A Nice Weekend (a little change)

Well, friends, I come to you, for a change, not completely burnt out and exhausted :) That may not mean I've been at the spa for the weekend, but for once it was the perfect balance of things.

Saturday was the event day. We were heading up to Albany for a day trip to see the Catholic Bishop's Cathedral up there, and we were going to stop by the New York state Museum of Natural History, which is only about a fifth of a mile from the cathedral.

This has been my inaugural photo for almost every album lately, and I just haven't bothered to show it yet. this is Addisu's "I'm going to take a picture of you with my air camera since you people constantly point those things at me" pose. Priceless.

The trip up was quick and beautious. Exhibit A:

                                  All right, so it ain't "Boston in the fall" but its darn close.

I've been building up an endurance to prepare for a certain 12 hour plane ride coming up: Things need to feel quick and easy :).

Once we got up there, my photography spree really kicked into gear:

Just in case you'd want to know, all three previous pictures were taken from a car going 64 mph. I was amazed how well these came out. 

One word can describe things once we got out into the open: Wind. It was cold, it was loud, it was hard. But once we got into the cathedral, all that vanished:

  This place was any photographer's dream. I went ballistic in there taking pictures. If you are a fellow photography nut (or just want to see a nice church) you can check it out here. We had an excellent (and very thorough) tour as well.

Even if it was lacking a couple Catholic necessities, it was still absolutely beautiful. Especially this depiction of the greatest Love ever known on earth: 

After a quick lunch, it was off to the museum. I'd been there a couple times before, so it would be neat to reminisce to past times when I'd been there.  As we were signing in, a little girl came over to us. She said she lived just down the street, and that she'd like someone to tour the museum with her. We took her along, and it was actually pretty fun to have another person in the group. I just felt so bad for this little girl though. She couldn't have been more than ten, and while she told us that her parents had just been busy, I don't know if I could've fended for myself at that age if I had been in her shoes in a big city like Albany. But she was a sweet little kid and she gave us some company for the day. Each time I go, I see soemthing differently; for example, this time, I realized that if I pointed my camera at the right angle, it could look like the army vehicle was shooting the Mammoth Fossil:

:D

On a less humerous note though, soemthing else left me with a hard spot in my chest. Last time I'd been, I was in fourth grade. I was still a little bit young ot see the footage of 9/11. The year I was homeschooling for 7th grade, I asked my Mom if we could watch one of the news specials on that day that year, to learn the full impact. She said I didn't have to, but she wouldn't mind. Having come back and having seen the footage, walking through an exhibit of wreckage from that day was incredibly emotional:

That was a Fire Truck. You know, those big trucks we used to play with as kids that looked so indestructible? One group of people's wrong actions had the power to cause that, and so, so much more:

At one time, that was probably a foundation piece or a crossbeam. It help up hundreds of thousands, probably even millions of tons of material and people.

What really bugs me beyond the destruction and indecency? We are STILL a country that just hasn't received Jesus. It really ticks me off that people could see stuff like this say that its God's fault. Wake up and smell the roses, smart ones. God wasn't piloting the planes that were on an annihilation mission that morning. He was just as sad as we were to see it happen. this is WHY we need God, not why we don't.

The day was rounded out with a little Merry-go-round fun.

                                    And somebody LOVED it. Guess who?

I swear, if we're gonna have a smile as wide as his was when he got off that ride once we get to heaven, then bring on the Pearly Gates!

Today was nice and quiet. but no Picture Perfect (no punn intended) day is, well, perfect without pictures.

A nice little weekend. Just nice. The whole time, though, I've been thinking about it. The fact I'll be in Eastern Europe in less than two months. The fact little Jen is gonna be home shortly before or after Christmas. The fact that there's no way I'm gonna be the same person coming out as I will going in. 

Passing through darkness into my own world
Will I be more than when I left (than when I left)
Never letting go of the lessons I learned
This will make a change
A change within me  

Kutless, "More Than It Seems"