5-8-18 last walk in Ivy Creek Greenway:

Can't get enough of this place!  But, sadly, this will probably be the last time I see it.  Tomorrow we pack up and move 2 1/2 hours South.  Won't be fighting the traffic through Atlanta and up 85 just to revisit my greenway.  I love how there's always something here to catch my attention.  So many wildflowers: some that bloom in the spring; some that bloom in the summer; some in the fall along with trees changing colors; and winter with ice and snow on the river bank is even interesting.  So what will I find today?
Looks like mountain laurel are in full bloom now.

The Wisteria has given way to the mountain laurel.

Have no idea what this bush is, but it's white flowers are really pretty right now, too.

the trail by the steps I've taken a hundred times to get down to the trail from Mall of Georgia Blvd by the shops I often walked, too.

coming up on our apartment complex.

Would have liked to walked more of the trail one last time, but there was more packing to be done!  This was one of the highlights of living here at the Preserve at Mill Creek.

3-31-18  Easter Pool Party:

One nice thing about apartment living---at least here---is that they do try to have "parties" for the residents about once every month or so.  Usually we're gone when they have them, but this time we were around.  So we decided to go on up to it.  I was a little surprised at how few people were there.  But we did chat with a couple residents we hadn't seen before.  Didn't see anyone we knew from before. 

They even had hotdogs and chips for everyone.  Been a long time since I had a hotdog.  It was pretty tasty!

 The pool was still quite cold.  A couple hearty kids did get in it, but it was still too cold for us.  The "heated" pool they promised us last year never happened.  Hopefully they got the pumps fixed.  Hopefully we'll get to get in it again before we move.

Gonna miss our pool.  But, at least Angie and Josh's new house has a pool.  I'm sure we'll be getting a lot of use out of it.  Just a little over a week and we'll be helping them move!

11-20-17  "sip and strokes" at our apartment complex clubhouse:

The new management does try to have events about once a month.  This month they had a painting party.  I've been to a few of them with Angie and always found them fun, so I asked if she could come with me.  They said yes, so she did.  Nice that it was free, too.  Including the wine.
Got to check out the newly renovated club house, too.  It was a nice set up.

 this area use to be a wrapping station.  Now there's a bar and Foosball table.

 They had smaller canvases than at the pay to paint places, but that was fine since we never hang them anyway. 

 It was set up for about 30 or so people.  Ended up with about 20 people.

 We weren't shown a picture of the painting ahead of time---just the canvas the "teacher" had started.  I was a little leery when she said to start with the black in the corners.  I expect to start with the largest area and lighter areas.  But, hey---it's free and we were there more for the wine and visiting.

 This was as far as she had gotten on the example.  At this point she passed a picture around of what it was suppose to look like----nothing like this!  More like what I expected with the colors blended better.

 Some of the other painters.

 Angie's and my paintings to this point.

 I liked the picture much better then our initial paintings, so blended the black in some more.  Then added the white like the picture showed.

 Then I watched Angie do her magic.  She's very artistic!

 She has no problems going beyond the original and making it her own.  I thought it was really creative and pretty.  Prettier then the original! 

 My originality was adding 3 birds to the picture.

It was interesting seeing everyone else's paintings.  It always amazes me that people have a hard time copying a picture.  Too bad they didn't line us up and take a group picture like they do at the pay parties.  It was fun and we both visited quite a bit with the Gwinnett policeman/apt. security cop on property and his wife; and one of the sales people on property.  Supposedly management is doing the painting party again.  If I'm around, I'll be going back.

10-14-17  walk for breast cancer walk for the cure:

I have to give the apartment management credit for coming up with activities to try and bring the residents together.  They've had a polar plunge, a movie night by the pool, a paw party for dogs and their owners, taco night, and I'm sure I'm missing a few more.  usually we're gone when they have them.  But we did make it to the taco night a week or so ago (where I met a gal who loves volleyball as much as I do.  We even met one night and peppered a bit, but that seems to be as far as that's gone.)  This morning I was up in time to do the Breast Cancer walk for the Cure.  In fact, i arrived about 8:59 (suppose to start at 9) and only 1 other person was there.  We sat and visited and wondered if we had the wrong meeting place, then Carol and her husband arrived (the office manager).  They even brought a ton of snacks!

 fitness waters, granola bars, fruit, and even cinnamon rolls for those who aren't there for fitness. 

