And now begins the day by day pictorial of our trip...

For many of you this is the first mention you have heard me make of a trip to the Midwest. I know! Why the veil of secrecy? The Williams/Spotloe families decided the best gift they could give their parents (Larry and Kathy) for their 70th birthdays was the gift of all the children being together. We decided to make this a surprise party. Seeing that my father (Larry) reads this blog, I could make no mention of what we were doing because he would suspect something.

It is going to take a few days, but...

Now! For the blog postings I wanted to make!

Wed June 9, 2010

Traveling to the Midwest takes just as much time as traveling to Asia when you are starting from Alaska. I think there are people out there who may not realize that. There is a five hour drive to the airport. There is the inevitable red eye out of the state. There is the connections (only one if you are lucky).

My kids once again blew my mind with their willingness to go along with this program and were considerate wonderful travelers!

It may seem crazy to choose a flight through Houston to get to Cleveland, but it is actually a lot easier than trying to stop in Seattle or Minneapolis. We had an easy go of it for the overnight and are now in Cleveland!

Thursday June 10, 2010

Grandpa (in the background of this shot) picked us up at the airport and brought us downtown to Shoulman's for a Corned Beef sandwich. Can you see the happiness on Vince's face? The sandwiches are so big and so wonderful we could only eat half of them. The other half we took home for dinner.

After going to lunch, Tom took us by Vince's grandma's old house. This house is in a part of town that is in the ghetto now. I call it the ghetto because I don't know another word to describe a blighted drug overrun inner city neighborhood. We didn't see poor people on the streets or gang members or any of the stereotypes that a person would think of, just boarded up houses and run down rentals.

We did meet Vince's childhood neighbor on the street who recognized Vince and was so fun to talk with. His family is the only one still on the block. He says renters don't stay more than a month or two so he knows no one around him. He says it's safe on his block because no one is there! But he also says it is not a place for children. He has the sweetest pit bull I have ever seen. I guess it keeps people out of the yard. It sure loved the kids.

At the end of our visit Ted said, "Vince, I still see your grandma's face when I pass the cleaners window on the corner. Like she's still in there working." It was very sweet and wonderful to have the past and the present drawn together so...

Ah! Cleveland.

From here we went to Tom's house (Vince's childhood home) where we got to see for the first time THE BED. This is the infamous bed that he told us about last year when he was here that is so big and so wonderful he keeps it in the living room. This is the bed with the mirrors and the lights. Vince and I were lucky enough to get to sleep in "THE BED". This picture does not do THE BED justice.

We then went to Phyllis's house, where the kids were free to play in the yard and get over their jet lag. I went shopping for shorts for Marina. It is amazing how difficult it is to buy little girl shorts that do not make the girls look like trash-tastic hoochie mamas. She is 7 for God's sake! She does not need to be flashing butt cheeks at this ripe early age! I decided I would just let her wear the only shorts she had in Alaska that fit.

Friday June 11, 2010

Went to Old Navy and found Marina some shorts that fit.

After sleeping until 10 (oy! jet lag) we picked up Phyllis and went to the Cleveland Metro park.
We saw all kinds of life that does not exist in Alaska and even found a baby turtle that became our pet for a day. The kids learned about fireflies and spent the evening catching and releasing them. It was a joy!

Tomorrow... Party at Phillip's!