Welcome To Chuck and Allyn

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Allyn and Chuck's

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Chuck and Allyn

We moved from Manhattan to this villa in Sarasota, Florida in April of 1996. For over 30 years we lived in New York City and are now pleased to be living in this virtual paradise.

We met on August 28, 1966, at Riis Park, a public beach accessible by public transportation; a long subway ride and a long bus ride. We both love the beach and spent our summer weekends there. One summer weekend, we visited the beach with our friend Ann.

A thermos of martinis and a picnic lunch were the order of the day.

In 1969, we acquired two cocker spaniels and for many years they dominated our lives.

Busby, the English cocker and Cecil, the American cocker were great fun and loved to travel with us.

At that time, Allyn worked for NBC and Chuck at Marine Midland Bank. Later, Allyn moved to a law firm as controller and Chuck wound up at Manufacturers Hanover bank, which merged with Chemical Bank, which was merged into the existing J. P. Morgan Chase Bank.

Before 1982, our wanderlust never extended beyond the USA.

In 1968, we flew to Boca Raton and visited with Chuck's parents for a few days. We forgot our blazers and had to buy new ones there to go to dinner. During the Christmas holidays in 1975 we visited with Chuck's brother George in Rosemont, PA, and attended the Merion Cricket Club's New Year's Eve party.

In 1975, we and four other friends went to Miami to see an old friend, Bernice, who was terminally ill. While there, we visited some other friends who live on a lake and let us play with their paddle boat.

In December 1981, for Christmas, Chuck gave Allyn a leather travel bag and inside was information about his present - a week's tour of London the following March. Not knowing anything about foreign travel, we dressed up every day.

Going to England made us eager to see the rest of the world. In the ensuing years, we went to:

Mexico where we spent a week in Mexico City and several days in Taxco and Acapulco. In Acapulco, we stayed at Las Brisas with a private pool so we could cavort naked amid the floating hibiscus blossoms.

Egypt where we posed with the great pyramids, with or without our trusty camels.

Greece where we climbed up and down the Acropolis and had a delicious fish dinner in a charming restaurant on the bay in Mykonos

Italy with Rome, Florence and Venice as stops

Our trips to Paris in 1989 and 1991 when we fell in love with France

Later we spent two weeks in Provence in the south of France. We rented a Peugeot convertible and zipped along the charming roads visiting the little towns and villages.

In 1992, we took a river cruise from Saint Petersburg to Moscow through the countryside in Russia. The Berlin wall had recently fallen and we were some of the first westerners that the rural Russians had ever seen. It's a magnificent country and the people have done an heroic job of restoring their historic buildings after the chaos of World War II.

The Low Countries, Netherlands and Belgium, where the sun NEVER shone.

On August 1, 1995, we both retired. Above is a picture taken at a party some friends threw at a great restaurant in New York. Later that month we took our first trip to Sarasota. The destination was based on a book we read called, "Fifty Fabulous Places to Retire". The book had a matrix to be completed to find the ideal place to live and only Sarasota, FL, and Chapel Hill, NC, fit our every criteria. When we landed in Sarasota on August 22, we knew we had found our home. The bougainvillea and hibiscus were in full bloom and the tropic air warmed our bodies and our souls. Later we visited Chapel Hill which was nice but didn't measure up to Sarasota.

In February, 1996, we purchased our current house and contracted for extensive renovations. Our new home is a villa in a condominium community. We chose a condominium so we could lock our front door, call the house sitting company and leave for as long as we wish. We then returned to New York to await our scheduled moving date of April 25. During March we took a trip back to London and the weather was so fierce, we hopped a plane to Madrid.

We drove though Spain where the sunshine warmed us while New York and England suffered through a severe winter.

