Good Morning
We are back in Cocoa after a fun 5 days in Key West. We celebrated Charlotte's completing her one year of Chemo and Radiation with several of their friends at a fun Mexican Restaurant on Saturday before we left with an evening with good food and margaritas. Sunday we just stayed around home and got ready for our trip to Key West. Tom, Charlotte and Bill love liver and onions so Tom cooked.
We left on Monday morning. Stopped in Homestead, Florida at the Coral Castle. Edward Leedskainin from Latvia came to the US heartbroken and saddened by the tragic news that his only true love canceled their wedding ceremony one day before the ceremony. He was only 5 ft. tall and 100 pounds and amazingly built this castle of coral all by himself over a period of 28 years. It was amazing that he could move and place walls using handmade tools to move the rocks of coral that weighed thousands of pounds and has been compared to the building of the pyramids. We arrived in Key West about 7 PM. Beautiful drive down. The color of the water is such different shades of blues and almost green. We stayed at the Coast Guard Base in Trumbull Point. There are three military bases on Key West. It was the perfect location as just blocks form downtown Key West. We were awakened very early to the roosters that roam freely. They are called Gypsy Feral Chickens and they have a population of over 2000 in the streets of Key West. They are a protected species so cannot be harmed. I could not find anyone who knew why they are protected or any information on line about why they would be protected. They don't seem to know that roosters are to crow early in the morning as they crow all day and night!! Several times as we were having dinner, a hen and rooster would be walking about with anywhere from 3-8 chicks. They are a pretty bird...except at night when you are trying to sleep!!! While in Key West, we saw a beautiful sunset, ate wonderful food, enjoyed visiting the Butterfly Pavilion, walked nearly every street around the town and visited the beautiful Basilica of Saint Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church. A beautiful Church with a grotto and an area set up like a rosary so you can walk the rosary.
Tom and Bill went out for an afternoon of deep sea fishing. It was a windy rough water day. Tom caught a small barracuda. Had to throw back as they are not good to eat. Bill had a barracuda on the line but it cut the line just before got in the boat. With the rough waters it can cause the water to be cloudy so not good for fishing. But like they said..."any day out fishing is a great day". We ate so much great sea food. I am not a fan of Key Lime pie but must say that we did have some great Key Lime Pie! We arrived safely with the Grace of God about 5 on Friday evening.
It has been so good to spend this time with Charlotte and Bill. We have more favorite restaurants here than back in Tucson!
It has been good to be able to do "Facetime" on the computer with Emme, Molly, Samantha and Kirsten. Molly started soft ball and they have won both their games so far. Grandpa Pete has been going to her games and said she "had a solid hit" at her last game. Samantha will be 8 years old on Monday...they are growing too fast. Emme turned 11 months this past week. She always gives us "her Nana and Granddad smile" when we talk to her! When we did "Facetime" with Kirsten the other evening she was not feeling good...have never seen her so quiet!!
It is so nice to just sit here on the screened porch at Charlotte and Bill's and relax and watch all the squirrels and birds. Bill feeds them so they missed us when we were gone!! There are about 5 different types of birds and about 15 squirrels.
Tom cooked us breakfast again today...
I have been doing a lot of reading...so far this trip have read 5 books and starting on the 6th....
We will leave here next Sunday and head to Panama City to see a friend we were stationed with in Hawaii and then stop on the Coastal Highway to Tallahassee to have lunch with a friend from Maryann's nursing school days. Will spend a night in Savannah before head north.
"Good friends and family, good books, a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.~~ Mark Twain
Have a blessed Easter week. We are keeping you all in our prayers.
Our Love,
Tom and Maryann
PS: will try to send a blog with only pictures....still having issues
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
Think I have finally figured how to add pictures to our Blog!!!
I think I have KIND OF figured out how to add pictures to our blog. It took me several hours sitting here on the screened in porch to kind of figure out!!! Below are the great friends we have visited. Forgot to take a picture of Ann and Jim in Crestview, Florida...
I will keep working on putting them in the blog....
Jerry and Diane Stapleton in Fort Worth, Tx
Deb and Maryann in Tampa, Florida
Bill and Charlotte at Roy's Restaurant in Orlando
Bob and Donna in El Paso, Texas
Thursday, April 3, 2014
3 April 2014
Good Morning,
"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles"~~Tim Cahill
AND we certainly are having a wonder-filled journey.
