Last week I went to Orlando for a Youth Ministers Conference. I went out a day early to go spend some time with my Uncle. It was a gift from God that he didn’t have any plans the night I was coming.

I flew in, got a rental car and took of for Lakeland. I got there to the campus where he is a professor just in time to meet his freshmen class. We walked around and then he took a few minutes to wrap up some things in his office before heading to his house where I got settled. We sat and talked a bit before deciding where to head to dinner.

We went to a local place for seafood in the downtown area. We had a great time talking about my girls and their activities. After dinner we went to the “square” where it was decorated for Christmas with lights and displays. We asked someone to take a photo of us and then continued to walk along the main street as it was a nice evening and still early. We considered stopping in at the Irish Pub for a beer but it looked empty so decided to keep exploring. We came across an art gallery where people where painting canvases in a class. A sign said we could come in, so we walked around looking at all of the art work. The gentleman leading the class said we could jump in and when we declined told us to sign up for a lesson soon. They had regular groups all the time doing paintings; it was pretty cool. He even said you could bring your own bottle of wine and snacks to nosh while you painted. It sounded like a lot of fun!

After the art gallery we saw a dance class going on across the street with little girls. We went over to check it out because my Uncle thought one of his students was teaching the class but it wasn’t. Instead, we found a little restaurant that looked like it was a bakery/wine-bar which had a live band playing jazz. We stopped in for a beer. It was really a neat place with what looked like good food, bakery items and a huge selection of wines and beers. When we left, the dancers were now adults. We decided we needed a picture of me “dancing” with the dance class and needed one of me “painting” in the art gallery; it was just too awesome.

When we left the downtown area we decided we were having too much fun to go home so we stopped at the bowling alley where my Uncle goes to watch football sometimes at the bar inside called the “Tiki Bar”. We didn’t bowl, but had to have a picture to add to the adventure. After a couple of beers we decided we’d head back to his house where we ended up sitting on his back patio which looks out onto a golf course. He smoked a pipe and we continued to talk about life and faith. I told him all about my experiences at Notre Dame and my Good Shepherd journey. We had a great time and know it was a gift to have the opportunity to spend one on one time with him. I am grateful!