Hurricane Irma September 10-11, 2017

Hurricane Irma was heading our way! First indications were that she would come up the East coast but she changed direction as she got near Florida. It then looked like she was going to go up Florida’s west coast. She got to Ft. Myers before turning inland and by 11 PM was heading directly for The Villages. By the time she got to us, she had gone from Cat 5 to Cat 3. I made up a bed in our closet and slept like a baby, through the brunt of the storm. Arne kept watch.

While people in the southern part of the state were told to evacuate, we decided to stay. We had spent September 9 getting the house ready by moving all lanai furniture into the garage and sealing up the front door against possible flooding. As we went about our neighborhood on September 11, we saw that we were very, very lucky with hardly any cleanup to do. Our neighbors with large oak trees had a huge mess. We didn’t lose power although some areas east of us were without power for up to a week. The only damage we had was peeling paint from the front door as we removed the duct tape and plastic Arne had used so well to keep water from coming into the house.
 

 

Midwest Trip 2017

Aug 14-15   We flew to Omaha and drove a rental car to Lake Panorama where we spent two nights with good friends, Jody and Merlin Muench. Luckily we got a boat ride in late Monday afternoon as Tuesday was a rainy day. Wednesday, after a delicious late lunch, we drove to the farm to spend two nights with Mark and Marla.

  Arne and I visited the cemetery on Thursday to “see” Lisa.

Friday we drove to Omaha where we would meet up with Larry and Jan’s families. We all stayed in a lovely hotel and attended Matt and Janelle’s Omaha Reception on Saturday night. It was a wonderful trip, arriving back in Florida Sunday evening.

Coast to Coast

On Thursday, July 13, Arne and I drove up to Atlanta, left the car at our hotel and on Friday morning, we flew to San Diego. Taylor and friend, Nikkole, had flown in from Portland. The four of us drove to the wine country of Temecula, CA, where we would be joined by Erik, Kadin, Gracie, Jeffrey, Nick, Sarah, Aaron, Moondog and Sonja. I had rented a 5000 sq. ft. house outside town which turned out to be only four minutes from the Lake Oak Meadows Winery where my nephew would be getting married on Sunday night.

Friday evening, I invited Marla’s family to join us, bringing our group to 22. A beautiful evening with kids splashing in the pool.

Saturday, Arne and I were invited to the rehearsal brunch at Wilson Creek Winery. It was a very warm day and we were seated outside in a large gazebo. Here I got my first taste of almond champagne and doubt it’ll be my last. Delicious! That evening, Marla’s family joined us again as our “view  is so beautiful.” With our house being so large, the extra people made no difference. Still plenty of open spaces.

Sunday was spent with pool activities and dressing for the wedding. Nephew Ron and his family dropped in around 3 for a visit before the festivities which were scheduled to start at 5.

The wedding was beautiful.

My family waiting for the bride and groom.

Matt with his nephew, Drew, and Nick, my grandson.

Parents of the groom, my sister Marla

Matt and Janelle

We had to be out of our house by 10 AM on Monday. In spite of being up late, the younger folks were all out on time. We headed back to San Diego, as did Nick, Sarah and Aaron. We met up for lunch and walked to the beach. About 3, we checked into our hotel which was not very nice. It was a Comfort Inn near the Gaslamp district so was walking distance to many bars and restaurants. After a sushi dinner, the young people went on their own. Arne and I walked a short time before heading back to that hotel.

Tuesday morning, we flew back to Atlanta. Picked up our car and Wednesday morning drove about 30 minutes to a new Hampton Inn within walking distance of the new Atlanta Braves stadium. We watched the Cubs beat the Braves. Very nice day!

Thursday morning, we took a city tour of Atlanta which was pretty much a waste of time. We did return to the King Center where MLK and Loretta are entombed. Then a 4 hour drive to Asheville, NC where we toured the Biltmore House and Gardens on Friday. The house was built in late 1890’s by George Vanderbilt with his inherited money. While he didn’t live in it long, he and his wife left a legacy of another time which has been enjoyed by millions. There were 4400 people scheduled the day we went.