We moved to Sarasota in April, 1996, and began to enjoy the life we had planned for; freedom to travel wherever, whenever, and as for as long as we chose. Chuck's mother, Dorothy, was in an assisted living facility in Wilmington, DE, and we tried to visit her four times each year. Early in our retirement, as owners of a brand new Acura Legend, we thought it was great fun to drive north, visit Dorothy, and find a way to make the ride home enjoyable. Our visit in September, 1996, found us returning via the coast roads along the Atlantic Ocean; a trip lasting three weeks. Dorothy died in 2001 so our trips north have ceased except for when we fly to Europe via JFK. Then we include a week in Manhattan on the way.

In May, 1997, we went back to Great Britain and spent two months in England, Scotland and Wales on an extended driving trip around the beautiful countryside. We visited all the Michelin Green Guide recommended sites. Here are Allyn at Chatsworth, one of the largest and most beautiful private homes in England and Chuck in our leased Rover and on the campus of York University.

In October that year, we took our first guided tour, a trip to Eastern Europe. We wanted to see Poland and the other former Iron Curtain countries but had some trepidations about the language barriers, etc. We flew to Warsaw and traveled through Krakow, Prague, Czech Republic, Budapest, Hungry, ending in Vienna.

We're in front of Schloss Schönbrunn in Vienna.

Budapest viewed from the Buda side of the Danube River.

Living close to Tampa and Orlando allows us frequent trips to Busch Gardens, Disney World and Universal Studios. In 1998, we took an annual pass to Disney and spent many happy days at the theme parks.

In 1998, we made one of most strenuous trips. We left April 15 for an extended driving tour of the southwestern United States. We started in New Orleans for a week, went on to most of the National Parks and sites including Big Bend, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, Bryce, Zion, Canyonlands, Natural Bridge, and Petrified Forest. Along the way we stopped in Galveston, Houston, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Reno, Sun Valley, Chicago, and New York City. The trip lasted almost five months and gave us a real appreciation for the diversity and splendor of our country.

This is a picture taken at Canyonlands National Park in beautiful desert scenery.

In June, we found ourselves in the mountains of Yellowstone with abundant, fresh snow.

In Bryce Canyon National Park, we spent days exploring the unusual shapes and figures created by the wind and rain.

While we were in Colorado Springs, CO, Allyn's hometown, we revisited Pike's Peak which we had climbed in August of 1969. Neither we nor the peak had changed a bit!

We spent many wonderful weekends at our friend Pat's summer house on Center Island on Long Island. This crowd is, left to right, Kathy, Pat, Murphy (the Cairn Terrier), Chuck and Allyn. We brought the inflatable island for a house present and had the forethought to include an electric pump to blow it up!

On the way home, we stopped in New York and got to see our some of favorite people, Buffy wearing his Carpe Mañana T-shirt, and Pat in whose beautiful new house on the Hudson we spent the weekend.

We arrived home on August 21 and had just enough time to see all our friends before we took off on October 13 to fly to Paris on the way to India and Nepal.

It was an exhilarating, eventful year and we loved every minute of it.

In 1999, we vowed to take it easier but our wanderlust wouldn't hear of it. In April we left for a visit to Wilmington and a three week trip home visiting Beaufort, NC and SC, and especially Americus, GA, to see the site of Andersonville, the Civil War prison. We also spent a week in Atlanta before coming home.

On August 31, we flew to Vancouver, BC, our departure point for a tour of China and Thailand.

We visited a 19th century farm and saw the famous terra cotta soldiers.

We strolled Tiananmen Square and cruised the Yangtze River for five days.

We visited a Buddhist temple and rang the prayer bell after strolling the Great Wall.

We spent three days each, both going and coming in Vancouver, a charming and picturesque city. To see the all the trip's pictures, click on us at the Great Wall:

Late in 1999, we acquired a digital camera which makes the recording, storing and sharing of our travels much easier.

We initiated it in during the Christmas season and on a quick trip, with seven of our closest friends, to Las Vegas.

One night, we spent time on Fremont Street, the essence of Las Vegas.

On March 1, 2000, we left for an African safari. It has its own web site so please click on Chuck and Allyn and the white rhino to visit there.

