Well we are back and settled in, make that real settled

Been back going on six weeks and life is routine.

— going to the gym
— eating oatmeal for breakfast
— James and Maddie came and did some yard work - I mostly watched and made suggestions
— put in new mailbox as old one was storm damaged when a tree limb fell while we were traveling.

The above replacement of the box and piece of carpentry took me the better part of a morning, several trips up and down the drive way to find tools, find other tools, figure out how to remove old box, get new box affixed — this is not simple folks - and the base is not real secure so my usual means of fixing things with a large hammer was off the table.  (the base I am assuming was put in in 1974 when the house was built and is reaching it expected life expectancy)


— read the newspaper
— visited my in-laws
—while in Charlotte met with Patt's high school friends from years past. Here with Ruth and Paulette.  Glenda was out on the phone planning summer of 2016 wedding — got that right. Apparently "South Charlotte" weddings require 24 month planning.  (I did not visit long - I was being "St Paul the good husband" and waited in nearby Bojangles drinking ice tea.)

oh while in Charlotte we went out with Patt's family to a fish house.  I had a Brown Plate Special — I did go healthy at the last minute and got the baked potato instead of french fries to go with my fried flounder, fried shrimp, fried scallops, fried oysters crab cakes, and deep fried hush puppies.  I got the small plate.  It was huge and spilling over.  I asked for a and got a second plate just to scoop shrimp onto.

— mowed the yard
— went to church and had meetings with church committees (both of us)
highlight — went for bike ride on Greenway with Mark and Marie  — went out to eat with Robin and Michael

— went to Graham and met with Patt's in-laws and my cousins

— enjoy photos of the grandkids — gotta love Raleigh's hair

— Big Highlight  Stephen surprised us a with a visit and staying over for a night between a business trip to Houston and a short weekend trip to the beach with his friend Charles.
— enjoyed photos of Clinton — like this wink —  Jen has been awesome about sending us photos of Raleigh and Clinton.

and likewise Laura has kept us in the loop of their vacation in the mountains too.  Very high mountains I think.

 —  also found a left behind treasure that has been hiding in utility closet in the basement — been there 18 months — fear not host of next years Christmas party this baby is on the way to Goodwill.  (yeah-right)— found it cleaning the basement which had not been done in a while.

—did the 2014 taxes (we filed an extension before we left)

—caught up on lots of paper work

—met with a tree guy today to come and cut down a couple of trees and trim some others.  

 — also have eaten at both Snoopy's and Char-Grill two of Raleigh's finer establishments- that is Patt there in light blue— we always order take out — like there was a choice.
— been to a couple of movies — Woman in Gold is great and Spy is funny.

so as is obvious, life now is a tiny bit different from the previous posts — you may ask yourself why we like traveling so much.  

— we are planning trips to the mountains and the beach in August, to Panama in September so stay tuned and football season is not far off either.  Time to get moving.  

The Seventh — Clinton Samuel the Second

The seventh grandchild is the Second  — and that gives us "The Magnificent Seven" which is just not the name of a movie from the 1960s but now the number of grandchildren that Patt and I have— yes that is bragging. On June 20, 2015, Stephen and Jen had their baby #2 named after Stephen's grandfather, my father,  Clinton Samuel.  Young Clinton joins his brother Raleigh and his five cousins in Asia to make up our seven grandchildren for which we are so thankful.

Patt very shortly after coming home from our time in Asia went on to Panama to be with Stephen and Jen and was fortunate enough to get there in time to be with them prior to Clinton's birth and to document some of the excitement — not all (thankfully I might add).  Here Stephen is proving surprisingly useful in helping Jen towards the delivery room.

and once again Stephen is serving useful purposes.  Stephen we are so proud.  Jen we are proud of you too!  Very Very

And Jen with Clinton, who according to Patt, while not sleeping so much the first week, is easy going and not difficult —that is Clinton I am writing about, but the sentence applies to both.  Jen, I'm sure would like that sleep time to improve rapidly— for both of them.

TA — DA

looks like me 

huh?

And Raleigh is glad to see Mom? or Clinton?  Yeah it was Mom!  Patt reported that he was concerned that Jen would go back to the hospital.  I think he was concerned that she would come back with another one of these little brother things.  Or stay for a couple of days — neither of which is a good option.

Patt reports that Raleigh had some good times and that they enjoyed one another quite a bit.

Patt also enjoyed time with the newest of our grandchildren

and was very happy to be there when he was born. We both look forward to going back to Panama real soon to see the family of four.

Bridge Over the River Kwai

Remember the movie?
Cue up tension, the river is low, the Japanese sentry is shouting at the Colonel; he is about to get shot.

I figure this is about where Alec Guinness as the English Colonel finally comes to his senses the morning that THE Bridge over the River Kwai is supposed to blow up and indeed falls onto the plunger himself and saves the day and the Japanese troop train plunges into the river as the bridge blows.  Wow, what an ending,.  I bet Stephen Spielberg has seen it a bunch of times.

