Family Reunion

17 June: Grandma Suzy arrives. Grandma Olson's house (where she's staying) has been cleaned and is prepared. It is about the only thing that is.

23 June: The rest of the Florida relatives (namely, Uncle Victor, Aunt Joanne, Julia, and Grandpa Bob) arrive. Jessica and I appear on the scene rather late as they were working. We feel rather grungy.

24 June: Jessica and I stay up late waiting for Frannie and her two kids to arrive. Their plane is delayed, so they don't get to our house until 1 am. Jessica has fallen asleep, but my subconscious alerts me and I drag my half-asleep self off the couch, arouse Jess, and let them in. Then we go to bed, because tomorrow is a Big Day.

25 June: We wake up at various points and go through our various morning-time routines. These consist mostly of preparing to be presentable in public and eating. Then, all relatives congregate at our house while we prepare to head on up to Niagara Falls. ("All relatives" consists of: my entire family, Grandpa Bob, Grandma Suzy, Aunt Joanne, Uncle Victor, Julia, Uncle Wayne, Aunt Valerie, Nolan, Justin, Frannie, Ben, and Elsa.) Estimated time of departure is 0800. [We shall now break down into greater detail.]

0800: We are still preparing for liftoff.

0810: We are still preparing for liftoff.

0820: We are still preparing for liftoff.

0825: We have liftoff. We split up betwixt 4 vehicles. I land in Grandpa Bob and Grandma Suzy's car. With me are my sister Annetta and my cousin Nolan, who's 13.

0900: We are still driving. Nolan and Annetta are prank calling their cousins and organizing other prank callings of their cousins, and being prank called by their cousins. It is an amusing saga of our journey.

0930: We are still driving.

1000: We arrive, and as is customary procedure for all travelers throughout the ages (including Christopher Columbus), we swarm to the public restrooms.

1015: We acquire tickets, and by acquire, I of course mean that we grabbed other tourists's tickets when they weren't looking.

1020: And thus our Niagara Falls adventure begins. We stroll over to where the Maid of the Mist takes off and don our light blue ponchos. These ponchos are, in fact, a deliberate ploy on the part of the Niagara Falls Department of Ways To Make People Look Absolutely Goofy Without Realizing it.

1030: We are on the Maid of the Mist. This is actually a misnomer -- it would correctly be called the Maid of the Drench. Its namer was apparently a water-dweller, such as a duck or manatee.

1100: We slosh off the Maid of the "Mist" and discard our ponchos. Then, the insane among us decide to climb a staircase that is built very close to the Falls. There should be a sign posted about halfway up that says: "Warning: Fish Only!" As we see, there is no sign, and we take our waterlogged selves back down to where the wetness is much less intrusive.

1200: We find ourselves in need of lunch, and head back to where our picnic foods are calling us. We take our coolers to a flat, grassy area and commence consuming eatables such as turkey subs, yogurt, cookies, and juice. Then revived, we are ready to continue with the proceedings.

1330: We start off on a walk that takes us along side the Niagara River. Along the way, we see a smooth, flat place near the water's edge. Naturally, we dangle our feet in. Then we were informed by a park ranger that we are about five seconds upstream from the falls. So we get out.

1430: At this point, there are some of our number who need to get back to our house to get ready for work/sleep/prepare for the reunion, so we split up and a vehicle heads back. The rest of us hold a meeting in which we decide that some of us wish to go onto the Cave of the Winds deck (and when I say "we" and "us" I really mean "them.")

1500: We take a hike to Horseshoe Falls, gaze at it for a while, and then hike back to our vehicles. Once there, we split back up into our vehicles and head for home.

2000: This is our estimated time of departure for going down to Uncle Emery's for supper.

2015: This is when we actually leave. We sit around a campfire, talking, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

2215: We get home, talk for a bit about the next day, and then go to bed.

26 June

0800: It's safe to say that at this point, most of us are cognizant and eating breakfast, because today is another Big Day.

1200: At this time, we are hastily putting together the last little things, because the reunion starts in an hour.

1300: Folks arrive. We eat. We talk. We take photographs. They leave. We clean up.

2100: We have a bonfire for the ones who are staying here, and the close relatives. Then we go to bed.

Our Sunday basically consists of saying goodbye to Frannie and Ben and Elsa, and then church. Then we hung out at home. Monday was VBS, and Tuesday (today) the rest of the relatives left. It was great seeing everyone, and I hope we can see them all again! Oh, pictures...yes, I took a lot. I debated for about 3 seconds with myself: should I blog with pictures, or do a separate blog post with pictures? Th answer should be obvious: choice B. So I leave you with this wordy post, with a promise to get some pictures up at a later date!