2023 A Year in Review

So now that’s it February 2024, and life has slowed down as we look forward to winter finally ending, I realize it’s been a minute since I’ve made a post. Jesse and I have been getting around, traveling near and far, over the last few months. Here are some highlights of 2023 since our visit in May to Charlotte.

We began July with a visit from Jesse’s cousins, Hannah and Madison. We showed them around town and had a lot of laughs, beers, and fun.

In late July we met up with my cousin Joanna and her husband Nick for a quick getaway to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Here’s the view from our balcony; we spent most of the time lounging at the beach, and the time not spent there, eating good food.

We celebrated my dad’s birthday in downtown Southern Pines, enjoying a movie at the local Sunrise Theater, a personal favorite of his, the Sound of Music:

We made a quick weekend trip to Greensboro, NC to see comedian Daniel Tosh. While there we visited the Weatherspoon Art Museum; here are a couple favs:

Back in February of 2020, Jesse and I planned to visit my friend Aaron and his wife, Jenna, in their (new at the time) home of Grand Cayman that May. Well, Covid changed the world a month later, and the trip was cancelled. In the interim, we left SoCal, moved to Spain, and have now moved back to the USA. We learned that Charlotte has non-stop flights to many Caribbean destinations, Grand Cayman being one of them.

Aaron picked us up at the airport after an easy few hour flight, and in less than twenty minutes from landing we were at a beach bar enjoying a beer and some fish tacos. Over our four days on the island we swam with sting rays, took a night catamaran ride out into the sea to look at the stars, spent a lot of time swimming and lounging at the beach, ate some good sushi, and enjoyed a much needed vacation.

We have really tried to attend events and visit places we wouldn’t normally while we reside in North Carolina, and one we really enjoyed was the Scottish Festival in Laurinburg, North Carolina.

Fall brought a trip to my hometown of Chicago, where fall had set in; at the Middlefork Savanna Forest Preserve, the leaves were changing colors and I walked the north branch of the Chicago River, where it felt like the city and millions of people were miles away.

Mom and I got to spend a day traveling around her town of Lake Forest; we visited the lakefront and the History Center of Lake Forest and drove around the downtown, enjoying the fall day; ending it with a movie in our own theater to boot.

Jesse joined us later in the week, and we took a walk through nearby downtown Highwood, where they were preparing for Halloween and the Pumpkin Festival.

Sadly, only a few weeks later, my step-grandfather, James “Mr.” White, passed away at the age of 95. We had visited with him earlier in the year, some pictures of us are below. Always kind and thoughtful, Mr. White lived a long life and we were lucky to have known him.

A few weeks later we were in Palm Springs to celebrate Jesse’s birthday; some of her friends were able to join us and we had a fun time, going to a drag brunch, lounging by the pool, browsing tourist shops, eating lots of good food and spending time with loved ones.

My father Thomas came to visit us in Southern Pines, we had a fun time showing him around town and even made a trip to the North Carolina Museum of Art.

For Christmas we found ourselves with Jesse’s family in Missouri; we had fun celebrating at her aunt Harriet and uncle John’s home in Kansas City. Although I have visited Kansas City since I was a kid I had not visited the Negro Leagues Museum, opened since XXX. John went along and we we had a good time at the small yet impressive dedication to the Negro Leagues, which were indispensable to the history of baseball.

After we had to get some delicious BBQ at the famous Arthur Bryant’s.

We ended the year in the spooky southern city of Savannah, Georgia, where Jesse, Lance, Dad and I spent the end of 2023 eating great food and walking the uneven streets through many a square lined with Southern oak trees covered in Spanish moss and 1700s era cemeteries with faded dates on leaning headstones.

We also visited the Telfair Museum where the famous Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Statue is now located.

2023, we thank you for giving us so many new places to visit, so much fun and unforgettable memories with family and friends, and lot of good food, art, nature and best that life has to offer. Onward and upward in 2024!