Monday, October 25, 2010

Make new friends but keep the old

We left Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday morning to start the journey back home. On the way, we stopped to see our old neighbors, Gary and Louise, who moved to a small town about 45 minutes from Orlando. They lived across the street from us for 2 years and we used to have nightly get togethers in their driveway. Eating popsicles and talking were the staples of these nights.

We got there around 2 in the afternoon and all ate lunch together. Michael and Katie were fascinated with their 3 collies and new kitten. Both kids wanted to pet the dogs (or in Katie's case, pull their hair) and play with the kitten. Katie seemed to have virtually no fear of any of the pets.

We spent the afternoon catching up and the kids played outside for a while. They have 3 kids, ranging from 10 to 19. Michael loved following everyone around asking questions. It was pretty funny as he didn't really seem to stop until it was time for bed. I got to ride downtown with Louise and see all the cute shops and restaurants.

After dinner, we put Michael and Katie to bed and ate some ice cream. We talked some more while the men watched football and then headed to bed ourselves. We woke up the next morning and got ready to hit the road but not before a breakfast of waffles and eggs. We were finishing the final leg of our trip and wanted to get a decent start.

Our time with Gary, Louise and their kids was far too short. We realized how much we missed spending time with them. They were very generous in opening their home to us and we had a great time. Let's hope it's not another 5 years before we see them again! And can you believe we didn't get a single picture together?

2 comments:

Joanna said...

IS Katie afraid of anything?

Kara said...

Glad you all got to visit!

Oh, and I just finally got my dates figured out. When you said you all had just left on our first day there I thought you meant left DW! So, we were there at the same time? We checked in on the 17th and out on the 22nd.