State Park we had passed through on our way to the falls.

It was an easy walk, mostly level with lots of fishing platforms to walk out on. 

Great picnic spot back at the beach where we started the loop.

Last walk of the day was the Bottoms Loop trail. Nice woods walk, but not as photogenic as the rest of the day. Lots of buds on the rhododendron, but no blossoms. Next week maybe. But then it will probably be too hot and humid for us. And we will be back north.

Another soak in the hot tub after all that walking. (16,000 steps according to my phone app.) Dinner in our apartment with ham brought from home and canned bean salad and German potato salad. Very nice and relaxing not to go out.

Tomorrow we are off to Tallulah Gorge. Weatherman says it will be cloudy, but not raining.

Toccoa Falls, GA

 I wasn't planning to blog this trip. It's a lot of work curating pictures every day and uploading them. But I keep thinking how much Claudia (Mom Hardy) would enjoy seeing what we are up to. So...

We stopped in Indy to see my 100-year-old dad on the way south. We also had lunch and tea with other friends. I love those friendships that have lasted decades.

Friday was drive-to-Georgia day. Drove out of rain, but mostly a pleasant day. I finished one knit hat and started another.

Saturday it rained in the morning, but stopped about ten, and we got organized to go to Toccoa Falls. The waterfall that names the town is located behind the Toccoa Falls College. There is a small fee, but well worth it.

Pleasant half-mile walk to the falls.

They were still taking pictures from a morning wedding when we were allowed in a noon. What a setting for a wedding!

There were picnic tables near a small lake (and college student volleyball game), but Steve noticed this table behind a historic hydro-electric building which had serviced the college maybe 80 years ago.

He hadn't noticed the small waterfall behind the picnic table until we were carrying our picnic basket toward it. Delightful spot to eat our cheese and crackers and hardboiled eggs.

After lunch we headed to another waterfall. Not nearly as impressive, but a nice small town park with lots of people enjoying the lovely day.

We came back to the hotel and soaked in the hot tub while we did a load of laundry.

Out to dinner to Hawg House, a fabulous BBQ/Catfish house in nearby Clarksville. I had the catfish, which melted in my mouth. Steve had a half rack of ribs. He shared some with me, and it was oh, so good too. We had missed the BBQ recommended by the hotel, but have NO regrets.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and we are going to north Atlanta to attend church with some more long-time friends and have lunch with them.

Guadalupe River State Park

 I enjoyed visiting my daughter's church this morning. Very friendly. Even people who didn't see I was with her introduced themselves. When they found out I was her mom, each one told me how much they loved her. "Me, too," was my answer.

After church we went to Lupe's Tortillas for lunch. They told us it would be a twenty minute wait. It was thirty minutes. And then we waited an hour for our food. Delicious, but it really ate into our afternoon. It was 4 PM before we arrived at the park. Fortunately, it gets dark way later here than at home.

Beautiful place.

We did a lot of scrambling. Note to self: When hiking, assume we will do some scrambling even if someone tells you the trails are level and don't need more than sneakers. Wear boots.

The scramble was well worth it!

My daughter has a cat she has taken on camping trips at times. He's still getting used to the leash.

He spent more time in the backpack which expands into a little tent when we take breaks.

The sun had gone down by the time we left. Great day. 

Lots of cool campsites to come back to.

A Couple Texas State Parks

This is not a major road trip, but I'm spending a long weekend with my daughter in San Antonio, Texas. Since we are all avid hikers, we took off Saturday morning for a couple state parks that have become favorites. The forecast for today had been thunderstorms. As you can see from the pictures, they did not materialize.

Blanco State Park is small, but it's only about a half hour from their apartment (or would have been if construction traffic out of San Antonio hadn't been so bad.)

We did a couple short hikes along the river. There are some really nice campsites and a swimming hole.

The main goal of the day was Pedernales Falls State Park, further away but well worth the trip. After a picnic lunch, we hiked down to the swimming area. The water looked pretty slimey at this time of year, and we weren't tempted even if the sun had come out. There were lots of rocks to scramble on.

And wonderful cypress trees along the river bank.

My daughter warned me that the "falls" is not much of a waterfall at this time of year although it is subject to flash floods when all this would be a raging torrent. We could see striations in the some of the rocks where debris has been repeatedly dragged across. It doesn't look like I took any pictures of potholes, but there were plenty. A lot of them looked like elephant footprints.

The fun for a ten-year-old (and his mom and grammie) was scrambling on, under, and through rocks. They entered the larger opening at the bottom

Then they scrambled up this chimney to come out on top.

The place they were most anxious to take me is the large dark opening in the middle of this picture.

It was challenging to find our way across the rocks to a place where we could actually reach the opposite shore. They had discovered on a previous visit that the hole is not a cave, but a tunnel to approach from the back. We picked our way through rocks and scrub to the back side.

That turned out to be more difficult than the actual climb.

The view was definitely worth it. We sat a while in the opening and heard a child on the far side saying, "Daddy! Daddy! I wanna go to the cave!"

By the time we made our way back down the sun was disappearing--a full hour later than it would have in January at home up north.

We didn't begin to investigate the many hiking trails in this park. All three of us were wishing we were headed back to a campsite, rather than the city. Sigh.  Next time.

Ephesus

I wasn't planning to do any tourism here, but Steve had board meetings this afternoon, and ancient Ephesus was only ten minutes away...

After lunch three busloads of us took off for what was once the second largest city in the Roman Empire.

