Summer Fun with Meg & Cam

Meg's summer break officially started on Wednesday, but she didn't make it home until yesterday.  She had stayed in Bloomington to work a few shifts at Bell Trace and clean her apartment before heading home.  She did have some fun on those two days as Nick came down from West Lafayette and Brett came over to take a walk with her as well.  She arrived in Syracuse yesterday afternoon and already had a list of activities planned for the week.  

Fortunately for our family Meg left the weekend open for us.  Today, we were finally able to visit the Fort Wayne Zoo after a year hiatus due to COVID.  Before 2020 Cameron, Meg and I had taken an annual trip to the children's zoo since 2013.  Normally, we chose a weekday for the activity, but with summer school and tennis we couldn't make that work.  Therefore, we picked a Saturday.  That allowed Doug to join us.  Meg let him know that he should feel privileged as we had never left anyone else go with us.  Since he was paying, it was an easy addition to our party.  

As soon as Cameron arrived home from Samuel's triathlon this morning, we headed to the zoo.  It was a little bit more crowded than in years past, but that didn't affect our plans too much.  Cameron and Meg were still able to ride the Skyfari and we were all able to take a walk through Africa as well.  Asia had a little less people and we enjoyed the orangutans and rain forest just as much as in past trips.  Meg and I chose big pretzels as our snack before we left the walkway.  

Australia was by far the most crowded.  Cameron bypassed the ice cream stand due to long lines and in the end we gave up riding the log ride.  It traditionally was our favorite one, but the queue to get on was just too long.  The train wasn't running today, so we figured that everyone headed to the wooded flume instead.  Thankfully, we were still able to walk through the outback and visit the aquarium without any issues.  On the way out we toured the farmstead and saw the pigs getting the silent treatment for behaving badly.  Meg and I thought that was really funny.  Cameron was pleased to find some Dippin' Dots on the way out for his zoo snack.

Bringing Doug along was a bonus as he added two more activities to our zoo trip today which we all appreciated.  The first was ordering Giordano's pizza for our dinner at home.  Second, was a round of miniature golf at Paige's Crossing.  The pizza was delicious and we all had fun at mini-golf especially when Cameron almost blew a five stroke lead on the last hole.  Fortunately, he held on to win by one and had a great story to tell afterward.  The rest of the night was a quiet one which we all enjoyed after a full day of fun.

The Jungle Cruise

I have been waiting almost a year for the movie, Jungle Cruise, to come out as production on it had been delayed due to the pandemic.  The best part of waiting was that Disney decided to offer it not only in theaters, but to Disney + subscribers for a premier access fee as well.  Since the movie was based on Doug's favorite ride and starred The Rock, I definitely had no problem spending the extra money on it.  With all of us planning on watching it, the cost was well worth.  We also had the added benefit of bringing out the big screen for it.  

The movie opened at midnight last night, but that was a little too late for us.  Thus, Doug and I set up the big screen outside after dinner tonight, started a bonfire and waited for dark to start the movie.  We even made popcorn so that we had the traditional movie theater feel.  From the very beginning I really liked the movie.  The Rock was fantastic.  The plot felt a lot like a Pirates of the Caribbean complete with natives, witty side characters and a dark curse. The comedic parts on the "jungle cruise" were great and we even got to see the "backside of water."  All in all it was a great way to spend a Friday night.  

 

All Cleaned Out!

 When Cameron finished his sophomore year last May, I told him that he could put his backpack in the extra bedroom and that he could unpack it when we cleaned out his room this summer.  I had good intentions of getting it all done by the middle of June, but golf tournaments, weekends in Bloomington and a trip to Florida changed my timeline.  Last weekend, it dawned on me that Cameron only had two weeks left until school started and that a lot of that time would be taken up with tennis conditioning and practices.  Therefore, I had no choice but to get started on his room this week.

I decided that the best course of action in tackling this task was to spread it out and work on Cameron 's room a little bit each day.  As soon as he left for tennis conditioning Monday morning I pulled everything out of his dresser.  After lunch, he and I went through all of his clothes so that he could decided what to get rid of and what to keep.  True to his personality, he kept most of the shirts that were filling his drawers.  I was at least able to downsize a few and reorganize the rest so that they all would fit.  Cameron also saw a few shirts that he forgot he owned and I made sure to put those on top for him to wear soon.  He finished the reorganization process by cleaning off his dresser as well.  

On Tuesday I took everything off of Cameron's nightstand and television stand.  Once again Cameron didn't part with very much, but he did put his books away on the bookshelf in the extra room and agreed to recycle the stash of water bottles that he had been "collecting" this summer.  I also had the chance to thoroughly dust those areas, which I probably appreciated the most.  Yesterday, Cameron and I finished with his closet and his backpack.  The best part of that was finding a lot of brand new school supplies that he didn't use last year and that I wouldn't have to buy this year. 

