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| Baltimore |
| On
the first leg of our big trip back east, we flew into Baltimore
and stayed with our awesome friends, Darrin & Linda
Gabriel.
Darrin was visiting his parents at the time (dork) so Linda had
to put up with us. We stayed over night at their house and left
for New York the next day. During our short stay we went out to
dinner at Windows on the
Bay, located in the White Rocks Marina
in Pasadena... Maryland that is. After dinner we wandered up the
road to Tall Oaks, another awesome restaurant in Pasadena, and surprised
some wonderful friends of ours, although it took Glenn a few
seconds to recognize us. But we won't hold it against him. |
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| Larry
(a friend from the Misawa days) & Carol |
Linda,
Ken & Carol at Windows on the Bay in Pasadena. |
Fran,
owner of Tall Oaks restaurant in Pasadena. |
Robbie
& Glenn, Fran's grandsons and all around cool guys. |
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| New
York |
| It
took us about 4 hours to drive to my Uncle Paul & Aunt
Mary's house in the thriving metropolis of Staten
Island. The
very next day they threw a big party for us with the whole Lavis
clan (my mom's side of the family) and an added extra bonus, my
grandmother (my dad's mom). It was great to see everyone again! It
had been 5 years since we last seen them. During our stay in NY
we were total tourists. We visited Ellis Island, Greenwich
Village, Rockefeller
Center. Hung out on Broadway, road lots of
trains and buses, the latter is not much to talk about. We also
had the chance to meet two of our three beautiful nieces. Jamie
and Quinn. They were both born while we were in Japan. Speaking
of meetings, Ken had the wonderful opportunity to play catch-up
with is cousin Anne, whom he had not seen in about 15 years. On
the last evening of our trip, Ken, Betty-Jo and I had dinner
with my dad, his wife Alice and their adorable foster daughter
Sarah. We went out for dinner at The
Cajun, an old New Orleans
style restaurant in the Chelsea area of Manhattan. |
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| Matthew
(Carol's cousin), Jimmy (Lisa's fiancé), Matthew's friend, Mike (Carol's uncle), Ryan (Carol's cousin), Paul
(Carol's uncle) and Lisa (Carol's cousin) |
Betty-Jo
(Carol's sister) & Ken at BBQ's in the Village in NYC. |
The
New York skyline |
The
Statue of Liberty |
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| Anne
(Ken's cousin), Ken & Carol Having Lunch on Broadway. |
Radio
City Music Hall |
Jamie
(our niece), Charlie (Carol's brother), Betty-Jo, Carol &
Charlzie (our niece) |
Betty-Jo,
Charlie (Carol's dad) and Carol |
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| Going
to the Chapel... |
| The
last leg of our New York trip took us to Virginia and the
wedding of Lynn and Billy. My mom and Lynn's mom, Michelle, have
been friends for almost 31 years. They met in a hospital while
giving birth to their daughters, Betty-Jo and Lynn (I just gave
away my sister and Lynn's age). The ceremony was beautiful!
Michelle, who is an ordain minister, married Billy and Lynn on a
paddle wheel style boat. |
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| Betty-Jo,
Sandy (Carol's mom) and Carol all dolled up for a wedding. |
Betty-Jo
and Jimmy strut their stuff |
Billy
and Lynn
Aka: The Groom and bride |
Jimmy,
Michelle and Michael ham it up. |
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| Florida |
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We stayed
the whole week at the luscious golfing resort of the
Fitzgerald's, but we didn't do any golfing (Sorry Bob). We had
a very trying and hectic week of swimming, relaxing (a very
difficult task to do) and sight-seeing. We went to Cape
Canaveral and checked out the Kennedy Space Center (very
cool). We went to some spring (I forgot the name of it) and
swam in some VERY frigid water. On Friday
we all drove down to Tampa and met up with Lynn (Ken's
sister), Joe and our adorable and very talkative nephew
Jonathan at Busch Gardens (another real cool place). The
place has really build up since we were last there in 1995.
They have 5 roller coasters which were awesome (but Bob
wouldn't know about that, would ya Bob?). One of these days I
will get Ken's dad on a roller coaster... yes I will. After our
full day at Busch Garden's we went back to Lynn and Joe's
house for the night. The next day we drove back to Ocala and
went out to dinner at some restaurant called Sam Snead's. It had a golfing theme to
it (Bob really liked it). |
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| Bob
(Ken's dad), Jan (Ken's mom) and Ken munch on some cookies. |
The
space shuttle crawler
transporter |
Ken,
Carol, Jan & Bob in front of a launch pad at the Kennedy
Space Center in Cape Canaveral. |
This
picture is very deceiving. The American flag painted on the side
of the building is as big as an American football field. |
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| This
space module (Raffaello) is one of the containers that will carry
items up to the International Space
Station. |
Pretty
women, walking down the street. Pretty women, the kind I'd like
to meet... |
Carol
& Bob after their little swim in the springs |
Carol
& Ken with some hedge giraffes at Silver Springs. |
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| This
palm tree is suppose to be good luck. |
Silver
Springs |
Ken
with our nephew Jonathan at Busch Gardens. |
Lynn
(Ken's sister), Carol, Bob, Jan. Joe (Lynn's husband), Jonathan
and Ken. |
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