The rest of 2000 was at home with small trips to Maine in July, Atlantic City in August and Las Vegas in September.

In Camden, Maine, we enjoyed a lunch of lobster rolls sitting on a deck watching the lobster boats in the harbor.

In Atlantic City, we both had to try on Miss America's crown as proffered by Bert Parks.

Back in Las Vegas with another group of friends, we posed in front of the Bellagio fountain with the new Paris Casino behind us and inside the Bellagio in the conservatory with its autumn cornucopia.

On September 20, 2000, Allyn's 65th birthday, Chuck threw a surprise party for 60 of Allyn's best friends at Marina Jack's Restaurant on Sarasota Bay.

So you don't get the impression we don't like being at home, we have a terrific circle of friends. There are frequent theatre evenings, dignified dinner parties: etc.

working in the garden:

going to the beach and generally enjoying life.

For Halloween every year, some friends have a party for about 100 people. We won a magnum of champagne for "Best Couple" in 1999.

We were Daphne and Josephine from Some Like It Hot. In 2000, we changed our looks completely.

In 2001, we got a call from a couple we met in China who were taking a river cruise in Europe and wanted us to join them. It sounded fun so we booked the tour and another month after it driving through the Austrian and Bavarian Alps. The river cruise was from Amsterdam to Vienna and was a delight.

Click on either picture above to see the whole trip.

In October, 2001, our friend Chris celebrated an important career anniversary and was feted at a party hosted by Michael & Patrick. He had never been to Biloxi, MS as many of us had so several of his friends chipped in an bought a trip for a present.

In January, 2002, 11 of us went to Biloxi and that was the foundation of an enduring fellowship laughingly called the SOBs (Sisterhood of Biloxi). Michael kicked off the traditions by giving all the 11 an amulet to be worn whenever the group assembled.

In 2002, we made two trips, the first an extensive tour of Turkey. During a Greek Isles trip in the 1980s, we had stopped for a day each in Istanbul and Ephesus. That whetted our appetite and the description of the comprehensive tour of Turkey sounded great.

The trip through Turkey was everything we had hoped it would be. To see all the pictures, click on either snap of us above.

Later that summer we took a short trip to Scandinavia, specifically Finland, Norway and Estonia.

The trip was delightful and the people were warm and beautiful, as was the scenery. Click above for the whole trip.

One treat during the fall of 2002 was the Off-White Ball to benefit the United Cerebral Palsy Association. It was covered in the local social pages:

On December 10 we hosted our annual Christmas party for 60+

December 13, Bernie hosted the first annual SOB Christmas Party and Chinese present exchange. Each year the SOBs thought of new and clever gifts to commemorate their friendships.

On April 15, 2003, we embarked on a 31-day trip to Italy. We spent a week each in Venice, Rome, Sorrento, and Montecatini in Tuscany. Each city provided us with the opportunity to make side trips to other towns and cities.

To see all our Italian pictures, click on either of the pictures above.

In October, we flew to Philadelphia to visit Chuck's mother's grave which we had never seen.

Halloween Party 2003 had a "Crayola Theme" and we went as two sloppy painters and our friends Michael and Patrick were their usual dignified selves.


Christmas was a gala holiday with many parties including our cocktail party for 60 friends.

The SOB Christmas party brought out new talents in all of us.

In March we went to Las Vegas for a week with seven SOB friends. We stayed at the Mandalay Bay and enjoyed the town thoroughly.

On Easter Sunday we attended our friend Bernie's annual hat party, the theme of which was "Holidays" Chuck went as Halloween and Allyn went as Thanksgiving.

In May of 2004, we left for a six-week trip to the Greek Isles. We had visited there for a week in the early 1990s and were anxious to return to have an in-depth look at them. To see all the pictures of the trip, click on either picture below.

We spent a wonderful July 4th weekend on Key West with our friends John & Bill. While there we met more great people who we now count as friends.