In the end cleaning out Cameron's room was relatively painless and we finished it just in time for him to spend the day with his friends today.  After tennis conditioning they went to the Elkhart County 4-H Fair, played board games at Sam's and had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.  He definitely had a lot more fun than cleaning and I was extremely happy to cross one more item off of my to-do list.

All Done with I-Core

Meg texted me late last night to let me know that they had submitted their final project for I-Core and that she was officially on summer break.  I was extremely happy for her as she had worked hard this summer to finish this challenging semester in the business school.  After her midterms she wasn't sure that she would make it this far.  Even last week she was positive that this was going to end up the worst summer of her life and that she'd never pass I-Core.

Thankfully, that was not the case.  Meg and her group finished well before today's 9:30 a.m. deadline and relied only on their own resources to finish the case.  As stressful as it was, in the end she was glad that she had taken I-Core this summer.  It had been easier for her with the online format, because it allowed her to travel home for a few weeks and visit Nick in West LaFayette.  She also liked the group that she was paired with as she had heard horror stories from other I-Core students of classmates that refused to help on the group project.  Taking I-Core this summer also assured her that she would graduate with an accounting degree in four years instead of the traditional five.  

When I called Meg today she was already talking about all of the activities that she had planned for her month long break.  Doug and I were both happy for her and proud of how hard she had work.  We are looking forward to seeing her on Friday.

Another Day, Another Visitor, But Maybe the Last?

 Yesterday, my friend Dee Ann stopped by for a visit.  She had moved away from the area nine years ago and had recently returned to Milford.  It was really nice to catch up with her.  She had four children that were close to ours in age and we saw them a lot through youth center activities as they Heinisch children were growing up.  While we were catching up, she remarked how nice it was to actually meet with people once again without masks and actually be inside their homes.  I agreed completely, especially since I had gotten to see Billy, Parce, Alexia and now Dee Ann over the course of the last two weeks.  

After Dee Ann left I started to work on my computer.  That's when I notice that the CDC came out with new COVID guidelines asking for all Americans to wear masks once again in high traffic areas even if they were vaccinated.  The CDC felt it was the only way to save those who were not vaccinated from the Delta variant of the coronavirus.  I couldn't believe it.  The articles that we have been reading recently had said that vaccinated adults had very little chance of becoming hospitalized or dying from the virus even with the new variant.  I really don't want to go back to wearing masks everywhere and worrying about COVID.  It had been a wonderful summer of meeting with people, going out to eat, traveling, attending church and basically returning to our normal lives.  Most of all I didn't want Cameron to have to return to the COVID protocols of last winter.

Doug and I talked once he got home about the situation.  His work had met and for now weren't requiring masks.  Elkhart county wasn't a high risk area yet.  Bethany had come out and said that only unvaccinated students and staff would have to wear masks this year.  The one exception was on buses where everyone will be required to do so.  The school will still maintain safety protocols and cleaning procedures, but overall students would be mask free for now.  Doug and I decided that we would stay away from indoor dining or any big group activities until more information has been released, but otherwise maintain our summer lifestyle.  Indiana did have a spike in cases and deaths today, but hopefully everything calms down soon and COVID leaves for good.  

Junior Year Decisions

On the way home from Bloomington last week I told Cameron that during his junior year he would need to start thinking seriously about life beyond high school, especially colleges that would have majors of interest for him.  I know that he had thought about it a little bit before as several weeks ago he told us that he might actually be interested in attending Butler.  He wasn't sure that a big school was right for him.  He also told us that he didn't see himself in Bloomington.  He didn't want to follow his siblings and wasn't interested in the business school.  That was surprising to Doug and to Parce when he told him while we were touring his new home, but I really wasn't that shocked.  Cameron had always been our science student and was most focused on schools that were big in STEM majors.

Last night Cameron told me that he had done some research on tuition costs, college rankings and top science programs with veterinary programs.  We knew about several - Purdue, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Ohio State - all of which were great choices.  Cameron said instantly that he had absolutely no interest in attending Purdue, but would look more closely at the others.  The next school that he talked about was extremely surprising to us, The University of Florida. 

I had realized that when I visited Gainesville that U of F was a lot nicer school than I had thought it would be.  It actually reminded me a lot of Michigan with all of the nice brick buildings, the big football stadium and emphasis on STEM majors.   The bookstore was filled with different shirts promoting the sciences including the "school of pre-veterinary."  Cameron did a lot more research on the university than I did and found out that it was ranked ninth as a school for veterinarians just one shy of Wisconsin.  I then found out that it was also listed as the 30th best college in the nation just behind Michigan at 26th.  I was surprised by that but not by the fact that IU was ranked 76th.  I had realized years ago that the rest of IU did not come close to the stature of the Kelley School of Business.  

In the end Cameron decided the next few items on his to-do list was to see if he could volunteer at the Goshen veterinarian clinic.  That way he would get an idea of what life as a veterinarian would be like and if it would be something he could see himself doing in the future.  Samuel trained with the vet at the clinic and thought that would be possible.  Cameron also wanted to make an official visit to the University of Florida as well on one of Doug's trips to Ocala.  All in all it sounded like a great plan.  As he and I were cleaning out his room this afternoon, I told him that I secretly wondered if I planted the idea of him becoming a Gator long ago when I painted his room blue and orange.  I guess we will have to wait and see.

My Poor Birds

 About a month ago I saw a message on social meeting from the Indiana DNR asking all Hoosiers to take down their bird feeders as there was a mysterious illness killing songbirds.  At first I didn't think too much about it as the report focused mainly on Monroe County.  I figured that the issue had more to do with the cicadas that Meg and Brett had been talking about.  Meg had said that a professor of hers talked about squirrels dying after eating the noxious bug, so I figured it was something to do with that.  

Unfortunately, the illness spread throughout the state and we finally had to comply with the DNR's wishes and take down all ten of our feeders.  I was incredibly bummed, but remained hopeful that the birds would still find our woods attractive enough to remain in our backyard.  We've realized over the last few days that that was not the case and that most birds have abandoned our domain.  

It makes me sad to think about.  I miss hearing the blue jays caw at me for peanuts when I walk out the front door.  The front trees seem bear without the orioles, finches and sparrows hanging out in their branches.  Even my beloved red headed woodpeckers have been nowhere to be seen.  There's still plenty of robins to be found which doesn't make the situation any better as they were my least favorite due to their aggressiveness.  I did spy a pair of cardinals hanging around the empty birdbath out back the other day and saw several grey hummingbirds among the front flowers.  Those have been enough to keep me hopeful that soon more feathered friends will join our "bird sanctuary."  Until then, I'll just keep checking the DNR website for information on when I can hang up my feeders again.

Hosting a Visitor

Last month Alexia texted me to see if we'd be up for a visit any time in July.  We had this weekend open which worked well in her schedule as well.  She arrived this afternoon after an easy trip except for the detour on Main Street due to the Pollywood expansion.  Fortunately, I was able to reroute her once I figured out where she was in our big metropolis.  

We spent the first half of our afternoon with Alexia catching up on what she had been up to lately.  She was still living with her parents, waiting for hers and Kevin's divorce to be finalized.  She was working for a school in the HR department and had just returned from a union conference.  I found that extremely interesting and asked her multiple questions about that since our school system did not have a union for support staff.  We were glad to hear that Avery's job with the Cubs front office was going well and that Natasha had survived her first year of teaching in Nashville.  Alexia had a fun trip planned with Tatiana at the end of the summer to New York before she returned for her final year at Butler.  We filled her in on what we had been up to as well.  

We decided that Goshen Brewing Company would be the perfect spot to try this afternoon.  We were glad to see that they were not as busy as the last time we visited.   Thankfully, we had found seats in the covered patio area just before the storm hit.  While we were there we each got to sample a few beers and several appetizers.  My favorite was the caramelized Brussels sprouts.  Cameron road along with us and enjoyed the different foods as well as the Triple XXX root beer.  They had corn hole set up in the yard, but it rained too hard for us to play.  

Except for Cameron, we spent the rest of the evening at home.  While he played nine holes of golf, we introduced Alexia to the board game version of Ticket to Ride Europe and had a bonfire.  We also ordered Sleepy Owl pizza for the first time in a long time.  It was a nice treat.  Overall, we had a wonderful day and was glad to finally be able to host visitors once again.  

A Great Start to the Weekend

This morning I got up and weighed myself first thing as I normally do on Fridays.  I was thrilled to see that I had lost some more weight and was down 27 pounds overall since January 4th.  I couldn't believe it, because my weight had risen during the high humidity weeks and from our trip to Florida.  After seeing the scale, I wanted to celebrate by having Doug make cookies tonight, but instead settled for self congratulation as I wasn't ready to break my healthy eating habits yet.  I was extremely proud of myself for sticking with Weight Watchers this summer.  I had had success with it in the past, but I really didn't want to start the program this time.  Now that I have lost weight I am very glad that I did.  I look and feel better than I did last January.  My clothes also fit so much better.  I could even wear a belt today.  I have four more pounds to go to get to my original goal.  I told Doug that I was saving the cookies until then.   

The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house.  There wasn't a lot to do, but enough to keep my afternoon filled.  I was in such a good mood that I really didn't mind doing it.  Cameron was home for part of the day and since he was going to be home tonight, we decided to play Oh Hell with Grandma and Grandpa after dinner.  We were going to play last night after they took Cameron to Chubbies for burger night, but he and Avery went on a photography shoot at Lakeside Park instead.  It was an enjoyable way to spend the evening and afterward Doug and I had a bonfire out back.  All in all today was a great start to the weekend.

