We got our real tree last week but didn't get around to putting the ornaments on until today. It's always fun to see ornaments from our former students. 

Mini Cooper Rally at Church this morning

Let the Games Begin

Lovely Live Aqua

Here are some pictures from our fantastic trip to Live Aqua. Tropical Storm Franklin was a little annoying but we still had a wonderful time!

This is our 6th visit to this resort and I *think* they have figured out we like cats! They have some fantastically talented rice artists.

This is the view from our balcony. We were on the 9th floor this time.

The view from our favorite cabana.

Much of our vacation looks like this.

And this… we don’t do much.

The meals were fantastic yet again.

Sunrise.

Sunset…. but a different look. This is an east facing photo of the sun setting in the west. We were waiting for the (almost) full moon to rise and caught this beautiful view.

We kept an eye on the Presidential Suite just in case any minor celebrities were staying at the resort. No sightings…

We timed our visits to the outdoor restaurants right. This visit to the Italian restaurant might not have been quite as much fun the next night.

The ocean ate my cheap Target sunglasses. I happened to mention it to one of the employees we’ve gotten to know over our visits. The next day, he showed up with these for me to use for the rest of my stay. I had already gone out to purchase some new (cheap) ones but he insisted I use these.

Our favorites! This is our favorite waiter Mauricio with our favorite Chef Frank. They are always eager to make our lunches special. Chef Frank even brought some specialty items from his hometown back for us to try. We like Chef Frank much more than we like Tropical Storm Franklin!

And then there was the Tropical Storm…. We weren’t really able to be outside for one afternoon and the following morning. That gave us time to relax in our room, go to yoga and explore the building.

The full moon vs. Tropical Storm Franklin

One of our favorites at the resort said she was looking out the window and noticed us walking. She thought it looked like the resort only belonged to us! Maybe we were the only ones silly enough to go out in the weather!

There is always some special surprise around the corner!

Nigel’s Busy Day

It’s fun to be home during the day and see what the cats do. Here’s a synopsis of Nigel’s day. Yesterday he spent the whole day hiding as there were several guests over including two babies!

See what’s happening outside – preferably through an open window

Gradually move up the stairs throughout the morning. The time now is 3 step o’clock.

Keep a close eye on Ravel.

Top step o’clock – time for a nap

Explore

Ask to go outside… repeatedly

Cautiously observe until a human whispers 6 doors away and then run inside like there’s a monster in the yard.

Return to the scene of the tree-climbing fiasco of 2013 (1st time ever today)

Sit quietly on or near a human

One is Enough

Here is the current state of our garage-side garden. One Zucchini plant, 1 Roma tomato plant, some edamame (Japanese edible soybeans) and some sunflowers.

This plant is not really out of control. It just looks that way. I’m going to offer the garden to our new neighbors when we’re gone next week.

Every couple days, I check to see what is growing and I almost always find a nearly full grown zucchini that I didn’t know even existed…..

Around AND In the zucchini plant are some edamame plants. These are Japanese soybeans. They are usually lightly boiled, salted and then eaten. They taste best with beer.

And… Just for fun, here is a video of the cats doing “Hunting Practice” https://youtu.be/j0sgw4dT_Zc

Lazy Days of Summer

It’s the lazy days of summer for the cats and me. Doug is still hard at work! I am messing with yet another way to get pictures on the blog. We’ll see if this is less time consuming.

I’ve been utlizing the new kitchen a lot and have baked some pretty tasty things. There have been plenty of zucchini based foods and this blueberry cake was a big hit with Doug’s pastor intern committee.

We went to Obento-ya in Minneapolis yesterday for a Japaniversary lunch. It’s hard to believe our Japan days started 20 years ago!!

It was delicious!

Speaking of delicious, the cats have enjoyed a few minutes of outside time now and then. They like to eat grass (no throwing up thankfully) and Ravel went a few feet up a tree after a squirrel. I don’t know if his nerves or his nails gave out but I’m glad I didn’t have to chase him!

Tomorrow…. Garden pictures!

Carolina Highlights

Here are a few highlights from our trip to South Carolina with a little bit of North Carolina thrown in for fun! They are in no particular order because the blog is not cooperative. We may have to find a new blog site….

There were a lot of options for fried chicken. We determined that fried chicken is go-to food in the Carolinas. BoJangle’s is a fast food restaurant that we visited a couple times and noticed at many, many exits along the drive.

Rainbow Row in Charleston. There were lots of beautiful historic houses.

This is Sullivan’s Beach outside of Charleston. It looks cold and wind-swept in the picture but it was just wind-swept. There was plenty of heat to go around. We went back to a different beach the next day and had a more beachy experience.

We were both surprised at how wooded South Carolina was. Substitute pine trees for palm trees and we could have been in northern Minnesota.

From a restaurant in Columbia… yes, please…

Hiking at Congaree National Park. For some of the hike, there were these great raised walkways. For part of the hike, we were more in the forest. I was happy to not see any snakes.

We had some good beer on this trip. South Carolina is exploding with micro-breweries so a “beer flight” is the way to try little bits of several beers. This was in Greenville.

Beautiful downtown Greenville.

This hike started at an elevation of just under 1100 feet. We went up to this point in about 2 hours. It was a strenuous but not particularly dangerous hike.

The summit!

This is an overlook at/near the summit. Those young guys seemed to be awfully close to the edge. We chose to admire the view from here.

The “Sully Sullenberg” airplane that landed in the Hudson River a few years ago. This was the main attraction at the Aviation Museum of the Carolinas in Charlotte.

The Ravenel Bridge in Charleston. Our hotel was on one side of the bridge and “town” was on the other. There were strict instructions to “keep your eyes on the road” as we crossed. It is much higher than it looks here.

USS Yorktown in Charleston – a WWII aircraft carrier turned museum

From the flight deck of the USS Yorktown

We took a great tour of the nicely, air-conditioned state capitol building in Columbia.

Particularly in Columbia, there were lots of references to the Civil War (and a few somewhat uncomfortable Confederate relics). These are markers on the state capitol building to mark where Union bombs hit the building during the Civil War.

Don’t we look refreshed and not at all sweaty? That’s because you can drive to about 100 feet below this point – the highest peak east of the Mississippi River. It was also 20 degrees colder here than when we started up the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Beautiful views from the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a lovely drive!  More to come later….