CHRISTINE AND HER BUCKET LIST

Sunday 8/27/2017

Sunday August 20th we took a little trip down the mighty Mississippi. Aw that's not true, but it sounds good. We went to fulfill Christine's bucket list and that was to see a complete solar eclipse. With Brad driving, we were on our way to Saint Charles Missouri, riding with Christine, Katie, Sam, Clela and myself. Oh I should include snacks. Our first stop was Springfield Illinois where we ate and paid homage to President Lincoln at his interment. 

 They say if you rub his statue noise it will bring you good luck. 

 I guess that is why his nose is so shiny.Christine is reaching for her good luck.

We are now on our way to Saint Charles where we will stay at the the Ameristar Casino. Ya I know it's a beautiful place and so is the city. There is an old part of the city that is a must.

 There was a craft fair/art just finishing up.  Vendors  lined the street for a mile and into a parking lot behind. I think you would need a segway to see it all. Now being time to eat, we found craft beer place to eat before going to the Ameristar Casino.

Now I never went a Casino before, well I once went with Jerry and Diane to a river boat, but that's not the same. Our room was what I would call a suite, very large and over looking a indoor and outdoor pool. We could not use the pool because a pool party was going on. Oh we could pay a fee to join. Can you just see that two oldsters mingling with the twenty somethings. You can? It was a little sad to see guys coming up to girls making their best move, all the time with the beat of drums and load music. 

 Anyway we didn't need a pool we needed sleep for our exciting next day.

We got up at 5:00 in the morning and ate at the Waffle House.  If you never ate there you are missing something.  We then prepared for our next phase our trip. When Clela and I looked at the map the path  of the eclipse would go through Saint Joseph. We heard of states where the National Guard was called out for crowd control. We started to look at something smaller. As long as you were within a sixty miles of the path you would see a complete eclipse.  We found a small community of Hermann with a population of 2000 people, not much to see, but the downtown area was flourishing with things to see and places to eat.  Clela found a winery in the hills that was preparing to celebrate the eclipse with food and wine tasting. We when up there right away thinking we beat the crowd. Well we were the first ones there. They didn't open until 9:00 and we were there at eight.  OakGlenn Vineyards and Winery sets on 250 acres with breath taking views overlooking the Missouri River .

 Even tho we were early we quickly found out people had tables reserved, we got a table with a big umbrella,  Did I tell you the temp was in the high nines and the humidity about to match. We were OK even tho we had five hours to go. We had games to play and snacks and access to drink.  We went inside several times just to cool off.  You know that was a real long time, but as we waited more and more people arrived. We even found people from Green Lake in the crowd.

 We had music with a singer singing old religious songs much like Garrison Keillor. The excitement grew as time went by. Katie and Sam found places to stay cool.

 It's now 11:30, I thought that was the start of the eclipse, but nothing was happening. A woman next to our table had a camera with a thin layer of filter, to filter the sun. She gave me a small piece and some tape so I could take pictures and if needed take video. It really worked, I thought and I was ready.

It's now 12:30 and it is really staring. The glasses that Christine bought were everything you could ask for.

 I took pictures but they were not the same as what I was seeing. I later found pictures online of what I was seeing. Now it's 1:15 and it is really getting dark. I could see a star in the sky, just like they said. The darker it gets the louder the crickets are singing. There seems to me there was a hush over the crowd and it's now a full eclipse and everybody is cheering. When a small light of the sun appeared in a bright glowing light I felt like it was a light sent from god. That was to me the closes experience I felt to god.  This is what I saw, not what I captured on my IPhone.

 We all jumped up and down like kids and hugged each other. More and more light and the day went from night to day and the crickets stopped singing.

We had some wine tasting and bought some wine and went back to the hotel.

 We did some swimming, ate, and went to the casino where Christine won some money, she started with $5 and made $16. I never said we were big gamblers.

You got to take pictures, Christine, Katie and Sam.
Christine was a big winner in the arcade.  Here Christine is with Brad collecting her winnings.  Just fun.  You never win much in the arcade.

Tuesday we went back home and that was another check off of Christine's bucket list. Thanks you for letting us share your bucket list. I will never forget that experience.

Florida

Tuesday April 7th

It's Tuesday April 7th, we are excited because we are on our way to Florida, Kathy, Reagan, Lincoln, Clela, Samantha and myself.  Our flights were on time.

I sat next to Sam.

We caught a shuttle from the airport over to your hotel in Melbourne Beach, Florida.  We stayed at the Hilton Double Tree.  Nice room and great view.  Clela and I haven't been in Florida for some time.  In Florida for us it's the beach and out to eat and that's what did.  Hit the beach. We just took our towels and went for it.

