Merry Christmas from the Deep South!
We continue to have had surprising weather throughout 2014. Winter was wild due to ice – twice. Winter storms Leon and Pax crippled north GA for almost two weeks in some cases. We were fortunate not to have lost power. We were very happy to see the arrival of spring. Even though much of summer was on the rainy side, it was still enjoyable because we had very few days above 90 degrees. October was uncharacteristically rainy. Typically, this is when we have lots of sun, blue skies, moderate temperatures and low humidity. Most of the leaves were still green on Halloween! The 2015 weather predictions are leaning toward a warmer and drier winter. I hope so.
Once again we are disappointed Braves fans. For a team that was so strong during the first half of the season, it was hard to watch how poorly they played after the All Star break. As the saying goes, “there’s always next year”!
Mike stays busy with fly fishing and the never ending home maintenance. Most recently he re-painted the trim and back side of the house. This is quite arduous work because we have a walk-out basement which makes the second floor equal to the height of a third floor. I have given him numerous warnings that this is his last “ladder” project! Once again he will volunteer through AARP to offer tax assistance. Tax counselors, as they are called, must re-qualify each year due to changes in the tax law. This year’s challenge is learning about the ACA because the IRS enforces the Obamacare mandate.
Jim, Kristin and “our girls” spent Easter weekend with us. On Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival in Fairburn, GA. Over the years we have taken Kristin and Eric there, so it was fun to re-live the experience with Alexis and Keira. The weather could have been better, but we still got into the Renaissance-era LARPing – Live Action Role Playing. Easter Sunday was bright and sunny, although quite windy. Our backyard is mostly woodland, so it is the perfect place to stage an Easter egg hunt. Alexis and Keira truly got into the egg hunting, so we were glad that they had one more chance that day to hunt for eggs when we had our Easter dinner at the club.
We had some wonderful trips in May, June and October. In May we were in Bermuda to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. We stayed at The Reefs in Southampton, which is on the south shore and west of downtown Hamilton. The Reefs has a beautiful pink sand beach. For a resort that is older than we are (it opened in 1947), it was still in excellent condition. It has been beautifully maintained and upgraded over the years. Hopefully, The Reefs was spared from the wrath of the recent hurricane Gonzalo. And to make our time there all the more enjoyable, we had ideal weather each day. We were happy to see that Bermuda is still as clean as it was in 1974. The one big change is that there are far fewer resort hotels now. However, tourism remains strong as most visitors to Bermuda are cruise ship passengers.
We spent Memorial Day weekend in Rincon and Hilton Head Island. All of us really enjoyed our day at the beach. Alexis spent a lot of time in the water and Keira liked playing in the sand. It was fun for us to be able to play with them for hours on end. With our beach umbrella, sunhats and SPF 50 for the girls, they avoided sunburn – so everybody was still happy, if a bit tired, at the end of the day! When we don’t see Alexis and Keira in person, we can keep up with them thanks to technology. Jim and Kristin keep us updated with “video visits” via the iPad mini as well as using its Face Time In June we did a road trip to TN, KY and NC. Most of our time was spent in KY so that we could tour the nine distilleries of the “Bourbon Trail”, which are located in and around the Bardstown area. The process of making bourbon is the same at all of them, but each uses its own proprietary “mash bill” (recipe) to make its distinctive product. Some of the distilleries have retained their 19th century look and feel, while the others have been modernized. We liked the tours at Barton’s and Buffalo Trace the best. Each was led by someone who had spent a lifetime around bourbon and was able to communicate the history as well as the “nuts and bolts” aspects of bourbon making. Jim Beam and Woodford Reserve were the most modern. Heaven Hill had the best bourbon museum. We also visited Maker’s Mark, Four Roses, Wild Turkey and Willett. Each distillery pairs their tour with bourbon tasting which is a fun experience. We bought some of the small batch bourbons that are not readily available outside of KY. En route to NC, we drove a section of US 129 known as the Tail of the Dragon. This eleven mile stretch of road has 318 curves, making it the number one roadway for motorcycles and sports cars in America. The Tail of the Dragon goes through Deal’s Gap which is a mountain pass along the NC –TN state line; it also borders the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near the Little Tennessee River. The last night of our trip we stayed in Cherokee, NC and had a great time at Harrah’s.
