Oh, the Places We've Been! (Journey to Florida prior to the hurricane - belated)

Gotta catch up on where we've been for the last few weeks!
Sweet Times in St. Louis
We enjoyed the Sukkot holiday in St. Louis, with festive meals and visits with family and friends. We did some special "last" playdates (just for now!) and a great outing to Missouri Botanical Garden with Aunt Tammy and the cousins.  Many sad goodbyes!  It really took a lot of emotional strength to get through this period, and we kept our minds busy with a strong and positive outlook, and excitement for what lay ahead.

Nash
Friday 9/28: Kate and kids drive to Nashville (5 hours)  We enjoyed Shabbat in the very hospitable community with our friends Beth and Charlie Lesch and their kids.  We didn't do touristy stuff but we would love to go back and see some things in that region another time!  We slept in the shul's guest lodging room, which really worked out perfectly.  David had not been sleeping well for many days, so that gave us our own space in case he decided to be awake from, say, 2-4am or something.

how many six year olds can say they slept over in a shul?!

ATL
Sunday 9/30: Kate and kids drive Nashville to Atlanta (4 hours) and Robert meets us (from AF base to Atlanta.)  We had a lovely end of the holidays with our dear friends Adi & Eli Feen and their fabulous five children, from age 23 down to 8- Gidon, Shira, Tali, Ezra, and Noa.  We really enjoyed the southern hospitality of the Toco Hills community.  We met a bunch of their friends and it was a great introduction to a community we may be back to visit many times in the term of Robert's job (three years) in this part of the country.

Florida or Bust!
10/2: The night the holidays ended, our whole family drove in both cars Atlanta to Panama City.   It was really exciting to go drive into Florida for the first time (armed with Oreos to keep me awake in the "no kid" vehicle- my treat!)  And even more so to arrive for the first time on the base.  Seeing the first palm trees as we went south also qualifies as a big deal!!  I also loved seeing a truly giant peanut at the state fair headquarters or something.  (Not sure- it was dark.  Could see a LOT of stars as well!)  The peanut was about 20 feet tall!

We arrived around 1am and went to our "TLF" (temporary family housing) on the base- it was a great three bedroom large duplex.  We hustled around to register the kids for school, get their shot records (THANK YOU ROBERT :) ) and start touring parts of the base- the important things first- library, shopping venues, bowling ally, marina, beachy playgrounds, etc.  We were there for about three days and nights.

awesome indoor play place in bowling ally!

Shabbos Bereishit in Destin (First Shabbat of the new year)
10/5,6,7: We had long ago put in some research and effort to connect with the Chabad family in Destin, the Tennenboims.  They were super kind and welcoming and also excited to meet us, because there's not a whole lot of Jewish families around.  We stayed in a hotel really close to the shul and enjoyed getting to know them over the day.  There was a kiddish lunch (which they do every week) and then we continued to hang out when two of the girls came over for a playdate!  Robert had fun trying to memorize and quickly run off the names of the five kids, so that had us all laughing.  On Sunday he took the kids to a big arcade and we attempted to go to the beach.  There was a certain bacteria in bloom called red tide, all over the coast that made fish die and people cough, so we really didn't get to enjoy the beach yet.  (I suspect that it was blown away by the hurricane, but haven't heard.)

this place near destin looks awesome!! (by Ft. Walton Beach)