On September 10, 2004, after hurricanes Charley and Frances passed too close for comfort and we were forced to move to a hotel for three nights because we had no power, we got the news that IVAN THE TERRIBLE was on its way. We closed up the house, put the good art in the guest bathtub covered with a tarp and took off for the north.

Passing through Valdosta and Marietta, GA, we settled in at the Holiday Inn in Nashville, TN. We had wanted to visit there for some time and this was a good opportunity. We visited the Opryland Hotel and the Parthenon with its new statue of Athena. We then learned that Ivan was heading for Nashville so we headed south and east through Georgia and Jacksonville, FL, arriving home on September 17 to find that Ivan had totally missed Sarasota!

Christmas were spent with friends in the area. It was a joyous time.

On April 10, 2005, we left for our first trip of the year - to Morocco.

We spent three weeks in Morocco and saw the major sights. It was a strenuous but rewarding trip. To see the pictures, click on either photo of the two of us.

On August 28, John and Bill threw a party to celebrate our 39th anniversary.

On September 8, we left for Providence, RI to start a two week holiday which was centered on our friend John McMillen's surprise 50th birthday party on Block Island. After a weekend on the island, we went with four friends for a week on Cape Cod and then we went alone to Boston for another 5 days.

With our friend Chris

With our friend Stuart Flaherty




After Block Island, we spent almost a week on Cape Cod and finished the trip with a long weekend in Boston ending at the Kennedy Library. Late in October, Chuck's nephew Bill Gordon married Michele Gross in Atlanta and we went for the long weekend.
Uncle Chuck and Allyn posed with the happy bride and groom, Bill's children Haley and Will, and Bill's mother Sue O'Brien.		While we were in Atlanta, we took advantage of the glorious cool weather and toured Margaret Mitchell's house and Rhodes Hall, pictured above.

We had our traditional Christmas party early so we could enjoy the remainder of the holidays.		Our friends Michael and Patrick had a Twelfth Night Party to cap off a wonderful Christmas season.


The SOB Christmas party was at our house and was the usual hilarious, irreverent fun.

The weekend of March 17, 2006, we went to Winter Park, FL, for the annual sidewalk art show. On the way we stopped at Bok Tower in Lake Wales and walked through the gardens. On Sunday the six of us enjoyed a delightful sidewalk café lunch.



On May 30, 2006, we left for New York City for a stop on the way to a three-week trip to Croatia and Slovenia with visits to Montenegro and Bosnia Herzegovina. To see that trip's pictures click on either picture above.

The summer of 2006 was a quiet time with no hurricanes to disturb us. With November began the Holiday season and our party on December 4 for 65 friends.



We had a great time and the party was the first of many fun events we attended during December.



The SOB party was the usual mayhem and mirth.


On New Year's Eve we attended a great party at the home of our friends Gary and Jim. It was a quiet first half of the year with the usual Bridge parties, dinners, and theater evenings. On June 7, 2007, we left for one of our most ambitious trips, two weeks in northern Italy followed by four weeks in Switzerland. It was a strenuous but worthwhile journey. Click on either snowy picture to see the photos of the trip.



During the holiday season we hosted a party for 60 of our best friends. Click on the picture to see the revelry!		We also attended wonderful parties given by friends.



On April 10, 2008, we left for a three-week trip to Malta and Sicily. This was an escorted tour and much easier than travelling on our own. We enjoyed both islands very much, especially the ancient Greek and Roman ruins. Click on either picture to see the whole trip.




In May we attended our friend George's 90th birthday party.		We spent the weekend with John & Bill in Miami seeing all the sights to celebrate Allyn's birthday in September.

Thanksgiving was Michael & Patrick's traditional sumptuous feast for 25+ friends.		Christmas started with our cocktail party for 50 of our dearest friends. The SOB party followed soon after.




Christmas Eve was hosted by Shirley & Jacques Roberge and featured a world-class cassoulet.		Christmas at Michael & Patrick's was filled with love and gay presents.



