2015 Part 4

Part 3 ended with me waxing a bit nostalgically about my 50th high school reunion last August, and threatening to cast you as an extra in my own personal version of American Graffiti. I might still do that, but not until it gets a little warmer. It's hard to cruise with the top down when your rag top is frozen to your windshield. For now, I'd like to move on with my review of 2015.

September

For the past several years, Nancy and I have celebrated the end of summer with our Labor Day Listening Room get-together (see previous post LDLR for the background on this tradition). 2015 was no exception. But before the crowd arrived there were just a few chores to tend to. Nancy saw to the bulk of the inside prep, readying bedrooms, laying in provisions, vacuuming carpets, whipping up a culinary surprise or two. And it fell to me to deal with the great outdoors. This is normally limited to mowing the grass (I wouldn't go so far as to call it lawn), neatening up bins of beach equipment and toys, and sweeping the deck and gazebo. This year I had a couple of extra jobs. The first was hacking a safe path through the pines from our front yard to the new neighbors' yard, to accommodate our new found friendship. So taking cutting tools in hand, I went to work. Here are a few action shots for the record, some exposing my better side.

And a shot of the final victory. Notice the lack of band aids.

Of course, there is this minor benefit of such a project to the local wildlife. In the forest we call a pile of wood trimmings a chipmunk hotel. Coco, on the other hand, views this as bait for a new chew toy.

My other job was to hang the new gazebo lights. Fewer tools involved, but a ladder. Yikes. Here I am in lofty repose worrying the last strand into place.

And a shot of my trusty assistant resting up from the hunt.

So now with all the equipment and signage in place, 

it was time to start the party. I think it was about 5:00.

Here I am, enjoying a quiet cup of Joe before the storm.

As usual, guests came and went over the next three days or so, bringing barely enough food to feed an army, and each taking his or her respective turns providing an hour of music drawn from carefully prepared playlists (or in some cases, from an iPod put on shuffle). Here are some shots of the action. This first one is of Jim Wyatt, sporting an appropriate party shirt.   

And his bride Mary, seen here engaging in some sort of canine yoga stretches with Abby, the Reinhart dog (and Coco's guest for the weekend).

 

Speaking of Abby, here she is with the animal management team (Justin Reinhart, Nancy and me) greeting Coco. This is a tricky ritual requiring just the right amount of leash and preparatory cocktails.

Here is a post-greeting shot of Abby, obviously at ease in her multiple-pet environment as she samples one of the many yard art items that also serve as snout-high drinking sources.

A bit later this shot was taken of Coco doing her best to explain to one of Abby's handlers (Miranda Reinhart, with mother Deandra looking on) just what chew toys were off limits to guests.

This picture effectively exhibits the nerdier side of the listening room phenomenon (without which, I might add, the event would not survive). Here are Jim and his mentee Quinton Anderson proudly presenting the magnetic board that lists the order (established by a draw of cards) in which weekend attendees will be making their musical offerings. It is not connected to the Internet and never needs recharging. But it does have sort of a touch screen feel.

  

Of course there is more to the Wiser Times listening room than just music. There is lounging on the beach, 

Enjoying a quiet moment in the fresh air on the deck, checking your upcoming music selections,

And the occasional evening beach fire.

And there are occasional crashers. Coco and Abby were instrumental in keeping this unruly horde at bay (or I guess in this case, at lake).

 

But the highlight each day remains happy hour (or as Miranda once noted "the happy two-hours"). Here are some shots of all of us sitting around being "happy". First, Jim and Mary enjoying the festivities from the cozy family room sofa.

  

Here are Linda Mathews and Nancy weighing in from the highly coveted wicker rockers.

And this typical group shot of yours truly, Miranda on the floor, Justin and Jeff Reinhart sitting around the expanded dining room table, and Pat Rouan holding forth from the wicker captain's chair. Judging from our expressions, I'm guessing the libations are having their desired effect.

According to my planner pages, we've gotten together for the listening room at Wiser Times every year since 2006. That would make this one our 10th. And they've all been a gas. Here is the traditional dinner shot of this year's crowd, happy and glowing, either from a day in the sun or a glass full of liquid sunshine. From left to right around the table Quinton, Jeff, Deandra, Pat, Linda, me, Nancy, daughter Christine, Mary, Jim, Miranda and Justin.  

