I’m home sick today, and since I’ve already had as much soup as I can drink and as many naps as I can take, I thought I might tackle at least one post – maybe two.  I certainly have enough to catch up on.  One thing that I meant to do when I was posting all of those photos from our trip to Rodanthe was to show you what they’ve done to Serendipity, now also known as The Inn of Rodanthe as it was called in the movie “Nights in Rodanthe.” Here’s the photo that I took when we were there in October 2009.

And this is what it looks like now.  They literally just put her on a truck, drove her down the beach, and gave her a facelift (wouldn’t mind that myself).  By the way, if you’ve been thinking about seeing “Nights in Rodanthe,” don’t bother. I’m certain that neither Diane Lane nor Richard Gere read the script before they agreed to do the movie.  It’s on my Absolute Worst Movies Ever list.

Late one Friday night back in June, I drove up to New Jersey and stayed with my friend Pam who owns a hot tub and serves good wine.  We hadn’t seen each other in a year – and the time before that, we hadn’t seen each other in 25 years.  Facebook is a great thing! But I digress.

Saturday morning we took the train in to New York and caught a matinee of A Little Night Music.  I had never seen Angela Lansbury live and I was damned if this opportunity was going to pass me by.  Catherine Zeta-Jones was a delightful bonus.  And don’t hate on her because of the Tony Awards – I don’t know what that was about, but she was lovely in the show.

Michael Cole (aka Boyfriend) drove in from Mahopac to have dinner with us and I was thrilled out of my mind to see him!  We recreated the final pose of one of the dance numbers from our 1991 production of Dames at Sea.  Some things will always amuse us!

After dinner, Pam and I walked over to the Booth Theatre (which is one of my favorites) to see Alice Ripley and Brian d’Arcy James in Next to Normal.  OH MY GOD!!!!  It was brilliantly devastating! And Alice Ripley was off-the-charts amazing!  I was so high excited as I left the theatre that I forgot to take pictures.  It wasn’t until we were almost back to Penn Station that I remembered I was carrying a camera.  So I took this.

I’ll be back in New York at the end of this month.  Hopefully it won’t take me so long to blog about it next time!

Well, except for Frisco Pier. It was a mess.

We did a lot of eating…

and drinking.

The dogs had a great time…

mostly being lazy.

Ginnie and I went kayaking through Pea Island Wildlife Refuge.

That’s where we saw this gorgeous sunset.

We didn’t have to go that far for sunrise.

We left for the Outer Banks on Sunday, and it was pure heaven! For two and a half days.  Then Hurricane Earl showed up and we got the mandatory evacuation notice on Wednesday.  Thanks a lot, Earl! Since we were traveling with four dogs, we beat feet out of there right away. We’re back in Richmond now, glued to the Weather Channel waiting for the all clear.  Seemed like a good chance to post a few of the photos that I got during those first couple of days.

This was the view from the upper deck when I woke up the first morning.  You can see why I’m so anxious to get back!

(There are options for buying prints on other pages as well.  The prints won’t come with the border or my website on them, and the sizes might not be exact. Square cards will definitely be cropped on cards.  I haven’t tested this out yet, so keep your fingers crossed!)

In 2001, Lynn West and I took a two week trip to Ireland.  I had just purchased my first SLR (a Pentax ZX-50) and I took 17 rolls of film.  These are just a few.

The Round Tower at Glendalough

Sunset on the River Liffey

The Cliffs of Moher

Dingle Harbor

Ross Castle in Killarney National Park

Blarney Castle

The Lakes of Killarney

Celtic Cross at Cashel

Dingle (this was the view from our B&B)

Dingle Peninsula

I changed my tune when I landed in the Sunshine State, which was at a balmy 73 degrees.  This was taken from the dock behind my mom’s boyfriend’s house.  I was bummed that I didn’t see any manatees.  They apparently swim back there quite often.

And this is Mom and Shelby.  (Mom’s probably going to hate this picture)

My Mom’s boyfriend Ethan has a great dog named Chance.  I always miss my dogs when I’m gone,  so I was really glad to have some K9 company.

Shelby is my 2nd favorite yorkie. (And in case my friends are wondering, she does have two eyes.)

My grandparents live in this great retirement community in Bonita Springs.  There is so much going on there all the time.  There are swimming pools, hot tubs (you know I visited the hot tub!), shuffle board, pool tournaments, dinners, dancing, karaoke, field trips, variety shows, and tons more!  Mom and Ethan played pool while Gram and I went to Bingo. Poppy is one of the callers.

Picking out your cards is serious business at Bingo.  Actually, they take their Bingo VERY seriously.  I thought a few of those old broads were going to kill my grandfather during one of the games. And you should see how FAST they get out of there when it’s all over.  Don’t let those walkers fool you. Those gals can MOVE!

The biggest event is the softball tournament.  Poppy’s team won both games while I was there. Go Poppy!

It was great seeing my family, even if for just a couple days.  Love you, Gram!

And it was really nice to be warm!!!

We also did a LOT of bike riding, much to the disappointment of these ducks who were quite taken with our bicycles. 

This boy was having a blast throwing sand into the water.

I also found the birds quite amusing.

I call this one Free Lunch. It was so funny to watch the sea gull sitting on the pelican’s back just hoping for a morsel of the bigger bird’s catch.

Sloppy Joe’s – Ernest Hemingway’s hangout

Capt. Tony’s Saloon – Original site of Sloppy Joe’s

Original Schoolhouse – see the bell on the upper porch

Cypress House – An old ordinance made it so you didn’t pay property taxes on your building until it was completely finished, which usually meant painted. So they never painted. That ordinance has since been changed.