"Toy Story"

I spent this afternoon at Grandma Jane's cleaning out the toys that she had stored there over the years.  Some were unique to the Heinisch children and others were from my childhood.  I kept many of my favorites including my Honey Hill Bunch Clubhouse dolls, Raggedy Ann & Andy and the cradle that Paw Paw made for my dolls.  The Heinisch children kept several sets of toys as well.  Brett wanted the Weebles saved for him as well as all of the Mister Men that Granny made for him over the years.  Cal had claimed the Ninja Turtles for himself and Meg had us hold on to several Build-A-Bears for her as well.  

Cameron in the end kept the most - G.I. Joe's, the Fisher Price Little People and several other toys that he played with at Grandma's.  I wasn't surprised by that as he had spent the afternoons of his Kindergarten years hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa while I was teaching.  He also had the most recent memories of the toys being the youngest in the Heinisch family.  

 

When we finished all of the sorting and reminiscing everyone said that they enjoyed the walk down memory lane.  I agreed.  It did make for a fun afternoon.

Hanging Up the Golf Clubs??

All the way home from Bloomington on Monday, Cameron told us that he was hanging up his golf clubs after his final summer golf tournament at Chestnut Hills on Tuesday.  He even went as far as to say that he was never playing again.  I questioned him about it and he finally retracted his statement to say that "he was putting his clubs away for at least a month."  

After yesterday's Chestnut Hills tourney, Cameron started to change his thoughts about golf once again as he was extremely pleased with how he had played.  He had hit the ball well all day, but a couple of issues on the front had lead to a 45.  When he walked off of nine green, he said he knew what he needed to do to score better on the back.  He followed through with his plan of keeping his head down and shot an impressive 39 on the back for an eighteen hole score of 84.  He was thrilled and also happy that Parce was able to make it to his match today along with Grandma and I.  

Cameron talked all the way home about his 11th place finish and what he was going to work on next.  I reminded him that he was going to hang up his clubs for the next month to take a break and focus only on tennis.  He just laughed.  His month break didn't even last a day.  Cameron called me after tennis this afternoon to let me know that he and Breece were going golfing at Black Squirrel once he finished lunch with Bailee.  Needless to say, I wasn't surprised at all.

A Wonderful Visit

My cousin Billy flew up from North Carolina for a wedding last week.  Mom invited him to Syracuse Thursday night so that we could catch up with him before he got too busy with the festivities.  Everyone else in the Heinisch family was out of town or busy, so it was only the four of us that night.  I didn't mind as I hadn't seen Billy in quite some time and really enjoyed talking with him.  Billy lived with us or with Granny and Paw Paw in Nappanee every summer until the one before Bunk died.  We had so many shared memories together and it was a lot of fun reminiscing.  We were all surprised when Billy remembered our family hosting Tony and Kenny for a couple of weeks during the summer months and running into them in Chicago several years later.  

When Billy left Thursday night, we talked about getting together one more time before he flew back.  With Doug in Florida and Cameron's golf matches I wasn't sure that that would be possible, but thankfully we were all able to make it work tonight.  Billy met us in Syracuse and he, Doug, Cameron and I ate dinner at the Back Porch in Oakwood together.  I had thought a lot about what we had talked about on Thursday night and had a few follow up questions for him - his last summer in Nappanee and our first visit together to Magic Kingdom the first year it opened for starters.  It wasn't all a walk down memory lane as Cameron and Doug filled my cousin in on what we they had been up to recently as well.  Billy also gave us his thoughts on living in Florida and why he moved to North Carolina.  He updated us on "Little" Billy, Mary and Jessica's lives and we caught him up on Brett, Cal and Meg.  Billy and I both agreed that Cameron definitely looked a lot like my brother, Bunk, especially with his long 1970s haircut.  Tonight was a special one for me.  I rarely get to visit with anyone who knew my brother as well as I did as a child.  I thoroughly enjoyed that this evening and was glad that Doug and Cameron were there to share that time with me.

Southern Masters

Several weeks ago Cameron was asked to play in the Southern Masters Juniors Golf Tournament at Bloomington Country Club.  He was pleased to be invited and looked forward to the two day event.  As the weekend drew nearer, however, he became more and more hesitant about playing in the tourney.  Although he had played well in the age group championship in early July, he had had his worst round of the summer on July 9th at Black Squirrel.  He had also been struggling with his swing lately and was concerned that he wouldn't be able to play as well as he wanted.  

Cameron started off on fire yesterday and it looked like he had worried for no reason.  He shot 39 on the front and was only six over after twelve holes.  The back was long and the pace became extremely slow when Cameron's group arrived at the thirteenth tee.  It was all too much for Cameron and he soon found himself putting out on eighteen for an 86.  He was definitely disappointed in finishing the last six holes eight over.  

Cameron and I left this morning for the second round of the tournament hopeful that today would be a better scoring day.  Unfortunately, he started on the back which was the hardest nine and struggled throughout finishing with a 45.  The front nine wasn't much better until he got to the last four holes.  He then worked on staying focused and keeping his head down.  It must have helped as he finished with a bogey, par, bogey, par.  He still shot 93 on the day, but found it a little bit easier to swallow with better scores to end the round.  

