The Ritz, Amelia Island, and Life

Sarah, Benjamin, and I spent most of last week at Amelia Island, FL. It’s just outside of Jacksonville about 30 minutes or so. She spent half days in lectures and then we spend the other half at the beach – or recovering from the beach. Benjamin had a great time although he really wore himself out after about 30-45 minutes of digging in the sand. The first day it took him a little while to figure out what to do with the waves. By the end of the week he was walking through them fine. We spent the late afternoons in downtown Fernandina – which is on Amelia Island – the older downtown portion of the island. We experienced a good sampling of restaurants and have several recommendations if anyone ever heads that way. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton during the week. It was really nice but I was a little out of my element. I’d rather have rented a house on the beach for the week. Their service was really outstanding – but everything was quite pricey. Just to have a plain-jane cup of coffee ended up costing me $5 in the little restaurant there – if I had really eaten a meal for breakfast it would have been between $18 & $23 just for me. The weather really held up well. A couple of evenings Sarah and I swapped who was helping Benjamin settle down for bedtime. Each of us went to the beach for a walk or run as the sun was setting.

Benjamin also got to meet Sarah’s grandparents. They had a blast with him and he really showed off his new cool walking routine. We hadn’t seen them in about 3 years so it was good to catch up with them. One of them gave Benjamin a new toy – but he was more interested in the box it came in for the first day or so.

I’ll post a link sometime with a few pictures.

In other news – we should be officially closing on our house in KY today. We’re doing it by mail so there is always the potential for something to come up but hopefully by tomorrow we’ll have the all clear signal. Once that’s done we can start doing all of our lovely change of address notification and figuring out the moving date.

Benjamin is really walking well. Depending on his motivation he may even run a little (ie if there is food involved). He’s definitely gotten longer and I think he cut 3 more teeth while we were at the beach.

Wine, Coffee, and Cracker Barrell

Our family spent an extended weekend in Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend. We spent the first day on job and housing related matters and then ventured over to Bowling Green to visit with Sarah's family. On Friday and Saturday we had a great time with her Sister and our little 5 yr old Nephew. Sunday we went to church with Sarah's mom and dad at the gigantic church of Wrightsburg Free Methodist - big attendance of a little over 10 - including the pastor. Great people - just not much growth in a long time. We had lunch at the Lighthouse resturant that overlooks the Green River. Great all you can eat southern cooking that really puts Mamma Penns to shame. After lunch we spent the afternoon with our friends Bob & Gina and their family. They adopted us as their own children while we were in Madisonville, KY a few years back. Sunday night was lounging time - then Memorial Day I spent visiting my friend Charlie and then having a steak-cookout with Sarah's family. We weren't rushed during most of the weekend and finally able to relax for a few days.

Wine - my friend Charlie got into the wine making process a couple of years back. So while I was visiting with him he gave me a couple bottles - grape and peach. Then he gave me a couple of more. It's a work in progress but it was pretty good.

Coffee - seems to have become a hallmark of time with our friends. Sarah's mom and Dad drink about 10 gallons a day - so someone almost always has a cup in had - Bob and Gina drink about 5 gallons a day - so sharing a cup of coffee with them has always been part of our routine at their house - then we had friends over last night and there was coffee and dessert.

Cracker Barrell - first time in my life that I haven't really enjoyed the food I got at Cracker Barrell was on Friday before Memorial Day. I was horribly sick most of Thurs/Friday night but we needed to eat somewhere. So we decided Cracker Barrell - seeing all the food in the waiting area almost made me sick - looking at the menu's almost made me sick - looking at the little dessert advertisements almost made me sick - so all I ordered was a kids grilled cheese sandwich - ate 3 bites and the but my head on the table the rest of the meal. I know that Sarah got some weird looks but it was either that or go out to the car and wait for an hour or pass out on the floor. It took me about 3 days to really get my appetite back - and about 24 hours before I felt semi-normal.

On other notes - My parents celebrated 37 years of marriage yesterday. Sarah also signed her employment contract on Friday. We've scheduled a closing for our house in about a week and a half. Tomorrow we leave to spend a week at Amelia Island, FL and visit with family in Jacksonville. Benjamin is really walking away. And we're planning on moving in about 5 weesk...