Back to Savannah!

Well, this has been a long time...I typed this post three times, added my pictures, clicked on some key and everything disappeared!!  THREE TIMES I did that!!  Frustrated, so just walked away!!  Then...when I tried it again, I couldn't sign in...finally today I had my Go To Gal (Lacey) fix it for me and voila...now I can sign in!!  Unfortunately this will be a shorter post with less pictures because now it is almost Christmas and a lot has happened in the last 6 months!!



So as the story goes, we left Augusta, GA and headed to Savannah.  Oh we loved that town!  Our first night we ate at Lady and Son's restaurant (I called on our way driving there to get a reservation!  It was delicious food!  This was started by Paula Deen...she started out as a "bag lady"  making bag lunches, then moved onto this restaurant.

chicken pot pie...it was yummy

Scott had crab cakes over a bed of rice and beans

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church

The Old Pink House

One of 24 city parks in Savannah with the Spanish Moss
I could go on and have a lot more pictures, but from here we drove to Charleston and had a wonderful horse and buggy tour of that city.

Scott with the mule that pulled our buggy!

 The row of Painted houses

 One of several million dollar homes near the waterfront in Charleston

The entrance to a restaurant where we had lunch called 82 Queens...and that is the address too!  Awesome She Crab Soup!!
After the buggy ride and walking on foot and taking in some other museum sites, we took a harbor tour.  It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and get the whole history lesson about the war coming from the harbor!

We stayed the night in Mt. Pleasant and the next day we took a plantation tour.

 this is the car we were driving  What fun that was!!  Red Mustang convertible!!

 one of the many slave homes on the plantation

"I felt like a bird out of a cage.  Amen. Amen. Amen.  I could hardly ask to feel better than I did on that day."
Houston Holloway, former slave from Georgia recalling moment slavery ended

Entrance to the Boone Plantation
These live Oak trees were planted in 1743...two rows of them between the road leading to the plantation house.
It took more than 200 years for the trees to meet overhead to form this corridor to welcome visitors!

After a day of touring the plantation and hearing the stories of the area, we headed back to Savannah, stayed over night and then headed toward Augusta and our plane to take us home.
We made a quick stop in Macon, GA and had to see a couple of churches.

this is the Catholic church and directly behind it was a Baptist church, then to the right of it was this church pictured below,

another Baptist church...one for the blacks and one for the whites!

the inside of this beautiful Catholic Church  St. Josephs!
Well, of course I have many more pictures, but this hits the highlights and now I can be done with this trip!

 

 

 

This will be a two part post...This is The Masters in Augusta, Georgia!

Can you just imagine my surprise when my friend called and asked if Scott and I would like to have two tickets to a practice round of the Masters in Augusta, Georgia?  I did NOT even have to think a second...but of course thought I should ask DH.  And I wasn't thinking how great to go to the Masters...no I was thinking, WOW, if I am in Augusta Georgia, then I have to go to Savannah and then of course I have to go to Charleston too!  Savanah has been on my bucket list...I was wondering if I would ever get there.  Now thanks to my friend Liz, I can scratch that one off...although I would love to go back and explore more and see more of the coast..like Hilton Head etc...!!

And if Scott had a "bucket list" I know the Masters would be on it for sure!  So let me take you there...Warning...picture heavy!


just because I thought it was a cool tree, and it has resurrection ferns growing on the limbs!

We learned about resurrection ferns on our tour of a plantation later in the week. They are called that because when the fronds "dry", they curl with their bottom sides upwards.  In this way, they can rehydrate the quickest when rain comes, as most of the water is absorbed on the underside of the leaf blades...thus:  resurrected!!

15th Green with the Grandstand behind it.The pond at 16 is just to the left of it.

15th Green



Looking at the 16th pond from the 15th green

 



Sergio Garcia on the 7th Tee

 

"Amen Corner"...the second shot at the 11th, all of the 12th, and the first two shots at the 13th hole!