I was proud of him no matter what he shot today.  Several of the boys didn't even bother to show up for their second round.  We ended the trip to Bloomington with Chipotle for lunch before heading back to Syracuse.  Thankfully, his friends were available to go out to dinner when we got home.  That made the evening a lot more fun and took his mind off of golf for a little while.  

Almost LIke a Mini Vacation

In June all of us were glad to hear that Cameron had been invited to play in the Southern Masters Junior Golf Tournament.  It gave him an opportunity to participate in the challenging two day event and Doug and I a chance to spend a few days in Bloomington.  Even better was the fact that Brett had the weekend off from Storage Express and was able to hang out with us more than he had been recently.  We would miss Meg on this trip as she had already made plans with Nick for the weekend, but thankfully, she was agreeable to us using her apartment so that we all had a bed to sleep on during our "mini-vacation."

Besides going to Mother Bears last night during our stay in Bloomington, we were also able to go to Oliver Winery yesterday afternoon, Big Woods for dinner last night, and Crazy Horse tonight.  We played multiple games of Ticket to Ride with each one of us winning at least one game.  We watched several episodes of Seinfeld and the NBA finals.  Brett even had time to introduce us to the SpongeBob Documentary series.  While Doug followed  Cameron on the first round of his golf tournament today, I cut Brett's hair for him, helped him measure his office chair for a new cover, went to Potbelly's with him and took a long walk through campus.  Overall, it was a fantastic time to be in Bloomington with few students and lots of places to visit.  I can't wait to go back.

Touring Hemingway's Key West

Today while Doug was playing golf with Cameron, Cal and Hannah Marie were texting me about their adventures in Key West.  Before Cal left I had told him about Ernest Hemingway's home in Key West and the bar, Sloppy Joe's, that he frequented nearby.  I wasn't sure if they had time to visit either one, but thought he might want to check them out if they did as Cal was a big fan of the author.  

I was thrilled to hear that they made it to the writer's home this afternoon.  Cal and HM loved all of the history surrounding it, especially the 60 six toed cats that were direct descendants of Hemingway's cats.  The pictures they sent were fantastic and I appreciated getting all of the information that they learned from the home.  Cal also told me that they were able to go to Sloppy Joe's last night and really enjoyed it as well.  

As I was looking through all of their pictures today, a memory on my phone popped up.  Three years ago today, Doug and I were touring Hemingway's Michigan.  I couldn't believe that Cal and HM were doing the exact same thing three years later in Hemingway's Key West.  It definitely was a proud parent moment knowing that I had passed on my love of Hemingway's lifestyle to Cal, especially since I read all of his Nick Adams stories and several biographies about Ernest Hemingway when I was pregnant with Cal.  The best part of having adult children is watching life come full circle.  Today was a perfect example of that.

Summer in Bloomington

Doug arrived at the Indy airport this morning around 9 a.m. ready for our weekend in Bloomington.  Brett had originally offered to pick him up, but wasn't available since his hours at work had changed.  I wasn't sure if Meg would be interested in driving up since she would be going to Nick's later in the day, but she definitely was once she heard that she'd make $50 in the process and get Chipotle for lunch.  She called me on the way there to make sure that I agreed with the directions.  She had no problem finding the departures lane and Doug waiting for her.  Doug then spent the rest of the day working and Meg left for West Lafayette soon after lunch.

Cameron and I followed Doug to Bloomington later in the day.  We had originally planned on leaving at 5 from Bethany, but the rain changed our plans.  Tennis camp got out early due to the wet courts and we were on the road by 3:15 from our home.  The drive down was a little slower than normal, but we still made it there by 7:15.  Cameron told me on the way there that he didn't mind going to Bloomington in the summer, but fall was definitely his favorite time of the year because of football.  Not only could we tailgate and attend the game, but we could also watch college games afterward and the NFL on Sunday as well.  I could see him feeling that way, but Brett, Doug and I appreciated the slow summer months in B-Town tonight.  It gave us the opportunity to go to dinner at Mother Bear's without much of a wait.  Afterward we talked Cameron into Ticket to Ride and enjoyed the rest of the evening at Brett's.  

Tennis Camp

 This week was tennis camp for the Bethany Bruins boys' team.  In years past they had spent the week in Angola for it, but with COVID their coach decided to just host a day camp this summer.  When he sent out the information email, he asked for families to host the boys for an afternoon if possible so they could get a break from tennis and have some team bonding time away from school.  Today was our turn to have the boys over and both Cameron and I were nervous about it.  Cameron wasn't sure that there would be enough to do and I didn't feel positive about my hosting skills without Doug present.  Thankfully, all went better than either he or I had envisioned.

