WOW! Just 10 more days before we leave Gainesville! Here's some of the fun stuff we've been up to.

On Saturday, March 9th, we were invited to the 90th Birthday Party for Angie's grandfather!!! There were over 40 of her relatives on her mother's side including 11 great-grandchildren! Joe and Angie guided all of us through the production of a video which you can view on youtube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiHATel97Fk

As you can see, Papapa has got some great moves!!!

Bill and I have continued checking out some of the UF sports including baseball, women's lacrosse and tennis. It's been great having free or very low cost sports available with only 30-40 minutes of walking!

On March 14th, I spent the morning with Lynda Knight who is the Mom of Susanna Roberts from St. Luke's in Atlanta. Lynda babysits for her 8 month old Gainesville granddaughter and we had fun chatting and smiling at the baby for over 3 hours!

We've been to the theater a couple of times and The Harn Museum of Art which is a wonderful gift to the Gainesville Community.

The week of March 25th, we spent our days with Lucas and Ty who were on spring break. Our grandsons slept in late and enjoyed lots of video games which they can't play when they are in school. Here's Papa Nick relaxing while the boys play video games!!!

Ty had a sleepover with a friend one night so we went to dinner with Lucas shown below wearing Papa Nick's hat and glasses.

On Maundy Thursday, we went to a Seder at Holy Trinity followed by a Eucharist and foot washing service which is always a holy week highlight for me.

We went out to dinner with Joe and Angie....... just adults after a week with kids!

 

 

I've got a couple of coffee and lunch dates planned before we leave town.

But the most important thing happened yesterday. I got my hair cut !!!!!!!!



 

More later!
Cappy

On Thursday, February 21, I drove to Micanopy, a small town about 12 miles SW of Gainesville. I spent a lovely morning with a delightful woman I met on a plane ride from Gainesville to a workshop back in January. We talked for hours, she let me into the Micanopy History Museum where she is a volunteer and supporter and then relaxed at her house sitting out on a deck with a spectacular view of Lake Wauberg! Another great reminder that we meet wonderful people everywhere!

The following day, Bill and I drove to Cedar Key which is west of Gainesville on the Gulf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedar_Key_Historical_Museum

At one time, this tiny tourist town of 702 was a thriving town and port with rail access.

On Wednesday, February 27, Bill and I (along with about 2,000 of our closest friends) stood on line for over an hour to get free tickets to see Maya Angelou. When we were about 15 people from the door, they ran out of tickets!!!! Along with the several hundred folks behind us, we were disappointed and it was amazing to see how many people wanted to see Maya Angelou!

We continue enjoying our family time with Ty, Lucas, Angie and Joe!

More later,
Cappy

Since I last posted, I've been busy with physical therapists for my back and my arm. I've got tendinitis in my left arm which started bothering me in mid November. I finally decided that it wasn't going away and started seeing someone about it. Just yesterday I realized that it hadn't bothered me as much as usual which is great news!!!!

 Being so close to the University of Florida has been great. In past weeks we've done our morning walks there, gone to an A Cappella concert/competition, basketball games and tennis matches. I'm also slowly making friends from Holy Trinity Church.

Stopping for Mochi's frozen treats during one of our campus walks!

In addition to cars, here are the top 3 modes of transportation in Gainesville:
Bill's and my preferred method!

The football stadium is open for walking and one can always take a picture with the bull gator!

 

 

Holy Trinity Church, in partnership with other Gainesville congregations, participates in something called Interfaith Hospitality Network. The partner congregations host homeless families for a week at a time providing a place to stay, meals, and transportation to work and school.

 

Holy Trinity hosted 3 families with 7 kids between them. Bill and I volunteered to play with the kids one evening between dinner and bedtime.



We had lots of fun with a family of 4 girls, 2 sets of twins, playing air hockey with Maika and holding Caleb while watching Maika and his Mom play air hockey.

 

More to come later!

Cappy

We've been living in Gainesville for 5 1/2 weeks already!! We arrived on December 16th and got happily caught up in the Christmas holiday festivities!

We joined Joe, Angie, Lucas, Ty, Lytha, Will, Brian and Melissa (Jason and Joe's step siblings and spouse) on Christmas eve day for the 4th Annual Disfunctional Family Olympics. Jason started this tradition and creates 5 or 6 fun activities for people who range in age from 9-72! We played softball, concentration, the Dating Game, had a 3 legged race + carrying raw eggs on spoons and pie/ice cream eating contests and more. It was great fun!

Shared secret Santa presents and then Bill and I went to Holy Trinity for carol singing and 11pm eucharist. We had helped decorate the church the week we arrived so it was wonderful seeing it all lit up at night. The music was wonderful!!

Since Christmas, we have gone to Lucas' basketball games, seen both University of Florida women's and men's basketball games, gone to several movies and walked a lot! From our apartment we can walk to church, the UF campus, lots of restaurants, a theater and Starbucks!

