HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

Terry has the champagne ready!

 

 

 

We wish you and yours a Very Happy and HEALTHY New Year from sunny Florida!

 

We went to Lake Minona Recreation Center to pick up tickets to some concerts that we are going to with some friends.  Terry took a photo of the inside while waiting for me to finish the purchase.

 

 

 

 

After that, we went to see the new Eisenhower Recreation Center.  People from The Villages, who have served in the military have donated their medals, etc. and they are displayed in every room in the center.  It is amazing!

 

Outside each of the four branches of the military are represented.  I'm standing by the Marines, in honor of our friends, Eve and Jayne, who served in the Marines and were married to Marines. 

 

 

 

This is the rug as you come in.  All of the chairs in the building are blue with stars.

 

There are two balconies each with statues of men and women in uniform. 

 

 

 

We also did a run to Anthony's and Bealls - and bought nothing.  Went to Dollar Tree to buy a tray for our appetizers for the party at our friends' home tomorrow.



Lots of Little Errands

COMCAST WAS HERE!  We are WiFi - and all electronics set to our WiFi!  Yea!!!

Terry went to Weight Watchers and is below goal!  Yea, Terry!

I got a car wash while she was at Weight Watchers and at AAA (getting a Florida book).

My car is clean again- no clean-car envy for me!!

We went to Too Jays for lunch - yummy!

The Golf Carts are out!!!

 

From there we went to Best Buy, where Terry had to buy a Universal Power Cord for her notebook (she left the power cord at home)!  Long story!!!

 

Post Office (stamps are going up $.03)!!!!!  Publix for the few items left on our list and then home to play with our computers.

Sunday

Quiet day.  Went to Aldi and Dollar Tree!  Had not been in Dollar Tree in two weeks- withdrawal was starting to set in.

Got our Village credentials between rain drops, and stopped in at Walgreens!
 

 

Marilyn at The Villages: No COAT, Sandals, The Villages Bag

Is the excitement contagious?

Ride from Hell

We left Atlanta at 8:30 and took I 75.  It rained on and off.  Two or three accidents.  Called Florida 511 to learn that ALL lanes were STOPPED.  Fortunately we were close to an exit!

Terry programmed the wonderful GPS to do a detour.  After a scenic tour of Valdosta , GA - NOT, we were able to get back on I 75, where there were more accidents and slow downs and rain.  We got to the house at 6 PM!

 

 

The Florida Welcome Center

 

We had lunch on the road at IHOP and dinner at Subway in Walmart before grocery shopping.  We really ate top shelf today!

 

  Load of laundry done, groceries put away, unpacked and going to fall in to bed.

Christmas, On The Road, to Atlanta

Merry Christmas!

Top:  Jeremy and girlfriend, Ashley.
Stacy, Terry, Marilyn and Mindy
Sears Family (with Sue, Dave's mom)
Luebke Family - Terry with grandkids


Dec. 26,  2013
On the road!  Lunch at McDonalds.  Dinner pizza and salad (ordered in)/

Dec. 27, 2013
On the road to Atlanta!  Lots of traffic on I 24 - through the mountains after Nashville.  We had salads at McDonalds (healthy) for lunch.  Dinner at Sweet Tomato (healthy until the dessert)!  Photo is of Terry WITHOUT A COAT at a Tennessee rest area.  Other photo is along the route.

 

 

 

Round Trip to Indianapolis

Today, we drove to Indianapolis to see Betty who has had a rough couple of months - health wise.  She looks great and we were so pleased that she was the old Betty (sense of humor and all).

She'll be moving to California to be near her oldest son, Mitch, and his family.  In the meantime, her step son, Mark, and his family have been WONDERFUL.  Her stepdaughters have been attentive too:  Elyse and family came up from Florida to visit with her.  She talks to Shelley weekly.

Marty, her younger son, came up from the Washington, D. C. area to get her packed up for the trip to California.

She is blessed.  Hopefully, she is on the road to recovery and can look forward to California.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Ida, Fran and Terry meet at Marilyn's for our trip to Interlochen, Michigan and the National Music Camp.  It is 41 years since Marilyn went the first time!!!

