Friday, July 28, 2006
JULY 15th THROUGH JULY 22nd, SWEDEN
The best laid plans of mice and men!! On the first leg of our journey to Sweden we went from Munich to Hamburg. We had reservations and good seats. The train had delays and arrived at Hamburg 39 minutes late. We were told that our connection was being held and we should rush to platform 8 to catch it. When we got to platform 8 they told us we should have gone to platform 6. We rushed there and were told that we had missed the train by two minutes. We were seven and a half hours late getting to Stockholm. We were supposed to take a sleeping compartment at Copenhagen and found that with the new schedule they were all sold out. We ended up getting to Copenhagen at 12; 30 AM and staying in the train station until our train left the next morning at 8:30. Again the station closed from 1:30 until 4:30, a lot of people just went out to their platform and waited it out. We did that and froze our butts off. Interestingly enough it never did really get dark. By the time we got to our destination it really didn’t get dark.
The ticket agent in Hamburg worked real hard and long to help us out. We got the best we could get. This is a real busy travel time all over Europe. A couple of interesting things happened on our train trip from Munich to Hamburg. For one thing, we saw the sweetest little boy and he really liked us.
I think that he knew that we were grandparents who were missing our grand kids. Not really, he was only like eight months old but he came to me and played then let Mary hold him. He was on his way to visit his grandparents.
We saw a Wal-Mart Super Store in a small town in Germany. It’s a shame that Wal-Mart is over here messing with the towns which are 1000 years old and do all their business in the city center. That is so amazing to me; you go into a town and in the center are all the shops on streets which are barely wide enough for two cars to meet. In some places the streets are only wide enough for one car so you have to take turns. I hate to see it happen. McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut have already invaded.
When we left Germany and headed for Denmark the entire train was driven onto a huge ferry boat/ship. We got off and went up to the top deck where there were lounges with glass windows for viewing or there was a lot of room on the outside decks. We crossed the part of the Baltic Sea where it becomes the Gulf of Bothnia. It was a forty five minute boat ride.
We got back on land and went to Copenhagen where we spent the night in the train station. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. We napped a lot because we had lost a lot of sleep with the connection problems which we experienced.
We knew that our lodgings for the week were remote. We didn’t realize how remote. It was a great place to spend a quite week, but not a good location for tourist who wanted to do a lot of sight seeing. We saw Moose, Reindeer and lot of small animals. In face we watched reindeer cross right behind our house within a hundred yards. There were some interesting little towns in the area and some of the friendly people you would want to meet. Just about everyone spoke English.
We took two days, Tuesday and Wednesday for long range site seeing. We were only about 50 miles from the border with Norway. On Tuesday we went to Norway and drove down to a City called Trondheim. It is on the coast and located on a Fjord that is one of the deepest on the entire coast.
I would like to spend more time on the coast of southern Norway It is rugged and beautiful. Inland there are mountains and a lot of dairy farming in the valleys. They appeared to raise a lot of their own feed, especially wheat, corn and hay. Their houses are unique. Because the generations all live on the farm you see the original home and as the kids grow up and marry the build for them in a big house that looks like an apartment building. This building and the dairy barn form an L shape around the old house.
When we left Norway, instead of returning to Tannas where we were staying, we went to Ostersund where there was a train station. We parked our car there and took a sleeper train to Stockholm. It got in about 3:30 Am, but we did not have to leave the train until 7:00 AM. It swerved just like a motel room. We took a tour of Stockholm which lasted three and a half hours. The first two hours were on a bus and the last hour and a half was on a boat. Stockholm is built on 14 Islands. The city is connected by 47 bridges. The islands have a common thread so if you know what kind of business you are looking for you can find it all on one island. Residences (high rent/low rent) are the same most of the rich in one place and the middle class in another. Museums and art galleries, that kind of thing are grouped. They have a good public transportation system; surprisingly most of it is underground. Their subway stations are decorated by local artists instead of having the walls covered by graffiti.
We saw the new and the old. We visited the seat of government. We went to the old Palace of the Kings. We saw next to the Palace an old Church where the royalty was married and buried. On the boat tour we saw the home of Nobel, and we saw the new city hall where the banquet for the Nobel Prize presentation is held. The hotel where they are housed is right where we boarded the boat for our tour. On the front of the hotel there are flags from a lot of countries flying. They are changed daily so that each day there is a flag for all the countries that are represented by their guests. The boat tour started in the bay which is salt water. There are locks which you pass through to enter Lake Merian which is the third largest lake in Sweden. The water in this lake is so pure and clean that they have swimming beaches and people still fish and eat the fish they catch right in the center of the city.
When our tour was over we boarded another train and returned to our lodging. The next day we prepared to travel and visited with our neighbors. We had a couple from Breckinridge, Colorado staying just down the street from us. They must have been in their seventies and the week before they had been on a bicycle tour in Denmark. They road 30 or 40 miles a day and their luggage was hauled to the hotel they were staying in each night. They have been doing this on their vacations for years and seem to really enjoy it.
On Friday morning we got up and left at 2; 30 AM so we could get to the train and start our trip to Austria.
The best laid plans of mice and men!! On the first leg of our journey to Sweden we went from Munich to Hamburg. We had reservations and good seats. The train had delays and arrived at Hamburg 39 minutes late. We were told that our connection was being held and we should rush to platform 8 to catch it. When we got to platform 8 they told us we should have gone to platform 6. We rushed there and were told that we had missed the train by two minutes. We were seven and a half hours late getting to Stockholm. We were supposed to take a sleeping compartment at Copenhagen and found that with the new schedule they were all sold out. We ended up getting to Copenhagen at 12; 30 AM and staying in the train station until our train left the next morning at 8:30. Again the station closed from 1:30 until 4:30, a lot of people just went out to their platform and waited it out. We did that and froze our butts off. Interestingly enough it never did really get dark. By the time we got to our destination it really didn’t get dark.
The ticket agent in Hamburg worked real hard and long to help us out. We got the best we could get. This is a real busy travel time all over Europe. A couple of interesting things happened on our train trip from Munich to Hamburg. For one thing, we saw the sweetest little boy and he really liked us.
