2016 move to Buford Ga

Only 6 months in S. Florida and I already fell in love with it.  We had even decided to renew our apartment contract, then Angie and Josh mentioned they were moving back to the Atlanta area.  I was disappointed, but also rather excited to be checking out another area of the country.  I use to think that it would be fun when we retired to spend 6 months in one place, then move to another for 6 months, and another, ... .  Little did I know that I'd be doing a version of that, but for a year or 2 at a time!

 

But first, we started the year with a few more days in Oregon.  The kids wanted to go to Oregon for Xmas, so we all went to Depoe Bay for a week, then Ken and I spent another week in David and Jane's empty house in Dallas.  I always thought we might end up here once ken retired.   But since Mom and Dad died before then and DAvid and Jane spend most of their time in Illinois, that never happened.  But it's always nice to spend some time here sightseeing and visiting family that is still here.  Although it was a little sad to see what had become of Mom and Dad's old house.  David bought the place, but ended up renting it out.  His renters were scum.  They tore the place up.  

1-1-16 Mom and Dad's old house in Dallas, or

and always had a ton of vehicles around the property, even in the yard.

1-1-16 Mom and Dad's old house in Dallas, Or

 Of course the day we were scheduled to fly home we woke up to an icy mess. 

1-3-16 Main street Dallas

It was sort of pretty, but the roads were treacherous.  Took us over 2 1/2 hours to get to the airport, but Ken had us leave 6 hours early so that wasn't a problem. 

1-3-16 Main St. Dallas

 Back in Florida and back to beautiful weather.

1-8-16 Loxahatchee

Back to sunsets at our go-to place about 2 miles from our apartment

1-8-16 Loxahatchee

back to biking around our neighborhoods

1-11-16 biking Parkland

We decided we should live like tourists and go see the sites at least once a week.  So when Angie suggested going to the Everglades, I was excited to go. 

1-13-16 The Everglades--covering our car so the vultures don't eat the rubber around the windows

1-13-16 the Everglades 

1-13-16 the Everglades--loved watching these great white egrets "fishing"

1-13-16 the Everglades---Florida Crocodile

I also became very interested in bird watching while here.  So many places to go and so many neat birds.

1-25-16 Loxahatchee main park

Usually we go to the Loxahatchee area by our apartment, but the main entrance has a lot of neat trails and ponds.

1-25-16 Loxahatchee main park

 

1-28-20216  Ken's 64th b-day celebrated at Joan's restaurant

 Angie found a few other places to bird watch about 20 miles away, so she and I would go check them out frequently.  First one we went to was Peaceful Waters.

1-29-16 Peaceful waters

Love these colorful Swamp Hens.

1-29-16 Peaceful waters

love all the birds in S. Florida

1-29-16 peaceful waters

So many big birds!  Ibises, herons, spoonbills

1-29-16 peaceful waters

This was the only time we went to Peaceful WAters when there were this many birds there.  So glad we went then.

1-29-16 peaceful waters

Only place we saw flocks of spoonbills.

1-29-16 peaceful waters

We also discovered Green Cay.  Lovely walking trail, but it dried up as the months went by

1-29-16 Green Cay

My favorite place was Wakodahatchee Wetlands.  It was a great rookery for many kinds of birds.

1-29-16 Wacodahatchee

and other critters, like iquanas and alligators.

1-29-16 Wacodahatchee

We liked going to Deerfield beach every week or so, too.  One time this art/food fair was set up.

1-30-16 Art fair in Deerfield

There were also 4 reciprocol gardens in the area.  I love using my MOBOT membership to get into other gardens.

2-3-16 Mounts garden in West Palm Beach

2-3-16 mounts garden---Lego exhibit

2-3-16 Mounts garden---amazing lego work

2-3-16 mounts garden  Angie as an ant.

I loved going to Wakodahatchee at least once a week to check on the baby birds.

2-6-16 Wacodahatchee Wood Stork

and other migratory birds like this black and white warbler

2-6-16 Wacodahatchee black and white warbler

and this guy---

2-6-16 white eye vireo

The cattle egrets made this their home and raised their babies.

2-6-16 cattle egret

these ducks were there for the winter, too

2-6-16 teal at Wacodahatchee

Angie and I looked up more "birding trails" in the area.  Didn't have much luck with the birds, but it was still neat checking out the nature.

