Last month: October began with a vacation to the East Coast for my niece's beautiful Virginia mountain resort wedding (again, I say, I have the best nieces and nephews in the world!), a visit to the National Zoo in D.C. (think Giant Pandas) with Springfield grandchildren and a side-trip to get to see their mom's new church. Lovely drive back through Virginia to North Carolina to stay with and visit with lots of old friends. It was especially meaningful to twice sit with a friend in hospice care and to be there to support her husband. We visited the ML Art Gallery in Davidson where one friend's art work was being shown, drove over to Concord for Bill to see the Speedway and then I attended a morning women's meeting back in Davidson to touch base with more friends before we began the drive to Georgia. In Savannah, we played first-time tourists. We took the ghost and graveyard tours, trolley rides, learned about the town's rich history during the "War of Northern Aggression," sat on Forrest Gump's bench and strolled on moss-covered walks around the filming site of the movie, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. We indulged in wonderful food and toured Tybee Island before heading on to Orlando to visit grandchildren there. They, as always, were delightful and the new baby was/is precious! We had a great day and a half there before flying home. It was a whirlwind 9-day trip but we had a great time!

The month ended with a visit from the lovely Chicago girl coming to visit/tour Rice. She's in the midst of deciding between Yale, Brown or Rice. We did our best over a couple of days to introduce her to the school and the city ~ even Houston weather was on best behavior as it often is during October/November.