A Hike in the Park

In September when friends Gabe and Bruce were here in October, we visited with them at their campground at First Landing State Park in Virginia Beach.  It was at that time we decided to buy a yearly pass.  In addition to camping, there are also some great hiking trails.

Yesterday, Jon went to work and Pam and I went over to see Kelly and the boys and to go with them on a hike at the park.

The weather has been really great the last few days and it was a perfect day for a walk in the woods.  The trails are easy, well maintained and marked well.  We picked the yellow trail and the boys had fun spotting the 6” x 2” markers on trees along the trail.

The area has its own special beauty with cypress trees and Spanish moss all around.

Pam and I want to do more of this and we are off to a great start with the holiday season and new year beginning.  We hiked (walked) for about half a mile before it was time to take a rest, eat some snacks and take a couple of pictures.

Harry decided early on it was better to grab a ride so he alternated between Kelly

and Grandpa.

The boys are at such a fun age.  Their sense of wonder and excitement is pure joy.  We are loving it.

 We did a leisurely out-and-back along the yellow trail which was a great little excursion for all of us.

 We made it back over to Kelly’s in time for their lunch, then Pam and I went to run some errands.  We stopped for our own lunch at Chick-Fil-A and shared our standard 4 count chicken fingers meal with waffle fries and a drink (half sweet tea, 1/2 regular tea).  It was fun to see Sarah and her kids along with visiting brother and girlfriend.  

After some after-Christmas shopping we headed home where I resumed mowing the back yard and bagging the leaves.  Just before dark, I tried out my 14” chain saw that did a good job on the regular sized firewood we got a few weeks ago.  Our small fireplace works better with smaller chunks of wood.

Then was another amazing dinner from Pam’s kitchen (shrimp) and we had a nice evening watching a good bowl game.  I also did a little reading.

=

I love this time of year to reflect, slow down and take a deep breath.  With a few more holiday days left, I hope you all enjoy some time off and have a great New Year’s celebration.

Wishing you all the best as this year comes to a close ~

Randy and Pam

Thanks for visiting on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

It That Time of the Year!

Seems as if the time has flown by and here we are almost in the middle of December.  Hope you and yours are warm and enjoying life.

Thanksgiving seemed like a blur.  It came and went very quickly.  We celebrated with Kelly and Jon and the boys. Jon cooked 3 turkeys (not all for the same meal) and they turned out great.

Jon’s parents were able to drive up from Georgia the day after Thanksgiving so we had another turkey then.

The next week we had appointments and did some decorating.

Friday night we got into the spirit and drove downtown Norfolk to the Roper Performing Arts Center.  We were treated with a great concert entitled “Across the Ages - A Celtic Christmas”.  It featured two Scottish performers and a local group of singers called “The King’s Choir”.

Shona Donaldson and Paul Anderson

 Donna Thomas leading the King’s Choir

We’ve also been able to tackle a couple of projects we’ve been meaning to get to.  The first one was in my office.  It only has dual prong electrical outlets so Pam and I installed a GFCI outlet and put a three prong in another outlet in the office.  It was not a big deal except I had never done it.

This is right up Pam’s alley, so she showed me how do it and life is better and I have lamps and printers and such much better organized.

The other one was a storm door in front of the house. We wanted to do it earlier, but ran into some complications after the renovations were done on the house.  Apparently the opening for our front door measured out to where it is not the standard 36" x 80”.  That means a custom door is necessary which is almost double the price of a regular door.  Hmmm.  That didn’t sound too good.

We already knew we were going to get the door from Home Depot so we talked with them about installation.  We figured that if something doesn’t work out, they would make it right.  Another plus was that it would be done by professionals and not by a guy who knows enough just to be dangerous...🙂.

The Home Depot guy said the door opening may be different because it was “wrapped’ with aluminum siding.  I removed the wrap and we had it  re-measured.  Sure enough, a standard sized door fit fine.

Today was the install day and we are happy with it.

Finished product.

The kids and grandkids are on the beach headed south for some beach time.

The boys having fun in a pile of leaves at home.

