Sheryl worked for American Airlines for almost 16 years. It is no surprise that, during that time, many co-workers became good friends. One such friend, Bonnie, and her husband Jeff, made the time and effort this week to travel from their retirement home in the mountains of North Carolina to spend time with us here at the coast. They were able to find a nearby townhome which was part of their timeshare package, and came to visit us on the boat on Monday. Since I had the day off work for Columbus Day, we were able to have a nice long visit, went out to lunch, and even convinced them to give us a lift to do a bit of grocery shopping before calling it a day.

On Tuesday night, we were invited to dinner aboard a boat. Lane & Judy sailed Southern Star over from Whortonsville and docked at the Sheraton in New Bern. We were happy to be the first dinner guests they have ever had arrive and depart by dinghy. In addition to a wonderful meal of salad and pasta, we enjoyed our usual unending stream of scintillating conversation with Lane & Judy until just slightly past our normal bedtime. Since Lane had been successful in his trolling efforts en route to New Bern and had hauled in a healthy Spanish Mackerel, I was presented a parting gift of a fillet in a zip-lock bag. (Notice the photo above of said fillet when I finally got around to cooking it on the stern rail grill.)

Before I would dine on the delicious piscine present, though, we were invited to dinner at the rented townhome of Bonnie & Jeff. We spent Wednesday night enjoying good conversation, good drink, and good food. Again, we stayed out a little past our bedtime, but who can call it quits when a good time is being had by all.