Travel & Nature

I remember the first time I saw the ocean. I was 10; we drove over from  Fayetteville NC to Kure Beach. The 2-hour drive took forever! My mom had  grown up going to the Jersey Shore every summer and was insistent that  we see and play in salt water. The Atlantic Ocean was magnificent. I  remember wearing my very first 2-piece bathing suit with a white swim  cap. We had heavy canvas floats and my mom taught us how to use them to  ride the surf as it rolled ashore. We were fearless, after all we had  learned to swim as soon as we could walk. I still feel a sense of  anticipation as I push through the sea grasses for my first glimpse of  the sea.

Texas high school traditions rested on Friday night football and mums.  Period. If you had a date to the football game, your date gave you a  mum. This was not just a single chrysanthemum, but a bloom adorned with  ribbons and badges showing your school colors and allegiance. The more  popular you and the guy were, the more extravagant the arrangement. All  through high school, I had mum envy. I went to college in Texas too; mum  envy for 4 years. So here’s a plethora of mums for all of us to wear  whether we received one in high school or not.Having a big sale, on-site celebrity, or other event? Be sure to announce it so everybody knows and gets excited about it.

This photograph was taken on the way to the summit of Enchanted Rock - a batholith - near Fredericksburg, Texas. Imagine if you will, over 100 square miles of a solid piece of pink granite, with only portions that have broken free to see the sky that ferns and flowers, and in its vernal pools, a species of fairy shrimp, can thrive. 

Did you know that there is a Garden of the 

Gods in Southern Illinois? It’s an area of over 3,300 acres located in the Shawnee National Forest. It belies the belief that the Midwest is flat. Garden of the Gods was created over 300 million years ago when the push of glaciers and other geological events laid down gray sandstone. It feels as though that sheet of ice pushed the sandstone into a big pile of rock formations, hoodoos, and artistic erosion patterns. In addition to the growths 

of sandstone, the Garden has its own weather system.