ALASKA CRUISE BLOG 2015

How much has melted? That was my first thought in April when I heard we were going to Alaska. I was thinking about the Mendenhall Glacier, a fast-receding glacier I had visited for the first time in 2012. A quick internet search showed that a feature I was keen to visit, a huge ice cave at the bed of the ice, had collapsed in 2013. I wondered if I would be able to visible recognize the melting that had occurred since my last visit. Fast forward to July. A big group of us (Tim, Nik, Marine, Christine, Becca, myself) took a taxi ride to the West side of Mendenhall Lake, opposite from the visitor center. I've never been to the visitor center despite having been to the glacier four times now. The visitor center's claim to fame is that it was under ice during World War II. In a testament to how fast glacier are disappearing, it's now about 2 miles from the ice front. We hiked along a nice trail for about two miles and then things got a bit "full-on". The lake level has risen over the old trail and so we had to take off our shoes and hike through the chilly, silty glacial waters. As we got closer to the glacier, the trees got smaller and smaller, indicating that there had been less time since the land was covered in ice. Scrambling over some exposed, low-angle bedrock we got our first enormous view of the ice. The lower reaches of glacier are tortured: 5-story tall crevassed towers of ice fight each other to break off into the proglacial lake. We just had enough time to carefully make our way up a loose moraine and step onto the ice for about 10 minutes. A nearby wall of ice, plastered onto a south-facing hillside and now orphaned from the main glacier trunk, was dislodging huge chunks of ice down towards our path. We had to re-navigate to a safer route. We had tricky time walking on the ice without crampons. We ended up grabbing big rocks to use as a brake in the event of a fall. I'm not sure they would have been that useful, but they provided psychological comfort. We then backtracked and made it to the trailhead with a cozy 15 minute window before our taxi returned us to the boat. The variety of food we enjoyed throughout this trip was delightfully extensive. Eating on vacation always has many perks. Being able to bring together ten of my family members to share food with will be memories in my mind for a lifetime. Even though dinner was our only obligatory meal each day, most of us spent breakfast, lunch and shared snacks together daily. There are not many things I enjoy more than having a meal with loved ones. Every day including our last one on the ship, most of us started our days with breakfast at the buffet. The food was similar each day but we all agreed that waking up to an already prepared meal was always delicious. One of my most enjoyable moments each day was waking up and walking sleepy eyed to the twelfth floor of our cruise ship and walk through the lines of the buffet. Once food and coffee in hand, we would meet and share our breakfast at the back of the boat that had an open air seating area. Even though most days were quite chilly, I never have the opportunity to eat breakfast facing the open ocean with the chilly Pacific Ocean air blowing through my hair. Lunches were spent many places for our group. Some wandered back to the buffet several hours after consuming breakfast while others took advantage of the other restaurants on board. A group favorite was O’Sheehan’s Bar and Grill located mid-ship which contained Irish fare and coffee cocktails as well. Many lunches and afternoon snacks were consumed here, making it a meeting point for many of our group each day. One of my personal favorite meal was found in Skagway, Alaska at Skagway Fish Co. Tim and I were in search of Alaskan King crab and our cravings were delightfully satisfied here. We ordered a pound of King Crab, two king crab cakes and a couple of Alaskan IPA’s. To say we were enthusiastically pleased would be an understatement. The crab was so fresh that a simple crack to the shell showed us that large chunks of succulent crab literally fell from each shell. It will be hard to eat crab back in California for us now. My all around highlights from this cousin’s trip come from our nightly dinners with one another. Each and every day we met Tsar’s Restaurant at the Aft end of our ship. We changed times daily to accommodate certain activities. As we all enjoyed three course meals and bottles of wine, we caught up on our daily lives back home and our days’ worth of events in Alaska and on the ship. Each night we sat in different formations around the table to enable new discussions and to ensure we were able to talk to one another. Being stuck in the corner of an eleven-person table for a week gets a little boring after about day two. There is not much better than hearing stories and inspiring insights from your grandparents after a long hike to an Alaskan Glacier or a stroll through a little city on the coast of Canada. This trip was one that will stay with me forever because of the time I was able to spend with my family. I am heading back to Los Angeles from Seattle Airport with a grateful heart! Skagway - by Jen Skagway was so beautiful! Christine, Becca, Drea and I set out from the ship in the morning planning to just wander around and explore the town. We stopped in several stores for souveniers and went into an old tavern that had been turned into a museum. It was great to learn about many of the characters who lived in town during the gold rush days. While we were strolling and window shopping we ran into a booth offering bus tours of the area for significantly cheaper than what was offered on the ship and we decided to go for it! We were taken on a tour of the area and saw several waterfalls, glaciers and valleys. We had some really breathtaking views and took some amazing pictures. The tour actually crossed into Canada, something we weren't told about prior to booking it so we didn't bring our passports. It ended up being fine but there was a lot of confusion on the bus as several others were in the same situation. Bridge lessons! - by Drea One of things Jen and I were most excited about for this cruise were to get bridge lessons from Grandpa Bill. Jen had a lesson about 5 years ago, but I've never played. We both love cards and have been wanting to learn the game. We knew that we couldn't ask for a better teacher than Grandpa Bill and a better setting to learn than on a cruise. On our first day at sea, several members of our travel group dropped in for our lesson. But, later in the cruise it was just us die-hard card sharks that stuck around. We learned conventions, rules of play and how to think like a bridge player. It is definitely a complicated game, but we had so much fun learning from Grandpa Bill and can't wait to play more!

