August 4-5, 2000
Friday/Saturday

FlightS:
Brian and I departed from San Francisco after a nail biting drive up the Peninsula with the assistance of a shuttle driver from the Indianapolis 500 circuit, we arrived with enough time to spare to purchase some wonderful airport food for dinner: Brian had a "Sausalito Dog" (better known as a sausage on a bun) and I had a Caesar salad wrap without the wrap -- num, num!  Our first flight took us from San Francisco to Los Angeles so it was a pretzel/stick/nut ride with barely enough time to pass out the accompanying soft drinks.  When we arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport, an airport which I had never flown through before, we were surprised at the length of our walk-- Gate 58 turned out to be a long, long walk from Gate 49 even though it sounds fairly close.

When we got nearer to our next gate (58), we noticed that Gate 54B was roped off with Police tape ("POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS") and the first thought for me was "Oh, great, someone got shot!"  No, this was not a good thing-- I had hoped that the airport would be immune from such activity.  As it turns out, it was immune (at least for this incident) since it was, in fact, the location chosen by the crew of "West Wing" to tape an episode.  From the looks of it, we thought the work was done and the crews that were standing around (See, its not just CalTrans!) were waiting to haul off the equipment in one fell swoop.  Not so, apparently!  After about a half hour, a couple moved over to the seats in front of us complaining that the crew told them they had to move; they were going to start shooting and needed the non-extra extras (read: non-union) to move out of the way.  That's when we found out that it was the West Wing that was being shot there and that they weren't finished.  At the time, I remarked to Brian that I thought that was the television show that Martin Sheen was working these days.  Brian thought that he played "President Bartlett" so we wouldn't see him since anyone portraying the President of these United States doesn't use the terminals at airports.  As I told Brian, "If I can't see Martin Sheen, I don't care what they do over there" and I settled back down to continue reading my book ("White Oleander").

A few minutes later, there was a stirring in the crowd and out pops Martin Sheen!  Cool!  I went over first and got a few pictures but, I swear, he must've seen the camera go up to take his picture every time-- he'd move!  I took two or three pictures but after Brian reviewed them, he went in for a couple more to try to get clearer non-blurry shots of him.  Finally, we felt we had succeeded in getting a good enough shot.  Martin Sheen worked the crowd pretty good, taking pictures with the people in the airport including kissing a baby or two-- maybe the role's gone to his head?  Could be . . .

On our flight from Los Angeles to Cincinnati (being a "major" hub for Delta Airlines), there was some guy a row or two away from us with a very droning, monotonous tone in his voice who didn't understand the concept of "Red Eye Flight".  He did not stop talking through the entire flight.  I felt sorry for the woman he was talking to because I figured she, like EVERYONE else on the flight wanted to sleep but had to put up with him because she was married to him; we found out when we got to Cincinnati she was not traveling with him.  He was droning on and on all night to a complete stranger-- man was I ticked!!  Anyway, at Cincinnati our flight left about ten minutes late but, when we arrived in Grand Rapids (it has been renamed to Gerald R. Ford International Airport but it still only has one flight to Toronto-- departs on Thursdays-- per week!), Sue, Bill, Natali and Joel, and Karen and Ron were waiting for us.  I like being met at the airport and I know it is a lot of hassle for them-- I suppose its possible to lose a car in that airport parking lot but I think it would take a lot of work (yes, its small)! Most of the fun of being met at the airport is just seeing familiar faces when you get off the plane-- something that tells you that you're "Home".  So, thanks again to them for coming out!!

Brian and I followed Karen to our hotel; I didn't know exactly where it was and Karen drove directly to it.  Brian had fun riding down the road-- there was a McDonald's on a corner lot that would, in California (according to him), contain a 10-store strip mall and a 5-building apartment complex!  They have big lawns in Michigan-- something that kept him entertained just about everywhere we went. We checked into the hotel (we stayed at a Holiday Inn Express because Karen & Ron no longer have any spare beds and Sue & Bill have no spare room!), unpacked, and took a 2-1/2 hour nap (our first sleep since Friday morning).

Family Reunion:
My mother's side of the family has one remaining sibling who lives in Grant, Michigan on Hess Lake but, it is a long drive for her to come into town.  I would probably get lost going out there, as well, so I didn't get to see her.

My father's side of the family consists of three siblings (from a total of eight) that remain: Aunt Caroline, Uncle George and Uncle Jay.  I hadn't seen them (as I recalled on Saturday) since 1989 which is far too long!  My cousins from this side of the family?  I hadn't seen the majority of them for an even longer period of time!!  Not good!!

My sister, Karen, had reserved the township hall where she lives (Jamestown, Michigan) for our family reunion.  Brian and I stopped to buy our contributory hot-n-cold dishes at one of the many local Meijer store locations; we picked up a lasagna not realizing that it needed two hours to bake-- when we got to the hall, there was only about an hour and fifteen minutes left but baking in the oven for a bit and then moving to the microwave got it done!  My sister, Sue, her husband, Bill, and their kids, Joel, Natali and Aaron, all came as did my brother, Rich, and his wife, Lorrie.

Upon our arrival at the hall, I recognized Aunt Caroline right away; she's my father's oldest sister. Her son, Jim, came with her but she was missing Marilyn.  If Marilyn is reading this, I apologize: Aunt Caroline told me where you were but I don't recall (probably the lack of sleep!)-- it would've been good to see you but, hopefully the next time, okay?  It was easy to recognize Aunt Lillian and Uncle George, too!  I don't believe they'd aged a bit since the last time that I saw them!!  Aunt Caroline, as well, didn't look a day older-- maybe there are some good genes in our family after all!!  I caught up Uncle George on the current goings on in my life including the fact that I fish-- he got a chuckle out of that since that is definitely a gene-thang in our family!  Two of their kids came: Judy (and her husband, Gord) and Chuck (and his wife, Jan, and two of their kids, Cindy and Beth); it was good to see them!!

Of Uncle Jay and Aunt Jean's kids, Marv (their oldest) was the only one in attendance; Carol, Kathy, and Larry were missing but mentioned and hugs relayed as well.  Uncle Jay still has his handlebar mustache and Aunt Jean still gives great hugs!!  What fun to see them again!!

Uncle Chet's (who passed away in February) wife, Nell, was there, too!  I was glad-- I always liked Nell and it was good to see her, too.  Of Uncle Chet's kids, Bob and his wife, Sue, and their daughter, Kim, came but Phil and Terry and their families were conspicuously absent!  We always had so much fun going over to their house when we were growing up!!  (They had a pool table if I recall correctly!)

My cousin, Barb, whom I've been emailing with the last few months was there as well as was her sister, Shirley.  In the picture to the left, you see that my hand slipped and I got a picture of their knees-- kind of funny or at least we had a good chuckle over it at the time!!  Barb and Shirley (and Bob and his wife and family) are the children of my father's sister, Betty.  Aunt Betty also died a few years back; she was the youngest sister.

Unfortunately, due to conflicting plans made prior to the planning of the reunion, there wasn't anyone from my father's sister Gert's family present at the reunion.  Cherie, another emailing cousin, was going to make it but had to change her plans when she was reminded of her pre-paid reservations for a travel vacation and, among the others in their family, Donna and her family had a couple of weddings to attend.

We mixed and mingled and had a good time chuckling and laughing and taking pictures but, as usual, the food at a Dykstra family reunion was the tops!!  Lots to eat and, always amazing to me, lots of leftovers, too!  As people left, hugs were doled out and by about 8:30pm or so, Brian and I were exhausted so we left, too!

Tomorrow was another day . . .

August 6, 2000
Sunday

Thanksgiving:
When planning the vacation trip home, I told my sisters (Karen and Sue) that I wanted to have Thanksgiving dinner at Karen's on Sunday.  I thought a turkey with all the fixings would be good but, they out-voted me and we had ham with a lot of other trimmings: macaroni and cheese, orange jello salad, 5-layer salad, baked potatoes, broccoli (fresh from Karen's garden!) and a bunch more followed by the desert that Brian and I brought, chocolate frosted chocolate cake with chocolate sprinkles.  The food and company were wonderful and after dishes, we played a new card game: "Golf"  Its a fun game and we had a good time playing; that's one of the many things that I really liked about Brian when we first got together, too-- he loves to play these kinds of games!  We played cards most of the afternoon and part of the evening as well although a rousing game of "Greedy" was also played later on in the night.  It was fun and brought back a lot of memories, too.  Since we have no pictures, we need the memories so this is good that we've got these to build from as time goes by.

