Gretchen and I spent the weekend with Katie and the kids. It was the first time we saw her since David and she officially separated. Everyone seems to be adjusting well. We had fun playing badminton with the neighbors, walking on the river trail, and just hanging out.
Some decisions in life are very difficult and we credit Katie for making one that will hopefully, put her on a path toward a happier, more fulfilling life! Love you Katie!
Mother's Day weekend, we headed to SC to see the Hills. There were mothers in attendance, Gretchen, Rachel and Kelley....but celebrating them on their special day was not the only reason for the trip. Kelley and Seth joined Belin Memorial Methodist Church and Maggie was baptized!
The ceremonies were very nice and the church, located on the Inlet is huge with average weekly attendance at the services around 1000 people! It has a very active youth program and will provide a lot of opportunities for Maggie as she grows up.
A tropical storm in the area limited outside activities but it was still a great family weekend! Thanks Kelley and Seth.
Henry's spring break was the week before Easter, so there was plenty of candy to be eaten! Gretchen and Henry went to LU to see if Henry liked ice skating, but the rink was closed for renovation. So they've got it on the agenda for a future visit!
A trip to Roanoke had us eating lunch in the land of the Hokie's...at Beamer's Restaurant which in next to the Transportation Museum, our destination for the day!
Henry liked the model trains and he could not believe how big the engines in the rail yard were! Some of the wheels on the engines were taller than Gramdma and Grandpa!
Henry and Grandpa planted rosemary plants and sun flower seeds in the garden....and they are beginning to grow. Also, Grandma had Henry fill all of the eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt we had when Maggie and Audrey came later in the week. I'm sure Henry didn't eat any candy when he was filling the eggs.
Audrey and Katie came on Thursday and we celebrated Kelley's birthday. We won't say how old she is...but she is more than six times Henry's age!
Happy Birthday Dear Kelley.....Happy Birthday to you!
Friday was the day of the Easter Egg Hunt and a great time was had by the cousins! And I'm sure they saved all of their candy to eat on Easter Sunday!
It was a fun week Henry and we look forward to you coming to Lynchburg during your summer break!
Forty-three years of racing and cruising sailboats came to an end this weekend when we delivered SunShower to a dealer on the Chesapeake Bay to sell! Gretchen and I have many wonderful memories of our life as sailors! But...years pass, injuries happen, bodies are weakened and I realize I just can't do the kind of activities required to sail a small catboat on coastal waters. We'll still be in touch with sailors at the Club and I'm currently restoring a laser for the grand children so they can learn to sail. Hopefully, they will go to VISAYC sail camp and enjoy it as much as their mothers did!
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| Sailing SunShower on Smith Mountain Lake |
This may seem like a sad blog, but it is not. Gretchen and I adapt quickly and we are looking forward to exploring coastal waters in our new motor boat. In fact, we'll be on Mobjack Bay in May!
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| Oxford, MD ferry at sunset. |
Pi Day
At the Governor's School we celebrated Pi Day every year on March fourteenth (3.14). Parents brought in so many pies that all of the students and faculty had their fill and we still delivered extra pies to Daily Bread every year. It was a fun event!
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| Angie with the Pi pie she baked. |
So when we realized this year was a special (once in a hundred years) Pi Day and that Woodruff's Pie Shop had $2.00 slices all day.....we picked up Gary and Laurie and headed to Elon! We didn't make it by 9:26 a.m. so we only celebrated to the fourth decimal place!
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| Laurie, Mrs. Woodruff (98 years old) and Gretchen |
We enjoyed a lively conversation with Mrs. Woodruff while enjoying cherry, pecan, coconut custard and buttermilk pie slices. Yum...Yum. Angie says this is the only Pi Day she will have since the next one doesn't come around until 2115....but I think she only needs to celebrate to two decimal places and have a Pi Day annually like the Governor's School.
A man builds a sailboat in his backyard, a coping mechanism for dealing with his wife's mental illness. It's part of the plot line of the film Canvas. I remember at the end when he and his son are sailing and a motor boat comes flying by them. He tells his son to just "smile and wave, they don't know we hate them!" Well today, Gretchen and I after 41 years spent as sailors, crossed the line over to the the "hated" side. We bought a motor boat!
Since we started sailing SunShower on the Chesapeake Bay and other harbors on the east coast, we began to realize that we love being on the water, exploring creeks and bays, walking around waterside towns and eating local seafood. However, our aging bodies began to protest mast raising and lowering and the confines of a cuddly cabin. Our most recent trips included more nights in hotels, cottages and B&Bs. Coupled with the fact that sailboats are not fast and limit one's range for exploration, Gretchen and I began to think about motor boats. At first we looked at larger ones we could sleep on but it became quickly apparent we could not afford a comfortable boat. So we decided to look for a small boat. The plan is to rent a cottage with a dock and use the boat to explore nearby waters by day while sleeping in a bed at night!
Searching the Internet for weeks, led to the conclusion that a center console would be a good type of boat for our plan. We identified several used ones in Virginia and NC and then saw a boat we really were impressed with at the Roanoke Boat Show, a Key West 17' Center Console. It is small enough to trail and launch easily and has a hull configuration appropriate for the Chesapeake Bay and protected coastal waters. Plus you can cut it in two and it will still float! We found that the price difference between a five year old boat and a new boat was not very much, so we ordered a new boat....delivery scheduled for April.
So a new boating adventure begins. We trust a boat that one just needs to turn a key to use, will afford many more years of boating on SML, the Chesapeake Bay and other east coast venues!
Monday February 16
Winter arrived today in Lynchburg! Snow began falling in the afternoon and deposited 10 inches of snow in our neighborhood. So, the area will be shut down for a week!
Most years, the snow falls, only to be melted within a day or two by balmy weather. But this week cold temperatures set in; the coldest since 1994, with one night recording a temperature below zero! Then, four more inches of snow and sleet fell! However, the temperatures are moderating, in the forties yesterday (2/22) and today. We were able to take our heat pumps off of "Emergency Heat!" Oh yes, schools are still closed. Everyone north of VirgInia is just smiling.....winter....surely you jest!
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