Summer in the Little City (Burlington)

 We have been mostly home since mid-May, not counting a quick trip up to Baltimore to celebrate Lily's birthday (somehow, we did not get any pictures of her birthday celebration, except this one of us after our successful "Breakout" from the Submarine Escape Room in Towson.)

 

We also had a successful visit with good friends Laila, Katie and Livvy at the Waverly Library, visited with Margarita and her two wonderful kids and had a delicious Indian dinner with Leah and Anthony just before they headed north to a new adventure in Newport, RI. 

Chris has been working for a few hours a week at a friend's organic farm. They plant seedlings, weed the gardens and now have been harvesting many, many, many vegetables. Of all the food we have had the privilege to share, we love the tomatoes best. Here is Farmer John with some nice fresh potatoes.

Also pictured here are some Korean folk singers and dancers helping to celebrate the veterans of the Korean War as well as the strength and dignity of the Korean people in Brevard, NC. We were excited to participate in this celebration (as spectators) and to add our thanks to those who fought as well as those who have worked to make Korea the strong country it is today.

We also enjoyed a fantastic high school graduation ceremony with our nephew, Joel, as we watched his son Christopher walk across the stage to enter a new phase in his life. Joel is our closest relative and is pictured below with Chris. He and Chris meet up about once a month when we are in town, sometimes just for lunch and sometimes to help each other. Here they are just finishing a repair to Joel's dryer. Joel also came to our place in December of last year to help us move. Love being able to see him on a regular basis. 

When we went to Brevard, we stopped to see a few of the magnificent waterfalls this part of NC is known for, attended a Wynton Marsalis concert (excellent!) and visited with old friends, John and Debbie Shanks, our besties from the time when we lived in Mebane many decades before. 

Also in the picture below is Peace Corps buddy, Bobbi Wallace and her fiancé Rod. Another couple we are glad to have living not too far away from us. 

Other highlights in July, include the fireworks on the fourth of July and a quick trip by Chris and his brother Daniel to see Vice-President Kamala Harris speak in Greensboro, NC. I wish I could have gone as well, but had a previous commitment. Here she is as she was introduced on stage. 

I (Wendy) have started quilting again, and here is the top of a small quilt I made to hang in our bedroom. 

Finally, it wouldn't be a summer posting without some videos  of us at the pool. We try to go every afternoon, right around 5:00 when most others are heading home for dinner. Mostly we lay on our floats and read (Wendy) or listen to the news on the radio (Chris). The pool has a natural slow whirlpool, thanks to the pumps and the water intake and if there are not too many folks in the water, we can slide right into that Lazy River and float in slow circles around the pool. This video is sped up a bit so it won't be too boring! Here I am probably reading either Holly by Stephen King or The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson, the first in a series about a detective named Longmire. If you have seen the series on Netflix, don't bother with the books, the series is much better. It's about an independent sheriff in a fictional county in Wyoming.

 Click here to watch on YouTube, you will see a wider screen. 

We also worked up a little routine that we like to call synchronized floating. As you will see, we really need to work on this if we want to take it to the Olympics! 

 

Click here to watch this on youtube, you will see a wider screen.

That's our summer so far, looking forward to Wes coming tomorrow to spend a week with us in the Little City!