5/8/2018

Weekly Update 5/7/2018

ALLEN!

The day after Lisa left, Allen came to visit. It was an eventful arrival. His plane landed at 11 am, and the plane crash near the airport was 20 minutes later. We were in the car heading to the condo, when we noticed a huge plume of black smoke. Many emergency vehicles went racing past us, and we got caught in huge traffic jams every where we tried to go. We knew a little of what was going on because we both had our phones and could find info on the news apps, but didn’t have a clue to how bad it was until we learned more later in the day. Had there been a plane crash 20 minutes BEFORE Allen landed, I would have been a wreck, but having him safely with me put my mind at ease. From there, we went to Treylor Park to have a cold brew and some lunch while relaxing a little on their patio. And in the evening, since it was Wednesday, we both played Rummikub.

watching the smoke from our car window

at Treylor Park

Thursday, we went to the Landings to watch the Savannah Challenger Tennis Tournament. We watched some uninspired singles, and I wandered to the doubles for only one set of that. It was amazing how hard and how deep they hit the ball. None of the players were familiar to me, and all the matches only went to two sets. It was very nice to be there, however, and I loved watching the matches we saw. We stopped at the Publix on the way home, and picked up some steaks, mushrooms, baked potatoes and salad. I made Allen grill out at the pool. He did a wonderful job – I haven’t tasted anything that good in a long time.

Federico Coria (he lost)

Reilly Opelka (he won) - he's 6'11"

My personal chef

I had hoped to take a helicopter ride with Allen while he was here, but when I tried to contact the company that offers the rides, I had no response to my email or phone call messages. I don’t know if that had anything to do with the crash, but the helicopter didn’t work out for us. So, instead, we drove out to Tybee Island where we had a lunch at the outside patio at North Beach Grill. Then, we went to the pier to walk out over the water and also got our feet in tthe water briefly. Allen had suggested that we might like to try to tour the Green Meldrim House because he had not been there on any of his other visits. We hurried downtown to catch the last tour at 3:30 only to find the doors locked – no tours today (that has happened to me at that house many times before). We got a couple of Guinness beers to go and did some people watching in Chippewa Square. And then, since it was Friday, we went to The 90.

Allen at the beach

Kay, me Allen, Connie at The 90

Saturday, instead of going to the annual Lunch Bunch Derby Day gathering (didn’t really think Allen would be interested in hanging out with all us old ladies), we went to the Scottish Games. This is a festival that is held every year but it’s been a few years since I’ve been able to go. I enjoyed it: the athletic events (man, some of those women who toss the caber are large ladies!), the clan booths for families (I saw a Matheson family tent), the dancers, the bagpipes, the things for sale. And especially I enjoyed watching the sheep dogs as they worked to herd the sheep. The weather was perfect. Again, I didn’t plan well, and I thought that the Derby Race started at 5. Since I wanted us to be downtown in some sports bar to watch the Run for the Roses, we were two hours too early. Finally we went to Tequila Town since it was Cinco de Mayo as well as Derby Day, and we ate some wonderful Mexican food, and we could watch the race while we were there.

bagpipes on parade

good puppy!

Allen at Teuila Town, watching the race on the tv at the bar

On Sunday, I finally got to go to Auspicious Bakery, and I was disappointed. When I had been there before, there were several counters set up with all sorts of bread, cookies, croissants, etc. This time, there was only one small counter, only a few cookies, no good bread, but lots and lots of all kinds of croissants. I was able to find something to buy, and it was very good, but I had been expecting something really grand and it just didn’t measure up. We continued on the Wormsloe Plantation, which isn’t a plantation at all, but just the ruins of a small house that was built by one of the men who arrived with General Oglethorp in 1733. There was a new hiking trail that I had not known about before, so we wandered there. After that, we went to Coach’s to catch the end of the Yankees game (which had a pretty exciting finish), and some European football. I coerced Allen into cooking for me again, and we stopped at Publix for chicken kabaobs, couscous, and macaroni salad. We had a nice swim first, and Barbara joined us for dinner, bringing some salmon and vegies.  

Allen at Wormsloe

more work for Allen

relaxing in the pool

On our last day together, I was a little worried about how long it would take to get to the airport (there are still detours around the crash site, and I wasn’t sure how that would affect the traffic on other roads), and since Allen wasn’t scheduled to get home until almost midnight, I didn’t want him to miss his flight. We were much too early, and I wish I could have spent a little more time with him. But before going to the airport, we did have time to visit a new Classic Car Museum in Savannah, go to Rocks for a drink and something quick to eat, and then to Leopold’s for ice cream.  

Allen at Rocks, watching a container ship leave the port

And then I took him to the airport – and he was gone. It was so grand to have him here! Thanks Lisa and Allen for a wonderful wonderful two weeks!