For Bob and Peggy: Food, Glorious Food, etc., etc.

By now you know the routine:  we fly to Atlanta, take care of appointments, spend a weekend with the kids, spend the next Sunday - Thursday with Bob and Peggy while the kids work and Nicholas is in school, and then go to the cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains before winding down to fly back home.

This is the time with Bob and Peggy when we weren't at the Skyview Atlanta Ferris wheel or the Candler Field Museum and airport.  And this is the time when Astrid in particular finally relaxes and says "This is vacation."

Fasten your seatbelts, especially if you like good food and drink.

First of all, Bob and Peggy got married in 2004 while I worked in assisted living before retirement.

Peggy was the executive director and I was lucky to attend their wedding.

Shortly after that, they started building their house out in the boonies south of Atlanta.

THIS house.  And I've been there every year since...now with Astrid.

In case you wonder why we like to go there, it's the FOOD, stupid!  HA!

Let's start with breakfast.  Look at who makes the waffles.

To tell you the truth, they both do the cooking.

And we all do the eating.

See, Peggy does her own part, this time for lunch.

And we all do the eating.

To cater to our Dutchness, they even make their own split-pea soup.

And we all do the eating.

By late afternoon, it's time to test the home brew!

This year we got to taste Bob's Chateau Roscoe Chardonnay and Chilian Malbec.

Roscoe is their dog!

See!?!?!  That's Roscoe.

We first celebrated the fabulous brew out on the wrap-around porch.

If it wasn't his wine, it was Bob's Brew of beer, Horansky style.

He's been making beer for years, so we knew what to expect.

We Cheer Beer!

And if that wasn't enough, Bob even made us a mean banana martini.

By now I know what you're thinking:  what boozers.  HA!

But you couldn't be farther from the truth.

Everything in moderation, one drink at a time...over several days, of course.

And to show you the truth whereof I speak, check out the basement.

I suppose if it were meth it would be Breaking Bad (which I've yet to see)?

By the time you get to supper, you'd better have an appetite...

as though you hadn't eaten all day, of course.

See how Bob and Peggy both do the cooking together?

It's a beauty to behold.  A joint collaboration.

And we all do the eating.

Then there's the fun-n-games, like with Bob's 1951 GM toy.

Last year he was just starting to restore it.

This year we were queens for a day, taking a ride.

Every morning Astrid and Bob took Roscoe for a walk.

Astrid put the GPS watch on her arm one day (above left).

The next day she put it on Roscoe's collar (above right).

Isn't that the cat's meow!

In the afternoons Astrid and I took our own walks together,

once to Jackson Lake right down the road.

That particular day and time the kids were getting out of school.

Did you know the Dutch have a few of these American school buses that are party buses here?  Yup.

Another day we walked two miles down the road to the corner store,

and luxuriated in the autumnal abundance in front of us.

And since it just happens to be Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, how's that for an ending note!

Good God, good friends, good food...let's eat!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Atlanta Trip 2015: The Overview

WE'RE BACK!

And for the record...and for you who might have missed it on Facebook...here is a quick synopsis of our just-finished two weeks in the Atlanta area for our annual trip to America.  In the coming days and weeks, I'll fill in the blanks with individual posts, of course.

We arrived on a Wednesday evening and the next day ate supper at son Mark's new apartment.

It's the second year in a row that he made our old-timey favorite potato-sausage soup,

so we're calling it a tradition, including the amazing coconut pie I used to make.

 The next day, Friday, we went to the Cumming Country Fair with g'son Nicholas,

but this time with his dad, Nick...the first time.

It was wonderful to watch them having so much fun together!

This was Nicholas' 13th time at this fair in his 15 years...and the last with us, we decided.

He can always go again but maybe on his own or with someone else.

We've had our memories and can now move on to more flexible times for visiting.

And he agrees.  What a great finale to that tradition.

The next day, Saturday, we went as a family (minus Mark) to the Historic Oakland Cemetery

near downtown Atlanta, founded in 1850.

Where have I been all my life!  I lived in Atlanta 25 years and never knew it existed.

I'd go back again because there was so much to see.

Then we had our annual Sunday-Thursday visit with Bob and Peggy in Jackson, GA.

They always find fun day trips for us, like this Skyview Ferris wheel next to Centennial Park,

where the 1996 Olympics were held.  What a great way to see the city of Atlanta.

We bought discounted Groupon tickets and rode it twice, once in daylight and then at night,

with a delightful restaurant supper in between.

Last year was when we first saw this 1951 MG that Bob had just bought.

This year, after restoring it bit by bit, he took us for a ride in it.

Talk about feeling like the Queen of England!

We took another day trip to the Candler Field and Museum in Williamson, GA.

It's always fun to see the small aircraft that people still fly.

And if the for-hire biplane had been there, Astrid and I would have taken a ride!

Once back to Amy's on Thursday, we drove up to the cabin in two cars.

THIS is THE tradition every year now for 6 years in Georgia's Blue Ridge mountains.

Within the first 15 minutes of arriving I had taken the above pics.

The leaves changed every day before our very eyes.

How can you resist that!

We weren't there for the full moon but almost.

Mark and I both took astronomy in college but he was the one who remembered the "terminus:"

the line dividing the bright and dark side of the moon.

Look at these two images Astrid took below, standing on the cabin deck!
We were the only ones up each morning to see the sunrise around 7:30 a.m.
 

 You remember, of course, that Astrid and I fell in love because of our photography blog!
Needless to say, I keep falling in love.

So many memories from the cabin still light up the corners of my mind:

pool, ping-pong, fabulous meals, s' mores, Spades, jigsaw puzzle, etc.

What a great way to spend quality time with the family we love.

In between everything, I took care of 2 doctor's appointments and my eye exam,

plus getting new (but basically the same) frames for my glasses, which broke after 11 years.

Now I feel all set to go for another year or two before I get checked up again.  HA!

As we like to say, LIFE IS GOOD!