sharynk's blog 2011: 2012

Friday, June 15, 2012

This is the first of five trips planned this summer....

Sometime in May Tommy and booked our flights to go see Kyle up in Tennessee. He is stationed in Fort Campbell, KY. He is part of the 5th group, Special Forces, Airborne Unit. (There are other titles that go along with his placement but to be honest, they are way too many for me to remember, lol).

After booking our flights, I realized that we landed in Knoxville, TN. Knoxville, TN is 4.5 hours away from Ft. Campbell. OOOppppsss! Needless to say, Tommy was not very happy with me. (Especially because I slept most of the drive, after filling my belly with greasy food from The Waffle House.)

Kyle's Apartment

We headed for Paducah, KY first. Jim and Cathy, Tommy's brother, lives there. We spent 2 nights with them and got to play with their grandchildren. Eastyn is going to be 3 very soon and James is 1.5 yrs. Great ages to play with them. Eastyn and James are Tommy and I's great niece and nephew. (Is it supposed to be ME and Tommy's?)

Cathy, as usual, cooked awesome, county style, comfort food, meals for us each day. Tommy and Jim went 4 wheeling in the Land Between Lakes. Cathy and I went shopping and out for lunch downtown. We had a great time with them but it was time to move on and go see Kyle.

Fort Campbell was a little over and hour drive from Paducah. Once on base, we checked into our hotel which was old barracks transformed into hotel rooms. They were nice, clean and inexpensive. Kyle met us at our room and took us back to where he lives.

His barracks are very nice! Small but nice. There are only two buildings on base that house the Special Forces. The 101st Airborne is based there along with a very small group of Air Force Personnel. The Air Force is there mainly to fly the planes for the Airborne group.

Kyle was a great host. He took us to restaurants that were not filled with young partying kids and the food was really good. The first place was called 'Old Chicago". Excellent, excellent pizza. Just like Chicago.

Saturday morning the Budweiser Clydesdale's were on base for a parade. We got to watch them dress and hook up the horses to the wagon before parading around. We met 'Brewer", the dalmatian and were very much impressed how very big, and beautiful these horses are.

We also witnessed the ceremony at 6:00pm of taking down the American Flag. "Reveille" is the name of the tune played on the trumpet during the descention. It was interesting to watch and we had timed it perfectly. Here is the link to watch what we caught on video.

We played pool several times while there and made a full day of exploring Nashville. Nashville is a very cool town. On every corner, every mall stage, every stop light, everywhere you look, there is some young person with a guitar playing and singing their hearts out in hope of being discovered. Some are very talented. Others, not so much! The bands and the talents inside the bars and restaurants downtown are incredible.

Brewer

We did not know it but it was CMA's Music Festival that weekend. It was on the water and the weather was perfect. We watched some bands and then headed into the bars. I wish we had more time to explore but after eating lunch Kyle became sick to his stomach so we headed back. But not before going the Grand Ole Opry House --- and an outlet mall for Coach!

this is Dick

Tommy and I spent the evening in our hotel room and relaxed while Kyle went home to recover. The next morning we met up and had breakfast together. Kyle was feeling better and after leaving us he headed back down to Nashville to meet up with a girl he had met the day before while we were there. AH...to be young and carefree.....

We arrived home late, almost midnight, and again I messed up. We landed in Ft. Lauderdale which is and hour drive from home. OOPPSSSS, again! LOL

Overall, we had a wonderful, short, visit with both Jim and Cathy, and of course Kyle. Next is a trip to the Keys for the 4th of July.

open Mic at the Mall

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, March, 14, 2012

New fire pit

The party planning started several weeks prior. Tommy turned 65 years old on March 4! 65! I cannot believe he is actually 65! He is younger than me in every sense of the word. He is simply amazing! I am the luckiest person to have him in my life and am thankful everyday.

Bo-bo

Sire

Kait and Don

Sunset

I had friends and family coming in town to surprise Tommy. So I was a cleaning fool for over a week. His brother, Jim, and wife Cathy, were first to arrive. They drove up to our gate at the end of our driveway and called Tommy for the pass code. He was outside planting yet another Mango tree. In disbelief he joked around with them saying. Yeah right! He started walking towards the end of the driveway and low and behold there was Jim's truck waiting for entry. Tommy was shocked. They drove from Paducah, KY for his birthday. It was an awesome surprise!!!