Of course, it would not be a road trip with this group without stopping for donuts first.  We then drove to Saugatuck, Michigan and had a yummy lunch at Coral Gables, right on the water.  We ate inside because it was HOT!  We did get a rock-star parking spot right across the street.  The red car you can see at the bottom of the photo is Marilyn's car!  After lunch, Ida and Fran did a little shopping while Terry and Marilyn sat inside checking voice mail and emails.

We drove up to Interlochen, the wonderful Music Camp, near Traverse City.  And checked into our AIR CONDITIONED rooms at Stone Center on the campus, our home for the next four nights.

After checking into the hotel, we went to our favorite restaurant in the area, Boone's, and had a wonderful dinner.

We went back to the campus and sat outside listening to the Melissa Etheridge concert. We sat on benches, outside of the venue where she was performing.  We had not purchased tickets for the concert as we were not familiar with her music and also did not know what time we would arrive at Interlochen.  Everything she sang sounded exactly the same to me (Marilyn).

 

Ida and Terry listening to the concert

 

Fran and Ida listening to the concert

Friday, August 19, 2013

It was still HOT, so we left the campus for Traverse City and our favorite breakfast spot, the Omelette Shoppe.  We discovered cherry toast, with cherry jam, and frosting on the side!  OMG!  We had omelettes also.  The people outside were soon scurrying inside as the rains came!

From there, we went to the Cherry Republic, where we sampled their goodies and Ida and Fran brought cherry jam. Terry and I bought fresh cherries for the group to enjoy in the evening.

We then drove up at the Music House Museum, which had been recommended to us by some friends.  It was a fun demo of old-fashioned organs, pianos, and even an organ-grinder from Germany.

Since it was hot and we were not too hungry, we forced ourselves to go to Moomer's, our favorite ice cream establishment, for sundaes!

Back on campus, everyone did their own thing.  Walking, reading, going down to the beach to sit, or listening to rehearsals, etc.

We met up again to, you guessed it, eat!!!  We tried to get into a new place, Maddy's, but they did not have a table, so we left (in the sudden rain shower). We drove a little until we found a cute spot called Rico's.  We ordered salads and had a pleasant dinner.

We came back to the campus and Ida, Terry and I went to a faculty jazz concert which was excellent.  Fran went to a vocal showcase.

We met up again in our room for the dessert buffet of snacks that Terry put out!


Saturday, July 20, 2013

Today was beautiful and the weather had moderated.

We decided to go back to another favorite breakfast spot, L'Chayim, a bagel/deli restaurant in Beulah, Michigan.   The lox and bagels were yummy!  We came back to campus and everyone did their own thing.

Terry, Ida and I went to hear a jazz rehearsal at Charlie's Shack and then explored the new Arts Building.  Fran was catching a choral-theory class while we were listening to jazz.

Of course, lunch was an ice cream cone from the Melody Freeze on campus.  Do you see a pattern here??

After everyone doing their own thing, we met to go to dinner and this time we were successful in getting into Maddy's.  This building once housed an Italian restaurant that was not a favorite and now has a varied menu.  We had a good dinner there, so it is back on our list of restaurants in the area.

We came back to hear the World Youth Wind Symphony concert, which we enjoyed.  Here's Ida sitting in the seat that we donated in memory of our friend, and travel companion, MaryJane.

After the concert, we ran over to the High School Musical Showcase.  We missed some of the showcase and the singers really needed to be miked, but one is always amazed at the talent of these kids.

Terry put out the dessert-snack buffet in our room and we talked, laughed and ate.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

We decided that we would have breakfast in the Stone Center (our hotel).  It is the faculty cafeteria and also the high school cafeteria.  The morning was busy listening to rehearsals, walking the campus, etc.

At 11 a.m., our friend Martha joined us.  She drove in from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.  We decided that we would go back to Rico's and have pizza. The other night, when we had our salads, the pizza at the next table looked so good, we wanted to try it.