What a movie, won a boat load of awards in 1958 — looked it up. Number one money maker too.  Re-released in 64.  Probably saw it both times being 10 and the first time with Mom and Dad.

and what a catchy title song tune too.

Oh, Fact Check — sorry about this — above is the actual bridge the Japanese rebuilt after the American Army Air Corps bombed the first one.  I looked that up too.  The original one was also steel and concrete too.  The movie took some liberties.  I know, please do not tell GWB.

On a very hot and sunny day Patt and I took a tour west of Bangkok to Kanchanaburi where one of the more infamous Japanese Prisoner of War Camps was located.  The site of and the actual famous Bridge Over the River Kwai

It was an all day trip, took a boat ride on one of those fan tail, long motor boats, like the one below.

We boated up river past a housing development and a guy who I would bet is in the cable redistribution business.

Looking up river into the mountains toward Burma, now known as Myanmar. 

and coming back toward the bridge. 

Later we took a train ride west toward another rather famous bridge and prison location where the POWs built a trestle along a cliff face beside the river almost at the border with Burma near a town called Takilien.

The train was an old hard seat style, open windows, open doors between cars.  Not so fancy and just for us tourists.

Through farming country and along the river.

 and close to the mountain side— real close to the mountain side.

and supported by trestles for quite a distance.  It was a major engineering feat.

There was also a museum and a very large cemetery with over 7,000 relocated graves of Dutch, English, Indian,  Australian and other Commonwealth soldiers who died as POWs constructing the railroad and bridges.

Water Park in the Second Largest Building in the World

On the last full day we spent with Laura, Matt and the kids, we did it up right at a water park playing hard.  We had spent the previous night at the hotel in the same building so after breakfast we were one of the first into the park!  

All sorts of pools and features. And I think we were in them - or some of us - in almost all of them.

There were waterfall pools for little kids that were great fun complete with warm water too (but not that warm).

John Paul and I had a great time going and coming under this particular water fall with him saying "squeeze you like a bug".  I loved it and would only stop when he would.

The lazy river was a big hit.  Patt and I heard them coming round the bend from within the tunnel.

And this was one of the "little kid?" entertainment pools too.  Yes indeedee.  Took some doings to get the littler ones to go through here and they were never quite sold on it.  Julianna and Lydia, however, loved it.  They actually told me they thought it was a little tame as we went down some of the slides and regretted that the tallest was not open.

Pools were of all temperatures and it was good to have warm pools to go back too.  Luke and Isaac especially liked to go back to warm pools.

Julianna, Lydia and I went into the ultra large wave pool, and Julianna took us out so far that the life guards waved us back.  There was just so much to do and so many pools, slides, and fun things to do Even a big boy slide or two that Matt and I did.

We had a great day and it was a fun way to end a wonder full time with our grandchildren, daughter and son-in-law.

AKA- the World's Second Largest Building

now we are in day three of Bangkok 

Being with Laura, Matt and family was beyond wonderful. Have had a great time!! We will miss the family and being there so very much.

Next time you are feeling like showing someone from Asia a shopping center in the USA thinking they may be impressed, stop, they will not be impressed.  They will feel sorry for you having such a small little strip mall.  

For our last weekend here visiting with Matt, Laura and the grandkids we went to a nearby hotel, entertainment shopping center complex, for some reason assumed to be THE SECOND LARGEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD. How that is computed, calculated, claimed, I have no idea. Seems logical enough to me. Other shopping centers are also large, fancy, well appointed and full of high end shops.  This place does large well.  

This is the view off our hotel deck.  The right hand view was longer but partially blocked by stadium seating and water park features. Below is hotel pool complex and a partial selection of "outdoor" eating options. 

One of the lobbies in the shopping complex just off the atrium.  Just one of many similar yet different.

Part of water park area, with wave pool and part of a Dallas Cowboy size screen that, starting at noon, had running video and music — occasionally LOUD.

Another lobby or atrium, I forget 

Note sky bridge of plexiglass crossing the lobby area — yeah it is very cool 

Luke explaining something to Grandmama, as he often did.  And with volume and enthusiasm.

Lydia, Patt, and Isaac, enjoyed walking on air or the sky bridge in the lobby while Julianna and I were tight rope walking.

 and the view below from the sky bridge in the lobby 

We played in the hotel complex of six pools on the first day and with a late 5 PM check out on the second day, we went to the water park.

We also had early check in and beat the crowds by a lot the first day but by late afternoon, we are talking crowded. VERY Crowded. We had friends and neighbors.

The gang of us  — We had a grand time. 

There is more than one copy of this photo, as we were getting someone to take this photo, as is won't to happen several other people took the opportunity to photograph us.  We do look good, I think.

I will try to get some of the water park photos on a later blog this one has been late enough getting to press as finding an internet connection for my computer once again was a challenge.  I think fixed now though.

We had one wonderful time at the Worlds Second Largest Building.  Such fun.  The kids and the parents and grandparents played and played.  It was awesome.

and we sure do miss those kids to the north of us.