50 Years Ago
My aunt and uncle had their 50th anniversary celebration yesterday in Texas. We made a whirlwind trip there to be on hand for the party. It was so special. My aunt is more like my older sister since she lived in the room with me for the first five years of my life! She was and still is the coolest, most fun aunt ever. She married a really cool and fun man. He was my first love and I never understood why my aunt would take him out on a date instead of him playing with me. Then came the traumatic realization that I was not going to get to go on their honeymoon! I believe that I cried many tears as their wedding reception ended and they left me.
I was their flower girl and at the age of five I remember much of the experience. I was a very serious flower girl who took special care with each carnation petal that I plucked from the bouquet. There are photos of my aunt and my grandpa pushing me down the aisle because I was placing the petals so slowly and carefully.
Several of the original wedding pary were able to attend. They had both the best man and the maid of honor there, one of the candlelighters, the flowergirl, and the woman who made all the dresses (six in all) in addition to making the wedding cake, the punch, having the reception at her house, and singing for the ceremony. That woman was my mother. Fifty years ago they put together a beautiful, sweet wedding that started the marriage off on the right foot on a shoestring. I would bet they did not spend over $100 on the entire affair.
Best of all. Both Nadine and Gordon got the chance to say out loud to all their family and close friends that they loved them and have loved having us all as part of their lives. What a special day yesterday was.
Spaghetti Ice
This the ice cream described in that other entry.
Tammie and the Duck
Here is the picture of Tammie and the Goose
A Favorite Memory
I have been trying to post these pictures for two weeks and I may have it figured out...finally. If the photos don't appear here then don't bother reading this!
Reag was looking through some photos this morning and two pictures triggered a wonderful flashback to the trip we took with Tammie and Mami about 8 years ago. We went to Germany for Spring Break and rented a car. We traveled through some beautiful parts of Germany and laughed our way through several towns. Tammie introduced us all to Spaghetti Ice, those wonderful ice cream sculptures the Europeans make. This is our evening of ice cream bliss!
Then we found this photo of Tammie and Goose. It was one of those fabulous moments that make the attendees laugh hysterically when just thinking about it, but others just smile a little when you describe it. You just had to be there and know that Mami hates birds and Tammie was rescuing her and the German man was upset because Tammie was shooing the geese away. I love traveling with my friends.
This is Big, Really Big
On the way home from Tennesse this past Saturday Gene asked if it wasn't time to get him a passport. I told him that yes it was and I had all the stuff we needed at the house (application and birth certificate) except photos. So today we went and had photos taken then went to the post office and sent off the application. It's true! He is really planning on coming to Italy in December. I can not wait!
More Trip
One last post about our trip, My colleague, Jack, suggested that we try to drive as far as Lexington, VA and stop for the night there. We did not make it quite that far but we did end up stopping there for a few minutes on our way up the west side of the Shenandoah Valley. Lexington is a very quaint town. Stonewall Jackson’s house, Robert E. Lee’s house, VMI, and Washington and Lee University. We only had time to look from the outside and did not tour any of the beautiful places.
Neither one of us was prepared for how beautiful Virginia was. That Shenandoah Valley is breath-taking. Pennsylvania was pretty and we loved Niagara-on-the-Lake. We want to travel around Virginia next summer on our way to the same meeting in DC.
Since we did not have Tammie with us to make us laugh (if you didn’t know, Tammie is the BEST traveling companion) we had to look for fun in other ways. It seems that most of our fun centered around food, but that is our greatest vice. FOOD.
We found the world’s best peach fried pies in Marion, AR. Big John’s Shake Shack…my advice to you is go straight for the peach fried pies and forget those shakes! We had lunch in a medium sized east Tennessee town at a great little family run Italian place. Bad food at a hotel restaurant in Virginia. Wonderful Italian (yes, we ate it several times, but it is on every corner in Rockville, MD) at Momma Lucia’s, Panera Bread sandwiches, original Buffalo Wings, a great little local place in Williamsport, PA, and some fabulous tiny desserts at a very fancy Italian steak house in DC (they are in tiny little serving glasses and only cost $1.95 each and are just the right amount after a large meal).
Gene’s favorite food find was the frozen custard in Buffalo. It was so smooth and creamy. Yummy! I have to say my favorite was the fried pies.
Two funny happenings: Gene’s entire bottom shoe sole fell off in one clump in a nice restaurant…other patrons had to stare. We were in Ontario driving with the top down and two different car loads of people stopped us to ask us driving directions…we were more lost than they were but I guess we looked so cool that they just needed to talk to us.
And now the topic for today’s discussion: Why do expensive hotels charge for internet while smaller, less luxurious motels give you free wireless internet? I don’t understand.
