Our Winter 2012 Florida continued.....

     Heading East, we arrived at our first home exchange in Mexico Beach on Florida's panhandle, called The Forgotten Coast.  It is about 30 minutes east of Panama City.  
     It is a beautiful home about 50 ft from the Gulf of Mexico, 3 bedrooms with a view from each room.  Sunsets are perfect every night from the front deck. How awesome to awake each a.m. to the sound of the surf, then to open the drapes and see the beauty of a sunrise over the water.

 This spacious and well cared for home has everything we need for a memorable vacation.
It is hard not to spend all of our day either at the door basking in the view, or out on the deck soaking up the delicious sun or sitting inside and glancing out at the few folks that walk the isolated beach.  Even the seagulls draw my attention with their sweet talk.

Their kitchen is comfortable and cozy, drawing us in.  Just finished making some biscotti and some bruschetta.  Good food enjoyed with lots of love.

 This is the porch that we enjoy the most, watching the sea gulls and sunsets.  How perfect!
This was taken at sunset with the afterglow of the setting sun.

I've already taken about 50 pics of the sun setting, is that enough?  It seems every afternoon it gets more beautiful.  Thank you Lord for such an awesome site.









Okay, is this heaven or what?  Here you have it all, the sound of surf, the sun, the comfort, the sway and the isolation.  Pam, the owner, sure knows how to enjoy life.  I could be here all winter on vacation and still not have enjoyed it enough.

Winter in Florida 2012

   Cold winters in Pa. are a great time for us to travel.  This year it is sunny Florida calling our names.     We exited on January 20 just in time to avoid a 3" snow storm and headed for Charlotte, NC to stay with Julie for a fun few days.  We trailered our speed boat down with Julie's car which she exchanged for our Sebring convertible in Dec when she came home.  Since we began late in the afternoon, trying to dodge the storm,  we decided to spend the night at the Crossroads Inn  on Quantico Air Force base, a spacious suite at a small price.
   

Our first, very unformal, board meeting for BeachTuff was held at Christopher's Restaurant in Matthews, NC.  during this visit.  It is so exciting to see the progress that Julie is making.  She and John are just about ready to sign a contract with the design team, Bolt Group.  The first phase will give us our competition, explore what is on the market and several proposals of design.



   Our next stop over was an overnighter at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.  A suite was available for $42 a night, which included a living area, kitchen and bedroom, quite nice.


The next few days we spent with Betty and Fred in Ft. Walton Beach, Fl who kept us busy with cheerleading competitions and basketball games as well as playing cards and enjoying Betty's good cooking. We always enjoy their great hospitality.    Here are some pics of their back yard and their dock view of the bayou.

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Brandywine Roller Girls Bout

 What a fun and exciting night we had on December 17, 2011 which was the final bout for the Brandywine Roller Girls at Caln Roller Skating Rink in Thorndale, Pa.  Christie, the captain of the Fallen Debutantes, led her team to victory, 144 to 125,  against the Brass Knuckles.  It was a anyone's game until the every end when Christie's team captured the winning points.  Sooo exciting!!!

Since Dec 20 is Christie's birthday, I surprised her by inviting a group of people to come see the game and participate in a birthday celebration as well.  Many of her aunts and uncles came, Julie flew up from North Carolina for 24 hours just to see her play, and even Becky's parents came as well as Clint's neighbors.  She was overwhelmed with amazement, to think they would all show up just for her.

Chad and Becky bought green and yellow shirts and painted them with Decks, her roller derby name, and her age 32, Clint brought a dozen helium balloons with a sign,
Happy Birthday Christie,and     Paul and I made 4 fun signs plus a cake.
                                                                                                                                                                   

Christie and Julie

Paul and his family

Chad, Christie, Julie

Chad, Christie, Becky

Merry Christmas 2011 - Snapshot of Our Year

     Our 2011 year began with adventure with a trip to southern Texas where we took advantage of 3 wonderful home exchanges in New Braunfels, Haligen, and Bafflin Bay.  Our escape from the cold Pennsylvania winter found us in shorts and sandals, enjoying the water, hammocks, boats, birds, rodeos, food, dance halls,  flowers and sunshine of our new Texas friends.

     Our home improvement plan this year was our tool shed which was calling out to us for a remodel.  Paul worked hard at making it happen.  It was repainted, new white picket fence, new plantings, new steps and a sweet new cupola.  Doesn't it look great?   One of our bakery customers thought it was an over night guest house.  

One other big event, especially for Paul was his left knee replacement surgery.  After listening to so many friend's stories,  he entered the hospital with much trepidation, but was only  rewarded with lots of love and a very quick healing.  His "lady friends" took good care of him.