2-10-16 Fern Forest Nature Center

2-10-16 Fern Forest Nature Center

2-10-16 Fern Forest Nature Center

love the shadows here.

2-10-16 Fern Forest Nature Center

Green Cay started out being a really neat place to go, before it dried up.  At least it was only a couple miles from Wakodahatchee so I'd check both out lots of times.

2-11-16 Green Cay

another of the residents at Green Cay

2-11-16 Green Cay

Pine warbler?

2-11-16 Green Cay

whistling ducks.

2-14-16 Wakodahatchee

2-14-16 Wakodahatchee

2-14-16 Wakodahatchee  loved the boardwalks here

2-14-16 Wacodahatchee - interesting how the momma birds feed their babies.

There were also many alligators at these wetlands.

2-14-16 Wacodahatchee

a Green Heron diving for a fish

2-14-16 Wacodahatchee

Not as many of Jays here as we saw in Mo. 

2-14-16 Wacodahatchee

Ospreys lived at the wetlands, too

2-14-16 Wacodahatchee

it was fun watching the bird fish, too.  Watched this guy try to swallow this fish for over 30 minutes.  It never managed to do it.

2-14-16 Wacodahatchee

We also enjoyed going to some sporting events.  I even found a place I could play some pick up volleyball, but they were pretty young and I was still recovering from knee surgery.  But it was still fun, most of the time.

We would go to some St. Louis teams' games when they were in town, like here to the Blue's Hockey game.

2-16-16 Blues Hockey

2-16-16 Blues Hockey

Go Blues.  Seemed wierd being in a place that was so cold!

2-16-16 Blues Hockey

There were also a lot of historic sites to visit, like the Flagler mansion.

2-17-16 Flagler Museum

2-17-16 Flagler Museum

beautiful home!

2-17-16 Flagler Museum

Another place on the birding trail was a cemetary.  Did find some birds there, but it wasn't like Wakodahatchee. 

2-18-16 Evergreen Cemetary

Just Ibises, but they were pretty cool

2-18-16 Evergreen Cemetary

they must be use to being fed.  They all came flying and running to me.

2-18-16 Evergreen Cemetary

Also close to us was a Butterfly House.  I ended up becoming a member there, too.  Loved all the aviaries they had there as well as the butterflies. 

2-18-16 Butterfly house

Back to our regular checks to Green Cay.

2-19-16 Green Cay

and I rode my bike probable 3 or 4 times a week.

2-21-16 biking Loxahatchee

Interesting watching how the anhingas fish

2-26-16 Wakodahatchee

2-26-16 Wakodahatchee

their mating plumage was really pretty.

2-26-16 Wakodahatchee

By now Angie and Josh had told us Josh was interviewing for a job in NE Atlanta.  So Angie got busy renovating their house to get it ready to sale.  She redid much of the kitchen and 2nd bathroom, now was working on the master bathroom.

2-27-16 Angie's Bathroom remodel

I thought she did an amazing job!  She added all the bead board and baseboards and chair rail.  Replaced the vanities and added the back trim.  Added new mirrors.  Replaced the tile in the shower and floor.  I helped by making tile cuts and painting the wood.  It turned out beautiful.

2-27-16 Angie's Bathroom remodel

But I still took a break  to go to Green Cay and Wakodahatchee.

2-29-16 Green Cay

2-29-16 Green Cay

2-29-16 Green Cay

2-29-16 Green Cay - another migrating bird

Not much going on here.

3-1-16 Peaceful Waters

3-1-16 peaceful waters - a Jesus lizard

Angie had bought tickets to 2 Cardinal spring trainging games, but they only made it to 1 before they moved.  At this one, they got the text about a place they were looking at to rent.

3-3-16 Cardinals spring training

3-3-16 Cardinals spring training

Josh moved up a month or 2 before Angie.  One time while she was running stuff up there, Ken and I cut down one of their trees.  He misjudged his seat when taking a break

3-5-16 working on Angie's back yard

Florida did have a lot of beautiful sunsets, too.  And beautiful weather to go with it.

3-6-16 sunset

We had slacked off on our trips the beach so decided to get back to it since we'd be moving soon.  Didn't get in the water this time!  Too many Man of War on the beach.

