North Carolina (Part 3)

This is the beautiful shopping and living village where Shari and Mark live! It has just about everything except a grocery store. It is beautifully landscaped and has lots of restaurants where you can eat inside or outside, lots of wonderful shops, a nice theatre, a LARGE swimming pool, and many apartments. It is a great place just to walk around and watch people. 

While we were there, we shopped, took walks, and ate at a couple of the restaurants.

It was beautiful weather (in the mid-60's to 70 degrees) and the flowers were all planted and the trees were blooming. On this evening we all went to a restaurant in another town. Here is a picture of Shari and Mark outside the restaurant.

North Carolina (Part 2)

Shari and Mark live in a beautiful shopping village. This is the side street next to the Ann Taylor Loft where Shari works. They live in this apartment building. Shari just has to go downstairs to work!

This is Shari outside of the Loft.

Here is a picture of the inside of Shari and Mark's apartment. They finally got their furniture from the house in Connecticut and it looks great!

Here is Shari with Napoleon. (Their "baby" for now) Napoleon is a pug and is very well behaved. He stays in his crate during the day when Shari and Mark are working and also sleeps in it at night.

More pictures to come!

North Carolina (Part 1)

Last Tuesday we got up bright and early to take a short trip to North Carolina to see Shari and Mark in North Carolina. It is about an eleven hour trip, but we were excited to get there to see our daughter who is about four months pregnant with their first child. We haven't seen her since Christmas - to us that is a long time!

To me this is the most beautiful drive I have ever experienced. Once we get past the Cleveland area (no offense to those who love Ohio) we slowly begin to get into the hills and beautiful scenery. The bigger mountains don't begin until we are in West Virginia. Actually, I would love to live in either W. Virginia or Virginia because of the beautiful mountains! I sit forward in my seat and just ooo and aah the whole time. (Ask Terry) I try to get good pictures, but it is difficult taking pictures while moving at 70 miles per hour and looking through the car windshield! But...I try!

It is also hard to take good pictures with all of the trucks on the road. Every time I get a good picture lined up, a truck (or two or three) get in the way. We had fun, though, just driving a long, sometimes silent (just some time to think) and sometimes listening to music, sometimes talking (much needed sometimes!). We really like the truck stops on the turnpike. They are beautiful and clean and have a lot of fun item to look at. Terry found some such items like strong magnets designed to place in spots that you would want to place a cell phone or ipod while traveling or in an office. He bought at least three - and I must admit they are very handy and nice looking, too! These places also have some nice eating areas like Panera Bread and Pizza Hut. They are great places to stop and walk around, use the bathroom facilities, and eat. Fortunately we both were wanting to stop at the same time and we stopped often.

At one such stop I found a trivia book and purchased it to use on our trip. I read the questions and we both gave our answers. The answers were upside down at the bottom of the page. This made time go by very fast on the way there, and we got through about a third of the book. The only thing is, I find out how smart my husband is and how NOT SMART (nice way to put it) I am!

Our trip to North Carolina was completed and we arrived at about 9:00 P.M. on Tuesday night. It was such a joy to see Shari and Mark (and Napoleon, their Pug, kind of)! They live in a beautiful area which I will show in my next post. Even though I hate having them live so far away, I am thankful (at least for the present) that it is possible to drive to see them in one day.

I am also thankful that they love each other and that Mark takes good care of Shari. We really are blessed!


The trip gave us a time to be together and just relax and enjoy God's beautiful creation! We tried not to think of the price of gas! But that will not stop us from traveling to see Shari - it is very hard to have a child (married, or not) living in a different state. But I know that she has her life and marriage and job, and we are just parents. (Did I just say that?) I guess we just have to leave them to the Lord and know that he is taking care of them when we are not there.