Hoard - Santek Wedding

We traveled to Berea, Kentucky to attend the wedding of my cousin's son Marty Santek to Abbie Hoard. The great thing about the way we travel is that we were able to arrive early and enjoy all the pre-wedding festivities. We got in on Wednesday and were invited to their home in Berea for a cook-out. It was a great evening getting caught up with family we had not seen in a while. I must be losing it as I failed to take any pictures.

The Santek family: Marty, Missy, Michael, Lily, Amanda, Abbie and Marty in front of the senior Santek's retirement gift to themselves, a 42 foot toy hauler. This was their first long trip and they had a great time as Michael, Amanda and baby Lily stayed with them.

On Thursday we drove to Lexington for dinner and more family time. Here are the MAMAs, Michael, Amanda, Marty, and Abbie. As I said when Mike and Amanda got married in 2017, these boys getting married is a special day for us as my mom and dad watched them from the time they were young babies, so we watched them grow up.

My cousins Missy and Dee Dee with their mom Elsie. It was a fun evening at a neat restaurant, Goodfellas.

On Friday we left Opus in Berea and went to Danville where we checked into a hotel for the weekend. We were invited to the rehearsal dinner, where I again failed to take any pictures. I made up for that at the party back at the hotel that evening. Here are Dee, Missy and my brother Rick.

As you can see a fun time was had by all. 

More happy partiers......

.....who partied hard late into the night.

Even Lily joined in the fun. Even with all the racket she went fast asleep.

The wedding was at the Bluegrass Wedding Barn on a hilltop outside of Danville.

The weather all week had been threatening, but Saturday was a beautiful day for the outdoor ceremony.

The proud parents and grandmother.

As if out of nowhere, the beautiful bride and her father appeared to the sounds of the Immigrant Song by Lead Zeppelin.

Marty and Abbie watch as their fathers tell stories about their children.

The exchanging of the vows.

The mothers gave them each a glass of colored sand......

 

....that they poured together as a symbol of their uniting.

I like this much better than the lighting of a common candle. I have seen candles blow out which cannot be a good sign. 

You may kiss the bride.

The new Mr. and Mrs. Martin Santek.

A Western Pennsylvania wedding tradition, the cookie table. This goes back to a time when newlyweds could not afford a cake so everyone in the family brought cookies. I sure like it better than any cake. Marty's aunt Dee baked over 500 cookies and other relatives made some too.

They still had the more traditional cake.

Aunt Elsie getting down on the dance floor.

Denise, Rick, Abbie, Marty, Nanc and Jim. 

The day ended with the newlyweds celebrating a beautiful Kentucky sunset.

Mr. and Mrs. Marty Santek, proud parents and grandparents with Lily.

Mr. and Mrs. Michael Santek with baby Lilly.

The newest Mr. and Mrs. Marty Santek with a sparkling send off.

We had a great weekend at the wedding and wish the bride and groom the best of luck as they start a big new adventure. Next week they are moving from Berea to Las Vegas were Abbie got a job as an athletic trainer with Cirque du Soleil.  We think that is very exciting and sure hope we can pay them a visit.

On the Road - St. Augustine, FL

When we bought our condo we did it knowing we would still be RVing through most of the summer and fall. We already had a big picture travel plan for 2019 including a wedding in Kentucky in June and a three month stay in WashPA. After buying a place, that three month stay will include last time visits to our various doctors in Pennsylvania and making plans for all our records to be forwarded to Florida when we get new doctors there. In September while in WashPA we are going to Europe for a river cruise. When we head south in October we are going to the Outer Banks where we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary. From there it will be back to Florida for the winter.    

Since June 1st was the start of hurricane season, we felt this sign was appropriate as we headed out. One good thing about our condo, it was built under Florida's newer, stronger construction standards. We wanted an easy drive the first day so we went only 215 miles to St. Augustine.

We have been here a couple times and did many of the oldest city in the country's attractions. One place we had not toured was the Ponce de Leon Hotel that was built between 1885 and 1887 by Henry Flagler. We wrote about touring Flagler's home, Whitehall, in Palm Beach a couple posts ago. The hotel, which was built in the Spanish Renaissance style, was the first major building in the country constructed with poured concrete. 

