To tie it all in with this post…Rhonda was really a whale back then!

After taking the “kids” to Bird Island (just north of Robinson Island and visible from the bridge over the Perdido Pass) on Saturday and the Sugar Bowl on Sunday, we left dawgs and kids behind to anchor out from Johnson Beach on Memorial Day. It’s a short walk to the beach side (if you grew up walking to the south side of Ship Island) and we had our beach cart which transports everything automagically. After being fooled about shallow and deep spots by the dark algae on the bottom, we anchored the bow in 6+ feet of water and the stern in 4 feet (enough to protect the motor, but shallow enough to allow us to transport stuff to shore without swimming. In the process, I lost one boat shoe that floated off into deeper water, and so determined to give the other one to my brother David. Alas, the remaining one points the wrong way.

We walked to the other side. A couple on the west side of us followed shortly and stayed on the beach side for about 5 minutes. A family on the east side came over for about 20 minutes. Otherwise, it was deserted. On. Memorial. Day. A boat is a beautiful thang.

I only walked across the island to check on the boat once, and this was the view:

After we thoroughly enjoyed our picnic lunch and beverages on the beach side, we hiked back to have some watermelon while swinging on the anchor. The colors in this picture make it one of my favorites of the last week:

Abby takes up quite a bit of time, so we just stopped posting to this blog, even though soon after we got Abby, we also bought a condo in Perdido, started fixing it up (actually Rhonda and my maw-in-law fixed it up), went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and had a Halloween party, after which we took Brad to see Larry the Cable Guy in Vicksburg in January 2010 and Rodney Carrington in February 2010, both of whom hurt my ribs, but they didn’t hurt as much as the BP oil spill in April, after which church service in Perdido was converted to a community meeting, and the guest speaker was a ex-EPA and Navy guy who basically said life in Perdido was over, so I had a long walk on the beach, then cried with a lady from Birmingham who had, with her husband, invested in 3 condos in the area, but it turns out the hugging and crying was gratuitous as all is well on our island, so we came home and helped host a 60th anniversary party for my parents in April 2010, then went to the beach with good friends in May, but my mom’s disease was getting worse, so we looked to find someone to help them out with cooking and so on, but were able to go see the Blue Angels in July 2010 from an awesome vantage point on the water….awesome until the summer thunderstorm hit, but the storm cleared up by October, so Rhonda took my mom, Aunt Doris and Aunt Gloria to the beach and they enjoyed their first pedicures before Drake (my brother’s dawg) came to live with us in the fall while my brother addressed his health issues and ultimately lost Drake to old age and a leg to diabetes complications, but seems to be adjusting okay, eating better now that Rhonda and my sister Carolyn (who quit her job and moved in to help my parents and David) are cooking for him and he can’t go through Wendy’s drive-through as the lane is not wheelchair accessible, so Rhonda cooks enough for an army now and takes dinners to SoJack to help them out, when she’s not helping my Aunt Winsel and Uncle Les as their health has declined in the past two years since my last post (remember that last post about Abby?), but we were able to get away to West Palm Beach in December, which we liked a lot, but not as much as we like Perdido, which we will be able to visit way more in late May and June, as most of my work travel is in the first part of the year, as I have been to Orlando twice already and just got back from San Francisco and wrote this blog post.

This is my Daddy and his two aunts, Gladys from San Diego, California and Bonnie from Richland, Mississippi.

Oh, Yeah, Tobi went on this little outing also!

I really liked the Beau Rivage, although I would prefer a bed & breakfast out in the country somewhere…

Beth was the youngest person there who’s idea it was to attend the concert. She would have been the absolute youngest, no caveats, except for some folks who brought their grandchildren.

Here’s the list….

* Garmin nuvi 760 GPS with car charger
* iPod
** iPod connector to TV
** iPod car charger
** iPod AC charger
* girl camera, charger, and connector
* picture transfer thing – transfers pics to iPod for further storage
* MStation Orb for docking iPod on AC power
* InMotion 600 iPod docking station (can run on batteries for the beach)
* portable harddrive by SimpleTech

* Flip video camera
* travel Airport Express (to create wireless from wired)
* APC Mobile Power Pack to charge anything with a USB interface – iPod, camera, RC cell phone, iPhone, etc.
* exercise iPod (Shuffle)
* Macbook Pro
* DefCon alarm for laptop
* travel mouse
* Monster ToGo travel power strip

Of course, my iPhone is a given with or without a list.

At least we’re uploading pics by the score at my Flickr account.

I’m out here at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess for a NAREIT Law and Accounting Conference. It’s both good and bad….good as in it’s at a great hotel with a 4 star Mexican restaurant (??) in a great city. Bad…as in Rhonda didn’t come with me this time as it’s spring break for Brad and this weekend is both Easter and Beth’s birthday. Also, bad as in the flight out here was really rough with 22 mph winds at takeoff and a bumpy ride all the way. Bad plane rides don’t really bother me, but all the folks around me were really suffering. It’s spring break for a lot of folks and both flights were completely full, with Delta taking volunteers to be bumped with a $400 travel voucher. The seats in coach were so crowded that I didn’t even get my laptop out on the almost 4 hour flight from Atlanta to Phoenix. I instead listed to “books on tape” (actually books on my iPod) and podcasts. I had planned to clean up old emails during the flight.

I have a pretty neat setup now for traveling with my Macbook Pro. I carry an Airport Express that I hook into the hotel’s Ethernet connection, then create a wireless network. With this setup, I can sit on the bed or balcony or anywhere close (even at the pool at the current hotel since my room is right over the pool) and still have internet access. If that doesn’t work, I carry a very long (30 ft?) Ethernet cable as a backup.

A family just came to get in the heated pool and the son did a jackknife without even testing the water…..I was that young once…