London - The Invictus Games (aka: hobnobbing with Prince Harry)

Our first week here, we were invited to the Ambassador's residence to attend the Invictus Games for wounded warriors kickoff party.  The Foo Fighters played a concert and Bob Woodruff was the emcee for the evening.  The Invictus Games were created by Prince Harry after seeing the Warrior Games in the United States.  Prince Harry was there, walking among us!  I got about 3 feet away from him, without my camera, and was flabbergasted that he was so close!  Kirk got a few photos of him with his phone camera, which we will try to post later.

From Algiers to London....catching you up to date!

We departed Algiers on July 1st and spent 3 weeks in Washington, DC doing some training and catching up with some old friends and family (the Leonard family, the Bethea family, and John and Renee Somich).  We filled ourselves with great food and wine, visited some great DC museums, went to a Nationals baseball game and shopped until we dropped!  Kirk drove out to see the Redskins training camp and got a couple of autographs.  After being in Algiers for so long with nothing to do, we took full advantage of being back in 'Merica!

 

SUNY Cortland JETS training camp

Kirk and Uncle Walt

From DC, we drove to NY to spend some time with family and friends there.  We filled every moment with activities!  We went to the Jets training camp at SUNY Cortland where we got some autographs and were featured on the Jets blog for the day as the fan of the day!  LOL  




After leaving Cortland, we drove south and stopped to visit Kirk's Uncle Walt for the afternoon.  It was so nice seeing him and catching up.

J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!!

We took my mom, Sharon Pauquette Bouyea, to her first NFL game at the Met Life Stadium to see the Jets play their pre-season opener.  Kirk bought us all throwback jerseys to wear and mom got a lot of compliments on her Joe Namath jersey!  We had great seats and enjoyed the game.

the Bouyea Girls!

Cocktails on the "Giddy Up" with more of the Bouyea girls!

We spent lots of great time playing cards, out on Lake George on the "Giddy Up", saw a great play that my niece Kileigh was in, and had a great reunion party (thanks Mom) with family and friends we hadn't seen in years.  It was fantastic!

We went to Foxwoods Casino to see a "Legends" show and spent a few dollars in the casinos!  I did ok and stayed pretty close to the penny slots, big spender that I am!

Next stop, North Carolina.  We did some more renovations on the cabin we have there and ended up buying another cabin, a little higher up the mountain, with a great view and a bigger lot.  We  will sell the smaller cabin and have the other cabin for our summer retirement house.  We enjoyed time with Mom & Dad Duryea, playing cards and drinking wine on the screened in porch where we could enjoy the wonderful North Carolina evenings.


We left the states on August 28th, headed for London!