I am sitting here on the screened in patio at Bill and Charlotte's in Cocoa, Florida. Tom has gone off to spend the day in Vero Beach with his friend , Dr. K, who he was stationed with in the jungles of Viet Nam YEARS ago. It is a perfect day here as I watch the squirrels and all kinds of birds vie for the food that Bill puts out for them every few days. They get quite aggressive!
We arrived here last Wednesday (March 26) evening. We had spent the night in Tampa at MacDill AFB. We met Deb for lunch at Pinkeys. What a neat little cafe near the base. Maryann and Deb worked together at Davis-Monthan AFB 14 years ago. Deb and her husband Steve and their three children have been in Tampa for several years but now are getting ready to be stationed in Japan. Deb is now a well-known photographer. It had been 14 years since we were together and once again seemed like only yesterday. It was good to be able to share hugs!! I was going to add a photo here...BUT even though went to the APPLE store so they can show me how....have not mastered the task of doing yet....will keep trying.
In the days that we have been here, we have been enjoying just being with Charlotte and Bill. We have been going to appointments with Charlotte as she completes a year of chemo and radiation for breast cancer. She had a good report from her surgical oncologist and had a CT yesterday that will get the results for the week after we return from Key West. Also have visited with Bill's mother who will be 99 next week. AND have eaten so much great food....surprised that I do not look like a shrimp since have eaten so many!! Tom likes shrimp too but he also has been having Catfish, Fried Clams and Salmon. We have our favorite restaurants that we go to each year when we come. In fact we have more favorite restaurants here than in Tucson! We also had lunch at our favorite Italian place yesterday. On Tuesday we went to "ROYS", an Hawaiian Fusion restaurant in Orlando. We were there eating for 2 and a half hours!! Great food too.
On our way to see Bill's Mom, there is a huge white swan sitting on a nest she built to hatch her new little one. It is simply huge.
We all went to the movie's to see Marathon Men on Sunday. Highly recommend. It is based on a true story about saving art from being taken and destroyed by Hitler. Some great character actors make up the cast.
We do "Face Time" with the Walsh girls and Emme. Makes being away from them easier as we can see their darling little faces and emotions. Emme has gotten her "belly crawl" down and her focus to crawl to is where ever Buddi is sitting or laying!! If you go on our Facebook, you can see pictures and video.
We discovered that our windshield on the Lexus was cracked so had it replaced yesterday. Not sure when or how happened.
We will be leaving on Monday to go to Key West for 6 days. Tom and Bill already have reservations to go deep sea fishing. We are looking forward as have never ventured that far south in Florida.
Keeping you all in our daily prayer and hoping your days are warm.
God Bless and hugs,
Tom and Maryann
"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles"~~Tim Cahill
AND we certainly are having a wonder-filled journey.
I am sitting here on the screened in patio at Bill and Charlotte's in Cocoa, Florida. Tom has gone off to spend the day in Vero Beach with his friend , Dr. K, who he was stationed with in the jungles of Viet Nam YEARS ago. It is a perfect day here as I watch the squirrels and all kinds of birds vie for the food that Bill puts out for them every few days. They get quite aggressive!
We arrived here last Wednesday (March 26) evening. We had spent the night in Tampa at MacDill AFB. We met Deb for lunch at Pinkeys. What a neat little cafe near the base. Maryann and Deb worked together at Davis-Monthan AFB 14 years ago. Deb and her husband Steve and their three children have been in Tampa for several years but now are getting ready to be stationed in Japan. Deb is now a well-known photographer. It had been 14 years since we were together and once again seemed like only yesterday. It was good to be able to share hugs!! I was going to add a photo here...BUT even though went to the APPLE store so they can show me how....have not mastered the task of doing yet....will keep trying.
