4-15-17  to borrow the phrase from Angie, "Chew Chew and Choo Choo":

We've been trying to meet up with Tim and Faith, and Angie and Josh once a month for brunch.  Chattanooga is almost the halfway point for each of us, so today we did our April meet up.  Usually we ride with Angie and Josh, but they were in Chattanooga for the last couple of nights while Josh was there for work.  So Ken and I drove ourselves and made a day of it.  We left a bit early, so took a different route there.  This route took us through the country up to I-75 about 30 miles from Chattanooga.  I enjoyed the scenic ride.
Well, mostly scenic route!  This section of highway 20 was a bit chaotic.  Was really happy when they finished the part of Highway 20 closer to our apartment, but now we get to contend with this construction near Cumming.  Still beats taking I-85 to I-285 to I-75!

 Getting into the hills of North Georgia.

1-28-17  Big day for the old guy!

Ken turned 65 today!  Another milestone reach---he's now on Medicare!  Can't believe we're that old already!  Where has the time gone?!  Just so happened his birthday was on a Saturday and the kids decided it was a good time for our monthly meet up brunch.  So the girls picked Maple Street restaurant in Chattanooga as the brunch spot this month and we met Tim and Faith there about noon (a 2 hour drive for us and a 1.5 hour drive for them).  Brunch and our 1.5-2 hour visit was great.

 It had quite a line of customers waiting to order their lunch at the counter.

 Mostly biscuit items which they're known for

 and a few other lunch items.

 a table opened up while we were in line, so Josh went and grabbed it. 

 They have quite the system going.  Food was ready very quickly.  They asked what your goal was for the year and that's how they announced when to come pick your order up.  Ken's goal was to live another day, Angie and Josh's was to have a baby, and I don't remember Tim and Faith's.

I got the Reinhold.  I was a little concerned about the honey mustard on the biscuit, but it wasn't bad.  I did disassemble my sandwich and ate the chicken and biscuit separately.  Josh had ordered a side of Hashups which I helped him eatup.  It was all very yummy!

There were lots of presents there, too.  We had seen Tim and Faith a couple times in the past month, but Angie and Josh hadn't.  So they brought Christmas presents for them and a birthday present for Tim whose birthday was Dec. 22.

 Faith taking a group photo.

 Angie and Josh

 Birthday old guy with one of his gifts. 

 brother and sister----our babies!

 The happy couple wanting to get a baby this year.  Adoption papers are all done, now they wait.

 Faith showing off where we are.

Angie told Faith now that she's a Southern Belle she has to have monogrammed stuff.   So she's started them off.

 Tim moving on to birthday presents.

Tim and Faith Christmas present was a double hammock for their hiking.   I kind of blew that surprise when we were there in Jan.  I went shopping with them and when we were in REI Faith kept talking about getting a hammock for their hikes.  I asked didn't Angie and Josh get them one for Christmas to which she answered they hadn't gotten presents from them yet----ooops!

Our time in the parking meters was running out, so we took that as a sign that it was time to part.  But it was another wonderful brunch with all the kids----something we didn't do that much of when we all lived a couple miles from each other! 

Took us all moving away to make the time to all get together!  Should have moved years ago!!!

Oct. 16, 2016---off to Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain to have lunch with the kids again.

Been a couple months since we've done lunch with Tim and Faith.  We've been rather busy with Hawaii, St. Thomas, St. Louis, and whatever else!  So it was time to do it again!  But, this time, Ken elected to stay at Angie and Josh's with the dogs.  His loss, our gain.  We were able to spend more time with Tim and Faith.  Even got to wander around through another National Park!

The day started rather early---for us.  We had to be at Angie and Josh's by 7:50, so we were on the road by 7:30.  Early enough to even see a pretty nice sunrise!  Why so early?   Since it was a Sunday, they wanted to go to church first.  So they decided to go to 8:30 mass, then continue on to Chattanooga, since church was about 30 minutes closer to Chattanooga.

 We had reservations for brunch at 11:30 in the town of Rock City.  We made a wrong turn at one point and got a glimpse of this waterfall --- Ruby Falls?

6-25-16  lunch with the kids in Chattanooga, dinner at Luigi's:

Now that we're about 4 hours away from Tim and Faith, we decided we wanted to try and meet at least once a month for lunch somewhere between us all.  So today we went back to Chattanooga.   This time to Food Works.

We also took this time to celebrate Faith's birthday (and Josh's, to a point).  

 the watering can we got her---along with matching rubber boots and a mug.

 The mug.  They're trying to replicate the expressions they had on the mug.

 Mimosa time!

 Josh and Faith playing around.

 Angie and Tim playing around with a face swapping app----Snap Chat, I think.

 Still swapping faces.

 Josh and Faith swapping faces.

 Their face swap.

 a pretty decent family photo of us all!

Love these get togethers.  Too bad we don't live even closer!  But it certainly a lot closer then when we lived in S. Florida!
Angie, Josh and we rode out there together, so when we left there, we went with Angie and Josh to a mall about an hour from home.  They had a few things to exchange.
By the time we got home, it was almost time to go eat again.  So Ken and I went in search of somewhere to eat.  Ended up at a little place called Luigi's.  We think it's a little local place---haven't found too many of them around here.  We were impressed with their pizza.

May 15, 2016---lunch in Chattanooga and on to Tim and Faith's:

Now that we're only 4 hours from Knoxville, we decided we should once a month meet up with Tim and Faith  for lunch half way between our places.  Chattanooga pretty well meets that criteria.  So having moved into our new place---we took off again.  Wouldn't be back for 2 weeks!
The Chattanooga Choo Choo!

 The area the kids found for us to meet in was an interesting revived area.

 Faith noticed they had a Tupelo Honey restaurant here (one of their favorites in Knoxville), so we ate there.

 It even became my 60th birthday party (a day early).

 complete with sparkly hats

 and a bright feathery boa

 I got the scrambled eggs with blueberries in it.  Odd sounding combo, but it was really good.

 Ken's sandwich.

We needed to be back in St. Louis later that week, so we continued of from there---spending the night at Tim and Faith's to admire their new house.

 The back of their yard

 beautifully landscaped

 The new Chateau LaBeaume

 Of course we had to go eat again.  This time to a fancy restaurant on a marina near their place.  Dinner was great, as was the company---then we went to a nearby park to wait for sunset.

 not the most spectacular of sunsets, but still pretty.

 The view of the mountains as we turned off the highway towards their subdivision.

They had moved into their new place on May 6th.  It was a busy couple of weeks for all of us!  Angie and Josh moving the rest of their stuff up to Georgia from Florida on the 6th and Tim and Faith moving from their rental home to their own home and Ken and I moved a week later!