Visitors from the North!!!

Mary Ann and I just enjoyed 3+ days enjoying a visit from our Iowa family. Her daughter, Tori, our son-in-law, Todd Glade, and our grandkids Taylor (11 years old) and Trevor (8 years old) arrived Thursday evening from Des Moines. What a treat! We got to do lots of "grandparenty" stuff.

Friday, I took them over to Point Mallard, a water park in Decatur, Alabama. There was plenty of sun but the temperature was tolerable. Everybody got their fill of water slides. That evening, we all went to the Burritt Museum on top of Monte Sano Mountain overlooking Huntsville for a City Lights and Stars concert. By coincidence, one of the performers was Microwave Dave Gallaher who was joined by his group. Dave is an old family friend and knew Tori as a little girl. It made the concert extra special. And the weather couldn't have been more perfect.

Microwave Dave does his magic

Saturday, the girls stayed at the house and helped out in Ebabe's Gifts when Mary Ann opened the store. We boys went down to Dan and Deron Shady's shop to visit the hot rod. The high point for Trevor was undoubtedly a ride in a 1965 Corvette that was being test driven. He was beaming from ear to ear!

In the afternoon, all the Glades and I did the Jack Daniels plant tour up in Lynchburg, about 40 miles north of our home. I think we all had a good time, but Trevor didn't think too highly of the smells emanating from the mash tanks. Our guide's name was Randy "Goose" Baxter. To describe him as colorful would be a gross understatement.



We came home and cleaned up and then proceeded to a delightful dinner at "The Restaurant" in Kelso, Tennessee, one of our favorite places to dine. And to make the evening even more special, we were joined by Microwave Dave Gallaher, who happened to have the evening free. Later, we all came back to the house for coffee and dessert. It was a long but very special day.

Sunday, July 4th, started out with a late, relaxing breakfast and a casual lunch, after which we headed back to Huntsville. We had gotten tickets to a limited engagement of a Star Wars travelling exhibit that is spending several weeks at Huntsville's Alabama Space and Rocket Center. The exhibit was impressive with hundreds of artifacts from the making of the Star Wars movies. We later toured the rest of the museum, got to ride in a simulator that was built by my employer, Camber Corporation, and even got several rides on the "Space Shot" amusement ride. Then it was off to dinner at Jason's Deli and home to watch a movie -- Star Wars, of course!

Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder!

An exhausted crowd crashed after doing the fireworks thing to celebrate our nation's birthday. All in all, a wonderful weekend. We are so blessed...