I think that he knew that we were grandparents who were missing our grand kids. Not really, he was only like eight months old but he came to me and played then let Mary hold him. He was on his way to visit his grandparents.
We saw a Wal-Mart Super Store in a small town in Germany. It’s a shame that Wal-Mart is over here messing with the towns which are 1000 years old and do all their business in the city center. That is so amazing to me; you go into a town and in the center are all the shops on streets which are barely wide enough for two cars to meet. In some places the streets are only wide enough for one car so you have to take turns. I hate to see it happen. McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut have already invaded.
When we left Germany and headed for Denmark the entire train was driven onto a huge ferry boat/ship. We got off and went up to the top deck where there were lounges with glass windows for viewing or there was a lot of room on the outside decks. We crossed the part of the Baltic Sea where it becomes the Gulf of Bothnia. It was a forty five minute boat ride.
We got back on land and went to Copenhagen where we spent the night in the train station. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. We napped a lot because we had lost a lot of sleep with the connection problems which we experienced.
We knew that our lodgings for the week were remote. We didn’t realize how remote. It was a great place to spend a quite week, but not a good location for tourist who wanted to do a lot of sight seeing. We saw Moose, Reindeer and lot of small animals. In face we watched reindeer cross right behind our house within a hundred yards. There were some interesting little towns in the area and some of the friendly people you would want to meet. Just about everyone spoke English.
We took two days, Tuesday and Wednesday for long range site seeing. We were only about 50 miles from the border with Norway. On Tuesday we went to Norway and drove down to a City called Trondheim. It is on the coast and located on a Fjord that is one of the deepest on the entire coast.
I would like to spend more time on the coast of southern Norway It is rugged and beautiful. Inland there are mountains and a lot of dairy farming in the valleys. They appeared to raise a lot of their own feed, especially wheat, corn and hay. Their houses are unique. Because the generations all live on the farm you see the original home and as the kids grow up and marry the build for them in a big house that looks like an apartment building. This building and the dairy barn form an L shape around the old house.When we left Norway, instead of returning to Tannas where we were staying, we went to Ostersund where there was a train station. We parked our car there and took a sleeper train to Stockholm. It got in about 3:30 Am, but we did not have to leave the train until 7:00 AM. It swerved just like a motel room. We took a tour of Stockholm which lasted three and a half hours. The first two hours were on a bus and the last hour and a half was on a boat. Stockholm is built on 14 Islands. The city is connected by 47 bridges. The islands have a common thread so if you know what kind of business you are looking for you can find it all on one island. Residences (high rent/low rent) are the same most of the rich in one place and the middle class in another. Museums and art galleries, that kind of thing are grouped. They have a good public transportation system; surprisingly most of it is underground. Their subway stations are decorated by local artists instead of having the walls covered by graffiti.
We saw the new and the old. We visited the seat of government. We went to the old Palace of the Kings. We saw next to the Palace an old Church where the royalty was married and buried. On the boat tour we saw the home of Nobel, and we saw the new city hall where the banquet for the Nobel Prize presentation is held. The hotel where they are housed is right where we boarded the boat for our tour. On the front of the hotel there are flags from a lot of countries flying. They are changed daily so that each day there is a flag for all the countries that are represented by their guests. The boat tour started in the bay which is salt water. There are locks which you pass through to enter Lake Merian which is the third largest lake in Sweden. The water in this lake is so pure and clean that they have swimming beaches and people still fish and eat the fish they catch right in the center of the city.
When our tour was over we boarded another train and returned to our lodging. The next day we prepared to travel and visited with our neighbors. We had a couple from Breckinridge, Colorado staying just down the street from us. They must have been in their seventies and the week before they had been on a bicycle tour in Denmark. They road 30 or 40 miles a day and their luggage was hauled to the hotel they were staying in each night. They have been doing this on their vacations for years and seem to really enjoy it.
On Friday morning we got up and left at 2; 30 AM so we could get to the train and start our trip to Austria.
JULY8th THROUGH JULY15th, GERMANY
Actually on July 7th which was a Friday, we departed England. We spent the day doing chores and packing. Mary went to the post office to mail some things which we had bought for the kids and found out it would cost more to mail them that we paid for them... We didn’t! We had bought a voltage convert and it died. We returned it and got another one; it died after one day. The people at our hotel kept it and will mail it back and try to get us a refund.
We have a reservation on the Chunnel Train. It is the Eurostar train which runs from to London to Paris under the English Channel. I’m not sure how far the tunnel runs under-water, but it is an experience to go through it. We got into Paris about 12:30AM and thought that we could sit and take a nap before we left at 6:30 the next morning. The station closed at 1:30AM and did not re-open until 4:00 AM. Security made us leave and we had three hours on the street. We went across the street to a little café which was open and we spent the time at a table on the side walk. We saw some interesting folks. There were several travelers like us who were waiting there.
When the station opened and I got to talk to information person I found out that we had to change to another station in Paris for the train going to Munich, Germany. It was a comedy of errors, but after the dust settled we had missed our connection and had to wait four hours for the next train. We were late for our check-in because of that. We took a cab from the train station to our hotel and got there about 9:30 tired and hungry.
We saw some beautiful country. The area between Paris and Strasbourg, France is big farms with lots of wheat fields and some corn. It was a little like Eastern Kansas. We entered Germany at Strasbourg and went through Baden Baden, Heidelberg, Manheim and Stuttgart to get to Munich.
We then changed to a local train and went about an hour north to our destination in Garmisch. There was a biker’s convention going on. Mary said that it was maybe the European version of Sturgis.
One of the bikers told us about a place within walking distance where we could still get some supper. We walked down there and it was the most wonderful place that we ate in Germany. It was named Grill Rustico. The name was very appropriate. It was old Europe with the low ceilings and big beams. It had a big outside eating area which was right on the bank of a tumbling stream. We had the same lady serving us each time we ate there. I think we ate four meals there, including our Wedding Anniversary celebration.
