Merry Christmas 2023

This year’s theme – flannel 🙂 Seemed a comfy way to celebrate the year.  Again, we are behind in posting and video creation but, none the less we are wishing you the Happiest of the Holiday Season. Maybe we will see you this year if our travels take us by your locale. Until we see you next, may your year-end festivities and New Year be filled with JOY, a nice dose of PEACE, and as usual a whole lot of HAIR GREASE.  Thank you for your love and friendship throughout the years.

In case our video does not materialize, here are the highlight.

Lizzie’s highlights: She became a world traveler. As the Lead Bari saxophone player for the NC Music Ambassadors, she performed in Paris, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany at the end of June thru July 10th. Click here for recap. With NCSU in May, she performed in London at the Royal College of Music. In October, she went to LA for a SWE (Society of Women Engineers) Conference and on Dec 28th she will be in Orland to perform in the Pop Tarts Bowl. Another high point was being cleared to run, after nearly a year of physical therapy, personal training, and determination. This has enabled her to march for the Power Sound of the South – NCSU Marching Band, which she has really enjoyed. She says look for the short sax player 🙂 See here. She continued to play for the NCSU Wind Ensemble, which Craig and I have enjoyed watching throughout the year. Finally, for her Freshman summer, she landed an internship with Wetherill Engineering here in Raleigh, but will be going to south DC to intern for Dewberry this coming summer. Quite the the grown up.

CJ continues to grow, he says 6 ft, but I think a smidge shy of that. Still, it makes him very happy to be a big man now. I think he told me 180 as bulking up on weights this off-season. His Top highlight is finding a place to play baseball in college. Yippee – going to University of Alabama – Huntsville. We were so lucky that his Triangle Brass Band played there this April, otherwise we might not have known about the school.  If you would like to sample the NABBA performance, here is the link. Warning: it is 25mins, but you can sample. CJ is on the back left 4th from the front. UAH seems like the perfect fit for him to study building rocket engines. Finally, he is still doing well in school, but is most proud to have made the top band in All-Districts this past January. Maybe that propelled him into being Captain for the Leesville Road High School band this Summer. We are proud of all the band, click here for a performance. Indeed, the trumpets are really wonderful for his senior year. 🙂

Craig has again worked hard for the LRHS band, but is excited that this will be his last year of running the fundraising stands at the Red Hat Amphitheater and PNC arena. He is enjoying his job at Avioq and just got promoted to Top Management. His Top highlight is watching his last travel ball game for CJ, though we also think that being the best Fast Pass Disney chaperone on the Spring Trip ranks a close 2nd.

Laurie is still working for Truist bank, solving access issues for various lines of business, but now 3 days in the office. My big highlight is that I re-did and expanded Craig’s garden. Even got some engineering advice from Lizzie. Otherwise, mostly the same as last year – teaching tennis 2x/week and helping with Middle School faith formation at St. Francis. I’m proud my student is doing so well. However, I have gotten roped into a few band duties, like chaperoning the Summer Band Camp in Banner Elk and working beer carts for Craig at NCSU football games. It is always nice to be able to be a part of the kids/young adults’ lives.

Bo is 4.5 years old and is still happy to be around his Carson Clan, playing fetch, and eating anytime he can, sadly still at 6am. Although he is not quite as active as once was, he has become quite the road traveler. NJ for July 4th, IL for Thanksgiving, and Huntsville AL for Veterans Day. He is a good dog.

Maybe I will get a video showcase out around the New Year, but if not, All the best til next time.

Fondly, your Travelin’ Caravan Carsons

Merry Christmas 2022

Back to Travelin’ Caravan Carsons (at least a little)

Hope you enjoy our best imitation of an NCSU gear ad 🙂 My, where has this year gone?  Again, we are behind in posting and video creation but, we are wishing you the Happiest of the Holiday Season nonetheless. Until we see you next, may your year-end festivities and New Year be filled with JOY, a plentiful dose of PEACE, and as usual whole lot of HAIR GREASE.  Thank you for your love and friendship throughout the years.

In case our video does not materialize, here are the highlight.

Lizzie’s Top highlight: New bone from donor 5 days into college for multi-cracked femur condyle of knee joint. Diagnosed end of March, but gratefully got to dance in final recital for a couple minutes. Finished LRHS 5th out of 584 with 9 AP credits. We are very proud. She certainly worked her tail off for 4 yrs of A’s She also made All-district on the Bari Sax for her Senior year and 2nd at State. She continues to play for the NCSU Wind Ensemble, click here for a performance sample.

