Woodland Altars Weekend – Part 2
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
After our hearty lasagna meal back at the chalet, it was soon time to walk off our carb intake. Although our objective was to drive over to Heritage Lodge and then walk through the woods to Sugar Grove Lodge, this wasn’t exactly how it worked out. To put it simply: we got lost. After a quick stop at the tried-and-true swinging bridge, we headed up Hogan Ridge toward where we thought the trail would lead us to Sugar Grove. Unfortunately, memory failed us. All of us except Mom, Denise, and Adam were on the walk and none of us could come up with the right way – although Darin and I had walked it dozens of times twenty years ago. Creed was no help. Read the rest of this entry »
Here are some assorted shots with applicable comments of some various other activities in which our gang partook during our weeklong stay in Myrtle Beach from July 24-29, 2000. They illustrate the typical goings-on at any given weeklong stay at the Links condo in North Myrtle Beach (as you can clearly tell from other Myrtle Beach vacations that I have already posted!) The best thing, as always, is just being with my family. Although Lisa and I would soon be separating, I still have fond memories of this, our last trip together. 
On Saturday morning June 16, I took a drive out to Springfield to see George Willeman one last time before he and his wife and cats and belongings permanently relocate to Culpeper, Virginia, where his job as vault leader with the Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center will be taking him. I bought him lunch at the Gold Star Grill in a weak effort to show my appreciation for more than twenty years of friendship. It was nice to have a chance to chat – and highly enjoyable to watch George attempt to operate his first riding lawnmower, one that he will be bringing along with him. 
Okay, I’ll admit it – that title was uncalled-for. Especially considering that of all of the celebrities I met that Saturday, February 16, 2007, figure-skating champion Tonya Harding was one of the nicest. But of course, it should come as little surprise that she was also one of the most notorious. In fact, my meeting with her was less than a month before her widely publicized calls to the authorities stating that she was seeing armed intruders who were trying to hide rifles on her property. Apparently, this was a supposed reaction to legitimate, prescription drugs. 
Since today marks the 117th birthday of Stan Laurel, I thought it rather fitting that my posting for the day describes my recent visit with Stan’s daughter, the lovely Lois Laurel Hawes. After Bob had taken off for home to nurse his ailments, I took a short nap at the hotel and waited for Jimmy to pick me up. After stopping off for a quick bite to eat, we headed directly to Northridge to Lois’ place. This was my second visit with her since she had been to this location, the first being in October of ’05. This was one was much longer as we ended up staying for nearly five hours.