Service

John and Lynn both gave excellent talks that really gave a great portrayal of the influence and importance of Uncle Ed's life. The Navy did a flag ceremony and played taps after the service.

Lynn and Marian putting the ashes in the grave.

Eating at Bullocks afterwards.

Steph  

Table full of relatives

Pedro and Kathy

Char

Marian

With Lynn, Marian, and John.
It's been really fun to spend a couple of days with Lynn. He's always worrying about his memory, everyone else is  worrying about his memory but he's done fine. Between the two of us and GPS (mostly GPS) we've found our way around. He did a great talk at the funeral actually much better than at dad's.
On a bummer side Brad didn't make it in. He flew out last night got stuck in Denver and never made it any further. There was some sort of problem wit the computer system. He was hopefully getting s flight back from Denver to Utah so he missed everything. 

Walking down memory lane

Before the funeral Lynn and I went exploring  the land where we grew up. This is what's left of the drive way, the connection to the road.

A couple of cinder blocks is all that's left of the house. We couldn't find any parts of the old trailer that was in the back yard. The stream was still there, it's wider.

That's the foundation of the shed. That's the only way I had any sort of direction. The house would have been to the right and the trailer behind. My entire childhood is tree, weeds, and poison ivy. There was poison ivy and oak everywhere and I was trekking around in a dress.

Yep, that's where I spent the first 18 years of my life.

After the cemetery we drove over to the church on the corner of Green and Watts. I could actually find my way to the church from the cemetery. Once I'm at the church I can actually figure out how to get to my old house, school and friends. The church doesn't even look like the doors have been painted. The bushes are so big. So much of my childhood centered around this building. My friends, my family, my relationships, I got blessed as an infant in this church, I was baptized here, I went to kindergarten here, threw up in the hallways, had my first wedding reception here, Carter was blessed here. When we were kids, me, Art, Suzanne and the Condies' would ride our bikes from home to the church.

The window on the left has a metal awning on it. We used to climb up on the awning and climb in the window above it and get into the kitchen.  

Sometimes we'd get in through this window too. This is the play yard where I went to preschool. Of course all the toys are different. There used to be a swing set and a little painted wooden boat.

First night in NC

I flew in on Delta and Lynn flew in on United. He got in about 30 minutes before me so he waited for me. We went to the hotel and then to the closest BBQ place. It was attached to a gas station and was a dive so I figured it would be good and it was.

The cook, he's the man. Loved the food.

After eating we drove downtown to Grandma's house, 410 Hyde Park Avenue. There was an older lady across the street sitting on the porch watching us take pictures of the house. I told her my grandma used to live in the house and she asked who my grandmother was. She knew her and Pam Brach. She has lived in the house across the street for 55 years.

The house is blue and the stream next to it is filled with rocks but otherwise everything looks the same. The neighborhood is the same.

Home again

It was a perfect vacation. The kids had a great time, they swam in the ocean for hours. The kids did things they'd never done before and saw things they'd never seen. Sean spent 6 days away from the computer and Fortnite.

For our last meal in Catalina we went to The Lobster Trap and the kids said it was their favorite place to eat there. Actually our very last meal we went back to the pizza place where we had our first meal.

Watching the sky while I laid on the beach for the kids last swim.

They wanted ice cream at the shop on the beach.

Sad day, letting the air out of their floaties.

Waiting for our plane!

And we made it back to Salt Lake City!

Kayaking

I didn't kayak so I sat and enjoyed the view while everyone was out. I saw one seal in front of the swim buoys.

Panoramic view

Don said that the next time we came to Catalina he wanted to kayak. We didn't have any plans today so we decided it was as good a day to kayak as any. They all had a great time and saw between 4 and 7 seals depending on who is telling the story. Kylie is scared of seals but everyone else was excited. One of the seals was only a few feet away from the kayak and they could see it's whiskers. No one had a camera on the kayak. Kylie came home and was googling "killer seals."

The kayak team.

Not so many flying fish

We left at 8:45 to hopefully see some flying fish. Don and I saw them 15 years ago and I was impressed. The kids were exceptionally silly they pulled their hoods over their heads and ran around talking to people saying they were aliens.

No flying fish tonight. Well, I saw one and a bunch of  little fish trying to fly. It was a very nice boat ride and a beautiful night despite the lack of fish. We were tired when we got home and went to sleep fast.