Well, Virginia and I had a wonderful time up in Gold Country. Murphys is a great little tourist town. It was especially nice to walk around after most of the tourists were off doing other things. Last night we mostly just settled in, got the lay of the land, and ate supper. Today we hit Mercer Caverns in time for the 9:30 tour, which took us 16 stories under ground... that's a lot of steps!! We spent the afternoon hiking around and looking at Giant Sierra Redwoods (Sequoias or Sequoiadendron giganteum) at Calaveras Big Trees State Park. We got some pretty good shots, so today I'll post some cavern shots and tomorrow I'll post some tree shots. Enjoy!
We decided to hike the "short" mile to Mercer Caverns. It was a bit more than a mile, and there were some hills to boot. However, the air was cool, the view was great, and we made it both directions.
Other than stalactite and stalagmite, I don't really remember most of what these formations are. Suffice it to say that the same process of water seeping through limestone causes all these formations to grow.
This one's really cool... sort of looks like tentacles.
Amazing!!
This one was almost paper thin... sooooo delicate.
No, that's not a critter crawling across the wall, just another strange formation that I don't remember the name of.
OK... this one almost looks like some kind of strange cave beast.
We have a few other shots, but these should give you an idea of some of the eye candy available at Mercer Caverns.
Tomorrow... big trees!
4 comments:
Hi,
You spoke very strongly on your blog about how on Memorial Day, regardless of the fact that one might be a Christian, we all should be saluting the flag and honoring out soldiers. I wonder how the revelations about the massacre of 24 men, WOMEN, and CHILDREN by US marines in uniform in Haditha, Iraq affect your feelings about Memorial Day and how you feel your Christian faith requires you to respond to such an atrocity?
sincerely,
RW
Those were some great pictures. I love caves. They are interesting. I'm glad you had a great time. Tell Virginia hi for me.
By the way I understood what you were saying about just thanking the military on this day and not thinking about different views. I just wanted to let you know that because of the first comment.
You're right, RJ on this not being the day to discuss...but rather thank the men and women who put themselves in harm's way.
Ryan, you're right in that there's never any good that comes from war. So here's how I'd respond...as a Christian: I pray for God’s rule that will cause humans to "beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." I pray for the time when “nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).
Either way, A big THANK YOU goes to those people who willing do what I am not willing to do. Thank you!
Ryan, I appreciate your obvious passion about the way you feel. As i said originally, there always have been and will be questions and issues when discussing faith and the military. Sadly, every war spawns atrocities... no matter the faiths of those carrying the swords. I believe, as Josh said, that the best "answer" is to pray and hope for a time when there will be so little use for those swords that we'll stake tomatoes with them.
I guess I'm no more or less outraged by what those Marines did than at what happened to Kimberly Dozier or the shooting in Milwaukee yesterday or the My Lai massacre or the Bataan death march or the holocaust or Nero lighting his garden with burning Christians. We live in a "fallen" world, and I believe the only way we'll ever sbustantially make a difference is one heart and mind at a time. My faith gives me that desire and purpose. Thank you for wanting to make a difference as well.
Post a Comment