Santee National Wildlife Refuge

Barbara and I woke around 5 AM so after we got dressed we went down for breakfast and were on the road by 7. We ran into some traffic and all the other cars had license plates from places like Maine, Ontario, New York, we had the strange feeling that we were just part of the snow bird flock migrating to warmer weather, guess what; we are. On the way to the hotel we stopped at the Santee National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.fws.gov/santee/ ) and walked around the visitor center. I got some pictures of Osprey, ducks, river otter and a squirrel (yes that squirrel is big).

After checking into the hotel we decided to go out for dinner and went to the restaurant right next to the hotel called Glass House Seafood Restaurant. Dinner was ok, nothing to write home about. Then it was back to the hotel and two person whirlpool tub, guess who shared some time in it.

Everyone have a Happy New Year.

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Back to Florida

Day one on the road was uneventful. We hit a bunch of traffic south of DC and decided to get off of I-95 and find someplace to eat our lunch. We had brought lunch so we just headed south on US Rt 1 and found a McDonald's. We sat in their parking lot and ate our lunch and then went in to use the restrooms before continuing on our way. Hyacinth directed us back to I-95 where there was more traffic. The traffic was not stop and go but was just very slow. It would speed up for a about a mile and then get slow again, no accident that we saw just volume. We stopped at a mansion Museum in Richmond called Maymont ( http://community.maymont.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=330 ). They have tours every half hour but when we got there at 2:30 PM the next available tour was at 4:00 PM so we just did the basement which had displays on what it was like to be a servant in a big house. We would have liked to tour the house, all decorated for a Victorian Christmas, but could not wait around that long for the 4 o'clock tour. When we got to the hotel we got into the indoor pool and had a lovely dinner in our room (Barbara packed it from home).

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Christmas 2009

I will try to remember all that has happened over the Christmas holiday here in Whiting, NJ.

On Christmas Eve, Ray Jr. came down and brought things for dinner that he cooked. First was a very nice Swiss cheese but the best was the duck bacon, yes duck bacon, that he used to wrap the scallops that he cooked on the grill. I did some salmon on the grill also and Barbara made a Caesar Salad. Before desert we did our paper pie we saw one at a museum (surprise), you pull on one of the ribbons and there is a prize on the other end. The paper pie was a Victorian thing for children's parties. After dinner we opened our presents, could not wait for the morning. Everyone got good stuff, no returns for us.

On Christmas morning we had Swedish pancakes for breakfast (wish there had been some of that duck bacon left over) and then Ray packed up his loot and headed home. Barbara and I got ready and went to Florida, NY to be with the Cuccio clan. The highlight of Barbara’s day was when she got to feed Makayla and then she got to hold her for about an hour while Makayla slept.

On Sunday we had Barbara’s cousin Ed, his wife Patty, his son Chris, Chris’s wife Maria and their two children Jonathon and Lauren over for dinner. Barbara had an extra gingerbread house kit so we set it up for Lauren to do. When they got here both Lauren and Jonathon wanted to do the house so she had one do the front and the other do the back. They all enjoyed the project (even Barbara). We had a wonderful visit and found more family to get to know.

Barbara and I talked and decided to leave for Florida on Wednesday instead of Thursday to try to get ahead of the next storm that is heading our way. So on Monday we packed Christmas away (why does it take three days to put Christmas up but only one day to put away?). On Tuesday we started packing for the trip back to Florida. Now it is Tuesday night and the trunk is all packed and the rest is ready to go into the back seat.

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Snow Storm 2009

Well we got a bit more snow last night. I measured in a few places and it looks like we got 18 inches of snow. It is so deep that one of my reindeer is almost completely buried, his head is under the snow. It took me most of the morning but I got the drive and the sidewalks all cleared. As I am sitting here writing this the plows just came by so I will have to go back out and redo the end of the driveway, that’s life. Here are some pictures so you can all see what we woke up to.

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Cookies and Snow

Barbara has been busy baking up a storm of Christmas cookies. One that is a favorite, and the most labor intense, with a lot of the family is her mice. While Barbara has been baking up storm the weather has come up with a snow storm of it’s own. In this case a picture is worth a thousand words.

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Gingerbread House Party

Barbara had the neighborhood ladies over for her second annual Gingerbread House party. The ladies all arrived on time and got right to work. As you can see from the pictures everyone did a marvelous job and had a good time doing them. I am going to let the pictures tell the story.

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One week until Christmas.