We had a wonderful visit with Eric and Amber in October. Their jobs brought them from Dallas to the Washington, DC area this summer. They live in Alexandria, VA. We spent one afternoon walking around Alexandria’s Old Town. This area is a very quaint enclave with lots of restaurants and retail. George Washington’s updated townhome is still there. It is a private residence now. It had been a number of years since we had toured the monuments and museums of DC. We visited the Hirshorn (modern art) for the first time as well as the MLK and FDR memorials. MLK is the newest, but the FDR memorial was a surprise as we did not know of its existence, although it has been there since May of 1997. Calling it a memorial is a bit of a misnomer because in addition to numerous statues of FDR, they are enclosed in a “pocket park” alongside the Tidal Basin, which is not obvious at first glance. We also visited the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Another DC surprise was the National Museum of the American Indian. This museum is part of the Smithsonian. It presents the lifeways, history and art of indigenous people throughout the Western Hemisphere. The NMAI is located on the National Mall and is one of three sites that make up the NMAI. The other locations are in the Alexander Hamilton US Customs House in lower Manhattan and the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, MD. Appointments are necessary to tour the MD site. We visited in the late afternoon and were disappointed that the museum closed before we had a chance to see all of it. We went to the National Cathedral in hopes of touring it. However, there was a concert planned for that afternoon, so we saw hardly any of the interior. We did see the grounds, gardens and evidence of the August 23, 2011 magnitude 5.8 earthquake. The repairs are estimated to cost $26M and will take many years to complete. We drove home via the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway in hopes of enjoying over 500 miles of leaf peeping. The fall colors were drab and disappointing, especially along the Skyline Drive. Most of the leaves went from green to brown. It was better on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The sweet spot for good fall color was around 3300 feet in elevation. For as many times as we have driven the BRP, we had never stayed at the Switzerland Inn at MM 334. It is near Spruce Pine in a tiny community called Little Switzerland. It is the only commercial hotel on the BRP. The inn is pretty old, but is in good shape, despite its age. And the location with the mountain views is spectacular.
We spent the first weekend in December in Rincon to see Alexis close to her 4th birthday. We also had a very pleasant day in Savannah at the City Market, Bay and River Street areas. We will be spending Christmas in Rincon as well.
We send our best and hope that you have a happy holiday season.
We continue to have had surprising weather throughout 2014. Winter was wild due to ice – twice. Winter storms Leon and Pax crippled north GA for almost two weeks in some cases. We were fortunate not to have lost power. We were very happy to see the arrival of spring. Even though much of summer was on the rainy side, it was still enjoyable because we had very few days above 90 degrees. October was uncharacteristically rainy. Typically, this is when we have lots of sun, blue skies, moderate temperatures and low humidity. Most of the leaves were still green on Halloween! The 2015 weather predictions are leaning toward a warmer and drier winter. I hope so.
Once again we are disappointed Braves fans. For a team that was so strong during the first half of the season, it was hard to watch how poorly they played after the All Star break. As the saying goes, “there’s always next year”!
Mike stays busy with fly fishing and the never ending home maintenance. Most recently he re-painted the trim and back side of the house. This is quite arduous work because we have a walk-out basement which makes the second floor equal to the height of a third floor. I have given him numerous warnings that this is his last “ladder” project! Once again he will volunteer through AARP to offer tax assistance. Tax counselors, as they are called, must re-qualify each year due to changes in the tax law. This year’s challenge is learning about the ACA because the IRS enforces the Obamacare mandate.
Jim, Kristin and “our girls” spent Easter weekend with us. On Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival in Fairburn, GA. Over the years we have taken Kristin and Eric there, so it was fun to re-live the experience with Alexis and Keira. The weather could have been better, but we still got into the Renaissance-era LARPing – Live Action Role Playing. Easter Sunday was bright and sunny, although quite windy. Our backyard is mostly woodland, so it is the perfect place to stage an Easter egg hunt. Alexis and Keira truly got into the egg hunting, so we were glad that they had one more chance that day to hunt for eggs when we had our Easter dinner at the club.
We had some wonderful trips in May, June and October. In May we were in Bermuda to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. We stayed at The Reefs in Southampton, which is on the south shore and west of downtown Hamilton. The Reefs has a beautiful pink sand beach. For a resort that is older than we are (it opened in 1947), it was still in excellent condition. It has been beautifully maintained and upgraded over the years. Hopefully, The Reefs was spared from the wrath of the recent hurricane Gonzalo. And to make our time there all the more enjoyable, we had ideal weather each day. We were happy to see that Bermuda is still as clean as it was in 1974. The one big change is that there are far fewer resort hotels now. However, tourism remains strong as most visitors to Bermuda are cruise ship passengers.
We spent Memorial Day weekend in Rincon and Hilton Head Island. All of us really enjoyed our day at the beach. Alexis spent a lot of time in the water and Keira liked playing in the sand. It was fun for us to be able to play with them for hours on end. With our beach umbrella, sunhats and SPF 50 for the girls, they avoided sunburn – so everybody was still happy, if a bit tired, at the end of the day! When we don’t see Alexis and Keira in person, we can keep up with them thanks to technology. Jim and Kristin keep us updated with “video visits” via the iPad mini as well as using its Face Time In June we did a road trip to TN, KY and NC. Most of our time was spent in KY so that we could tour the nine distilleries of the “Bourbon Trail”, which are located in and around the Bardstown area. The process of making bourbon is the same at all of them, but each uses its own proprietary “mash bill” (recipe) to make its distinctive product. Some of the distilleries have retained their 19th century look and feel, while the others have been modernized. We liked the tours at Barton’s and Buffalo Trace the best. Each was led by someone who had spent a lifetime around bourbon and was able to communicate the history as well as the “nuts and bolts” aspects of bourbon making. Jim Beam and Woodford Reserve were the most modern. Heaven Hill had the best bourbon museum. We also visited Maker’s Mark, Four Roses, Wild Turkey and Willett. Each distillery pairs their tour with bourbon tasting which is a fun experience. We bought some of the small batch bourbons that are not readily available outside of KY. En route to NC, we drove a section of US 129 known as the Tail of the Dragon. This eleven mile stretch of road has 318 curves, making it the number one roadway for motorcycles and sports cars in America. The Tail of the Dragon goes through Deal’s Gap which is a mountain pass along the NC –TN state line; it also borders the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near the Little Tennessee River. The last night of our trip we stayed in Cherokee, NC and had a great time at Harrah’s.
We had a wonderful visit with Eric and Amber in October. Their jobs brought them from Dallas to the Washington, DC area this summer. They live in Alexandria, VA. We spent one afternoon walking around Alexandria’s Old Town. This area is a very quaint enclave with lots of restaurants and retail. George Washington’s updated townhome is still there. It is a private residence now. It had been a number of years since we had toured the monuments and museums of DC. We visited the Hirshorn (modern art) for the first time as well as the MLK and FDR memorials. MLK is the newest, but the FDR memorial was a surprise as we did not know of its existence, although it has been there since May of 1997. Calling it a memorial is a bit of a misnomer because in addition to numerous statues of FDR, they are enclosed in a “pocket park” alongside the Tidal Basin, which is not obvious at first glance. We also visited the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Another DC surprise was the National Museum of the American Indian. This museum is part of the Smithsonian. It presents the lifeways, history and art of indigenous people throughout the Western Hemisphere. The NMAI is located on the National Mall and is one of three sites that make up the NMAI. The other locations are in the Alexander Hamilton US Customs House in lower Manhattan and the Cultural Resources Center in Suitland, MD. Appointments are necessary to tour the MD site. We visited in the late afternoon and were disappointed that the museum closed before we had a chance to see all of it. We went to the National Cathedral in hopes of touring it. However, there was a concert planned for that afternoon, so we saw hardly any of the interior. We did see the grounds, gardens and evidence of the August 23, 2011 magnitude 5.8 earthquake. The repairs are estimated to cost $26M and will take many years to complete. We drove home via the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway in hopes of enjoying over 500 miles of leaf peeping. The fall colors were drab and disappointing, especially along the Skyline Drive. Most of the leaves went from green to brown. It was better on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The sweet spot for good fall color was around 3300 feet in elevation. For as many times as we have driven the BRP, we had never stayed at the Switzerland Inn at MM 334. It is near Spruce Pine in a tiny community called Little Switzerland. It is the only commercial hotel on the BRP. The inn is pretty old, but is in good shape, despite its age. And the location with the mountain views is spectacular.
We spent the first weekend in December in Rincon to see Alexis close to her 4th birthday. We also had a very pleasant day in Savannah at the City Market, Bay and River Street areas. We will be spending Christmas in Rincon as well.
We send our best and hope that you have a happy holiday season.