The lady was very patient with us. She spoke good English and didn’t mind recommending the German dishes to us. She even grinned and went along with taking pictures of us. She had a butterfly tattooed on the back of her shoulder. I think that she even let Mary have a picture of her tattoo.
We could walk about a hundred yards from our hotel and catch a bus which took us to the train station in about fifteen minutes.
This gave us a chance to go where we wanted to go very easily. We rested on Sunday and did the local community on Monday. In the afternoon we rode the train down to Munich and found a store where we were told that we could buy another converter for our electrical appliances. We found it and it works well and does not burn out.
We walked a large section of Old Town Munich which is closed to traffic; it is a large walking shopping and restaurant area. We must have walked several miles. It was a very pleasant afternoon.
Tuesday we went back to Munich and took a city tour on an open topped bus. Munich is an Old city with a lot of history preserved, but a lot of it has also been modernized. There is some outstanding old Architecture mixed in with the new. Probably the most important historical building we saw was the site of the signing of the compact in which England, France and the US agreed not to interfere if Hitler attacked Poland.
We were very tired from our busy couple of weeks, so we decided to take Wednesday and Thursday off and rest. About all we did was going out to an internet café and do some computer stuff. We had a great pool and Sauna there and we enjoyed those. On Friday we departed for Sweden. We learned from our first trip so we had reservations for each leg of the journey with sleeping accommodations for Friday night. We also had a rental car reserved because we knew that we were going to a remote area in Sweden.
Actually on July 7th which was a Friday, we departed England. We spent the day doing chores and packing. Mary went to the post office to mail some things which we had bought for the kids and found out it would cost more to mail them that we paid for them... We didn’t! We had bought a voltage convert and it died. We returned it and got another one; it died after one day. The people at our hotel kept it and will mail it back and try to get us a refund.
We have a reservation on the Chunnel Train. It is the Eurostar train which runs from to London to Paris under the English Channel. I’m not sure how far the tunnel runs under-water, but it is an experience to go through it. We got into Paris about 12:30AM and thought that we could sit and take a nap before we left at 6:30 the next morning. The station closed at 1:30AM and did not re-open until 4:00 AM. Security made us leave and we had three hours on the street. We went across the street to a little café which was open and we spent the time at a table on the side walk. We saw some interesting folks. There were several travelers like us who were waiting there.
When the station opened and I got to talk to information person I found out that we had to change to another station in Paris for the train going to Munich, Germany. It was a comedy of errors, but after the dust settled we had missed our connection and had to wait four hours for the next train. We were late for our check-in because of that. We took a cab from the train station to our hotel and got there about 9:30 tired and hungry.
We saw some beautiful country. The area between Paris and Strasbourg, France is big farms with lots of wheat fields and some corn. It was a little like Eastern Kansas. We entered Germany at Strasbourg and went through Baden Baden, Heidelberg, Manheim and Stuttgart to get to Munich.
We then changed to a local train and went about an hour north to our destination in Garmisch. There was a biker’s convention going on. Mary said that it was maybe the European version of Sturgis.
One of the bikers told us about a place within walking distance where we could still get some supper. We walked down there and it was the most wonderful place that we ate in Germany. It was named Grill Rustico. The name was very appropriate. It was old Europe with the low ceilings and big beams. It had a big outside eating area which was right on the bank of a tumbling stream. We had the same lady serving us each time we ate there. I think we ate four meals there, including our Wedding Anniversary celebration.
The lady was very patient with us. She spoke good English and didn’t mind recommending the German dishes to us. She even grinned and went along with taking pictures of us. She had a butterfly tattooed on the back of her shoulder. I think that she even let Mary have a picture of her tattoo.
We could walk about a hundred yards from our hotel and catch a bus which took us to the train station in about fifteen minutes.
This gave us a chance to go where we wanted to go very easily. We rested on Sunday and did the local community on Monday. In the afternoon we rode the train down to Munich and found a store where we were told that we could buy another converter for our electrical appliances. We found it and it works well and does not burn out.
We walked a large section of Old Town Munich which is closed to traffic; it is a large walking shopping and restaurant area. We must have walked several miles. It was a very pleasant afternoon.
Tuesday we went back to Munich and took a city tour on an open topped bus. Munich is an Old city with a lot of history preserved, but a lot of it has also been modernized. There is some outstanding old Architecture mixed in with the new. Probably the most important historical building we saw was the site of the signing of the compact in which England, France and the US agreed not to interfere if Hitler attacked Poland.
We were very tired from our busy couple of weeks, so we decided to take Wednesday and Thursday off and rest. About all we did was going out to an internet café and do some computer stuff. We had a great pool and Sauna there and we enjoyed those. On Friday we departed for Sweden. We learned from our first trip so we had reservations for each leg of the journey with sleeping accommodations for Friday night. We also had a rental car reserved because we knew that we were going to a remote area in Sweden.
JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN TRIP
JULY 1st THROUGH JULY8th, ENGLAND
We left Atlanta at 6:30 on June 30th. We arrived in London on July 1st at 10:05 AM. We had our Brit Rail Passes so we found the train station in Gatwick Airport, got our passes validated and got help figuring out our route to our home for the next week.
We stayed in a small town named Newton Abbott in Devon. It is about three hours from the center of London by train. I thought that we would be able to use bus transportation to get to the rail station, but it was not located on a bus line so we rented a car. That was an experience. I had to drive sitting on the right side of the car, the car was on the left side of the road and it had a stick shift which I had to handle with my left hand. With Mary’s help I got through the week without an accident.
We stayed in a condo which was part of a complex built around the original building of an Inn which dated back to 1761. They served the very traditional British meals in the Inn and we had several meals there. We had stuff I had read about like Ploughman’s Lunch and Carvery for Dinner. We had beef pie and Yorkshire pudding. We were the only colonials there so we were the oddity, but everyone tried to make sure we had a good time. On Sunday afternoon we saw some local dancers doing some of the old Folk Dances of England.
They were called Morris Dancers; nobody seemed real sure why. The entertainment was fun and the last dance they invited everyone to participate so we did. We are probably the only Morris Dancers in either of our families.