The boys enjoying warmer weather in Florida for a few days.

I’m very happy to report Pam’s internal radiation treatments are going well and she should be done by the end of the week!

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  

Big Weekend with the Boys

We get to babysit often and we love to be able to do that.  While Kelly and Jon were gone for the weekend we had the boys (Brooks and Harrison).

We spent some time at their house but the big deal was that they spent their first two nights with us at our house.  We let them know back in April when we first got out place that the extra bedroom with two twin beds was “their room.”

We weren’t sure how it would actually go because: 1) they were not in their own beds, and 2) they usually don’t sleep in the same bedroom.  We went through the ‘normal’ routine after dinner with play time, reading books and then getting baths.  Harry, being 2 years younger, goes to be 30 minutes before Brooks.

Usually he goes right to sleep but when it was time for Brooks to go to bed, Harry was still talking to himself and tossing and turning.  We had to turn on the light when Brooks went down so that didn’t help things.  Then they finally both were settled down.  I could hear them talking a little from the other room but I expected some of that.

About 20 minutes after Brooks went down, they sheepishly presented themselves into the hallway and announced they had to ‘go to the bathroom’. Hmmm.  One begins to wonder if this is the first of many ‘up and downs’....  They did their business, got a drink of water again and went back to bed.

Another 20 minutes, I checked on them and Harry was still talking to himself a little and Brooks was out.  Harry followed shortly after that!  Yay!  We all got a good night’s sleep.  Brooks was up earlier than usual the next morning but we went with the flow.  It turned out fine.

We pulled out all the stops with Donut Day, Chick-Fil-A playtime and lunch and then we went to their house (12 minutes from our house) for naps.  We followed by going back over to grandma and grandpa’s house for the rest of the day and night.  We prepped them for the idea of going to our church the next morning.

On Sunday we arrived on time and both were in the same class which helped.  Ms Karen met them and they had a great time.  Unbeknownst to us; the 8 member children’s choir was scheduled to sing “Jesus Loves Me” at the morning service.

We pushed the envelope and decided to stay for that and let the boys participate and it turned out great.

I got permission to share this with you.  After several attempts at different school and such, we hoped for a good video of the kids at their best.  This is it.  Brooks was going for it! And little Harry was trying to keep up with the hand motions the older kids learned that morning.  

It was fun and a milestone weekend.  Kelly and Jon returned on Monday and things got back to normal quickly.

Meanwhile, Pam had some appointments in the last couple of days and we are ready for her breast cancer surgery on Monday Nov 18 at 10:30 AM.  We are very thankful it is Stage 1, it is small and it was caught early.  We are expecting great things.  Thanks for your prayers and interest.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner(less) Chronicles!

Time in St. Pete - Dec 2018

The St. Pete area was a good choice because Jon and Kelly and the boys were on vacation there for a few days.  We snagged a campground site at Fort Desoto/Pinellas County Park


The campsite was very level and we had room for all the slides.  The palm tree canopy prevented us from getting satellite TV but we were forewarned.  We were able to pick up a few Over the Air (OTA) channels.

We had a free evening and looked up friends Joe and Cindie and met them for dinner at PJ's Oyster Bar in St. Pete.  It was a nice evening to catch up and enjoy each others company.

The next day we met everyone at the Tampa International Airport.  The terminal was very impressive.  It was big and roomy and had all kinds of places to sit and relax and had plenty of charging stations for everyone's electronics.  I haven't used airports in a while but it was noteworthy.

They arrived on time and took the train from the airplane to the gate.  It was exciting to see them after 4 weeks.  You'd have thought it was years.  Harry was in his happy place, Grandma's arms.

The boys were on their first plane trip and it was fun for them.  They did pretty well.  Brooks was a little upset when we left the terminal to pick up a rental car because he didn't want to leave "Florida."  Mommy explained he thought the airport was Florida...

Things got a lot better when we stopped at Chic-Fil-A for lunch.  The boys were out for the drive to St. Pete and their rental house on Pass A Grill Beach.  It was perfect and everyone adjusted after a couple of nights.

