Bloomin' Onion & Veterans

Sunday was Veterans Day and the Outback Steakhouse had a special for veterans. They were giving a free Bloomin' Onion and soft drink to vets. I couldn't pass up such a good offer so I took Carol out to lunch since I am such a big spender!!

I had to spring for a glass of wine for Carol but that was OK.

We thought we might have dinner after the onion but it was plenty and we were full after finishing all of it. We will go there isn the future for a dinner since they are giving 10% off to veterans for the rest of this year. Not a bad deal at all.

25 F in StThomas

Brrrrrr. Who thought it could be 25 F in ST Thomas. Not us of course. But last year they opened an attraction called Magic Ice. It is 10,000 sq ft of ice sculptures and an Ice Bar. They have to keep it at below freezing so the ice does not melt!!

When you go in they supply you with a big coat, gloves and even wrap up your ankles, since most everyone has shorts on. At the ice bar, they serve you a cold (of course) shot of Cruzan flavored rum. It does not warm you up in that cold place though.

They also have a slide that you could ride down on a mat, so you don't freeze your butt!! Carol did that and I have it on video.

We topped off our stay at St Thomas with a very good meal at the Lobster
Grill at Bolongo Bay resort. It was a fine restaurant and the atmosphere was very fine also. Carol had her Caribbean lobster for dinner and her leftovers for lunch the next day!

Wining and dining in St Thomas

One of the things we enjoy at St Thomas is going out with friends and having an enjoyable meal and of course a few glasses of wine. For the past 5 years my dive buddy has been Hank from Lake George, NY. This year he has a girl friend that came down with him and that made our time there that much more enjoyable.

One of our favorite places to go is the Room With a View and have their 5 o'clock specials. Here is Hank, Holly, Jim and Carol enjoying the evening.
One of our other favorite places to go is Paradise Point which is above the cruise docks overlooking the town. They have decent food, good Bushwackers, music and a great view for a sunset.

For lunches we usually get out to Secret Harbor at least once during our stay.

After a nice lunch we stopped at Bluebeard's Beach club to use their pool and relax some more. Hank "lost" Holly for a while but finally found her getting a little nap on one of the hammocks.

When we went to the Shipwreck Cafe for lunch one day, Carol found a new guy ...... but he wouldn't buy her lunch so she stayed with me!!

We sure enjoy ourselves in St Thomas and look forward to t he trip each year.

St Thomas SCUBA

Carol and I have returned from our annual 2 weeks in St Thomas and I got in more SCUBA than usual. I also worked on upgrading my certificate which gives  me more latitude on the type of dives I can do safely. I took training on deep dives (up to 100 ft), underwater navigation, photography,  wreck diving and night diving. All dives were a lot of fun and a true learning experience.
I now have competed 77 dives since getting certified 5 years ago, at age 72. That means I have completed 77 d1ves at age 77!! I sure wish I had gotten started earlier!
Here I am taking some pictures while at about 40 feet underwater.

Carol does not dive with me but she gets some relaxation time while I am underwater. Here she is at Coki Beach enjoying the view in the shade.

She does get in the water from time to time though. At Coki Beach the fish are very friendly and usually surround you when you get in the water. They are looking to be fed from dog bones that the vendors sell at the beach!!

If Carol had a dog bone there would have been more fish around her!!

Soul Food??

One of the things that Carol and I have enjoyed over the years is the local food. This ranges from food where we were raised to other places we have visited. On our recent trip to Troy we made several stops at our past favorite eating spots.

Here we are in Cincinnati at the Montgomery Inn having a slab of ribs and onion straws. We split one meal and still took a few ribs home with us!!

While in Troy we went to Red Front Pizza which is still there after over 50 years. That is a small pizza in front of Carol!! We finished half of it and had the remains over the next few days.

Another favorite spot in Troy is Ted's Fish Fry. They deep fry fresh cod and have an excellent sauce to put on it.

In 4 days at Troy we made 2 stops at Ted's and one day we split 3 sandwiches between the two of us. We never had any leftovers from Teds!!
Also in Troy we stopped for Hot Dogs at Famous Lunch. They serve small sized dogs with a great chili sauce on them. The hot dogs are from a local provider, Helbold,s and they are natural skinned with great flavor. They used to be 10 cents each when I was in college 55 years ago and I would get 10 for a meal!! I missed getting a  picture but next time I won't!!

In Zanesville we made our stop at Tumbleweed and I got my Beef Burrito Deluxe and of course had to have a margarita to help wash it down.

Short stop in Warwick RI

We got to West Warwick RI early in the afternoon and parked at another Elks lodge and then transferred the DD-531 ship model to Richard Ernst. He and his wife Ann are doing the local planning of our ship reunion in April 2013. We went with them to look at the hotel where the reunion is to be held reunion and we checked out the lounge. They have found an excellent place for the reunion.

We had dinner with them next door at a very nice seafood restaurant. It would have been nice to spend more time in the area but we decided to leave in the morning and head to Troy so we could get some things done prior to the start of the official activities.

Wedding Bells

We arrived in Zanesville, OH on Wednesday SEP 26 and parked at the Dillon State Park so we could have power during our stay. Lori and Brad's wedding was scheduled to be on Saturday and my sister, Jeannie, was arriving on Thursday. It was nice that Lori was able to pick up my sister at the Columbus airport as she was in Columbus and coming to Zanesville on the same morning that Jeannie was arriving.
We made our usual stop at Rob's grave site and Carol did some cleanup and decorating.

The wedding on Saturday was a very nice event and we were happy to see that Lori is now returning to a more normal life. She and Brad were high school sweethearts but drifted apart after both went to college.

Since we had a tight schedule, we departed the day after the wedding, Sunday SEP 30 and headed for Trafford. On the way we dropped Jeannie at the Pittsburgh airport and she picked up a rental car. She was planning to stay in the area for several days visiting old friends.
Our main reason for stopping in Trafford was to drop off some Mint Julep pre-mixed cocktails to Rey and Bib Peduzzi!! As usual we parked the middle school paring lot but had to be out early on Monday morning because of school hours.
 We departed at 6 AM and drove in fog and rain for several hours on our way to Warwick RI. We stopped just short of NYC in Parsippany NJ at an Elks lodge. It was a good place to stay and we were even able to get some reasonable priced diesel (for that area) in the morning. ($4.08 per gallon!!). We left early enough in the morning to miss most of the rush  hour traffic and crossed the Tappan Zee bridge north of NYC easily ..... except for a toll of $24.75 for the motor home and our towed car!!