Bon and Jack Hannah

In an era of a seemingly endless line of self-centered "celebrity types" we have Jack Hannah who is a true Celebrity.

He grew up in rural Tennessee with a love of animals and a commitment that one day he was going to be a Zoo Keeper during a time when being a Zoo Keeper was not cool.

He achieved his goal and has gone way beyond that goal to truely be a service to the people and animals of the world.

Mr. Hannah was in Gainesville for a fundraising event for the Teaching Zoo at Santa Fe Community College. It is one of only two such programs in the nation. Mr. Hannah has been an advisory to the College for years.

Even though his voice was hoarse from 16 speaking events in 17 days in Florida, he was passionate in his time with us as he showed incredible animals and videos and answered questions.

He was common and sincere and he made us feel that he appreciated us as much as we appreciated him and we know he did.

He was gracious taking time with each for pictures and autographs.

Gainesville and St. Pete

We've been in Gainesville for a month with the exception of a short trip down to St. Petersburg last week while Rich attended class at the University of South Florida. Rich will graduate in three weeks with a degree in Journalism. The USF St. Petersburg Campus is highly regarded for journalism as it sits right next to the Poynter Journalism Institute. The value to USF is that when Journalists from all over the world come to the Poynter Institute, they often lecture at USF. Rich has heard several including those from the BBC. USF's library is the Poynter Library.

St. Petersburg is probably the most beautiful small city we have every visited. And driving in downtown is like driving in a town of 5,000. Desoto Beach lies south of St. Pete and in 2005 it was voted the #1 Beach in America. Its easy to see why when you take an early morning or late evening walk on that beach.

Rich will depart the day after he finished class for a month in Thailand and Laos. His friend Gik who is from Thailand and is working on her Doctorate at Unversity of Florida in Gainesville will travel to Thailand on December 23rd. We will watch Rich's dog Brownie until he returns on January 8th. Brownie is 16 years old.

While in Gainesville we have attended several sporting events at the University of Florida including Men's Basketball, Ladies Basketball and Volleyball and even a NCAA Regional Cross Country Meet which was held at the U of F Golf Course which is a block from the home we are staying.

We have visited some State Parks that feature fresh water springs. The last one we visited had a fresh water flow of 150 million gallons a day. Manatee's like to come into that spring when the Gulf of Mexico water temperature cools since the spring waters have a temp of 72 degrees. We saw a Manatee on the day of our visit.

After Thanksgiving here in Gainesville, family from MN (Lori, Mark, Ty, Kari) will meet us for a week at Disney World.

On December 14 we will end our stay here at David West's home. Its a great home right on the edge of the U of F Campus. Mr. West is a retired Attorney who is a good friend of our Son, Rich. He will return home from three months in Paris on the 14th.