A Year of Growing......

Here's a comparison of Anna in 2007 and this year.
Here Anna has an artichoke in 2007......

Here she is talking to her Mum.......


And here is video from this year........

And another from 2008.

She is an easy house guest. She's happy all the time and shows it by walking around humming or singing. She's eager to participate in whatever Nana has planned for her.

We are looking forward to next year's visit.

This is a Good-Looking Lad

This is Colin. Enjoying his pie at lunch in Chappell Hill











With his new Captain's hat





And he can sing too.


Jennifer brought us some tomatoes and peppers.
Here they are along with a shot of Anna and Nana just after we got home and pretty Jennifer as she left Chappell Hill.

Early Days.

She worked at the candy counter at the east end of the terminal building right next to Skychef's restaurant. The boys in the locker room were talking about her- "have you seen the new girl at the candy counter" said David Day, "she is really nice,"
"And she lives out in Huntington"
"That makes here geographically undesirable" said John Cook my locker partner.
After I pulled my uniform on I ran up the stairs and saw her. There were two salesgirls behind the counter busy with three or four customers. She stood out... She was so good looking... Fresh young face and blonde hair that looked like it smelled great! She had on a little cardigan over a white blouse. She didn't see me as I took her in passing by to go to DCC to get my work assignment.

I was to be working Gate 1. That meant I would pass her on the way to the west side of the building. This time she wasn't so busy and I stopped and got some Winstons and told her my name and got hers. She was a little shy and told me about this little ring she had that was an Indian puzzle - three strands of gold that could unravel easily if you took the ring off and were difficult to get back together.

Anyway it gave us something to talk about to get over the nerves. That night and the next, every time I passed the candy counter I would look for her and flirt. I called her name over the PA and did anything daft to get her to notice me as boys do.

She regarded me with what I took to be some interest too so after a day or two I asked her if she could stop for a drink. She got off work late at night as did I and had a 40 minute ride out to 'the island'.
She said she would and we arranged to drive together in separate cars to Club Chris, a local joint on the Belt Parkway. She was in her little 'unsafe at any speed' Corvair and I in my 1954 Ford which I had bought from John Cook for $50.

We were together in the bar for only half an hour or so and I walked her out to the car where we lingered for a few minutes.

I liked her a lot. And she said she'd see me again if I wanted.......

Happy Times

We were there when the Walkers returned last night........... here are Paige, Graham and Evelyn greeting Nana...


And Evie trying to block kisses from Nana..

Evelyn was happy to be in with her toys again..

And her feet touch the ground...

She'll be walking soon....she was eating a bagel dipped in olive oil eventually came around to taste my wine.....

Amsterdam

Saturday evening we got on the plane First Class ...........here we are in The President's Club before departure.


Non-stop to Amsterdam in 10 hours with two big meals on the plane. We did sleep a little on the flight and were ready to go when we got to Schiphol. We took the train to town and walked the 5 - 10 minutes from the Centraal Station to our hotel. The room was expensive and small but it was located right off Dam Square and the bathroom was really 5 star.
First thing we did was walk over to the Anne Frank house. Small line to get in. Yeah!
We were both moved by the serious history of the place and the horrible outcome for the Frank family.

We ate a ton of mussels in a neat little restaurant recommended by Rick Steves and walked back to the hotel, buying a nice bottle of Froggie wine on the way. The hotel was 4 Star but had no air conditioning. We did have a fan in the room and we opened the window wide and were relatively comfy with that arrangement.

Monday we had brekkie on the street.......just sitting outside a bar/restaurant as many do in Europe we had delicious coffee and bread and some fruit. We went on a bus ride which went all around the city along the Prinsengracht for an hour for only 1 Euro each. Here's our very nice driver who was a cowboy at heart. (you could tell that from the way he drove)


Then we went on a canal boat tour and we had some really nice sandwiches and fruit and a small bottle of Froggie.


We had a good ride!
Later we went to the Van Gogh Museum and, to say the least, enjoyed that. We had a great dinner at an Argentinian place and again ate outside. We both enjoyed salmon.

The next day we decided to get out of the city. We took a bus ride to Zaanse Schans where there are some working windmills.

Dinner in an Italian joint and it was just OK. Not memorable. Not even worth mentioning............
Next day we went to the airport early because the non-stop to Houston had filled up so we elected to go through Newark ( aaarrrgghh!) We got First again and paid the gouging/usurious departure tax of 70 euros each and had a nice flight to NY. We were there from 12 noon to 6 pm standing by for 4 flights before we got seated. Got home at 10 pm and picked up the Patch this morning. I went to work today to help pay for this -more expensive than I had planned on- trip.
Here's a bunch more pictures with explanatory notes if I can get some MINOR CO_OPERATION from Blogger. In the queue at Anne Frank house
Breakfast on the street
Bikes everywhere As you can tell, not much co-op from the old Blogger....








This is a pic of the narrowest house in Amsterdam(still no help from Blogger. Drats but here it is to the left seen thru the boat windows