On Monday we did local stuff and did some shopping which we need to do. On Tuesday we went to London and took a get on get off double decker bus tour. We had someone telling us what we were seeing and they took us to all the major attractions in Central London. I think the most impressive sight I saw was the Houses of Parliament and right next door was Westminster Abbey. On the front of the parliament building is the Tower of Big Ben.
We were taking pictures and the clock struck the hour of six, so we know it works we took a little boat tour on the Thames River and saw Tower of London, the old prison which is now used for public meeting and concerts. They have a new attraction right across the river from Big Ben which is called London Eye. It is a big Ferris wheel 443 feet high with thirty two enclosed capsules which hold twenty five passengers. It moves so slowly that it takes half an hour to completely cycle.
The view is amazing, not only of the city, but of a lot of the surrounding area as well. Just before we went for a ride on the Eye, Mary asked a guy standing near us to take our picture. He heard her accent and said that sounds a lot like home. He was from Stockbridge, GA which is probably about 30 miles for where we lived in Atlanta. Small world!!! We had a big day and I can’t take time to write about everything we did and saw.
We returned to London and took a walking tour to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. It is very ceremonial and lock step. We got a lot closer than many thousands of other people because we had an aggressive tour guide and he knew when to move and where to go.
The ceremony started at St. James Palace which is the official home of the Queen. The new guard gathered there and was escorted down the Mall by a band with much fanfare.
They entered the grounds at the Palace and the old guard formed up and joined them. By the time the change was completed and the old guard marched out it must have taken 45 minutes. We went to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Gallery. Mary said that was a week long effort, not a few hours.
Before the Gallery we went to lunch at the Original Hard Rock Café. They had stuff in there from a lot of people I actually recognized. I think the center piece is a guitar given by Eric Clapton. It was their first artifact. Their very special stuff is in a vault room in the basement and someone takes you in there. I’m amazed that they let you handle the stuff they have there.
I took a picture of Mary playing BB King’s guitar, wearing on of Bo Diddlie’s hats and sitting on cushions which came from Jimmie Hendrix’s’ couch.
On Thursday we went to Dartmoor. I always heard about the moors and the country is beautiful. I guess there are moors all over England. We saw a show on the history channel which explained the changes in the land over the thousands of years which caused the land to be as it is.
Dartmoor is known for cattle, sheep and ponies.
We climbed Haytor Rock which is the highest point on the Moor. We visited a village called Widecombe on the Moor.
We visited a craft fair there which was held in a 15th century church hall. The core buildings in the village were all from that same time period. One of the older citizens told us of 4000 year old ruins close by. The granite used to build London Bridge was quarried there, and there is still a railroad built from granite to transport the stone from the quarry.
The next day, Friday, we stayed home and packed. We left in the afternoon so we could make the train trip to our next destination which was Germany.
JULY 1st THROUGH JULY8th, ENGLAND
We left Atlanta at 6:30 on June 30th. We arrived in London on July 1st at 10:05 AM. We had our Brit Rail Passes so we found the train station in Gatwick Airport, got our passes validated and got help figuring out our route to our home for the next week.
We stayed in a small town named Newton Abbott in Devon. It is about three hours from the center of London by train. I thought that we would be able to use bus transportation to get to the rail station, but it was not located on a bus line so we rented a car. That was an experience. I had to drive sitting on the right side of the car, the car was on the left side of the road and it had a stick shift which I had to handle with my left hand. With Mary’s help I got through the week without an accident.
We stayed in a condo which was part of a complex built around the original building of an Inn which dated back to 1761. They served the very traditional British meals in the Inn and we had several meals there. We had stuff I had read about like Ploughman’s Lunch and Carvery for Dinner. We had beef pie and Yorkshire pudding. We were the only colonials there so we were the oddity, but everyone tried to make sure we had a good time. On Sunday afternoon we saw some local dancers doing some of the old Folk Dances of England.
They were called Morris Dancers; nobody seemed real sure why. The entertainment was fun and the last dance they invited everyone to participate so we did. We are probably the only Morris Dancers in either of our families.
On Monday we did local stuff and did some shopping which we need to do. On Tuesday we went to London and took a get on get off double decker bus tour. We had someone telling us what we were seeing and they took us to all the major attractions in Central London. I think the most impressive sight I saw was the Houses of Parliament and right next door was Westminster Abbey. On the front of the parliament building is the Tower of Big Ben.
We were taking pictures and the clock struck the hour of six, so we know it works we took a little boat tour on the Thames River and saw Tower of London, the old prison which is now used for public meeting and concerts. They have a new attraction right across the river from Big Ben which is called London Eye. It is a big Ferris wheel 443 feet high with thirty two enclosed capsules which hold twenty five passengers. It moves so slowly that it takes half an hour to completely cycle.
The view is amazing, not only of the city, but of a lot of the surrounding area as well. Just before we went for a ride on the Eye, Mary asked a guy standing near us to take our picture. He heard her accent and said that sounds a lot like home. He was from Stockbridge, GA which is probably about 30 miles for where we lived in Atlanta. Small world!!! We had a big day and I can’t take time to write about everything we did and saw.
We returned to London and took a walking tour to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. It is very ceremonial and lock step. We got a lot closer than many thousands of other people because we had an aggressive tour guide and he knew when to move and where to go.
The ceremony started at St. James Palace which is the official home of the Queen. The new guard gathered there and was escorted down the Mall by a band with much fanfare.
They entered the grounds at the Palace and the old guard formed up and joined them. By the time the change was completed and the old guard marched out it must have taken 45 minutes. We went to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Gallery. Mary said that was a week long effort, not a few hours.
Before the Gallery we went to lunch at the Original Hard Rock Café. They had stuff in there from a lot of people I actually recognized. I think the center piece is a guitar given by Eric Clapton. It was their first artifact. Their very special stuff is in a vault room in the basement and someone takes you in there. I’m amazed that they let you handle the stuff they have there.