Sam and Lincoln.

A jump for joy with Sam, Reagan and Lincoln.

The gang with Kathy.  That night we boarded the Hilton shuttle and went out to eat.  We said we want seafood and they took us to Bonefish Willies.  Nice place on the Indian River.

We had great drinks and appetizers all very prompted.  After that it went down hill.  We waited for our food for what seem like hours.  The kids kept us entertain by reading text made using auto text on there phones, funny.  Our food arrived and if I said it was good I'd be lying.  We think the main cook got mad and quit.  I guess we were there on a bad night.

Wednesday April 8th
The second day we rented some boogie boards and hit the waves.  Man the kids and I had a great time.  This was by far the best place to boogie board, hands down.  What made it so great was you could walk out a short distances put your board down and ride a wave into shore.  If a wave knocked you over you just got up and waited for the next one.  It was good for us adults because we were no more that ten to twenty feet away from the kids.

That afternoon Fred and Jackie, my sister came over.  They were staying thirty minutes south of us.  That night we all took the shuttle into Melbourne and ate at The Mansion.  I can't say all because Lincoln wasn't feeling well.  I think it was burning the candle on both ends.  He went to the Badger game in Omaha, had track practice every night and went to opening day with the Brewers. He also spent days in the ocean.  I'm getting tired just talking about it. Kathy and Lincoln stayed at the hotel. They took this old Mansion and turned it into a place to eat, great charter and scenery.  If your in the area give it a try.  We ate outside. 

I must say this was the best drink and food we had.  I was grateful to spend time with my sister and brother-in-law. 

Thursday April 9th

Just another great day.

This is what we see very morning from our balcony.  Kathy goes for her morning run, sometimes with Lincoln.  We get dressed, that means swimming suit and shirt with shoes and head down for breakfast at the hotel.  By now we are getting smarter with our ordering the buffet, we make special order with it.

The time before we head to the beach we play cards with Sam in our room.  Sam is a card shark.  She beats Clela and I every time.  We both try, she's just good.  We decided to spice up our Up the River and Down the River game by adding Gold Fish to our bidding.  Who ever won the pot got the Gold Fish.  Needless to say I had to borrow from the bank.  Sam won.

OK, I've got to say something about her bed.  Her bed was a pull out couch.  The first morning we couldn't fold it up , there were springs on the floor.  We told the front desk about this and when we came back it was closed, fixed right.  No, the springs were on the floor again.  We gave up and just left it open. 

Thursday morning I had a techie problem with my IPhone.  When I would turn it on the numbers were three times there size.  I could not log in with my password.  I tried everything and nothing worked.  Do you know how bad I felt.  I would look at my right hand and it looked like this.

Look no phone.  My hand had no IPhone.  I can't tell you the number of times I reached for my phone.  For the rest of our vacation I had no phone.  You know there is a history of IPhone and vacations.  In 2012 will vacationing on the big island Hawaii I had a similar problem.  Sam the fish at age 9 was swimming out quite far out for me.  She had her goggles on and was looking at fish swimming in and out of the coral.  So I went out to support her, I could stand.  We both were out there for at least an hour.  Yes, you guested it, I had my IPhone in my pocket.  What a sinking feeling.  I bought a bag of rice and dried it out to no avail.  Maybe I should leave it home.

Lincoln, Sam and I do play catch on the beach. Yes, Sam does play catch.  Sam and Lincoln had a good game going with a small, soft cloth ball.  They caught the ball 200 time without a drop.

The windup and a pitch, a real curve ball you know.  Well there was a strong wind blowing.

Throwing a football on the beach attracts girls right?  Hey it's for Lincoln.

That night with Lincoln feeling better we went back to Melbourne and The Mansion.  What can I say when you find something good you go back, this time with Kathy and Lincoln.

A selfie by Sam, She is our techie.  I"m still trying to do that.

Nice pic of Kathy and Clela.

You know this place reminds me of a small cafe in Positano, Italy. 
Instead of flowers there were Lemons.

Friday April 10th
Friday morning started out great, great breakfast, fun on the beach.
Before the beach it was time for the show down in a game of Sequence.  We play the game as teams.  We were going to take a banquet room, the stakes were high.  We walked the halls, we looked all over to find the right place to hold this special event, but found none.  The teams were set. Team #1 Clela and myself, Team #2 Kathy and Reagan and Team #3 Sam and Lincoln (always together).  Now Lincoln is a very intense player who has a huge desire to win.  Something happen that Team #2 backed out.   Before the game started Team #3 had a secret meeting to plan strategy.  Have you ever gone to a baseball game and watched the base coaches send the batter signals, well sure enough there was Lincoln sending signals that would make any coach proud. Hmm.  They both had their Ipads and IPhone in the ready.  Hmm.  Needless to say they crushed us.  Hmm

 

 

When Sam was waking out to catch the perfect wave there were times the wave would pick her up and move her back 10 feet.