Biltmore House, Asheville, NC

Saturday we drove to Augusta, GA. Got a glimpse of a fairway on Augusta National, home of the Master’s golf tournament. This is what we were able to see, outside the gates!

If you look thru the opening, you can see part of a fairway of August National!

Pacific - Mission Beach in San Diego, CA

Atlantic - Fernandina Beach , FL

Had planned to spend two nights in Augusta but since there wasn’t anything to view on Sunday, we drove to Amelia Island, FL. Outdoor dinner near the beach meant we had completed a coast to coast trip with lunch by the Pacific Ocean and dinner by the Atlantic!

June Adventure

June brought along two big events in the life of Sharon Swensen. The first was the National Senior Games in Birmingham, AL, and the second was my 75th birthday.

On June 5th, I rode with an 79-year-old friend, Madline “Tiny” Cazel to Birmingham. I shared the driving and most of my 3+ hours were in soupy, rainy weather. I turned it back over to Tiny and we hit more heavy weather less than 20 miles from our hotel. After driving through a microburst, we witnessed at least half a dozen disabled cars, most in the median. None serious as we couldn’t travel fast. Needless to say, we were very happy to finally get to our hotel.

Tuesday was our practice day so pretty relaxing. Wednesday began Pool Play with games at 1 and 3. The first game was against the Mississippi Magnolias. You’d think they’d be gentle…NOT! The refs were really bad and were reported to the head ref after our game, which we lost by 1 point. We didn’t go to the free throw line once and I came out of that game with a badly jammed finger from a push and our captain was rammed in the chest, finding out after she got home that she has a fractured sternum.

We won the next three pool games, beating Chicago, Tennessee and Texas quite handily but, because of that one point loss, we were the second seed in our pool, meaning we had to play a third game at 4 PM on Thursday against Louisiana, which we won by 12 points.

On Friday, we had to play Mississippi again, and again, lost by 1 point. I had four fouls so was taken out with four minutes left in the game. Went back in with 1 minute. I think I should have been left in until I fouled out but that’s a problem with not having a coach. We won our next game meaning we’d be playing for bronze at our first game on Saturday, 8 AM.

We had lots of fun and many laughs in our off time. Here we are having lunch at a BBQ house.

We were now in the loser’s bracket (double elimination) and defeated Louisiana again to guarantee us a bronze medal. I sprained my ankle in that game so put on an ankle brace, which I originally bought for hiking, and finished the game. Our next game was…Mississippi!! Well, third time is a charm and we beat them by 6 points.  However, I fell and twisted my left ankle again. This time I saw stars and couldn’t get up without being helped to first aid where my ankle was heavily taped. I didn’t go back in that game. We now had silver and were quite happy. Rather than forfeit, we decided to avoid injuries in the last game and let everyone play. If we would have won, we would have had to play them again and, as this was our 10th game, we had very little left to give. Our goal was to get 15 points and hold them under 50. Final score 50-24. They were a good team, very good shooters and not rough, just good basketball. Our offense all week was awful. No-one  was shooting good but our defense got us to second place out of 16 teams. I averaged less than 8 points per game but had lots of blocks, interceptions and good defense. All this week I’ve been dealing with a bum ankle and very painful finger. Was it worth it? It certainly was!!

BTW, my friend Tiny earned several medals in track. She broke the NSGA record and World record for 80 year olds in the Javelin. Unfortunately, they wouldn't recognize the world record because she doesn't turn 80 until November. That's a shame.

Pat Boone participating as an athlete and performed that night at Celebration of Athletes

Friend, 91 year old Ryan. He got many medals in swimming and track. That's a problem with basketball...we played 10 games but only got one medal. :-(

June 14 was my 75th birthday. Yes, 75 is the new 65, so life is good! My team captain, Julie, invited me to lunch and a movie. We saw Gifted, a good chick flick. That night, Arne took me to Texas Roadhouse where I had a delicious filet. Phone calls and texts from sons and grandkids rounded out the day. My real celebration will be next month when our whole family gathers in Temecula, CA.