The boys arrived around 11:30 for lunch.  I had pulled pork sandwiches and chips for them and Grandma Jane had made pasta salad, pickled eggs, fruit and brownies for them as well.  Cameron had taken a pickled egg each day for lunch this week.  Most of the boys had never eaten one and enjoyed trying them.  We had badminton, corn hole and ladder golf set up outside and ping pong and the projector set up downstairs.  After lunch and outdoor games, the boys then headed to the basement with their Nintendo Switches to hook up to the big screen when it started to rain.  The team left for Bethany close to 2 for more tennis.  I was happy to report to Doug afterward that all of my worrying was for nothing.  Everything went well and that I was ready for more days just like today.  

Key West

When Cal was home the first week of July, I helped him book a flight to southern Florida so that he could visit Hannah-Marie in Key West.  Little did we know at the time that the easiest part of planning his trip would be that flight.  His plane landed in Miami, but he would still need to get a flight to the small Key West airport.  Cal and I both researched flight prices and it would have been more than his entire trip from Chicago to Miami and back.  Then we tried a rental car, but that was even more expensive.  Thankfully, Hannah-Marie was able to send him a link to the shuttle from the airport to Big Pine that was about half the price of a flight.  After looking at the schedule we realized that the best option for him to get to Big Pine and still have time to go to dinner or see the island on his first day would be to change his Southwest flight to one to Fort Lauderdale that departed at 6:20 a.m. and catch the shuttle there.  Once we had everything scheduled all Cal had to do was to make sure he got to the airport in time for his early morning flight.

I texted Cal last night to see if he wanted me to call him at 4 a.m. our time to make sure he was up.  Even though he planned on staying up all night, he accepted the offer just in case he needed a wake up call.  Unlike Cal, I did sleep for a couple of hours between midnight and four.  I heard from him a few minutes after my alarm went off to let me know that he had already arrived at the airport by Uber.  I was very glad to hear that as he had plenty of time to get through security and to his terminal well before the plane boarded.  I stayed up and checked on him multiple times.  When he first arrived he was one of only ten people in the baggage check in area.  He boarded right at 5:50 a.m. central time and the plane took off without a hitch.  

As I only got a couple of hours of sleep last night, normally I would have gone back to bed this morning.  Cameron had to be up at 8 a.m. for tennis camp, however, so I decided to stay up until I knew he made it there.  I told him later that as soon as I saw his phone at Bethany, I "passed out" and didn't move until my alarm went back off at 10:40 a.m. except when Cal texted me to say that he arrived at the Fort Lauderdale airport without any problems and had slept the entire flight.   I was really glad to hear that.

The only glitch that Cal had on the day was that the shuttle was 5 minutes later to the airport.  I told him that he didn't even need to panic about that as I did the entire five minutes.  He slept off and on on the shuttle as well.  Once he reached the Keys, however, he woke up and enjoyed the views for the rest of his trip.  He arrived at Big Pine around 5:30 which gave he and Hannah-Marie plenty of time to get dinner and try at few bars at Key West.  He said that it was absolutely beautiful.  The Keys have been on my vacation to-do list for quite some time.  For now I was just happy to enjoy it through Cal's texts instead.  

Finals & A New Workload

 Last night I was excited to hear that Wawasee would be hosting Cameron's summer tennis league.  A five minute round trip to the high school was a lot better than driving to Middlebury and it gave me a chance to see Cameron play again.  The rain had other plans for the night, however, as shortly after the boys started warming up, the match was called.  Cameron was disappointed, but he and the "Jacobs" made the best of it by going to dinner at Pizza King.  While he was having fun, I decided to go ahead and start unpacking and get a load of laundry done with my new washer and dryer.  

The free evening also gave me a chance to catch up with Brett and Meg.  Brett's workload had increased threefold this week as one of the women in his department was on maternity leave and another person resigned their position.  Thus, Brett was the only one left to complete the duties of three.  He was excited about the challenge and happy for the extra pay that he would receive in commission and overtime.  He was also extremely nervous about making it all happen.  He checked in after day one and was happy with his progress.  I encouraged him to keep in contact with his supervisor so that he could prioritize the increased workload.  He was anxious about the increased responsibilities, but overall felt good about it and looked forward to the weeks ahead.

Meg was also anxious about her week when I talked to her last night.  She had finals in her four main I-Core classes and was extremely worried about them.  The finance midterm was a lot harder than she had envisioned it would be and wanted to score better on the final.   She had studied quite a bit for it these past few weeks and because of that, she wasn't able to put as much time into operations as she had previously.  She was very nervous about that test, but needed to get through marketing on Monday night before she could focus on operations.  She called when her marketing final was over to let me know that she felt pretty good about that one.  She was going to spend the rest of the night getting ready for operations.  

These past few weeks have been challenging for her, but I know that she will find success.  She and Brett have plans to do something on Wednesday night after her finance final.  She will have someone to complain to about school who completely understands the stress of it and he will have someone to talk to about his week at work.  Either way I know that they will both be happy when the week is over.  

