From 11.10.08 – Saying Goodbye to Grand-Garretts

Mom and Dad Garrett made the 6-hour trip from Bluffton, IN to New Stanton, PA on Friday to visit their granddaughter daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter.

We had a blast hosting them here in our new home, showing them some of our area and even worshiping with them at church on Sunday.

It was a great visit and made it difficult to say goodbye this morning. Ella kept hoping to see them every time she thought about them all afternoon and evening. We had to keep telling her that they had to go home and go to work. She wasn’t buying it.

Thanks Mom & Dad Garrett for coming East to visit us! Come back again soon!

More pictures here.

From 11.10.08 – Flight93 Memorial

This afternoon we hopped in the van a couple hours after saying goodbye to Mom & Dad Garrett who had been visiting for the weekend and we headed to Somerset County, PA to visit the temporary memorial to Flight 93.

I was humbled by visiting the site of the tragic, yet heroic events that took place on September 11th.

I learned a few things by listening to a volunteer give an oral presentation on the events that took place that morning:

01. The only cell-phone call made by a passenger on Flight 93 was made while they were over Westmoreland County. (We just moved to Westmoreland County)
02. When Flight 93 crashed into the field it was completely inverted (upside down).
03. The temporary memorial is a few hundred yards from the field (surrounded by a fence) where the crash happened and that area is considered a National Cemetery.
04. The cockpit voice recorder “black box” was found 25-feet beneath the ground at the crash-site.
05. Paper debris was found 8-miles away from the crash-site.
06. The assumed target was the Capitol Building in DC because 9-11 was the first day that both the House and Senate were back in session after their Summer breaks.
07. The voice recorder transcript is available from Flight 93’s last 30-minutes.

Full photoset here.