Fall Trip–Savannah, Georgia (Day 3)

Today, we began our real touring of the area around Savannah, Georgia. Actually, we drove a good distance south to St. Simons Island and later to Jekyll Island.

We met our step-on tour guide for the day, Barbara Smith and then drove over the causeway to St. Simons Island. The day started very dreary with showers and we prayed that the sun would come out and we would have a good day for walking around and sightseeing. In a way I don’t like bothering God about something like that but we have a good number of people with us and some are in their late 80s. We don’t want anyone getting sick or slipping because of the wetness. It won’t be any great wonder to most of you that our weather for the remainder of the touring day was mostly sunny and warm. It got cloudy late in the day as we were leaving Jekyll Island and started raining while we were having dinner. Praise the Lord for good weather.

Barbara Smith, our step-on guide

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Our first stop was to see Christ Church were John Wesley and his brother, Charles first preached on St. Simons, Island. He never saw this church but preached under an Oak Tree a couple hundred feet away. The tree is still standing but severely storm damaged.

The church was built by craftsmen more accustomed to building ships. You can see the result in the construction. There we very few nails used in the construction. There were also a good number of nice stained glass windows. The current building was reconstructed following the Civil War because of its poor condition following the war.

Many of the trees and flowers in the area near the church and around St. Simons were stunning.

There are a good number of places to eat near the peer at St. Simons and near the lighthouse. We chose a place called Zuzu’s. They have very good hamburgers and sandwiches. I liked the quote from Bob Marley on the napkin holder at our table.

Of course, you can’t visit St. Simons Island without visiting the lighthouse. I wanted to climb the steps to the top but it was hot and humid and I didn’t want to distress those near me on the bus!

Once again, we boarded the bus for the trek to Jekyll Island. This is a very exclusive island that has a number of restored “cottages” once known as the “Millionaire’s Club”. The cottages are anything but! We were able to tour some but were not allowed to take photos of the interiors for “copyright” reasons. Hmm, I need to do some research on that one!

We toured Jekyll Island with another guide via a Tram.

Then, there is the Club House, were most of the rich residents had their meals and hung out here. This is a very nice hotel, today; with a 4 star restaurant.

Finally, it is time to leave for dinner. But we stopped at a beach for a short time to let some of the gals get their feet wet!

I’m not sure that this sea gull appreciated the tourists!

The day came an end after a nice dinner and time of fellowship. I think it was a great day and everyone should have a great night of sleeping after a long day.

Fall Trip–Savannah, Georgia (Day 2)

I’m doing this update from Savannah. Yup, that means that we make it here. The trip down went without a problem and was a very pleasant experience. All made possible because of our excellent driver, Doug.

We dilly dallied along the way, this afternoon, to avoid arriving too early and arrived right on the scheduled time.

Once again, we were extremely fortunate with our lodging accommodations. We are staying for the week in the Hampton Inn near the Savannah/Hilton Head airport. This place gets my highest recommendation for cleanliness and room size, etc. I would certainly be happy to stay here again!

We arrive a little after 3PM, so had nearly two hours to relax and freshen up for dinner. Our dinner was at a place called The Shell House. This is a seafood restaurant but they also served chicken or steak for those who don’t like seafood. The seafood included choices of Boiled Shrimp, Grilled Mahi-Mahi or Deviled Crab. Nancy and I shared the Deviled Crab and Mahi-Mahi and both were good. I wouldn’t rate the food here as exceptional but it was good and there were no complaints.

The Shell House also had a pond behind the restaurant. The pond was home to a good number of turtles and alligators. I went away wondering if perhaps the grumpy patrons were used as alligator food! 

Tomorrow, we plan to visit St. Simons Island and Jekyll Island. It will be a long day, starting around 7:30 with breakfast together and we will finally return to the hotel around 8:30 or 9PM.

Since a number of us forgot to bring umbrellas (including me but Nancy has hers), we made a quick trip to Wal-Mart for these, since the weather forecast here is for rain most of the week!

Fall Trip–Savannah, Georgia (Day 1)

I debated whether I should even post anything for today. However, even “nothing new” is often worthy of reporting.

We left the Dayton area this morning at 8AM with 48 Young at Heart people destined for Savannah, Georgia via Diamond Tours. We have a great driver, Doug Porter. He is helpful, friendly and courteous. All good qualities for a man who will more or less be responsible for our well being (safe driver) through this week.

