A hike to the Oak Island Pier. Spent some time out on the fisherman's pier. Watched the people trying to catch the fish and heard the story of a shark sighting from one of the fishermen. Did some shopping in town and then back to the house for a relaxing afternoon. Later in the day we had a day at the beach. Our rental house is fully equipped. Beach chairs. Boogie boards. Umbrellas. Spent the afternoon enjoying our time...until Lori saw the shark. No one else believed it, so the rest stayed in the ocean. Lori sat in the beach chair sipping a beverage and watching for another shark.... read more

Hiking at Lake Norman State Park. Trying to keep up with an 88 year old on a 3.5 mile hike should not have been difficult. Hopefully I have inherited the same generics. Hills. Water views. Assorted trees. Funky mushrooms. Made good time? Uncle Wayne says we were 20 minutes slower than his regular hike. My excuse was I was taking pictures. Next adventure Southern Distillery Company.. Tasting session. Learned the process for making bourbon. Dinner with family at the lake. Lots of laughs One game of chess on Joan's chess board with the pieces she carved. ... read more

Wonderful day in North Carolina on Lake Norman. Flew in on a direct flight from Madison to Charlotte, North Carolina. Everything on time and no issues. Picked up our bags and headed to the car rental area. Had put in a reservation for one of the big name places. Filled in the paperwork and then went to "pick out the car". Had a whole bunch lined up in one section. The problem with traveling with 4 is now there are 4 opinions. We all had a different idea on which car would be best. Tried to take a vote on 2 and of course, that was a tie. Finally it was decided that Pedro, the driver, would pick.... read more

Leaving Gulf Shores! Woke up to a cloudy day for our first half of our travels home. One last morning walk on the beach with Leo. The winds and surf had picked up since yesterday. Not too many out on the beach early. Just a few walkers and another dog getting a morning walk. Storms expected along our route home. We packed up our belongings into the truck to head home. We ate an assortment of leftovers for breakfast. Spaghetti, pancake sandwich, pasta with shrimp. One last check to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind. The truck was loaded and we headed out of Morgantown. Just north of Gulf Shore we started getting the rain and storms. There were some really good claps of thunder and lightning strikes to the ground. We didn’t run into ... read more

The morning started out foggy today. No pretty sunrise at the beach today. Still a nice morning to be on the beach for a walk with Leo. After breakfast Lori went for a bike ride. Started the ride into the wind towards the west and towards Fort Morgan. Went all the way to the west end. The line for the ferry was long today. The marked slots for the ferry were full and the line of cars went out onto the road. Made a U-turn and headed back to the east with the wind. Sriracha texted and said they were heading into town to get doughnuts. The bike ride was nice. Still cool and cloud cover. Decided to go all the way into town to meet up with the family. Most of the ride to town ... read more