Auntie Sue is Back

Auntie Sue dropped in for a quick visit. I found her at the piano, in the great room at Shannondale. To the delight of several residents, she was playing 20's-50's tunes and singing. Now why is it that Sue is the only one of Mother's 6 siblings with musical talent? Mother certainly didn't bring musical talent to our branch of the family. Heck no one in the Whitesell-Smith branch of the family can even carry a tune. Anyway, it is always a lot of fun when Auntie Sue comes to town. We look forward to seeing her in Virigina in July.

The Gemini Twins Celebrate Birthdays

Some pictures from our birthday celebration this year. This was Leslie's "big" year so I took a bit of a backseat, some years are like that...

Flowers from John

Leslie with her many packages

In the past, we have celebrated at such places as "Up the Creek" and "PF Changs." This year the big festivites were at "The Red Lobster". Okay, don't ask why we are at a restuarant on Memorial Day instead of having a big grilled burger.

Me and my package. Everyone else had already given me their gift.

Can you guess how old she is?? Maybe she isn't my younger sister, but my older sister, yeah, that's right, older!

After lunch, we had birthday cake at Shannondale

Leslie and I trying to chisel through the solidly frozen ice cream cake

Push, push! The flimsy knife struggled to get through the frozen goodies and I struggled with the flimsy knife

Leslie and Mike

Carol

Me and my guy!

The Smith girls

Home Sweet Home?

Back to back trips to Mt. A and I am finally home for a long Memorial Day weekend!

In an effort to save on hotel bills my company decided to rent an apartment for "the commuter girls." The new place, located 1 mile from work, is a 2 bedroom-2 bath. At some point, a larger condo is in the works because with 4 commuter girls, no one can invision the group sharing 2 bedrooms, 1 sleeper sofa AND 2 bathrooms! I will probably continue to stay in a hotel off and on and will look forward to the quiet and privacy those stays bring.

Residing in an apartment in Mt. A is a throw back to a different era. Within the first 24 hours of apartment life, the neighbors had introduced themselves and one even extended an invitation to watch "Dancing with the Stars." Our neighbors are the 3 E's, Edith, Ethel and Eddie. I met Edith first. She poked her head out the door to say hello while I was carrying my suitcase in. She lives in the bottom-right apartment of our little fourplex. In her mid 70's, she lives alone and seems to enjoy gardening in the area around the front of her apartment. With "Edith" painted on a rock outside her front door, she will be easy to remember.

Ethel, hmmm, probably late 70's early 80's, lives in the unit below our apartment (next to Edith). She stopped me in the parking lot to introduce herself and tell me she heard the water in our hall bathroom running. She said she immediately called the maintance man who shared with her the details of our plumming issue....which she, of course, shared with me. I loved it that she gave herself a big congratulations for saving us money by calling the plummer so quickly. I graciously thanked her for her efforts. My guess is that Ethel keeps close tabs on the activities of all her neighbors. She will have a hard time keeping up with the schedules of the commuter girls.

The final E, in the apartment next door, is Eddie. Eddie is a school teacher in his late 30's, early 40's. He, too (should I say three), lives alone. I haven't had much conversation with him yet.

I have posted a few apartment pic below. It isn't home but it's okay.

The galley kicthen

Nice master bedroom

A little bordello looking, the living room couch is not very comfortable. Oh well, more reason to get out and walk in the evenings instead of sitting in front of the 27" flat screen TV.

Mt. Pilot...er Pilot Mountain

My Cleveland office mate, Terri, and I are not often in Mt. A at the same time but this week, our assorted meetings and work schedules had us both in town and looking to do a little exploring after work. Pilot Mountain (14 miles south of Mt. A) is a dominant feature in the area landscape and we both considered it as an area of interest for some light hiking. We were not really sure what to expect but pleasantly surprised by what we found!

Pilot Mountain's unique silhouette looms in the distance.

The mountain is located in Pilot Mountain State Park, which is divided into two sections, Pilot Mountain and the Yakdin River with a wilderness corridor between the two. We only had time to visit the mountain, a heavy rain and lightening storm began not long after we finished our hike. If the name, Pilot Mountain, sounds vaguely familiar to you, it was mentioned in some episodes of the Andy Griffith Show as a town "30-miles down the road." The mythical town's name was Mt. Pilot.

The view is great from the Little Pinnacle. Unfortuantely, smoke from major wild fires in Florida and Georgia limited visibility.

On the trail toward the Big Pinnacle or "The Knob". That would be Terri walking, uh, skipping up the stone steps.

A view of the Big Pinnacle. The walls of The Knob are solid and rise 200' above the landscape below. Vegetation grows on the flat area above the rockwall. This area was once open to tourists (via ladders) but I was told that an endangered bird nests at the top so access was closed. I think the climb to the top may have been a bigger risk than the park service was willing to take.

Mountain laurel is in full bloom on the mountain. As a matter of fact, the road leading to the parking lot near the top of the mountain is lined in mountain laurel as is the trail around the base of The Knob. Spectacular!

Pretty impressive rock! This is a shot of the wall of The Knob. My camera can't even begin to rely the magnitude of the rock.

While mountain laurel is at it's peak, rhododendren is just passed peak but still in bloom. Lots of rhododendren is intermingled with the mountain laurel. Have I used the words impressive or spectacular enough??

Terri on the trail around The Knob, taking a photo with her cell phone.

May Flowers

A few days away and the yard explodes in color....so nice to come home to.