Travel Hiatus over

In my last post, I declared a travel hiatus.

For the present, that hiatus is over.

My brothers, my mother, and I, July 05

(A larger version of the above picture is available to Flickr members--click on it, and select the larger size--or from me, if you ask for it. Flickr membership is free)

One of my brothers suggested, many months ago, that my parents' descendants get together in the area of my mother's home, in Southern Michigan, over the July 4th weekend. It was a good idea--thanks! One reason was to celebrate our mother's 95th birthday, which was actually two months earlier.

My mother, my three brothers and their wives, and eight of our ten combined children, most of them with spouses, plus our grandson, who is my mother's only great-grandchild, and some cousins, were able to get together for meals, showing slides, church--the three brothers present sung together, and fireworks. There were other activities. Our daughters, for example, decided to go canoeing with one of my brothers and one of our sons-in-laws. It was our younger daughters' first canoe trip, and, among other things, she and my brother overturned, and she lost her glasses. These were replaced the next day, and she seemed to enjoy the experience.

My wife took her turn in being responsible for a meal, and she and I and our offspring shopped for it. I bought some jicama, which I introduced to a brother, a sister-in-law, and my mother, while I was preparing it as a salad ingredient. They all said, as did the Wikipedia, that it was like apple in texture. Another brother, who has lived in Venezuela and Costa Rica for extended periods, was already familiar with it. The meal, of course, was excellent, and not because of the jicama, as were the other meals we had together.

My wife, our daughters and one son-in-law, and our grandson, then drove to Stratford, Ontario, where we met our other son-in-law, who had been unable to attend the gathering in Michigan. Our second son-in-laws' brother and his girlfriend, and his parents, were also in Stratford. We enjoyed five nights together with various combinations of extended family.

We are now back at home, where we expect to stay for several days. There is to be more travel later.

One comment on lodging: Our daughters are big fans of Bed and Breakfast lodgings. My wife and I had never, until this trip, experienced such. Like most things, they have plusses and minuses. Speaking from our meager experience, namely five different rooms in three B&B's in two municipalities, in two countries, one plus is breakfast. One minus is, so far, Internet access. There was none available in these establishments, not even dial-up. (My wife would say that this is also a plus!)

One of my funniest (to me, anyway, and I can say this, because I didn't write most of it) posts was an attempt to find out, from my ISP, if I could access the Internet from Stratford, Ontario. Yes, I did, but from the excellent connection available in the Stratford Public Library, not directly through my ISP, because of lack of connection in the B&Bs.

God willing, I will post about travel to the area in general, and Stratford as a travel destination, soon, then will return to more usual fare--books I have read, etc.

Thanks for reading.