3-7-16 Deerfield beach

still enjoyed the views, though

3-7-16 Deerfield beach

3-11-16 March, and in the pool!!!  I love S Florida and I loved the kids house and pool!!!

 

Ken and I did go to the 2nd spring training game even though the kids were in Atlanta.  Angie made 3 trips up there hauling a 5x8 trailer ful of stuff for Josh to have something to sit on.  One trip she also took the dogs so she could get the lawn in shape.

3-12-16 cardinals spring training

back to Wakodahatchee---the elusive Sora

3-18-16 Wakodahatchee

These guys were cruisin!  I know I'll definitely not be able to outswim an alligator. 

3-18-16 Wakodahatchee

one of the really cool dragonflies at the wetlands.

3-18-16 Wakodahatchee

sunset at our Loxahatchee

3-21-16 Loxahatchee

the cute little Black and White Stilt

3-21-16 Wakodahatchee

the soft shell Florida turtle

3-21-16 Wakodahatchee

cute little baby Swamp Hens

3-21-16 Wakodahatchee

baby Great Blue Herons

3-21-16 Wakodahatchee

loading up another trailer full for Angie to take to Atlanta.

3-24-16 kids moving to Atlanta

the incredibly high jumping pup

3-24-16 kids moving to Atlanta

the pups saying bye to the pool---and yard.

3-24-16 kids moving to Atlanta

I rode with them to try and help keep the pups calm.  Molly was fine, but Micky panted hard the whole time.

3-24-16 kids moving to Atlanta

3-24-16 kids moving to Atlanta

Back in S. Florida and back to check on the babies.

3-28-16 wakodahatchee

We also liked going to Tradewinds Park, especially for sunset.

3-30-16 tradewinds park

3-30-16 tradewinds park

3-30-16 tradewinds park

3-30-16 tradewinds park

Just another random sunset in Florida

4-1-16 sunset on Wiles

Now that the dogs were gone, we helped Angie resod some of the back yard. 

4-4-16 sodding Angie's back yard

Finally time to put it on the market.

4-7-16 Hicks house on the market

Angie even took the photos for it.  She did a fantastic job.

4-7-16 Hicks house on the market

one of the 2 living areas.

4-7-16 Hicks house on the market

the dining area

4-7-16 Hicks house on the market

the other living area.

4-7-16 Hicks house on the market

the redone master bathroom

4-7-16 Hicks house on the market

another trip to the wetlands.

4-8-16 Wakodahatchee

green heron

4-8-16 Wakodahatchee

wood storks

4-8-16 Wakodahatchee

our Loxahatchee

4-8-16 loxahatchee

love all the flowering trees there! 

4-9-16

and the sunsets

4-11-16 Boynton beach

and the ocean!!!

4-11-16 Boynton beach

Swimming at Deerfield again

4-12-16 deerfield

4-12-16 deerfield

They had several groups go through the home the first 2 days and had 3 or 4 offers.  They ended up accepting one that weekend---all Angie's work paid off.

4-13-16 SOLD

I LOVED having our apartment pool to chill out in.  It was often empty, except for me.

4-13-16 my pool

more babies at Wakodahatchee

4-14-16 Wakodahatchee

the town crier

4-14-16 Wakodahatchee

I LOVE the sound the grackles make!!!

4-14-16 Wakodahatchee

Went to watch a storm on night at our Loxahatchee and saw this water spout instead.

4-15-16 water spout at Loxahatchee

Another place to bike---now this part of the trail at Loxahatchee is open

4-17-16 biking along the new trail at Loxahatchee

4-17-16 biking along the new trail at Loxahatchee

4-18-16 Deerfield

4-18-16 Deerfield - sure going to miss this place!!!!

I had so much fun at Naples and Sanibel when Brenda and Gerry were in town that I wanted to get back there again before we leave. 

4-20-16 Naples

from the pier

4-20-16 Naples

another beautiful sunset there!

4-20-16 Naples

4-20-16 Naples

baby green herons!

4-22-16 WAkodahatchee

A cormorant posing for his portrait

4-22-16 WAkodahatchee

how the anhingas get the fish off their beaks

4-22-16 WAkodahatchee

I also wanted to go on the ferry to Grand Bahamas.  In fact, Angie and Josh had tickets from Groupon to go ,too, but ended up moving before then.  So Ken and I went by ourselves.