              May found us driving to  Ontario, Canada for a week with a lovely waterfront timeshare exchange.   We scoured the area for good food and gorgeous waterfalls  and found this great artwork on a building downtown.  Seemed to fit us real well!                                                              

     Another highlight  of our year was our annual family Weldon week in the Shennendoah Valley of Virginia.  We had a blast with 8 of us in 3 condos playing golf, riding gondolas, shopping, eating, playing cards and touring the beautiful mountain areas.  We might be old but we sure know how to party and have fun.

Our kids and grandkids are doing well, working hard and just enjoying life.

     Chad and Becky just celebrated their first year of marriage in October with Chad now running The Master's Baker as General  Manager.  They just returned from Cancun, Mexico after a week of R&R in the sun.
     Christie is our lead designer and is very busy as Captain of her Roller Derby team in Downingtown, Pa.
     Clint and Angie just adopted Emery Lynn in July from China, so what an exciting year for them becoming a family of 5. Several surgeries are needed to fix her cleft lip and palate.   Clint began a new job, soon to become a product manager.

Emery Lynn

     Julie is still in Charlotte, NC busy at Price Waterhouse but is actively building a new personal  business called Beachtuff
     Clay and Julie are still with their family of 6 in Park City, Utah, enjoying their activities, working hard,  as well as helping develop the Cross Fit sports program, sponsored by Reebok.
      Greg and Deb and their family of 6 are so busy with their 4  boys.  Greg is working with a friend and Deb is so valuable at the bakery.  Brandon just had knee surgery as well for his ACL so his senior year is void of sports.  

     I wanted to end with a Christmas wish for you all, that you might love the Lord more this coming year, that you might seek to 'walk worthy' of His gift of life, and that you might 'Grace' those that you come in contact with this year.

Merry Christmas with Love,
Paul and Jerie
December 2011

Cherry Blossoms in D.C.

Have you ever lived so close to an event or place that draws millions of vacationers each year, yet you have never seen it?  Every time that I hear about the Cherry Blossom week in Washington, D.C., I think one year I will see that.  This was the year.  After doing lots of research, Paul and I headed south for the day to feast our eyes on the pink Japanese flowering trees. We drove by the basin and enjoyed the colors even though they were a bit spent, just over their peak.



Traffic  and parking were impossible so we found
Union Train Station and parked, then hopped on
a tour bus to view the sites.  We had so many good intentions to see so much but time zipped by so we just viewed most from afar, thinking maybe we should have made this a 2-3 day trip.

We did get to see the Washington monument amidst
the cherry blossoms.  Isn't it such an impressive site?

Another building that we did tour was the National Cathedral with 
all it's regal beauty.  It reminded us of the many cathedrals we saw in Europe.

 We also circled the White House several times so we caught it from all angles.  Talk about impressive.

We also saw the President's helicopter  along with the second helicopter  lifting off, destined to wherever.  It was a good day of sightseeing, finishing it off with a delicious meal at Johnny Rockets, just because we love the 60's music.

Hawaii is looking unlikely.....

 Yesterday, we headed to Sacramento, about an hour North and then into Old Town to look around it's recreated waterfront area and lots of pricey stores.  After about an hour or so, we traveled back down to the Vallejo Ferry for an hour ride into San Francisco to look it over again and do dinner at Joe's Crab Shack

Paul on the Vallejo Ferry

View of Alcatraz from San Fran

Our hopeful trip to Hawaii is looking glim with 3 flights leaving today, Saturday, however 2 went early with 10 seats and 2 seats.  The third one at 2pm with 75 seats disappeared completely for passengers since they were carrying hazardous material.  There are 2 more tomorrow but as of today we have lost our seniority of 60 days and are back to zero.  There are so many families in the terminal with little kids waiting to go to Hawaii.  It is so disappointing, but the earthquake in Japan has disrupted Space A travel as well as Spring Break with kids off school.

Tour the San Francisco area with us

Our day trip around San Fran was a bit wet but didn't deter us as we enjoyed one of our favorite cities.  The harbor area is unique with it's many piers loaded with shops and yummy seafood restaurants, the high rises, it's very high hills(more like small mountains) laced with homes overlooking the harbor, streets that seem almost impossible to climb such as the pic you see above, parks, water, boats and bridges everywhere and smells of sour dough baking along the wharf.

We headed south along the coastal route #1 seeing vast views where the mountains meet the water, sometimes feeling quizzy when the guardrail seemed a bit too close.  Everything was lush green with flowers and trees blooming, crying out ....it's Spring here.  Stopped at an oceanview restaurant for lunch where a ghost,The Blue Lady, inhabits so many say, but we missed her on our visit.

where The Blue Lady resides

We finished our day trip at Half Moon Bay and headed inland to the base where we are staying.  We had hoped to hear good news about our flight to Hawaii but there were only 10 seats available and we were not in the top l0.  So, we will be waiting until Friday where 2 more flights are on the screen with lots of seats.