Our 5th field trip (and, as it turns out, other ramblings)

It's with a heavy heart that I write this.  Nevertheless life goes on.  We miss our little classmate; our star pupil; the eager one, the listening one, the bright-eyed tail-wagger; the one who galloped wildly to the schoolroom door when the bell rang, dancing and jumping on her hind feet til teacher let her in.  The one who loved to "find" all the little pieces of "bone" we hid around the classroom; the one who let us know with eager, happy barks if anyone or any "thing" had dared to enter our yard, or even to walk past on the road, dare-devils, you! The one who pretended to have been chasing squirrels away from the feeder all day if we'd been out, quickly running to the tree and barking energetically when she saw our car pulling in. OK, I'll stop reminiscing!  I hope we see her in heaven one day, and if not, I trust that God knows best.

I don't think any of us needs to think we'll be sitting on puffy clouds playing harps for eternity.  For one thing, we'll be in "heaven" only 1000 years (Rev. 20) before Jesus recreates the earth anew (Rev 21:1-3) and the Holy City will be moved from heaven to the very earth!  We, the redeemed from sin, will be the crowning exhibit of God's LOVE, to the universe through the person of His beloved son, Jesus, who has bought us, nay, adopted us.

So, getting back to eternity, - people, there's a whole UNIVERSE out there waiting for us to explore.  There's a whole, almost infinite world of microscopic minutiae waiting for study and exploration, on this earth, and then in the universe. Besides the objective world to know and study, we have millions of relationships to enter in to.  Not only with our relatives, but with our other loved ones, our friends, our acquaintances, new friends; our ancestors, then beings such as angels, beings from other worlds and of course, - the most fulfilling relationship of all, with Jesus our Saviour; our Creator; and with God the loving, merciful, Father, and with the Holy Spirit - who has guided and comforted us through our whole lives, never leaving us for an instant!  Bottom line - eternity will NOT be boring or monotonous!

Our now finite minds will be open to absorb billions of bits of data and information.  Our hearts open fully to the amazing and completely accepting LOVE of our Creator.  Please study the link between the Creation and the Creator.  Lets not worship creation, but the infinite and loving God who created it!

OK, back to the 5th field trip.  This time we killed two birds with one stone (isn't there a less violent analogy somewhere?? - I've asked this painful question before but nobody has given me an answer. Come on, people!).  We went to the CDM; and got to see the replicas of the Pinta and Nina (two ships that Columbus sailed when discovering the New World).  I'll show you photos of the day.

This was the first stop of the day.  When we got to the CDM, there was already a school group there, and being very noisy and busy on the upper level, somehow we all ended up in the quiet reading room for some solitary enrichment...

I have no idea what C was trying to accomplish here, but A seems to be a football player, or maybe an Indian with war-paint.

The girls seem to have favourite places where they always end up some how or another.  Seems like a familiar spot, doesn't it?

Good idea, A!  Let's trap C then go have some icecream!

Oh, my leg!  Guess I'll have to use this wheelchair while I recover.

Nice job climbing, girls.  I think this was too easy for you!

Oops!  I think we've passed the red line!

Our science class today was on the Bernoulli effect. (air flow, air pressure, and all that). Science class had to be out in the lobby/hallway due to renovations in the science auditorium.  They're moving the science theatre from North gate mall, to here.  They say it'll be ready in mid-November.

 

Ah, the Nina and the Pinta (this is the Pinta) are in port! Too bad we missed it sailing in today.

We're here, teacher!  (They're standing on a moving dock.)

Close up of the rigging (2nd ship, the Nina).  It's hard to imagine so many people on a ship this size, sailing across the Atlantic!

Hey Matey, can we come aboard?

And so ends our 5th field trip of the year.  It was a nice, sunny day with a brisk, cool wind blowing.  We are sometimes spoiled here in SE Tennessee - especially in October!  This month is the only reason some of us stay around here (perhaps I should only speak for myself, huh? - I don't want the Chattanooga tourism board breathing down my neck.)  Hey, I still say I named the Tennessee River Gorge Explorer (yes, thanks for making the name suggestions anonymous, you guys, I could be famous/rich by now! - ha ha).  MUCH better than the river Express or whatever!  You know who you are, :-)!

Til next time!