We arrived on our solar eclipse and east coast visit in Orlando. We visited Adelina's brothers' ex-wife and husband, and Adelina's nephew and family.

In this picture we are seeing the main living room of the new home of Adelina's nephew, Renel and wife Natalie, and two daughers Mia and Mayle. That is Adelina wearing the jersey with number 30.

Renel and Natalie have a beautiful home. You can get a lot for your money in Florida and they have a terrific place.

Here is a picture of almost everyone we visited in Orlando in one couch at Renel's place.

In order from left to right, Natalie, Mia, Mayle, Adelina, Renel, and Raquel.

Aspect ratio results in the picture here a little squashed. This is a new model home we visited while in Orlando A very upscale home. It had an elevator to the second floor!

It also had a big, walk in wine celler, which Bill is here visiting. Nice place!

Beautiful lake in Zee and Raquel's backyard.

A pic of Raquel and Zee's home from the backyard. The lake is behind the picture. Renel and his family are visiting. Adelina and Bill are staying with Raquel and Zee while we are here. Thank you both for your very kind hospitality!

A picture of Raquel (at right), Adelina, and Renel and his family, in the backyard, with lake in background.

Same background, with Bill and Zee (at the left) in their backyard lake view.

We've left Orlando and driven up to South Carolina where we will meet up with Adelina's brother and sister-in-law. And also see the eclipse, since this general location is where totality will occur.

Adelina lived in South Carolina for two years, in the area of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Here, Adelina poses outside of the church she used to attend in Mount Pleasant. A wonderful visit for Adelina.

View of the alter area of the Church of Christ our King church. Outside pic is above.

Here is the home that Adlina and her ex, Cliff, lived in, when they lived in Mount Pleasent, South Carolina. This was around 1995.

Very beautiful home. They bought the home new and were sad to leave South Carolina. But the jobs were in California for the family and back to California they went.

Now on Monday 8/21, in South Carolina, we went to setup someplace to enjoy the day and view the upcoming solar eclipse, due at approximately 2:45PM on the east coast.

The original plan was to go to the So. Carolina city of Santee, which was a good spot for totality and had a big public park that was open for visitors that day.

But the east coast can be cloudy, since they have their share of humidity during the summer. Cloud cover on the 21st was about 50% in Santee. An adacent city, about 1/2 hour away, Sumpter, had a better forecast and was holding a public, city-wide "bash" at their public park. We chose Sumpter.

Here we have got to the park by 7AM and picked a picnic table near bathrooms and without trees or other sky obstructions.

Here is a picture of of the view from our picnic area to the sky where the solar eclipse will be occurring in a few hours. As long as the clouds stay away, the view should be spectacular.

While we are waiting for the eclipse, Adelina's brother Danny, and sister-in-law, Belen, take a nice quiet walk, and enjoy each other.

A far cry from the 7AM quiet park, the park, about 1/2 hour from the beginning of the eclipse run, looked like this. Estimates are about 5,000 people came to view the eclipse from here.

There were lot's of kids, baloons, a DJ, food, etc. We had a very nice time.

Now this is a picture of the total eclipse taken from Bill's mobile phone. Mobile phone cameras are not really setup for this type of picture taking and the pic really doesn't do justice to the beautiful view of a total eclipse.

Here is a picture of the same location of the eclipse, taken by someone else (took picture off off the internet). This is the view that we saw with our eyes.

I really recommend everyone take time to see at least one total eclipse. It is a wonderful experience.

The next one passing through the U.S. is in 2024, moving north from Texas to New York state.

The next day, following eclipse day, Adelina and Bill, and Adelina's brother Danny and wife Belen, visited Charleston, South Carolina.

We had the great fortune to meet up with a long time friend of Adelina's, that she know when she lived in South Carlina in the 1990's, Elvy, and her husband.

Here is a pic, from left to right, of Danny, Belen, Adelina, Elvy, and Elvy's husband. We got re-aquainted and had drinks on the top deck of a big hotel in the Charleston "old city" area, a popular tourist location. Wonderful people.

A view of a portion of the "old city" tourist area of Charleston from the high-rise hotel top deck, where we had drinks.

Another view from the top of the hotel in Charleston. To the south is the ocean, as the old city area is near the ocean. Here is the U.S.S. Yorktown museum. There is a submarine to view there also we're told.

Very similar to the U.S.S. Midway and submarine museum in San Diego.

Just down the block from the hotel in Charleston where we had drinks and visited with Elvy and her husband, we stop to have dinner at a local fish place. Crabs, it would seem, is their speciality. Nice place and nice food.

