Back to Seattle October 25-31

We drove to DAB (Daytona Beach) to leave our car with our friend there and flew back to Seattle to see Joan’s mother again, visit with her stepmother in Oak Harbor who had just had colon surgery, and got to see the Hallowe’en concert of the Northwest Symphony, which our son Andy plays trumpet in and the children are encouraged to come dressed in costume, too. Our son was a pirate.

To Bonnet Creek! Oct 10- Oct 25, 2009

Wow! What a place! This is where we are deeded with some of our Wyndham points, by choice, but we never had been here before. Last week, we had just said, Oh, if we have extra time, we could just hang out at Ocean Walk, it’s peaceful, etc. But, yes, we could also just hang out at gorgeous Bonnet Creek too! We had a one-bedroom for a week through RCI and then had a 2 bedroom for the week of Oct 17th for our family from Seattle (with Wyndham points). We had already exchanged the week of Oct 18th at HGVC SeaWorld, so we stayed there while the family stayed at Bonnet Creek. They loved it, too. It was their first timeshare stay!

It was our 40th anniversary this year, so the kids had decided to celebrate it that week with us. Our son Philip (Andy) and Winnie and 3 kids came down from Seattle and our older son Keenan from Illinois. They got us matching Disney World jackets, which are perfect for Seattle weather!

Disney World visits were a great success as was the resort.
Snapfish photo link:

https://www.snapfish.com/library/photos/pgvw/siav/aid/2310883009/isShared/true/oid/22435551/dc/AUS

October 2009 Finally in Florida!!!!!

What a peaceful feeling we had as we FINALLY got to Florida and some WARM weather! Of course, Ocean Walk is gorgeous and it was wonderful just to be there to relax, walk on the beach and swim.


This is my favorite indoor pool: Art Deco décor! And it is very seldom busy.

Friday

Oh, oh!  Did Joan make a mistake!

We’ve had so many Friday check-ins and then two reservations back-to-back of different days at Ocean Walk, Joan kept saying we were checking out Friday, October 9th. But it was really Saturday Oct 10th, when we were then going to Orlando to check in at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. We had packed up and as Ron was finishing up loading the van at 9:45 a.m. , Joan went to the front desk to check out. The desk gal said, “Oh, are you checking out a day early?”

Oops!

We were so glad I had not just dropped the keys and left. So we unpacked the cooler again and the one suitcase and stayed another day! Everything else was fine to stay in the van. We even had enough food to eat for another day!

Our next resort was flooded and closed! OCTOBER 2009

Now where?

On our way to Big Canoe. We got a phone call from RCI. Our next stop, Wyndham Plantation in Villa Rica, GA, one of our most favorite places to go, just outside Atlanta and near our good friends in Douglasville, GA, had been flooded out with all the rain that had fallen lately, and so was closed.

What to do? Nothing was available in GA; RCI started searching for something in Florida, since that is where we were headed after Atlanta. We had already committed to a B&B for Friday night, since we had had a vacant day between our Friday check out at Big Canoe and the Saturday check in at Villa Rica.

It worked out for us to go to Wyndham Ocean Walk in Daytona Beach for 5 days, so we stayed at the B&B, then spent 2 days at the Comfort Inn in Douglasville to visit with our friends and drove down to Daytona on Monday.

It worked out very well, because we got to see another special friend, too, on Saturday night, and then to church and dinner with our Douglasville friends on Sunday.

The Northern Georgia Mountains Sept 25-Oct 2

We’ve waited along time to be able to trade into north Georgia. Petit Crest Villas at Big Canoe were available through RCI, so I grabbed the week. Big Canoe is a large residential development with many beautiful homes in the mountains. Petit Crest is one of two timeshare developments there, and it is 3 ½ miles into the development on a 2-lane narrow windy hilly road and the units are VERY steep to drive to .. or walk to, also. The unit was very nice and we were up in the woods, but the weather was unseasonably cool and rainy. Please see photos at

http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3389447009/a=22435551_22435551/
But we do not want to go there again – the long curvy drive to the unit and it was very expensive, too, to go swimming at the fitness center – so we didn’t!

We did, though, get to visit with Ron’s brother Merlyn and his wife Marsha and also their daughter and son-on-law in Cartersville, even getting to go to their baby shower.

Then, we also saw TUGGER friends Carol C and her husband and went over toward Helen with them. We were able to visit with J.R. Huddlestun, Ron’s pastor from Junction City KS days, and his daughter and son.

On the day we left, we visited Amicolola Falls, the state park there at the southern point of the Appalachian Trail. The Falls were beautiful. We went ate at the lodge there while overlooking the beautiful BLUE mountains.

Yes, the mountains are REALLY blue!



See resort photos at

https://www.snapfish.com/library/photos/pgvw/siav/aid/3389447009/isShared/true/oid/22435551/dc/AUS