We wasted little time hitting the beach.  It was a little cool but it we walked down to it and played with the boys for a while.

The rental house was in pretty good shape and had everything they needed except food and drink.

Jon and I made a quick trip to the grocery and filled the cupboards.

Jon cooked on the grill and after dinner Pam and made the 15-minute drive back to the Roadrunner.
Our campground location could not have been any more convenient and turned out to be a great choice.

The next day we met up and all drove over to the Great Explorations Children's Museum in Tampa.
It had a kids Publix grocery store,

 and a pizza place they could make cloth pizza's which were not nearly as messy as the real thing.

Another favorite for Brooks was this big netted climbing contraption.  He went all the way to the top and returned.

After the museum we went to a local pizza place for lunch and it was delicious.  We made it back to the beach house in time for naps

Another day we went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.  It is a run by a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of some animals.  We got to see some dolphins that were made famous in the Dolphin Tale movies.

An attendant explained what was going on with five resident pelicans living there.

It was a real joy to spend time with the grandkids again and to see Kelly and Jon.

While at their beach house one afternoon, I went for a walk along the beautiful Pass A Grill Beach to the famous Don CeSar Hotel.  What an iconic relic of the past!  I told Pam it reminded me of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on Waikiki.  Sure enough -- it was modeled after it.

In 1928 when it opened it was known as Florida's "Pink Palace."  It struggled during the Depression Years.  During World War II it served as a hospital for soldiers, sailors and airmen struggling from the effects of war (Sounds like PTSD, but back then it was politely called something else.)

After the war, it regained some prominence with famous people staying their including baseball greats Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig.  Joe Dimaggio honeymooned there with new wife Marilyn Monroe.  FDR and F. Scott Fitzgerald were also guests. 

I walked about a mile along the beach to the hotel, walked through it and took some pictures.  I love this kind of history.

Our stay with the kids was great.  It did our hearts good to see Brooks and Harrison again and we reminded ourselves that we'll see them again in a couple months. 

Before we left the area, we were able to connect with good RV friends Marj and George.  We had seen then in Virginia Beach in the summer, but we always jump at the chance to see them when we can.

We went out to lunch at Billy's Stone Crabs and went back to our place for a little while.
We left for the Keys the next day and loved our time with everyone in St. Pete.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles today!

Grandkids and a New Deck

We're enjoying our time in Virginia Beach.  We've been spending a lot of time at Kelly and Jon's and with grandsons Brooks and Harrison.  These two little guys are something else!

We are content to spend time with them and just hang out.  We are glad to spell Kelly at times during the day so she can run some errands by herself.  We've also been able to babysit so she and Jon can enjoy a date night now and then and let them have some time off.

Meanwhile, we can always find things to do with they boys.  We've spend as much time as we can outside.  One favorite is picking up pine cones.  We got some of those $1 "pickers" (plastic 3' poles with a hand squeeze) and then can spend lots of time with the kids wandering around the front and back yards picking up pine cones at Goldmanor.

We also manage to help them ride their little cars or bikes or swing in the front yard.  Sometimes, its just too much and we just tucker them out...

It's usually the reverse though, we often wear out long before they do.  Their front yard has a long wall that is just high enough for them to walk on which is another source of wonder for them.

Kelly and Jon have been chipping away at a couple of projects and its fun to see them come together.  It only took two days to get the deck done in the back yard.  First, Jon removed the large azaleas and relocated them in other places around the yard.

Then the professionals came in the next day and did their magic.  The new deck off the sun room is at the back of the house.

 They had the posts in the ground, the cross beams leveled and deck joists in place before lunch time.

It is fun to watch professionals at work in their sweet spot. They did a great job and it all seemed so effortless.
We continue to enjoy our time here with the kids and grand kids and seeing some projects getting done.  Its been a warm late summer but in the last couple of days has turned cooler.

Kelly and Jon have introduced the boys to smors.  It has been a closely supervised but a big after-dinner treat.

That's all for now on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Thanks for joining us.  Hope your week is a great one!