Today I drove from Charlotte NC to Uncle Tom's house in Centreville VA. My path ran through Richmond; so I decided to take some time and visit the grave of The General in Hollywood Cemetery. Unlike the situation at Gettysburg, here he has the high ground.
I arrived back in Charlotte on my journey north. I got here in time for Liam Jacob's baseball game Friday evening and then another game Saturday morning. His team won both. Then the whole family graduated to their next belts in Taekwondo. Here are some videos of Liam Jacobo's at bat and Liam's karate demonstration. In the first baseball video, Liam hits the ball cleanly but right to the first baseman. In the second, he hits single and picks up an RBI. He goes to second on a play at the plate and then is driven home. Very nice. On Sunday we went strawberry picking and got home just before a thunderstorm.
I attended the National Ministry Summit in Orland from Sunday through Tuesday. I spent all of the time outside of sessions at the Ave Maria Press exhibit booth where they were featuring the Concise guide Series including my book on pastoral planning. Sales were brisk and I received many affirming comments from those who already had the book as well as those purchasing at the event. The Diocese of Richmond purchase 20 copies for which I was very grateful. The picture is of me and Fr. Kevin McKenna, general editor of the series and author of three of the books. Kevin is current pastor of St. Cecilia Parish in Rochester and will become pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral this summer.
We spent two days in Charleston SC with Cousin Tommy and Myra. they have a beautiful home on Wadmalaw Island, just south of Charleston. They were the most gracious of hosts along with their two Boykin Spaniels, the South Carolina state dog. We spent a day in Charleston itself and went to playoff hockey game for the local team; the Stingrays won!
It was a stunning day. Temperature was in the high sixties with an absolutely blue sky. Tom and I played a round of golf. It turns out that we are evenly matched; we ended up with a single stroke difference. We were paired with a very personable Canadian couple. Marilyn and George Ann spent the day shopping and restauranting. In the evening we went to Broadway at the Beach for a delicious dinner and a stroll through this wonderful entertainment area.
Today we drove to Asheville NC. We met Pat, Jackie, Kathleen, and John Miller for lunch. They treated us to a lovely time at Grove Park Inn. It was great seeing them after five years. Marilyn met them for the first time and liked them very much. After lunch, we went to the Biltmore House, a quite unusual place. If only the weather had been better!
We arrived Saturday around 6:00 pm after a twelve hour drive from Buffalo. The weather was great, just a bit cloudy as we entered North Carolina. The trip was spring in fast forward. we started in Upstate New York where even the forsythia has not bloomed and watched as first the forsythia and then all the flowering trees came into view as we moved south. By the time we got to North Carolina, all the flowering trees were in bloom: red buds, dogwoods, crab apples, cherry and many others. In Charlotte we saw the first of the wild wisteria. Some of them climb over forty feet on tress and look like giant lilac trees. Of course, the most beautiful sight was Eibhlin as you can see.