The weekend after the listening room, we had the honor of attending the wedding of our "vacation" daughter Taryn Dyle to her beau Sam Kim. It was a beautiful setting, held outside of the conservatory on Belle Isle. Here are a few shots from the day. First, Nancy and I and our kids Matt, Cathy and Christine decked out in our party clothes.

The proud father Dave walking his daughter down the "aisle".

And the happy couple completing the ceremony in grand style.

Later, during the reception held at a pavilion just down from the conservatory, Taryn and Sam donned traditional garb for a special ceremony honoring Sam's Korean heritage. After observing the various American and Korean customs and festivities, I would say the couple is thoroughly married. 

One last notable event in my life occurred in September. Daughter Christine eschewed her east side roots and moved to Madison Heights. She now lives closer to her friends than to her parents :-( The bright side of this change (other than the fact that Christine herself is quite happy with the move) is that I feel I have finally, after all these years, fulfilled my parental contract for moving kids. It's been a long road. Many back and forth trips to colleges, a son to Texas, a daughter to Virginia, and now Christine to The Heights. So here is likely the last picture you'll ever see of me standing next to a vehicle I own jammed full of an offspring's possessions. Free at last. Free at last. Thank St. Christopher, I'm free at last.

 

October

After a few lunches with friends (one of my favorite pastimes) the first week of the month, Nancy and I headed out for our traditional fall trip south. This time we planned a stopover in Washington, D.C., to revisit some favorite haunts from our working years, and maybe to take in a monument or two. As our family rule is that road trip fun begins at the end of our driveway, we always enjoy the road. We often take audio books, but usually spend an equal amount of time listening to music and local radio stations. Here are a couple of shots from the first day, of fall descending on the northern Alleghenies along the Pennsylvania turnpike. The pictures never do justice to the grandeur of vista.

Now, at this point I should be sharing a few pictures of those old favorite haunts in D.C., with Nancy and me in the foreground. You know, places like the Old Ebbitt Grill, the Embassy Suites at 22nd and N, the food court at the Old Post Office Pavilion, or any number of spots at the Smithsonian. But no. None of that will be presented here. Due to whacking her foot a day or so before the trip, Nancy was in some pain and not up to traipsing around the nation's capitol. So after settling into our Alexandria motel that night, we worked on a new plan for the next day.

As over the years we have traveled by car all over the country, most times taking the most direct route available, we are always looking for opportunities to take what we call "new road". That would be a route, usually a US highway, that we had never been on before. Here was one of those opportunities. We were not due into Disney's Hilton Head resort for another day, and we had never traveled down the coasts of North or South Carolina. So we plotted a course down I-64 and a state highway or two in southeastern Virginia all the way to the barrier island town of Corolla, North Carolina. On the way we passed through Norfolk and one of those spooky bridge/tunnels where you drive under large naval vessels passing overhead.

 

And for good measure, here is a shot of one of those large naval vessels, waiting for the traffic to clear.

Before driving out to our seaside hotel room for the night, we dropped by the local national monument - Kitty Hawk. It was cool. And as a proud holder of a national parks senior lifetime pass, it was free. There is the customary pavilion with a replica of the Wright brothers' first aircraft,

and a series of stone markers laying out distances of the first four flights.   

After perusing a variety of possible souvenirs from this historic spot, I opted for a couple of post cards that I sent to my grandkids in Texas. I'm doing my best to turn them into history junkies, too. 

Heady from walking on hallowed ground, Nancy and I retired to our accommodations for the night and celebrated the day's adventure, in the usual way (the Wiser's travel pack is standard travel equipment). The hotel was very nice with all the usual amenities including a walk over to a very secluded section of the Atlantic beach (Corolla is about 15 miles north of the nearest cross over to the mainland; sort of in the middle of nowhere). Here are a couple of shots of the beach being enjoyed by a variety of sand critters.

And of the hotel and walk over. In the first shot, our room was the third balcony from the right on the second floor. 