That night we had a great time at dinner with them, along with Daria and Chip. We ate at the new Rocco's Tacos up on PGA Blvd. It just so happened that it was the same weekend of the Honda Classic and the crowds were over abundant. Gofers, caddy's, media, and people everywhere.

Early the following morning, the day of the party, Borjana and her son came over. While Vuk serenaded us with his talented piano skills, Borjana made bolognese sauce for me to go with the tortellini being served at the party. I threw around several catering possibilities, but decided that I would cook the entire meal for the party. Every party we have, we have it catered and I wanted something different. The menu consisted of Rosemary Loin of Pork with vegetable rue sauce, tortellini with bolognese sauce, chicken cordon bleu with a cheese reduction sauce, sausages with peppers and onions, jasmine rice, roasted red potatoes with rosemary, peas, Cesar salad, bread rolls, birthday cake (which Publix made), and Kaitlyn's awesome, individual, cupcake size, apple and blueberry pies. It was amazingly good, if I do say so myself. There was NOTHING left!

The party was alot of fun. We are so fortunate to have such good friends. There were 47 people invited and 53 showed up. We love when people think enough of us to invite people outside our circle of friends. The more the merrier!

Towards the early evening Tommy lit a fire in our new fire pit. By midnight everyone was gone. It was a Sunday night. A school night for alot of the families that were here. Tommy had a great time, and after all the 'hide and go seek' I make him do before company, he actually relaxed and enjoyed himself. YAY!!!

The Beast

Rita

The following day Kaitlyn, Denise, Susie and I went to Downtown Uncorked. It is a drink while you paint class. Extremely fun! That week we also said goodbye to Rita, (our 5th wheel). It was sad to see her leave the driveway but she is a 2012 model and we will not be using her this summer so for her to sit here and depreciate would be senseless. We will find another when the time comes to hit the road again. Along with Rita goes 'the Beast'. The tremendous truck that pulls her along the way. We wont miss the beast too much because we now have a blazer which is 10x's better on gas! :)

As our guest started leaving for home we made reservations in the keys with Mark and Susie. Ron and Judy live in Little Torch Key and they could not make it up for the party, so we went to go see them.

Ron and Judy's

We rented a house in Cudjoe Key, (just around the block from Daria's summer house). It was a blast to say the least. The house we rented was perfect. On the ocean, private, simple and clean. We visited Key West, shopped, drank and laughed our butts off. We spent an evening at Ron and Judy's drinking margaritas until we fell off our stools. Literally! Mark had the pleasure of waking up at 4am to go fishing 10 miles out with Ron. Yes they did caught some. We ate alot of good fish while down there and had a memorable time.

We stopped to show Mark and Susie the infamous bat house that never housed a bat! And on the way home we made several stops, one being the Wild World of Sports Bar and Restaurant. It is part of the Bass Pro Shops and a great stopping point to break up the long trip home.

Once back from the 'rock', we planned on taking our boat out with Mark and Susie, around Palm Beach Island. The winds have been very strong for over a week up here and would not lay down, so we stayed home instead. Tommy and Mark built an Adirondack chair, which came out wonderful. We only need 3 more for the fire pit.

Marks catch

Infamous Bat House

Ski-mobile School

Duval Street

The last of our guests left yesterday morning at 5am. We had so much fun with everyone. In a couple of weeks, it will start off a crazy summer for us. Once tax season is over, (YAY), we head back down the Cudjoe Key to spear fish with Daria and Chip. From there we will have more house guests coming and going all throughout May. June will a normal month at home (which isn't so normal), and then in July we head back to the keys for the 4th. This time catching up with Ron and Lisa, Ray and Kim, and Ron and Judy. The end of July we go up to NY for a class reunion, and a visit my older sister's summer house Upstate. The first week in August we head back to the keys for lobster season. (YAY AGAIN)! The middle of August we head to Charlotte, NC, and September we go to Seattle for a cruise to Alaska, hopefully stopping in Steamboat on the way out and Redding, CA on the way back.