Travels with Libby 

Our week of adventure started on Monday after picking up our grand daughter, Libby, in Charleston.  We spent one night back home and then we were off to Florida.  It has been many years since we have been in Florida and stayed at the beach.  In fact, I cannot remember the last time we did, but we both kept talking about the first Christmas we were married and how we went to Florida for that holiday.  We did a lot of body surfing which I remembered was fun.  I figured I probably wouldn’t do that this time, but I was wrong.  I did and I loved it.  The waves were terrific.  Not too big but big enough to get a good ride.  Libby used a boogie board which she really liked.  We spent some time at the pool too and Lib met another 11 year old there.  As is typical of 11 year olds, they circled around each other a bit and then they were inseparable.  It really was great and I was very happy that she had a friend to pal around with who had the same energy level that she did.  We stayed right on the beach in Amelia Island so we woke up to beautiful sunrises and we saw some gorgeous sunsets too.  Lots of fresh fish to eat, so that helped with the eating out at night a bit.

The second part of our week was spent in Orlando with Libby’s mum who was there on business and then holiday.  We spent the whole day at Universal Studios and Harry Potter World, a dream of Libby’s for her spring vacation.  I wasn’t sure if I would go on any of the rides, but I did and I loved it.  Libby is quite the thrill seeker and she managed to go in a water slide at the hotel that is inside a tube and she and her mum went on one of the three biggest roller coaster rides at the park.  I couldn’t watch.  Disney does it right and we had a fabulous day.

It is summer down here now and the temperatures and the hot sun tell us so.  Many years ago I used to get cold sores, often when I sat out in the sun for the first time in the season, sometimes when I got really run down I would get them too.  Well, it has been many years so I became somewhat blasé about the idea of getting a cold sore or blister.  Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was outside for two days playing golf and boating in the hot sun and even though I wear a hat and I put on sunscreen, I got a cold sore.  I had some medicine that I took for it and I used an essential oil that I bought in Canada for my daughter a few years ago.  It really helped and it was gone in a matter of days.  Well guess what?  I went to the beach, went body surfing, didn’t have enough sunblock on and burned my lips again.  Now I have another one.  Sometimes you just don’t learn!  I think what happened was I forgot about the reflection from the sand and the water in both cases.  If you don’t catch it right away, they can get really ugly.  I have read that lysine might help, but most of the research I have read says you need a prescription drug.  Guess I will call the doctor!  Speaking of doctors, I just received a letter from Dartmouth-Hitchcock saying my cardiologist has retired.  I am going to miss him.  They don’t make them like that anymore and I’ll probably get someone young enough to be my child but that’s not all bad.  I just really liked the one I had.  We understood each other and I think he found me to be a different, perhaps even amusing, sort of patient.  Good luck in retirement Peter.  You will be missed.

What did the Kittens and 8 Month old Puppy do?

Happy 8 month birthday to Wyke!!!

While we were away we had our favorite fur-baby sitter, Alyssa, come in daily to take care of the kittens.  They have each other to amuse themselves and don’t really require a lot of care.  They do require companionship and have not left us alone since we got home.  I recently read a study that said the most important thing in a cat’s life is the social interaction with its human, then food.  Surprising!  These guys really do react to people.  They come running when we come in the door; they help me make the bed which is always a challenge.  Immy in particular likes this activity and is most helpful in getting under the sheets and blankets and then scooting out and coming back to ask me if she did a good job.  Wyke went to stay with our favorite trainer, Natalee, and I wasn’t sure he was going to want to come home.  Natalee spent a lot of time working with him on his retrieving skills by playing chuckit with him (we couldn’t get him to bring a ball back more than two or three times, she got him to play for half an hour – so –  we just bought a chuckit).  She took him out to lunch on the waterfront, took him for rides in her jeep, took him for runs while she rode her bike along side him (not for the faint of heart) and introduced him to her tortoise and her turtles.  She also took him to a number of classes that she teaches, including Zumba.  He also went swimming and it appears that he absolutely loves the water.  Now I really have to watch him around the ponds here in South Carolina.  We have alligators!!!  She sent me pictures and/or videos every day.  It was great fun to see how happy he was.  I also got a picture of the sh__t-monkeys who seemed to behave quite nicely.  So we arrived home and all was well.  Thirty minutes later, they knocked my glass of wine off the coffee table and smashed it to smithereens.  Yup, welcome home!!!!

Beach Walking

I started my week by doing one of my favorite things to do on Dataw and that is to walk one of our golf courses, backwards, on Monday mornings.  Our courses are closed on Mondays for maintenance and so we are allowed to bike or walk on the cart paths.  We had time before we had to leave for Florida so I went out and walked the Morgan River golf course backwards I was walking frontwards, but went from 18 to 1!).  It’s amazing what you see and the perspective you get.  I discovered that Morgan River is slightly longer than Cotton Dike.  More distance between holes I think.  It was a great walk and a good way to start the week.  Oh, the mileage was 6.4 miles.

While I didn’t quite make my 125 mile goal for this month due to the number of travel days we had, I did manage to go 104.6 miles.  The best part was I got to walk on the beach three days in a row and two of them in my bare feet.  Splashing along in the surf every once in awhile.  I loved it.  It was great to be out there before most others were up and I watched people setting up for the day.  I saw two gentlemen who were down at the beach fishing pretty early most mornings.  They put their chairs up by the high water mark so their lines went right across where most people were walking so we had to go up and around them or risk getting caught in the fishing line.  I thought that was a bit rude, actually.  However, on my last day, they got up and walked down to the water so I didn’t have to go around them.  There were lots of runners out there.  I can imagine how much happier their hips and knees were to run on the softness of the sand rather than concrete.  One day there were dolphins swimming and jumping out of the water just off the shore.  Close enough that you could really see them.  That really was fun.  They were in the water not too far from where Libby was body surfing and she came running out of the water and said “Did you see that?” yes, we did.

Health Tip

Our grandson woke up with a terrible muscle spasm in his neck.  It hurt so much that it made him cry which was very scary for his mum.  You don’t often see a big 16 year old 6 foot tall football and lacrosse player cry.  Anyway, she took him to the ER where they made sure that was all it was and gave him a muscle relaxant and some Advil and told him to rest.  I hear about this kind of thing happening and my health coach persona takes over.  I told him he needed to drink more water (absolutely), and to up his intake of potassium by eating more bananas, strawberries, baked potatoes (I’m appealing to what he likes) and magnesium which he can get from nuts especially almonds.  If he is going to be an athlete, he needs to learn about eating well and not just rely on protein shakes.  He hates it when I talk to him about it but he hates it even more when I am right.  He did sound as if he was going to give it a try.  I don’t think he wants to go through that again.  Another great way to get magnesium is to have a bath using Epsom salts and throw in some drops of lavender oil too.  You’ll sleep well.  If you find yourself waking up with a charley horse in your calf, or you get leg cramps, try increasing your magnesium and potassium intake and always DRINK MORE WATER!

Recipe

The only cooking we did this past week was for breakfast and lunch and that wasn’t cooking.  We took our own food for those two meals and ate sandwiches, had fruit and cereal and one morning John had eggs and bacon.  However, I am making my spinach artichoke dip for our block party tonight so I will recycle that recipe as it is always a good one to take to gatherings and it feeds a lot of people.  It’s almost time for summer picnics even up north.  Enjoy!

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This guy/gal has a snake that was just caught in my garden.  Off to feed the hungry babies I guess.