In North Dakota with the family

As you all know, our family suffered the loss of two of the cousins this past year, Ramona and David, so part of this vacation time was dedicated to visiting the rest of the family and seeing for ourselves how everyone is doing. We talk on the phone, via Facebook and via e-mail. But sometimes a face-to-face is necessary. We both thought we needed to go and visit and thought it would also help us work through our own grief over these losses.

First stop was Ralph's Aunt Donna, the mom of the two children who passed. In all of our visits to Ralph's family in North Dakota over the years we've always stayed with Aunt Donna. She and I share our birthday, June 22, we are exactly 20 years apart!

As you would imagine her grief is still pretty overwhelming, and yet she was a fine hostess for us. She arranged for Jaci and her and David's two oldest, Abby and Jacob, to join us at the cafe for breakfast the very first morning we were there. It was wonderful to see their smiling faces and to hear the exciting news that they have purchased a new home nearby and will be moving in around the first of August.





We had to say farewell to them, as they were off to a family reunion of their own, with 29 guests coming from California!! The twins, Matthew and Marcus, were already at the reunion, so we didn't get to see them on this visit.



We had a fun time at the breakfast, the cafe ladies are so sweet and some of Donna's friends joined us as well. Donna and her friends have their own booth at the cafe and they even decorate it for the different seasons of the year. Very cute.

The weather was fabulous the whole time we were there, with temps in the 70s and hardly any humidity and very few bugs...still the few mosquitos that were around managed to find me as they always do. Donna's gardens are always beautiful. Ralph and Beau didn't mind sitting out and soaking up some of the sun.



This is Donna's garden between her house and garage, really gorgeous!



Peonies and Delphiniums!



We also visited with Ralph's Aunt Mickey! She's a neat lady, and in years past there has always been lively conversation! She's 96, and she's been in a nursing home for several years now, first from a broken hip, then dementia and now blindness. We knew that she was frail and had some bad days now and then and weren't sure what to expect. We were blessed the day we visited and we had a really nice time with her, still a lively conversation! She's doing better than we thought and we were thankful.



Knowing my interest in family history Donna took us to several of the local cemeteries so I could collect information, and in the process she told me of the discovery of Ralph's great great grandfather's grave. Seems Andreas had come to the US to visit his son and died during the visit and is buried in the same cemetery as his son Peder! Another relative had shown Donna the grave, so up to that point none of us knew it was there. So that was a new thing to know for the old family tree!

Donna also took us to a combination 4th of July/125th Anniversary parade in Park River and it was a lot of fun. Loads and load of antique cars and farm equipment, fire and aide units from all the surrounding communities, pipers, bands, horses and riders and even a Polish dance group!




















After that we adjourned back to Donna's for a family picnic/potluck and one of the best fireworks displays I've witnessed in person in many, many years. Between our family and two others it was a beautiful war zone for quite a while after dark!! Really spectacular! More on that later!

Vacation with a mission...

As my boss said when I turned in my leave slips..."gee you are taking a lot of time off". I gently reminded him that I took virtually NO time off last year, save a few snow days at the end of the year. So began our second vacation of 2009! But we this vacation had some definite missions, to see our friends in Alberta and to visit Ralph's family in ND.

We started off by heading east and then north through Idaho and into British Columbia on our way to see our friends Clayton and Brenda in Alberta. On the way we did a bit of the tourist thing, stopping in Fernie, BC to learn about all the coal mining in the area. Fernie is a cute, historic little town in the mountains...really a pretty spot!!







Fernie was the headquarters town for a huge coal mining company and all the hills around the town that had a rounded effect (like the tree covered ones in the photo above) are areas that have been mined and reclaimed. All the craggy type mountains were not mined. They had a cute little visitor center with a nice guy who let us tour the small museum even though we had Beau along with us on our walk through town. He used to be an engineer for the mining company so had tons to tell us about the industry and the company and the area. It was fun to learn so much in such a short time. Then we were off down the road again.

Continuing on the Crowsnest Pass route we came by Frank Slide. This is an area that fell victim to the mining or to unstable geology...depending on who you listen to. On April 29, 1903 at 4 in the morning Turtle Mountain came tumbling down on top of the town of Frank and the mine there. More than 70 people died and Frank only had about 600 people total, so it was pretty devastating.

The debris field is HUGE!!! Probably more than 30 cubic meters!! And it all came down in about 90 seconds or so. It covered not only a lot of the town and the mine, but also the railroad that ran through the area. In later years part of the debris was cleared away to make room for the highway that now passes through the area.







Then we were off to Nanton, AB and the great air museum there. The museum is also home to the Canadian Bomber Command Memorial, a huge granite wall with all the names of those who lost their lives between 1939 and 1945 in the Bomber Command. Ralph toured the museum and took a few photos of his favorite airplanes and he also had a nice chat with a US guy who flew with the Canadians during WWII. The guy was super interesting and funny and Ralph probably could have stayed and listened to him all afternoon!







Arriving at Clayton and Brenda's in the early evening we toured their new house, beautiful! And sat down for a catch up visit with the two of them. They also treated us to a fabulous dinner out at Nilgiris Tea House just down a block or two from their place...a lovely summer evening walk there and back and a truly wonderful dining experience. Thanks to Karyn the owner and to Clayton and Brenda for a great evening.

It was wonderful to hear about their adjustments to being back in Canada after a few years in Pakistan, about their family and their own thoughts an plans for the next few years. These are awesome folks and we love them dearly. We hope they will come and visit us soon.

The next day we hit the road again, headed for the folks in ND!