August 7, 2000
Monday

DeKlomp!!
On Monday, we had made plans with Sue and Bill to go to Veldheer's for wooden shoes and other Delftware that I wanted to buy-- turns out that the manager of the wooden shoe factory is someone that Bill knew from baby-sitting him years ago!!  We went to Veldheer's and I did some major shopping.  The last time that Brian and I were in Michigan, I was unemployed so I didn't spend very much money on Delftware or wooden shoes but I really made up for the last time this time!!  (There is a "dutch" store here in Campbell, California but, they charge a lot more for the same things that I purchased there so it was worth getting it there!)

After we left Veldheer's, we went to an antique store that was huge and full of neat stuff-- we had a blast looking at all of the old furniture and other items-- after all, Antiques Roadshow is one of my favorites!!  Then, we went to get some burgers and went out to Holland State Park to eat them and walk the pier.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, despite higher humidity (than California-- everything's relative!)!!  While we were out that direction, it made sense to move on to another beachy-like town, Saugatuck.  As I explained to Brian, when we were kids, if you were "uppity", you went to Saugatuck for the "summer months" or "summer vacations".  Now in my perspective, it seems more like Michigan's attempt to follow suit of Carmel by the Sea, California.

We had a wonderful day of sun and sand and afterwards, we all met at a favorite restaurant of mine, The Beltline Bar.  I hooked Brian on this a couple of years ago when we were there so it was a piece of cake getting him to go back.  We met Sue and Bill and their kids there after a quick shower at the hotel and, of course, it was divine!  Sue and Natali had the ground beef wet meat burrito, Brian had a shredded beef wet burrito, and I had a chicken wet meat burrito.  Bill and Aaron had a variation of one of the above and Joel had a burrito club (like a club sandwich).  Really TERRIFIC food!!

Again, that night, we went to Bill and Sue's and played cards with their kids-- great fun, indeed!!

August 8, 2000
Tuesday

Professional Shopper:
Ah, yes, a title I wear with pride!!  My niece, Faye (Karen's oldest child), had the brilliant idea of going to Shipshewana, Indiana, while we were here-- at first, it was going to include Brian but I know how he is about these things so . . . we decided it was going to be a Girls' Day Outing!  Karen and Faye and Sue and Natali and I were going to go but, as luck would have it, Natali got a really okay job that wouldn't let her have a day off so she couldn't come.  Not to fear, Cousin Barb (remember her mention from the Family Reunion?  She's Aunt Betty's oldest daughter!) stepped up to the plate, er, counter!  Karen picked Barb and me up at the hotel at 6:30am and we moved on to a shopping center where we picked up Sue.  Faye met us at the restaurant where we had breakfast because she feared not being able to wake up on time.  After breakfast, we headed on down the road for two hours or so it seemed, arriving around 9.

We arrived at the flea market and found a handy parking space next to Gate 14-- good marker in case we got split up.  The first row or two went by quickly or so it seemed-- better quality of items than at the flea market that Brian and I go to here in San Jose.  My first purchase was a 3' square shopping bag (does that tell you anything?).  By 11, we headed back to the Jeep to empty the shopping bags and have a snack (shopping is hard work!).  We went back into the flea market at around 11:30 but this time, we split up so that Sue and I could cover more ground more quickly.  At around 1pm, however, we discovered that the rows were starting to look fairly familiar: after you've done four or five rows, the lay-out is such that you'll start seeing repeating vendors after that.  The flea market is so big that they know that people can't make it through the whole thing so they start repeating vendors and that way, they catch the majority of people throughout the day.

I had really wanted to go to the flea market-- I knew it was something that my Mom and Dad went to frequently (quite often with Aunt Lillian and Uncle George) so I wanted to find out what the attraction was for them.  Obviously, I had a lot of fun and found some things that I couldn't have found anywhere but this flea market.  In addition to a very special item for Alex (Brian's sister's daughter), I was able to find a sweatshirt (Cardigan-style) and socks and crafts stuff-- I had a blast!!

On our way back home, we stopped at an unclaimed freight place that Karen had to go to-- everyone bought something except me.  Couldn't find a thing that was screaming to come home with me . . . maybe my ear was worn out from all of the things that screamed at me that they had to come home with me at the flea market?  Yep, that was probably it!!  Anyway, we were all deposited at our appropriate places in time and space to go our separate ways by about 7:00pm or so.  We had a fun, fun day, for sure!!

When Karen and I got back to the hotel, she came up with me to talk with Brian about her computer and, we decided to go over to their house to see what was up with it.  Brian ran some diagnostics on her computer while we played cards and the things that were "wrong" with her computer, got fixed-- its nice to have a computer geek in the family, ya know?

