A Sad Start to 2020 and A Special Tribute to a Wonderful Life

On January 1st we fired up Opus, left Stuart and headed to our favorite winter destination, the Florida Keys Elks. Even though it is only 170 miles south, it was great to see so many friends who return every year.

We love our view of the tiki hut and sunsets at the Elks. Look closely and you can see Venus, the evening star, shining brightly in the top right corner.

The sunsets here are always fantastic. People gather every evening to watch the sun disappear over the horizon. Sadly though, a week after we arrived we received word that Nanc's sister Michelle had lost her battle with cancer.

We made a reservation to fly from Miami to DC to be with Keith and to celebrate Michelle's life. As we were leaving at 4:45 AM the full moon was reflecting off the water. 

After she was diagnosed in February 2017,  Nanc and I planned a trip along with Nanc and Michelle's brother Dave and sister Judy to visit Michelle and Keith in Maryland to spend time with them and to celebrate her birthday.   

It was a great family time, exploring Old Town Alexandria and National Harbor. Here are the three sisters; Nanc, Judy and Mike (her family only nickname). In the back are Dave, Jim, Braedon (Dave's grandson) and Keith.

Keith, Mike and Spartacus, their wonderful labradoodle.  

That summer we visited Rick and Denise's place on Lake Norman, North Carolina. Here are Nanc, Michelle, Keith Denise and Rick enjoying a great meal.

Mike even conquered the paddle board, but not without incident, running into a dock. It was a fun visit sunning, swimming and boating.

On many of our trips south we would spend a few days visiting with Keith and Michelle. On this visit, we went into DC and then had a great dinner in Old Town Alexandria.

This spring Michelle flew down to Stuart to spend a few days with us at our new home in Stuart. This picture was taken at the Flagler Museum in West Palm Beach where we saw how the super rich lived.

On Sunday, January 12, we had a celebration of life at Keith and Michelle's beautiful home. Michelle's co-workers put the whole thing together and it was a great tribute to a life well lived. Here are Dawn, Pilar, Carolyn, Judy, Satu, Nanc, Brenda and Jim.  Nanc dubbed the ladies the Fabulous Five.  

They brought everything, including more than enough food. 

As part of the celebration, each person brought a flower. The needle work on the wall was done by Grace,  Michelle, Nanc, Judy and Dave's Mom. 

Three vases were needed for all the flowers. It was a wonderful tribute for a wonderful caring person. 

Several people spoke about how Michelle had done so much for them while working together. A special thank you to these ladies who not only put together the celebration, but also supported Keith and Michelle during her long struggle with cancer.  We are so thankful she had such wonderful and caring friend.

The celebration ended with a walk along the Potomac River in old town Alexandria. This was one of Michelle's favorite places and a fitting ending to a wonderful celebration. Here are Sparta, Keith, Rick, Jim and Nanc. It was a beautiful sunny day that would have made Michelle happy. One thing she truly disliked was the cold weather.

Sparta was their for us also. Even he knows something is just not right, but he is not sure what it is.  He was a constant companion to Michelle all through her illness. 

Michelle and Keith. It has been a very difficult time for all of us. We are so grateful for all the support of friends and family during this difficult time. Keith intends to follow through with their plan to move to Arizona to be closer to his family. He will soon be taking the road trip west with Sparta for a new beginning. He and Michelle will always have a special place in our hearts. 

We would also like to give a special thanks to our friends here at the Elks for their kindness and support.

Family, Friends, Hurricane Shutters

We have been very busy since getting back from Mexico. We got home on Thursday and Mark and Renita come over on Saturday for a weekend visit. They are renting a condo on the West coast near their daughter. We wanted to get caught up on all our travels and show them around our new hometown. 

On Saturday afternoon we went to Hutchinson Island to check out the beach. The water was very calm and great for collecting shells. 

With the recent rain and high waves there were many shells on the beach. 

The first picture is what was in the foreground. Nanc and Renita are searching a huge pile closer to the water. We have never seen so many in one spot. On Saturday night we went to dinner at Shrimpers in Port Salerno. George and Nan joined us and we had great time talking about jewelry making and rocks, a passion for Mark, Renita and Nan. 

If you are in Stuart on Sunday, going to Rock n Riverwalk is a must do. We walked the boardwalk enjoying the water and sunshine. 

As we always do, we saw a couple beautiful birds feeding right along the boardwalk. Here is a little blue heron looking for fish and insects among the rocks.

This is an immature egret. Mark turned me on to a neat bird identification app, Merlin Bird ID from Cornell University. 

As always there is music on Sunday on the Riverwalk. That evening we watched the Steelers-Bills game. As the Steelers lost, I was not happy with the results and I also had to listen to Renita cheer for the Bills because their quarterback is the only NFL player from Wyoming. Despite that, we had a great visit and look forward to doing it again. 

This is what the storm shutters that came with the condo looked like. Each window had several individual pieces of metal that had to be screwed into place, a long difficult process. 

Nick, who looks after our place when we are gone, made a contact to have accordion shutters installed. We got a good price since several other people in Lexington Lakes also got them. 

So here is Nanc’s Christmas gift, new accordion shutters for our windows and the sliding glass door. This will make it much easier to cover the widows if a storm is threatening. They were installed the day before we left so I did not have a chance to get a picture with them closed. 

On the Friday before Christmas we flew to DC to spend the holiday with Nanc’s sister Michelle and her husband Keith. 

Merry Christmas at Keith and Michelle’s beautiful home.

