#100 Outer Banks-2

It is already week two of our Outer Banks beach vacation and we are having a wonderful time. The weather has been variable - we started with three days of partly sunny skies, then three days of rain, and today was our third day in the row of bright sunshine. So far we have avoided the dreaded sunburns and Kathleen and I have succeeded in maintaining our exercise regimen.

Our resident count in the beach house peaked yesterday after my parents arrived just prior to the departure of Kathleen's parents. For a part of Saturday, we had 13 adults and 16 children. My cousin Zemira visted us for the day on Saturday. She recently relocated to Camden, North Carolina - not far from here.

The guest list for this beach soiree includes the families of Kathleen's three brothers - Dan, John, and Tony. It also includes Kathleen's parents, Don and Margie, and my parents, Ottavio and Eleanor. We have had some fun with the beach, sightseeing, and walking. We have played Scrabble, Texas Hold 'Em, Apple Apple, and assembled a large jigsaw puzzle. For meals we have shared responsibility by having teams of people plan and cook a community meal each night for the whole group.

The ocean has been a tempest of crashing waves for the last three days. Apparently the hurricane Bertha is blowing out by Bermuda and causing the ocean to be extremely rough. The beach is a mess of eddys and gulleys from the crashing waves. Zemira's new husband (Russ) and I spent some time with a rented two-man ocean kayak trying to navigate the crashing waves and rushing currents. We had a blast but repeatedly capsized and were thrown off the boat as we tried to muscle our way through the surf. This morning, we attended church at the Corolla historic chapel with ministry by a kook of a minister who despite starting the service with a couple of jokes, spent most of his time preaching about the disasters that indicate that the end is near. Not the light hearted gospel I expected from a transient, tourist town church.

We later visited the Currituck Beach lighthouse. It is one of four lighthouses on the OUter Banks and was built in 1873. The lighthouse is constructed entirely of brick and the walls are 4.5 feet thick at the base of the lighthouse. Very interesting.

It is turning out to be a terrific family reunion and a memorable beach vacation. I have posted many more pictures at Snapfish. I have also updated the links so any blog visitor should be able to see these five Snapfish albums below. Cheers!

Outer Banks - 1

Outer Banks - 2

Outer Banks - 3

Outer Banks - 4

Outer Banks - 5

#99 Outer Banks-1

On the 4th of July, we departed Peoria for our two week vacation in North Carolina at The Outer Banks. We are meeting Kathleen's family and my parents for a family reunion and a stay at the beach.

The drive from Peoria to the Outer Banks is 16 hours according to Mapquest which turned out to be accurate. We drove for two full days, staying over one night in West Virginia. After 16 hours and 1100 miles, the last 30 miles took us two additional hours because of beach traffic. All of the rentals turn over on Saturday afternoon, so it was stop and go traffic all the way (see the view above).

Ultimately, it was well worth the drive, as the house we have is very nice and the beach is just beautiful. Attached are a few shots of our first visit to the beach while Kathleen was out grocery shopping to stock the kitchen.

#98 Peoria Poker

After a 10 month absence, I made a triumphant return to the neighborhood poker game at home in Peoria. Well, it wasn't so triumphant, but as always it was great fun. Of all the comforts we live without in China, Uplands neighborhood poker is probably the thing I miss most often.

On this particular night, I came bearing gifts from Shi Quan Jie in Suzhou. As you can see above, every player went home with a silk tie and a Rolex ! Their best night of poker ever - I am sure.

#97 Ice Cream

We are back in Peoria now and are getting to see many friends and neighbors. Two of our favorite people in Peoria are Peter and Liz, our next door neighbors. Peter is a professor at Bradley and Liz is a piano teacher. They also have their daughter, son-in-law, and grandson, Graham, living with them. Graham and Marco are the same age and are glad to be rekindling their friendship.

Every year, Peter and Liz hold an ice cream social on the 4th of July. Unfortunately, we are going to miss the party this year because we will be driving to North Carolina on Friday. Nonetheless, we got to participate in the ice cream making as Peter led the group to create a batch of maple walnut.

Above are some pictures of us churning the ice cream, sampling the product, and Peter, finishing off the remants.

#96 Home Leave !!

Sing this to the tune of that Russian Beatles hit: "We're back in the US of A" ... and we are very happy to be here.

We took off from Shanghai on Friday, Jun-27th on the last day of school. Above are some pictures of Marco and Maria leaving Newton preschool for the last time. They will be attending Dulwich next year with the other two Cazzato children. Marco and Maria's teachers expressed great sadness that their favorite students were not returning next year. I suppose they are paid to say that.

Juliana and Joseph were picked up next. We attended Dulwich College's "Recognition and Prize Day" ceremony where Juliana was one of only two 4th year (3rd grade) students to receive an award for academics.

As we left Dulwich, the rain in Suzhou that has persisted for almost three weeks was pouring down in buckets and we all got drenched before the long drive to the airport. The drive was very slow with many traffic delays due to the weather. Things got worse when our driver Michael tried a new route to the airport and got lost. We were seriously contemplating the likelihood that would miss our flight to Chicago and have to try to get six standby seats the next day.

We made it to the airport in time to be the last passengers to check in and were very relieved. After the harrowing and suspenseful trip, the weather ended up delaying the flight two hours on the tarmack, so our 15 hour flight became a 17 hour flight.

None of these challenges, however, could dim our enthusiasm for the annual home leave, particularly for Kathleen and the kids since they had been away from America for nearly 10 months.

Our good friend and neighbor, Greg, picked us up at the airport while Margaret and their children, waited at our house to greet us for our homecoming. Greg and family were the last people we said goodbye to on our last night in Peoria last August and the first people to greet us upon our return. It was a wonderfully warm welcome and we are truly grateful to have such great friends.