An Early Start to the Day

Doug and I were up before 4 a.m. this morning for my early flight.  Thankfully, it was a short drive to the Orlando airport.  I needed the extra to check in at Southwest and get through security.  I felt bad for those behind me as the time through TSA kept growing and I'm sure that several individuals missed their flights.  I never would have expected that type of crowd first thing in the morning.  Fortunately, it didn't affect me too much as I even had enough time before boarding to stop at the restroom and buy a drink at the Hudson News stand.  As an added bonus while I was buying my Diet Coke I saw the perfect water bottle for me.  It was metal, had a clip for my backpack and was decorated with colorful Mickeys faces.  I couldn't believe it as it was exactly what I was looking for and never found at Disney Springs.  The price was extremely reasonable for the airport news stand as well.  

My flight left five minutes late, but made up for it in route.  I had hoped to sleep, but couldn't.  I watched the Disney+ movie, Luca, instead.  It was cute and kept me entertained until we landed.  My suitcase was the first off of the baggage rack and the shuttle bus pulled up just as I walked outside.  By 9:30 I was on my way home, tired, but happy with another successful trip to Ocala.  

Disney Springs Round 2

I had to get up at 6:30 a.m. this morning to get my boarding pass, so I appreciated being able to sleep in afterward.  Doug and I drove straight to Disney Springs once we checked out.  We didn't have dinner reservations until 4:30, but wanted to get a snack for lunch and do a little shopping before then.  Lunch was an easy choice as Doug and I split a Tex Mex Chili Dog at the Sausage Shop along the water.  Afterward we spent about an hour or so looking through the different shops.  I really wanted to find a steel water bottle that I could clip on to my small backpack.  There were a lot of water bottles available, but none that were metal with a clip.  I did have success at the M & M store, however, as they had a green and a blue plate to add to my collection, a pair of green socks and a deck of cards.  I couldn't believe how long the line was to check out.  It was that way Friday night as well.  I just thought early afternoon on Sunday would mean a lot less people.  

Since it was more crowded than I expected, we decided to play mini golf during the mid-afternoon.  Doug preferred the Winter Summerland Course by Blizzard Beach, so we headed to it first.  On our way, we saw lightning and dark clouds, but didn't worry too much about it as the water park was still open.  Unfortunately, just as we parked, they closed the entire area.  We figured that meant that all of the miniature golf courses were closed, so we decided to stop by Port Orleans Riverside instead.  Disney had just announced that it would be opening the hotel on October 14th which was perfect timing for our fall break trip with Cameron.  We really wanted to stay there as we had never been able to before.  I was very glad to be able to get through to the online reservation service last Thursday after a few attempts.  The wait time by phone was two and a half hours.  Today, we talked to the attendant about touring the place, but it was closed for construction.  Her enthusiasm for the resort opening was catchy and left us excited to return in three months.

Due to the change in miniature golf plans we got back to Disney Springs a little earlier than we planned.  Thankfully, Wine Bar George had a table on the deck for us already open.  We were happy to hear that and enjoyed one of their small plates and an artisan cheese board.  While we were eating I got a text from Gideon's Bakery that my spot in the  virtual queue was available.  We were really glad to hear that as they had originally said that it would be a four and a half hour wait.  Instead it was only three.  We picked out three cookies to bring home for Cameron, Grandma and Grandpa to try and one for us to split for dessert.

 

Our last stop in Disney Springs before heading to our hotel by the airport was the Ireland store.  I found the perfect gift for Cal which I was very happy about as I had already found something for Cam, Meg and Brett elsewhere.  Doug and I decided to walk up to a place called Rock N Brews after we rested for  awhile at the Hampton Inn. I really liked the restaurant as it had MTV music videos from the 1980s on the big screen along with a few from the 1970s as well.  I pointed out to Doug that not everyone was enjoying the music as much as I was.  That's when he brought it to my attention that it was probably because I was one of the oldest people in the restaurant.  I couldn't argue with that, but didn't really care as I was having too much fun.  It was the perfect way to end our time together in Florida.

EPCOT

When Doug asked me to travel with him to Florida this week, I started looking for something for us to do over the weekend that I was there.  I found several spots in Sarasota and Tampa that I thought that he might be interested in trying.  After reading off a list of activities that I had found, he decided that he actually wanted to go back to Disney.  I definitely had no problem with that and set out to make reservations at Disney Springs and buying tickets for EPCOT.  

Last night we took advantage of our first reservation at Wine Bar George and this morning we headed to EPCOT first thing.  It was a little different than when we were there in May.  We arrived almost the exact same time, but there were quite a bit more people waiting in line then there was last spring.  Instead of walking straight to a ride after we made it through the turn style, we were led to a waiting area for "rope drop."  It felt strange to be in a crowd once again, but at least we were outside and made it to Test Track well before the official opening time of 11 a.m.  