                           Fran, Martha and Ida outside of Rico's where we had our pizza lunch

After lunch, we had to inspect Martha's new car and then had a dessert buffet in our room, and saw Martha's photos from her trip to Newfoundland.

                                                    Martha with her new car

                              Ida, Terry, Martha, Marilyn and Fran admiring Martha's new car.


We then went to hear the Interlochen Philharmonic with Festival Choir, at Kresge, one of the venues that overlooks the lake!  Here's a side view of the lake before the concert.

Martha, Ida and Fran went to an organ recital.  Marilyn and Terry took naps!

We then met for dinner from the grill tent set up on campus for special concert nights.  The hot dogs, hamburgers and gyros were great and we were all being careful not to get mustard on our white pants!

The World Youth Symphony, in Kresge, was our next concert.  In honor of NPR (National Public Radio) and Interlochen's Radio station that was celebrating its 50th anniversary.  The first part of the concert was a NPR Medley, by the composer B.J. Leiderman.  Mr. Leiderman played the piano with the orchestra.  He has written the theme songs for:  Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me; Stump the Chumps, Marketplace, Weekend Edition (open), Weekend Edition (close), and Morning Edition.  It was a fun piece.  We also heard Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.

Martha left to drive home and we had a repeat dessert buffet in our room.

Monday, July 22, 2013

We are packed and ready to go.  We met in the lobby and checked out and loaded up the car.  We decided to go back to Rico's for breakfast.  Now we can say that we have had breakfast, lunch and dinner at Rico's.

We all had pancakes and they were good and it fortified us for the trip home.

We drove and switched drivers (from Marilyn to Terry) at a rest area.  We then drove to South Haven and had a delightful lunch, at the first exit for South Haven, at a place called Cousins.  We all had  salads with chicken on top and strawberries!  This restaurant has an RV park connected to it in the back.  Marilyn took over the wheel again for the balance of the ride home.

We arrived home in time for Marilyn to attend the Township's meeting.

Home Sweet Snowy Home

After monitoring the weather (I'm so sick of the Weather Channel I could scream), and saying to each other 100 times "what do you think, shall we go home today?"  We decided to go for it.  The roads were fine and we went at the speed limit all the way home.

We stopped in Merrillville, IN, at Denny's, for a bite to eat and then an hour later we were pulling up in front of Terry's house.

Another great two months in The Villages.  If we win the lottery, it will be at least three months.

Snow and Betty

We left Brooks, KY this morning for Indianapolis.  It rained all the way, but the driving was at the speed limit and it wasn't bad.

We stopped at Panera, for our favorite soups, before checking into the hotel.

We checked into Hyatt Place at Keystone and they were predicting snow for tonight, so we called Betty and said let's make it an early dinner.

We picked up Betty about 4 p.m. and went to Five Guys!  Yummy!

Betty has lost a lot of weight since we last saw her, but her sense of humor is 100%.  She moves to California, if all goes well, sometime in April.

As you can see, she's holding up her hand - she broke her wrist recently and it is still healing.   She wanted it to be in the photo so I took the photo including the cast.

On The Road Again

We went from Calhoun, GA to Brooks, KY and it looks as if we will be here two days waiting out the snow storm predicted for tomorrow in Chicago and Indianapolis.

We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch and used the $1+ that Terry had left on her gift card.

Tonight we went to The Texas Roadhouse for dinner (two stops past our hotel on the highway) and it was excellent and so reasonable.

After dinner, I participated in the Township Meeting and we are now relaxing.

Eager to get home!!!!!

Miss the sunshine and my sandals!!!

COLD!

It was cold when we left Bluffton, SC this morning and did not get warmer as we moved North.

What are we thinking???  Going North instead of South, crazy!!!

Chicago is to have a major snow storm, so we are going to stay outside of Chicago, in Kentucky, until it is safe to go into Chicago.

YUCK!

We are in Calhoun, GA right now in a Holiday Inn Express.  Using Holiday Inn points for a FREE night!  Yea, us!!!

Had dinner at Ruby Tuesday, which was good.

