Bob & Sue Steinfeld with Byron & Deborah

It’s always fun to have friends stop by for a few days to enjoy the Williams House and Amelia Island.  In this case, Bob and Sue from Raleigh, NC came by for a few days of summer fun in Florida.  Bob and Deborah worked for the same real estate firm in Raleigh and Bob and Byron played a good bit of golf together and even won some of the realtor golf outings.  Bob and Sue have ben inn-sitters for us on several occasions and enjoy the process.  The weather was a bit iffy with threats of rain and showers most days, but we managed to get in around of golf and the ladies a shopping trip to the outlet mall in St. Augustine.  We also ate at some of our great local restaurants like 29 South, Barbara Jeans and of course, the Fudge Shop. 

Byron & Bob prepare to tee it up

Bob particularly enjoys wine hour, so each day we paused the busy schedule to enjoy wine, cheeses and fresh summer breezes with our guests.  The near daily afternoon showers have really greened up everything this week, but still haven’t interferred too much with desired activities.  Because of the clouds, temps have been in mid to high 80′s which has been great compared to the 95 degree days in the prior weeks.

Bob in perfect position for a long drive

 Bob and I both enjoy North Hampton with fair opportunities for par but plenty of trouble to keep you on your toes.  We always enjoy friends stopping in to give us a little break from our standard routine, remember  old times and catch up on new things happening in each others lives.  We look forward to them returning  soon, but definitely in time to give us a little inn-sitting relief about this time next year!  If you are our guests next year around this time, you will no doubt have the opportunity to meet them as  well.

Byron and Sam at North Hampton golf course

This week we have had some fun  company.  Sam and Jen Hayes, friends from our days in Cary, North Carolina came down from Mount Pleasant (north of Charleston) to attend a conference and spend some time with us.  Sam and Byron used to play a lot of golf together back in corporate days and had the opportunity to tee it up again at one of our favorite nearby courses.  The rain held off and we survived 18 holes with some good and ugly efforts on this links style course with water and sand everywhere.  We sampled some good local dining including Gourmet-gourmet, PLAE, Pompeo’s, 29 South, and Murray’s Grill.  Deborah and Jen snuck in a little shopping and we caught upon new times and old memories.

Sam swinging like Tiger

While we are talking golf, I might mention there are six courses on Amelia Island, and several not far off the Island.  Several are private, but many can be played even if you aren’t staying at the resort. The one we played this week was North Hampton which has a reputation as one of the best and hardest in NE Florida.  One reason is that every hole on the back nine has water, sometimes on both sides of the fairway. 

Sam and Jen under our 600 yr old live oak

Breakfast in the courtyard