In 1968 the building was turned into Flagler College. Lawrence Lewis, a great nephew of Henry Flagler, was the driving force behind the renovation of the hotel and its conversion to a college. The campus today covers 19 acres and the rooms of the old hotel now serve as the freshman women's dorms.

The courtyard entrance of the hotel. When it opened in 1887 it catered to wealthy Northerners who wanted to escape winter weather. People paid $4,000, about $300,000 in today's money, to stay here for three months. 

The murals in the rotunda and dome were painted by George W. Maynard. It is very impressive as you walk in and look up.

Statues around the rotunda were carved from one piece of wood that was set in place and then carved. While they all depict a woman, each is a bit different.

In the main dining hall, now under renovation, all of the windows were done by Tiffany & Co. It was the largest collection of his work in any privately owned building. Most of the windows had clear glass because Flagler wanted the room to be filled with natural sunlight. 

There was a balcony at each end of the main hall were bands would play to entertain the dining guests. When the band at one end took a break the other immediately started to play. The murals here were also done by Maynard with the theme of Spanish galleons.

Painted around the windows are the shields of each Spanish state.  

The ladies parlor was the gathering place for all the women. It was a grand hall with beautiful chandeliers. As in the dining hall, the ceiling was painted with amazing pictures. The face of the ornate clock above the fireplace is one large piece of quartz.

Shown above are gowns worn by the ladies at the time and the menus of the meals served each day. I guess this must have been like the all-inclusive resorts we have today with every need of the visitors being taken care of by the staff. 

This is a wedding portrait of Henry Flagler's third wife, Mary Lily. For her wedding gift he built Whitehall, which is now the Flagler Museum that I wrote about previously. She was 38 years younger than Henry so he had the artist paint her with an older looking face on her actual, much younger body.

There are two of these towers at the hotel. Originally they each held 4,000 gallons of water to supply all the rooms with running water. During WWII the Coast Guard used the hotel as a training facility and the tanks were used as the brig.

Across the street from the Ponce de Leon Flagler had the Alcazar Hotel built in the same Spanish Renaissance Style. This hotel had a steam room, massage parlor, sulfur baths, gym, the world's largest indoor swimming pool and a three story ballroom. Guests from the Ponce could use all these amenities, while the guests from Alcazar were not allowed in the Ponce.  One of Flagler's unique ways of letting people know where he felt they stood on the social scale. These hotels were both part of his plan to make St. Augustine the go to winter destination for the wealthy. That changed a bit when one winter day it was only six degrees warmer than in New York. That is when he decided to build his first hotel in the Palm Beach area.

One of St. Augustine's interesting narrow streets. We have always liked this area and it looks like it will be a regular stop as we move in and out of Florida.

We stayed at the Elks Lodge in St. Augustine and the weekend we were there was the grand opening of their new outdoor patio. The entertainment was really good and the patio makes this an even nicer place to stay.

As we write we are in Berea, Kentucky for a wedding and then we'll be heading slowly back to WashPA for a three month stay.

Feeling Like Home

We arrived back in Stuart from Betty's for a six-week stay before heading out again. We had a pretty long to do list to get the condo feeling more like our home than a B&B. High on the list was getting to know the neighbors better. We had some people over for drinks and snacks. We are happy to report that the people we have met here are much more welcoming than the ones we wrote about in Tallahassee. When we are out for our morning walks people wave and are genuinely friendly. Just before we left, one of our neighbors had a few people to their place so we are making new friends. I have read a couple articles about the area in the Washington Post and Travel and Leisure. One comment I liked in one of the articles was that Martin County was a part of Florida for people who think they don't like Florida. We find this to be true. Even though we have all the conveniences such as stores, restaurants, ocean and beach nearby, we are mostly north of the Homestead to Palm Beach urban sprawl of South Florida. 

As soon as we got back we had Nis Air install the new air conditioning cooling coil. They discovered the problem when doing annual maintenance in February. The good news was the part was under warranty and the insurance that was part of the home inspection paid the labor. 

