Back in Naples

Day 1, "Every picture has a story"

We were with friends Barb and Terry last night for dinner at the Fish House.  I met them in 2011 but Terry has known them for a longer time.  Terry D. is a retired physician while Barb worked for SS.  They both play tennis.  The first year I played tennis it was mostly singles with Terry.  Now both of us seldom play singles as doubles is the game of the day.  We visited them in their new home in Hudson WI this summer.  Terry is on my team and a great support all the time.  A nice picture to start a new "picture" thing!

We arrived yesterday just in time to view the senate confirmation of our new supreme court justice.  I am NOT going to get into that whole area but need to say that our culture, our society has become sad and scary to say the least.  Our trip was nice.  We arrived in Madison WI Monday afternoon to find Leo and Ruby home early from school.  Amy was on a business trip and came home on Tuesday.  It was a pleasant visit with Amy/Aaron and family as the last time we saw them was on our way to Naples a year ago.  On Wednesday morning we headed to South Bend to spend time with Mary/John and family.  To our delight and astonishment they took the kids out of school Thursday and John took the day off so they could spent it with us.  We drove to Amish country and had a delightful time.  We had lunch at an Amish cafe and walked through several furniture stores.  Terry fell in love with one of the beautiful tables and I found several items that would so fit into our homes!!!  We actually did look with a "purpose" as the china buffet and hutch in St. Paul is so so huge.  I think it would be nice to only have a buffet without the hutch so that we could free up some wall space BUT there is always the issue of time/money/prorities so we only "looked" at this point.  It is dangerous for me to look at well designed and built wooden furniture.  As I look at that sentence it sounds strange but I think I said what I wanted to say!  It was a fun fun day and it still blows my mind that as a family of 6 they ALL took a day to spend with us.  

We headed south early Friday morning.  We left South Bend in the dark of morning and arrived in Forsyth GA in the dark of night.  Not my favorite driving menu for sure.  Our destination was PeachTree City GA where Terry's daughter lives with her family.  A change of plans was in order.  A person would be hard pressed to find a family of 6 more busy and it turned out to be TOO busy this weekend.  Terry's daughter Kim was out of town for an athletic event, her grand daughter was at an event and one of the sons Josh,  was out of town at a wedding.  We like to visit the kids at college during their first year but it was not to be this fall for Josh.  SO it was "by-pass" PeachTree City and head straight for Naples.  With a 1300 mile trip from South Bend to Naples it was a no-brainer to save some time driving.   On Friday we drove 750 miles in a LONG 12+ hour drive as we sat in traffic for about an hour.  Then yesterday it was 550 miles with a start time of 8:00 AM and an arrival time of 3:20.  I do most of the driving so by the time we arrived I was ready to get out of the car BIG time!  Our pool was so inviting yesterday afternoon that I HAD to take a quick swim.  It felt good "for sure" as Elspeth would say.

I will be on a mission this morning in a short time.  NO food in the house to speak of so it will be a short trip to Publix for eggs etc.  I did find my coffee this morning so it was a FP morning already and of course that starts the day out GREAT!  Enough for now.