It came about because one person wanted a catchy phrase like baseball's "hot corner" or football's "coffin-corner" to explain where some of the most exciting golf had taken place (the Palmer-Venturi rules issue at 12 in particular)

14th fairway

16th tee, after the golfers hit their balls, the crowds cheer them on to go up and "skip balls" across the pond...they all oblige (at least on the practice rounds!)

I had to get in one picture of Phil...sadly he did not make the cut!

 

 

The grass is cut so finely and so perfect (can you imagine not ONE dandelion!) when Liz stepped on it she was sure it was "artificial grass"!!

 

Since Scott has been watching the Masters on TV for years, his goal was to see the coarse and get a perspective on each hole.  Seeing something on TV is so different than in real life.

Now when he watches it (YES he came home and watched the whole thing on recorded time) he knew how hard the greens actually are because he saw first hand all the dips and run offs etc...I don't claim to know all the correct verbiage, but I do know that he achieved what he came to see at the Masters!

Thank you so much Bob and Liz for giving us this once in a lifetime opportunity!!

Now stay tuned for Part II of this story as I will share pictures of Savannah, Charleston and Mt. Pleasant!

 

February * Basketball * Volleyball

Our family is active in sports...basketball, volleyball, football, motorcross, cheerleading...we have it covered!  So this month we took a few trips to watch the granddaughters play.

We went to Seaside one beautiful sunny day to watch Ellie play in a Basketball Tournament.

Seaside Oregon...we couldn't ask for a better day!

We walked the strip, had lunch and watched some BB games!

When Ellie was playing a tournament at Putnam we picked up my dad so he could watch her...of course I had the other kids come too and got a picture of them with him!  Doesn't he look great for 92?

 

 Over the President' s Day weekend, Dina, Ellie and I flew to San Jose because Ellie had a three day VB tourney there.  After landing and getting a car, we drove to Santa Clara U and walked around campus...we went into the gym so Ellie could see what it looks like to play on the Big Girl Gym!

 

Her team did very well at the tournament...out of 149 teams in her division, hers came in 4th!  Yahoo!!  Lot's of great volleyball!

 

After the play on Sunday, we all went to Stanford and roamed around that campus.

Here is a picture of the team...Ellie is the shortest and the only 7th grader on the team.

She plays the libero position!

 





Feburary * Snow *

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

 

 

Donned Scott's felt hat, coat and boots to make the trek up the road to get the mail!

 

 

Front pond...serious!!

Night shot after a little freezing rain, nice glistening on the snow, very slippery!

Still the front pond!

 

 This picture is amazing!!  It is a SNOWDIRFT
off our back patio, you can see the edge of a post, and the back pond...it was incredible to have the wind blow it like that!

 

Jalen, enjoying himself and warming up after sledding and playing in the snow!

 

January 2014 A surprise Birthday party

Can you believe I went to a special surprise birthday party for my Dad's Cousin, Hank up in Seattle and I forgot to get a picture of him!

My dad's two sisters 94 and almost 90

My brother Bernie, cousin Jamie and Tony

My cousins Carole, Gina and her husband Dennis
It was so fun to see cousins that I haven't seen in years because they live clear across the country and I live in Oregon, when they do go home it is to the Seattle area, so I am not around to see them.  The tall man next to my brother?  Yeah the last time I saw him he was knee high to a grasshopper!!  OMG, I barely recognized him!

And I couldn't go to Seattle without seeing my BFF and staying a few days with her to craft!
We always have so much fun getting together!
We have been friends for 57 years!!
 

Playing Catch - Up! Christmas 2013

I guess I need to start with Christmas 2013, just so I have these pictures here on the blog to have a quick memory refresher...so bare with me I will get to the current date soon!!

Robin and John with me and Scott

some Christmas treasures from Elsa's chest

Lacey's family with Dad

Dad 92 years old

Ellie and Dina sharing a secret

the whole Iacolucci clan gathering at Lacey's house.

Christmas Eve was celebrated at our house with my Dad joining us.  We saved the BIG gathering for the Friday after Christmas so that everyone could be with their own families on Christmas.  Everyone agreed this was ideal!  Lacey hosted us in her new home.  Kyle and his new bride Elisa joined us for the first time.  We love getting together with everyone.