I took a picture of Mary playing BB King’s guitar, wearing on of Bo Diddlie’s hats and sitting on cushions which came from Jimmie Hendrix’s’ couch.
On Thursday we went to Dartmoor. I always heard about the moors and the country is beautiful. I guess there are moors all over England. We saw a show on the history channel which explained the changes in the land over the thousands of years which caused the land to be as it is.
Dartmoor is known for cattle, sheep and ponies.
We climbed Haytor Rock which is the highest point on the Moor. We visited a village called Widecombe on the Moor.
We visited a craft fair there which was held in a 15th century church hall. The core buildings in the village were all from that same time period. One of the older citizens told us of 4000 year old ruins close by. The granite used to build London Bridge was quarried there, and there is still a railroad built from granite to transport the stone from the quarry.
The next day, Friday, we stayed home and packed. We left in the afternoon so we could make the train trip to our next destination which was Germany.
FATHERS DAY THROUGH JUNE 30th
Fathers Day was a big event this year. We went out to Northwood Country Club for a brunch.
In attendance we had Mary and I, Bill, Liz and Mia came and brought Liz’s Mother Paula and her niece Sylvie (who was our first granddaughter).
Sam, Darlene, Steven, Jewel, Jessica and Sage, brought George and Ann, Darlene’s parents. We had a very nice meal and a good visit then we all went our separate ways.
I got a Georgia University shirt from Sam’s group and a European travel atlas from Bill’s family.
As we do each year, we went to Arkansas the weekend following Father’s Day for the Brady Family Reunion. Sam and Bill have started to go to the reunion the last two or three years. I have encouraged this because they are the only two of my Father’s grandchildren who have the Brady name. Unfortunately, at this time there are no Brady grandsons in my family so our branch of the Brady Tree may no longer extend the name after this generation. Sam, Bill and I caravanned down there so we all arrived at the same time.
Tom, my older brother, is the care taker at Wolf Creek Baptist Church Camp. Since we had eleven people in our group we decided to rent on of their cabins to stay in for the weekend. We had two sleeping rooms with a lot more beds than we needed.
Each sleeping room had a bath room with three toilets and three showers. In the center we had a living room and a kitchen. There was a small lake there where Bill and Steven did some fishing.
We even en had a little basketball game on the outdoor court there. I think that the consensus was that Liz is the player in the family.
We arrived on Friday night. On Saturday morning we went over to Dermott and had breakfast with Mary’s Brother Gene and his wife Irma at their restaurant.
Lynn, Mary’s brother Tommy’s widow and her two daughters were there with four of her grandsons. Mary’s sister Sheila and her husband Charlie came down from Missouri with two of their grandchildren, so we had a big group for breakfast.
They all knew that we had a short time to visit so they did not expect more than a two or three hour visit.
We enjoyed seeing them and Sam was glad that he had a chance to introduce his family to a few of the Carr side of the family
About 11:00 AM went over to my niece’s house outside of Hamburg. They live on a farm and have all kinds of animals and fowl. The kids got to pet cows, horses, chickens, ducks, guineas, and fed all of them. They saw baby chicks as they were being hatched out. They even got to feed catfish in the pond. That made Steven wish that he had brought his fishing pole.
After a couple of hours here we went to Hamburg. Each year on Saturday we have just a sibling dinner. This year we reserved the community room at the apartment complex where my Sister lives and invited all of the nieces and nephews, grandkids and great grandkids. (YES, WE ARE GETTING OLD). We ended up with slightly less than fifty there for supper. I saw some of my nephews who I had not seen for years.
That day was Darlene’s birthday. Liz made her a birthday cake, we sang Happy Birthday and she got to meet a lot of her new in-laws. One of my sisters did not come, but her son and daughter were there so Darlene met Most of my family. It must have been a little overwhelming. Later, after the cake was cut, my younger brother and my oldest sister held Darlene and gave her a birthday spanking. I’m not going to tell you how old she is, but fortunately they didn’t give her a swat for each year.
The next day was Sunday and we had the official Brady Reunion at the Promised Land Community Center. This was attended by offspring of all my Father’s siblings. My kids meet new cousins each year, because there are always some there who didn’t attend the year before. Sadly, there are always some missing who were there the year before. Our family has reached an age where health problems, and even death, affects our numbers each year. After this gathering Bill and Liz left for Atlanta. The rest of us stayed and left early on Monday morning.
We got back to Atlanta about 6:00 PM on Monday and had a busy week getting ready to leave for Europe on Friday June 30th. We found an RV storage place where we could leave our coach in a covered area connected to electricity. On Friday we stored our motor home, went to Bill’s house, and he and Mia took us to the airport. Bill kept our car at his house. We checked in, got our passports stamped for the first time ever, and were ready to go and see the world.
Fathers Day was a big event this year. We went out to Northwood Country Club for a brunch.
In attendance we had Mary and I, Bill, Liz and Mia came and brought Liz’s Mother Paula and her niece Sylvie (who was our first granddaughter).
Sam, Darlene, Steven, Jewel, Jessica and Sage, brought George and Ann, Darlene’s parents. We had a very nice meal and a good visit then we all went our separate ways.
I got a Georgia University shirt from Sam’s group and a European travel atlas from Bill’s family.
As we do each year, we went to Arkansas the weekend following Father’s Day for the Brady Family Reunion. Sam and Bill have started to go to the reunion the last two or three years. I have encouraged this because they are the only two of my Father’s grandchildren who have the Brady name. Unfortunately, at this time there are no Brady grandsons in my family so our branch of the Brady Tree may no longer extend the name after this generation. Sam, Bill and I caravanned down there so we all arrived at the same time.
Tom, my older brother, is the care taker at Wolf Creek Baptist Church Camp. Since we had eleven people in our group we decided to rent on of their cabins to stay in for the weekend. We had two sleeping rooms with a lot more beds than we needed.
Each sleeping room had a bath room with three toilets and three showers. In the center we had a living room and a kitchen. There was a small lake there where Bill and Steven did some fishing.
We even en had a little basketball game on the outdoor court there. I think that the consensus was that Liz is the player in the family.