On Saturday 12/29, Bill and I visited the home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings in Cross Creek, Florida. She lived there for 25 years and that is where she wrote her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Yearling. It's a state park and offered a fascinating view of her life. We learned that she had lived in Rochester, NY where she and her husband, Charles Rawlings wrote for the Rochester Journal and Marjorie wrote a syndicated column called "Songs of the Housewife". While living in Rochester, she visited Cross Creek and fell in love with it.
http://www.floridastateparks.org/marjoriekinnanrawlings/

Then on 12/30 we celebrated Bill's birthday with pizza and ice cream and a trip to Micanopy with Joe, Angie, Lucas and Ty. Micanopy is a little town just outside of Gainesville which is known for antique shops.

Around the 2nd or 3rd of January, the students started returning and the city got a lot busier. We have 2 small children living upstairs so we often hear the patter of little/big feet!

I've started attending Bible studies at Holy Trinity and some women's groups and have met some nice people whom I'm hoping to get to know better. Bill has found some tennis groups and could play tennis every day of the week if he wanted to!

Ty and Lucas had a day off from school on Friday, 1/18 so we took them to St. Augustine, Fl. Founded in 1565 it is  the  oldest continuously occupied  European-established city and port in the continental United States. We visited the pirate museum and fort and had lots of fun.

Oh no! We moved this anchor to the wrong place!

Yikes! They caught us!

Pirate Papa Nick looking good!

 

Tomorrow we're going to the first Friday of the month City of Gainesville Art Walk and then Lucas' basketball game in the evening.

 

More later,

Cappy



The Saturday before we left Marco Island, we met Karen, Johnny and Tommy in Ave Maria. They surprised us with a tour of the Everglades! It was a beautiful day and we saw lots of alligators sunning themselves.

Some pictures of the alligator explorers!

We left Marco Island on Sunday, December 16th and arrived in Gainesville around 3pm in the afternoon. We're living in University of Florida graduate student housing in downtown Gainesville called The Continuum.
www.thecontinuumforufgrads.com/ 

We have a small 2 bedroom/2 bath roomate apartment which works great! More about our life in Gainesville in my next post.

Cappy

I can't believe it but we're almost at the end of our time on Marco Island! We move to Gainesville, FL this Sunday, December 16th!
It's been a busy time bringing our lives here to a close.
Saying good bye to new friends, women in St. Mark's weekly Bible study, fellow students
in my Spanish class and the Collier County Habitat for Humanity team.

This past Tuesday, I got to go on a field trip with Tommy's class. We went to the children's museum and had a great time!

Here is Tommy with Nana Cap on the bus.

Tommy and Ms. LeCompte playing catch with a clementine at our indoor picnic.

 Tommy LOVED the Igloo because there was a wall of ice which felt good!

Yesterday and today, running errands and getting the cars ready for the trip. We'll pack up tomorrow, have one last visit with John, Karen, Johnny and Tommy and then hit the road on Sunday after the 8am service.

I will miss this beautiful place and the ocean which has been such a gift!
Cappy

WOW! It's been 30 days since my last post! Lots has been going on starting with
volunteer orientation at Tommy's school. This was required for me to visit with him
in his classroom. I got to participate in a Fun Friday where we made edible pumpkins and
to his speech therapy and OT classes. I'm happy to be getting to know Tommy better!

I've been going to a wonderful physical therapist 2-3 times a week and she's really helping
me with my back!

Bill and I had dinner with some Kodak friends, Jim and Linda Moxley. It was fun to
catch up on "the old days".

On November 10th, I went to some Collier County Habitat dedications. There were 6 home
owners, all of whom had been in their homes for some time. They dedicated all of the homes
at the same time in one of the homeowners' back yards. It was very sweet. Part of the dedications
were translated into Spanish and Creole.
Along with lots of other volunteers, I helped get out a major year end holiday mailing for Habitat and
am helping to make some corrections to their database.

We went to all of Johnny's football games which was great fun! And Bill (sometimes with my help) helped get Johnny to and from football practice.

Then on 11/17, Jocelyn, Dan and Talli arrived for a 6 day visit! We had lots of fun some of which you can see in these photos.

It was great for Talli and Johnny to have another young person! We spent a lot of time doing skits. Two people would be given a scenario and the acting began! It was obvious very quickly who had and didn't have acting talent! Lots of laughter and fun! We rented bikes including a 4 person surrey and biked around Marco Island.

The cold water didn't keep Talli from boogie boarding. She even caught a few waves!
I prefer the pool which is much warmer.

We spent Thanksgiving together and had a delicious meal and, of course, more skits!

(Johnny, Jocelyn, Dan, Talli, Bill and Karen)

The week after Thanksgiving, Bill and I went bike riding again. I love spending so much time outdoors!

I'm off tonight to St. Mark's for the third class in the "Bad Girls of the Bible" series. The first class was about Eve, the second, Rahab and tonight is Potiphar's wife. Between my weekly bible study and this class, I'm sure learning a lot!

Bill and I are starting our preparations to leave Marco Island in less than 2 weeks. We'll depart on
Sunday, 12/16 and move into our student housing apartment in Gainesville, Fl the same day.

Stay tuned!

Have a blessed Advent season!
Cappy