 

 



 

\

You got to give Reagan a lot of credit, she really got banged around by the waves.  She would bounce back up, wipe her face and keep going.  Very tiring at times.





 

Yes, hairy back and all Kathy and I do go boggy boarding.   I would go several times and then call it quits.  Lincoln had a never ending drive to smash into every wave.

Here  we were our last night out in Melbourne Beach, Florida when we got news our flight from Melbourne was changed four hours later. That meant we would miss our Atlanta flight home. My daughter Kathy, spent several hours trying to book flights for all of us. Delta kept telling us if we wanted to get home we had to go to Orlando for more options. She was able to get separate bookings which would split us up. Kathy, Reagan and Lincoln would go on one flight Saturday and Samantha Clela and I would go on Sunday, that made Sam happy because she could stay an extra day. Most hotels in the area of the airport were full but we found the Hilton several miles from the airport.

Saturday April 11th

Last Saturday morning we took an airport shuttle over to the Orlando airport. We saw Kathy and family off and started walking toward the exit to find a shuttle to our hotel. We were in the airport no, the Hyatt, no a mall. Samantha said "lets stay here". You didn't have to convince me. Now will they have a room and can we cancel our other hotel. Well the answer was yes, yes.

Can you believe this place?

I mean you got to feel for us, Here we are at the airport.  What will we do? What will our granddaughter Samantha do, will she be bored?

 

Maybe, maybe not.

 

 

Maybe we should go the Disney.

A family was walking by and stopped so they wouldn't be in our photo.  I said to him don't worry we are just goofing around.  Quick thinking for a old man.

You know we could go back to the Space Center.

What to do, what to do?

We decided to do none of these things, so we ate lunch and went up to our little room.  Oh they even had a name and directions to get to our room.  We were in the Wright Brothers suite.

Oh didn't I tell you this suite was a meeting room that had three beds and a great bathroom.  On top of that our balcony over looked the mall/airport.  Hey it was the only room left and it came with a great price. More points for our Hyatt card.

We changed our clothes and went to the pool.

By the time we got there the pool was full with kids, mostly young girls.  There was a dance contest going on in the hotel. 

After eating supper at Chili's, we went for some free entertainment.  We watch several groups dancing.  It was great fun.

Sunday April 12th

Man we really had to get up early Sunday morning, boarding was at 4:40 in the morning.  Clela decided we had to get up at 3:00 but I still got up at 2:45, I kept looking at the clock.  I didn't want to miss our plane.  You know this whole thing starting because of the weather in Illinois.  Well since I was up and thinking we MUST get to the airport two hours before our boarding, we left our room by 3:00.  Poor Sam had a hard time waking up.  Any way getting to the airport meant getting on the escalator and riding down.  We got to TSA and they weren't open.  OK, OK, maybe I was a tad early.  TSA opened at 3:30 and we were the forth, fifth and sixth persons through TSA.  Even tho we were pre-approved that line wasn't open.  The three of us got on the tram over to our gate.  Hmm, maybe we were early.  OK, we'll stop and get coffee at Starbucks, nah they were closed.  By now you could see Clela and Sam weren't to happy.  We got to our gate and there was people there.  We got there at 3:40.  Hey we were only an hour early.  Clela and Sam weren't to happy. They both said I would pay.   I guess we were early.  Oh, we did get food from Starbucks later.  OK,OK, we could have slept an hour more.

We arrived in Atlanta, Sam said good morning Atlanta.  The sun just came up, beautiful.

Our plane left Atlanta on time and arrived in Milwaukee early.  It was good to get home to see Packer wear.  It was just the little things about getting back to Milwaukee, like getting to the parking lot and not finding the car.  Hey I knew right were the car was.  The only problem was our car was in the first section not the second.  Thanks Kathy for your pic.  Is this a sign I'm getting old? Naw, not me, I'm as sharp as a tack, maybe a dull tack. The Travel Challenges we had.  Now don't you feel sorry for us?

P.S.  Clela and I are ready to go again.  We had a great time.  Just an update on my phone.  When we took Sam home Alyssa ask to see my phone.  She turned in on and said I've seen the before, she tapped the phone with three fingers and the zoom went back to normal.  Can you believe that!  I still had to restore my phone because of all the things I did to it, including removing the Sim card.  Two hours later I got my phone back, granted some pics and video was missing.  Now my right hand feels much better.