Birthday #2

Since July 14th was the 13th in the U.S. we continued the birthday celebrations. I drove for the first time. I went to church which isn't too far from the Macs house, but a good first drive.  In the afternoon we went to the Auckland Museum. I have been looking forward to my museum visit since I first picked up a a New Zealand guidebook.  Why?  Because I love learning about WWI & WWII.  I could go on for several paragraphs about what makes the New Zealand war experience even more fascinating to me, but most of you would quit reading.

  

My nephew Crew asked me if there were dinosaurs in New Zealand.  This is what I saw in the museum:

Disclaimer: I didn't actually read anything in this exhibit, so I have no idea if they actually existed historically in New Zealand.

We ended the day with our official birthday dinner at the Sky Tower in downtown Auckland.  I'm afraid of heights so I endured a lot of teasing from Roger and the girls, but I did stand on the glass floor, but off the glass the view was gorgeous, dinner was excellent, and the company fabulous!  

Achievement for today: driving on the non normal side of the road for me and surviving.

Reaffirmed realization for today: my religion is the same everywhere, even if they speak so fast you have a hard time following.

History fact of the day: New Zealand had 1in 5 serving in WWI, more than any other commonwealth country including Britain.  That's a huge chunk of the population.  

Moment of awe: walking along the list of names of soldiers that died in WWI and II.  Both Andrea and Roger had relatives killed in the war which made it even a more incredible experience for me.