Vero Beach - February 8-24

 We are with the folks in Vero Beach for just over two weeks. John is taking a well-deserved break.

  Usually when we are here, the weather is not great, but this time, it has been in the high 70s and low 80s.
   Highlights:

The MAJOR highlight came on Barbara's birthday with the birth of         in Littleton, NH to Liz and Nick. Talk about a birthday present!

Later, we met Bob and Diane R at Siam Garden for dinner and then went to Vero Beach High School to see their production of Annie.

Mike and Nancy visited en route to Jacksonville and we all had a nice lunch together.

Barbara is working on editing the Anna Gardner book with some great help from Fran and her corrections and comments. Input has also been helpful from Frank M. and from Jecca.

Lunch with Helen T at the apartment she is renting this year. We chatted (a little) about the book for Book Club, Transatlantic, and took a little walk around her neighborhood.

We went to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Majestic Theater, part of National Theatre Live. It was well acted and, as it is Tennessee Williams, very intense.

On the recommendation of the Hutchesons, we went to see Black Panther, too, based on Marvel Comics. We enjoyed it - it is formulaic, but well done, well acted, beautifully filmed and...great to have a play with black heroes. And, for good measure, it was also thought-provoking.

We watched a lot of Olympics with Grandma and Grandpa - lots of curling and figure skating. (U.S. men won gold in curling.)

When John came home from Georgia, we had a nice family dinner at Poinciana.

Miami Beach Timeshare, Feb 5-8

 We left Denise and Jack's and came back to the timeshare. We are tired of big meals so hope to eat mostly salads while we are here and to really do nothing but relax for a few days.
  The first day, all we did was to do a bit of grocery shopping, mail Valentine's to the "grands" and sit by the pool for a bit. (Quite windy and the ocean is quite cold, but a beautiful color.)

Wedding in Coral Gables, Feb 2 - 4

 What a wonderful wedding!
 We drove from Vero to Coral Gables with a stop in Lake Worth for sushi and to buy a few Thai flower ornaments for Barbara's hair. Then, on to Coral Gables where we had booked a HomeAway months ago.

  Julia and Randall had scheduled a beach wedding in Islamorada which had to be moved because of hurricane damage. They were lucky to get the Coral Gables Biltmore Hotel, a grand hotel.
  Our HomeAway bungalow, unfortunately, was double booked, and the owner, Nick, offered to let us stay in his house (with his dog) for one night. We were a bit ambivalent as it meant sharing a bathroom and not being in the full apartment. But - our choice was to move to an expensive place, so we took a gamble.

  One problem was that we had to wait 45 minutes for him to arrive to let us in. The room itself was a bit small and cluttered and had only a double bed, but....it was clean and adequate and we are far from fussy.

   So, after we moved in, we went to the Sheraton to pick up Ted and Bev. We didn't know if we'd join the folks, Sandy and John at the Biltmore for a light dinner, or go out with Ted and Bev. As it turned out, like so many events involving a lot of people, the dinner grew to a large group with about 20 people. We ended up staying for dinner which was overpriced, but we went with the flow.
   The next morning, we got up pretty early and joined Ted and Bev for a breakfast buffet at the Sheraton and then went to the Biltmore where Mike and Nancy had reserved a cabana for the family. Some people, especially the kids, enjoyed the gigantic pool. We stayed for a few hours and then dropped Ted and Bev off and thought we'd get into our bungalow - finally. Unfortunately, it still was not quite ready, so we went to Havana Harry's for a late lunch.

Wow! What a find! We had a chicken/plantain/yucca dish which Nick had told us was big enough to split. Then, we ordered an appetizer of ceviche. There was so much food that I don't think that we finished even half and it was only about $32. It is a definite to visit next time we go to Coral Gables.
   Afterwards, Nick was finished cleaning and we finally got into the bungalow and had to rush to get showered and ready for the wedding.

   The wedding was lovely. It did have to be moved inside because it was spitting rain, which was a bit unfortunate, but the inside venue was also lovely. It went without a hitch - totally beautiful in every aspect. Sawyer and James walked down the aisle and Chris and Shelley were Matron and Maid of Honor.
   The reception was in a grand ballroom with a very good band, although a bit loud for the room. Grandma and Grandpa were in wheelchairs to make life easier. We saw with them, Mike and Nancy, Nancy's brother, Bob, his wife Kristen and Denise, Nancy's sister-in-law.

    We all had fun- they had a photo booth and people were encouraged to take silly photos and it was a big success. We took a fun one with Ted, Bev, Dennis and Mark.
   The next morning, we went to Carol and Randy Berg's house in Coral Gables for a fabulous breakfast buffet. It was wonderful and we got a chance to chat with Randall's side of the family a bit more. (And- stuffed our faces!)

  Afterwards, we drove to a timeshare in North Miami Beach. Weirdly, it is the same rather dilapidated one where we stayed a number of years ago. But, it will be fine for a few days. We dropped our bags and went to stay with Denise and Jack in Fort Lauderdale where we watched the Superbowl. We are tepid football fans, but it was an interesting game. The Patriots were going for their 6th SuperBowl against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles won in a quite exciting game.

Jack is a true fan of the Patriots and watched the game intently and intensely. Denise made a wonderful chicken chili with cornbread and we had a good time.

Vero Beach with Bob and Diane, Jan 31, Feb 1

  We drove from Atlantic Beach to Vero Beach on the 31st. We are staying with Bob and Diane because John is staying in Vero and Sandy was expected the next day.
  We dropped off our luggage and went to see the folks next and we stayed for the afternoon.

  Mark made a wonderful cajun shrimp dinner with wild rice. Diane made roasted brussel sprouts and a salad. It was a nice meal with nonstop conversation until later than we usually head to bed.
  The second day, we spent the bulk of the day with the folks. Sandy had arrived with a big Ford Flex to be able to take the folks to the wedding in Coral Gables comfortably.
  We met Bob and Diane at 12aBuoy, one of our favorite Fort Pierce restaurants. Both of us, predictably, had ahi tuna. Then, we had another nice evening of conversation.

Atlantic Beach, January 28-30

 We drove in continual rain and with a lot of traffic from Atlanta to Atlantic Beach, including some very heavy downpours. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch, half of which we took in a doggy bag to eat later. We arrived at Michael and Nancy's condo around 7:45, tired. They aren't here as they are in Lake Worth preparing for Julie and Randall's wedding.

The next morning we caught up on laundry, and emails, phone calls etc. We went shopping and Mark got a new pair of shoes. It was cold and drizzly most of the day, but just before sunset, we did get to the beach for a few minutes.

  On the next day, the 30th, we drove to one of the Mayport Shrimp places and got shrimp, both for lunch in a salad and to take to Vero Beach to have a meal with Diane and Bob R. The sun is finally out, but it has struggled to reach 50 degrees. Mark made a chicken soup to take over to Mike and Christina's.

   We took a nice long walk down to the main part of Atlantic Beach. Brrr!

   Then, we went over to Bowles Avenue, where we helped Mike and Chris and family move a year ago. What a difference a year makes.  We saw it before they had furniture etc. It looks great. They have added a front porch and are in contract to add a second story.

   Chris and Mike have an au pair from S. Africa living with them, too. She has only been here about 3 weeks.