Kristen & Nickolas Visit Florida
And Our Trip to San Antonio
June 8-26, 2001

Click for the Photos of Kristen and Nickolas
Click for the Photos of Our Stay in the San Antonio Area
    Dean delivered Kristen (8) and Nick (4) to us here in Florida for a two week visit. While here they spent about 90% of their time in our pool. Last year Kristen was very timid but this year she showed no fear and really swam well. She was roughhousing along with all the other kids and diving like crazy. Nick is fearless but we really have to keep an eye on him. During their stay there were several four year olds who drowned in the area. We watch them all like hawks. Nick got to where he was swimming and breathing vey well and could swim the whole length of the pool and dive to the bottom.
    Almost every day we'd have up to ten neighborhood kids and our local grand kid, Stephen (9) along with Kris and Nick in the pool several times with rafts and squirt guns, and playing Marco Polo. We recently had the pool redone and the bottom surface is rough. We went through multiple boxes of bandaids for the kids' poor torn up toes, yet they kept coming back for more.
    Other than the pool we took them down to the Indian River at Rotary Park where they have a little beach, a fishing pier, and playground equipment. Twice we went to the beach where sand castles were built and for wave riding in the almost nonexistent surf.
    We all went to see Shrek and Atlantis which were both enjoyable. It's good to have kids around to make you go see the good kids' movies.
    Yvonne and I certainly enjoyed having Kristen and Nick with us and so did Stephen and the whole neighborhood. The plan was for us to grab a United standby flight and deliver them to the other grandparents on June 23rd. The closer the time got the worse the flight availability looked so I ended up paying for four full fare tickets on Southwest to ensure we'd get the kids to Texas on time. It was a good thing we did because not only were all of the standby flights full, Denver airport was virtually shutdown by a freak hailstorm that canceled several of our possibilities. The flight out to San Antonio went great with the kids making traveling friends and playing the whole way. Betty and DJ were waiting for us at the arrivals gate and we said our tearful goodbys.
    Then we rented a car fro Avis and drove up to Drippin' Springs west of Austin to visit Pat and Del Campbell. Del was my best friend in high school and we played tennis together since we were thirteen. Del is still a great player and highly ranked in the senior age group. We got to watch him hit with his son Scott and both were impressive. They have twenty acres on a hilltop with a great view where they've literally carved out a little piece of paradise with a beautiful stone and cedar home, a pool and , of course, a tennis court. We all caught up on old times, drank margaruitas, went out for Mexican food and enjoyed visiting. We felt honored that Chris and Scott, two of their three children along with Scott's two kids came out to the ranch to meet us.
    The next morning after a great breakfast prepared by Pat, we drove two hours West to Bandera Falls in the rough part of the Texas Hill Country where I'm told there aint "nuthin' that don't sting, scratch or bite". We visited with the brains of our USNA Class of 63 website, Bill Kennedy who I've been working with and emailing daily for several years but had never met. Bill is a very entertaining story teller and we enjoyed drinking beer and telling lies for a few hours. I also got to put a face on the name which is always valuable, and saw all of his computer equipment which makes the Class website possible. We even got to see a scorpion proving the above adage to be true. It was a short but enjoyable visit for all of us.
    Leaving Bandera Falls we drove into San Antonio to the Riverwalk where we had a very disappointing smoked beef dinner at The Texas Cattle and Land Company restaurant. The beef was beautiful to behold but almost too tough to eat. We got a room at the Drury Suites Hotel ($180) on the Riverwalk and strolled along the banks of the river. The next day we walked again and spent a couple of interesting hours at the Alamo. It looks so strange stuck in the middle of downtown San Antonio, but it is well worth the visit. At about noon we headed out of San Antonio for a short drive up I-35 to Natural Bridge Caverns ($12). Now this place is fantastic and a must if you are in the area. An hour tour takes you deep into the cave where the formations are amazing. We were in awe the whole time.
    Finally it was time to head for home. We had no trouble getting onto a UAL standby flight to Chicago in first class, but at Chicago it was really packed and we feared we wouldn't get on the flight to Orlando, but at the last moment we were called and rode first class home arriving at 0200 June 26. The trip was short but intense and we felt we were gone much longer.
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