In the days that we have been here, we have been enjoying just being with Charlotte and Bill. We have been going to appointments with Charlotte as she completes a year of chemo and radiation for breast cancer. She had a good report from her surgical oncologist and had a CT yesterday that will get the results for the week after we return from Key West. Also have visited with Bill's mother who will be 99 next week. AND have eaten so much great food....surprised that I do not look like a shrimp since have eaten so many!! Tom likes shrimp too but he also has been having Catfish, Fried Clams and Salmon. We have our favorite restaurants that we go to each year when we come. In fact we have more favorite restaurants here than in Tucson! We also had lunch at our favorite Italian place yesterday. On Tuesday we went to "ROYS", an Hawaiian Fusion restaurant in Orlando. We were there eating for 2 and a half hours!! Great food too.
On our way to see Bill's Mom, there is a huge white swan sitting on a nest she built to hatch her new little one. It is simply huge.
We all went to the movie's to see Marathon Men on Sunday. Highly recommend. It is based on a true story about saving art from being taken and destroyed by Hitler. Some great character actors make up the cast.
We do "Face Time" with the Walsh girls and Emme. Makes being away from them easier as we can see their darling little faces and emotions. Emme has gotten her "belly crawl" down and her focus to crawl to is where ever Buddi is sitting or laying!! If you go on our Facebook, you can see pictures and video.
We discovered that our windshield on the Lexus was cracked so had it replaced yesterday. Not sure when or how happened.
We will be leaving on Monday to go to Key West for 6 days. Tom and Bill already have reservations to go deep sea fishing. We are looking forward as have never ventured that far south in Florida.
Keeping you all in our daily prayer and hoping your days are warm.
God Bless and hugs,
Tom and Maryann
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
26 March 2014
Good Morning,
Here we are in Tampa...and it is 48 degrees!!! hmmmm
We have had safe travels. We left Gulfport on Friday morning and arrived in Crestview just in time to have lunch with Ann and Jim. Even had the same booth in the restaurant we met at 3 years ago!! It was good catching up again....hope they will be able to come to Tucson sometime in the next year. We then stopped just to say hi to John before we left for Prattville. It was so great to see Doug, Sybilla and Taryn and Manny THE dog again. We had wonderful food, took walks and played games and laughed until we were hoarse!! Tom and Doug even played golf.
We gave our hugs and left for Niceville on Monday Morning. Joe, Sandy and Lizzie Grace and Hope (their dogs) met us at the door with open arms and paws! We went to "The Front Porch" and had a wonderful lunch and then went home , took a nice walk and talked and laughed until midnight! After a nice breakfast on their new closed in porch, we hugged our goodbyes and headed for Tampa. Had a nice drive down and arrived after 5 PM. We are staying at the Inn on MacDill Air Force Base.
Last night we did "Face Time" with Carrie and Emme. She gave us her Nana and Granddad smiles.
We talked to Kelly as she was at our home with Alastair and Louise as they are heading back to England after a stop on the East Coast and they were at the house returning our Camery.
Today, we are going to meet Deb for breakfast and then head to Bill and Charlotte's. Have not seen Deb in 14 years so am so excited. Deb and I worked together at the clinic at Davis-Monthan. Deb was an Air Force nurse. Now she is an accomplished photographer. Deb and Steve have been living in Tampa with their 3 children but will be calling Japan home this summer. Steve is in the Navy and has been assigned to Japan.
After spending time with Deb, we will leave for Cocoa and our time with Tom's sister and brother-in-law will begin. We are so anxious to see them as has been a year since we were there last year.
There are no words to explain how blessed we are to have such friends that are family that we can just drop in to visit...except "extremely blessed"
I still have not figured out how to add pictures....will talk to George and maybe he can help me or I will go to the Apple store when get to Cocoa.
God Bless
Tom and Maryann
Here we are in Tampa...and it is 48 degrees!!! hmmmm
We have had safe travels. We left Gulfport on Friday morning and arrived in Crestview just in time to have lunch with Ann and Jim. Even had the same booth in the restaurant we met at 3 years ago!! It was good catching up again....hope they will be able to come to Tucson sometime in the next year. We then stopped just to say hi to John before we left for Prattville. It was so great to see Doug, Sybilla and Taryn and Manny THE dog again. We had wonderful food, took walks and played games and laughed until we were hoarse!! Tom and Doug even played golf.
We gave our hugs and left for Niceville on Monday Morning. Joe, Sandy and Lizzie Grace and Hope (their dogs) met us at the door with open arms and paws! We went to "The Front Porch" and had a wonderful lunch and then went home , took a nice walk and talked and laughed until midnight! After a nice breakfast on their new closed in porch, we hugged our goodbyes and headed for Tampa. Had a nice drive down and arrived after 5 PM. We are staying at the Inn on MacDill Air Force Base.
Last night we did "Face Time" with Carrie and Emme. She gave us her Nana and Granddad smiles.
We talked to Kelly as she was at our home with Alastair and Louise as they are heading back to England after a stop on the East Coast and they were at the house returning our Camery.
Today, we are going to meet Deb for breakfast and then head to Bill and Charlotte's. Have not seen Deb in 14 years so am so excited. Deb and I worked together at the clinic at Davis-Monthan. Deb was an Air Force nurse. Now she is an accomplished photographer. Deb and Steve have been living in Tampa with their 3 children but will be calling Japan home this summer. Steve is in the Navy and has been assigned to Japan.
After spending time with Deb, we will leave for Cocoa and our time with Tom's sister and brother-in-law will begin. We are so anxious to see them as has been a year since we were there last year.
There are no words to explain how blessed we are to have such friends that are family that we can just drop in to visit...except "extremely blessed"
I still have not figured out how to add pictures....will talk to George and maybe he can help me or I will go to the Apple store when get to Cocoa.
God Bless
Tom and Maryann
Thursday, March 20, 2014
20 March 2014
We arrived in Gulfport Ms. this evening. We are staying at the Navy Lodge. Of course as soon as we arrived we had to go for fresh shrimp. We went to a restaurant called White Hat where we watched the sun set across the beautiful white sands of Gulfport beach.
We arrived in San Antonio on the afternoon of March 18.
We had a great few days in San Antonio. Weather was perfect. It was even warm enough to take a walk after dinner the evening we arrived. Wednesday morning we met our friends Tom and Vicki Bader for breakfast at the Magnolia Pancake Haus. What a neat restaurant and what great food. We had a lemon poppyseed waffle that was so good. We spent a couple hours catching up with Vicki and Tom, who we were stationed with in Germany. We decided that when we come to San Antonio, we will make it a tradition to meet with the Bader's at the Magnolia Pancake Haus .
We then had a really nice visit with Mark and Holly Tenn and their children at our billeting at Randolph AFB. Mark and Holly were stationed at Davis Monthan with us several years ago.
Carrie called and we had FACE-TIME with Emme. She gave her Nana and Granddad lots of 'Emme smiles".
Tom is just amazing at how long he can drive....of course we take breaks..today we even stopped at a Bass Pro Shop to get some exercise...hmmm. I have been doing a lot of reading.
We have been blessed with safe travels and the best of friends that we have in our lives.
I still have not figured out how to add pictures to my blog...will keep trying..and maybe go to an Apple Store when we get to Charlotte and Bill's.
Tomorrow we will leave for Alabama to spend time with the Watkins and stop for lunch with our friend Ann on the way.....aren't we lucky to have such friends to stop and visit!!
We arrived in San Antonio on the afternoon of March 18.
We had a great few days in San Antonio. Weather was perfect. It was even warm enough to take a walk after dinner the evening we arrived. Wednesday morning we met our friends Tom and Vicki Bader for breakfast at the Magnolia Pancake Haus. What a neat restaurant and what great food. We had a lemon poppyseed waffle that was so good. We spent a couple hours catching up with Vicki and Tom, who we were stationed with in Germany. We decided that when we come to San Antonio, we will make it a tradition to meet with the Bader's at the Magnolia Pancake Haus .
We then had a really nice visit with Mark and Holly Tenn and their children at our billeting at Randolph AFB. Mark and Holly were stationed at Davis Monthan with us several years ago.
Carrie called and we had FACE-TIME with Emme. She gave her Nana and Granddad lots of 'Emme smiles".
Tom is just amazing at how long he can drive....of course we take breaks..today we even stopped at a Bass Pro Shop to get some exercise...hmmm. I have been doing a lot of reading.
We have been blessed with safe travels and the best of friends that we have in our lives.
I still have not figured out how to add pictures to my blog...will keep trying..and maybe go to an Apple Store when we get to Charlotte and Bill's.
