Family Fun

September 30, 2019

Michael and Marta 

Kathy, Alex, Alison and Michael 

Family Fun

This has been a busy week for us as we have had some fun family commitments that have made for some really enjoyable experiences as spending quality time with family is one of the best things that one can do and this week we were really fortunate. First I made a quick weekend visit to see my mother Marta as well as my sister Marika and her husband Brian in North Carolina. When I got home, Kathy and I enjoyed a quick, but wonderful visit with her cousin Alex, his wife Alison and their adorable baby Pete, who were in Key West for a day on a cruise ship stop.

 

I always enjoy going to Winston-Salem, North Carolina where my mother resides. She has recently written a book, a memoir of sorts and I was hoping that my visit would coincide with the official result, but like many things there has been a slight delay in the release of the book, so I just got to spend an amazing weekend without anything “official” to do other than hang out with my family. It was a relaxing and refreshing and somewhat unexpected experience.

 

Marta

Marika and Brian live out in the country in Stokes, County but maintain a beautiful condo right next to Marta’s and they came in to town so we could all spend time together. It was about as good a visit as I have had with my sister Marika as I have had in years. Generally there is always something going on that brings us together and rarely have we had the time to just hang out. It was really nice.

 

I could say the same for my visit with my mother, though I get my adventurous spirit and stamina to always be doing something from her, so we spent a good deal of time on the go. Going out to eat and places like Bib’s BBQ (which was wonderful) and the always stout Meridian Restaurant which just happens to be located in the same building Marta lives in and is always stellar.

 

We also got to check out a couple of new movies, the Renee Zellweger biopic of the late great Judy Garland, “Judy” was ok. The movie was a bit of a downer, but Zellweger was terrific and should be a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination. We also checked out “Raising Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins”, at the wonderful independent movie theater, The Aperture in downtown Winston.

The documentary film on the amazing journalist Molly Ivins was eye-opening, enjoyable and ultimately heartbreaking but Ivins was a larger than life character who is certainly worthy of the attention.  I did manage to squeeze in quick visits to a couple of my favorite local breweries, Fiddlin’ Fish and Incendiary as well as attend a Food Truck festival in downtown that featured about fifty different food trucks and other vendors. 

 

The weekend ultimately passed by too quickly and I found myself back in Key West just in time to spend a day hanging out like tourists with Kathy’s cousin Alex and his beautiful family. We met Alex, Alison and the adorable Petey when they disembarked from the cruise ship and spent the morning and early afternoon just hanging out with them in what was an all too short visit.

Alex and Pete 

Having family and friends visit Key West aboard a cruise ship is a mixed blessing, it is always nice to see them, but it just flies by so fast. We really did not have the time to do much other than explore a bit of Duval Street and grab a quick drink with Alison’s family who she was sharing the cruise with. Hopefully they will be able to return soon on a stand-alone trip, but even the quick visit was better than none. Especially with such a cute baby involved. After spending much of my existence being mostly apathetic about young children, I suddenly seem to be fascinated by cute babies, does it mean I am getting old, or just have been missing out all these years?