CJ continues to grow, being significantly taller than the rest of us now. That makes him very happy. His Top highlight is hitting his 1st HS HR, dead center. You can check out his baseball page here. He has been looking at college where he can play baseball and study aerospace. If you have ideas or tips, let us know. He was also invited to play in the Triangle Brass band, when I get a link I will post it. Finally, he is proud to still have all A’s in Calc which is really enjoys with Ms. Mayfield.

Craig has again worked hard for the LRHS band, organizing & working fundraising stands at Red Hat Amphitheater and PNC arena. He is very proud of the new hats.to garner tips. (Stay tune for photo) He started a new job at Avioq in April which he is enjoying quite a lot as they develop diagnostic kits for other companies. His Top highlight is getting Lizzie off to college, but really he misses her quite a bit when not around.

Laurie is proud to have gotten out of the house for a proper vacation this year- planning and enjoying a Coco Beach trip was a real treat. Otherwise, still the same as last year – working from home for Truist Bank, doing a little gardening, teaching a little tennis, and continuing to help with Middle School faith formation at St. Francis.

Bo is 3.5 years old and happy to be around his carson clan, playing fetch, and eating anytime can, particularly at 6am. No copperhead snake bites this year, so that is his Top highlight.

Hopefully, I will get a video show out before the new year to showcase our trips/events. CJ and I made 3 trips to FL and we all enjoyed seeing family in NJ and IL during the year. All the best til next time

The Back to Travelin’ Caravan Carsons (at least a little)

Welcome to the World of Buc ee’s

Who would have guessed one of the best places we toured during our Florida getaway was Buc ee’s – a cornucopia of pleasure shopping, re-fueling, bio-breaking, and all round smiling fun.

There was too much to see. A Buc ee at every turn and travelin’ caravan paradise.

The ‘cleanest” bathrooms in the country, I was told. I can’t confirm, I was in too much shock to notice. I can confirm a treat awaits in every square foot.

We definitely got more than bargained for. Hooray for Buc ee’s 🙂

These Pics don’t do it justice. You will have to plan a visit for yourself.

Merry Christmas 2021

Lizzie nearly 18, CJ nearly 16, Craig old, & Laurie more ancient

Does this year-end seem even speedier than in the past to anyone else?  NEVERTHELESS we are wishing you the Happiest of the Holiday Season and hoping to light up your day with a bit of Cheer (see our linked video). This year’s picture is our best Grant Wood portraiture. Here is our video link. Check back from time to time for new content. Until then, may your end of year festivities and New Year be filled with much JOY, a plentiful dose of PEACE, and a whole rocket ship of HAIR GREASE to slide us into even better times for 2022.  Thank you for your love and friendship throughout the years.

– The still not so Travelin’ Caravan Carsons of 2021

In case the video does materialize, here are the cliff notes:

Lizzie is a Big Senior this year and reminding us daily that she will not be here much longer. She was the Colorguard Captain for their awesome Marching Band and proud to both dance in person and as TA for the CDC annual recital Cinderella in June. (link to the Immortal Marching show. I like the close ups in this one better. Lizzie does not.)

CJ now a sophomore finally made it to the halls of the High School this fall. He was proud to play on the JV baseball team as a freshman in the spring and keep his straight A track record. He has enjoyed his 1st year of real marching for the band, playing trumpet.

Craig has worked his hienie off for the band, organizing and working the fundraising stand at Red Hat Amphitheater. He is proud of the diagnostic for cervical cancer he developed while at BectonDickinson this year.

Laurie is proud she survived til this point, as has been a grueling year. She is still working from home for Truist Bank, making lives easier for teammates with access needs and issues. She has done a little gardening, taught a little tennis, and continues to help with faith formation at St. Francis.

Bo is 2.5 years old and happy to be around his carson clan, playing fetch, and eating anytime can, particularly at 6am. He is happy to be loved and has been a good listening and patient dog this year.

Merry Christmas 2020

Lizzie nearly 17, CJ nearly 15, Bo 1.5 years, Craig old, & Laurie ancient

Can’t believe how fast the end of thes year is going, especially since most of it has been a long slog.  NEVERTHELESS we are wishing you the Happiest of the Holiday Season and hoping to sprinkle you with a bit of Cheer. Alibeit in our PJs, where we have spent most of the year. Hopefully, we will get to adding a video link here before too long. Check back from time to time for new content. Until then,  may your end of year and New Year be filled with much more JOY, a whopping dose of PEACE, and a whole rocket ship of HAIR GREASE to slide us into good times for 2021.  Thank you for your love and friendship throughout the years.

