Rainbows and Grandfathers

It’s taken me a while to sort through them, but I wanted to share some photos of the most vivid, most stunningly beautiful rainbow I have ever seen.

These were taken on my cell phone camera, believe it or not, through the window of the car as we traveled back from a family day out.

First, take a look at this one just to get an idea of the size of this thing…  It was huge – the largest I have ever seen – and it was a full arc, but you can’t see that in the pictures.  There was also a double rainbow, but it was too faint to show up on film.

This next one really doesn’t do justice to the rainbow, but I simply could not resist grabbing that first splash of fall color on film along with it.

OK, now for the goods…

I can’t remember ever seeing a rainbow of this size.  It was magnificent.  The colors were so vivid…each color was clearly and distinctly visible and discernible from the rest.  I think I took about a hundred photos.  These are just a sampling of my favorites.

 I think the last one with the farm is my absolute favorite, despite the slightly crooked angle.  Not bad for a moving car photo shoot, though, huh?  It looks like the farm is the treasure at the end…just lovely.

Words cannot adequately describe the experience of seeing this and travelling with it, so to speak, for several miles and more than a few minutes on our journey home.  And sharing it together was an even greater gift.

Our day was lovely.  It was Kidzilla’s first amusement park trip and we did every wonderful thing one can expect.  Well, except for that one carnival game booth she wanted to try and we missed out on because it started to rain before we could get our last couple of things finished…but that can be something to look forward to next time.  Zilla had the time of her life!  She was dressed in a rainbow dress that day – how’s that for coincidence?  I loved watching Zilla ride the same rides and experience the same shows that I did as a little girl.  Talk about surreal!

Super Mom/Grandmother came along with us that day.  I think she had as much fun as Zilla did – maybe more.  They rode the carousel together several times, just like my Wonderful Grandfather did with Super Mom and with Me and with so many of his children and grandchildren.  One of Super Mom’s favorite amusement park memories was riding the carousel with her Dad as the last ride right before they left a park at the end of a day.  I can’t tell you how it touched me that Zilla picked that as her last ride of the day…and requested that Super Grandmother be her ride partner!

As we marveled at the rainbow on the drive home, she reminded me how much My Wonderful Grandfather had loved this place and loved experiencing it (and other parks) with a number of us grandchildren over the years.  Super Mom/Grandmother thought perhaps this lovely rainbow was his way of telling us he was with us in spirit and had a wonderful time watching Zilla take her turn on the carousel as many of us before her.

I am certain that he was.