10-6-17  last day at the apartment pool for the season---

With temps being in the 80's, we thought the pool might still be warm enough to enjoy.  I'd say it was almost warm enough to enjoy---but we got in anyway!  I'd estimate the temp of the water to be about 69. 

At least we had the water all to ourselves!  We were told when we resigned our lease that the pool would be heated in the winter.  Wonder if they're still saying that?!

(I lied---we were back in the pool a day the next week, too.  With record breaking highs in the upper 80s a couple days in a row, we gave the pool another try.  We were the only ones in it again, but the water was actually a really comfortable temperature---78, maybe!  But it looks like Fall is about to arrive around Oct. 16th.)

(made it there again today---Oct. 15th---a cold front is expected tomorrow.  good bye summer!) 

4-18-17  Pool is refinished!!!

Now if they would open it up and turn the heater on for a couple days I'll be really happy!

4-13-17 walking another part of the Ivy Creek Greenway:

Since the "kids" are gone again---off to Chattanooga this time for Josh to check out Cintas there---Ken's dog sitting again.  He didn't go over until late afternoon, so I went with him for a late lunch, then walked home from Moe's.  That took me to a different route then I normally walk.  There's a ramp from the shops and restaurants down to the greenway.  I had checked the ramp out from my bike a long time ago, but this is the first time I walked it.
Heading down to the greenway.

 I determined these were blackberry blossoms.  Looks like this might be a good area to try and pick blackberries when they're ripe.  There certainly are a lot of wild blackberry plants along here.

4-11-17  our 2nd trip to the Marta:

My first was a few days ago when I drove Angie to the Doraville station so she could take it to the airport.  She was off to visit a college friend in Texas.  Today Ken went, too, to pick her up.  Since the I-85 fire that caused the interstate to collapse, it's really hard to get around the city.  So she took the Marta.  I was impressed----from the time I dropped her off the other day until the time she was through security was only about 35 minutes!  And Doraville is the northern most end of the line.  Coming back, though, she had a minor problem---she got on the wrong train.  But it was still coming north and we were early so we drove over to that station to get her.  It was still about a 40 minute drive from our apartment.  We tried to avoid I-285, but ended up on it when we were heading to the other station.  This is 10:30 am---and there was still a ton of traffic!

 Everyone has to take the perimeter highway now to get to the other side of Atlanta since I-85 was the one that cut through the city.  Hopefully they'll have the highway up and running again in a couple months.

3-17-17 our bird friends:

I love being able to look out our living room window and seeing so many birds.  I even made hummingbird water today.  Haven't put it out yet, but it's ready and getting cool.  But for now, we have lots of birds to watch.  Not to mention the family of squirrels that we keep trying to keep out of the bird feeder.  There are birds at the feeder almost all day now.
Such as this female Cardinal

 We have some new regulars now, too!  Love having colorful birds coming to visit.  I believe this is a Goldfinch

11-17-16-Enjoying fall colors in my little neighborhood!

Still trying to get 10000 steps in a day---not that I'm very successful, but I have been enjoying seeing the colorful leaves on the trees in our neighborhood!  I love that there are so many different kinds of trees here --- each with their own fall colors and unique leaf designs!  I'm also amazed that it's near the end of Nov. and the trees are still so full!  Especially since it's been a warm and very dry fall. 

Love having the preserve right out our back patio.

10-20-16---our back yard:

Not a bad view from our apartment!

8-11-16 Midway Meal House and a walk around the Preserve at Mill Creek----

Angie has been bragging about the Midway Meal House in Alpharetta for awhile now.  So when Josh left on another overnight business trip, we took her to the Midway Meal House for breakfast.  It was every bit as great as she had said!  It would definitely be our new Dyan's restaurant if it wasn't so far away!!!  Took about 40 minutes to get there.  Breakfast was great and cheap.  For $8.50 Ken and I each got 2 eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, grits, and 2 huge pancakes.  Angie got the biscuits and gravy and they were excellent, too!  DAng, why can't we find a place like this in Buford?!

