Orlando,FL-Isle of Palms, SC, -Charlotte, NC,- Isle of Palms - Amelia Island, FL 13 January - 16 April, 2013

Winter Moonrise over Wild Dunes

We've been remiss.  There's been no blogging for 3 months because there hasn't been too much about which to blog.  Now's the time to try and catch up.  Never did we think, when we arrived here in Wild Dunes on 11 October, that 6 months later we’d STILL be here.  Our intentions were to winter in the Keys and to be in Fernandina Beach, FL, this week for our trawler rendezvous and in a Pensacola marina for my high school reunion the end of April but alas...we're still in the Charleston area.

In February, our cruising friends, Bob and Jenny, from Westminister, SC, and whose Jefferson 42 is docked on Guntersville Lake on the TN River, stopped for an  afternoon in Mt. Pleasant. We enjoyed a very long lunch at Mt. Pleasant's Mosaic with them before they were westward bound.

Ginger and I have been friends since the first grade--many of you were still a twinkle in your daddy's eye then.  She and her husband, Ken, spent the day in Charleston...and again...we enjoyed a meal together at Magnolias, downtown Charleston.  They live in Virginia Beach and were vacationing on Hilton Head.

Friends, Jim and Martha, who live in Wild Dunes, accompanied us to dinner at Poogan's Porch and then to the Footlights Playhouse to laugh hysterically at the production, Sex Please, We're Sixty.  We know one of the leads which made it even more enjoyable.

Mark and Jean who are long time friends from Greenville, and, in days of yore,the 3 of us worked together at Greenville Memorial Hospital, were in Charleston for a weekend.  Of course it was time for another meal so we met at Blind Tiger downtown and spent a wonderful time together. Jean was brand-new-fresh retired so that was another cause for celebration and well as connecting again after many moons.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary at an interesting little place in I'on, Mt. Pleasant--Carter's Kitchen Cafe.  There are so many excellent restaurants in this area so we try (very hard) not to have dinner/lunch at the same place twice.  The name of this restaurant didn't have a romantic ring but the reviews sounded great...and it lived up to its reputation.  Sort of 'simply elegant' in an unusual way.  The food was outstanding and our server was a doll.  This is part of an 8 room B&B and would be a great place for an escape for a few days.

One Sunday when we were leaving church we saw a notice advertising a blue grass concert in one of the small auditoriums there mid-afternoon.  We LOVE live music and are always in pursuit of it so after lunch we returned to hear the Balsam Ridge Blue Grass Band.  They were leg-slapping, foot-stomping fantastic!  The banjo player was the only one who didn't sing and he once was with...(?) a group that you'd know if only I could like of its name.

I stopped dead in my tracks!!!  Do you call this "walking the dogs"? This wasn't an unusual sight when we were on the New River in Ft. Lauderdale.  As a "reason" to stroll dogs, Bill enjoyed a never-ending parade of women displaying results of BIG plastic surgery outcomes but all this lady had on parade were her poor puppies who were probably dying to jump out of that gadget and RUN!!! 

Easter Sunday was a real treat for us in addition to it being a celebration of Christ's resurrection.  We were among 4 couples as "Easter Dinner guests" of John and Vanessa.  We made new friends of one couple who live only a stone's throw away so we regretted not making their acquaintance earlier in our temporary Wild Dunes residency. Vanessa amazes me with all she accomplishes in the same 24 hours that I have.  She'd probably beat out Martha Stewart in the kitchen.  Aren't these little egg "peeps" adorable.  She also seta a beautiful table.

Jean, Ann, Vanessa, and Laura

We wanted our husbands to "pose" but it would've been a fight to get the Easter bonnets on them so we graciously accepted their "no thanks".

Vanessa's flamingo in one of his many seasonal costumes

How do you presume he got in this predicament in the first place???

My old (not in age but as in long ago and far away) swim coach, Ernie, and his wife, Gina, who now live in Charlotte, NC, were in Mt. Pleasant "on business" so we had dinner with them at Vickery's on Shem Creek, a wonderful place to watch the world go by.

Regardless of how much we love our boat/home and our never ceasing water view, there's just sometimes that you've gotta get outa Dodge so we took a long weekend and went to the Auto-Fair at Charlotte Motor Speedway in NC. There were in excess of 100,000 people in attendance during the 4 day show, thousands of rare and beautiful cars for sale and 1000's of car parts vendors. Actually, Bill went and loved every second while I played in around in Charlotte.  He had a rollicking boys' weekend and met 2 of our "old" (previous) 5:30 AM running group buddies.  When we have to pick a place on Terra Firma, that could be a choice if it were above the frost line. 

Friends from Greenville, Bob and Sharon, were in Charleston for a "get away" and spent an afternoon on board Kindred Spirit III chatting a mile a minute -- our last visit, sort of, was in October so we had lots of catching up to do.

We had a serendipity recently.  Trawler friends, Julie and Jim, spent the night in our marina and had us over for a delectable shrimp/feta/fennel dinner.  Seems like it should've been the other way around, doesn't it.  They were en route to Amelia Island for the spring trawler rendezvous.

A couple of days later, Bill and Staci came for the night and we enjoyed dinner at Five Loaves in Mt. Pleasant.  They are cruising friends we met when we first began wintering in Marathon.

Dunleavy's Pub on Sullivan's Island is one of our favorite places to hang out, especially when Carroll Brown and his band is playing.  They are a treat to the eyes and the ears.  We got a kick out of an evening there with friends and cruisers, Jim and Betsy, and Linda and David.

We arrived yesterday by car to Fernandina Beach/Amelia Island for the spring trawler rendezvous.  The information dispensed here either in workshops or one-on-one networking is pure gold.  I hope we never cease to learn.  We're reuniting with old friends and making new ones.  There are so many new members here and feeding off their new, unseasoned, and pliable enthusiasm is exhilarating.  Kinda bizarre to not be here by boat but the much loathed trite expression "it is what it is" truly is what it is!  No complaints from our primo top floor center stage room overlooking the harbor and pool with a grand breakfast that I don't have to prepare and heavy Hor D'oeurves at 5:00--again, not from our galley.

We plan to return home Friday, repack, and head for Pensacola (and surrounding areas) for my Pensacola High School 55th reunion!

Bill and Laura

Fernandina Beach, FL