What have I been doing the last six months??

 For Christmas 2016, Arne and I went on an 8-day cruise with stops in Haiti, Jamaica, Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico. We went on the Oasis of the Seas with 6400 passengers and 2000+ crew. Once on the ship, you really don’t feel that there are that many passengers. Fortunately, a friend had told us to make reservations for the shows. We were not able to book two of the shows ahead of time but did get to see them once on the ship.


The highlight of our shore excursions was an all day trip to Chichén Itzå, one of the largest Mayan cities and it was likely to have been one of the mythical great cities.

Stone Ring located 9 m (30 ft) above the floor of the Great Ballcourt. Try putting a ball through that!

El Castillo dominates the center of the archaeological site.

January 13, I flew to Phoenix where I met Kadin at the airport. Her dad went with Gracie to her volleyball tournament in El Paso so Kadin asked me to join her in Phoenix for her volleyball tournament. I was happy to do that. Since she didn’t play until mid-afternoon on Saturday Kadin’s 16th birthday, we went to the mall to spend some of her Christmas money. She saw Build a Bear and I told her whatever she wanted, I would get the same. We came out with two tigers dressed in NBA uniforms, her choice! She named hers Kiki so I named mine Tiki.

With Tiki and Kiki

Team bonding, with cell phone, at breakfast

Erik and Gracie drove from El Paso to Phoenix Saturday night after her tournament. They got to our hotel late Saturday night.

Sunday was all volleyball. Kadin’s team didn’t do well and on Monday had to play early, way out in Queen Creek. I let Erik sleep in and I took Kadin. They lost their first game and were done, which was good since they had to drive back to Los Alamos that day. However, Erik didn’t seem in a big hurry. We met Nick, Sarah and Aaron D for lunch. Erik and the girls finally headed home around 2:30. I returned my rental car to the airport where Marla picked me up. I spent four days with her and Mark. On Friday, I flew to Albuquerque for another volleyball tournament. Erik brought Jeffrey down so I got to see all three grandkids. The girls went home with their mother. Erik, Jeffrey and I spent Monday night in Albuquerque and I flew home on Tuesday.

Family lunch on MLK Day

Lunch with high school friends from Iowa

February 18, I flew back to Albuquerque hoping to see Kadin play on Sunday. She was sick and didn’t play. Erik and I spent the night in ABQ and drove to Los Alamos on Sunday. Jeffrey came over and spent the whole week with us. He had no school on Monday and half day on Wednesday so I got to spend quite a bit of time with him.

Jeffrey entertaining himself during ANOTHER volleyball game

Gracie patiently waiting for her sister so we could head to Amarillo.

Jeffrey's Christmas present

 On Friday, I rode with the girls and Erik to Amarillo, TX, for another volleyball tournament. I flew home from there on Sunday afternoon.

March 6, Arne and I flew to Phoenix. We rented a house in Terravita for two weeks. The first week I hiked four times, three with sister Marla. Arne and I went to a Cubs Spring Training game, spent several hours at the Musical Instrument Museum and another day visited with good friends, the Dille’s. The second week we had visitors. Arne’s cousins from California, Marge and Eileen, were with us Tuesday to Thursday afternoon. Thursday night Erik and Jeffrey flew to Phoenix. Erik stayed with Nick as they were going to my nephew Matt’s bachelor weekend. We had Jeffrey for three days. We took him to the aquarium and butterfly exhibit the first day. The second day was desert walking and swimming. On Sunday, we picked up Erik and were joined at Cubs spring training game by Nick, Sarah and Aaron D. Erik and Jeffrey stayed with us until Tuesday, March 21, when we all flew home. Great two weeks!!

Arne with his California cousins, Eileen and Marge

March 29, I finally went on a Florida hike. It was a 5.5 mile round trip through pine trees. Rather boring after the hikes I had in Arizona.