Wasn't too crowded when we got there at 11, but it sure filled up fast. 

8-7-16 walking around---

So I've discovered 10,000 steps is a little over 4 miles!  at least for me.  So one way to get a good chunk of that is to walk up to the stores down the street from us.  As hot as it is, I can even cool off by walking through some of the air conditioned stores.  And if I don't take my wallet, I'm not in danger of shopping!  So this has become one of my walking routes.
Just outside our complex I found this pretty butterfly.

 Don't know my butterflies, but thought it was interesting that this one has orange spots on the underside and blue spots on the top.

6-1-2016  back to Georgia:

Our "vacation" was over.  Time to get back to our new apartment in Buford, Georgia, and start a new page of our lives.  Nice that we can get from one home to the other in about 9 hours now instead of driving for 2 days!  Not so nice to get back to our new apartment after 11pm and find a series of obstacles!  First our gate key wouldn't work, but someone arrived shortly after us so we followed them in.  Then our garage door opener didn't work---we had requested it be fixed because it made a terrible racket every time it opened and closed---apparently they replaced the opener so we had to get new remotes.  When we did get in our apartment we found a big section of the rug in our living room was soaked!  Apparently our A/C line blocked up and overflowed.  Not sure why, but here they have the A/C units locked away in the kitchens.  So Ken was quick to get on the phone and get maintenance over.  So at midnight, maintenance was clearing the line  and using a wet-vac to pull as much of the water out of the rug as he could.  Bet our neighbors loved that!  Those wet vacs are LOUD! At least we didn't have to do any of the work. He even brought a large fan over and we had it blowing over the rug for a couple days---until someone else's A/C line clogged up.  

Not quite the same start to the year that we had last year when we moved into our Coral Springs apartment.  But---it can only get better!

May 13, 2016---on to Buford, Ga.!

Hard to believe our year in South Florida is up!  ( our year in Florida )  Probably would still be there if our daughter and son-in-law hadn't moved to Suwanee, Ga. from South Florida.  But this gives us a chance to see what Georgia has to offer!  That's the nice thing about being retired!---not only are we free to travel, but we're free to travel for long periods of time!  Had you told me 5 years ago that I'd spend a year in South Florida, then move to Buford, Ga., I'd have found that hard to believe.  Now I wonder where I will be next year?!

So with the truck packed up, we took off to Georgia.  We actually left at night and drove all night.  Got to watch the sunrise from the car.

It was a beautiful day in Georgia.  We got to our destination (our daughter's place in Suwanee, about 45 minutes north of Atlanta) in the morning.  We know nothing about the area.  But we'll have at least a year to find out!

We were suppose to move into our Buford apartment on the 14th.  But we called to see if it was ready for moving in a day early.   It was, so we did.  This time we're in a 2 bedroom/2 bath apartment with attached garage and on ground level.  In Florida we had a 1 bedroom/1 bath with attached garage and living area on 2nd level (mostly above the garage).  Nice to have the extra space---and nice that this place is cheaper then the one in Florida!
Our new dining room.

our living room - dining room - extra bedroom/bathroom.  Also like that we have French doors out to a patio about 3 x the size of our Florida one.  

our master bedroom (actually the 2nd bedroom, but the other room wouldn't fit a king bed without putting the bed in front of a window).

 the kitchen with full pantry to the left of the fridge. 

 I was afraid the tv on the wall with our bedroom would be loud if Ken was up and I was sleeping, but with the speakers pointing the other direction, it's not bad at all.  Plus he can have it so low and hear it when nobody else can.

 So the true master bedroom is now my office with Ken's bathroom attached.  Figure if anyone comes to visit, we'll get a blow up queen mattress or futon for visitors to stay in here, too.

Spent a couple hours unloading the truck on the 13th after Josh got off work (Ken and I weren't much help unloading!).   We did spend much of the 14th unloading boxes, too.  Hanging pictures will have to wait a month or so.