June 12th: St. Louis, JP's high school graduation, the annual paella party and on to Canada!

 

My sister Terri identified the bird in my blog about the Bambic trip. It is an Eastern Towee.

I flew in to St.Louis at 9:30 PM. Christi picked me up at the airport. When we returned to her home there was a flurry of activity. Will, Kaitlyn and JP all had lists of things to accomplish. Christi had not made a list for me so I mostly watched. I did get involved when it came time to move the furniture to place the new rug. There were many opinions and ideas for how best to do it. 

Not wanting to tell them how to do it, I said, "If it were me, I would just tip the sofa on its back instead of moving it out." Eventually my contribution paid off. Kaitlyn did a lot of math to find the exact center. We all recognized that the path of least resistance was to put the rug where Christi wanted it! It turned out great. It was now about 11:30PM and I said I was going to bed. The work continued well into the night. 

The next day, I knew that we drew the best "Work list" for the day! Will and I picked up his brother's truck so we could put the Torack's Lake house boat in  the water and bring it to the dock. Will suggested I come in the house even though his brother wasn't home. The house was the original house built on the street many years ago. It was quite interesting. His brother had a friend paint the entrance and stairs. Quite striking when I walked in. 

Will's brother is a lawyer and a judge and also an excellent wood worker. He restored and added many wood features. He built these book cases from scratch. Notice the detail at the top.

The Lake house is a wonderful place to relax and get away. Here are a couple pictures from my last visit.  

Putting the boat in was high on the priority list because Christi was anxious to use it as soon as possible. Also she and Will knew I have extensive experience in launching boats and it's a two person job. We put the boat in the water at the public ramp and Will drove the truck back to the Lake house. It was very cold and sort of drizzling so I basically rode around long enough to make sure it was running fine and then drove it across the lake to their dock

Will getting the back yard ready

There were 60 people coming for the party so the main reason for the 90 minute drive was to collect all their tables and chairs to bring them back to their St. Louis home. When we arrived, the preparations continued. My brother John and Daisey were also staying at the Torack home. They showed up Friday. 

Will was responsible for the back yard. 

 

Kaitlyn directed making a very cool fruit bouquet.

John, Daisy and I worked on the fruit kebabs. 

The entire party was a group effort.

The entire John Franko Family and my cousin Marialice were attending and Christi had planned dinner for everyone on Saturday. Will, Christi and JP went to the baccalaureate mass so Kaitlyn was in charge of dinner. I was designated her assistant. I made some salmon with dill sauce as an appetizer because I know many of us enjoy it. Everything went well. We enjoyed a fun reunion that night.

JP, ready for the graduation Ceremony

JP (3rd from the left) and his friends

The graduation was well done. It was inside a big theater so it was very comfortable. 

 

Christi beside the Theater
 "Bear"

.Outside the Theatre are two large bear sculptures. The graduates were told, "Do not climb on the bears for pictures." Christi decided not to climb on the bear either but it looks very tempting!

Paella chef Ray Muniz

The graduation was scheduled Sunday at 1:00 PM and the Paella party was to follow at 4:00 PM. Good friends, Ray Muniz, wife Trina and Daughter Abbey were preparing the Paella during the graduation ceremony.

Ray has been doing paella for Toracks for JP's whole life. They had a picture of him holding JP as a baby at his first Paella party. Christi thought it would be fun to re-enact the picture. There was some concern, but it went well.

The graduation cake was excellent. The school mascot is a Billiken. I never heard of one so I looked it up. Here is more info. Billiken

All of my great niece's and Great nephews on my older brother John were in attendance. It had been over three years since I saw them in person. They certainly have grown up!

My next stop was Cleveland to visit with the Drouhard family and Julie and Jim. The day after I arrived, I learned that my great niece had contracted COVID. Turned out there was a large increase in the number of new cases in Ashland county where the Drouhard farm is located. We determined to wait for a later time to get together. In particular I was being very careful as I was very anxious to get into Canada.

I enjoyed a few days laying low with Julie and Jim. Jim had been working with a physical therapist and I was happy to see he is doing his exercises and is getting around pretty well. I included this video to give him credit! Good work Jim.

My plan for getting into Canada was to meet my great friends Cindy and Randy in Detroit. They are Canadian residents and were going to be in Detroit for Cindy's high school reunion. They suggested I just meet them in Detroit instead of flying into Toronto and dealing with the crowded customs process. Plus I wouldn't need to rent a car.

Mia Steve and Liam

Cindy told me that they were watching their grandkids, Mia and Liam while their parents Nick and Niki were on a pleasure/business trip to Europe. They would be with them in Detroit. She said we should surprise them with me joining them in Detroit. We surprised them at a restaurant where we met for lunch. Linda and I had a lot of fun boating with them and I missed seeing them the last two summers. They were very surprised. It was fun to finally get together in person. They are great kids.

On the way back to Canada we stopped to see some of Cindy's relatives. At the first stop I saw a work in progress. The couple is restoring an old school house and putting on a major addition. It's quite ambitious. Then we went to a second home that was renovated and modernized by her cousins. It had a great rural setting. 

They had just finished putting a gazebo bar in the back yard. It is made from an old corn crib. It's very creative and fun.

Next we headed to the border. Cindy had completed all our paper work including vaccination records and we breezed through in record time. I finally made it back to Canada. Here is a view of the back yard with the tree house Randy built, and a view out the front yard.

Back yard and tree house

View from the second floor
screened in porch on front

We were watching Mia and Liam until their parents returned from a trip Thursday night. Then we planned to go up to the Island Lake house on Lake Temagami. Randy had been having some stomach pain issues. It wasn't COVID, but it was getting worse. Went to the doctor and discovered he had a large kidney stone. Definitely needed to come out before going to the lake. 

Meanwhile, Cindy and I watched Liam's baseball game and Randy wisely stayed home. Nick and Niki returned home and we enjoyed a couple nice days with everyone. 

Nick and Liam

Nick and Niki brought Liam a new cap and Mia a new necklace from Ireland.

Mia

Niki, Mia and Cindy picking strawberries

Niki, Cindy, Mia and I went to pick Strawberries Saturday morning. The strawberry farm also had a nice market. The strawberries are delicious.

Randy had some pain medicines so he was mostly okay except at night. We spent part of the time buying supplies for the lake and packing the truck. We have a lot of stuff to take up because this is the opening of the Lake House for the season. 

It took a couple days to get things arranged, and fortunately the kidney stone was removed this morning. We plan to head to Lake Temagami Tuesday morning.