4-26-16 Balearia to Grand Bahamas

Loved staying here with the kids back in 1999

4-26-16 Balearia to Grand Bahamas

loved it still

4-26-16 Balearia to Grand Bahamas

especially now that we know where to go to snorkel

4-26-16 Balearia to Grand Bahamas

they've added a man made reef, too, that attracted a lot of fish.

4-26-16 Balearia to Grand Bahamas

Gotta check out the wetlands, too.  Although they aren't too wet these days.

4-29-16 Wako

4-29-16 Wako

5-1-16 Green Cay

that's a confused bird

5-1-16 Green Cay

Finally, moving day for the kids.  They flew back and loaded up the truck and took off for good. 

5-4-16 packing up and moving day

I flew there to watch the dogs while they loaded up and drove, then I flew back to S. Florida.

5-4-16 me flying to Atlanta to dogsit while the kids pack up and finish moving.

Gotta get a few more trips to the wetlands in before our move

5-10-16 last trip to WAko for awhile

time to pack

5-11-16 finish packing

amazing how much stuff we had for a 1 bedroom apartment!

5-11-16 finish packing

loading day

5-12-16 loading day

Tried to get Ken to hire loaders like Angie and Josh, and Tim and Faith had done (Tim and Faith also moved out of their rental home and into their own place now that they know where they want to be ---West Knoxville)

5-12-16 loading day

took us all day to load!  Would hae taken loaders about 1 1/2 hours

5-12-16 loading day

Angie and Josh helped us unload in Buford. 

5-14-16 unloading in Buford, Ga.

Didn't really mind having a 1 bedroom place in Florida, but it was nice having a bigger 2 bedroom place in Georgia---cheaper, too.

5-14-16 unloading in Buford, Ga.

5-14-16 unloading in Buford, Ga.

Unloaded, then hit the road to St Louis---had a wedding to get to.  But we did meet up with Tim and Faith and Angie and Josh in Chattanooga for a birthday celebration first.

5-15-16 lunch with the kids in Chattanooga

on the road again. 

5-16-16 on to St. Louis for Gerry and Brenda's wedding

I was the photographer for their wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding at the property in S. Mo.

5-21-16 The wedding

Since we were down there, I made Ken stop at Johnson Shut-ins on our way home. 

5-22-16 Johnson Shut-ins

Loved going her when we were younger. 

5-22-16 Johnson Shut-ins

Also always visited with David and Jane when we were back that way

5-27-16 David and Jane's property in S. Illinois

Rained out

5-27-16 David and Jane's property in S. Illinois

 

5-28-16 dinner at Stefs with David and Jane

We got back to our new aparment about 11 pm and found it flooded.  The ac drain was leaking badly.  Had to call maintenance in that night.  Not a great start to our new life in Buford. 

6-1-15 our new apartment--flooded

But it didn't take long to get out and start exploring our new "home".

6-2-16 kayaking on Lake Lanier

one of the things that attracted me to this apartment comlex was the wildlife preserve next to it.  I LOVED riding my bike and walking in it!

6-8-16 biking Ivy Creek Greenway

I also loved our apartment pool

6-13-16 our new pool

Wasn't here too long when it was time to fly back to St. Louis with Angie so we could attend Emily's baby shower.  She and Brian were adopting a baby.  The shower was fun, but when Angie and i showed up at the Graybrooke house, the ac was out.  Not good in St. Louis in summer!  It had been going out for a couple years, but Ken kept putting a "bandaid" on it---like adding more refridgerant.   I was ready to book a hotel, but Angie's inlaws insisted we stay there---so we did. 

6-18-16 back in St. Louis for Em's baby shower

Back to Georgia and exploring the N. Georgia Mountains.  First stop---the cute little town of Helen. 

6-20-15 our anniversary

Then we started up somewhat regular monthly get togethers with all the kids for lunch.  Usually we met in Chattanooga since it was almost half way from both us and tim and Faith.

6-25-16 lunch in Chattanooga with the kids

Didn't take too long for Ken to find a $2 movie theatre.  I still love going to see movies on the big screen and pigging out on popcorn.  And it was never very busy.

6-28-16 our $2 movie theatre

Back at home, we had our new pets to entertain us.

6-29-16 our pets

Back to feeding the birds

6-30-16 more of our pets

And checking out new places.