– The not so Travelin’ Caravan Carsons of 2020

Merry Christmas 2019

It’s that time of year again.  Wishing you the Happiest of Holiday times.  Though AGAIN we are late. In fact, we are very very late, but the wishes still the same. You can find our year-end recap on YouTube.  May your New Year be filled with JOY, PEACE, and a whole lot of HAIR GREASE.  – The Travelin’ Caravan Carsons, but not so traveling this year.

P.S. As our video suggests, we have a bit more to post later as we have a big surprise.  Not too big though 🙂

Our big news is that we got a dog, Bo, a yellow lab right before Christmas.  He is the perfect addition to our family – smart, kind, and full of adventure.  The kids are loving him and their affection is reciprocated happily.

 

Merry Christmas 2018

It’s that time of year again.  Wishing you the Happiest of Holiday times.  Though AGAIN we are late, you can find our year end message on YouTube.  May your years be filled with JOY, PEACE, and a whole lot of HAIR GREASE.  – The Travelin’ Caravan Carsons

Merry Christmas 2017

It’s that time of year again.  Wishing you the Happiest of Holiday times.  Though we are late, you can find our year end message on YouTube.  May your years be filled with JOY, PEACE, and a whole lot of HAIR GREASE.  – The Travelin’ Caravan Carsons

The Nerds Take on Norfolk: The Middle

It’s at this point that I feel the need to give a big SHOUT out to Cooking with a Wallflower, who has been particularly instrumental to me in writing these various blog posts and pushing me to continue on, hopefully, improving as I go.  Often on our travelling adventures, I think of her especially when we partake in yummy tidings.  This quote definitely made me think of the Wallflowers’ aim.  She always has such interesting and inspiring recipes, pictures, and blogging tips.  Please do check her out.  I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Originally, we were headed to The Grill Cheese Bistro for lunch.  Normally, this would have been the perfect spot (CJ’s favorite plus foodie connoisseur fare for the rest of us).  However, when we arrived there was already a wait out the door.  Obviously, the sign of a great place to eat and worthy of the 5 star rating on Tripadvisor.

Unfortunately, we only had limited time and a 30 minute wait time would make us late for the 2 pm Chrysler Museum tour which CJ wanted to attend.   Worry not, he still ordered grill cheese.  I got the Privateer, a Root Beer Brisket with Sweet Tea Pickles and Smoked Cheddar.  DELICIOUS!  Daddy got one of the Rice Bowls.  Lizzie had a fried chicken sandwich until she stole my deliciousness.  Ahh, the price of being the Mama Bear.

I am so glad we fell into The Field Guide.  They were very accommodating in “making up” a kid’s menu for us.  The atmosphere was pleasant and just our style.   Au Naturale.  The speedy service put us back to the museum in time. Yippee.  And, did I mention, the food was DELICIOUS?

Alright back to the museum.

I will again take an aside to mention that “Visiting Museums” is not even in the top 50 of activities that so-called Nerds participate in.  The list is here on the internet, so it must be accurate.  Sounds like we aren’t on that path, in case you were thinking so.

While on the tour, we learned that 85% of the paintings and works at the Chrysler Museum of Art were originally owned by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.  He started collecting when he was 14 years old and expanded his diverse selections as he travelled and befriended artist such as Picasso, Matisse, and Thomas Hart Benton.  Our guide primarily channelled her tour on the works by Hart as the museum was hosting a special exhibit with his works, many commissioned by the Navy during WWI when he was stationed in Norfolk.  Indeed, he had an interesting story.  We learned many interesting tidbits like Jackson Pollock studied under him, he played in a harmonica band, and he was an “enemy of modernism”.  The collection originally underwritten by Abbott Laboratories is on display until September 24th, 2017.

Another exhibit, Having A Ball, which presented some of George Sosnak’s 800 signature works was impressive and a lot of fun.  Apparently, he actually had 3,000 different balls in progress at the time of his death.  During the 1950s til his death in 1992, he intricately painted baseballs which chronicled the game, giving us a living history from major highlights to mundane tagouts.

Every team had a personalized ball.  His favorite was Detroit.

Throughout his want-to-be umpire career, he produced more balls than strikes, celebrating various milestone moments, like World Series wins, Sonny Siebert’s no hitter, or Luis Aparicio’s 1,000th base hit.  Indeed, he brought baseballs to life, even for our anti-fan Lizzie.  She seemed to enjoy inspecting to the finest detail his India Inked masterpieces with the accompanying magnifying glasses.  For more info, here is a nice article.

As much fun as we had admiring and discovering the detail on the diverse selection of  memorabilia on loan from various collectors and Cooperstown, the kids enjoyed leaving their own mark just as much.  Museums do such a good job these days of being interactive and creating experiential learning opportunities.

As we were heading out, Daddy got quite a chuckle out of the George Steinbrenner return correspondence to George.   Guess both men will be remembered for their distinctive and unique styles.

