SHORE TIME

 We came to Sea Pines, an Outdoor World campground outside of Avalon, NJ, for two weeks on May 29th. On Friday my sister, Lynda, came down for a few days to celebrate her birthday with us.

 The weather was warm but rather windy. Lynda was a little cold on the beach in Wildwood on Saturday.

 On Sunday we visited my friend Helen and her family at Sea Isle City. It was still pretty windy and cool at the beach. but it was great visiting with Helen and her family.

Tuesday we took a walk on Avalon's beach.

 Had a good seafood meal at the Oceanside Restaurant in Avalon. Their she crab soup is almost as good as the soup at Charley's in North Carolina, that I fell in love with when working at Vandemere last year.

 A few miles up the road is the Cape May County Zoo. It is free, they just ask for donations to keep the animals feed. It is a very nice zoo. Lynda and I spent the day there on Monday and then Larry and I biked to it on Friday. I wanted to go back to see if the Snow leopard babies were out yet. (none of them were out for Larry to see)

 I did see the babies nursing on the monitor.

 Finally, we had a nice day with little wind and no rain, so Larry and I spent the day in Wildwood at the beach ( only beach that does not require beach tags) Larry spent a little while in the water, I only went in to my knees. The water temp was  67.  Larry has enjoyed our time here at the shore enough that he suggest we come back.

FAMILY GATHERINGS

 On Sunday we had a gathering at Larry's mom's.

 Most of his sisters and brothers were there.

 Along with a niece and nephew.

 We had fun playing golf ball gymnastic. Even mom played a game.

 On Monday we went to Brian's for another picnic. So we spent the day with Larry's two sons Mark and Brian and his grandsons, Brady and Chase.

 We spent the whole afternoon playing lots of outside games and having lots of fun.

The wiffleball game was held up while the field was cleaned up. It was a good weekend with family.

WORK AND HIKING AT HOME

 Wednesday Larry had jury duty for Lancaster county. He didn't have to go back, so on Thursday we went over to his daughters.

 Larry's daughter, Mystique, owns a home in York. Her step dad has enclosed the back porch to give her a downstairs  bathroom, a laundry closet and broom closet .

 We gave a helping hand with the mudding.

 Her new dog, Mars, who is a year old is quite a handful.

 And good old Lee with Mystique.

 On Friday Larry and I took a hike at Susquehannock state park.

 I wanted to go because the rhododendron are in bloom.

 No blooms here. When I ask the ranger he said they won't bloom until the end of June. They don't look to promising even then to me.

 But the trail takes you down to  a beautiful stream.

 It is a difficult 1.2 mile hike up and down steep rocky trails.

 I think this part of the trail was straight up!  This is the third time we have hiked this trail, but I'm not sure I'll go back in June to see what rhododendrons have bloomed.

SHOPPING

 We have enjoyed being back in PA visiting our families. I spent the last three days at  my sister. On Friday we met Kathy and Lynn at Premium Outlet Mall in Pottstown and spent the day shopping. On Saturday Lynda and I shopped at King of Prussia. I think I'm shopped out.
 While I was at my sisters Larry went with his son Mark and got him a car. 1997 BMW 540. He hasn't had wheels for a long time, so he is pretty excited.

TOURIST STOP

On the way to PA I suggested we stop at Staunton,VA and go to the Frontier Culture Museum. We put it into our GPS and it took us into downtown Staunton, narrow car parked streets, turning right then left. Finally we found a place to stop and I called to find out where they were actually located. Would you believe it was right off interstate 81 and we had to drive back through the town to it.

The homes are real houses that have been rebuilt here from England, Ireland and Germany.

We really enjoyed talking to this woman. She farms, shears sheep, cooks, weaves, does all the things a yeoman's wife would have done in England in 1700.

This young woman was teaching this girl how to spin flax so they could weave linen.

Another interesting gentleman. Each was fun talking to and since it wasn't crowded (mainly just us) they had all the time to talk to us.

There are two parts of the Museum  the Old World and America.  At this 1740 farm they were working at cutting boards to make a hen house. some hard work.

By 1850 farms looked very prosperous. It was a very intersting museum and we were glad we stopped.

We stayed at the Walmart just down the road from the museum. We have parked here overnight before, but we don't remember these rocks they had at the end of each row. Larry didn't make a wide enough turn and we scraped this stone and cut the diamond shield on the front corner of our coach.

May 2 we are back in PA.

TRIBUTE TO THE KING

Monday night we went to see Tribute to the King. This theatre is also  close to our park.

John Beardsley  put on a two hour show covering Elvis' career.

He sure had the wiggles and moves down. It was hard getting a good picture.

Several costume changes.

You enter this theatre through the Ernest Tubb studio.

We don't see how it is possible to go 3 million miles in 3285 days.  They would have had to drive 913 miles every day, going 60 it would take 15 hours.  Impossible.

I'm sure they traveled a lot in this bus. It was fun going in and seeing it. another fun night.