7-5-16 Old Mill Park, roswell

7-15-16 Collins Hill Park

In mid July we were heading back to St. Louis.

7-13-16 drive to St Louis

I don't remember why we went back---probably needed to go to Dr's again.  We never changed them yet.

7-15-16 St. Louis sunset

It wasn't until we moved that I began to realize how many really great ones we have there.

7-15-16 St. Louis sunset

Heading back to Georgia, by way of Knoxville

7-22-16 Stl - Knoxville

I really wouldn't mind living around Knoxville, either!  Lots of neat things there and not the busy city that Atlanta is.  Even though Buford is about 50 minutes out of Atlanta, the traffic is aweful.

7-23-16 Sunflowers by Knoxville

I love going in the Smokey's

7-23-16 Cade's Cove in the Smokey's

7-23-16 Cade's Cove in the Smokey's

Lots of outdoor things to do around Knoxville.

7-24-16 kayaking with Tim and Faith

Cute little free University garden.

7-24-16 UTC garden

7-25-16  Spaghetti junction on our way "home" to Buford

Since I don't have wetlands and the beach anymore, my new thing is checking out the N. Georgia mountain waterfalls.

8-2-16 Dukes Creek

8-2-16 Dukes Creek

Lots of neat walking trails to the falls.

8-2-16 Dukes Creek

Also love seeing mountains again. May not be anything like the ones in Oregon, but they're still pretty nice!

8-2-16 Brasstown Bald

Another destination lunch with the kids---this time into S. Carolina.  Beautiful drive!

8-6-16 lunch with the kids in Sylva, NC

Cute little town, too.  But seemed to be a bit too far for Tim and Faith to go there again.

8-6-16 lunch with the kids in Sylva, NC

I also loved having the greenway with access from our apartment complex.

8-9-16 walking the IVy Creek Greenway

8-9-16 walking the IVy Creek Greenway

We checked out many parks along Lake Lanier, but Old Federal Park seemed to have the best view of the sunset.

8-10-16 sunset over Lanier at Old Federal Park

8-10-16 sunset over Lanier at Old Federal Park

With the Gainesville branch of the Atlanta botanical garden being so close, we went there quite a few time.

8-16-16 Gainesville Atlanta Botanical Gardens

8-16-16 Gainesville Atlanta Botanical Gardens

2016---Aug. 18 - Sept. 14 Maui and Kauai trip

This was our 3rd time to Maui (my 5th, but Ken's and my 3rd together); followed by our 15th trip to Kauai.  Originally I booked award travel for the usual time we go to Hawaii---Feb.  It's a nice escape from the St. Louis winters.  But little did I know when I made the reservations that in Feb. 2016 we'd be living in South Florida!  No need to escape that weather!!!  So I paid the exchange fee and changed it to Aug/Sept out of Miami.  Again, little did I know that when Aug. 2016 rolled around, we would be living in Atlanta!  Another exchange fee and rebooking (loosing a day of our Maui vacation in order to get the award travel again)!  This time we left from Atlanta.  And this time we spent 2 weeks on Maui, then another 2 weeks on Kauai!

Maui

Ken and I did a lot of snorkeling this trip.  Ken kept a record and came up with something like 50 hours of snorkeling.  I was in heaven!  Although my underwater camera did drown and I had to find a substitute until I could get a better one back home.

9-14-16 to Maui

9-14-16 to Maui

9-14-16 to Maui

9-14-16 to Maui

9-14-16 to Maui

9-14-16 to Maui

9-14-16 to Maui

9-14-16 sunset in Lahaina

Kauai---aug. 31-Sept. 14 

Didn't get to snorkel as much on Kauai.  Two hurricanes skirted the island and kept the waves high.  But we did spend a week on the north shore for the first time in a RCI exchange to The Cliffs---neat resort.  Also spent a couple days at the Shearwater. 

8-18-16  Kauai

8-18-16  Kauai

8-18-16  Kauai

8-18-16  Kauai

2016 Sept. 20-23 quickie trip to Margaritaville, St. Thomas!

What do you do after 4 weeks in Hawaii and about 18 hours of travel to get home?  Rest for a couple days then fly to St. Thomas for 3 nights!!!  Actually it was just suppose to be Angie and Josh going and staying in a studio unit at the new Margaritaville Wyndham resort on St Thomas.  But while I was on Maui, I was able to snag a free upgrade to a 3 bedroom presidential unit!  So the kids insisted I go---didn't take much insisting!  I only stayed 3 nights, but they stayed 4.

