Visiting family

The rain continued throughout Thursday night and on into Friday morning making our commute into Quincy, MA, even more interesting than normal. The plan was to bring coffee and Dick's homemade apple muffins to Uncle Frank and spend a little quality time catching up with my mother-in-law's sole remaining sibling. 

We left 52 Linden a little before 9:00 am and headed off north. The rain persisted but it didn't stop us, although it had caused at least two accidents along the way, one of which appeared quite serious.

Nevertheless, Dick knew the way and before long we pulled into the Atria assisted living part of Marina Bay in North Quincy. Frank was waiting for us and after grabbing our picnic breakfast from the back of the car, he led us to the 3rd floor cafe sitting area where we spent the short hour chatting and catching up.

the usual suspects: Steve, Susie, Dor, Dick and Uncle Frank

After we said our goodbyes the four of us returned to the car and headed back to Douglas. where we relaxed until our next family meetup later that evening.

Dor, Mallory, Dick and Susie

About 4:30pm niece Mallory returned to D & D's and the five us piled into our car and headed off on the backroads to Connecticut. Our objective was the new Macdonald home in Glastonbury to be followed by all of us going to dinner at Max Fish near the new MacD homestead.

Traffic was slow going through the countryside but the drive through rural Connecticut was lovely. Once onto I-84, we moved a lot faster and traffic picked up, too. But drive along this stretch bought back memories of the many times we came down this way when we lived in Vermont to visit the Bergman family. 

Anyway, with Dick's assistance -- and that of the woman inside his phone -- we found the Macdonald house with little difficulty. Hugs all around was the first order of the day followed by a grand tour of the new space. Just a couple of days before they had received the last delivery of their personal  belongings and the house looked ready for the next phase of their life: Glen's retirement from the army and his new job adding to the large stock of changes awaiting them all.

After a tour and a glass of wine we followed Glen and Christina to the restaurant (the kids were relieved that they could stay home and not be bothered by the adults). We settled in for the evening, enjoying wonderful service, very tasty food (Glen and I each had the local fish, Tautog), and lots of warm conversation.

Glen, Dor, Dick, Mallory and Susie

Dor and Dick

Christina and Glen

Tautog with Hoisin sauce and Jasmine rice

Exiting the restaurant into the cool night air there was one more time for plenty of hugs to go around before we said au revoir. 

The day had been a good one to be sure: We got to see not one, not two but three parts of the extended family: Uncle Frank, Mallory and the MacDonald clan. Pretty good indeed.

Tomorrow we begin the return trip home stopping in the Berkshires to meet up with another old friend and slipping across the state line into Vermont to find a very special grave.

Oh, and in case you wondered, the Tautog: