Small World

While walking on the Black Sand beach one evening, we met people from Lynnwood, Washington!!!  which is a northern suburb of Seattle.  What a small world it is!  We just happened to start talking about the turtle we were seeing, and…..seems they were staying for a few days at Sea Mountain in a studio unit (which was still quite large) with their points in the VI system.  We got together a few times before we both left the area.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sunrises are beautiful down here at Sea Mountain

This was the one this morning.   We are thankful for many things, and being here is one of them!

We arrived in Kona Tuesday night and stayed three nights at the Wyndham Kona Hawaiian Village.  Originally we had reserved the 3 nights at Mauna Loa with our Wyndham points, but then a bonus week  from Trading Places showed up at KHV and the cost of that week was much less than the cost for the 3 days of points, even though we would be coming in late.  We had to use the bonus week anyway before it expired and it is sometimes hard to use since it requires a lead time of only 45 days.

    We went to Target that night for groceries and then Costco the next day, connecting with our friends here and Joan went out for “tea” on Thursday to a home in the country, on 6 ½ beautiful acres.   Friday, we moved down to Sea Mountain, stopping at Mauna Loa where we will be later on for two weeks to request our favorite room (#3).  We were here at Sea Mountain last year (July 2010) for one week and noted which rooms had good views, as we knew Platinum Interchange often had 1 BD units.   Sea Mountain is 1 ½ hours from Kona, which many people complain of, but it is much nearer to Hilo and the volcano for visits there, next to the Black Sand Beach and other walking opportunities along the shore and we cannot express enough about how peaceful it is.  Couple that with a pool that is usually available, an oceanfront hot tub, and hearing the surf from our unit – we’re happy!

     Sunday, we drove up to Kona for church, met TUGGERS James and Marlene there and then visited them at their resort (Kona Coast) later.  Joan’s brother came in that night and we had dinner with them... they own a condo here.   We drove back “home” south and although it was late, the road has good reflectors.

Black Sand Beach: 19 turtles Saturday and 11 on Monday

"Hello!"

Staying at Sea Mountain, we are a 5 minute walk to the Black Sand Beach and the ocean environs there.  Saturday, for our first day’s walk, I didn’t even take my camera since we seldom see any turtles there ourselves, except for seeing a head or two occasionally sticking up out of the waves.  But this time, they were everywhere: in the water, out of the water, and particularly interesting, close to the rocky shore feeding, then we could see their brown backs …they look like rocks too!  .. and then their heads came up every now and then.  To see that many, we walked to several coves.  In one cove, DH saw 7 heads stick up at once!

   Monday afternoon, the tide was out and several pools were land-locked, so the turtles were “trapped.”  No problem, they were mainly resting on the bottom, but again, close by so we could see them easily.

     Yesterday, new TUGGER friends James and Marlene drove down from Kona  and we saw 6 turtles resting on the sand together.  More in the water, and more resting other places. 

We think we'll stop counting: this week seems to be a “big” turtle week!

Our Scattered Church Attendance?

People ask us about church attendance as we are “on the road.”  We have found churches to go to wherever we are and as we return to those places, we are enjoying attending again.  Often we develop close friendships there, as well.  When we were first concerned about not being able to always attend the same church and participate completely in activities, a friend said, “You’ll have time again to do that when you can’t travel anymore.”
     When we attended the Dave Hamner worship service Sunday in Branson last Sunday  (http://www.gospelsunday.com/), we realized that just the Sunday before, we had been with Merlyn at his son-in-law’s  church in Georgia (http://www.fcfamily.net/)  and had even been to Seattle since then!  The Sunday before that we had been in Cable, WI for several weekends attending Living Hope Community church (http://hope4cable.com/).  This Sunday we’ll be in the church in Renton, WA which we attend when there (http://www.calvaryrenton.com/) and the following Sunday we’ll be at Kona Baptist Church for four Sundays, (http://www.konabaptist.org/), then back to Seattle for two Sundays, then to Atlanta again with Merlyn, then to Anastasia Baptist church in St Augustine in January (http://anastasiabaptist.org/).  And so it goes.

Two Branson Shows

John and daughter Sarah Tweed

Dave Hamner, magician with birds

We enjoyed the preview show of many of the Branson shows at breakfast Monday.  It was Veterans Week and many of the shows had free admission for veterans.  We decided to attend the  Tweeds (http://www.tweedshow.com/) and the Hamner-Barber show (http://www.hamnerbarber.com/) , which is one of our favorites.  Ron’s mother really became “alive” and enjoyed the shows immensely-- and we did too!  They were terrific!
      We left Friday to return to Seattle.  tuesday we flew to Kona and stayed three nights at Kona Hawaiian Village before moving south to Sea Mountain.

to Atlanta-to Seattle-to Branson --- in a week!

We were in the Atlanta area two nights in order to see Ron’s brother Merlyn again and attend church with him in Cartersville and then left our car with our good friends Hugh and Kay in Douglasville as we flew to Seattle Monday night¸ the 31^st.

Our Stormy Point Cottage

 Had the normal busy activity in Seattle, including a concert Friday night when Natalie and Andy both played in the Northwest Symphony (side by side!) and then Saturday, November 5^th, we flew to Springfield MO and Ron’s brother Daryl picked us up to go to Branson, staying at Stormy Point.  We had wanted to stay there ever since touring there some years ago.  They are separate Victorian style cottages, very nice: we had a 3 BD, 3 BA.  Lovely clubhouse and a great indoor pool, too. Ron’s mother was there, and a nurse, Judy, who was terrific at taking care of her.

Living room is well appointed

Indoor pool was great!