Ferry over to St. Johns

9-20-16 4 nt trip to St. Thomas --Trunk bay, St. Johns

9-20-16 4 nt trip snorkeling Cinnamon bay,

9-20-16 4 nt trip to St. Thomas -- Elkhorn, St. Johns

9-20-16 4 nt trip to St. Thomas with Angie and Josh--elkhorn, st. johns

9-20-16 4 nt trip to St. Thomas with Angie and Josh-outside our Margaritaville resort

9-20-16 4 nt trip to St. Thomas with Angie and Josh---bottom left unit was our 3 bedroom condo

9-20-16 4 nt trip to St. Thomas with Angie and Josh--our living area

9-20-16 4 nt trip to St. Thomas with Angie and Josh--our kitchen

Back to Georgia and time to head to St. Louis again

9-27-16 on to St. Louis---by now I was being watched by my heart Dr. in St. Louis and scheduled to have an ablation on Halloween for my increasing A-fib.  So we were heading back to St. Louis every 6 weeks or so for more tests.

We also had our cars still registered in St. Louis, so we had to go back to get them inspected and registered, too.

While here, I took a walk to the Creel not too far behind our house---Cold WAter Creek.  Now that we're gone, I'm hearing all kinds of stuff about radioactive waste being here and causing lots of weird cancers.  There was even a documentary made of the area---Atomic Homefront!  Wonder if this waste has anything to do with Ken's 2020 GBM diagnosis---or Angie being infertile---or me needing a hysterectomy at 35.  I use to walk Roxy over here alot.  She died of weird nuero problems at about 10 years of age.  Anyway, this time I was surprised by a white creek!  Apparently paint was dumped into it from some company.  Not sure if it was by accident or they thought they were being clever in getting rid of it. 

10-2-16

Now that we don't "live" in St. Louis anymore, we actually do more touring around the area when we're back in town.  We've been to Lone Elk Park  before, but only a couple times.

10-3-16 Lone Elk Park

Heading back to Buford

10-6-16 driving back to Buford

10-11-16 Ivy Creek Greenway-a historic house within the preserve

10-14-16 Swanee Sculpture park

BAck to our sunsets in Georgia

10-14-16 Old Federal park sunset

Being a big fan of the EAgles, when Ken found this free outdoor tribute band concert not far from us, we went.  They were really good.  Wish we had the oppurtunity to go to more concerts there.

10-15-16 Eagles Tribute band in Sugarhill

time for another destination lunch with all the kids.  Back to Chattanooga, but this time we went up Lookout Mt. instead of downtown.

10-16-16 Lookout Mt., Chattanooga lunch with the kids

Beautiful park!

10-16-16 Lookout Mt., Chattanooga lunch with the kids

Great place to snap a few photos

10-16-16 Lookout Mt., Chattanooga lunch with the kids

One of my favorite photos of the kids.

10-16-16 Lookout Mt., Chattanooga lunch with the kids

Back to the N. Georgia mountains

10-17-16 Brasstown Bald

10-17-16 Brasstown Bald

10-17-16 Brasstown Bald-great color in the appalacians of N. Georgia

10-17-16 Helton Falls

Love going to the Atl. botanical gardens downtown, too

10-19-16 Atl Botanical Gardens Chihuly

This little guy always reminds me of our last pup, Roxy.  If she was green, she would have look just like this.

10-19-16 Atl Botanical Gardens Chihuly

more Chihuly in the park

10-19-16 Atl Botanical Gardens Chihuly

even pretty at night

10-19-16 Atl Botanical Gardens Chihuly

Even the color in the preserve behind our apartment was pretty.  I loved having the preserve back there and the privacy.  So different from our place in St. Louis with the condos almost this close behind us!

10-20-16 our small backyard going into the Preserve

Time to head to St. Louis again---surgery in a week

10-24-16 back to St. Louis

Love the ride through the mountains in Tennessee.

10-24-16 back to St. Louis

Ken even had a Dr. appointment---and the fun of getting a colonoscopy

10-28-16 colonoscopy time

time to do some more sightseeing in St. Louis:

10-29-16 Laumeier Park

10-29-16 Laumeier Park

10-29-16 Laumeier Park

10-29-16 Laumeier Park

The frightful day finally came.  I wasn't nervous until the night before.

