Down South

This weekend, Erin and I took a trip to North Carolina and Tennessee to visit the Burdicks. We stayed in the "out house" at Jane and Charlie's. This used to be known as the "pool house", but they no longer have a pool. It's a very comfortable place, with no less than a dozen Abraham Lincoln portraits. The (hide-a) bed itself was a little tough, but nothing that a couple blankets couldn't fix.

Jane and Charlie are enjoying retirement. They're actively involved in the Mint Hill Historical Society, so we took a look at some of the historical buildings they have updated. They had some very interesting artifacts in the doctor's office, all from the last 19th century - it reminded me of Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist.

We explored downtown Charlotte in the afternoon. We ran into a MLK Day parade and felt very white. It was the first time I had ever seen a hip-hop Spongebob. We went to the Wells Fargo Museum and the Museum of the New South (post-Civil War). Both very interesting places. We had to get back for Stephen's belated birthday party. His birthday is actually January 2, but with all of the holiday stuff going on they weren't all able to get together as a family until now. Here are Stephen and John Michael:


About Suzanne and Ricky's kids: Stephen is 16 and quite mature for his age. I don't know how old John Michael is, maybe 11, but he's really smart and mature as well. Andrew is 6 and very talkative. All of them seem to be really good kids. That's a theme with all of the Burdick grandchildren: they were all very grounded and well-behaved. And if they acted up, they got a talkin' to on the spot. To illustrate, we were at breakfast at Cracker Barrel Monday morning. Cierra was in the middle of a conversation when Lisa wanted to tell her something. Cierra said somewhat tersely, "Hold on, Mom." Lisa gave her a "Don't you talk to me that way" talk right there for something that I considered rather normal. They were all very well-mannered. I started to feel kind of rude for not using "Sir" and "Ma'am".

We also got to meet Lisa's husband Bruce. Oh by the way they got married last weekend (that's how it was presented to us). The two of them went to the beach for a night and tied the knot. They have been together 10 years and have an 8-year-old, C.J. C.J. is a large kid and is only somewhat obnoxious. Bruce is a really nice, laid-back guy, but he and Charlie have their differences, especially when it comes to Lisa. It all works out, though.

We went to Knoxville on Sunday to watch the Lady Vols play. The game itself was really fun - the Lady Vols won by 20. It was kind of disappointing to not see Cierra until the end, but she played the last 4 minutes and played well (6 points, good defense). She has been upset this season with her lack of playing time, especially since the top 4 players have been playing 35-40 minutes a game all year and are starting to get injured. But she's staying positive and working hard. She's also doing very well in her classes - 3.82 last semester. She wants to go into communications and broadcasting.

All in all, it was really great to see that side of the family again. Here's the family picture, taken in the media/meeting room at Thompson-Boling Arena: