Another sunny day on St. George

Up and ready for another repeat or our day yesterday. Beach walk, beach time, lunch, pool time, more beach time, a bit of shopping, pool, and on and on. Everyday is basically the same here on the Island, just the way we like it!
We did meet up with the Sterns and Paul's parents for dinner last night at our beloved Blue Parrot where the seafood is to die for and the yo yos are divine. A good time was had by all. The men enjoyed fine cigars after dinner and the women and children conversed and played. Everyone from little 2 year old Tizu to 80 year old Marge and all in between find their place to fit in here on the Island. It is truly a spot for all ages to enjoy.
No photos today just facts and thoughts.
Off for a beach walk...

Greetings from St. George Island

Yep, we arrived. During our long drive yesterday, which by the way, seemed endless, we all secretly wondered what we were doing in a car driving so long, but when we took our first walk to the beach and beheld its wonder we all knew why we make this long drive!!!!
Tizu experienced her first walk on the beach and swim in the gulf and she loved it! She is part fish just like her mama.
We had our own version of the Amazing Race. Team 1 (John, mom, and me) against team 2 (Paul, Courtney, Mal, and Tizu) They pulled out of Wendy's first and arrived at IGA ahead of us. We power shopped and were first in the car, but took the slower exit and ended up behind them. We do know a short cut to the bridge though and arrived on the island first. Mal tried to tell them about the short cut, but they didn't believe her. John came out of the rental place with our key and we were off. Paul detoured to sample some chowder in the rental place so we unpacked and were first to the beach! Team 1 is declared the winner! I am off to the beach on a long walk with John and Mal.

Cullman, Alabame, our first stop on our trek to SGI

I am coming to you from "our" Days Inn in Cullman, Alabama. The routine is always the same for this stop on our journey to SGI. We stop at the Alabama welcome center with the big rocket display and pick up a coupon book. We clip the coupon for the Days Inn in Cullman where we can still stay for $45.00 with a free hot breakfast inculuded. It is too sweet of a deal to pass up. What will we ever do if that coupon is not in the book, I can't say...
Anyway we had an uneventful trip down for the first 11 hours. We played a lot of games and had the usual amount of laughs. I read the journals to a rather captive audience. We opted for the long route through Illinois rather than going into Indiana. It isn't actually any longer just seems longer with that state of Illinois being so long, but let the record show that there are parts of Illinois that are very hilly and beautiful.
We met up with Courtney, Paul, and Tizita at the above mentioned rest area. Tizu entertained us and then we all took off for "our" Days Inn. I tend to take ownership of some of these familiar places on this journey. Upon arriving, John and my room had faulty air conditioning so we had to switch rooms. John, Paul, and Tizu hit the pool, the ladies had beers (not Mal, she had green tea) and we all enjoyed pizza and breadsticks.
Today we will all eat our hot breakfast together and then head off to St. George Island which is about a six hour drive yet! As I write this it is thundering and pouring out there, but hopefully that will move out of here before we leave!
My next post will be from SGI!

Sorry no photos, no time to load them right now.

Water Balloons

Mallory helped me fill about 200 water balloons today that I will be using at St. John's Day Care tomorrow. What started out as just a tedious job turned into a fun activity for Mal and I. We used the handy double spout for the hose that has a button so we can turn it on and off after each filling. It made our job very easy, Thanks John for that handy nozzle! We never had to leave the comfort of our lawnchairs while doing the balloon filling. After filling the balloons we felt it was only our due reward to use the balloons for some fun of our own. As usual, Mal and I just made up a golf type game and had contests with some of the balloons. I know the balloons will work well tomorrow and the kids will have loads of fun.
Thanks, Mal for all the help and the good laughs, too.
We leave on Friday for St. George Island, Florida. This will be my last post from here. I will post from the Island. Mallory and my mom are joining John and I for the road trip down there so it will be another fun drive. Watch for posts from sunny SGI!

Trip Journals

On every vacation that our family has ever taken beginning with John and my trip to Hawaii in 1986, I have kept a journal. Pictured above are my journals, each one is filled with memories of our vacations. The journals have captured the historic data, the motels, the restaurants, favorite routes, helpful hints for the next journey, gas prices, personal memories, quotes by the travelers, and lots of funny events.
On each trip I drag all the journals along and reread all our adventures. Usually the girls would zone out except for a few of their favorite stories like the ever famous Burger King Whopper story (a family favorite) or the rancid turkey sandwich story or all the stories about Courtney on her 40% of the backseat and Alissa on her 60% or the runner man story. Just typing these things makes me laugh and remember such good times. John listens intently because it keeps him awake, I think.
The journals cover 14 trips to St. George Island, Florida, (all driving), Courtney and Pauls wedding trip to St. George, one trip to Cape San Blas, Florida, one trip to Emerald Island, NC, one trip to Wrightsville Beach, NC, one trip to Greenville, Mississippi, one trip to hell aka Gulf Shores, Alabama, two trips to Disneyworld, a trip out west to SD, Colorado, and Wyoming, one trip to Washington DC, and various smaller trips to cottages up north. Oops, almost forgot the biggest adventure of all, a trip to the Riveria Maya for our 30th anniversary with C, P, A, and N. (Soup or salad?)

