Laurie and I traveled to Waldo, Florida, for a family gathering. In an alignment of the stars, each of Sue’s daughters and their kids were converging on Gainesville in early April, 2018. Keri and Susanna arranged to rent a house big enough for us all on Little Santa Fe Lake, near Waldo.
Tuesday, April 3, 2018, BWI – Waldo
Laurie and I flew down to Orlando on Spirit Air, the first time either of used that discount airline. The flight was tolerable and cheap (nominally $62 each way, but with one bag and taxes a total of $245), even though the seats didn’t recline and we shared a suitcase to cut down on luggage charges. We arrived in Orlando around 1:30pm, rented a car and headed north the couple of hours toward Waldo.
Where’s Waldo, you might ask? It’s a small town about 20 miles northeast of Gainesville, not far from Sue’s home in Hampton. Sue’s girls recognized Santa Fe Lake from many youth outings and summer camps.
We arrived at the lake house later in the afternoon, just as some of the other families were arriving. Susanna had also arranged to have all the meals catered by her friend, Ibti, so all the food was already in the house. The house had 5 bedrooms and a big back yard that went down to the lake. We settled in and started catching up with the various girls as everyone filtered in. We also squeezed in a liquor store run though there was already a surplus of alcohol supplied by the others.
Jon brought a small boat and took the kids out on the lake for a long sunset cruise, somewhat to the consternation of the various moms, but everyone returned fine. The springtime weather was fine and the bugs weren’t bad, even at sunset.
Dinner that night featured paella and a nice spread of cheese brought by Jill’s friend who also stayed a couple of nights. It was a full house, but everyone was well behaved and the kids did a good job of mostly playing among themselves.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018, Waldo
We had no big plans for each of the days but to be together, and that’s what we did. The kids mostly occupied themselves in the yard or in their rooms, the adults and babies mostly visited on the back porch or did work on their laptops. Jon took kids on more boat rides when he could. The weather turned a little cooler and there was some rain, but mostly it was just cloudy. It was a relatively quiet couple of days.
A highlight of the day was a lunch of stone crabs sent by Tom via Jill who had just been in the Keys. Susanna’s and Jill’s families had just been in Curacao and Aruba together a few weeks earlier and brought back a big gouda cheese which the grandkids presented to Sue.
Thursday, April 5, 2018, Waldo
Keri arranged for a photographer friend of hers to come by for an hour or so and take a lot of candid and a few formal shots. It seemed a little ambitious to gather everyone together in relatively nice clothes, but the results turned out very nicely. A fine idea after all. The results are posted here (the photo session probably actually happened on April 4, in case you’re wondering, but I don’t have much other activity from the 5th so it’s here):
Friday, April 6, 2018, Waldo – Orlando – Home
On Thursday evening and Friday morning we cleaned up the place, which wasn’t too terribly hard considering there had been 18 people staying there, more or less. We owe big thanks to Keri, Susanna and Jill for making nearly all arrangements, and to Sue for having us all in her backyard. Laurie and I headed back to Orlando and returned to BWI, none too worse for wear.
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