I felt guilty the whole time because my friend Liisa Eyerly has written a mystery novel set in first-century Ephesus. She had long been planning a research trip, but the week before departure came down with Covid. She's the one who should be here, not me. But Liisa, I thought of you and took lots of pictures!

The weather was threatening all afternoon. Our windshield was splattered with rain on the way, but it never actually rained while we were there.

The main business street leads down to the Celsus Library, originally a mausoleum in the early second century.

The library is the most impressive facade in the city.

But the most impressive structure is undoubtedly the amphitheater, which seats 25,000 people. It now gets used for concerts. (The acoustics are incredible!) But in the first century it was the scene of a riot when Saint Paul preached the gospel and Demetrius the silversmith drew thousands into the theater shouting, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" for two hours because he was worried about his loss of business selling images of Diana if too many people became Christians. Paul was arrested for starting the riot and hauled off to jail in the fortress at the top of the hill in the distance. At the time, that was across the harbor, safe from the crowd. But the harbor long ago silted up, and the Aegean is now several miles away in front of our hotel.

I saw this design scrawled in the pavement in a couple different places. It is a game board, but also purported to be an alternative to the fish as a secret symbol for Christ--overlapping Greek letters spelling ichthos--Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.

Of course, all tour buses have to show up at a shopping spot before the end. This porcelain shop had beautiful stuff I could neither afford nor fit in my luggage, What I would most have liked is one of these horn-shaped pieces. When the salesman put his phone in the small end, the music was amplified like an old-fashioned gramophone. Look, Ma! No batteries!

Tomorrow we head home. I'm looking forward to my own bed and my own (simple) food instead of the overwhelming choices we have had here. But I will miss the selection of Turkish sweets.

Izmir

ICETE (International Counsel for Evangelical Theological Education) hosts an international conference every three years. I don't usually travel with Steve when he consults for schools or teaches modular courses for a week or two, but I do come to ICETE because it brings together people he works with from all over the world. It's my chance to put faces with names that I hear all the time. It is also a wonderful opportunity to experience a little bit of heaven on earth. This time on the Aegean Sea.

We are more than 500 participants--the most ever. Word is getting out that this is the network to be a part of if you are interested in global theological education. We represent more than 80 countries and 200 organizations and training institutions. Worship is led by a lovely young Zimbabwean woman.

Conversations over meals and long coffee breaks are perhaps the most important part of the event. The selection at the Turkish buffet is overwhelming.

This morning we heard from a delegation representing 22 evangelical theological schools in Ukraine. They are all functioning as refugee centers these days and looking for ways to prepare Christian workers for the events around them. They worry about their faculties (without jobs) and their students, scattered in ministries they never anticipated. Sadly the the Euro-Asian Accrediting Association, a member of ICETE, has dissolved in the Ukrainian frustration with Russian schools and churches' failure to speak out against those who have instigated this war.

Click here, if you want to support these schools as they demonstrate the love of God to their neighbors in this terrible situation. Pray that they would know God's power and not be discouraged as the challenge is overwhelming.

These events always takes place in lovely hotels in the off season. 

"Off season" means better rates, but it also means it's too cool to take advantage of the water facilities of the resort even of it is a lot warmer than home. I love water slides although I fear most of my fellow conference-goers would be too dignified to join me anyway.

Istanbul

A quick travel turn-around. Covid postponements have stacked things up in 2022. We are in Turkey for meetings of the International Counsel for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE) with whom Steve is a senior consultant.

On layovers in Amsterdam I love to stop in the Rijksmuseum's exhibition space in the middle of the terminal. This time they featured 19th-c landscape art rather than the 16th- and 17th-c work they are so famous for.

We took only carry-on luggage this trip to avoid the baggage mess that has been such a problem in Amsterdam this summer for lack of baggage handlers.

Islam is on the rise in Turkey after decades of striving to be a secular country, which tended to define freedom of religion as freedom from religion. The city is full of mosques. We hear their calls to prayer from several directions, reminders to pray for this country.

Originally Constantinople, the Eastern capitol of the empire, Roman ruins are still scattered about the old parts of the city.

When we were here seven years ago for the same meetings, we skipped the Topkapi Palace since there was so much else to see. This time we lined up a tour via TripAdvisor. The towers at the first gate looked perfect for Rapunzel to let down her long golden hair.

The palace was home to the sultans from the 15th to the mid-19th centuries and was expanded and remodeled many times.

Like on the Danube, we found opulent ceilings.

This is the "family room" in the harem. Concubines served as maids to the wives, everyone competing to be recognized and desired by the sultan. Despite the opulence, it sounds like a miserable life to me.

The traditional tiles are most visible in the harem, the private family quarters. A common motif is Adam and Eve represented by the two trees in the center. Tulips, originally from Turkey, were common in the designs.

In my book Black Mountain, Teg travels to Istanbul. There she comments on the bean that the locals were accustomed to roast, grind and steep in hot water. "They made a strange dark beverage whose very aroma seemed to fill them with energy." In fact, coffee (from Ethiopia) didn't reach Turkey until about a decade after Teg's arrival in 1541, but I figured no one would mind a few liberties. This coffee roaster was in the palace kitchen museum.

See my regular blog for more about Teg's visit to Istanbul.

At the far end of the palace complex (which housed about 5000 people) were pleasure palaces overlooking the Bosporus and Sea of Marmare.

Looking north to the Bosporus with Europe on the left and Asia on the right. At one point the Ottoman Empire stretched from Vienna to Egypt over three continents.

Before returning to our hotel for naps, we enjoyed an outdoor lunch of Turkish meatballs (Steve) and mushroom screwers (LeAnne). And to think it is well below freezing at home right now.