(Anyone not in my family
or having any particular interest in our big family event in Colorado or our
trip to California may just skip the next ten paragraphs!)
We took a very early
flight out of Norfolk to Denver, Colorado, arriving around 9:30 in the morning (I did say we left
Norfolk really early!). My sister and
her husband, Janice and Craig, were having a big, fancy party on July 8th
to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. It was a great excuse to get all our kids and
their kids in one place for a few days…The last time that happened was for my
dad’s memorial service in 2012!
Dan and I rented a house in Evergreen, Colorado, about 25 minutes
and 2,000 feet in elevation away from Janice and Craig’s Morrison home. The
house was perfect, with beds and enough privacy for our three families. My four grandsons had a bedroom in the
basement with 4 single beds, including one bunk bed set. My 6’3” grandson, Rylan, really didn’t fit on
these beds, but he seemed fine with a comforter on the floor in front of the TV
in the game room! The game room was a
popular place, with pool, air hockey, darts, and TV. My daughter, Laura, had a queen bedroom on
the lower level too. We gave Travis and
Lisa the master suite, and we had another king bedroom with ensuite bath on the
upper level. My granddaughter, Ella,
decided to sleep on the sofa in the living room – only problem there was the
big windows and skylight that couldn’t be covered in the mornings!
We had a great time, with Travis taking on the chef’s role,
with me, the mom, the sous chef! We
cooked a couple of breakfasts and one dinner for just our family.
With two minivans for our families, we managed to have some
time with Janice’s son, Daniel, and his three ‘littles’ (wife, Meehan had
appointments). We went to a park in
Golden, then to eat in downtown Golden.
The best times for spending time with my offspring and with Janice and
Craig’s (22 of us!) was a couple of evenings in their house and yard. Janice and Craig ordered dinner for us all
there at their home. With Christy and
Lewis (Janice and Craig’s daughter and SIL) only able to be there for a couple
of days before the soiree, having that time in the evenings gave us much better
opportunities to just be together.
The long awaited event came off beautifully! Open bar, beautiful venue, dinner, and
dancing – All us women came wearing fancy dresses, and the men all had jackets
and ties. Janice and Craig had worked
with an instructor and had practiced their dance to a special song they had
chosen. The whole evening was
spectacular.
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| Beautiful rainbow to cap off the evening! |
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| My son, Travis, his wife, Lisa, and my daughter, Laura |
Following the big event, we had just one more day
together. We enjoyed it, and then said
so long to both my kids and families on the 10th.
From Denver, we flew to Oakland, California – Dan has a
grandson, Alistor, who is turning 1 on July 31.
This is our first time in meeting him and also David’s girlfriend,
Tori. We arrived in Oakland on Tuesday,
and had decided to spend 3 days in San Francisco, reserving the three day
weekend coming up.
Dan is a member of the Marine Reserve Association, which means
we can stay at their San Francisco hotel!
The facilities are top notch, and include a 3 hour Happy Hour (free
drinks) and very nice breakfast (both free) every day! Our room was spectacular! When we arrived, our room was upgraded to a
suite at no further charge. I’ve never
stayed in a nicer room! Very high
ceilings, 4 person dining table, leather chairs and couch, smaller easy chair
and light for reading in the corner. The
bed was on a raised platform. The
bathroom was very nice. I wanted to stay
there forever!
We enjoyed doing some touristy things in the city, took a jump
on/jump off tour, which introduced us to areas of the city that were new to
us. We spent some time on Fisherman’s
Wharf, took the ferry to and from Sausalito, and toured the cable car
museum. We rode the cable cars several
times. It’s an amazing system, and the
only working system of cable cars in the world!
After our three days, we moved to a hotel in Oakland close to
David and Tori’s apartment. After a
brief bit of awkwardness with Mr. Alistor (5 minutes), he decided I was
ok. He’s a happy, healthy little boy
with lots of personality! We did some “touristing”
with the young family both days we were there, had a couple of nice
dinners. Mostly, we just enjoyed that
little boy!
OK! Resuming the narrative about our sojourn in
Norfolk!
We returned to Norfolk on July 18, hoping that work on the
boat had progressed. We really hoped to
be able to put the boat in the water on the 19th, have the carpet
cleaned on the 20th, and move out of the hotel on the 21st. Well, not so fast, Dan and Gena!
The good news: the bottom paint (2 coats of primer and 2 of
hard paint) was complete. Looks
wonderful! The new swim platform and new
brackets were received from the manufacturer right after we got back. Then, the next week nothing really was done
to work on the swim platform. It was
beastly hot every day – Dan and I would go to the boat, climb the 10 foot
ladder, spend a couple of the ‘cooler’ morning hours doing tasks on the
boat. I mostly was the gofer and the
holder – Dan is the power house worker.
Then, the old swim platform was taken off – Great! Now the new brackets can be mounted! Not so fast!
It took several days for the guys to measure and drill the holes in the
brackets. Finally finally, after
spending all week and all weekend mostly twiddling our thumbs, they started
mounting the brackets on Monday. We
really really hope to move out of this hotel room on Friday, the 29th.
Before we can put the boat in the water, they have to be
finished with the swim platform. Plus,
the props for the boat were removed and reworked. They’re ready to be put back on. We also bought a new propeller for the aft
thruster – that has to be put on.
So, as of today, Monday, July 25, 2022, that’s where we
are. Living in a single room, where we
have cereal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. We go out every night for dinner. Friends Tony and Donna, on Tranquility Eh!,
were close by, and we picked them up and took them to dinner a couple of
nights. We visited friends here in
town. We went down to Chix Beach, one of
Dan’s old hangouts for dinner and people watching. Mostly, we’re doing what we can on the boat
until the heat gets to us, go back to the room for relaxing (Gena) and nap
(Dan), then out to dinner and early bed.
Cannot wait to get back to our home away from home, the Kittiwake.
Finally got the boat back in the water on July 30. Propellers reworked, bottom painted, new swim platform, repaired a bent portion of the rub rail, some fiber glass repair. Our first 'cruise' was about 100 yards to the Morningstar Marina!