Now back to new road. After a peaceful night's rest by the sea, Nancy and I headed south to Hilton Head. One thing I didn't realize before this trip was just how far the North Carolina coast is from I-95. It's like 100 miles. So having found our way to the ocean, our most direct route back to civilization was US 17, which we took for the entire length of North and South Carolina, all the way to the causeway out to Hilton Head Island. It was interesting, but a little longer than we would have preferred. In North Carolina, the first 100 miles or so back from the barrier islands winds itself in a generally southwest direction through what must be thousands of acres of swamp. Excuse me. Wetlands. And all of it looks just like this.

Or this.

  

Once you get out of the swamp and down to the coast around Jacksonville, South Carolina, US 17 runs along the ocean and is much more interesting. But you almost can't get there from here.

Late on our third day out we arrived at a favorite vacation spot, Disney's Hilton Head resort. We've been there many times and very much enjoy the island's sights and many fine eating establishments. And the resort is beautiful, located on its own little island on the inter-coastal side and nested in a stand of live oaks. I don't think I've shared much about Hilton Head in previous posts, so I'll do a little here. First a shot of the main lodge building, that includes the front desk, recreational and guest service areas, and a variety of guest rooms.

The rest of the resort is housed in several outbuildings. An attractive feature of the Hilton Head property is that the rooms have the largest balconies of any Disney resort. We've spent many hours lounging on and communing with nature from these balconies, many of which are high within the live oaks. 

This is a shot of the boardwalk that rims the rich wetlands around which several of the resort's buildings sit.

And a couple of pics of the grounds, equipped with a variety of devices for relaxing outside and enjoying the quiet surroundings.

Across the island to the ocean side, Disney also provides a large recreation area with a second pool and dining area, and direct access to the beach.

Another area of Hilton Head that we frequent when visiting there is the Sea Pines Resort. It's part fancy golf club (hosting a PGA event every year) and part tourist trap (some very high class tee shirt and shot glass shops). Here are a few shots of this fun spot. First, the pier area (note the local beach bunny) and the well-known candy-striped lighthouse.

Sea Pines also has some very impressive live oaks. I'd love to have one of these in my front yard. Note the extended low-hanging limb in the final shot. It's about 50 feet long and only 18 inches off the ground at its lowest point. Remarkable.

After chilling at Hilton Head we headed down to Zephyrhills to check on my mother. She was doing just fine, enjoying the Florida retirement life and keeping up with her soaps. Here are a couple of shots of her prepping her cards for a round of cut-throat bingo (the only kind they play in Sun City). In the first, she'd just discovered a security breach in the official bingo card storage locker. In the second, she's relieved to find that her lucky cards were still available. Like I said. Cut throat.

And a final shot of the two Mrs. Burks listening to their regular bartender mixing up a favorite libation for happy hour, which was imminent.

During our stay in Florida, we ambled down to Captiva Island for a few days to hang out with our friends Robyn and Dave Dyle. I've posted about their place at the South Seas Resort before, as we visit there often, but I never get tired of sharing thoughts about this beautiful and secluded spot. Here's the view we have overlooking the pool and the Gulf from the third floor lanai.

And a shot of the fine sandy beach, a wonderful spot for shelling.

A favorite activity on Captiva is golf at the ocean front executive course. This gem is about the prettiest nine holes you could hope for. Here is the vista from the fifth tee. Hard keeping your head down.

Here's a shot of Dave, winding up to whack that little pill. Note the extra ball in Dave's right front pocket. With the water on this course, you never want to get too far from your cart without backup.

The only real drawback at the Captiva course is the cadre of hard-nosed course rangers, always pecking at you to speed up play. Here's a shot of one keeping an eagle (or really an osprey) eye on our foursome as we line up our third (and for some of us, fourth) putts.

After a restful two weeks on the road, we made our way north to settle in for late fall and the holidays. And a couple of traditional family celebrations. Nancy's birthday,

and Halloween. Here's a shot of the kids, still dressing up in their 30s for a party, Cathy and Matt as the sun and the moon (or depending on how they are standing, an eclipse), and Christine as the pumpkin queen from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Still fun, after all these years.

Well, a busy couple of months. I'll wrap this post up at this point and go for a finish on 2015 with a Part 5. I'm anxious to put 2015 to bed and get on with 2016.