This was our whirlwind tour visiting most of our families around the country.

##Friday 4/10/98: And so, it begins…

Friday is flyday! The limo picked us up around 9:30am to bring us to the
airport. On the way to the airport we saw a friend dropping someone else
off. We told him that we’d won the lottery and were off to Disneyland!

We landed at S.F. Airport around 5:00pm (California time), picked up our
rental car, and headed north to Santa Rosa to stay a while with my mom. As
we got close to her house, the kids were getting excited and started
chanting “Grandma, Grandma, Grandma!!” When we got there it was like a
tear-jerking scene from a movie. My mom just hugged Vanessa and Madison for
quite a while telling them how much she loves them and missed them.

##Saturday 4/11/98

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One of Vanessa’s favorite things to do when we visit my mom is to look at
her Royal Dalton collection. She loves holding the “dolls”, but only when
Grandma helps.

Danae and my mom went to Home Depot so she could see some of the things
that we’re thinking about for the house we’re building. She thought some
were good, and some were bad. We’re probably going to have to rethink some
stuff before it’s all over.

##Sunday 4/12/98

Happy Easter!!!

Danae, the kids and I went with my mom to brunch at the Santa Rosa Country
Club. They were going to have an Easter Egg hunt, but it was canceled
because there’s been quite a bit of rain the last few days and the course
was quite muddy. They had an Easter Bunny and a clown to entertain the kids
(and some of the adults too).

I watched the final day of the Masters tournament. What a finish!!! I’m so
happy for Mark O’Meara. Coming back from 3 strokes down with 4 holes to
play, birdying the final two holes to win is just an amazing
accomplishment. And having Tiger present him with the Green Jacket just
kind of choked me up.

##Monday 4/13/98

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We went to visit my Godmother Lynette Feeney-Burns today at her house in
Sonoma. It’s on top of a hill overlooking the vinyards. What a spectacular
view!!!

##Tuesday 4/14/98: On the roadagain

We drove to San Jose today. We’re staying for 3 days and trying to visit a
few friends while we’re here.

I talked to our realestate agent here about the delay in the closing of our
property in San Jose. I was quite upset that it was costing us extra money
because of delays that we had no control over. It turns out that for
various reasons, we were in breach of our contract, and that things closed
as soon as they could. Oh well, live and learn.

I played golf with my brother Scott today at the Santa Theresa golf course.
He kicked my butt (I’m not surprised).

##Wednesday 4/15/98

Right when I woke up this morning I made a couple of phone calls. One to my
title company, and one to my mortgage company. The title company told me
that all the financial transactions with respect to the SJ home sale was
done. The mortgage company received the payoff (and another payment that we
made) and fixed up our credit (thanks GMAC :-). Our bank also received the
funds due us. So it’s finally over and we don’t own that house in SJ
anymore.

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We went to dinner at the Round Table on Camden and met some friends there.
It was good to see everyone. I didn’t stay long since I had some plans with
my brother. I took him over to a friends house that teaches a variant of
Muay Thai kick boxing. Scott has decided that he needs to learn how to
fight, and I thought that this friend of mine would be a good place for him
to get his feet wet. I was right. He liked what he saw in the class and
signed up immediately. Pretty soon he’ll be able to kick my butt!

Vanessa had some fun of her own. She got to spend the night at our former
next door neighbor’s house where her good friend Katie lives. As far as I
know, they had a lot of fun. Vanessa was quite sad to have to leave.

##Thursday 4/16/98

Vanessa and Madison stayed the night at Mary Anne’s. She’s someone that we
really miss a lot in Mass.

Danae went out with some of her friends for a “girls night out”. They went
to Chevy’s for dinner and went shopping (Danae’s favorite passtime :-).

I went over to my brother’s and watched the Sharks loose miserably to the
Avalanche. Oh well.

Oops! I just realized that I left my camera over at Art’s house. I hope I
can get it before our flight tomorrow morning!

##Friday 4/17/98: Fly to LA

We picked the kids up from Mary Anne’s house and I called Art from there.
Got the camera back. Phew!

We went to breakfast with Mary Anne at Hobbee’s in San Jose. From there we
said our goodbyes to her and headed to the airport.

Danae’s father Rodney met us at the airport in LA and got us back to his
place. It’s really a tight squeeze to get all of our stuff into a rental
car 🙂

Almost as soon as we got to Rodney’s, my friend Scott picked me up and we
went golfing at a close by course named Alondra Park. He’s a really good
golfer (he teaches privately), so he kicked my butt. But we had a good
time. After the round of golf, we met Danae and a bunch of people at her
brother’s micro brewery, Redondo Beach Brewing Co.. Some were family and
some were friends. We had dinner there and some good brew!

##Saturday 4/18/98: Let’s go Surfin’

Today was our day to drive all over the South land. We started with
breakfast with Danae’s mom Norma. We had a lot of laundry to do, so we
picked a place for breakfast next to a laundromat at Norma’s suggestion
called Unky Roy’s. Good call Norma!

From there we headed south past Long Beach and Dana Point to visit Danae’s
friend from high school Sue, and her family. We got there around 2:00pm
(it’s about an hour and half drive). Tom (Sue’s husband) already had the
BBQ fired up and hot dogs cooking when we got there. We had a nice
afternoon and Danae and Sue had a chance to do some catching up.

After lunch with Sue, we headed back north and stopped in Long Beach to
have dinner with Danae’s aunt Verna and grandparents Edla and Leslie. I
really love these people. They really are some of the nicest people I’ve
ever met. I hope the feeling is mutual :-). We had a nice dinner at Hof’s
Hut, their favorite place to eat.

Sunday 4/19/98: Pictures with grandma Norma

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Today was the big photo shoot
for Norma. She really wanted to get a picture with all four generations
before it wouldn’t be possible any more. We had breakfast at Unky Roy’s
again with David and Jenika (our nephew and niece), and then went home and
got ready for the pictures.

The pictures were taken on the grounds at a library near her home in
Redondo Beach. The location was beautiful. [ picture]

After the pictures were taken, everyone went back to Norma’s house for
dinner. We had a nice little gathering, plus a surprise for me. Norma had
bought a birthday cake for me! They ambushed me with a little surprise
party!

Danae, Vanessa, and Madison stayed the night at Norma’s, so I was on my own
for the evening. I just went back to Rodney’s and got to bed early. David
had made a tee time for us to play a round of golf at Alondra Park for
7:00am.

##Monday 4/20/98

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Woke up really early this morning for golf with David. We got to the course
in plenty of time to warm up, but the driving range was closed! We spent
some time practicing our putting, and then hit the course. David has some
natural talent for the game, but he needs some instruction. Fortunately for
him, he’s slated to take 8 weeks of group lessons with Butch Harmon (Tiger
Wood’s teacher)! The next time we play he’ll probably kick my butt!!

After the round of golf I met Danae, the kids, and Norma at John’s brewery
for lunch. He was there, so I got a chance to talk to him for a while. Once
lunch was over, we packed up from the overnight and headed over to Al’s for
the kids to go swimming. I watched the kids while Danae took some time off
for herself (she got a manicure and pedicure, and did some shopping). She
really needed the time to herself.

After all that, we took Danae’s sister Julie and all her kids, and Rodney
and Bernice to Souplantation for dinner. The nicest thing happened there.
We were standing in line and I was getting ready to pay for the meals, when
the lady in front of me in line asked if I had a coupon for $1.50 off each
adult dinner. When I said no, she gave me two (enough to cover my entire
party)! Sometimes, you meet the nicest people in the strangest places.

When we got back to Rodney’s for the night I checked my email and found a
message from a friend back in Mass. letting me know that they’ve finally
started construction on our new home!! I can’t wait to get back and see
what’s been happening there!

##Tuesday 4/21/98: Off to Pittsburg

We woke up early today to finish packing for the last leg of our trip.
We’re heading to Pittsburg and from there driving to my dad’s home town of
Weston, West Virginia (about 2 hours away). After we finished packing up,
Rod and Bernice came by to help us get to the airport. We went to the
airport and checked in our bags, then returned the rental car and went to
breakfast at Howard Johnson’s.

In order to get to Pittsburg, we had to take a flight to San Francisco
first. The only problem was that we landed on one end of the airport, and
had to catch a flight all the way on the other side. San Francisco
International Airport is huge, so we got our exercise in for the day 🙂

We didn’t get into Pittsburg until about 9:00pm. Danae had the good sense
to book a hotel for us for the night near the airport. We’ll be driving to
Weston tomorrow morning.

##Wednesday 4/22/98: and on to Weston

We wake up late in the morning (taking the rare opportunity to sleep in),
and head for breakfast. We decide to take off for Weston around 11:00am.
It takes a couple of hours to get there. I surprised myself and actually
remembered the way! On the way into town, we ran across a flower stand and
bought a bouqet for my aunts. They loved it.

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After lunch there, we go to see my Dad’s grave. It was nice to see that
it’s been kept up. It turned out that one of Dad’s old classmates had put
some flowers there on Easter that were still there (they were silk).
Thanks Roseanne!

Later that afternoon, the kids, Danae, and I took a walk down to the end
of Cottage Ave. where my Dad grew up. It’s kind of amazing, but in all the
trips I’ve taken there, I’ve never walked down to that end of the street.
Down there, we found a large field with a couple of cows. On the way back,
we ran into Roseanne Swiger and her husband Bob. Bob told me that the field
at the end of the street used to be known as Carpino’s field. It’s where
my Dad and his friends used to go to play sand lot football. Kinda cool
don’t ya think?

##Thursday 4/23/98: Happy Birthday Grampa!

Today would have been my Grampa Carney’s 113th birthday. Happy Birthday

Today was the day that my aunts took the kids to Toys R Us. Now I know how
embarassed my parents were when we visited here and they took me there. Oh
well. They’re the sweetest ladies, and I wouldn’t want to stop them from
doing something that gives them some joy.

We went to dinner at the local nice restaurant, Eli’s. Everybody there knew
my dad. We had a nice meal.

##Friday 4/24/98: Happy Birthday Mike!

Today is my birthday. I’m 32 years old. Too bad I feel like I’m about 50
(just kidding).

We stopped by Bob and Roseanne Swiger’s for a visit around 1:00pm. My two
daughters spent a while playing with their granddaughter. It’s amazing how
quickly kids make friends. I think we adults could learn something from
them.

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Afterwards, we drove out to my great aunt Mildred’s for a visit. She was
married to my great uncle Joe Kraus before he died quite a while ago. Her
health is starting to fail now. It was nice to see her again. While we
were there, we went out back of aunt Mildred’s house to the West Fork
River which runs through town. My dad used to tell me stories about
swimming there. Unfortunately, now it’s too polluted to swim in, but
they’re trying to clean it up.

We were invited to my relatives Mary Gertrude and Andy for dinner. My
cousin Joe (Mary Gertrude’s son from her first marriage to my uncle Joe)
came up from Charleston to see us while we were in town. We had a nice
dinner and some good conversation. Eventually, the conversation turned to
genealogy, and Andy explained that he’s a direct descendent of Israel
Putnam, second in command to George Washington during the revolutionary
war. At this, Danae said, “I think I have some Putnams on my family tree.”
We decided to give Danae’s father Rodney a call. It turns out that Danae
is also a direct descendent of Israel Putnam, making Danae and Andy about
5th cousins! You find out the weirdest connections with genealogy!!

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##Saturday 4/25/98: Back to Pittsburg

We woke up this morning and decided to take a drive out to the old Kraus
farm, and maybe take a trip up to Lake Riley if we could. Well, it turned
out that Randy Stark (my second cousin) had a 4 wheel drive vehicle that
could get us into the old lake without a problem, and that he has a permit
to enter the site.

We took a drive out and Danae and the kids got to see the lake. I have
quite a few wonderful memories from times in my childhood spent at that
lake. We took a drive around the lake and found one of the cabins still
standing. It was in pretty poor shape. It turns out the land had been sold
to a logging company. They had come in and logged, but they didn’t ruin
the place. Thank God.

We got back from the Lake and said our goodbyes to Aunt Helen and Aunt
Joanne. I really love this place and these people.