Staying with Analisa in Lexington was a blast!! Partly because she has pets and loves dogs and partly because she is single, footloose and fancy free. Plus we wear practically the same size in clothes and shoes and she has great taste. Hurrah for shopping in Analisa's closet :) Despite the fact that Analisa had to work during the week, she still managed to keep me busy. Between a cozy Valentines dinner for us and neighbors, out bowling with the Jockey club bowling league...twice! and getting dressed up for an American Heart Association Fund raising event, I practically needed a vacation [View Full Entry]

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Time to update my blog. I've been feeling guilty about not being more prompt about putting my pictures online especially since I do seem to have the time to show them to people as I move around. So the first bunch are from when I spent my first six nights in Kentucky in Carlisle at my Aunt Mary Catherine's house. I had a great time as always although this was my longest stay out there to date and I was glad to finally be able to use my cell phone again once I left the country. It's funny how attached you [View Full Entry]

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Okay, finally getting around to updating my blog again. This time I'm going to write a little about the PRESENT! Lynchburg was on my list of places to stop because I wanted to visit with good friends of mine the Curriers. I first met Budge and his family while teaching at the Academy. Budge was in the Marine Corps and just had a great sense of balancing work with family with fitness. And when it came to teaching he had all the rigor of a Marine while still managing to make his class so much fun that he fooled even the [View Full Entry]

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I capitalized PAST in the title because I wanted to make two entries about Lynchburg, one talking about the past, the 2nd about the present. My second day in Lynchburg, Aunt Mary Katherine happened to call and encouraged me to drive past some of the landmarks in our family history. I had no idea Lynchburg was as large as it actually is and didn't know Randolf-Macon University was there. It is a beautiful campus, quite close to where Grandpa and Grandma lived. As you can tell from the pictures, I also went downtown. I liked that the city was so [View Full Entry]

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After two packed days of visiting Duke, it was nice to take it slow and digest all that I had seen and heard. So for my last two days in North Carolina I head in to downtown Greensboro and found a great hang out, Alex's Cheesecakes. There I was able to get caught up online while the dogs waited in the car for their walk. The weather was beautiful and Greensboro is small enough that you can see all of it by foot before getting close to being tired, quite the opposite of walking around DC. [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday afternoon, after updating my blog at the library I head out to visit a couple of parks in and around Greensboro in my attempt to make sure my pups stay happy on this trip. Obviously, they're spoiled. We walked through the Bog Gardens, the Bicentennial Gardens and Barber Park; I think that'll do it for a while, at least until Lynchburg. While I was out I decided to call Duke (only an hour away) to let them know I was in town, to see if I could maybe stop by for a short visit before Sunday. Ms. Barber, the assistant [View Full Entry]

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The first three of these pix were taken at Monika's in Norfolk. The last 6 pictures were taken in North Carolina. I am trying to be better about taking pictures :) Will write more soon. [View Full Entry]

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Goodmorning! This morning I'm writing from a cheerfully lit library in Greensboro as my Red Roof Inn has no internet connection. That's okay though, because it helps to get me out and about. I DO like the fact that it's fine with Red Roof that I'm traveling with two pups. There isn't even an additional charge. Well let me back up a tad. I left Taylorsville for the arduous 2 hour drive to Greensboro yesterday afternoon. After spending 7 wonderful nights relaxing with Denise I was almost anxious to be moving on. And I arrived at my hotel around dusk, [View Full Entry]

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Goodmorning! I'm writing today from Taylorsville (which is near Hickory), where my friend Denise Woodfin lives. On Tuesday, the 22nd, I left Norfolk, making the ~6 hour drive to Taylorsville. My longest driving day so far. I got here just after Denise left for work, so I just relaxed and went early to bed after Denise and I caught up a bit over dinner. Denise was the Supply Officer on my ship during our 2nd (and for us) last deployment. I have great memories of us trekking all over Barcelona, Nice and a large portion of Slovenia. I mostly don't miss [View Full Entry]

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