Some of my favorite childhood memories are of my grandparents taking me on vacation with them.  I can remember the excitement as we loaded their car up with suitcases, games, snacks and even school books.  It was usually late Spring and school would not be out yet.  We would have to bring our school books and work in them while we traveled, so that we did not fall behind in school.  I am sure that missing a few weeks of school was part of the excitement! Every year we would go to Florida.  Our final destination was always Miami Beach (except for the year that Disney World opened the…

  I have come to realize that there are a lot of places, that, at first glance, there does not seem to be much there.  I have also come to realize, that, it only takes a little exploring, to change the way you see that place.  Welcome to DeFuniak Springs, Florida.  This is one of those places. When you first exit Interstate 10 on the outskirts of town, it does not look like much.  A few fast food and chain restaurants, along with some stores, hotels and other local businesses line both sides of the highway.  Basically, it looks like a typical little town, that has been here for awhile. …

I am not a t.v. sports fan.  I do not really follow any particular sport.  I will occasionally watch a football game when it comes on, and I’m usually good for catching a few events during both Winter and Summer Olympics.  Otherwise, if I am not actually at the game, it just isn’t going to hold my attention very well.  I have found though, that most sporting events where I have actually been there, watching it, I have really enjoyed the sport – no matter what it was.  Whether it is a result of getting swept up in all of the adrenaline, excitement and yelling of the crowd, or the smell of…

2019 – HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!     2018 went out with a bang (and a bump, and a faceplant) on the ski slopes of Schweitzer Mountain in Sandpoint, Idaho! Learning to ski happens to be #2 on my Bucket List.  After a day of “skiing”, it is still #2 on my Bucket List.  I have not been on skis since I was a Freshman in high school – and even then, I spent more time laying in the snow than I did upright on skis.  Yesterday was a vivid reminder of my one time on skis in high school.  Obviously, the ability to ski does not just happen with age.  It was…

‘Twas the night before Christmas And all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, Not even… A Scout Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas this year!!!

Let me just start by saying, this is NOT pronounced San Loo-ee.  If you pronounce it San Loo-ee, you WILL be corrected – by EVERYONE, even people who do not live there!  🙂  FYI, just say “SLO”. Now that the pronunciation is out of the way, let me also say, I am so behind on my blogging!  I am going to catch up!  Between traveling to spots where the internet connection pretty much does not exist, and then prepping for Thanksgiving, and then eating Thanksgiving (Tryptophan 🙂 ), and now with the start of everything Christmas, I am falling behind.  I did not even get a picture of Scout with…

“…There between the hills and sea, I looked down and saw a Monterey morning, sprinkled upon the surface of the earth like dim fireflies in a shifting fog.”   View From The Hill – A poem About John Steinbeck’s Monterey, California I have always said that if I ever went to California, there was really only one place I would want to see – Monterey.  I guess I first heard about Monterey when I was a teenager growing up on the east coast.  I had a reading assignment in my ninth grade English class to read John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men.  We were assigned a certain amount of chapters each day…