CarolinaPetanque in Seaside, Florida

We stopped in Florida on our way home from the California trip to visit with our friends, Mike and Sharon, for a couple of days. They are from Louisiana but have a nice, cozy weekend getaway in Gulf Breeze near Pensacola. Of course we searched Petanque America's blog to find a place near our hosts' home to play petanque. We found a real winner: Seaside. It's a jewel of a town about an hour and a half from Gulf Breeze.
http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/seaside-truman-show/xwytykx

The Kiss the Pig Society plays petanque at the beautiful little wedding chapel near the town center.

We chose Sunday for our trip, but, unfortunately, missed some of the players who were there on this particular weekend on a Saturday. We were especially disappointed to miss getting to meet Trish Taylor. Trish lives in Raleigh, NC, and is on our CarolnaPetanque e-mail list. She has wanted to get over to play with us in the Carolinas, but it hasn't worked out to date. She happened to be in Seaside (vacation?) on Saturday but was on her way back to Raleigh on Sunday.

We did, however, meet a couple of new players-- Tracy and Tim from Virginia. They joined us for a fun game while Shirley took a few snapshots. We hope they'll try getting together with the Richmond (Churchill) Boulefrogs when they get back home. At least we tried to steer them in that direction.

At the Winery

Above are a few of the photos that Shirley was able to snap at the training seminar in Fresno, California. Here is a link to the FPUSA site for an explanation of the event. Recognize anyone on the nightly news link?

http://fpusa.blogspot.com/2010/05/teach-trainers-grand-success.html

Fresno City Council

We attended the Thursday morning meeting of the Fresno City Council to listen as Petanque Week was designated by mayoral proclamation. That is Victor Trataf, our visiting trainer from France, with the microphone in the last picture.

Fresno, California, May 19, 2010, at Cary Park

We flew into Fresno, California, to attend a seminar being sponsored by the Federation of Petanqe USA (FPUSA) and hosted by the Fresno Petanque Club. We managed to get in some pre-seminar play on Wednesday afternoon at Cary Park. It was a lovely setting under welcoming shade trees and the competition was top-notch. Fresno's club president, Joyce, and her husband, Jim, were among the first to greet and welcome us.

Texas

Pease Park in Austin, Texas. Sunday, May 16, 2010. Jeff gets the credit for the food; Shirley for the photos and the Heart of Texas club for the warm hospitality afforded on our last Sunday of play for this trip.