Nanc doing some cooking. I know it looks like meat, but it is a vegan thing that Keith's nieces cooked for us when we were there in October. It really wasn't too bad after I covered it with beans, guacamole and salsa. 

Michelle has been battling cancer for nearly three years. Her prognosis at this point is not very good so we wanted to spend as much time as possible with her and Keith. The day before we left her doctors told her she should contact Hospice. While this is very sad news, our experience with Hospice has been very positive and we know they will do everything necessary to make her comfortable. Here is a nice picture of them a couple years ago.

Their dog Spartacus all dressed up for Christmas complete with reindeer antlers. He is a great dog.

We were up very early the day after Christmas to fly back to Florida. I got a great look at Washington, DC at sunrise.

Looking down the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol.

Looking the other way from the stadium to the Lincoln Memorial. We have always loved DC and have been there many times, but this is the first time we got to see the city from this point of view.

Getting ready to land in Florida. Most of the buildings you see are in Palm Beach County. Where there are fewer buildings is in Martin County and also where we bought our condo. This sure shows how  much less densely populated it is where we now live and we hope it can stay that way.

Guess who is in Palm Beach for the holidays? This is the first time we have seen Air Force One. 

We are only going to be in Stuart until January 1st and then we are taking Opus and going to the Florida Keys Elks for the month. Our plans for the winter are up in the air as we are going to try and get back to DC to see Michelle again.

LSD and Annapolis

No this post is not about drugs. As we travel around the country we always see those oval stickers that let people know the places they love. We have an OBX - Outer Banks and HI - Hatteras Island on Opus. One of my favorites was from Ocracoke's Albert Styron's Store - ASS. The one we saw in Delaware now takes the place as the most unusual we have seen. We had to ask, what is LSD? Well it promotes the unique lifestyle in Lower Slower Delaware far away from the more northern hustle and bustle area of Delaware.  

We are heading south way too slowly. We awoke to temps in the 30's and frost on the CRV. The good news was that it was sunny and warmed up real fast so we did a bit of exploring in LSD.

We went to nearby Milford, an old ship building town on the banks of the Mispillion River. Previously, the old dam powered a sawmill. Today it is part of the river walk, a very interesting little park. We also checked out the Mispillion River Brewery and gave it a thumbs up.

There is an art project along the river walk that celebrates the old ship building industry and the new happenings in Milford. All the ships are a replica of the Augusta, an old ship that was built there. It had sunk and was recovered and restored by the city. We found this part of LSD to be very neat and we did not even make it to the ocean.

On our last day here we ventured back across the Bay Bridge to Annapolis to tour the capitol. This capitol, built in the Georgian style, is the 36th we have toured. The Maryland capitol is the oldest state house in continuous use since 1772. It was also the first peace time capitol of the United States from November 1783 to August 1784.

The dome was constructed between 1785 to 1794. It is the largest wooden dome in North America and is held together with wooden pegs not nails. The model shows the interior rotunda and the outside dome.

Two famous people who visited the capitol are Ben Franklin, who designed the lightening rod system to protect the building, honored here with a bust and Marque de Lafayette, the Frenchman who led troops in the Revolutionary War depicted in the painting. In 1824 he returned to the United States and toured the 24 states to instill the spirit of 1776 in the next generation of Americans.   

Looking up at the interior dome above the rotunda.

The Old Senate Chamber with the "Ladies Balcony" as women were not allowed on the floor. In the balcony is a statue of Molly Ridout. Two important events in American history took place in this chamber. One was in January 1784 when the Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Revolutionary War.

The other event was on December 23, 1783 when George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. This established the idea that the military of the new country should be under the civilian rule of the president. 

This exhibit in the rotunda has Washington's original resignation speech. I have always liked the idea of seeing the words and signatures of historic figures on display, especially the original documents in the National Archives 

The Old House of Delegates Chamber. It has been restored to its 19th century appearance. The painting. The Planting of the Colony of Maryland depicts the arrival of the first colonists in 1634.

There are exhibits of two Marylanders who were born into slavery and then became important figures in the freedom movement, Harriet Tubman....... 

,,,,,,,and Frederick Douglass. The displays had copies of the records of their birth. There are plans to erect statues of both these famous Americans.

The State House Caucus Room has the silver service from the USS Maryland and portraits of former governors and other political figures. The sliver service from ships is something we had not seen before, but Delaware had the same thing.

Between 1902 and 1905 a new annex was added with larger legislative chambers and more offices on the upper floor. Great effort has been made to keep the Georgian style of the original building.

In the grand staircase of the addition is a painting Washington Resigning His Commission that was done in 1858 by Edwin White.

The new House of Delegates Chamber for the 141 delegates. The assembly meets for 90 days each year. 

The new Senate Chamber for the 47 senators. 

The portraits in this chamber are of  Maryland's four signers of the Declaration of Independence, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll.

This is the new, 1905, annex side of the capitol.

Annapolis is a very interesting city with narrow streets and many buildings dating back to Colonial times. 

The rows of businesses and homes give you a look back in time even with the modern amenities. 

Main Street offers a great view of the harbor. Of course, the U.S. Navel Academy is here so it also has a college town feel.

Docked in the harbor was the Lynx, a replica of a ship built in 1812. It was a privateer that was given permission to raid British ships during the War of 1812. Here is a link to the site about the ship. 

Buildings along the waterfront with the capitol dome that overlooks the city. Both the city and the capitol are well worth a visit if you are in the area. 

We are now on Hatteras Island to kick back and celebrate our 49th anniversary before heading south. for the winter.