What a whirlwind of a trip through North Carolina! After docking Quest in Wrightsville Beach, checking in with the office and grabbing the loaner car we dashed off to pick up our rental car. By 1:30 we were on the road heading for Pinehurst and were receiving welcoming hugs from the Coleman and Ramage families in about 3 hours.
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| JAY, CHERYL, DAN JUDY, DICK AND GAIL DINING TOGETHER |
What a beautiful golf community this Pinehurst area is. The Village of Pinehurst was conceived by the wealthy Mr. James Walker Tufts of Boston. In 1895 he bought up the 598 acres for about $1.25/acre to create a health resort in Sandhills. He then hired a land planning firm to bring his dreams to life. Now it just so happened that this firm was headed up by Mr. Fredrick Law Olmstead, the designer of both NYC’s Central Park and the Biltmore Estates in Ashville, SC. Within about three weeks Mr. Tufts had his plans for the resort and both construction and the development of the golf courses soon began. The Pinehurst Resort (www.pinehurst.com) is home to eight golf courses, including the famed and difficult Pinehurst #2. There are now around 50 golf courses in the area and the guys gave it their all to get as many in as many rounds of golf in as possible.
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| HAPPY GOLFING GUYS! |
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| THAT WOULD BE DICK GIVING DAN SOME POINTERS |
On Friday Gail, Cheryl and I made a day trip to visit Gail’s son, Scott, and family. Lucky for us, Scott has Fridays off and he and Riley entertained us until lunchtime. We were able to take lunch to Ashley at school and visit with her during her short break. It was pajama day at the elementary school and we felt a bit overdressed! We also crashed the golf course club where Katie works and were able to steel a few minutes of her time for hugs and a quick words. I hadn’t seen Scott and Katie for years and it was nice to touch base and meet their growing children.
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| SCOTT AND RILEY |
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| ASHLEY AND GRANDMA GAIL |
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| GAIL, JUDY, KATIE AND CHERYL |
While we girls were off visiting, the guys were busy playing the Pinehurst #2 course. They come home much subdued after their challenging day. This course is not for the faint at heart! Pinehurst will be the site of the 2014 US Open Golf Championship and evidence of its coming are beginning to show up everywhere in the area.
On Saturday Dick and Gail headed to the Boston area to see son Rick and his family before going on to their Maine summer home. On Sunday Dick, Cheryl Dan and I drove on to Charlotte to see the bawdy La Cage Aux Folles (www.lacage.com), starring George Hamilton and Christopher Sieber. What a total riot this play was and we laughed and cheered the whole time. Now the really good part of all this is that Ryan Cantwell, Cheryl’s nephew, is the associate conductor and a musician in the production. How fun to know someone and be able to watch them during the play. Thanks Ryan for a great performance!
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| THE UP AND COMING RYAN CANTWELL |
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| AUNTIE CHERYL, RYAN AND JAY |
Monday morning found us heading back to Wilmington and we were able to catch lunch at Dan’s favorite place, Jackson’s Big Oak Barbecue. Now the work begins. We have to have Quest ready to be taken out of the water for the season on Thursday morning. She will have her bottom scrubbed, repaired and painted while on the hard. We hope to accomplish many other little things during this time and must get this list compiled and necessary parts and supplies ordered. We also have to unload any things don’t want to leave on Quest during the long, hot summer. It will be a busy few days between now and our departure for Vermont next week.
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| JACKSON'S BIG OAK BARBECUE (www.jacksonsbigoak.com) |
I will resume our travel blog when we return to Quest and begin our travels in October. As they say here in the South, “y’all have a great summer!”