Another Sunday we went downtown for another Stuart Main Street Rock'n Riverwalk. The band Burnt Biscuit was fantastic. We really like the local music scene and much of it is free.

This is the river walk along the banks of the St. Lucie River. It is great being where one can be outside year round. The weather in May was warmer with highs in the 80's, but still not too hot to be outside.  

We had Consider It Done take care of several small issues the home inspector had found. They installed two new ceiling fans, changed a couple light switches, installed new door locks and repaired the grout in both showers.  

The biggest job we had for them was installing a storm door.  Since we now live in a condo, we had to have this project approved by the HOA architectural committee.

The big reason we wanted the door was to let more light inside. We are now able to leave the door open and when it is cool we can lower the glass and get fresh air. 

The new door looks great. Most days we had the door open and set the AC high enough that it did not run most of the day. With the ceiling fans on it remained very comfortable.

In some ways condo living is like RV park living. There are many rules, we have to take our trash to the dumpster and, as you can see, not everyone picks up after their dog. 

Did you know Wayfair has free shipping? True but everything we bought came with a "some assembly required" warning. This was the easiest to put together.

The new headboard in the guest bedroom looks great. Both our guests said the bed was very comfortable, so we may need to get a different mattress:-)

The entertainment center was the biggest assembly challenge with many parts. We took two days to put it together and only had to take one piece apart as we put one board in backwards.

Here is the finished product. It takes up much less space than the armoire, which we moved into the bedroom. When we return in the fall the shelves will be filled with many nick knacks we have collected during our travels. I also see a bigger TV in my future. The heron print was my house warming gift to my wife.

The hall table also required assembly. We found the welcoming pineapple lamp at a thrift store and the crawfish bowl came from a potter in Louisiana. These small improvements are starting to make the place feel more like our home.

We had not been to the Jupiter Jazz Society Sunday jam since getting back in the area. The day we went the featured players were young students, some only 10 years old. Getting young people interested in Jazz is one of the missions of the society.

When the regular jam started we were surprised at how few players there were. Turns out, here in South Florida "the season" is over and many of the musicians have headed to their homes up north. Even though many of the regulars weren't there, the music was still great. 

One day we took advantage of the nearby beach (about a 20 minute drive) and went to Hutchinson Island for our morning walk. I wanted to walk to the St. Lucie Inlet where the river flows into the Atlantic. Across the Inlet is Long Island, a state preserve that will never be developed. While Florida's population has grown, the state has set aside a lot of land as preserves.

There are many huge homes on this part of Hutchinson Island but the beach is still open to the public. The wind was from the east the day we walked so the beach was covered with seaweed. We heard this happens every spring.

When we started our walk we saw all these stalks with ribbons and thought the were surveyor markers. Turns out they are marking turtle nest. They come ashore, usually at night, and lay their eggs which will hatch in sixty days. The date the nest was built is written on the stalks so they have a good idea when they will hatch. Going out to see this some time is now on our bucket list. 

George and Nan recommended another music venue for us to check out, the Sneaki Tiki in downtown Stuart. It's a neat little outdoor restaurant that we discovered and it's also a Pittsburgh bar with Steeler and Penguin banners. We will sure be back there even with our Pats friends.

We have been in and out of the condo three times since January, but this time we will be gone for five and a half months so there was much more preparation. The number one priority was getting someone to keep an eye on the place, even though we have a security system. Our neighbor Nick told us he checks on several places and would be happy to add us to his list. He will go in every week or so to look the place over and take care of anything that needs done. In addition, June 1 starts the beginning of Hurricane season, a season we have never worried about before. Hurricane shutters came with the condo, but they need to be put up and taken down with each storm. (You can't leave the shutters on because if there was a fire the fire department could not get into the building.) Nick has someone lined up to do that job so we are very comfortable leaving our new home until November. 

As we post this we are now near Asheville, NC after stops in St. Augustine and near St, Marys, GA. We are happy that it is much cooler in the mountains than it has been along the coast. Next week we will be going to Berea, KY for a wedding. It is great being back on the road.