One thing about living in South Florida is that you can travel by plane to Barbados and back to Miami in almost the same time that it takes to drive to the north of the state of Florida. If we were to include the Keys, then add-on another 3 or 4 hours. It’s amazing!

However, it is Thursday and we are heading to Columbia, South Carolina, to visit Aleksi’s Godmother, Jacqueline. Our plan was to take FL 301 but then realized that we were traveling in the wrong direction and had to take an alternate route. I have to hand it to my dear wife who was the one who felt that we were going in the wrong direction. Once we were back on track after about 45 minutes on the wrong route, things went smoothly.

The drive from The Villages, Florida, to Columbia, South Carolina, took between 7 and 8 hours. We spent lots of family time together. One of the things we did along the way was to play a game where, when it was our turn, we thought of something, give the others a clue and they guessed what it was. Tadhg’s clues were all animals while the rest of us used a combination of other things and places. We played the game until we were exhausted but we all learned something new. Judith and I were also amazed at Tadhg’s knowledge of animals since he stumped us most of the time. Aleksi is obviously learning from him because she knew the answers to a few of his questions. But we all had fun.

We arrived at Jacqueline’s home in Columbia, SC, at about 6:45 p.m. The evening was spent giving us a tour of her lovely townhouse, having a delicious dinner, catching up on old times, relaxing, and the children enjoying the gifts she gave them. It was wonderful to see her since we had not seen each other since March this year.