Well, we’ve just spent a little over 3 months back stateside and have some wonderful memories to show for it. As I type this, we’re in the Miami airport awaiting our flight back to the boat and to continue our land side tour of Europe. We have 3 side trips planned and then hope to splash the boat the first of April. She’s been out of the water since we left and we’re hoping that some of the list of repairs has been done or at least started.
The majority of our time was divided between family in Louisville and friends/family in Florida with a couple of work trips for each of us thrown in for fun.
That taken care of, MaryAnn flew back to Louisville for some family time with our ever increasing family. She also got to meet our newest nephew, Everett, who was born while we were on our crossing, see Eli who was only a few weeks old when we left and, spend time with Gemma, Easton and Chase as well as our cousins, Izzy and Lincoln!!
MaryAnn's "used to be sweet" niece Amber even turned her onto a new exercise class that she was teaching. MaryAnn was sure the class would kill her but, when it was done, was so glad she did it. OK, so maybe Amber really is sweet and it was a great workout. Mary be back!
Back to Florida for work. We were able to touch base with most of our clients and take care of most of our businesses. We are both so amazed and grateful that our clients are so understanding and great to work with.
Trying to get our cat fix, we stayed a few nights with Chloe while Suzanne and Pery were off somewhere playing. We also enjoyed Jeep's company at our favorite beach resort while Janice, Rick and Bentley all went to Key West for a few days.
We traveled back to Louisville for both Thanksgiving and Christmas - well, MaryAnn did both - and that was the first time we’d been “home” for both holidays since moving to Florida 20 years ago. Absolutely perfect!!
Again, back in Florida the parties continued. MaryAnn arrived in time for a progressive New Year’s Eve dinner on South Cocoa Beach with the most amazing set of friends. We had 4 houses to visit - yes, thankfully all within walking distance - and had a perfect time. We also hosted everyone for an impromptu dinner party and Larry and Michelle had us over to talk about our upcoming trip together. We're never ceased to be amazed at the wonderful group of friends we've accumulated.
Pedro had to fly to Topeka, KS for a couple of weeks, so MaryAnn talked Bentley into accompanying her to see his Kentucky grandparents. We also met up with Pedro’s family and Bentley’s au pairs who watch him whenever Janice travels with us. We - Bentley and MaryAnn that is - had an absolute blast (I guess we should have asked how Pedro's trip went). We even met Pedro at the airport when he flew in from Kansas and let him buy us lunch and a cold beer!
A lot of photos were taken, so we had to make a link with all of the photos:
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOoah7SgikxngkG5jjjdv63FHBfiAhni6e_8rfOfHRUqtYf2vCr9CxcvbwB2XJrAg?key=c1ZMb3BSWVJvYmVNR0c4TUtYNWw3ZW03d2VOel93
We both celebrated birthdays while we were back and that was great to have so many wonderful
people to celebrate with.
We had some wonderful meals with Sam, Betty and Booser and were so happy to spend some time with that adorable dog that we both love so much. Sadly, Booser lost his fight with cancer but will live on in our hearts forever.
As always, we were so busy with both work and play that the time got away from us and we didn’t spend as much time or even see some of our favorite people but there never seems to be enough time for everything.
Our last night in Florida, was spent with some our favorite people in South Florida. Pedro introduced MaryAnn to some friends who cruised extensively in the Caribbean several years ago and it was fun to talk boat talk. We’re also making plans for Ron and Mary to join us in Europe somewhere.
As I said, we’re heading back to Lagos Portugal, via, London and Faro, Portugal. We’re there for about 4 days and then heading to Lisbon, Portugal to catch a flight to Geneva, Switzerland. We’re meeting our dear friend Suzanne “Frenchie” and driving to Sevrier, France for a week or so of skiing or, at least MaryAnn is, Gary is going to explore the area in snow shoes. Our dear friends Charlie and Deborah have offered us the use of their house there and with our own personal French interpreter, we couldn’t pass it up.
We’ll fill you in on that next time.
Until next post!