Since Barbara and I got home on December 6th we have been busy little bees. The first week was full of putting up Christmas. Lucky for me the weather was nice that first Monday and Tuesday and I got all the outside decorations up and got the rest of Christmas down from the attic. By Friday evening Christmas was up and all the empty boxes were back in the attic, just goes to show you what you can get done if you are motivated. Last Saturday we got a plan grave blanket and decorated it ourselves and brought it over to Barbara's Mom and Dad's grave, they are both in the veterans cemetery about 25 minutes from here. My Uncle John is there also so we stopped and paid our respects to him also. We had Louise over for dinner on Sunday and had a very nice time. The rest of the week has been spent in getting ready for Barbara's gingerbread house party. Tuesday we expanded the table (put all 5 leaves in) and she put all the houses together. I had to run out to Lowe's and buy a piece of 4'x2' lauan to be used for the bases of the ginger bread houses. I cut the 2x4 piece down to four 12”x15” pieces which works real well for the bases (this year we will ask the ladies to save the bases so we can use them again next year). Today Barbara and I spent the afternoon decorating our gingerbread house, we even added a sleigh riding hill made out of a piece of brownie. Well that is all for now the rest of this week and next are going to be just as busy, maybe busier, so I may not get to update this as often as I should but I will do my best.

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Home Again

We left Fredericksburg VA. around 7:30 AM and arrived home around 12:30 PM. Nothing important to say about the trip just a normal 5 hour drive with about 3 stops for bathroom breaks and to eat. Oh I have to say one thing. We drove over the Delaware Memorial Bridge and back into NJ and I felt the need to stop so we pulled into the NJ welcome stop to use the facilities, only to find it closed and the only facility to use were one of three port-a-johns. I picked the cleanest of the three, and it was not easy to choose and we were on our way again. This can only happen in NJ. We are glad to be home and will start decorating for Christmas tomorrow.

Snowed In

We awoke to a rainy morning and after breakfast headed north once more. We were going to go to Richmond VA. but decided to go a little further and head to Fredericksburg instead. By the time we reached Fredericksburg it was snowing so while eating lunch at Burger King Barbara called the museum we were going to go to but did not get an answer so seeing as the snow was coming down faster we decided to go to the Hotel and see if they could give us our room a bit early. They had rooms ready so after checking in we went for a swim in the indoor pool (it will be our last swim for awhile). Tomorrow we will drive the last leg of our trip and arrive home sometime in the afternoon, finally.

Day Three on the Road to NJ

This entry has to start with a short description of the Merry Jingle Tour of Savannah. What we were expecting was a tour of a city full of Christmas lights. What we got was a bus ride with a little bit of history with carols, and we had to sing the carols. Oh well that is one tour we will not take again. Here are some pictures from the tour.

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Today we woke early, our room was on the highway side of the motel and the noise woke us. Should have moved when we first got there but we did not. Another mistake we will not make again. We stopped in Fayetteville, NC and went to The Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex (http://www.gofayetteville.com/sites/st_capefear2.htm) which included a tour of the 1897 Poe House, not Edgar Allen Poe the writer a different Poe family. It showed how people at the end of the 19th century worked and lived. I got to take some pictures in the dinning room of the table a gingerbread house and what is called a paper pie. It is a pie made out of paper with small gifts inside that you get out by pulling on one of the ribbons, we think we may try that this year. Then we headed to our hotel in Smithville, NC no highway noise.

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Day Two on the Road to NJ

We got up and headed to Savanna, GA. Today we went to The Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort and Spa to see two of Barbara’s favorite things, Gingerbread houses and Christmas trees. The village was made up of buildings and things in and around Savannah. And the Christmas trees where all decorated with different themes. Then we headed downtown Savannah to see about getting tickets for the twilight trolley tour. We were able to get tickets for the 7:30PM tour so we headed to our hotel for a bit of a rest and a swim in the indoor pool. Well the pool is not open so we just relaxed in the room for the afternoon. This evening we had chicken that Barbara had made up a few days ago and had frozen for this trip, it was very good. Now we are just waiting for the time to go on the tour. Here are some of the pictures I took today.

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Day One on the Road to NJ

We got on the road about 9:30AM and headed north. Our first stop was in Daytona Beach at the Museum of Art and Science. We got there around 11:30 so we decided to have our packed lunch in the car before going in. In the lobby they had small decorated Christmas trees for sale and Barbara fell in love with one decorated with gingerbread men and candy. We will use it in the kitchen and it will go real well with the gingerbread house we will be making. The paintings in the arts part of the museum were all of Florida and they  had a small display of Chinese art. Then we went into the Root Wing dedicated to the Root Bottle Company who in 1915 won a contest to design the bottle to be used by Coca-Cola. They had cases filled with Teddy bears even a full size one dressed as a British Beefeater, they guard the queen. There is also a section on the trains used through the years in Florida. The section on science was not open due to a flood that happened in May of 2009. After that we went to the hotel and then to Marge and Joe’s for dinner (Marge is Barbara’s cousin) in Ormond Beach. Dinner was real good and we had a very nice visit.

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Last Days in Florida for 09

Well it is time to go home and leave Florida for 2009. We will miss all the sun shine although the next three days are going to get cool and rainy so maybe we are timing this just right. Will update as we continue our wonderings.