Einstein and Me
Life is an adventure.
We can probably all agree on that.
Sometimes it takes some unexpected twists and turns. I just got back from one of those. It was a good twist, but one I never expected to find myself taking.
I spent all of last week in Brazil. When you ask me where I want to travel, what I what to see, what I hope to experience, Brazil never hit the list. In fact, traveling south of the border doesn’t really hit my bucket list.
But through the weekend MBA program at Purdue, I found myself on an 8 day adventure in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
The view from Sugar Loaf
So why do I have a photo of me with the Einstein statute in Washington, D.C.? Great question! Because the adventure started with a super-delayed flight out of Indianapolis, which led to a free day in Washington. It was WONDERFUL to spend a day back in my old stomping grounds. I even got to reconnect with a friend from our days living there.
When we arrived in Rio a day late, my group had missed a chance to experience the nationwide protests (Yeah!), and one site visit.
Slums near Sao Paulo
We saw great beauty from places like Sugar Loaf and Copacabana Beach in Rio. But we also saw abundant poverty in the great slums of Sao Paulo and Rio. As I learned about the people and talked to the tour guides, I was reminded again how incredibly blessed we are in the United States. So many things that we stress about fade in the real fight to have water, housing, sanitation.
In fact one of the memories that will stay with me the longest was walking the full beach in front of our hotel in Rio while listening to Primal by Mark Batterson. The contrast and the challenge was incredible.
So while the trip was amazing and I loved the visits to companies like Caterpillar and G.E., I’m glad to be home with a fresher view of the world. On the eighth day there was nothing like walking into the Indy airport and seeing my husband and four kiddos with signs and music from Rio (the cartoon) playing.
After all, no matter where I travel, the best place is home.
How has God taken you on adventures you didn’t anticipate?
Rio Operations Center
Collage of Rio sites from one day sightseeing tours
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I’m glad you got to make this trip. It sounds very rewarding on many fronts. Did you find any morsels for future stories?
God’s great adventure for me was a 3 year detour through Houston, Texas for this small-town Southern girl. There were days I felt like I has fallen down a rabbit hole.
Shirley, It will be interesting to see how this trip works into future stories. It certainly wasn’t an expected adventure! Houston would feel like a trip down the rabbit hole after the south!
What an experience, Cara! It will be interesting to see how all the things God showed you on that trip end up in your novels.
One of many areas in my life that I’m curious to see how He uses!
Welcome home from your trip, Cara! I love to travel. But like you, I always love to return to my own home even more. 🙂
Getting home was the best. I posted a short video on Instagram last night of my four year old telling me he loves me to Rio … and back. 🙂
Is that the Christ the Redeemer statue behind you in one picture? There’s a particularly beautiful arrangement of How Great Thou Art played by the Piano Guys up there at the top (and beautiful video of the wonder to accompany it). I can see why it’s one of the seven wonders of the world!
Oh! I’ll have to look for that video! The location was shrouded in fog and rain while we were up there, but the statute is a key part of the sky there.
My daughter was made a Red Cross hero and I got to attend a hero’s breakfast in Wilmington Ohio where I met all kinds of hero’s. Stephanie Decker, from Indiana who used her body as a shield to save her children during a severe tornado and Kieth Maupin , whose son was killed by terrorists while on duty serving our country were speakers. There were so many hero’s there who had put their lives on the line for others. I was humbled to be attending this breakfast and getting to meet these hero’s and honored that my daughter was among them.
sounds like an amazing lunch to attend, Shirley!
Sounds like a fun trip, Cara! Glad you could make the best of that flight delay. Catching up with old friends is always fun.
One of my great joys (and something my family generally dislikes) are detours on road trips. I think my family sees them as taking us out of our way toward our destination, but I love them because you get to see things and places you weren’t planning on ever seeing in your life. And let me tell you, there are some beautiful places out there, tucked away where most people would never think to visit. And then there’s places you seem to get stuck in. Like this one place in Ohio. We stopped to ask for directions back to the highway (because this detour took us out to the sticks where the road literally turned into a grassy path). The guy said to turn left on Peoli Road and it should take you to the highway. What he failed to mention is there were about seven Peoli Roads! We thought we’d never escape. But now it’s one of our favorite family stories to tell. A little misadventure and disorientation and a guy mowing while using an oxygen tank, and I’d say I’ve got a novel in the making.
Blessings,
Andrea
Andrea, I don’t tend to embrace detours, but I loved the one in D.C. Love how the Peoli Road adventure became a part of your family lore!
My husband and I went to France, Switzerland, and Germany for our fifth anniversary. His sister lived in France at the time, and we were expecting our first child. The previous year I’d traveled enough to obtain Gold status, and I got a surprise. We were bumped up to business class from Chicago to London. But no matter what status you fly, if your flight is too late you miss your connection. Kind of makes me think of the Biblical account of the rich young ruler, but that’s another story.
In this case, missing our flight was an unexpected blessing. My husband and I got to spend the entire day in London. We had an amazing time and still made it to my sister-in-law’s at a decent hour. Also, the busy day all but eliminated our jet lag.
Two kids later our travel adventures are cross-country road trips, but traveling is still my favorite thing to do. But there’s always that shift toward the end when I’m glad to be home. Even more so when it’s a trip without my family.
I love the story of your delay, Gretchen. One day in London is just enough time to long for many more days — but oh, what a taste!
I love the instagram idea. Little ones are too cute!
There have been lots of twists and turns in my life but the one that comes to mind is one we were just talking about the other day. The Memphis layover. We were in Memphis, TN for a plane change starting to take off and we heard a huge explosion. They assured us everything was okay but we knew better. The pilot brought the plane back down. We exited the plane on the tarmac and looked back at the plane. Scary! The entire engine on one side looked like a peeled back orange. There was at least another Christian lady on that flight and she just kept saying it was not our time to go. We had a huge wait and tried to survive the Elvis everything in the airport but then we saw the pilot and the flight attendants at a table having ‘drinks’ looking like death came to close that day. But we were fine and happy that we had a “seasoned” pilot who brought the plane down so well, with the help of God.
WOW! That would be so scary! So glad you were safe!