Vacation - of sorts

My husband and I just returned from a trip to Kansas to visit with my family.  I've seen my family but hadn't been to the house I mostly grew up in since my mother died in 1996 so it was an emotional journey as well as a physical one.  I still couldn't stay there and thank my sister for letting us stay at their house.

It was wonderful to get to see my father and my four sisters and many of their family members as well but it's also tiring to drive such a long way.  It's also really hard to get any one-on-one time with anyone in such a crowded setting!

We didn't do anything much except eat and talk but it was like old times for us all to be together again.

Most of our trip was overcast but I did manage to photograph this chicory (I think!) flower growing wild at a little roadside park.  The one thing I wish I'd gotten was the "smoke" as we were driving through the Great Smoky Mountains!  I've lived in North Carolina for nearly 35 years and have driven through those mountains countless times but this was the first time I'd seen exactly why the mountains were called the Smokies. 

Yes, I've seen the billowing mists that hover over the mountain peaks and drift down along the sides and yes, it does look like smoke arising from those mountains.  But, yesterday as we were driving home, I saw white columns of mist that looked exactly like campfire smoke dotting the mountain sides!  It was truly awesome and I wished I could have gotten to my camera to document the event.  Unfortunately, my husband had packed the camera in its bag in the trunk as he was loading everything from our night in a motel and I didn't notice until I reached for it to try to photograph that "smoke"!

Anyway, we're back and I hope to catch up with everyone soon!