COSTA RICA BLOG #1

COSTA RICA BLOG #1, Saturday and Sunday – Tim After arriving mid day Saturday and taking the shuttle bus on a short trip from the airport we started exploring the grounds of the resort. Costa Rica has been so different from what I have ever seen before. Our hotel is surrounded by empty beaches and jungle in any direction! In our first days here we have seen wild iguanas lying in the sun everywhere that don’t seem to care too much about people, monkeys howling at us, the biggest vultures you could imagine, spiky puffer fish, long skinny fish with teeth like barracudas, and so many small crabs that they make the rocks look like they are moving. Hands down my favorite part of these first days though were exploring miles of deserted “secret beaches” and finding really cool tide pools deep enough to jump off the rocks into. Exploring Costa Rica so far has been one surprise after another. Can’t wait to see what the next adventures await. Monday and Tuesday – Andrea After spending two days traveling and exploring, I’ve been inclined to take it easy. I watched from the beach as Nikki, Tim and Brad paddle boarded and kayaked, but the majority of our time has been spent the last two days lounging and swimming leisurely. It’s rained so far every day at least once, but even that is nice in Costa Rica. I was chatting with some of the local venders that have set up shop on the beach right in front of our hotel, and one guy was pulling his table in a little bit. He said he thought it was going to rain, and sure enough – not two minutes had passed before the rain began to fall. But it cleared five minutes later and the pool and beach were once again enjoyed by the hotel patrons. Nikki, Tim and I enjoyed massages on the beach yesterday. Jennifer arrived just as we were finishing, safe and sound. Just like us, the travel had taken its toll on her. But the best about Costa Rica is that nobody has a schedule or agenda, including the locals. I predict that she’ll be rested and ready to explore with us in no time.

COSTA RICA BLOG #2

COSTA RICA BLOG #2 Best trp I’ve ever had. Ziplining has always been on my bucket list as well as Tims’. So naturally, when we signed up for our excursion with the entire group in tow, we were beyond thrilled to be able to mark ziplining in the jungle off of our “to do” lists. The ziplines were just the icing on the cake. We started our day off bright and early and took a bus ride to the first stop of the day. We were greeted by many helpful workers and escorted by our tour guides to horse corrals. After we were set up on our horses, each with a personality of their own, we headed up a rather steep and bumpy ride. To our surprise, after the first zip through the jungle in our harnesses, we were told that we had nine more lines to go! All of us assumed that we would do one, possibly two, zip lines through the canopy. Our guides laughed at this and explained that there were a total of ten. After zipping through various parts of the treetops, hanging all sorts of different directions, we landed at the bottom. With our hearts racing and adrenaline pumping, we excitedly changed and headed to the 400-meter waterslide. The waterslide was far from a lazy river, as water rushed through a hand operated canal and flooded the cement slide that we sat on. At some points in the huge slide I couldn’t believe that something like this was legal and we all agreed that it would be a lawsuit waiting to happen in the United States. It ended in a warm pool and we were greeted with dry towels and fresh oranges. We were thrilled at this half of our day and little did we know, there was still much more! We had ignorantly assumed that lunch would consist of packed sandwiches and bottles of water. We were taken as a group to a small restaurant above a swimming pool, in the jungle. The food was absolutely delicious, completely organic, and we all agreed that it was our best meal of the trip yet! After lunch, our group was guided to another part of the jungle where we received a mud scrub all over our faces and bodies. After these dried, we washed off in the cool river and walked up to a beautifully crafted cement swimming pool that had a natural hotspring flowing into it. Our group had perfect timing and we had the pool to ourselves for the majority of the time. After this relaxing part to our thrilling day, we dried off and changed, just in time for the summer rain to start pouring. The trip home was spent by almost all of us dozing in and out from our exhausting but amazing day. We all had dinner and turned in early for the night so that we could be up and ready around 5am to depart to Nicaragua the following day!

