travel day home

I was up at 3 am to get to my flight home.  Traffic was light at that time of the morning.  No TSAPreChk again.  Bah!

It was rainy in Atlanta on the way out to Florida and it is rainy today.  I had a short walk this time.  I had to go from T to A but I could only go on the connecting train.  No way to walk between those concourses.

I watched an interesting altercation.  When I was getting off the plane a woman was chasing after some guy "Mike, Mike ..."  He kept walking - was he ignoring her or didn't hear her.  Anyway she finally got his attention.  He says "I'm NOT going ... NO ..." The argument continued.  Finally they stopped and had a very intense conversation.  Face to face argument but in a quiet voice.  Finally when I walked by for the last time just before my flight was going to board they looked like they might be getting some resolution.  Body language showed some connection.  I have no idea what it was about, but it was entertaining as I was pacing.  I hope they worked it all out. 

We had a slight delay leaving Atlanta.  So I got into Portland a few minutes late.  I headed off to the MAX station to take the MAX to Nathan's.  George was going to meet us at Nathan's and  we were to do lunch.  Nathan had been curious about a vegan cheese restaurant close to his apartment.  I got to the Goose Hollow MAX stop around 2 pm.  George had just arrived as well so we walked to the restaurant.  I ordered a curried carrot soup and avocado toast. Nathan had a B (bacon flavored mushrooms) LT and mac & cheese and George had a Caprese salad. He said that his cheese did not taste like mozzarella. Nathan's mac & cheese was  quite tasty.  My meal was good too.  But it was 3 pm before they brought us our meal.  That was a little long to wait if you ask me.  We are thinking that it is not likely that we will go back. 

After lunch we headed home.  I got home around  4 pm.  Started laundry and then went for a walk in the nice cool spring afternoon. 

What a nice week I had but it is good to get home. The Florida gang will all start driving home on Sunday. 

Friday

I am glad that I got my moon picture yesterday.  It was windy and cloudy this morning. The water was wild.  I don't think that today will be a beach day.  We may have to find something else to do.

I am spoiled with the Oregon beaches.  There are signs all over about private property. It seems kind of rude to me.  

Even though I did not get a moon picture down by the shore I did get a sunrise picture.

It sure is windy.  Very humid.

It only takes us about an hour to get organized to go anywhere.  Today we drove to the Englewood Sport Center to the playground. 

All the bikes in the back of the van.  We can still fit 9 people in the van.  It is a very large van.

Davy & Robbie

Jeanne almost got the kite up.

No alligators today.

That was fun.  We stayed there a couple of hours 

Ice cream treat before heading home. 

Laura was making a wind chime with jingle shells

(Remember this is what the view looked like before today's weather)

We have had some thunder and lightening and then we had quite a rain storm. It was fun.   I find summer storms exciting. I think I caused a problem.  I went out in the rain and got drenched but then the kids wanted to do this too.  I think that their parents were not amused.  While we were out there some of the kids colored Easter eggs.  

Then more games.  

They are playing a game 

Dominion

Storm is passing

And now it is gorgeous again.  

Another delicious dinner.  Erin made cheeseburgers, baked beans, broccoli, jello, and spinach & strawberry salad.  Cookies for the kids and key lime pie for us.  

After the kids were in bed then it was the Coup game.  Only 6 people could play Coup so it was not a problem for me to sit out.  

It is hard to believe that my week is over. Tomorrow morning is another very early morning.  My flight is at 6 am and it is an hour drive to the airport so I will be up at 3 am.  Ugh!  Poor Jeanne has to be up as well.  I had offered to rent a car so that she would not have to get up so early, but they said it was ok.  

They all played Dominion after I went to bed.

Thursday

I wanted to get a picture of the nearly full moon as it was setting on the ocean.  Unfortunately, I miscalculated the time.  I had walked out to the beach and then I was getting tired of waiting, so I went inside briefly .  It was too long.  When I went out again it had already set.  Oh well.  Maybe I will get it tomorrow morning.

