Hope the holiday season finds you and your family
well. We survived Hurricane Florence with little damage but tremendous
debris. Our debris pile was 80’ X 10’ X 10’! The storm
was exceptionally slow moving and dumped about 30 inches of rain here.
We evacuated to Charlotte but returned during the storm as we knew
the interstates and other roads would flood—they did! We were
fortunate but some of our friends had major flooding and leaking!
Click
on pictures to enlarge
We visited Charlotte several times for
grandchildren events. The twin boys, Sam and Will (11), had major
singing roles in their school play of “Beauty and the Beast.”
Sam was Gaston and Will was LeFou. They both did a great job! We also
saw lots of field hockey, Cate (15, and her team won the state championship)
and Paige (13), baseball, and dance (Will). Sam’s baseball team
qualified and played in the NC state Little League championship tourney—it
was a fun event!
All of Liz’s family was here for spring break and parts of the
summer for beach and boating. Because spring break was in late April,
we were unable to go skiing, but did some hiking with them in the
NC mountains during part of their break.
We
took several trips to Colorado this year. The first was to Aspen and
Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) in August. The mountains are spectacular
in the summer with many beautiful colors. The Aspen Music Festival
was on, so we were entertained by world class musicians for six nights
in a row! We hiked to the Maroon Bells, the top of Aspen and Snowmass
Mountains, Independence Pass, and several beautiful areas in the RMNP
near Estes Park. We returned in October for Brooke’s 50th Air
Force Academy reunion. Saw a lot of “old” classmates and
beat Navy 35-7!
Another
short trip was to our state capital of Raleigh. We primarily went
to see the play, “Bright Star” by Steve Martin. The play
was great (bluegrass, set in the 20s and 40s). But we also visited
the NC Capitol Bldg., and the three History, Art, and Natural Sciences
Museums—all were very well done.
We
took an interesting trip to Washington, DC with Cathy’s sister,
Barbara and her husband Joe. It was for an annual orthodontics convention
(Joe) and the two of us were just strap hangars with them. Finale
was at the Trump International Hotel (Old Post Office). What a beautiful
building! Had a great time and visited another sister, Anne and her
family, near Baltimore. Brooke is off to Aspen
in early December for ten days of skiing with a guy’s trip! Thus
far, the snow looks great—a far cry from last year when they
canceled the trip.
We are healthy and hit the gym four or five days a week. Cards and
Mahjong get a lot of time and Brooke plays golf frequently (hits the
ball even more frequently than he would like).
Best wishes to you and your family. Merry Christmas! Cathy and Brooke
