Festival of Lights, La Salette Shrine, Attleboro

Way back in the 80s I went to the La Salette Shrine in Attleboro to check out the Festival of Lights and never forgot it.  I was happy to see that they still do it and this year we finally went there to check it out. It's a total mob scene so we were in the parking lot by 4:30, a half hour before the lights go on.  La Salette is a Catholic shrine and when I was there in the 80s, there was an amazing 'castle' on the grounds where the clergy lived and studied.  Sadly it burned down in 1999, and a modern building now sits in it's place.  

The lights were as awesome as I remembered.

The light designs are mostly religious in nature, including angels that flank each statue of the stations of the cross.

There are two places where you can go up the stairs to the top on either side by walking, or on your knees on low rise stairs.  I actually saw a few people doing it.  You ascend a step and then pray but I don't know which prayer.  Hardcore.

These lights in the tallest pines are my favourite.  They evoke a feeling...maybe a memory or a dream....that's very familiar.  I think something like this was in a Christmas-themed dream I had a few years ago that I never forgot.

My other fave part was shooting around the little pond.  The reflections were beautiful.

I loved the reflections.

The last time I was there, people were chucking pebbles on the ice because it made a chirping sound.  I never forgot that either.  So I tried it and it made the noise again!  This is the only place where I've ever heard that phenomena, which you can read about HERE.  

I hope everyone has a happy holiday, Merry Christmas, etc etc!

Intrepid Travelers

We were both kind of dreading the trip home cause that is one long drive from Orlando to Cape Cod.  We're talking about 1,200 miles!!  We left about 7:00 AM to head north.

White palmetto tree as seen on the flags and state symbols.

I thought this was unusual for a major highway, to have the trees so close.

This rest stop is about 3 miles north of South of the Border.  I was so creeped out that I wouldn't use their bathroom so Russell stopped here for me!!!

Very blurry cause it was about 6:00 but we made it to Virginia the first day, and stayed in Emporia.  After a delicious meal at Cracker Barrel we checked into a hotel and crashed for the night.

 Up real early in the morning to continue on.

Got to the Capital Beltway around DC right at rush hour so it was definitely slow going.

 Loved this truck.  I lived for Scholastic Book Fairs in elementary school!

Maryland by mid morning....more traffic around Baltimore.

 I didn't realize we were going to pass through Delaware too...I was lucky to grab my camera in time!

We could have branched off to avoid the DC/Baltimore metro area but we had one more stop to make on the way home, in South Plainfield, NJ.

Russell got antipasto salads from this place called Pizza Stop that would deliver to the Halls Warehouse a few blocks away.  He hasn't had one in well over a year since his forced retirement.  He was so excited to stop here on the way home.  We got here about 2:30. 

I got a really good pie.  I miss NY/NJ style pizza!

He was so very happy to see that they hadn't changed anything with the salad.  He got two.

Aw look how happy!!!!!

The rest of the trip home was uneventful and we were in the house and relaxing by about 8:00 pm.  This was easily one of the best vacations ever....from seeing the boys and doing Halloween with them to living out my dream of seeing Harry Potter World, it was a perfect trip.  Made a lot of memories and had a lot of laughs.