The Great Journey~ Pt. 2

Then, after that:

We walked this strange and desolate city.  And in the frame of mind one might expect to have after such an experience,

we stumbled into this weird situation.  You would think, what with the warning posted so clearly, people would take heed  and stay clear – 

But Frazz, in the way of boys since ever there was a first one, dived right through the dark door and found himself enmeshed in the terrible web.  So of course, his grandfather had to follow.

Once out of that, Frazz found himself two things: a giant ant friend, and another example of small lens and lowish jungle light.  This is not, of course, an official jungle—but I figure you must take a jungle where and how you find it these days.

This picture might be a comment on the reason why the GrandMAMA packs the tiny, frustrating camera with the miniscule lens.  If you could see the shot that came of Gin’s efforts, however, you would know that the GrandMama is trading quality for no quantity.

The thing about this jungle is that these odd things Frazz is using as a staircase make the most magical noises when you step on them.

And so Chaz follows in his musical wake.  Alice should have had it so sweet.

And after that we went to the forest moon of Endor, where Frazz qualified to take part in a sort of martial arts class with a very well respected Jedi master.  Lesson One: how to put on the robe.

Clue: it’s harder than you expect.

 

Lesson TWO: how to turn on your light saber without cutting anyone in half.  Observe the varying degrees of natural cool in this class.

Lesson Three: same as lesson two.  Adding basic forms, as in – first you go for the right shoulder, then the left shoulder, then the right leg, then the left leg, then the head – while all the time making sure you keep all your own body parts.

Frazz struck this odd move just for me, and held it till I could get the camera to focus.  

What a good boy.

Here you see the gallant Master, taking the class through the unit on Swashbuckling.  This very small curly haired person in the very front?  Funniest kid ever.  Tiny.  Who knows how old.  Already stuffed with eclat.

But what is this?  Suddenly, before the class is quite ready, a terrible music and much smoke and brou-ha-ha: enter Darth Vader, here to persuade away the young Jedi – or do away with them.

Darth Vader is tall.  Really, really tall.  And each kid has his or her moment with him.  I was amazed, actually; out of all these kids who have, no doubt, seen ALL the movies with this scary guy in them and coming face to knee with him in all his scary and very real glory here – only one quailed and teared up and didn’t want to go near the bounder.  Even the little curly haired girl, who came forward with a look on her face that did NOT speak “passionate decision” stood her ground and finally engaged him in an animated and earnest duel.  She had fire in the eyes, thank you very much.  And pretty much made mush out of his ankles.

Now, it’s Frazz’ turn.  He stood to the task with courage.

And grit.  And did his bit.  Which must have given him a great sense of confidence.  Which, later, led him to 

this

And this.  And another confrontation later with a curly headed, bearded old man on the sidewalk outside the flat, the photos of which – unfortunately –  are in the hands of the curly headed, bearded man’s daughter.  And even later :

this.  A wild light saber exercise in the dark. (The bearded man’s daughter BOUGHT FRAZZ HIS OWN LIGHT SABER.)

And this – it is art, c’est non?

He has the soul, they say, of a Jedi.

After his training, we took Frazz to see a very odd thing: a scuba diver, diving inside a big, clear tube, inside a building.  Sadly, we did not take pictures of the diver, but you can tell by this shot that it was really, really cool.  You can also tell that it was raining cats and dogs outside of the building (see the slickers people are carrying?).

On the way to our dinner, we happened on a rambunctious bit of water.  It jumped from red hoop to red hoop all up and down these planter boxes full of rocks.  Here, as you see, it cheekily jumps right over the sidewalk.  Water, water everywhere – including the stuff falling out of the sky.

Whoo-hoo!!!  Here it comes again!

And every dang time these two clowns think it’s going to shoot right through their ears and out the other side.  What is the sound of water laughing?

And we found this person, grazing quietly under a hedge.  We always find them, conies grazing under this hedge at dusk.

On the way past China, we had to stop and look down into the lilly pond.  These great lilies had caught the rain, holding it cup-like, a diamond at the heart.

And finally, dinner – at the Biergärten.  The band wore short pants and yodeled and finally, the young people (full to bursting with bratwurst and all manner of German cuisine)  all trooped down to the dance floor to dance the Famous Chicken Dance.   Keep in mind that no beer at all had been swizzled.  The silliness is honest.

And GrandMoms danced, too.

And so did mothers.  But no bearded men.

A good time was had by all.  

But this is not the end of the story.

(to be cont.)