Charlestons on the Go

Visit With Tom Wolfe, Bob's Friend

While visiting Florida, we drove over to the Tampa area to visit one of Bob's High School buddies, Tom Wolfe. He invited us to come and play some golf, which we don't do often. So he did have to show me a thing or two. I got a few good shots in, and a lot of bad ones. The course was beautiful and I enjoyed driving around on the golf cart.

Got to admire Tom's form.

We visited at his place along with his three cats. Tom is quite a cat lover. He saved the three cats that live with him currently.

When Tom's mom died, Tom took in Gin Gin, the Siamese cat. I have always loved Siamese cats.

One day we drove over a huge suspension bridge over Tampa Bay. This is the park or rest area you can visit before driving over the bridge.

I was so busy taking pictures, I didn't have time to be afraid of driving over this bridge, but when I see the pictures, I'm wondering how did I do that?

We stopped to get a bite to eat at this beach area and beach concession around St. Petersburg. I had the best cheese quesadillas.

We really enjoyed our visit with Tom.

Florida Visit 2013

We spent about a month in Ormond Beach with Bob's sister. I didn't really take any scenic pictures since I've taken so many in the past, but I did take some interesting pictures.

Here are some goofy pictures of Bob and Charlene at Aunt Catfish's Restaurant, one of our favorite restaurants on the Halifax River, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

For Valentine's Day we joined Charlene and her friend, Sandy, to attend an event at the Palm Coast Public Library featuring Linda Cole, one of Charlene's favorite singers.

Flagler Beach is just a few miles north of where Charlene lives, and on the first Friday of each month they have Music in the Park so we went. Sandy joined us again. There are food vendors and vendors representing local organizations promoting Flagler Beach. They also provide entertainment. It was fun, even though we had to wear jackets.

We enjoyed the guitarist. He played a nice variety.

While we were there, Bob gave Charlene his old lap top so they went to the library a few times where Bob taught Charlene all you need to know about computers, but were afraid to ask. Practice makes perfect.

It seems that I can't leave Ormond Beach without making a shopping trip to Bealls. Charlene encouraged me to buy this outfit which is a little different from my usual outfits. The orange pants caught my eye since they are close to the color of my sister, Susie's, alma matter, UT. Our local school district's colors are orange and blue so I might be able to wear these pants to show some school spirit some time in the future.

As usual, we enjoyed visiting Charlene.

Visit with North Carolina Relatives on Our Way To Florida

On our way to Florida, we made our annual visits to our North Carolina relatives.

My Uncle Scott and Aunt Hadie live in Burgaw, NC, and we always enjoy visiting with them. This time we also visited Hadie's sister, Dibble. Bob decided to perform a magic show for all of them, one of his favorite things to do. They seemed to appreciate all his tricks.

Later we shared a meal with them.

From Burgaw, we went to Pinehurst to visit Bob's cousin, Linda. We always enjoy visiting her too. We might not get to have this opportunity in the future because she is making plans to move to California to be closer to her son.

Visit in Rochester, MN With My Friend, Mary Bea

In January, my good friend, Mary Bea, had an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Since Rochester is just a hop, skip, and jump away, we decided to meet her and her husband, Kurt, and have a little visit in between doctors' appointments. I'm so glad we did.

We met up with them at one of the doctor's offices and had lunch. Then we had breakfast with them a few times, as well as, a few evening meals.

Here is Mary Bea and her husband, Kurt.

Here are all four of us enjoying a meal together.

One day we talked them into making a road trip to Austin, MN, about an hour's drive a way, to visit the SPAM museum. Even though Mary Bea has spent a lot of time in Hawaii, she still poo poo'd the idea of going to the museum. It was reminiscent of when another friend suggested we visit the museum, and I, too, poo poo'd the idea, only to discover it was a "fun" museum to visit. Mary Bea admitted, as welll, that it was fun to visit the SPAM museum. And it was also a nice distraction. Thanks to Marilyn for introducing me to the SPAM museum.

After the museum experience, we shared another meal near the museum. But, to our surprise, they did not have Spam on their menu. Bad mistake. I wouldn't have ordered it, but it seems they should offer it since the restaurant is almost right across the street from the museum.

Breakfast at a Hy Vee deli, one of Mary Bea's favorite places to eat in Rochester. Notice the matching outfits. We wore some matching outfits while visiting to help celebrate our friendship. Thanks to Sam's Club's good deals.

Late Post of Thanksgiving 2012 with Friends

For Thanksgiving we were invited to join some friends for a delicious dinner with a multicultural group. The friend, Cheryl Buntsma, is a long lost swimming friend with whom we have met up from time to time, but we reconnected during the campaign which was a nice surprise.

The food and company were great.

This is Cheryl in the back with her husband on the right. One of the other guests was an instructor at Northwester College in Orange City. He and his wife are Chinese.

On the left is a foreign student from Nepal. Our friend, Cheryl, and her husband sponsor her while she's at the college so they invited her to dinner too.

Late Post - Christmas 2012 with Cardonas

Better late then never.

For Christmas this year, we made a trip to Papillion to spend some quality time with the Cardonas. We ate at Fudruckers one night. I guess that was our Christmas dinner.