A Weekend with David

This weekend Steve, Sarah and I went to Ft. Benning to visit David!  It was an 8 hour trip but so worth the effort and time...we were able to talk so much. We laughed alot, played some, shopped some, enjoyed eating together...It was a happy weekend. I don't ever take those for granted.

My DS still loves bicycles! On Saturday, after the guys gave me and Sarah a little while to do some serious dress shopping, we went downtown Columbus and found a great

bicycle shop that, as you can see, had enough 

in it to keep us interested! First we did some window shopping and then perused the sidewalk display. They had a great Belgium (correct me if I'm wrong, David) type bike that was absolutely awesome! I fell in love with it. The brand is Electra and it's a huge, vintage bike with a beautiful  leather seat and handlebar grips. It had full fenders, chain guard and even mud flaps! Beaut

iful!! It reminded me so much of the big ol' bike I 

learned to

 ride on. The handle bars were even wide enough for someone to sit on!

My family has heard me say many times that one of my greatest joys at this point in my life is to go to Bald Head where I can ride my old bike to the market or wherever I want to go! It is my favorite mode of transportation and in a perfect, safe world, I'd ride one to the market in Southern Pines. I'm beginning to wonder if the cost of gas and our growing "green" awareness will soon make it a little easier

 for me to do this!  I'm hoping!

David enjoyed playing on the bikes at this shop tremendously!

 He hadn't been on a bike since April and

 for a boy who loves bikes the way he does, that's a loooong time! In the photo of him on the bike by

 himself, he is just sitting there without rolling (much) or a "kick-stand" using only his

balance. It's a pretty cool trick....a "track stand" I think it is called.  I think you can tell that he was pretty happy just getting to sit on one for a few minutes! 

He and Sarah

 also enjoyed playing around on the big tandem bike! 

Later that night we went to a good little restau

rant named Meritage.  We had a great meal and someone volunteered to take our picture! Again....just a good, peaceful evening. I can't say it enough....it was such a gift to be together as a family for a little while.

We didn't leave Columbus on Sunday until 4:00!  It was hard to say good-bye....as always. But it's hard to be too sad after such a good visit. Only six more weeks of OCS David!!  

You're almost 

there!! And did I tell you enough t

hat we're really proud of you?

This weekend Sarah Marie and her parents came for a visit. They had not been since the engagement in Feb. when David brought Sarah down to pop the question out on the Point (check out those photos on David's Flickr acct.). After having wonderful weather all week, a tropical depression practically took up residence off the coast and let us enjoy it's clouds, wind and rain!! I know we needed the rain, but I was really disappointed that their one day at the beach might be spoiled by nasty weather.

   The rain and wind ended up not ruining the weekend at all! 
 We put together a puzzle (well, sort of), knitted, played bridge and went out on the beach when we could between downpours. 
On Sunday morning, the sun came out beautifully....just in time for Sarah and her mom to walk out to the beach to take these great pictures! 

What a beautiful daughter-in-law we are getting!!

     Well, it's back to the real world....We came home from Bald Head tonight, but not without a few more stories to tell. We finally got the raccoon trouble solved and most of the house/remodel issues taken care of and then had a little company. Steve's nephew Wilson came on Thursday for a short visit and to play golf with Steve. Wilson graduated from high school in June and hadn't been to BHI in 8 years! After sending a son off to college ourselves, we realized that if we didn't get Wilson to the island for a visit before he left for school, we'd probably never get him to the island again!! Willing to stoop to any bribery in order to  stay in touch with the "young 'uns" we love, we begged Wilson to visit us at Bald Head! We even promised a round of golf knowing that he would have a hard time refusing....You see, Wilson is a really good golfer...a three time, All-

Conference golfer....If we offered him golf at a course he'd never played, then surely we could lure him to the coast for a visit.  Happily, the plan worked and he came on Thursday.

   

After he arrived, we took him to the house for lunch and then back to the marina for some sailing. We had about 18 - 20 Knot winds (probably too much for a first sail) but we went out anyway and had a great sail. The 

motor for the boat wasn't installed yet, so Conner (our captain!)  took it out under

 sail! It really was pretty exhilarating  to move so quickly and to never hear the motor start up. It was one of those days that will make anyone fall in love with sailing!! Beautiful! 

     After sailing we ate outside at a restaurant in the marina. The breeze was perfect, the music was live and the food was good!  It was a pretty cool evening.....a good memory for me, anyway!  The next day, the golfing was apparently pretty good, too. Wilson shot 78 and Steve had a wonderful time watching him play so well. I think he was pretty darn proud!

Steve's the lucky winner!

Steve won the golfcart raffled off by the conservancy this year!! He was pretty excited to finally have a NEW cart! He's always gone for the oldest, workable, cheapest cart he could find!!

This one is sporty and fast...Thank God it comes with seatbelts!! He's a little proud!!


Sent from my iPhone

Racoon Trouble

We're at Bald Head for a week of real vacation! After working so hard to remodel this house (The Blue Dragonfly), we finally get to just enjoy it for one week! When we left the house to renters two weeks ago, everything was perfect!! Even the old garbage can holders were freshly painted and, we thought, racoon proof. Last night we found out we were wrong! Here's the evidence. [Click on photos for a closer look.]
Steve went downstairs after dark to put away the grill and found 3 racoons hanging on our garbage can holder! As you can see, the slats have a little space between them, but a layer of wire screen underneath the slats is supposed to keep racoons out. WRONG!! The little guys and girls were pushing away the screen, tearing through it, or whatever else they could manage to do and then sticking their little paws into the box to pull trash through!

In the next photo you can see that one (or three...could have been a group effort) managed to pull the slats away from the frame (wouldn't want to meet up with those racoons on a dark night), push away the wire and pull out a container of hummus!! They obviously were either full or unimpressed at this point because the hummus was left half-eaten!

In the next photo you can see where they could only push the screen away enough to get their paws through. They reached in as far as they could and pulled out the garbage in bits. What you can't see here (because the wrappers were laying on the ground) is that they were able to pull out honey buns, crackers and bread!! No wonder the hummus was not interesting!!