Splash, Splash

Today was Judy's swim show.

 

 

 

 

Judy's in the water

 

 

As we left the show, someone was outside the pool encouraging people to go to a Fine Art and Photography Show and Sale, also in Sun City.  So, Jeff, Terry and I went over there.  We did not buy anything, but there was some very good looking pieces of art.

 

 

We went to the lodge to wait for Judy and we were all on our smart telephones, checking email and reading!

 

 

When Judy was done, she met us at the lodge and we went to Capt. Woody's for He Crab soup (similar to She Crab soup).  It was excellent.

 

 

Terry, Judy and I went to see some of the model homes and critiqued them.  We then went back to our hotel to rest.

 

After everyone got up from naps, we went to dinner at a good Italian restaurant, with a cute name.

 

 

 



We went back to Judy and Jeff's house to play with Sirius and eat chocolate cake!

 

 

Sirius eventually did come over and play with Terry

 

 

Judy drove us back to our hotel and we are preparing for our ride home.



 

Great Day with Cousins

After breakfast in our room (with full kitchen), we were picked up by Judy and Jeff to go to Savannah.

Judy and Jeff were telling us how many of Savannah's old buildings have been restored by SCAD - Savannah College of Art and Design.  The first building we went in is an art exhibit building with a store that sells student/teacher/alumni products.  We did not buy anything but it was very interesting.

One of the buildings had been a temple.  Generally, it is not open for viewing but the man at the front desk asked if we were Jewish, and when we said yes, he asked us to sign a visitor's book and allowed us to view the building.  It has been wonderfully restored and as you can see in the photos some of the Jewish symbols remain on the building.

 

Outside of the SCAD Student Union with Stars of David on top

 

 

 

Stained Glass

 

 

Ceiling

 

Terry and Judy in the Student Union (former Temple)

 

 

From there we went to eat lunch at a place called Soho.  It is an art gallery/restaurant.  Every one has a different set of tables and chairs.  Some real dining room tables, some kitchen tables, and some outdoor type tables.

 

 

Jeff, Terry and Marilyn waiting for lunch.

 

Judy and Jeff waiting for lunch.

 

 

 

After lunch, we went back to the hotel and rested.  Later, Jeff picked us up to go back to Savannah for dinner and a show.  Judy had her first water show (we are going tomorrow).

 

Dinner was at a great hamburger place, B&D Burger, where you could have a hamburger fixed a dozen different ways.  They were yummy!  When biting into my cole slaw, I felt something hard - I had lost a part of a tooth.  Hope the rest stays in one piece until I get home and can see my dentist.

 

Next we went to the Savannah Theater, to see a live production of Jukebox Journey.  They sang a lot of our era songs and it was a high energy show and a lot of fun.  Jeff knows some of the cast, so we got the lowdown on the performers!

 

 

 

 

 



Good Bye to Paradise

This morning we finished packing up the car (it is loaded)!  We ate breakfast, finished cleaning and said good-bye to Jennie (the caretaker) and were on our way.

We tried various radio stations once The Villages' station petered out, but most of it was religious or political.  Terry played some songs from her I-phone and sang to me.  Now, you know we were desperate if Terry's singing was what we settled for today.

We stopped at Jekyll Island on our way to South Carolina and it was WINDY. We ate at the Shack at the end of the Wharf.  We ate indoors at a little bar.  People were sitting outside but they were getting blown around and that did not appeal to us.

Terry had peel and eat shrimp and I tried crawfish (that was my first and last crawfish meal).

We drove around the Island and saw the mansions of the rich and famous, who would vacation here and arrive aboard their private ships.

 

 

Too windy to sit outside

 

 

On our way to South Carolina, we stopped and had ice cream cones, at McDonalds - still hungry after lunch!

 

Got to The Candlewood Suites in Bluffton and Jeff picked us up for dinner at a chicken-wing restaurant and then we went back to the house to meet their new dog (Sirius).

Judy got home shortly after we arrived and we were able to catch up with her.  She had been at a rehearsal of her swim program, which we will see on Saturday.