After the ride, we did a tour of the countries stopping first in Mexico for a cucumber margarita.  It was a lot better than I thought it would be.  Our next stop was Norway.  We didn't think that we'd be able to ride Frozen because of the crowd, but were in and out in less than thirty minutes.  From there we headed to Germany for brats, a big pretzel and a grapefruit beer.  We then tried a Grey Goose slushy from France before we spent the afternoon riding the rest of the rides in the park - Figment, Finding Nemo, Spaceship Earth and our favorite, Soarin'.  By the time we finished it was 4 p.m. and extremely hot and humid.  We decided to take a break for the afternoon and headed back to the hotel to get out of the sun for awhile.  It was nice to relax, grab a Diet Coke, eat a snack and spend time in the air conditioning for a couple of hours.

We went back to EPCOT around 6 p.m and stopped in England first for a Bumble Bee and Welsh Dragon.  We thought about having dinner in Morocco, but decided on pizza in Italy instead.  It was very good.  I talked Doug into trying the Oreo funnel cake afterward.  We normally don't get one as there have been food booths that we have wanted to try while in EPCOT with various desserts.  This time, however, there were not booths as the park was in between the Flower & Garden Festival and the Food & Wine Festival, so we were able to try more of the staples which Doug really enjoyed.  

Once we finished touring the countries we headed to Gran Fiesta Tour and were glad to see the Three Caballeros were back in action.  We also were able to ride Soarin' one more time and take a turn on Living with the Land.  It was closed when we tried earlier in the day.  As it was well after nine when we finished, we decided to get one more beer and do some shopping until the fireworks show at ten.  Disney had just opened up these shows again on the first of July and it was nice to see it in person.  On our way back to the hotel we stopped at a newfound Speedway on property for a big pop.  Thankfully, we still had half of our Gideon's Bakery cookies for dessert waiting for us at the hotel.  That made for a great late night snack

Gainesville

Today I spent the afternoon exploring Central Florida once again.  I had originally planned on staying close to Ocala as Doug got off work earlier this afternoon.  Last night, however, he mentioned that Tom Petty was born in Gainesville, Florida which was about a 40 minute drive from his office.  I did a little research and saw that his birthplace was still owned by the Petty family and there was a park close by dedicated in his memory.  Since I had also been wanting to visit the University of Florida which was only five miles from the park and Tom Petty was by far one of my all time favorite artists, I decided to make Gainesville my adventure today.

My first stop was Tom Petty park as it was easiest to find on Google maps.  I was excited to see the sign dedicating the park to him when I pulled up, but quickly became hesitant when I saw they crowd hanging out in the parking lot.  I decided to go to his home instead as it was only a block and a half away.  Normally, I would have parked and walked it, but this just didn't seem to be the neighborhood to explore on my own.  I was able to find his home easily thanks to the large cutout of him in the front yard.  It was definitely the nicest one in the area and I was happy to have been able to see it.  As I started to drive away, it began to pour.  I hoped that the weather would scare off those hanging around the park and thankfully, I was correct.  The park was mostly a track and baseball fields, but I was glad to be able to take a picture of the memorial sign.  I got a kick out of the irony of the "proud to be smoke free" reminder posted directly in front of Petty's.  Pretty sure that Tom Petty was never "smoke free."  

My next stop of the day was the Matheson Historical Society Museum.  Last year it housed a Tom Petty exhibit, but now had an interesting one on the persecution of homosexuals at the University of Florida in the 1950s.  I learned quite a bit while there and also got to see the mansion behind the museum.  My last stop in Gainesvilles was the University of Florida.  It reminded me a lot of the University of Michigan.  While there I was able to drive through campus, pick up Cameron a shirt at the bookstore and take a few pictures outside of the football stadium.  I hoped to bring Cameron and Doug back one day to do a more formal tour of the Gators' home.  

I made it to Winco at 5 p.m. and we left for Orlando from there.  I had booked us another Springhill Suites just a mile or so outside Walt Disney World in a new area named Flamingo Crossing.  After we checked in we headed straight to Disney Springs.  Right as we crossed on to Walt Disney property I saw a four foot alligator heading for a pond.  I couldn't believe it.  In all of the years that we had been visiting Disney World, we had never seen an alligator.  Once we survived the "gator scare" we found a parking spot and walked through security at Disney Springs.  We then did a little window shopping before having a beer at City Works.  There was a storm warning that thankfully held off while we were there.  We had a late reservation at Wine Bar George and were happy to be seated on the upstairs deck once again.  Doug ordered the saganaki (flaming cheese).  It was just as delicious as it was three months ago when we first tried it.  We also tried some roasted peppers and meatballs that were very good as well.  Just as we finished dinner my number was called to get in line for Gideon's bakery.  We each picked out a cookie and headed back to the hotel for a wonderful dessert.  It was a nice way to start the weekend.