Bill and Cathy McArthur Spring/Summer/Fall 2005: 10

   Katie and Rachel visited us again toward the end of July. Tom joined us for the weekend. The heat wave finally abated with a strong thunderstorm (which Rachel slept through). We had a wonderful day with low humidity and then the rain came from the south. Bill read his journal from 2001 and was amazed at the much higher rate of activity that he had 4 years ago. Katie and Bill ran the Al Mackler Cancer Foundation 5K on the Atlantic City Boardwalk on Sunday, July 31. Katie beat Bill again. Tom left later in the morning. We enjoyed Katie and Rachel until Tuesday morning. Bill took a very hot, sweaty 5 mile run after they left. At this point Rachel was a very social and aware baby. We finally got rid of 3 of our 5 bicycles. Cathy's Trek and Bill's Trek, both bought during the summer of 1991 and Bill's first Specialized, bought in 1997. We decided that the old bikes weren't safe for anyone to ride, so we put them out with the trash and they were "scavenged" shortly thereafter. On the morning of our anniversary, August 6, Bill ran in the Coombs/Douglass Memorial 5 mile BayRun. The weather had been so hot and humid that Bill had been really suffering in his training runs, so he was worried about completing the 5 miler and consequently took it very easy during the run. It turned out to be a very comfortable, albeit slow, run. When Bill got back home, Alex, Phl, Erin, and Bridget had arrived for a week's stay accompanied by Phil's parents, Olive and Don, who were staying in Cape May. We went down to our beach and then enjoyed a group lunch on the deck. During mid-afternoon we went into Cape May in 3 cars to get Phil's parents into their hotel and to take a short walking tour. We returned home while the others remained in Cape May for dinner. For our 39th anniversary, Bill gave himself an Aloha shirt to wear to dinner. Katie and Tom treated us to dinner at Tisha's, where we enjoyed an excellent meal. When it came time to order dessert, we decided to each order something without discussing it in advance. Cathy predicted that we'd order the same thing. Sure enough, we both wanted to order the Flourless Chocolate Cake. Bill quickly changed his order to the Berry Torts. As Cathy told Bill, "Don't underestimate me." The week went well with hot beach-day temperatures and only one rainy day. Rumor has it that Bill actually lay on the beach for a while after a long session of body surfing, but no photos exist to prove the point.

        Bill and Cathy