Tomorrow we will leave for Alabama to spend time with the Watkins and stop for lunch with our friend Ann on the way.....aren't we lucky to have such friends to stop and visit!!
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
18 March 2014
Good Morning...
We "Hit the Road" on Sunday Morning after giving hugs and kisses to our kids and 4 beautiful Grand Girls on Saturday. We also spent last week giving hugs to our Tucson Family!
We are always thrilled to be able to take these yearly adventures but also know that we will miss our Tucson Family.
We were so delighted to be able to meet with Donna and Bill in El Paso. When they lived in Tucson, Donna worked with us at the clinic and we are so glad that we kept in contact. They left Tucson in 1988...so had not seen them in a few years. Once again it was like we had just seen them a few days before. They live in Dell City, Texas which is 90 miles from El Paso. IT was so great that they made the trip to El Paso so we could catch up...and we did. We stayed at Ft. Bliss on Sunday night. Wow they have remodeled that base since we were there last year. They have a Marketplace with restaurants, all kids of shops and the BX. It was like being in a fancy civilian Mall.
We left El Paso very early on Monday morning as we woke up and could not go back to sleep so decided to get up and head out. We arrived in Forth Worth about 4 PM. Stayed at the Navy Reserve base there and met Jerry and Diane Stapleton for dinner. We were stationed with them at F. E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne , Wyoming and had not seen them both since 1982. Diane had come to Tucson for her work in the 90's so had seen her when she was there. We were so glad to see them and catch up on their two daughters and their grandchildren! Of course we shared pictures!! They have two very handsome grandson's. They both work so it was nice of them to come out on a work night and deal with the Dallas traffic to spend time with us. We may see them in the fall if they can take a long weekend and fly to Tucson.
One of the best parts of our visits with our friends is to be able to give and get such wonderful hugs from these dear friends...and you know how Maryann feels about hugs!!!
We slept in this morning and are now on our way to San Antonio, Texas for a couple nights. We will be staying at Randolph AFB.
Have had good weather...just lots of wind today.
I have some pictures but will need to figure out how to put them on the blog when we get to San Antonio...as will need to transfer them from my phone to my IPAD and then figure it out!
We send our prayers and good thoughts to each of you.
Good Morning...
We "Hit the Road" on Sunday Morning after giving hugs and kisses to our kids and 4 beautiful Grand Girls on Saturday. We also spent last week giving hugs to our Tucson Family!
We are always thrilled to be able to take these yearly adventures but also know that we will miss our Tucson Family.
We were so delighted to be able to meet with Donna and Bill in El Paso. When they lived in Tucson, Donna worked with us at the clinic and we are so glad that we kept in contact. They left Tucson in 1988...so had not seen them in a few years. Once again it was like we had just seen them a few days before. They live in Dell City, Texas which is 90 miles from El Paso. IT was so great that they made the trip to El Paso so we could catch up...and we did. We stayed at Ft. Bliss on Sunday night. Wow they have remodeled that base since we were there last year. They have a Marketplace with restaurants, all kids of shops and the BX. It was like being in a fancy civilian Mall.
We left El Paso very early on Monday morning as we woke up and could not go back to sleep so decided to get up and head out. We arrived in Forth Worth about 4 PM. Stayed at the Navy Reserve base there and met Jerry and Diane Stapleton for dinner. We were stationed with them at F. E. Warren AFB in Cheyenne , Wyoming and had not seen them both since 1982. Diane had come to Tucson for her work in the 90's so had seen her when she was there. We were so glad to see them and catch up on their two daughters and their grandchildren! Of course we shared pictures!! They have two very handsome grandson's. They both work so it was nice of them to come out on a work night and deal with the Dallas traffic to spend time with us. We may see them in the fall if they can take a long weekend and fly to Tucson.
One of the best parts of our visits with our friends is to be able to give and get such wonderful hugs from these dear friends...and you know how Maryann feels about hugs!!!
We slept in this morning and are now on our way to San Antonio, Texas for a couple nights. We will be staying at Randolph AFB.
Have had good weather...just lots of wind today.
I have some pictures but will need to figure out how to put them on the blog when we get to San Antonio...as will need to transfer them from my phone to my IPAD and then figure it out!
We send our prayers and good thoughts to each of you.
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