I stayed overnight at the Venice Beach house in LA before flying to Washington DC. At Midnight I couldn't sleep due to jet lag so I got up and stood in the Pacific Ocean and thought about how far I have come.
Well, I look like I had one too many martini's. It was so much fun to reconnect with my friend Bruce in Kalamazoo on the way up to Boyne.
Bruce and I only made it 50 miles north of Kalamazoo the first try do to snow. We had to take refuge in the Pantland Hotel in Grand Rapids which had been greatly upgraded from what I remembered it to be as a kid. We also checked out Fountain Street Church a few blocks away where our family spent a lot of time in the 1960's - it looked great.
Bruce and I went out to Dee's cottage with Dad presumably to check the propane. Actually it was just a good excuse to get out in the snow in the woods by the lake.
We went to the Eagle's Hockey game in Loveland with Uncle Dave and Aunt Robyn Bingham
Our extended family gathering in Bruce's house resulted in a music jam session for a couple of evenings. In this picture Bruce, his son in law Paul and Paul's son Jimmy, and Elena's friend Scott (on mandolin) cranking out the tunes. I got to play the auto harp and sing a bit. We were doing folk songs and generally we were either missing most of the words and part of the tune, but it was great fun.