After dinner, we walk to the ocean. In the 1990's, when Adelina was there, this area was a road, that boarded the ocean. Adelina and her then husband, Cliff, would come here and fish for crab.

Now, all these years later, the road has been removed, and there is a nice park that runs quite a ways from the center of the old city tourist area, providing a good place to sit, enjoy the ocean, people, and gentle ocean breeze.

Here is Adelina an Danny and Belen posing for a nice picture in this area.

In the same area, from steps of a building on the opposite side of the park from the ocean, in the Charleston old city, Adelina and I pose for a pic with the ocean in the background.

The next day, after our visit to Charleston, Adelina and Bill leave the great company of Danny and Belen, and head back south, to ultimately arrive back and Orlando to drop off the rental car and fly back to L.A.

We are intending to stop one night at Hilton Head, Georgia. Along the way, we stop at the Mighty 8th Air Force museum in Savannah, Georgia. In addition to great displays of WWII B-17 bombers (Bill is into WWII stuff), this museum purchased some DC power supplies from his company, Chroma, for powering the B-17 on display (the plane is named Spirit of Savannah).

The Chroma Regional Sales Manager set up the meet. We were able to meet the volunteers that work on the museum, have lunch with them, and get a personal tour of the main display, the Spirit of Savannah B-17 bomber, from WWII.

Here we are having lunch with the team. Wonderful group of people! Just Great.

Now here is a WWII era cabinet that would have housed power supplies used for maintenance of the plans, starting the engines, etc.

However, in this case, this cabinet has been retrofitted with the Chroma power supplies used for this purpose in the museum (note the black and white equipment mounted in the box).

A pic of the Spirit of Savannah, B-17, WWII era heavy bomber. They've done a tremendous job in restoring the plane and the museum showing the 8th Air Force's role in WWII.

View inside the B-17 museum display. This view is in the middle of the plan, in the area where the side gunners kept watch and attacked German and Japanese fighters attacking the plane.

Note the yellow boxes mounted on either side of the wall of the plane. These are the ammo holding containers that fed bullets to the two side guns.

Nice picture of the cockpit of the B-17. Restored nicely. Looks great. What a difference between this, 70 years ago, and the glass cockpits of today!

Name of the plane, proudly displayed on the side. This, of course, is why this plane is on display in this museum in Savannah, Georgia.

Map on display in the museum, showing the 8th Air Force area of operations during WWII in the ETO (European Theatre of Operations).

Wonderful words about the men and woman that made up the 8th Air Force and part of the greatest generation! The words speak for themselves.

After our wonderful visit at the Mighty 8th Air Force museum in Savannah, we continued to drive south to our hotel at Hilton Head resort, where we sent the night.

Adelina and Bill walked a few blocks to a local Greek restaurant, for a wondeful dinner.

Here Adelina poses at night at a water fountain a block from our hotel. Beautiful!

At a little tourist store in Hilton Head, we found a pirate. The picture is a little squashed looking due to the aspect ratio change for this web page, but you can see that swash buckler just fine.

The Hilton Head area had it's share of pirate's living here and pirating the place, in the 1600's, so this pirate is a reminder of that day and time.

Arriving in Savannah proper, we stop and take a hop-on-hop-off bus to show us around the city.

Here is a picture of a city street that includes some new construction and older construction that goes back 100 years or more. Lot's of history in Savannah.

Here is a city park. Savannah has lots of small parks all over. It was explained that each "area" of the city had one, where men living in that area would gather when bells rang out for alerts; fire (buckets), to-arms (rifles), and other emergencies.

Today, they are wonderful places to relax, enjoy the day and the beauty of God's earth.

Here is a mansion from the early 1800's. Beautiful place.

Another early mansion in an upwardly mobile portion of the city in the early 1800's.

This spot, which now has plants, at one time had a fake park bench. On that bench was the famous picture of Forest Gump, sitting on a park bench.

That bench, made of fibre glass, was being picked apart by tourists, so the bench was removed to a museum, and this nice floral arrangment put in it's place.

Note that most of the Forst Gump movie was filmed in Savannah.

Here is another small park, many of which, are scattered all over Savannah. In these small parks, citizens would muster in emergencies like defense and fire.

In this park is a statue of John Wesley. From a high level, he is the founder of the Methodist Church. Not withstanding this, John Wesley was a very famous and often quoted Christan minister in the 1800's. He obviously lived in Savannah, and thus, the statue.

John Wesley was one of the great 19th century pastors that played a part in the great Christian revival of the 1800's.