We've been pretty busy since we got to Silver Spring. The first weekend we were here, we went to a Kentucky Derby party with Jocelyn and Dan. I won $11.00 for chosing the winner Orb! (Actually Bill told me which horse to bet on and I actually listened to him!)

 

The Happy Winner/s!

 

 

Bill and I drove to Baltimore to see the Baltimore Orioles play the San Diego Padres. Unfortunately the final score was Padres 8, Orioles 4:-(

As you can see, we enjoyed ourselves anyway!

 

 

That same week, we visited the Boonsboro Museum which was a fascinating collection of Civil War items as well as collections of china and religious icons. The owner, Doug Bast, lives at the museum and has collected all of the items over many years.



http://www.boonsboromuseum.com/

 

That same day we visited the Chrystal Grotto Caverns which were discovered in 1920. http://www.crystalgrottoescaverns.com/

I was somewhat leery of being underground in a small space but we had a great tour and saw some amazing stalagmites and stalactites which I've never seen in person before!

 

 

 

We've attended 3 of Talli's concerts: 2 choral concerts and one instrumental. Here's TJB playing the trumpet!



 

Last weekend Bill and I volunteered with the Out of Sight Dragon Boat Team who were racing on the Potomac. I'd heard about but never been to Dragon Boat races and we had a great time. The Out of Sight Dragons are literally without sight! A group of blind and visually impaired people with the oldest woman aged 86 and the oldest man aged 85! It was a great way to meet some cool people, guide the paddlers to and from the boats and scream my head off! There are 20 paddlers per boat, a drummer and a steerer. The OSD team filled 16 of the slots and then had other paddlers fill the remaining 4 slots. They raced 3 times on Saturday and they met their goal of bettering their time each race! Very exciting!

 

THE OUT OF SIGHT DRAGON TEAM

 

That's all for now!

Cappy

 



 

 





 

Some great pics!

Papa Nick and Nana Cap with Lucas and Ty the day before we left Gainesville!

Mother's Day photo with Jocelyn and Talli! Two of my favorite Sweet Hearts!

More to come!
Cappy

We kept busy during our last 10 days in Gainesville, FL.
Lunch and coffee and walking dates with new friends, a local arts festival, UF Gymnastics championship, our daughter-in-law Angie's co-ed soccer game, and taking Lucas and Ty to the Hippodrome to see the play Robin Hood which we all enjoyed immensely. Cappy and new friend Lanier after a morning walk!

We packed up and left Gainesville on Monday, April 16th after a wonderful 4 month visit!

Bill and I spent the next two weeks in Atlanta. Bill played golf and tennis with old friends while I went to doctor/dentist appointments, caught up with our godchild Shannon and her Mom, walked and had coffee with several friends, had two visits to Atlanta Habitat, attended St. Luke's, went to a fund raiser for TACC - St. Luke's Training and Counseling Center and went to my book club meeting! During a trip to the Atlanta Botanical Garden, a friend and I delighted in this sculpture!

And at the same time, we were looking at potential places to rent or purchase on our return to Atlanta in late September! I get exhausted just remembering all of our busyness!!

On Monday April 29th, we drove to Chapel Hill, NC as the first part of our journey to Silver Spring, MD. We had dinner with my niece Quaker, her husband Mark and handsome sons, Samuel and Alex. We arrived at our third new home in 8 months on Tuesday, April 30th.

We like our new apartment which is quite a bit larger than our tiny graduate student housing place in Gainesville. Here is Bill posing outside of The Aurora!!!

 

Talli and Dan brought us dinner on our second night in town! You can see how excited we were to see each other again!

 

 

We're REALLY HAPPY to be together again!

 

More later, Cappy

 

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