The South

It's my turn to write a blogpost, giving Anne a little break.What a good time we're having! And Steve and I felt so honored to celebrate our 40th anniversary with Anne's parents in Baton Rouge, LA on Sunday. Her mom made a party of it - thank you Loralea. That was right after enjoying a warm southern welcome and wonderful old time hymn singing at their Baptist church.

Monday we drove the three hours (seemed so quick!) to Mobile, Alabama where we found a pretty state park right on Mobile Bay - complete with alligators (among the reeds), humidity, tiny ants, red, green, and blue dragonflies, and some very large (3 - 4 inch) black locusts. Luke fished for catfish or "reds" alongside some good ol' boys, with no luck - but it was fun anyway.

We all enjoyed a good southern welcome at the country home of Anne's sister-in-law Emily's parents Lisa and Jimmy...good food, lots of listening to stories, a bonfire, s'mores, fireworks - good people. Elizabeth is enjoying spending time with their 16-year-old, Scarlett. This evening Steve and I are relaxing at the campsite while the family is at Josh and Emily's for a barbecue and swim.

Tomorrow we're off to Panama City, Florida. We're keeping an eye on the news about the scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle from Kennedy Space Center - we may just try to dash over there to see or hear that. (It's a long dash, but who knows, maybe we'll time it just right.)