We arrived on Friday night. On Saturday morning we went over to Dermott and had breakfast with Mary’s Brother Gene and his wife Irma at their restaurant.
Lynn, Mary’s brother Tommy’s widow and her two daughters were there with four of her grandsons. Mary’s sister Sheila and her husband Charlie came down from Missouri with two of their grandchildren, so we had a big group for breakfast.
They all knew that we had a short time to visit so they did not expect more than a two or three hour visit.
We enjoyed seeing them and Sam was glad that he had a chance to introduce his family to a few of the Carr side of the family
About 11:00 AM went over to my niece’s house outside of Hamburg. They live on a farm and have all kinds of animals and fowl. The kids got to pet cows, horses, chickens, ducks, guineas, and fed all of them. They saw baby chicks as they were being hatched out. They even got to feed catfish in the pond. That made Steven wish that he had brought his fishing pole.After a couple of hours here we went to Hamburg. Each year on Saturday we have just a sibling dinner. This year we reserved the community room at the apartment complex where my Sister lives and invited all of the nieces and nephews, grandkids and great grandkids. (YES, WE ARE GETTING OLD). We ended up with slightly less than fifty there for supper. I saw some of my nephews who I had not seen for years.
That day was Darlene’s birthday. Liz made her a birthday cake, we sang Happy Birthday and she got to meet a lot of her new in-laws. One of my sisters did not come, but her son and daughter were there so Darlene met Most of my family. It must have been a little overwhelming. Later, after the cake was cut, my younger brother and my oldest sister held Darlene and gave her a birthday spanking. I’m not going to tell you how old she is, but fortunately they didn’t give her a swat for each year.
The next day was Sunday and we had the official Brady Reunion at the Promised Land Community Center. This was attended by offspring of all my Father’s siblings. My kids meet new cousins each year, because there are always some there who didn’t attend the year before. Sadly, there are always some missing who were there the year before. Our family has reached an age where health problems, and even death, affects our numbers each year. After this gathering Bill and Liz left for Atlanta. The rest of us stayed and left early on Monday morning.
We got back to Atlanta about 6:00 PM on Monday and had a busy week getting ready to leave for Europe on Friday June 30th. We found an RV storage place where we could leave our coach in a covered area connected to electricity. On Friday we stored our motor home, went to Bill’s house, and he and Mia took us to the airport. Bill kept our car at his house. We checked in, got our passports stamped for the first time ever, and were ready to go and see the world.
SUMMARY OF APRIL 4th UNTIL FATHERS DAY
We did not rush our trip back to Atlanta and we arrived home on April 4th. We were glad to get back with our Kids and Grandkids. Big plans were in the making because Sam and Darlene had their wedding planned for April 15th. We used the time between our arrival and the wedding getting to know our grandkids. Sage is five and a half and Mia is two and a half, so there were a lot of changes in them in the three months we were away,
On the week-end before the wedding, Sam went to North Carolina and Darlene and the kids came back to Atlanta with him. They had been moving things down to his house for several weeks, so there was not a lot left to transfer. We had met Steven, Jessica and Jewel at Thanksgiving and saw them again at Christmas time, but we got to know them a lot better after they arrived in Atlanta. The Atlanta schools were returning from their spring break and the NC schools were on spring break so it was a good time for them to get the new grand children settled into their new community and enrolled in school. They were pretty much set so that on Monday after the wedding the kids were ready for their new school.
On Friday we all went up to Maggie Valley, North Carolina for the big event. Bill was the best man in the wedding. He, Liz and Mia rode up with us in our motor home. Sam over that night and spent the night with us. It was pretty cozy, but it was an exciting time and we really enjoyed it. Darlene’s parents have a camping trailer on a lot in a campground which they leave there year round and spend weekends and vacations up there. They plan to retire there.
Mary had told Darlene to invite her Mom and Pop over to our RV Park and we would fix something easy for supper. They finally settled on sloppy joes and tater tots. Darlene’s sister was coming in on Friday so she was invited as well. Her kin continued to arrive on Friday and by supper time we had 29 people at our campsite for supper.
We kept adding to the sloppy joes and taters, everyone who showed had a covered dish or a cooler of cokes or some kind of desert. We moved picnic tables from campsites which were unoccupied and had a bunch of lawn chairs so everyone had a place to sit. We ended up having a great potluck dinner and getting to know our new in-laws on the night before the wedding. At one point a lady walked by and asked me if this was a family reunion. I just said “it will be tomorrow” and she said that she did not even know that many people It made things more comfortable for everyone the next day since we had already shared a meal and visited.
The wedding was on Saturday, April 15th. They had a very small, intimate chapel for the wedding. I think they figured that at their age and stage in their lives they did not need a big church wedding. They were limited to twenty guests. Sam had Mary and I, Bill, Liz and Mia, and sister Sue drove up from Atlanta as his family representatives. Ben and Wanda, his college roommate and his wife came up as did Walter and Lynn, a friend from the Air Force and his Lady friend. All the other guests were from Darlene’s family. All four of their children were in the ceremony.
Steven was the ring bearer, Sage and the twins were flower girls. Jessica and Jewel came first and Sage was behind them. She kinda paused at the door and Darlene helped her out a little as they came down the isle. Steven wore the same color shirt and tie that Sam and Bill wore. All three of the girls were dressed alike and looked lovely. Darlene did a real good job with everything. Bill was the Best Man and Her Pop gave her away. The ceremony was short and very well done by the minister. Pop and I signed as witnesses on the license so it was a pretty family oriented effort. Mia, our two and a half year old even confirmed the vows by repeating “I Do” after Darlene said it. So far it is working very well. Mary and I got another wonderful daughter and Sam’s life is totally enriched by the addition of our three new grandchildren. Grand Momma told the kids that they were all very special and unique to us because Steven is our first grandson and Jessica and Jewel are our only twins.