Well, that’s a wrap for the middle of our day.  Four hours at the CMA could have stretched out into extra innings, but we still had another stop .  We wanted to get to VIrginia Beach to walk the Boardwalk as the sun was going down.  Hope you will come back to see how our day ended.  Definitely a water wonder.

The Nerds Take on Norfolk: The Beginning

Today, our dinner time conversation revolved around whether we are a nerd family or not.  I have adamantly denied being a nerd for many years and did not reverse my assertion on this evening’s occasion.  However, maybe we will let you decide for yourself based on our Norfolk Day 2 adventures.

Let not Mermaid Miss Literacy bias your decision.  She did guide us onto our 1st stop, but in no way did she sway our inclinations.

Actually, Day 2’s first stop was a destination that we had been ogling ever since we arrived in the area.

Surprisingly, however, after finally arriving, it took several minutes for us to decide upon our ultimate choices, having to get out of line at least once before being able to order.  Odoodle Doo’s was a detour as yummy and fun as it looked.  Definitely recommend a stop if you are in the area.

What the heck, you should really drive out of your way to sample their sweet infusions.  Just make sure you don’t eat a regular breakfast before going like we did or you will only have enough room to enjoy a portion of a Banana Cream donut or a Red Velvet as Lizzie would recommend.

With our tummies full and our minds heightened with sugary supplements, we were now prepared to take in all that Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum of Art would have to offer.  However, I don’t think we expected to be so wonderstruck by all that we saw.

Our main mission in visiting was to reflect upon their world renown collection of glass which was left to them by Walter P. Chrysler Jr., son of the founder of The Chrysler Corporation.

We knew it was a large collection.  We knew we would find it interesting.  We did not, however, expect to be constantly fascinated by the diverse 10,000 pieces which seems to flow on and on throughout and about 15 dedicated areas.  Time just seemed to stand still as we learned about all the types of glass and strolled past 3000 years of history.  In the end, everyone of us said the experience was better and more than expected.  Maybe if you visit Norfolk, you will enjoy as much as we did.

Now, it would be hard to squeeze 10,000 pieces into a blog post even with my highly honed picture clicking finger which captured over 101 photos of glass, but we will provide a few of our favorites here and maybe more in a separate post later.

CJ’s sense of history was piqued by a collection of vases which held . . . . . . CELERY, of all things.  Apparently, in the early 1800s, wealthy Americans used to display proudly stalks of celery in these vases.  The vegetable seems to have demonstrated status as it was imported from exotic locales.  I won’t go into all the different elements which go into the molten silica to provide the rainbow of colors made, at least now.  Only nerds would furnish such chemistry commentary and a nerd, I most certainly am not. 🙂

Lizzie picked a very large finely decorated Antarctic Vase.  With numerous acid etched and cameo carved animals onto the citron colored glass.  It was fun to walk around the piece and find penguins, gulls, and a walrus which was evidently an error as the tusked mammals are not native to Antarctica.  Ahh the advantages of artistic license.

Both Mommy and Daddy Bear were enamored by a large rose looking piece.  While it looked like a big soft pom pom, what you may not be able to view from this photo are the 10’s of thousands shards of glass which were precariously stuck into a black canvas.  It was hard to take your eye off this particular work.  We just couldn’t imagine how much time was involved in making such a large and multi-component piece of art.

Unfortunately, our time was running short.  The 2 hours we had spent sliding along the encased translucent beauties appeared to have been insufficient to view all which resided at the CMA.  We would have to come back to survey the other 80% of the museum another time.

For this time, we were off to the free Glassblowing Demonstration next door at the Glass Studio.  If you want to attend, it starts everyday at noon except Monday and is well worth a visit.  The artists in residence do a great job of giving a brief explanation of the various glass working techniques as well as talking through each step as they come in and out of the tiered furnaces.  Over the course of a little over an hour, our Hot Shop Master transformed a small blob of lava-like glass into a flecked colored plate.  Amazing!  We didn’t realize how much science and effort was involved, but now we do. 🙂

The Glass Studio also seemed to be an endless assortment of entertainment and learning with all the pieces on display.  We enjoyed the audience participation of the demo and the interactive eyeball exhibit which showcased 30 glass working techniques like flameworking, casting, fusing, staining and of course blowing.

Mommy mission #1 accomplished.

With our hearts and minds filled with inspiration, appreciation, and plenty of facts and figures. it was time to shuttled off to find some grub to refuel the tums.  Single-minded nerds, might I interject here, would not be so willing to explore beyond the safety of their studious dwellings, but not true for the Carson Clan.  Hope you agree.

Coming up next – The Middle.