Settling into retirement: Second Quarter 2008

April
		Arriving back in the USA on April 1st, we were picked up at the airport by Rickey, our car salesman. Talk about customer service! We bought the new Toyota in January, and Rickey kept it at his house till we arrived. He even installed our new Florida license plates. What a great welcome back to the USA!

Margy's sister, Bibba, was also a great welcoming committee of one. She had faithfully watched over the house modifications and made friends with all our future neighbors while we were still in Chile. Upon arrival to the USA, we enjoyed sharing a few days together in the area, with her showing us around to her favorite spots, before she headed back to New York State. Thanks Bibba for all your help!

Curtis was our first surprise visitor. On the day we arrived he knocked on our front door! He was passing through Florida from North Carolina, where he and Susan were our neighbors in 1989.		Bhaskar and Rosalie visited us later that month when they were up from Gainesville FL to watch the Amelia Island annual tennis championships.

We were now able to use the bikes we bought in January. Bike riding and/or walks through the neighborhood are part of our daily routine.

Happy Birthday Adella! We flew up to New Jersey to celebrate Artie's Mom's 94th birthday, April 19th. It was a memorable celebration and a wonderful family reunion as well.

In the beauty and comfort of Ray and Shelley's home we celebrated, chatted and sang "happy birthday!"
Cousin Virginia (Adella's generation) and cousin Sharyn (our generation), with Shelley, all had fun together.

There was even some quiet time for Uncle Artie to give a banjo lesson to nephew Brian (thus ending the quiet!).
Best of all, was having nearly all the immediate family together. Those not able to join us were there in spirit.

A few days later we drove from Florida to South Carolina. Bob and Kathy (Margy's sister) invited us to join their family in Myrtle Beach. Also shown at left are daughter Devlin and her husband Peter. At right are grandson Livingston, daughter Alison, baby grand daughter Ronan, and husband Brian, then Kathy and Bob.

We enjoyed celebrating Artie's birthday, and then jogging in the street to burn of the cake calories!

We even had the chance to reunite with Howard, one of Artie's former bosses and a good friend, who drove over from Columbia, SC, to meet us. It had been perhaps two decades since we last saw Howard.

May
May 21 the sea shipment from Chile arrived with all our furnishings. We had prepared the "paper cut-outs" to help place the big items, but we still had quite a lot of detail work to do before the house would get settled!
		Lots more work needed before this is ready!

The Fernandina Beach annual Shrimp Festival was a welcome break from the move-in chores. Over 100,000 people flock to this event which features hand-made crafts, art and photography for sale, plus lots of shrimp!

One of the joys of returning to the USA for our retirement is the opportunity to more easily see family and friends through the year. Taking another break from our move-in tasks, we enjoyed a less than 4 hour drive to Margy's sister, Anne Fay, in Melbourne, Florida. Their son, Peter, grandson Griffin, and daughter-in-law Dawn were there for a few days and we got to share the fun with them.

Dawn enjoyed seeing photos on the computer, while Anne Fay enjoyed all of us together in her home.

		Gator Country! During one of our walks through our community, we saw this visitor at the front pond. A few days later he was removed.

June
Our furnishings were in place by mid-June, with motivation to get the house ready before visitors started to arrive. Nothing like a deadline! It did feel good to have the boxes gone and have the place finally feel like home.
The dining room and living room are now ready for company. Come visit!
		New dormer room (study) above, and sun room (below)

Our first overnight visitor, after getting the house in order, was Artie's Mom, Adella.

Accompanied by her wonderful aide, Elizabeth, Adella enjoyed walking the neighborhood and seeing the sights.

We drove to Orlando and back in one day so Adella could visit her High School friend, Bessie, who later became her sister-in-law (when Bessie introduced her brother Maurice (Pop), to Adella, they fell in love, got married and Bessie became "family."). Aunt Bessie (nearly 92) looked and felt great that day. With her daughter, Selma, we all went out to eat and had a wonderful afternoon together. Sadly, Bessie passed away less than one month later and Adella in seven months. It was so good that we visited and had these special memories and photos of their last time together.

Our next visitor was Kristin, whom we've know since her birth, and who spent 4 months in Chile during 2001. She and her Aunt Mary Beth (who lives in Jacksonville FL), toured downtown Fernandina Beach and the shore with us. In November, we were to visit Chile and Easter Island with Kristin and her folks.

June 27 to July 4th our dear friend, Mónica, visited us from Chile. Why was she so happy to be at the beach? Two reasons: First of all, swimming in June is unique for Chileans who normally are in winter then, and secondly, the ocean west of Santiago is cold, due to currents from the South Pole. This felt like bath water to Mónica! She never wanted to come out! We visited several of the nearby beaches and got lots of Florida swim time.

Mónica just couldn't get enough. Talk about kicking up your heels with joy!

With a recipe from her son, Ale, and daughter-in-law, Flaca, given to us as part of a going away gift book of memories, Mónica cooked up a special lasagna meal for us, among the many she expertly made during the visit.

A day trip to Georgia included the Okefenokee Swamp Park, where gators were viewed in their natural habitat (not unlike at our community pond!).

Southern cuisine wouldn't be complete without experiencing fresh boiled peanuts (pronounced "bald" peanuts). Yum, yum!

One day we headed to where Artie worked for nearly a decade when we lived in Lake City, FL. We got a tour of the phosphate mine, including the three of us standing in one of the giant buckets that are used by the draglines to extract this important fertilizer. We also toured the after-mining reclaimed areas that are now productively succeeding with wetlands, wildlife and harmony with nature. We were proud to see the sustainable process, thanks to the hard work of the team which worked with Artie on environmental permitting and mines planning.
We enjoyed a lunch with over 2 dozen of our friends from when we lived and worked in this area in the 1980s.

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