Group Shots...

Veronica was the first child born amongst Sir Walter Raleigh Hashers. Here she is posing with other hash horrors. 

It was great fun catching up with everyone! We were pleased that in addition to hashers, our neighbors Dave and Elise, our close friend Steve and his son Zach, and Veronica’s old classmate Caleb were able to join us.

Veronica captured this beautiful sunset over Lake Crabtree just as we were racing to pack up the car and get out of the park before the gates were locked.

Gathering with Hash Friends at Lake Crabtree...

Since it’s difficult to visit all of our North Carolina friends in such a short time, we hosted a BBQ at Lake Crabtree so a lot of them could come to us. The girls especially enjoyed meeting Henry, Carolyn’s Labradoodle.

We were fortunate that the park wasn’t crowded and no one had rented the shelter. Jimmy was in charge of the grill.

Celia had especially grown since we last saw her.

When we moved only one of the six hash kids that joined us had been born. No doubt that the dynamics of our gatherings have definitely shifted over the years.

More Shots of Ashlynn...

Veronica continued to photograph Ashlynn while in North Carolina. Here she is in front of our old house, which she hardly remembers since she was only five years old when we left.

Next we headed to Lake Crabtree for a BBQ with a bunch of friends. Before they arrived, Veronica and Ashlynn explored and took some more photos.

Big Changes...

April 2014

August 2011

Veronica wanted to recreate one of the photos of the kids from our last visit in August 2011. Even from this strange angle, you can easily see huge changes in Ashlynn and Ben.

A Family Photo Shoot...

That evening Veronica took some family photos of Rachel’s family. These are my favorites.

Visiting UNC-Chapel Hll...

Our final college tour was at UNC-Chapel Hill, the only public school that we visited. Jimmy and Ashlynn went for a long run while Veronica and I went to an admission session and a campus tour. She really loved what she saw!

The tour ended at the Old Well, which was built in 1897 and was where Jimmy’s brother John proposed to his wife Lara. It was also the site where Veronica was baptized at six months old as Comes Too Soon by the Sir Walter Raleigh Hash during a Red Dress Hash.

Sushi with the Ladies...

The group might grow smaller with each visit back to North Carolina, but it was great catching up with these special ladies. This time there was just one Harriette (Dee), but Carolyn was in town and so were both my scrapbooking buddies (Debby and Karen).

Jimmy brought Ashlynn along when he picked me up, who now clearly towers over Carolyn.

Horseback Riding...

After dropping us off in Durham, Jimmy and Ashlynn headed towards Wake Forest to go horseback riding. Ashlynn especially enjoyed when her horse started to gallop.

The other kid that was on the trail ride apparently had quite a lot of experience, but found part of the trail too scary and got off to walk. Not surprisingly, Ashlynn had no fear and loved the entire experience.

Visiting Duke University...

The day after Easter, it was time to fly to our final destination: North Carolina. Veronica was especially thrilled that we were spending the week with her best friend Rachel. The following morning, Jimmy dropped Veronica and me off at Duke University for a tour of the campus. We were early for our info session and tour, so visited Duke Gardens, which was in full bloom.

Us usual, I love taking photos of Veronica taking photos. It was nice seeing some tulips since we were missing tulip season in Holland.

Veronica took these two photos of Duke Chapel. While she took a class, I visited with Erika and got a tour of where she works at the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy.

Family Portraits...

Jim was clowning around as we gathered for some family portraits. Unfortunately, Joe, Shannon, Arden, Jack and James were unable to come up from Jacksonville to join us.

Sadly, since this photo was taken, Jim and Susan have announced that they are splitting up. Jim is now considering moving back to Jacksonville after being away for nearly 20 years.

Hopefully there will be other opportunities for the cousins to gather together.

Easter in Atlanta...

Instead of sleeping in, we attended an Easter Service at Buckhead Church with John and Lara. Frankly, I think it might be the Disneyland of churches with seats for 3,000 (there were five Easter services so the numbers are staggering), amazing facilities for each stage of childhood and ushers that wear “Guest Services” shirts. The preacher, Andy Stanley, wasn’t physically there, but a life-size video of him was which actually creeped me out. The music was great and the sermon was very interesting. Afterwards, Jimmy scored us a tour backstage to see the control room for all of the video operations, which rivaled those at TV stations.

We spent the afternoon back at John and Lara’s. The girls were very excited about dying Easter eggs for the first time in years.

Ashlynn enjoyed reading to Jacob.

My first pet was a rat, so I thought it was cute that the boys had two rats.

Dinner at John and Lara’s...

After the aquarium, we went out for pizza to a funky place that covers the tables in butcher block paper instead of using plates. Later, we went to John and Lara’s for a BBQ dinner. It was no surprise that their house would be nice as Lara is an interior designer.

Johnny gets shy when there’s a camera around.

It was great to see Johnny and Veronica performing together. It was especially nice that they didn’t spend the entire evening on electronic devices.

New Levels of Advertising...

As is normal in most US amusement parks, the Georgia Aquarium sold naming rights to the different sections of the place. I was especially amused at the lengths that Georgia Pacific went to inform the public about their products. Wonder who thought it was a good idea to compare the length of a baby beluga whale to toilet paper?

At least the plate scenario isn’t as big of a stretch, but including the napkin is ridiculous.

This sounds like a word problem in a math class.

For the first time we saw advertising incorporated into a car’s computer. Never tested it to see if we’d pressed on the ad if it would have given us directions to the nearest Outback.

Georgia Aquarium...

The last time we were in Atlanta was in 1998, so downtown looked very different. We met up with John, Lara, Justice, Joseph and Jacob to go to the Georgia Aquarium, which was the world’s largest aquarium until it was surpassed in mid-2014 by an aquarium in China.

Although the setting was nice, I was not impressed with the dolphin show; humans singing and dancing made it more of a theatrical show than an animal show.

The fish tanks were impressive and it was cool to see whale sharks swimming above us in the underwater tunnel.

Rocky Horror Picture Show...

While Susan wasn’t impressed with the idea of us seeing such a show during Easter, that didn’t stop us from making Veronica’s wish come true: to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight on the big screen.

The actors went all out for the performance with some impressive props. The audience wasn’t allowed to throw rice or bread like when I was in high school, but that didn’t have a big impact. Unfortunately, I wished the gay MC would quit with his raunchy commentary as it interrupted too much of the movie’s dialog.

Our girls had seen the movie before, so knew what to expect; Johnny seemed pretty shocked while Jimmy clearly thought it was hilarious.

Cousins...

Our next stop was Atlanta to stay with Jim and Susan for Easter weekend. We were thrilled that Debbie came up with the boys for the weekend. The cousins hadn’t seen each other in nearly three years, but quickly bonded over music.

Johnny’s quite good on the guitar.

Jimmy’s laugh was infectious as ever!

It was so strange having Johnny drive us around as he’s 10 months younger than Veronica. There were a few close calls, but overall he makes a good designated driver.