Saturday, a lot of the Jung family returned to Indianapolis to attend Grandma Phoebe’s funeral. We are all spread out across the US (and even as far as Shanghai), but came back together again to say our farewells at Crown Hill Cemetery.
Each seat had its own name card. This year, Savannah realized they didn’t have cards for me and Liz… so she made ours.
Julie ended up taking the wheel while Dan was pushing and I was at the back of the truck. For a little while, I was trying to jump up/down on the truck, to see if that would help get it to catch the plywood. But we ended up rocking it enough to where Julie was able to get the truck up a small hill and back on solid ground again.
I later realized that everyone else had gone inside Holy Grail Winery (where they had some of the most amazing wine decanters I had ever seen).
We stayed out by the fire for a long while, and didn’t end up going in until right around midnight. Our nap had given us a little more energy, so Liz and I stayed up until around 1AM, eating potato chips and watching cable TV in our little nook. A very lovely end to a very full day.
In all honesty, the H.S. Clay House was just a phenomenal place to stay. Had we done nothing else at all over the course of the weekend, had we not gone to any wineries at all and just stayed at the house? I would have been perfectly content.
Another milestone, for my Grandma Phoebe – as family and friends gathered to celebrate her 105th birthday. Lots of dim sum, birthday cake, balloons, photos, and no small amount of face swapping on our mobile phones. A fun day catching up with cousins and nieces and nephews from all over (and technically all over the world).
The day after Christmas, Katie and Dan’s family headed over to Frankfort to hang out (and to have a post-Christmas dinner). On arriving, we all ended up congregating and hanging out in the kitchen for a long while.
Liz, Katie, Dan, and I met up with Bob and Julie for a nice meal on Sunday. To celebrate Bob’s birthday, we got reservations at Bavette’s.
After leaving Aruba, we had two full days of sailing to return to the States. With our land excursions at an end, we spent the rest of our time on board the ship, hanging out.
Just outside the Aruba Ostrich Farm. We learned that the males have dark feathers, and the females have gray ones. Part of the tour involved an opportunity to walk up and feed the ostriches (using a bowl). We were warned that the ostriches liked shiny objects, and advised to remove jewelery and such.
We were warned by the captain that we might be in for some rough travel, and he advised folks who might be prone to motion sickness to take some Dramamine. I’ve had a bad history of seasickness – most notably when I was traveling to Cozumel a few years ago. I made the mistake of trying to video our ferry ride, and watching the camera viewscreen while we were moving more or less did me in. I felt nauseous for a few hours afterwards, and it was a terrible feeling that took a long time to get rid of. It wasn’t something I really was wanting to experience again.
A little later in the evening, Katie got on Skype with Tricia and her family. It was a lot of fun to watch everyone on the laptop, talking with everyone down in Atlanta.
Over the weekend, Liz and I headed down to Frankfort to participate in some family photos. A friend of Tricia’s is a photographer, and was going to do some group/family pictures for all of us. What normally is a 45 minute trip ended up taking a little over two hours. Moments after we got into the car, we realized that…
For the past two years, Katie has been attending Ivy Tech and working on earning her Nurse’s degree. Lots of hours of studying, clinicals, and preparing for exams during that time. While her official graduation ceremony is on Saturday, several of us went to attend her “pinning” ceremony on Friday, in Valparaiso, IN. A view of the auditorium. We got…