New Year's Eve was another lovely party at Jim and Gary's home.

The first fun party of 2009 was Shirley McKinney's birthday party and we gave her a smashing pink boa. Allyn and her husband Jacques looked on with admiration. Then it was our friend Tom's birthday and another friend, Bernie, threw a great fete.

On April 27, 2009, we left for a three-week Seine River cruise and Paris. Click on either picture to see the whole trip.



On the weekend of June 13th, our good friend Christopher celebrated his 60th birthday with a three-day bash on Sanibel Island. Friends who had returned north had loaned him a large house on Captiva Island with two guest houses so we all had private quarters.



In September we went to Ft. Lauderdale with 7 friends and had a great time.



In October two friends celebrated big birthdays; Bernie turned 70 and Jerry turned 69!



Between the two parties, we flew to Las Vegas for a 4 night stay at the Palazzo.

One of our great pleasures is attending the new Metropolitan Opera High Definition broadcasts at a local theater. Last year we saw several and this year we'll see Aida, Turnadot, Tales of Hoffman, Carmen, Simon Boccanegra and Hamlet. It reminds us of our subscriptions at the Met when we lived in NYC.

In November, we went to Sanibel to celebrate Chuck's birthday with Bill Grenier and two friends from Atlanta. As always Christopher was an incredible host.

Thanksgiving was spent with Michael and Patrick and 21 other friends and family. Delicious and zany. The group photo was made to send to our friend Nellie in England who was having a hip replaced and couldn't come for the holiday.

After Thanksgiving we settled into decorating the house and preparing for our annual Christmas for about 50 of our friends. Then the round of other parties began!

The year ended with a terrific New Year's Eve party at John & Bill's.

The first few months of 2010 were quiet with lots of Bridge, high-definition operas, YMCA visits and dinner parties with friends. Summer proved to be a long, wet hot season and we enjoyed every day of it. In August, we attended Drag Queen Bingo at the Golden Apple Dinner Theater. What a hoot! To see all the hilarity, click on a drag queen.

In September we journeyed to St. Augustine and Orlando to celebrate Allyn's 75th and John McMillen's 55th birthdays.



In November we began to assemble and erect the Christmas decorations in anticipation of our early December party which kicks off the season.





Many parties later, we had a great New Year's Eve at John & Bill's.





In February we celebrated the birthdays of our friends Ray and Don at a surprise party at Don & Dave's apartment. A few weeks later we spent the weekend on Sanibel Island with our friends Chris, Stuart, John and Bill and saw Sue-Gray and Linda while we were there.





Later we attended a fundraiser for the Big Cat Sanctuary and then went to the Old Packinghouse Cafe for hamburgers and a blues band.



In March our friend Sue-Gray came for the weekend and we went to the Sunday afternoon Drumming Ceremony at Siesta Key Beach with cocktails at the beach and dinner at Patrick's later.



In July we went with our friends Chris and Stuart to St. Petersburg for a day of museum visiting. First we went to the Cihuly art glass exhibit, had lunch, toured the historic Vinoy hotel and then saw the new Dali museum.





On August 26, we flew to Palm Springs for a week. We had never been there before and had a wonderful time touring the entire area, including lunch with our friend Bobby Drummond who lived there half the year. We went to the top of the tram ride, spent a day in Idyllwild up in the mountains, toured the air museum with its collection of WWII memorabilia, visited the zoo, and ate at wonderful, glamorous restaurants. A great trip!







In September we spent a long weekend at Sanibel at Chris and Stuart's with Don and Dave. It was Allyn's birthday so of course there was cake. We introduced Don and Dave to the Bubble Room.



One Saturday night we went to Woody's on the Manatee River for burgers, beer and rock-and-roll live music. Some of us got carried away!





On December 5, we had our annual Christmas party of 50+ close friends; after which we attended many others given by friends. We also hosted the annual SOB party. Much hilarity!





New Year's Eve started with a great early party and ended at dinner with eight friends at Ruth's Chris.