Today was slightly different.  This morning Ben, Jay, Laura and Tristan took a longer hike down to the tip of the key, to do their shell search.  So they were gone longer.  Erin, Jeanne and I had kid duty.  We ate breakfast and snack before Laura, Ben & Tristan got home.  The morning was mostly game time.  With 3 adults gone we did not want to take the kids anywhere.

  

Liam was reading to Sean and Emmet.

  Ben made 2 more key lime pies and we had a delicious quesadilla lunch, which Erin made.  Then Erin went grocery shopping while Ben, Laura and Jeanne went to the beach with everyone, except Davy.  I stayed back to stay with him.  He was sleeping. Once Erin came home I joined the beach group.

Cooperation!  

Jay finally got home! He found a lot of great shells. He was pretty worn out as well.

Another fabulous dinner.  Wilhelm cooked a potato casserole, with carrots and beans.  Yummy.

After dinner we all headed up to the crows nest to do a memorial service for Jeanne's sister, Kathleen.  (Kathleen died April 2nd) Jeanne read a few things and played 2 songs that Kathleen liked.  We were up there at sunset and with a full moon.  We sat and talked about Kathleen and some of our memories.  It was a nice gathering and the kids did very well.  

Then we came in for s'mores and key lime pie.  The kids all went to bed.  

It was another full day!

The collection keeps growing!!

We all played a few rounds of Coup, a bluffing game.  I was not very good.  It was fun though.  

Wednesday

Laura & Wilhelm, last night when the adults sat around and talked.

Our daily routine seems to be:  Ben and I are the first ones up.  He works on his computer then he goes jogging.  Then Jay and Laura get up and they go looking for shells on the beach.  Jeanne gets up.  Gradually as all the kids wake up we feed them.  Then Erin and later Wilhelm meander up.  It is nice that we can give them a little time to relax a bit.  They don't normally have much time to do that.  Usually there is another grocery run sometimes in the day.  It takes us a while to "get organized" so that we can go do the daily beach type activity. 

The kids each have their own boxes for their shell collections.

Today we headed off to Venice Beach (Florida).  We left about 9:45 am.  It was about 1/2 hour drive away. It was a nice beach.  More sandy and today there was less wind and surf. 

I was taking a picture of the cormorants and found later that I also got a picture of the alligator!! (Yes, I took this picture)

Getting out to the beach was quite a process.

Egret

Wilhelm & Liam

It was a very nice beach.  Jeanne and I even went in.  It was a little chilly though not as chilly as Oregon water.  

WOW! We even saw a dolphin.  I kept trying to take a picture but it moved too fast.  It was cool.  

Emmet trying to walk with flippers.

Liam with the flippers.

We stayed until about 2 pm.  When we got back to the vehicles we found that Ben & Erin's vehicle was dead so we had to jump it before we could head home.

Once we got back and got cleaned up it was margarita time (at least for some of us). 

Today was a hotter day but not as humid.  

Laura took the kids out to look for Pokeman.  Ben & Erin were cooking tonight.  It was to be taco night.    

The kids took turns rolling out the corn tortillas.

I gave each family the Wonky Donkey book.  I thought for sure that they would already have it, but I guess not.  It was a hit.  It was fun listening to the kids read it. 

I think that they have this part memorized now.

Dinner was fabulous.  Tortillas with all kinds of choices of things to put in them:  Cheese, salsa, guacamole, rice, corn, beef, chicken, beans, lettuce, and sour cream!  Wow.  What a spread.  We also had jello and then key lime pie for dessert.  

An amazing sunset tonight.

Davy was helping me take sunset pictures.

A nearly full moon.

Ben, Sean, Robbie & Erin up in the crows nest looking for stars.  It was a little more difficult because of the full moon.

Everyone was pretty tired today so it was an early night.