I have four journals so far, almost ready for a fifth one, maybe after this trip. The first journal was a gift from my best friend, Connie for my 30th birthday in 1983. It has a very special inscription in it from Connie. It covers our trips to Hawaii, two to Disneyworld, Washington D.C., Virginia Beach, and out west.
The second journal, the Noah's ark one came from a student of mine. It includes three trips to St. George, a trip to hell and back (Gulf Shores), and a trip to NC.
The third journal came from my other best friend, Lynne. It has the pretty beach scene on it and is also inscriped with a sweet message from Lynne. It covers four more trips to St. George Island, a trip to NC, and a small trip to the Mall of America.
And the newest journal is from my niece Mallory given to me on my 52 birthday. It is the one with the pretty flowers on it. She also wrote a note in the journal to me. This one covers a trip to Cape San Blas, Florida (almost forgot about this trip) we had to go to Cape San Blas after a hurricane closed St. George down at the last minute, six more trips to St. George, our Mexico Adventure, and a bike trip to Red Wing, MN
By the way, Mallory will be driving down with us to St. George on this trip so she will be hearing the journals unless she has her i-pod cranked too loud!
I look forward to leaving for St. George on Friday. The journal reading will begin when the sun is up probably about two hours into the trip so somewhere near Rochelle, IL
Too bad Alissa and Courtney are not in the car with us this trip because I know how much they enjoy the journal reading and how they will miss it, especially Alissa!

A shout out to my friend Verna

Verna and I met when we took Alissa to college for the first time. My nerves were on edge worrying about many things that lay ahead for my youngest daughter as we left her at her college of choice. One of my most immediate concerns was about her roommate and how they would get along. Well, long story short, Kim was heaven picked for Alissa. From the moment I laid eyes on her I knew Alissa would be alright. Kim would see to it! I was right, Kim and Alissa became fast friends and are still as close as they were in college. Now back to Verna. She is Kim's wonderful mom and I am grateful to her for the terrific daughter she raised and shared with our family. She has also shared her talents with our family through things she has made:This was her wedding gift to Alissa and Nathan. What a beautiful quilt all handmade by Verna with lots of love! I took this picture this past weekend of the quilt on Alissa and Nathan's bed.And this is Tizu with the dolls that Verna lovingly made for her. She even used the perfect shade of brown yarn to match Tizu's beautiful skin! We played with the dolls when we were together this past weekend.

Verna also made Tizu a cute Dora quilt and pillow which she uses in her bed. I forgot to take a photo of it, but I will say that Dora is one of her favorite characters along with Elmo, so good choice Verna.
I just wanted to take this chance to send out a sincere Thank you to Verna for her gifts to this family. They are much appreciated and enjoyed.

An early Father's Day Gift

We have just had a super few days biking, celebrating an early Father's Day with the Hunters, and visiting our sweet little Tizita. So many fun things in one weekend. It doesn't get any better than this!
We began our adventures on Friday, which by the way was a beautiful day for biking, sunny, mid seventies, light breezes... We were planning on riding the Oak leaf trail from Wauwatosa to Dretzca Park about 20 miles round trip, but the bike trail was closed for repairs so we ended up on a few park ways and city streets which was fine.

We stopped for a snack at Macdonald's and enjoyed a tasty outdoor lunch at Piccola's in downtown Wauwatosa.


. After lunch we rode our bikes again for about 5 more miles, did some shopping at Target and Kohl's and then headed over to Alissa and Nathan's to get ready for our night out with them.

We had dinner at Transfer Pizza which they tell us is in a bad area of Milwaukee. Alissa says we could not sit outside since we might be hit in a drive by. Needless to say, we ate inside for safety. It was really a very nice, friendly place and the pizza was very yummy. Alissa and Nathan have a gift for finding the best pizza places around.


After beer, gin martinis, and our pizza we went to watch the Milwaukee Iron in their arena football game. We were four of about three thousand fans in the Bradley Center which seats 18,000, so it was a bit on the empty side, but it was still a fun experience and we had lots of leg room. The actual football game is really such a small part of the festivities. Every few minutes they bring out a cannon and shoot t-shirts out into the crowd, the medical cart circles the field with the dancers on it, and contests happen throughout the game down on the floor. It is definitely a sport for those of us who get bored at traditional football, baseball, and basketball games because there is just too much of the sport being played. The beer was a bit flat, but the huge popcorn more than made up for that. Nathan was able to get a few $1.00 beers since they were so nasty tasting. We saw some very interesting people sitting around us and I had fun talking about their life stories. It was good people watching for sure, too.


After the game, we took a taxi to Derry's bar (sp) where Alissa and Nathan are treated like family. We enjoyed hot cashews and beers and great conversation. No deep fried snickers this time. Incidentally, the taxi ride was fine this time. The driver knew where he was going. Nathan does tend to share a bit too much info with a cab driver, but he is just that kind of friendly guy.
We walked from the bar back to Alissa and Nathan's for the night.

This evening treat was an early Father's Day gift for John since we will be in Florida on the actual Father's Day. Thank you to Alissa and Nathan for treating us to everything! A great time was had by all!
On Saturday we slept in at the Hunter B and B before heading up to Oshkosh to spend time with Tizita. She was her usual charming self offering us lots of laughs and loving. Courtney, Paul, and Tizita leave for Florida on Tuesday already. We will meet up with them in Cullman, Alabama next Friday night to finish the last leg to Florida together.


Have a great Sunday, everyone. I am having some trouble loading my pictures, so I will do that when I am able.