Travels of Mark and Pat

Sunday - July 19

BLAIR is TWO

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEETIE!

Precious Baby Girl
July 19, 2013

Adorable two-year old

What fun we are having with our one and only granddaughter!

We walked this morning, had breakfast, played some 2-handed euchre, read, did computer stuff, etc.

A nice, lazy Sunday....

Walked again this afternoon and then the storm came thru (not predicted), but heavy rain and windy!

Things cleared up so around 4, we drove to Pensacola Beach and had dinner at Casino Beach Bar and Grille (a Ryan recommendation). Fun place with very good grouper. We could actually "see" the beach today - unlike the day of the air show with all those people everywhere!!!

Liam and Connor won their baseball game tonight - 13-3.
Liam hit an inside-the-park home run - 2nd time this season!

Good night from Milton and wishing you
a safe, healthy, happy week ahead!

Saturday - July 18

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BROOKE

This is from a while ago, but so precious

Brooke and her sweet little girl

who just happens to have a birthday tomorrow!

Thinking of Brooke and the kids traveling all day from Santa Rosa Beach to Lake James.....

We did a brisk walk this morning trying to "beat the heat", but that's not happening! Ha....

After breakfast we had a leisurely morning on Daisy and moved to another spot here at Avalon Landing. We wanted to have a concrete pad outside our door and where we were was gravel. Things stay much cleaner walking on concrete, so there was a spot open and we made the move.

We went to David's Catfish House for lunch around 1. We had seen this place advertised on billboards and read about it online. Parking lot was packed and we had to wait for a table....excellent lunch of catfish (fresh farm-fed from Mississippi), shrimp (fresh from the Gulf), delicious cole slaw, cheese grits and hush puppies! Good southern cookin'.

We will definitely go back later this week!

Stopped for a few things at CVS and then the Milton Bakery for some pastries for tomorrow's breakfast. This place had gotten great reviews, too. In fact, the bakery was the #1 rated restaurant in Milton and David's was #2 by Trip Advisor. We always laugh how the bakeries and ice cream shops are ranked right up there or before the finest restaurants! The little town of Milton has some good things going for it with David's and the bakery.

One more thing....the waitresses at David's all wear different colorful t-shirts that have on the front:

David's Catfish House

Milton, Florida

and then the back has 3 pictures - a cat, fish and house!

Very cute and clever!

Bagdad is a small community south of Milton that we've driven thru and it has signs about the Bagdad Museum, so thought we would check it out....well, it is only open the first Saturday of the month from 10-12. Not sure what exactly was in this museum, so Googled it and here's what it said...

Housed in the restored c.1886 New Providence Missionary Baptist Church building, the Bagdad Village Preservation Association Museum contains exhibits on local history including a Civil War exhibit with period artifacts and photographs.

Must not get too many visitors for just 2 hours a month?

We went to 4:00 Mass at St. Rose of Lima in Milton. \

After dinner, we went for a walk on a very warm Saturday evening!

Happy to hear Brooke, Drew, Davis, Brady and Blair are back at Lake James with hubby and daddy!

Friday - July 17

What a big day and so much fun! We exercised, had breakfast and left to run some errands and then to the Naval base where we bought some souvenirs, rode in the 4-D Blue Angel ride - simulation that we were in #4 F-18 and took off over San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, etc. WOW......being "in the cockpit" gave us a whole new meaning of what Ryan does (of course, the little bit we got to see and do wouldn't begin to cover all he does)! Mark and I ate lunch at the "Cubi Bar Café" in the museum. And then it was time for graduation.

Nice ceremony....and afterwards, Davis took us aboard the USS Ambition and showed us where he's been hanging out all week and some of the missions they carried out.

Davis's home the past 6 days (replica on land)

His call sign

Davis receiving his diploma

His bunk and room

After the ceremony and tour of the USS Ambition, we left for Santa Rosa Beach. Drove thru very heavy rain....arrived at 3:45 and had a good visit with Brooke, her parents, Bob and Judy and aunt and uncle, Nate (Judy's brother) and Jane. Soo good to see Drew, Brady and Blair.....

Grandma and Blair opening birthday presents!

The Blue Angels are in Hillsboro, OR this weekend. Tomorrow's show is dedicated to the 4 Marines who lost their lives so tragically on Thursday. Sunday's show will be dedicated to Harley Hall who was the "Boss" (Commanding Officer) of the Blues in 1970-71. On the last day of the Vietnam war, Commander Hall was shot down on January 27, 1973. There is a building in Vancouver dedicated to him and named in his honor and the Blues did a flyover Wednesday evening.

We got back to Daisy at 7:30......have a great weekend!

Thursday - July 16

We walked around the park this morning - another hot 'n humid day and to be worse over the weekend!     After breakfast, did some inside cleaning on Daisy.

Had an afternoon treat at Tastee-Freeze (hadn't been to one of these in years)!   I did some laundry and watched the tragic news from Chattanooga and the senseless murder of the 4 Marines.

Another walk around the park tonight - absolutely no wind and buggie out.   The mosquitoes have been really bad all over - so much rain brings the nasty little critters out big time!

Played 2-handed euchre....Mark won 3 out of 5 games!

Tomorrow we're off to "graduation" for Davis!

Wednesday - July 15

FIFTY (50) years ago tonight (July 15, 1965), Mark asked me to dance in Rochester, Minnesota to the Byrds singing "Hey Mr. Tambourine Man" and the rest is history...............we were on a 4-H Exchange trip and our host families took us to this concert!!!

July 15, 2015 we exercised, had breakfast and then took off for Milton where we got our Florida drivers' licenses! Tah Dah....