10-31-16 Ablation surgery

The guy doing the ivs obviously had no clue what he was doing!  He stuck me for about 45 minutes before his "mentor" came in and took over.  They even took me into surgery and were surprised when I didn't fall asleep when the anesthesia was started.  He even missed that one!  But I think the surgery was beneficial.

11-1-16 botched ivs

time to enjoy a few more St. Louis sunsets

11-5-16

Also voted in Mo.  We maintained Mo as our residence.  Trump was actually elected!   That was the start of a wild 4 years! 

11-8-16 Trump elected

Heading back to Buford.  Never fails, we always run into some major tie up!

11-9-16 heading back to Buford

Angie and Josh are HUGE folk art collectors.  So when the very popular Sloten folk art auctions in Buford happened twice a year, we went with them.  It was interesting to see what would sell for thousands of dollars---like this one for about $70,000.

11-11-16 Slotin auction

another view of our private tiny back yard.  But I actually considered the whole preserve as my back yard.

11-15-19 our big back yard

The Hicks big Thanksgiving get together the day before thanksgiving.  Ben was flying home on Thanksgiving so we celebrated early.  Worked out well since we then drove up to Knoxville for Thanksgiving with the LaBeaume kids.

11-23-16 pre-thanksgiving at Angie and Josh's

Tim and Faith's beautiful back yard.

11-24-16 thanksgiving with Tim and FAith

into the Smokey's near the kids'

11-26-16 color in the Smokey's

neat views on our detour around highway traffic going back home to Buford.

11-27-16 Knoxville - Buford

11-27-16 Knoxville - Buford

12-2-16 Flanagans at Pompano

 

 

2016 Dec. 4-14 Koningsdam 10 nt cruise (Half moon cay, Grand Turk, Amber Cove, Bonaire, Curacao, Aruba):

On our last cruise (2015 Nov. cruise) we signed up for the future cruise bonus.  The Koningsdam is the newest ship in the HAL fleet and was going on a route we wanted to do.  Didn't know if we'd like being on such a big ship, but it turned out to be great.  We met a lot of interesting people, ate a lot of great food, visited several interesting ports, enjoyed the entertainment; everything would have been perfect----if it hadn't stormed all day in Bonaire.  Oh well, there's always next time! (or is there?!)

12-4-16 embarkation from Ft. Lauderdale

12-5-16 Half moon Cay

12-5-16 Half moon Cay

12-5-16 Half moon Cay

12-6-16 Grand Turk-Pillory beach

12-6-16 Grand Turk by the port

12-6-16 Grand Turk by the port

12-6-16 Grand Turk - locked out of our room for several hours when the battery in the lock died.  So we hung out in wet clothes waiting for maintenance.

12-7-16 Amber Cover , DR

12-7-16 CCL pool at Amber Cover, DR

12-8-16 ran into this guy, Duncan Tuck, and his wife.  Really enjoyed visiting and dining with them

12-9-16 Bonaire

12-9-16 rainy Bonaire-snorkeled about an hour before the storm hit

12-10-16 Curacoa

12-10-16 Curacoa-Blue Bay

12-10-16 Curacoa-Blue Bay-colorful flying gunard

12-10-16 Curacoa-Blue Bay--around the point of the bay

12-10-16 Curacoa-Blue Bay-back in the bay

12-11-16 Aruba

I'd read snorkeling wasn't good here, but public bus was easy to take to the beaches.  It was and we paid $1 to ride it to a beach about 30 minutes away.

12-11-16 Aruba - Catalina beach

12-11-16 Aruba - catalina beach--turned out the snorkeling wasn't bad--just different.  Like there were billions of little fish here, and a few other fish

 

the kids wanted to go to St. Louis for Xmas, so we went, too.

12-23-16 drive to STL

12-24-16 open house at Carol and Darrels

12-25-16 xmas at Graybrooke

just another St. Louis sunset!

12-27-16 St. Louis sunset

Wasn't going to put our tree up, but decided on Xmas eve to do it.

12-27-16 Holidays in St. Louis

 

12-29-16 catarac surgery

12-31-16 Cunetto's new years eve dinner.

 

By now Ken was calling our apartments "expensive storage units".  But I think they were worth every penny!