20120702 - All up and out in the am. Our firs stop was Mayday Putt-Putt Golf. This is a special putt-putt course for me: for the two years I drove to college in Myrtle Beach I would drive past the big yellow plane and promised myself that my reward for getting my MBA would be to play that course, and after my last day of classes I stopped, in the rain, and played all 36 holes. Now when ever I am close to Myrtle Beach it is a 'must do' activity on the list. We had a good time, G especially. 
Back on the road to Wilmington an we showed D the hospital he was born in, and then pulled up to the shop a Canterbury Woods where I had my first job down here. Donny was there, a fellow I worked with, and he let us look around the shop. Was looking for JT, but no one could find him. Not much had changed: most of the part boxes still had my handwriting on them!
We drove past our first apartment and found Dale and Mickey a couple of painters I use to work with and introduced the boys to them and chatted a bit.
On down the road we went to Pat and Marge's house on a golf course. They hadn't changed a bit. They have a wonderful house and we got refreshed, chatted about old times, checked out Pat's Jeep Eagle, looked at turtles, and the boys looked for a gator. It was great to see them!Back on the road with a quick energy burn stop at the Snows Cut park.
Then to Barclay Place where we found Jeff, the guy that took over when I left. He's still there and the place looks great. We showed D the apartment he came home to as a baby, and looked for Paul but he was no where to be found.
We then headed downtown to the Cotton Exchange to browse a toy store and on to the main event, the USS North Carolina. WOW THIS BOAT IS BIG! All aboard, and the first things were GUNS.
They aimed the little ones, and I was afraid they were actually going to figure out how to fire the big ones at some buildings across the river :-oWe headed down into the belly of the ship and checked everything out. The boys did however stop for a quick nap.
On to the BIG BULLETS!
The boys were in heaven and loved looking at all the stuff and turning gears and knobs and imagining what this giant vessel could do.
Back up top for more guns and big anchors.
We then had a long stop in the gift shop before heading back downtown to meet up and have dinner with Kathy my working partner from Barclay Place. We had a fun dinner and the boys really liked her. Good laughs and stories and catching up. It was great to see her. She looks the same as she did years ago.We said goodbye to Kathy and drove across the Cape Fear headed back to base. A good long day filled with many friends and many fond memories :-)