COSTA RICA BLOG #3

BLOG #3 Jennifer Today started very, very early. We departed our hotel at 5AM bound for Nicaragua! We stopped in Liberia for breakfast and coffee before we headed to the boarder. We were informed that there is an extensive inspection process at the border. We say a long line of trucks waiting and we were told they can wait for up to three days to cross! Luckily, it didn’t take quite so long for us. We spent 1.5 hours or so waiting for our passports to be inspected and the van to be searched for drugs. It was pouring rain most of this time but clear skies by the time we made our first real stop! Our guide, Gustavo, spent most of our 15 hour day regaling us with a wonderful account of the history, politics, economics and geology of Costa Rica and many parts of Latin America. I should note that while I like to think I inherited many wonderful qualities from my Grandfather – including a quick wit, keen intelligence, rugged good looks and the ability to hold my liquor – memory for names, dates and places was not one of them! I’m sure that Grandpa Bill will be able to share many details of what we learned today, but I’ll just share a few highlights. Costa Rica is a pretty remarkable country. They don’t have a military. The vast majority of the country has access to water, electricity, phone and internet services. They have compulsory education through the 9th grade. Their infant mortality rate is below 4 per 1000 births! According to our guide, the country is 20% upper class, 60% middle class, 10% lower class and 10% poor, although I’m not sure how those categories are defined. This is all compared to Nicaragua which is closer to 70% poor and 30% wealthy. Our first stop in Nicaragua was at beautiful Lake Nicaragua. The lake is humongous! It is large enough that it has high and low tides and at one time was home to a type of shark. We passed this lake throughout the day and each time I thought it must be the ocean because of how massive and distinct it looked from each location. We stopped in a town and did a little shopping before heading to see the Volcano Masaya. Entering the park we passed a sign informing us in Spanish that if the Volcano were to erupt, they were not responsible for any damage we suffered. We were also given helmets before exiting the car, but luckily this activity seemed much less dangerous than our helmeted activities from Wednesday. Brad really enjoyed exploring the edge of the volcano and we all attempted to take great pictures each time the steam cleared. Next we headed down for lunch in the beautiful and historic town for Granada. I was greeted upon arrival by a bird dropping his blessings on me from the sky. Lunch conversation oscillated between Brad’s passions (earthquakes) and Jen’s passions (railing against capitalism). At the end of lunch, each gentleman at the table was given a card with information on how to rate the restaurant on Trip Advisor and “like” them on facebook. Being the feminist of the group, I think my face showed my obvious displeasure with being deemed unworthy to review the establishment. Luckily Grandpa Bill slipped me the card he had received so I can voice my indignation! We continued with a driving tour of Grenada making stops at a church, a railroad station, the town’s first hospital, and finally a park where we could do some more browsing. While in the park, most of us were approached by young children asking for money and some in the group were very touched by this reminder of the privileged life we lead. I’m unsure the degree to which we may have encountered the same if we had toured a town in Costa Rica. Our guide gave us such a favorable impression of CR and made it seem that Nicaragua is much worse off in nearly every measure. I got the impression that while many in CR live modestly, it is not nearly to the same degree of poverty that we are used to seeing in Latin America. I’m curious to know what this country is like away from the resorts. After the park we started our 4 hour journey back to the hotel. Gustavo continued to share the history of Costa Rica since the 14th century! Unfortunately, the day caught up to us and several people fell asleep in the van. We stopped again for customs where once again it was raining. I’ve been led to the assumption that it simply always rains at the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border. We had a few snacks in the van and perked up immensely enjoying great conversation and catching up until we reached the hotel. It was a long day but a wonderful opportunity to learn about two distinct and fascinating countries. Everything we saw was beautiful and everyone had a great time! I should also mention that we learned that today is Mother’s Day in Costa Rica! So, Happy Mother’s Day to each of our moms and to Dottie! We wish you could be here with us! Jen

COSTA RICA BLOG #4

COSTA RICA BLOG #4 I just spent a week in Costa Rica with my family. Here’s the summary. Costa Rica is amazing. The country has an enlightened democratic government, nice people, and natural beauty. I am going to come back here. My family is awesome. One nice thing about getting to spend time with them is that I can learn more about myself from our similarities and differences. We ate dinner together each night and enjoyed great conversation. Our trip was a mix of active and passive vacationing. We rode zip lines and horses and swam in rivers, hot springs, the ocean, and swimming pools. We also just hung out and relaxed by reading, napping, enjoying meals, drinking Costa Rican coffee and beer, and socializing with other tourists. We spent one day in Nicaragua. I thought a lot about analogies with the current violence in Egypt while in Nicaragua. The poverty in Nicaragua shows that disregarding human life in foreign policy is bad. I thoroughly enjoy our family’s annual vacations.

MEXICAN RIVIERA BLOG #3

MEXICAN RIVIERA BLOG #3 12 AUGUST 2012 It was amazing! Thank you so much Grandpa for the once in a lifetime trip that I will never forget! Honestly, I can say that my favorite part of the trip altogether, was being able to spend so much time with family. I live the farthest away from everybody, because most of the family is located in the bay area right now. So, living in the LA area, I hardly see my brothers or my cousins anymore, let alone my Grandpa! Tim and I went snorkeling at Lover's beach, and took a pretty awesome boat tour through the different beaches in Cabo San Lucas. This was also a great highlight to the trip. Can't wait to see everyone again! Hopefully for Christmas! NIKKY I have to admit, I was very nervous about my first cruise. I have a genetic predisposition towards worrying (Hi Mom!!) so I found more than a few worries to mull on in the days before we departed. Ironically, the one thing I just didn’t expect was feeling seasick! It definitely took me a few days to get my sea legs. I felt like my brain was in a fog for the first couple days at sea and I was continually bumping into walls. But, after I adjusted, I found the fun and excitement that Grandpa Bill has been blogging about for all these years!! My favorite part of cruising had to be our nightly dinners. Every night we had dinner together at a beautiful table overlooking the ocean. We were served by some amazing and friendly people who knew us by name and remembered our drink orders and coffee preferences after the first night. We were able to try some interesting new foods (although I tended to stick with the chicken) but my favorite part was the conversation. I don’t know how it is even possible, but after so many backpacking trips and holidays Grandpa Bill still has new and interesting stories to share!! Well, new might not be accurate – many were stories from his childhood and the early years of his adult life – but new to us! I really love being able to get to know my grandfather as an adult. I think that is privilege that not many people get. It’s one that I was not able to have with most of my grandparents. During the trip, one of my cousins dubbed Grandpa Bill “The Most Interesting Man in the World” and it is definitely a title that fits. Not many people would have the patience for a rowdy group of 20-somethings ready to party on a cruise, but he embraces it with open arms. I feel like I learned something new about him and from him every day and that is something that I will treasurer forever. It was so amazing getting to bond with Brad, Tim, Nikky and Danny. I think we are all growing up to be such awesome people with varying interests and talents. We spent a lot of time talking about the impressions we had of each other growing up and it’s interesting to see how we have matured since then. So, in closing, I loved the sunshine, margaritas, dancing, comedians, tours and the beautiful ocean views. But, mostly what I’ll remember is the laughter and the stories. I love this tradition of family vacations and I hope it continues!!! JENNIFER This cruise was so so much fun. Getting to know the wait staff, having everyone on the boat know us, laying in the sun, buckets of beer, touring Mexico, dancing for a week straight, and being with family to share it all could not have been any better. I think if I had to pick just one my favorite part of this cruise would be snorkeling at “lovers beach” in Cabo. The fish, the water, the beach were perfect. I thought it was so cool to be able to swim in the Pacific Ocean on one side of the beach and the Sea of Cortez on the other. Definitely an unforgettable experience. TIM What is it about going on vacation that makes me happy? First of all, I was lucky enough to go on a cruise to México and see a beautiful place with people selling me nik naks left and right. Some people get bothered by the constant seller but I also did buy $200 of stuff for only $40. Second, meeting new people every night and all day was a trip in itself. I barely got off the ship and I noticed I had a new friend request on Facebook from one of the people I met. Lastly but most of all, I love spending more time with my new family. Last year we all went on a trip to Cancun and it was amazing meeting everyone for the first time “officially.” But this time now that we have all the introductions out of the way, I wanted to get to know my family on a more intimate level. Tim, Nikki, and Brad all have a strong connection with each other that is entertaining to watch on its own. However, I was being accepted to join the bond they share when Brad is stoked to go out for the “best night ever” at the club with his cheesy smile and while dancing with lots of women. Jennifer and I also made a good connection this trip even after watching each other puke, although she had to endure my “awesome” smell of vomit a few more times than me. Putting this all together leads me to believe that the destination isn’t what’s important. The journey of how we get there is what counts. Even though family is what I think about most, I’m sure that you want to know about the cruise itself. And all I have to say is WOW. Imagine the best hotel you have ever been too and put that on water. Then on top of that there was entertainment all day and all night and great food for every meal. DANIEL The best parts of the trip were the things that we did as a group. The dinners every night and especially the classy dinners; eating lunch at a jungle river in the mountains near Puerto Vallarta; drinks in Cabo; walking around the boat on the sea days. The best of the best was going out at night and tearing down the club. BRAD For a grandfather to have a week alone with his grandchildren, five of eight, is a precious pleasure with which few have been blessed. I’ve been blessed. It was great fun watching each gain his or her “sea legs” and deal with the mal de mer that usually goes with first cruises. It was wonderful seeing the five bond and get to know cousins in a real sense. I was amazed to listen in on dinner conversations and the sharing of their lives and interests and, in the listening, get to know each a little better. And I was pleased for the opportunity to have a “one on one” with each, something that is next to impossible to achieve at family gatherings at holidays. Our trip was definitely the high point of my year and an experience I hope we can repeat in the future. We all hope that Gram and our three missing cousins Acan join us next time. GRANDPA BILL

MEXICAN RIVIERA bLOG #2

MEXICAN RIVIERA BLOG #2 10 August 2012 Our first day at Cabo San Lucas was for exploration. I hadn’t been to Cabo San Lucas for a dozen years and I was interested in seeing what changes had occurred since my visit. My recollection of “Cabo” was a well developed water front with lots of boats for hire and a scattering of private boats moored in the marina. I recalled the little town adjacent to the marina having unpaved streets and a growing handful of stores to serve the needs of the local residents. I found an expanded marina with many more boats for hire and scads more private boats. The walkways adjacent to the marina were filled with vendors hawking their services and ready to bargain to get a potential customer on board. The little town that I remembered has grown. The streets are now paved and lined with hundreds of shops catering to the tens of thousands of vacationers that visit Cabo each year. I walked about a mile away from the marina on sidewalks that seemed to continue up the hillside as far as I could see. On my walk I didn’t pass a single grocery store or any of the mundane businesses that once occupied the area. Everything was tourist oriented. I found a spot where I once bought some used tires from a local Llanterra (tire shop) that now featured a Jack in the Box store. Brad opted to explore the beaches to the west of the marina. He walked along the beaches that extend, at low tide, almost to the cape. He decided that he would like to come back one day soon to climb the rock formations that form the Cabo. Tim, Nikky, Daniel and Jennifer explored several of the cantinas that lined the marina walkways. All had a great day at Cabo. Some of us signed up for shore excursions on the second day at Cabo. Brad chose a SCUBA tour that promised to teach the use of scuba gear and a parade of tropical fish. On his return he was ecstatic about using scuba gear for the first time and reaching a depth of 45 feet in open water on his first outing. Tim and Nikky signed up for an afternoon of snorkeling. At the last minute the snorkeling trip was cancelled by the ship’s staff. No reason was given for the cancellation. On shore, they found that they could get the same trip to the same location for $20 per person rather than $60 per person. They had a great adventure watching a gazillion mackerel swim by and almost as many colorful tropical fish. Jennifer, Daniel and I opted for a boat tour of the bay in a glass bottomed boat. We poked in among the snorkel people to watch fish through the glass bottom of our boat. We saw mostly mackerel and an occasional flash of color from one of the tropical species that the snorkelers could see much better. Our trip took us out to the Cabo where we could see the two seas meet: the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez. Among the rocks at the cabo is a beautiful rock bridge and a wave carved window through which you could see the Pacific Ocean while sitting in the Sea of Cortez. The sea was a bit bouncy but we managed to enjoy our trip around the bay. As Jennifer, Daniel and I left the dock where we ended our trip, Brad magically appeared and the four of us sought out at local cantina where we could share our adventures of the day. The weather was hot and humid and the ice cold Mexican beer was really welcomed. An overnight sail at maximum speed brought us to Puerto Vallarta, our last day ashore and our cruise turn-around point. I had made reservations on line for a city tour that sounded interesting. The tour was scheduled to begin at 11:00 am local time. The night before we were told on board to set our clocks ahead one hour which we did. What we didn’t know, and weren’t told, was that it was the ship’s time we were coordinating our clocks with not the real time on shore. This was a brand new concept for me. When we arrived a half hour early for our 11:00 booking we were told that the tour had left already. Fortunately the company representative understood such problems and was able to call the in motion tour guide