Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Chateau La Roche

A mile away from where we live there is a castle. A guy named Harry Andrews started building it with his own hands in the 1900's. He served as a medic in World War I, contracted spinal meningitis, and was declared dead. By the time that he was declared undead -- six months later -- his fiancé had married another man. Harry seemed not to have minded, he stayed in Europe, visiting castles. In the early 1920's one of Harry Andrews pet projects was his Boy Scout troop. He had a dozen or so boys that met regularly for Boy Scout activities. One of their favorite things was camping.
As it happened; years ago the Cincinnati Enquirer, a local newspaper, had a promotion to establish a greater subscription base. If a person paid for a one year subscription in full, they received a plot of land on the banks on the Little Miami River in Loveland. Two of Harry's scouts, it turned out, had parents that took advantage of the Enquirer's offer and donated the lots to Harry and his scouts.
Harry and his scouts became regular visitors to the banks of the Little Miami. So much so that they took to leaving their gear at the campsite. But, between the elements, the wild animals and even people that stumbled upon their cache, their equipment constantly came out missing, damaged or unusable.
Finally Harry had an idea, he would build two stone tents, to house their equipment and to provide shelter. If you have ever been a Scout you already know that each individual group, known as a troop, gave themselves appropriate names. Bears, Lions, Warriors are all typical examples.
Harry's troop was named the Knights of the Golden Trail. Now standing back admiring the stone tents he had built for his Knights, it is easy to imagine Harry's 181 IQ clicking away...his Knights deserve a real Castle. And he built it.





Saturday, August 2, 2008

Kirtland Temple

This summer we had the chance to come to Cincinnati for Jared's work and it has been fun! I didn't have to work this summer which was very nice! Since I had plenty of time I had the opportunity to read some books like The Chronicles of Prydain and The Stephenie Meyer's books which I enjoyed very much. Jared's work schedule is pretty crazy, he works Monday thru Saturday from 12pm to 9 pm but sometimes he gets home at midnight, so the only day we have to try to see some places have been sundays after church. :( But we were very blessed to have had the opportunity to drive up to Kirtland which was only about four hours away from where we're staying. It was amazing! Here are some pictures:






The Newel K. Whitney Store



These are the things that were available to them during that time.