Next... Sunday morning, we visited the "Contemporary Service" at the First United Methodist Church of Boca Raton with Otts. Then we ate at the Cheesecake Factory, which really is a restaurant (and I ate real food, yummy huge salad).
Sunday afternoon, we drove a short distance to (classmate) Kent and Marta Martindale's, where we stayed through Wednesday morning. Marta and I went for walks through neighborhoods, and up and down between towns, and even over to the ocean! (I also had walked with Adcocks and Jan O.). We ate wonderful food; we watched the movie, "Life is Beautiful"; we laughed. We missed Marcelo, who was away at college, but did get to say Hello by phone.
Kent as chef
Marta, Kent, Laura and John in their kitchen
Captain Kent
Enjoying the sun (in our own ways)
Enjoying warm breezes (Captain Kent in background)
Pink Tower at Boca Raton. Jan: this one's for you!
Lots of lizards (iguanas) along the way
On Delray Beach
With my "sister" Marta and the shawl she gave me
Farewell for now
Wednesday, we drove back up to Orlando, found our hotel, and called John and Toni Genitti (with whom we used to go to church and for whom I used to work at Genitti's restaurant). We were told the Genittis were already in Florida by Sher Watkins, who we were surprised to see at the Detroit airport when we were flying out of Detroit.) So we had dinner and more fun with them! When we drove to dinner, we encountered a particularly long traffic light, and John G. commented "While you are waiting for that light, you could raise a family!" Ha!
In our Orlando hotel with the Genetti's
That was Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, we returned the rental car, and flew out to Philadelphia, where Carrie picked us up! We are now in Manayunk in Philadelphia.
Visiting the Adcocks - Leesburg, FL We spent the first part of our vacation visiting our friends the Adcocks, who were friends with my parents before my parents were married, and who provided great hospitality to us.
We also got to see the Longs, more "Calvary" friends from my childhood.
In this photo:
John; Laura; Leah; Gene; Jean; Bill.
The Otts - Delray area Then we saw the always deeply fun (and fun-ly deep) Bishop Don and Jan Ott. He was John's Bishop when John was a Distrit Superintendent.
I could hardly believe I forgot to wear red on Friday. However, I searched through some moving boxes and found a red shirt, washed it, and wore it Sunday. Also, I did wear red on Saturday! John and I skied in a park within walking distance. I was dressed rather warmly for the day, and the snow was wet in spots. But it was good to be out, even for one loop!
I drove up north to my parents' Wednesday for my mom's cataract surgery on Thursday. She seems to be healing well. The doctor and staff took good care of her. And my dad has been taking excellent care of her, including scrubbing up like a surgeon multiple times per day to administer her pre- and post-op eye drops.
I wore the Bar Harbor, Maine sweater from Bonnie to represent Bonnie, who had her own doctor's appointment that day.
The surgery was at the hospital in Alpena, so I had a chance for a brief "Hello!' with classmate Terri Caruso, who works at a bank up there.
Mom was recuperating so well that I slipped out a couple times to cross-country ski through their field and into the woods. Deep, pure, quiet, crisp, clear, cold, beauty.
I drove home Saturday, just as John was finishing up at church, and we returned the car that was very kindly and generously loaned to John by the Bryans.