Sunday after the wedding was Easter Sunday and Sam’s Mother in Law, Ann had an Easter Egg hunt over at their house for all the kids. Fun was had by all. I could have spent more time on their deck over-looking a beautiful, tumbling mountain stream, but the newly weds had to go to Atlanta so they could get their kids back in school. Mary and I and Bill, Liz and Mia went to Myrtle Beach, SC. We stayed there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. We drove back to Atlanta in time for Bill and Liz to pick up her Grandmother and travel to Tennessee where her Parents are living now. We had a great time in Myrtle Beach. I think that Mia must have moved a ton of sand. She didn’t seem to get discouraged when she figured out that she could not fill up the ocean.
Over the next few weeks we spent quite a lot of time with the kids and grandkids. On the weekend following their wedding Sam asked us to spend Saturday evening with their kids while he and Darlene went to a concert. For Valentines Day Sam bought Darlene tickets for a Martina McBride concert. There was a Georgia Force Football game that night. Sam had tickets so Steven and I got to go to the game.
It was a high scoring close game and even though the home team lost we enjoyed it a lot. After the game, they put tables out on the field and players and cheerleaders sit at the tables and anyone who wants to can go down and get autographs. Steven and I went down. He got a promotional tee shirt which someone was giving away. It was white and he got players to sign it. I think he must have gotten seven or eight autographs. Later he told me that he was going to give the shirt to Sam. I said to him that it was a good souvenir for him to keep. I thought his response was exceptional for an eleven year old boy. He said that Sam knew more about the team than he did and that Sam had done a lot of good things for him. He felt that the shirt would be more special to Sam than to him. He didn’t know how special.
While we were at the game, Grand Mamma took Jewel and Jessica shopping and then to see a movie. They had a big time and were so excited because they got to buy some lip gloss. They wanted the gloss and Mary asked them if it would be OK with their Mom if she bought it for them. After very little thought they suggested that they call their Mom on her cell phone and ask. I think they were surprised that Mom said yes even after Grand Momma assured her it was for little girls. After dinner at McDonalds they came home and were already there when we got back to Sam’s house.
We also went to school carnivals with Mia and the next day we went with all of Sam and Darlene’s kids. We met some new friends they had made and saw their school. We are proud of the way the kids made the transition to their new school. They thought that there was going to be a problem with Steven because of the curriculum differences between the Georgia schools and the North Carolina schools. Even thought he had not been taught what they were learning in the new school, he was able to catch up. He passed the test required for promotion to the sixth grade and made A’s in all but two subjects. He was pleased and we were proud of him and for him. The girls fit right in and are ready for next year.
I think that about every week we had dinner with both of our son’s families at least once. Besides this we had grandkids overnights also. One night Steven and the twins spent the night with us and we went to Stone Mountain for the laser show. We had a long walk and a lot to carry with our chairs, blankets, toys, picnic and a cooler of cokes and water. We were there for a total of five hours so we need supper and drinks. I think the kids enjoyed the show. Sage and Sam have spent a couple of nights with us together while Darlene and her kids were in NC helping her Mom with a big garage sale. She is getting ready to downsize their house after she retires. We sure enjoyed spending the time with Sage; we only get to see her every other weekend so overnights are special.
Mia spent more time with us than any of the others. Mary babysat with Mia a couple of days a week to help keep child care cost down while Bill and Liz worked. She also stayed over at our house a lot. I think Bill and Liz looked for reasons for her to spend the night with us while we were in town.
We sure appreciate their generous attitude about that. Mia calls our motor home an ARVE. She can’t quite get RV out yet. She does recognize when we turn and she sees the “big sign” on an arch over the park entry. I think that she knows more about what the switches on the dash are for than I do. I’m writing this on July 12th so we have been gone almost two weeks and we are already missing those grandkids.
I played a lot of golf while we were in Atlanta. I am playing better than I ever have in my life. My USGA handicap index came down from 16.0 to 14.5. I’m consistently playing between 80 and 86 and once for the first time I broke 80. I shot a 79. My brother-in-law, Tom Nash, came over and played with me in our annual Senior Member/Guest Tournament. We played a two man best ball and Tom and I had the second best score. The problem is there were three of us who had the same score. After a scorecard playoff we ended up in fourth place. We did have a good time though!! I took one of the senior golf trips over to Aiken, SC. I rode over and was roommates with Tommy Roberts.
We had a lot of fun and even though I did not play great, I did win back the prize money I put up. Tommy had some misfortune with his car and had to miss the third day of play to get repairs done.
We did not rush our trip back to Atlanta and we arrived home on April 4th. We were glad to get back with our Kids and Grandkids. Big plans were in the making because Sam and Darlene had their wedding planned for April 15th. We used the time between our arrival and the wedding getting to know our grandkids. Sage is five and a half and Mia is two and a half, so there were a lot of changes in them in the three months we were away,
On the week-end before the wedding, Sam went to North Carolina and Darlene and the kids came back to Atlanta with him. They had been moving things down to his house for several weeks, so there was not a lot left to transfer. We had met Steven, Jessica and Jewel at Thanksgiving and saw them again at Christmas time, but we got to know them a lot better after they arrived in Atlanta. The Atlanta schools were returning from their spring break and the NC schools were on spring break so it was a good time for them to get the new grand children settled into their new community and enrolled in school. They were pretty much set so that on Monday after the wedding the kids were ready for their new school.
On Friday we all went up to Maggie Valley, North Carolina for the big event. Bill was the best man in the wedding. He, Liz and Mia rode up with us in our motor home. Sam over that night and spent the night with us. It was pretty cozy, but it was an exciting time and we really enjoyed it. Darlene’s parents have a camping trailer on a lot in a campground which they leave there year round and spend weekends and vacations up there. They plan to retire there.Mary had told Darlene to invite her Mom and Pop over to our RV Park and we would fix something easy for supper. They finally settled on sloppy joes and tater tots. Darlene’s sister was coming in on Friday so she was invited as well. Her kin continued to arrive on Friday and by supper time we had 29 people at our campsite for supper.
