A pleasant vacation

Our vacation is almost coming to an end (I'm going back to work on Tuesday). This past Friday (July 21st) we drove 7 hours to Louisville, KY, where reservations had been made at the historic Galt House hotel for our families to stay during my brother-in-law Sam and Sharon's wedding. After almost wrecking my car twice (and listening to my wife yowl throughout) I finally found where I was supposed to park, herded my kids in and retrieved our room keys.

Our room had a great view of the Ohio River, and the kiddies enjoyed watching the tugboats push strings of barges down the river while we got settled in. Then we were off to find some food and the location for the rehearsal.

Wowzers what a wedding! It was held outside at (on?) The Belvedere, with a reception at the Kentucky Center for the Arts. Everything went perfectly, except for a few minor mishaps, like Esther forgetting to throw rose petals from her little basket, and the sound system doing a little trickery, but otherwise this wedding should win a prize. Click here for a few pics from Sharon's blog.

I know from experience that during one's wedding it's difficult to think straight (to say the least), so I would give Sam's performance a particularly high score for both...

1. singing during the ceremony (a duet wif hi' lady)
   
2. carrying his bride down an impressive flight of stairs
   

You'll note from the picture of Esther on Sharon's blog that, at the age of four, she's already quite a dashingly beautiful thing. I've already started planning ahead for her teenage years: I'm thinking of purchasing one of these, or maybe one of these. Let that be fare warning to all you preschoolers out there.

The next few days after the wedding, we toured Jeffersonville, Indiana, with stops at the infamous Schimpff's candy store, enjoyed Sunday morning and evening services at the Branham Tabernacle, stopped by Bro. Branham's gravesite, and toured Voice of God Recordings. Since we were the only visitors to the VoG, we enjoyed a private tour, and were fortunate enough to be able to shake Bro. Joseph's hand in passing in the hallway and spend a few minutes speaking with Bro. Billy Paul, which our tour guid informed us was extremely rare. They had several wonderful things on display that I had never seen before, such as the three-cornered rocks that were hewn out of the mountain by the whirlwind when God came to speak to Bro Branham on a hunting trip.

The employees at VoGR obviously take great pride in what they're doing; the place was absolutely spotless, and it's extraordinary the care that goes into producing the recordings.

I once had a conversation with a fellow believer speculating how one would translate some of Bro. Branham's Kentucky grammar, such as "He had a crow to pick", or "He's all wet", into foreign languages, and we both agreed that it would be difficult. So while I was on vacation I had the opportunity to ask my brother-in-law, who is a Romanian translator for VoGR, how they tackled this problem. His answer was that if they weren't 100% sure of a translation (for example, "all of a sudden" is probably far easier to translate than "all wool and a yard wide"), they just leave the text exactly as they found it and translate it literally, word for word, without changing anything. The completed translation won't necessarily mean anything in Romanian, but "all wool and a yard wide" won't necessarily mean anything to many of us English speakers either (do you know what it means?). I like this approach a lot, because the translator isn't changing anything to what he thinks Bro. Branham is saying.

According to my bro-in-law, VoGR translators also leave all of the stutters, changes in thought, etc, in the translation. On the foreign language tapes, you can hear the translator stutter right along with Bro. Branham. And after each translation is reviewed by another translator (and any corrections are made) someone from VoGR will painstakingly compare the punctuation of every translated sentence with the original, even if they can't speak the translated language, to ensure that nothing was accidentally left out.

As you can imagine, this time-consuming approach yields a high-quality product, which I highly recommend. Sure, The Table is expensive, but...

...the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

But I digress. Sorry 'bout dat... now where was I?

Back to Schimpff's: they have fantastic milk shakes, and the candy is phenomenal, but don't eat lunch there. Bleaaghh. Or at Jerry's (one of Bro. Branham's favorite eating spots), which was equally bleaaghh (but was no doubt haute-cuisine back in the day). But I highly recommend a pit-stop at Schimpff's for a vanilla malt shake, a container of red hots, and to watch their fascinating red hot cooking demonstration (which wasn't there during my last visit 9 years ago).

After the wedding and whatnot we cavorted on up to Lima (pronounced Lye-muh, like the bean, for all you fellow southerners who can't pronounce city names), in the beautiful state of Ohio, where we spent a few pleasant nights at my sister-in-law's Casa Grande. One day, someone suggested that we take an exciting trip to Sauder Village, where we learned all about what a Sauder is, what makes it work so well, and how you too can be successful using Sauder in your business. I probably would've learned more but, ha ha, we skipped lunch, and I was running on stored up fat tissue. My (pregnant, ha ha) wife almost enjoyed skipping lunch as much as I did, but thankfully someone had brought along some crackers. In case you were wondering, vast expanses of Ohio are void of all food products, except for corn, which is available in large quantities.

To make up for skipping lunch, we ate supper here, ha ha. Looks can be deceiving. Where's Dr. Schulz when he's needed most?

And then to make up for that, we were later introduced to what could quite possibly be the best Chinese restaurant I have ever eaten at in my entire life, hidden away deep within the bowels of Ohio's cornfields. Unfortunately I don't have a link to a web site, so you'll just have to take my word for it. If I ever return to Ohio in a million years, I will definitely return to the best little Chinese restaurant in the midwest. Or was it midnorth? Or just north? Anyhoo...

Corny joke alert (get it, corny?): which state is high in the middle and round on both ends? That's right, Ohio, har har! It is to laugh!

There's oh so much more to tell, I haven't even cracked the tip of the iceberg, howsomever I must adieu to my bed. I'm slap tired as a dog. Don't despair, I'll be back with more later.