August 9, 2000
Wednesday

School Daze
On Wednesday morning, Karen and Ron came and picked us up to spend the day with us.  We had made plans to go to Karen's school to see the new wing of the Moline Christian School where Karen teaches.  We got to see her new room as well as the new library and the rest of the new facility.  There were a few people at the school, getting ready for the new year, too.  When she introduced us to people, it was always "My sister, the playwright, Marcia and her husband, Brian"; it seemed nice because I didn't realize that I had almost forgotten!!  (If you need a reminder, write me an email--unfortunately, its nothing I can talk about "out loud"!)

When I was younger and living in Grand Rapids, there was a restaurant on Division Avenue in downtown Grand Rapids called "Wo Fat" or something like that.  Eventually, they gave up the cultural name and started a restaurant a few blocks away called "Hong Kong Inn"; in the last five years or so, they opened a second restaurant that is located more in the 'burbs under the same name.  No matter what, however, there is a recipe that they have there that I cannot find anywhere else, even in San Francisco: "Almond Boneless Chicken".  Its chicken (dah!) served over lettuce with a gravy-like sauce-- it is to die for and I love it!!  Everytime that I've been to Michigan, I've found an "excuse" to go to the restaurant-- it is the best!!  Anyway, when we were there and with Karen and Ron, we met up with their son, Matt, at the suburban restaurant and had lunch with them.  Brian had a seafood combination of some sort, I had my favorite, Karen and Matt had steaks and Ron had sweet-n-sour chicken-- everyone was happy and, although Matt was going to go work out, he was the only one with a scheduled work-out planned.  Us?  We went to the Meijer Gardens for our hike!!

Meijer Gardens
The gardens are a project of Frederik Meijer who owns the Meijer store chain throughout Michigan, Indiana and Illinois.  Although I'm not certain of the history, I believe they've been "built" only in the past couple of years which is why I've never seen the Gardens before on any other trip.  We walked through the desert and tropical areas and then, moved outside and hiked around the Gardens to the daVinci sculpture.  It was marvelous and we continued our hike throughout the balance of the Gardens; Karen wisely sat it out and, considering that I didn't have on hiking shoes, I almost wish I had, too.  It was interesting and fun to go through and see all of the statues and sculptures along with the different flora and fauna that were in the Gardens.

Soccer
After we finished our tour of the Gardens, we had some time to kill before Faye's soccer game so we went to her apartment and played cards (again) with her and Karen and Ron.  We had to wait until she got out of work so we went over to Woodland Mall-- a true sacrifice on my part, I assure you!  Actually, I only bought a set of cards to play the card game we've been playing with my family all this week-- Brian bought books and a calendar for me for the year 2001 ("Star Trek, The Ships") and Karen bought a set of books for her to use at school.

Anyway, we left there and went to Faye's apartment, played cards (again) and then went to her soccer game.  She is really good and loves to play!!  It shows, too-- she puts her heart-n-soul into playing, that's for sure!!  This ended up being a cold-ish night for Michigan.  There was a fairly strong breeze blowing out from the West and we got progressively cold until her game was finished-- her team won, by the way!!  (I told you they were good!)

August 10, 2000
Thursday

Departure
On Thursday morning, we met Karen and Ron and Sue and Bill for breakfast before going to the airport.  I admit: I am a worried when it comes to getting places on time when we are traveling.  As a result, we were finished with breakfast two hours before we needed to be at the airport; that would mean that the four of them, if they were to come with us, would have to wait at least three hours.  That is, admittedly, a lot to ask someone to do so we said our goodbyes at the restaurant and Brian and I went to the airport after filling up the tank on the rental car.  It seemed weird not to have them at the airport-- that's part of having family in the area at restaurants, y'know?

After a half-hour delay (they would've had to wait even longer!), we finally flew from Grand Rapids to Cincinnati.  We had a two hour lay-over in Cincinnati but, once on that flight, it was smooth sailing into San Francisco.  In fact, the plane was a half-hour early!!  From the airport, we caught a shuttle from the same company but with a driver that knew how to drive in traffic (without making his passengers panic) and we were home by about 8pm.

We had a good trip and a great time!!  Thanks to all of our family for making our visit so much fun!!!

Pictures of Michigan Trip

Meanderings

Musings

Home

Copyright 2000, Marcia L. Dykstra