to solve the problem. Our tour group had already completed a tour of the Church of Guadalupe, the oldest still operating church in the area, and were ready to move on with the tour. A decision was made by the tour guide to give the tour group its promised “hour of shopping” early rather than later so that we could catch up with the tour. We loaded into taxis and sped across town to meet the tour with about twenty minutes left of the planned shopping stop. It appeared that the tour group wasn’t aware what had happened and we were pleased to be on our tour. As such tours go, ours was a fun one. We made the obligatory stop at a jewelry store where we were served virgin margueritas and a chance to buy some jewelry at a great discount. Some did. We then were taken on a route pass some marvelous hill/cliff side homes overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We imagined that this must be where the well-off folks of Puerto Vallarta lived. The homes were beautiful and the sea views spectacular. Our route quickly took us into what the guide referred to as an “almost rain forest”. The dense lush vegetation made us wonder why it was “almost” a rain forest. Our guide explained that the area we were in had about forty inches of rain a year while the city we had just left had about twenty inches of rain a year. We left the main road on a narrow winding dirt road that followed a small stream back into the forest. A couple of miles into the forest we came to a small village and our destination, a wonderful thatch roofed open-air restaurant. We were told in advance that the menu would be described to us, which it was. There was a choice of a half dozen entrees, beer and water. We found a table for the six of us and decided that a mixed platter. meant to serve three, looked good. We ordered two platters and beer and bottled water all around. The food was marvelous and enjoyed by all. The fish was especially good but there was chicken, pork and shrimp as well with rice and a green salad. As host of the day I was a bit shocked by the bill of $140 for our jungle lunch but in retrospect it was worth every penny. Our return trip provided a fun stop at a tequila factory where we were going to be shown how tequila is made. After a brief look around at the stock of tequila for sale, we were seated in a semicircle around our host who told us all we needed to know about tequila. First, we were told to shake a bottle of tequila before buying it. If foam shows at the top of the bottle we shouldn’t buy. Second, we were taught to inhale and blow out twice before taking a shot of tequila….all at once….followed by another inhale and exhale. With this instruction, we were each given a shot of tequila. Inhale/exhale, inhale/exhale, down she goes. We started off with the strong stuff and I found it burned a bit on the way down. Following the first serving we were poured a second and a third and a fourth and then we stopped counting. Some of us stopped drinking. The middle aged lady next to me took five straight shots and began an attempt to take over the instructional job from our host. A whole bunch of tequila was sold. It’s my guess that few from our ship were aware that they couldn’t take the bottles on board. The bottles would be confiscated at the gate and returned just before the end of the cruise. They never did show us the factory or how tequila is made. Who cares? There was a lot of animated talking during our bus ride back to the ship. And some took a nap. All in all our potential missed tour turned out pretty good. The last two days of our cruise will be ‘at sea’. Our cruise group has learned how to find the fun spots on the ship and how to make the most of the late evening entertainment. I don’t imagine that much of what’s going on will be missed. Friday night will feature another “Elegant” dining opportunity so we’ll all put on something special and look forward to something extra special on the evening’s menu. Life is great! Our love to all, Grandpa Bill, Brad, Jennifer, Daniel, Tim and Nikky