Jen's Graduation from Culinary School

We were so proud to attend Jen's graduation from culinary school.  She received an associate culinary degree from Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte North Carolina.  We were amazed by her ability to attend school full time and at times work work two to three other part time jobs to support herself.  

The graduation ceremony was held at the TimeWarner Cable Arena, home of the Charlotte Bobcats.  It was a very nice venue for the graduation ceremoney.  

There are Scottish roots at the college.  An excellent bag pipe group led the opening ceremonies.

The arena was full of proud parents, family, and friends.  

The graduate after the ceremony

A very proud father and his daughter

One of Jen's first jobs in Charlotte was as a pastry chef with Nobles Restaurant.  She was very interested in  pursuing this career and has learned so much at this wonderful restaurant.  She helps make all the breads and desserts for Nobles and several other restaurants owned by Chef Jim Noble.   She has to get up very early in the morning to have everything ready in time for the lunch and evening customers. This just amazes me, since mornings were never her best time of the day.  :)

While she continues to work part-time at Nobles, she has also recently started working at an Olympic Training Site facility called the U.S. National Whitewater Center.  She helps manage the restaurants and staff for this outdoor recreation area.  We visited this center and were amazed at all the activities available.  It is the worlds larges re-circulating  river and offers many challenges and lots of family fun. 

Rivers Edge Restaurant and Bar

You can white water raft rapid with a guide in Class II - V rapids.  Or, you  can also take your own kayak or paddle down a much calmer river in the back

There are  climbing walls and a very popular adventure course.  You are connected by a harness and balance on cables as your work your way through the course.  It an opportunity to definitely work on your balance and bravery.  Here is Jen on the Mega Jump-a forty foot free fall. 

Here she goes...I decided to just take pictures!

We had a wonderful visit and are so proud of her and all she has accomplished.  

Our House is Sold

We completed our house sale on March 16th @ 4pm.  We met the new owner at the closing and spent some time with him the next day showing him around the house and gardens.  He seems very excited and has lots of plans especially for the back yard.  He is a horticulturist with the Purdue Extension and very knowledgable.  We welcomed him to his new home and then drove away.

Let's just saying trying to downsize all your belongings to fit inside 350 square feet is not for sissies.  Johna nd I were very busy the last three weeks leading up to closing.  Everything was sorted by catagories such as charity, motorhome possiblities, Craigslist, Ebay, Jen, and my brother.  Thank goodness we attended a seminar with RV-Dreams about the emotional aspects of preparing.  It was a rollar coaster of emotions and a moutain of work, but we accomplished it with one day to spare.  Whew!

We are renting a furnished house from a friend of mine.  It has everything including pots and pans, towels, and linens and furniture.  All we needed was our personel items and food.  This is such a blessing to us in the mdst of such chaos.  It is an oasis.  We will stay here for awhile as we prepare to move into our motorhome.  Right now so much of our "life' is in the two car garage.  We have come a long way, but there is more to go before all is completed. 

We rented a U-Haul and packed up lots of furniture and items for Jen.  At Christmas time she had walked around the house and made a "wish list" of items.  We laughed and told her she was inheriting early.  My brother and his family did the same thing and picked up their items last week.  They will also store a few thing for us that we can't part with at this time. 

After closing, we hooked the Jeep to the U-Haul and headed to Charlotte, North Caroline to give Jen all her "loot". We had a nice visit and got to see her new apartment and room mates.  Unfortunatly, I fogot my camera.  She looks great and is almost finished with culinary school (graduation is May 15th) Currenlty she is completing her internship with a restaurant called Nobles. 

We stayed at the Drury Inn and appreciated their great breakfast and happy hour.  One day we ventured out to Pee Dee Forest Reserve.  It was about 1 1/2 hours from Charlotte and had recently posted a position for a workamper.  We wanted to see if it would be a good location and opportunity for us.  However, we were not very impressed and probably will not apply.  The two rivers were not very murky and there is not much to see.  The entire time we were there we only saw two other people and very little wildlife. 

It was a great visit and the only drama was a flattire along a very busy  highway.  We plan to go back soon for Jen's graduation. 

The Greenbrier Hotel and Chef Jen

We visited Jen in August while she was working this summer as a pastry chef for the Greenbrier Hotel and Sporting Club. It is a spectacular five star hotel and was a great expereience for her.