We kept adding to the sloppy joes and taters, everyone who showed had a covered dish or a cooler of cokes or some kind of desert. We moved picnic tables from campsites which were unoccupied and had a bunch of lawn chairs so everyone had a place to sit. We ended up having a great potluck dinner and getting to know our new in-laws on the night before the wedding. At one point a lady walked by and asked me if this was a family reunion. I just said “it will be tomorrow” and she said that she did not even know that many people It made things more comfortable for everyone the next day since we had already shared a meal and visited.
The wedding was on Saturday, April 15th. They had a very small, intimate chapel for the wedding. I think they figured that at their age and stage in their lives they did not need a big church wedding. They were limited to twenty guests. Sam had Mary and I, Bill, Liz and Mia, and sister Sue drove up from Atlanta as his family representatives. Ben and Wanda, his college roommate and his wife came up as did Walter and Lynn, a friend from the Air Force and his Lady friend. All the other guests were from Darlene’s family. All four of their children were in the ceremony.
Steven was the ring bearer, Sage and the twins were flower girls. Jessica and Jewel came first and Sage was behind them. She kinda paused at the door and Darlene helped her out a little as they came down the isle. Steven wore the same color shirt and tie that Sam and Bill wore. All three of the girls were dressed alike and looked lovely. Darlene did a real good job with everything. Bill was the Best Man and Her Pop gave her away. The ceremony was short and very well done by the minister. Pop and I signed as witnesses on the license so it was a pretty family oriented effort. Mia, our two and a half year old even confirmed the vows by repeating “I Do” after Darlene said it. So far it is working very well. Mary and I got another wonderful daughter and Sam’s life is totally enriched by the addition of our three new grandchildren. Grand Momma told the kids that they were all very special and unique to us because Steven is our first grandson and Jessica and Jewel are our only twins.
Sunday after the wedding was Easter Sunday and Sam’s Mother in Law, Ann had an Easter Egg hunt over at their house for all the kids. Fun was had by all. I could have spent more time on their deck over-looking a beautiful, tumbling mountain stream, but the newly weds had to go to Atlanta so they could get their kids back in school. Mary and I and Bill, Liz and Mia went to Myrtle Beach, SC. We stayed there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. We drove back to Atlanta in time for Bill and Liz to pick up her Grandmother and travel to Tennessee where her Parents are living now. We had a great time in Myrtle Beach. I think that Mia must have moved a ton of sand. She didn’t seem to get discouraged when she figured out that she could not fill up the ocean.Over the next few weeks we spent quite a lot of time with the kids and grandkids. On the weekend following their wedding Sam asked us to spend Saturday evening with their kids while he and Darlene went to a concert. For Valentines Day Sam bought Darlene tickets for a Martina McBride concert. There was a Georgia Force Football game that night. Sam had tickets so Steven and I got to go to the game.
It was a high scoring close game and even though the home team lost we enjoyed it a lot. After the game, they put tables out on the field and players and cheerleaders sit at the tables and anyone who wants to can go down and get autographs. Steven and I went down. He got a promotional tee shirt which someone was giving away. It was white and he got players to sign it. I think he must have gotten seven or eight autographs. Later he told me that he was going to give the shirt to Sam. I said to him that it was a good souvenir for him to keep. I thought his response was exceptional for an eleven year old boy. He said that Sam knew more about the team than he did and that Sam had done a lot of good things for him. He felt that the shirt would be more special to Sam than to him. He didn’t know how special.While we were at the game, Grand Mamma took Jewel and Jessica shopping and then to see a movie. They had a big time and were so excited because they got to buy some lip gloss. They wanted the gloss and Mary asked them if it would be OK with their Mom if she bought it for them. After very little thought they suggested that they call their Mom on her cell phone and ask. I think they were surprised that Mom said yes even after Grand Momma assured her it was for little girls. After dinner at McDonalds they came home and were already there when we got back to Sam’s house.
We also went to school carnivals with Mia and the next day we went with all of Sam and Darlene’s kids. We met some new friends they had made and saw their school. We are proud of the way the kids made the transition to their new school. They thought that there was going to be a problem with Steven because of the curriculum differences between the Georgia schools and the North Carolina schools. Even thought he had not been taught what they were learning in the new school, he was able to catch up. He passed the test required for promotion to the sixth grade and made A’s in all but two subjects. He was pleased and we were proud of him and for him. The girls fit right in and are ready for next year.
I think that about every week we had dinner with both of our son’s families at least once. Besides this we had grandkids overnights also. One night Steven and the twins spent the night with us and we went to Stone Mountain for the laser show. We had a long walk and a lot to carry with our chairs, blankets, toys, picnic and a cooler of cokes and water. We were there for a total of five hours so we need supper and drinks. I think the kids enjoyed the show. Sage and Sam have spent a couple of nights with us together while Darlene and her kids were in NC helping her Mom with a big garage sale. She is getting ready to downsize their house after she retires. We sure enjoyed spending the time with Sage; we only get to see her every other weekend so overnights are special.Mia spent more time with us than any of the others. Mary babysat with Mia a couple of days a week to help keep child care cost down while Bill and Liz worked. She also stayed over at our house a lot. I think Bill and Liz looked for reasons for her to spend the night with us while we were in town.
We sure appreciate their generous attitude about that. Mia calls our motor home an ARVE. She can’t quite get RV out yet. She does recognize when we turn and she sees the “big sign” on an arch over the park entry. I think that she knows more about what the switches on the dash are for than I do. I’m writing this on July 12th so we have been gone almost two weeks and we are already missing those grandkids.I played a lot of golf while we were in Atlanta. I am playing better than I ever have in my life. My USGA handicap index came down from 16.0 to 14.5. I’m consistently playing between 80 and 86 and once for the first time I broke 80. I shot a 79. My brother-in-law, Tom Nash, came over and played with me in our annual Senior Member/Guest Tournament. We played a two man best ball and Tom and I had the second best score. The problem is there were three of us who had the same score. After a scorecard playoff we ended up in fourth place. We did have a good time though!! I took one of the senior golf trips over to Aiken, SC. I rode over and was roommates with Tommy Roberts.
We had a lot of fun and even though I did not play great, I did win back the prize money I put up. Tommy had some misfortune with his car and had to miss the third day of play to get repairs done.
