Day 21 - Gina and Trevor Wilkerson, Deerfield Beach, Florida

Our friend Kathy lives in pretty much a retirement community. It’s not restricted to 55 plus, but that is the end result. We started the day with Kathy and Sandy taking a walk and Joe riding Kathy’s bike around the golf course enough times to get him lost. Kathy tried to give him directions from the map but those were more complicated than just going out and having him follow her back to the house. One obvious difference being in this community was the number of people that were out early in the morning walking, jogging, bicycling, playing golf and doing a wide variety of other physical activities.

Now fully energized for the day, we cleaned up and headed to Vero Beach where we had arranged to meet Gina Wilkerson and her family. Gina is Joe’s niece. The last time we saw her was at her dad’s funeral (Joe’s brother). We were both looking forward to this visit. Seeing Gina and her family reminded us of how long it has been since we’ve seen her. The toddler, Alexi, was now an engaging, bright teenager, who enjoyed talking about her success in school and about her plans for the future (she’d like to be a dessert chef! Count us in as guinea pigs!). Gina also had two additional children that we had never met. Skyler is a 5-years old girl who is very pleasant. She started off a little shy, but warmed up after a bit and loved following Sandy down to the beach where she was quick to play in the water. Legend, a 2-year old boy, was probably the most curious child we’ve ever met and he constantly wanted to touch and experience everything around him. He also was very willing to following Sandy to the beach where he was knocked over a number of times by the waves but each time yelled out that he loved the bubbles. Nancy, Gina’s mom had re-married since the last time we saw her and it was nice to also meet her husband Cecil. Trevor, Gina’s husband, got the family to the meeting point within minutes of our arrival. We enjoyed seeing him again and complimenting him on what a nice family he and Gina had.

We had lunch at an ocean-side restaurant called Waldo’s at the Driftwood Resort in Vero Beach. We had a beautify view of the ocean and in the background a couple of blues performers were entertaining. While the food was excellent, the most important thing going on was the brief time we had to share. After a while Sandy went down to the beach with the kids (Sandy LOVES the ocean and takes any opportunity she can to be on the beach!) and this gave time to Joe to visit with his niece and her mother. This was a long overdue opportunity to remind each other that we are family and we should keep in touch more. Once again, the time spent together was too short. This seems to be a reoccurring theme of this trip. Guess we’ll have to come back again!