Visiting old friends

We are coming to the end of our stay in Miami. One of the great parts of traveling is the chance to visit friends that you have not seen in awhile and meet new ones. As I mentioned previously, we have not been back to Miami since we left in the fall of 2004.
On Friday we were able to catch up with Pete Randall, who we have known since we were stationed together in Philadelphia in the early 1990’s. It was good to see him again and hear his latest news.

On Saturday, we were invited to dinner by George Chesney, who was my boss during my contracting stint at NCL, and he also invited Shannon Konermann who worked with us in Miami and later with me in Ohio. Shannon also brought along Peanut. We had a great time and a lot of laughs. It was a fun evening with delicious food. I should note that when I was working for George, several times while I was sitting alone in his office folks dropping by mistook me for George. This started the rumor we were long lost twins. You we will have to be the judge.

George has spent a great deal of time redoing his home in Coral Gables and is rightfully proud of the results. Peanut was apparently not as impressed as the rest of us, as he promptly explored the whole place and decided the best substitute he could find for a doggie WC was the white carpet in the master bedroom. This was taken in stride and he continued to entertain us for the rest of the evening.

Finally, on Sunday evening we were invited to the home of Steve and Roberta Cmar. Steve and I served together in my final two years in the Coast Guard in Rotterdam, NL. The last time we saw each other was over four years ago, when we met in a German shipyard while we were both working for Norwegian Cruise lines. They also have a very lovely home in Coral Gables. They invited another two couples and we ended up in a very lively and fun conversation. The dinner was wonderful and we found many subjects that we shared a common interest in. While we did not resolve all the world’s problems, we at least covered most of them.

Tomorrow we are off to Key West.