We stopped for lunch in the Cracker Barrel at Corbin, KY. The service there was extremely good. This is the main reason for choosing Cracker Barrel so often during our time on the road. They can handle a bus load with relative speed and have us on our way again, in no time.

We were expected to stop again for dinner along the way to Flat Rock, NC; however I chose to push on to Flat Rock and our resting place at the Mountain Inn, primarily because it would be close to dinner time when we arrive, so why not take advantage of several choices to eat. Again, one choice was Cracker Barrel and the others were Waffle House and Zaxby’s Chicken. Neither of the later could handle the bus load but the combination gave some people the option of something different. More than half of the group chose for the low end eating places but Cracker Barrel was outstanding. I also heard that the chicken place went over pretty well with those who chose to go there.

Our evening stay in the Mountain Inn is also very nice. The rooms are nicely appointed and spacious. Tomorrow, we’ll see how their breakfast checks out. But, so far, I would give a high five to the Mountain Inn.

Tomorrow, we press on to Savannah. We’ll leave here at 8:30AM and arrive at our hotel for the Savannah stay around 3PM.

The good news it that so far, everyone is doing very well. God is Good.

Hopefully, we will start posting photos, tomorrow; or at least on Tuesday, after the real touring begins.

YAH Luncheon–Spittin’ Image

This program has become one of our favorite luncheons each year. This one was no exception with very good attendance.

We started with a very nice piano duet as our prelude with Fred Scheffler and David Brandt. They played a very nice variety of music.

Brian does most of the lead vocals and also adds the harmony to the sound. He is a very good guitar player and pretty good comedian, too. He is the emcee for the group.

 

Blain is the oldest twin (by 26 minutes).  He can play like thunder with his his Gibson 8-string mandolin, but is equally at home on his custom made 5-string mandolin.  When he’s not playing the mandolin he is playing his harmonicas or adding his vocal talents.  He also has a love of doing pantomimes.

Now, lets see how you do with remembering their names. Which is Blain and which is Brian, below?

And again?

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Next month, we will feature our own, Josh Hales! Be sure to join us in October!

Day Trip to LaComedia–Church Basement Ladies the Sequel

We’ve enjoyed every visit that we’ve made to LaComedia this year and we have one more to go in December. This time we visited to see the sequel to Church Basement Ladies that we saw last year. This one was just as funny as the first and we readily recommend it!

Of course, another reason to go to LaComedia is always the food! Their buffet is always very good!

But even better is the company of each of our Young at Heart people who join us on any trip.

The musical comedy was fun to watch. Several of the characters were the same actors as in the first Church Basements Ladies. See if you can recognize them.

August Luncheon–August 9, 2011

Our August Luncheon program was changed because Josh was not feeing well enough to sing. Fortunately, we could get the Miami Valley Women’s Center to switch their October program with Josh and do theirs, today.

We had some music today, although it was not our emphasis. Nancy, Sandy Hayward and Marlene Williams sang a trio number accompanied by Grace Averitt. Listen to their music!

Rather than just cover the main emphasis of Crisis Pregnancy Centers, our speakers addressed areas of the Women’s Center ministry that we don’t normally think of when thinking of a Crisis Pregnancy Center.

Sheri Armstrong is the Director of Evangelism and Discipleship. She discussed this very important ministry.

Brad Berlean is the Director of Men’s Ministry and reaches out to the fathers of the babies.

Nancy is the Clinic Director and also Director of Journey of Hope.

You can hear their complete program, HERE!

You can also visit the Miami Valley Women’s Center website to learn more about their ministry.

Cincinnati Reds

Our July Young at Heart Day trip was to see a game with the Cincinnati Reds. Unfortunately, we did not have a sufficient turnout from YAH, so we opened the opportunity to grandkids and some other individuals from my Adult Bible Fellowship at WHBC. Together we managed to take a bus with 26 people to see the afternoon game against the NY Mets.

We had excellent seats. One row was on the concession deck and then the next two rows just below the concession deck. We overlooked first base. I think it was the best seats we could have had. We were under the deck above so were shaded from the hot sun!

Even though it was a hot day, the Reds weren’t hot enough to win this game. It was a very high scoring game, so was fun to watch. I had planned to leave early to beat the rush but there was no way anyone wanted to leave with the game close and only one run to go!

Final score – Reds 9; Mets 10!