RV Trip - Stop 1 - Savannah

This post and the next 6 are a diary of our recent trip up north for a number of reasons. We were gone for a total of 25 days and drove the motor home a total of 3426 miles. We made 6 significant stops and if you don't have anything better to do for a while you can visit all 6 posts to see how these "old timers" are spending our golden years and our money!!!!

We were originally going to depart North Port on AUG 4 but Jim found out The Lady Chablis was going to be in Savannah on AUG 3. Lady Chablis was one of the main characters in the book and movie " Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil", by John Berand. If you have not seen or read the book it is a true story about a murder in Savannah. Very good book and movie.

So we got to Savannah, had a pleasant dinner and went to the show to see Lady Chablis emcee the show at Club One, where the show is a number of cross dressers!! Yes, it is a gay bar and show!!! I did not have a good camera with me but I did get a picture of Lady Chablis on my cell phone.

Even though picture is not high quality you can see Chablis is a good looking slender person.  Carol would have really liked to have several of the gowns worn by Chablis. Chablis' name prior to her current one was FRANK. Yes "she" is a guy but you would never know while dressed!!

RV Trip - Stop 2 - Norfolk VA

Our trip north involved many stops the second being Norfolk, VA. We had been there earlier in the year evaluating it as a location for the Hazelwood reunion in 2015. Jim served on the Hazelwood for 3 years. This time we were evaluating 4 hotels as the possible reunion location. We were surprised and pleased that we got  invitations to spend a night in each of the 4 hotels. In that way we got to properly evaluate each of them.
One of the tours we did not get on during our visit earlier this year was a harbor tour and dinner on the Spirit of Norfolk. The convention bureau made arrangements for a complimentary tour on that boat. It was great and I am sure we will include it in our reunion.
The meal was superb and they had a DJ to make the tour even more fun. Since we were about to celebrate Carol's birthday I even got us a bottle of champagne rather than just a glass.

As you can see, you get to see the ships up close and the captain gives an excellent description of each as we go by them If you ever go to Norfolk don't miss this tour.
When we finished our 4 nights in Norfolk, we left early in the morning and drove 11 1/2 hors to get to the Troy, NY area.

RV Trip - Stop 3 - Mini Phi Kap Reunion

Our trip North had many purposes and one of the most enjoyable was a gathering of Phi Kappa fraternity brothers in in Lake George, NY. There were 6 brothers attending, Don Nojaim, Joe Internacola, Dick Veltri, Dick Pratt, Jim Julian and the sparkplug for the "reunion, Vice Alescio.

Our group went to a daytime dinner and play and then to Buco de Peppo the next day for an early dinner prior to going to a show at the Proctor Theater in Schenectady. Both shows were excellent except the excessive loudness at the Proctor. It was a show similar to Circu de Leis(?).

Here is a series of photos taken at Buco de Peppo of the group, minus the photographer, Jim.

Prior to Carol and Jim going to Lake George, we stopped at Latham (Troy, NY) to visit Carol's family cemetery and to take in some our favorite local area foods. It was Carol's birthday so went to the Red Front in Troy where we used to go on dates over 56 years ago. The pizza was just as good now as it was back then  and this picture shows Carol with a SMALL pizza. I don't think the table would hold a large pizza!!

We also stopped at Ted's Fish Fry twice before leaving the area as those fish sandwiches are the BEST!

RV Trip - Stop 4 - Trafford and Pirate Ballgame

Jim lived in Trafford, PA his first 18 years of life and then went to college for 3 1/2 years and the Navy for 3 years. After the Navy there was only one year he lived in Trafford. When we went back for the Peduzzi's birthdays (next post) we drove around every street in town to see the changes that have been made. There are many improvements and there is still much of the "old town" remaining.

Here is the senior high rise that now rests between Brinton and Cavitt Avenues. McBride's Market used to be on this site on Cavitt and Matesick's Store was on Brinton. I am sure if Jim had looked at the list of residents in the high rise he would have seen that some his classmates now live there!

The old borough building is in process of being removed. Even the steps that ran up the hill that were adjacent to it have been closed for years. The new borough building and Fire department is a showcase building visible as you enter Trafford coming across the bridge.

  You are also greeted by a large mural painted on the rear walls of buildings on Cavitt Avenue.

The real showcase improvement is the war memorial park on Edgewood at 5th, overlooking Trafford.  It has 5 monuments for the wars since WW1 up to and including the current War on Terror. Memorial benches are also in the park.

So there a lot of improvements to Trafford and the entire town should be thankful they have a great Mayor in Rey Peduzzi. 

We also found improvements in the Pirate PNC Stadium. The last Pirate home game Jim saw was in Forbes Field and PNC Stadium is a wonderful stadium.

One on our "must" stops in the Trafford area is Delallo's Italian Store on Rt 30 in Jeanette. If you can't find the Italian food you want in this store, it is not made!! Just look at the olive display!!

