June 11

June 16

[This is Merill Kiehne, the adopted father for the weekend.  He is an active 94 year old.  His weekend adoptees are all in the neighborhood of the big SEVEN-OH and feeling it.]

[His actual sons, Jerry and Tom, were in town from such disparate places as Florida and Texas, and the partying began here at the 125th birthday of the Echo Press.]

[The party continued later that evening at Sixth Avenue Wine & Ale.]

[This is Tom and that is Merill.]

[And this is Jerry (Alex class of ’63), Tom (Alex class of ’65) , and Merill (Alex class of ’42).]

[And this is Brad, Tom, and Tom (all Alex class of ’65.)]

June 17

[And this is the still new Alex high school.  Jerry had never visited the place.  We gave it a try, knowing school was out.  But now days, kids work out in the weight room year round. The gym, and thus the school, were open.  We advised on-site staff we were just looking around.]

[And then Greg (Alex class of ’65) came up from the Cities that evening, and we all had our first fine dining experience at the new Bello Cucina (the old Old Broadway).]

[And one point in the weekend, the Super admitted to becoming a bit overwhelmed by testosterone.]

June 18

[The winery and Josie.  It was hard to convince out-of-towners that “the winery and Josie” were a good idea.  Brad, and later Tom, were game thinking they would put in an appropriate polite appearance before leaving.  (This was Brad’s first visit to the winery; neither had ever seen Josie before.)  They stayed for her whole show.  We knew that they would.]

[Bad weather was in the forecast, as it usually is for Josie?  It looked threatening at times, but the smart phone guys kept an eye on the radar.  We made it through – actually a comfortable day for sitting outside.]

[This appears to have been shot through water.  Go figure?]

[We gave everybody a break until evening.  Then it was on to Bug-A-Boo Bay and Anthony.  Apologies to him for the limited coverage, but we were fully staffed in the audience and there was a lot of catching up to do (the Etniers were reunited with Tom, European cruise partners, and it was Deb Trumm’s birthday).  I pretty much forgot about the camera.]

June 19

[The actual Father’s Day.  We left the Kiehne family to their own devices.  The Super and I stayed indoors with the air conditioning all day.  I did four loads of laundry.]

June 20

[Continuing the Europe cruise reunion, Helen and John invited all out for a pontoon cruise around Pelican Lake in Ashby.]

[Helen and Tom discuss the finer points of cruising Pelican v. cruising the Danube.]

[Loading it up – pontoon cruises require a plethora of coolers and assorted food products.]

[Yup, another beautiful day in Vacationland USA – the warmer and more humid weather of the weekend had given way to a crisp cool front!]

[Jerry, Brad, Greg, and the Super on point.]

[Captain John . . . ]

[First Mate Helen (or should their titles be reversed?)]

[Pelicans . . . on Pelican Lake?]

[An eagle and its nest.]

[Bird Island – cormorants are everywhere in the treetops.]

[Pelican Lake is big – 3,760 acres or slightly larger than Lake Ida.]

[Refugee from Texas . . . ]

[We’re done cruising but too worn out to get any farther than the deck . . . ]

[A photo op of the Boys of ’65 (with Merill, the only surviving parental unit, keeping an eye on all of us).]

[The Coot is Ashby’s town symbol.]

The thing to remember about fathers is… they’re men. A girl has to keep it in mind: They are dragon-seekers, bent on improbable rescues.  ~  Phyllis McGinley

Up Next:  Back to Europe.