 

Naturally when we left Trafford we had a good supply of my favorites, Sandwich size pepperoni, Hot sausage and other goodies.



RV Trip - Stop 5 - Peduzzi twins birthday party.

The original reason for us to make a trip north was the 80th birthday of the Rey and Ron Peduzzi. Jim has know the Twins for 75 years as they were neighbors. At Rey's 75th birthday party, Jim told Rey that if he was not planning an 80th birthday party, that we would come to visit and have one for him.
Well, the families decided to have a party for both of them. Rey is the Mayor of Trafford and they were able to arrange the use of the Manchester Room in the new Borough Building.

This is Ron, Bob Mikan, and Rey. If you look closely, you can see the 3 of them in the picture behind them. That picture was taken when they played football together for Trafford High School. 
Naturally at a birthday party there has to be a "roast" and this was no exception.

Here they are being roasted by a college football friend. Since Rey lives in Trafford and has a lot of his family nearby they had a good crowd for the family picture, shown below.

And here is Ron's family picture.

There was the cake and candles that got blown out and this little girl got her share of the cake.

Again, a very happy birthday to Ron and Rey and many more.

RV Trip - Stop 6 - Charleston Visit

Our last stop on this trip was in Charleston, SC to visit with our daughter Joy and family. Naturally we got out to dinner together and here they are.

Of course one of our major reasons to visit them was to spend time with our grandson Kismet. He loves swimming and we went to the water park in the county park 2 days in a row. This was in the park where we stayed in the motor home.

That was a lot of fun but then we went to Folly Beach on James Island. A very nice beach but the day we were there the wind was strong and that caused the surf to be equally strong. Waves were 3 to 6 feet and the current close to shore was at least 5 knots at an angle to the beach. Jim even got knocked down once in knee deep water!

As you can see, Kismet had a ball in the surf but it was too strong for Jim to join  in.


On our last evening we had some time that allowed us to relax and go to dinner ourselves. We found a great place to have a drink and a light dinner, The Charleston Crab House.

Carol got an appetizer of Calamari which was as good as any we have ever had. Jim got a bowl of She Crab Soup. If you have never had She Crab Soup, it is made with crab meat of course and they add crab roe (eggs) for additional flavor. A delightful dish that you should not miss if you see it on a menu.
The next morning we departed and headed home, driving about 10 1/2 hours to make it in one day. Overall for the 24 days we were gone, we put 3,429 miles on the motor home. A tiring but enjoyable time.

OMG - Jim turns 78

Well, Jim had a birthday recently and turned a ripe old 78. He may be old in body but the mind is still young. The body is not doing too badly because last week he was SCUBA diving in the Keys for lobster. He did catch 2 but one was a female with eggs and had to be left on the bottom. Carol and I  had the one for dinner when we got back and based on the total cost of our 3 night trip and the weight of the one tail, it cost about $2,000.00 per pound!!! Not economical but a lot of fun.

Carol and Jim had planned to go to the American Legion with Gus and Marilyn for Jim's birthday but when we got there Carol had arranged for many others help to celebrate his birthday. In total there were 7 couples plus the rest of the Legion membership who were also there for dinner and dancing as we were.

There were even balloons at the two tables we had for our group. That is the streamer holding the balloon in this picture.

 The reason we had planned to go to the legion was because pour favorite entertainer and dance music provider was planning there. We follow him around to the various places he plays.

Yeah, we have become senior citizen groupies.

Marilyn, our "cake maker extraordinaire" made a cake decorated with a bikini "babe". I don't know who she used a model but we all started calling it "the boob" cake.

Naturally you can guess which part I got served!

So another year has been chalked up and we are looking forward to the next one.

 

 

PASSOVER SEDER

This is the week before Easter and Passover and we were invited to attend a Passover Seder at the home of George and Helene Fuchs, friends of ours.
The Seder is a ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It involves retelling of the story of liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. The story is in the Book of Exodus and is based on the Biblical verse commanding Jews to retell the story.
Seder customs include drinking 4 cups of wine, eating matza, partaking of symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate and reclining in celebration.The Seder is performed in much the same way by Jews all oveer the world.
This was the first Seder Carol and I ever participated in and we found it to be very informative and a pleasant experience. We were joined by our friends Gus and Marilyn Lopes and Phyllis Lustgarden plus some friends of George and Helene.

Here is Marilyn Lopes, Carol and Phyllis Lustgarden at the table. The sheets on the table contan the ritual and story which was read in part by each of us in attendance.



Here is Phyliss, Helene and George and you can see the Passover Seder Plate  in the right center with foods on it.

The after dinner storytelling by Helene was really the highlight of the evening as she was able to keep us in stitches most of the evening.

 

 

 

ANOTHER CRUISE !!!

Yes, we just got back from another cruise!!  This was a 5 night cruise out of Tampa FL to Cozumel and Key West. We went with our friends and neighbors Gus and Marilyn Lopes. We were on a cruise with them this past December and had so much fun we decided to do it again!!
Of course you may think I had more fun than the others after I met this beauty in Cozumel. I think her name was Senorita Frog!

But Carol had a great deal of fun also. One evening they served Caribbean Lobster tail for dinner along with shrimp. All of us enjoyed the lobster so much we all got a second serving of the lobster tail. As you can see Carol really enjoyed her first serving.

In Key West, I met a group of young ladies dancing around and having some fun. But Carol would not let me join them!! At least she joined them but would not agree to wear the same outfits they had on (or off!!). She did let me take her picture with her dancing friends.

We had so much fun on the 5 nights of this cruise, drinking champagne, dancing and eating fine meals that I don't think we could have lasted any longer!! We now get to spend about a month at home before we go on our next adventure which is the reunion of the Hazelwood crew. Jim Served on the Hazelwood, a destroyer and they have a reunion every 2 years. This year it will be in the Newport RI area where Jim served his tour of duty.

NORFOLK VA TOUR

Last week Carol and I went to Norfolk, VA to attend a familiarization tour in anticipation of the possibility of having a Hazelwood reunion there. Jim served on the Hazelwood during his 3 years of active service.There were about 50 others attending the tour also. The purpose was to show all of us the sights and tour possibilities in the area.
We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and got right into the events with a reception and dinner at one of the hotels. On Wednesday and Thursday we started at 9 AM and did not end until about 8 PM. Each day we had breakfast, lunch and dinner at a different hotel. Between meals and hotel tours we visited the sightseeing spots around the city.

Here is Carol getting ready to have dinner at our first evening dinner. you can tell by the setting of the table it was a very fine event.

Some of the tour sites we visited included the General MacArthur memorial, the battleship Wisconsin (BB64) and a harbor tour of the Naval Base. Jim served his first midshipman cruise on the Wisconsin in 1954 and this is the second time he has been back on board.

 

 

This one of 5 super carriers that were in port in Norfolk that we saw while on the harbor tour. Sort of reminds me of battleship row at Pearl Harbor and makes me hope that no one hijacks several airlines and tries to hit them .... like Pearl Harbor.
In the 3 days, we visited 8 hotels and 8 tourist sites. We certainly had full days and got to see a lot of Norfolk. When we finished at Norfolk, we made the short drive to Virginia Beach to look at and stay at one hotel that was not included  in the Norfolk tour. We then started our 2 day drive home on Saturday morning and arrived home tired on Sunday.

ANNIVERSARY PHOTOS

When on our anniversary cruise, we always get at least one photo in our dressy outfits. This time we looked so good we bought two of the photos!!

By the way, the lowest cost way to get studio style photos is on a cruise. And  you get many  poses to look at before you select any to buy. Of course you are not obligated to buy any of them,

Flying Fish Sandwich

When I was talking to Richard Ernst about our cruise and told him we were going to be in Barbados, He said we had to try a flying fish sandwich!! Now when Richard and I served together on the Hazelwood many years ago we used to see these fish actually get  up on the deck of the ship. The were not large and I could never expected to hear of anyone making a sandwich out of the. However Richard said when he cruised in the Bahamas (in his own sail boat) he would never miss the opportunity to have a sandwich or dinner of them when in Barbados.
So here we are having our Flying Fish Sandwich in downtown Bridgetown, Barbados.

 The sandwich reminded me of a perch sandwich but the seasoning was excellent and had a Caribbean flavor to it. Thanks to Richard we now know how good they can be.

55th Anniversary Cruise



We have been going on a cruise each January to celebrate our anniversary and this year was no exception. We departed from Miami on January 27th, our anniversary for a 10 day cruise to the eastern Bahamas. St Thomas, St Lucia, Dominica, Barbados and St Maarten. While on the cruise Carol recognized the head manager of the hotel operations from a previous cruise we were on. While talking to him she mentioned it was our anniversary and he asked for our cabin number. Later in the week he called our cabin and arranged for us to dine as his guest in one of the specialty restaurants and have bottle of wine also.

We chose the steak house (a $25 per person fee) and of course even got a complimentary bottle of champagne!! Here we are enjoying the evening.

This was certainly a very nice gesture and we really enjoyed the meal. We both  had a small fillet which was super.They even brought an anniversary cake and sank "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" to us!! A truly special evening for us.

 

Here we are with Steven Jacobsen the officer who provided us with the pleasant evening.
Since we are now Gold Members in the Latitudes Club we get some nice perks such as  2 nice receptions with complimentary drinks and snacks. On completion of this cruise we will  move up to the Diamond level and hope the perks move u p nicely also!!
We have already booked our next anniversary cruise for next January. It will be a 7 day cruise departing from Tampa.

Happy New Year

It is easy to see that both Carol and Marilyn are having a good time at the New Years eve party. We went to the same place we went last year but the music was not a good ... not bad but not great as we like it.
As soon as the hew year came in we left and headed home. We did make it to midnight which is not bad for a couple of old folks!