EASTERN U.S. 2002

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We began our trip by visiting with Andy Paluch, our good friend (and the host of this web site) who lives in Dallas.  Besides seeing Andy, it’s always fun to return to the house that we got married in (Andy bought it from us when we moved to New Mexico).  We spent a few days relaxing and catching up.  Then, Andy hosted a dinner with our mutual friends, Trish, Mike, Anita and George & Sandra.  A great barbeque complemented with lots of fun.

Our next stop on the friends/family circuit was to see another good friend, Deborah Seibel, in Washington, D.C.  Deborah recently finished renovating her home there and it turned out wonderful!  We only had one evening to share together but we had a great time enjoying the town.  We first went to an upscale D.C. spot and then later in the evening went to a down-home Italian place.

Our first visit with family was staying with Vicki & Frank Dagostino in Mt. Laurel, NJ.  They hosted us in their home despite being in the throws of moving the following week.  That’s something only family would do!  We had a wonderful visit and enjoyed some special Amarone together (Amarone is a great Italian red wine).  While staying with Vicki & Frank, we went into Philadelphia to have lunch with their daughter Lisa (we were lucky to pull her away from her law firm for a few hours).   We also had a great family dinner on evening at the Mesmer home.  Roselle (Frank & Vicki’s daughter) and her husband, Mark, and children Katie & Michael, had the four of us over for a wonderful meal and great company. 

We left the Dagostino home and headed directly to the home of Ed’s son and his wife, Ken and Cathy.  We enjoyed a great weekend with them!  Ken was able to get home a bit early on Friday so we enjoyed the afternoon together and then made a great pasta dinner with goodies from Cathy’s garden.  The following evening we enjoyed a seafood feast (prepared by the father/son chef team) with Cathy’s parents, Florence & Paul, as well as with Jim & Karen, friends of Ken & Cathy, and their son and his girlfriend – 10 of us in all.

On Sunday, we spent the day relaxing and recovering from Saturday’s party.  We also had some great pizza and tasted a few wines while we watched the Jets get beaten by  Kansas City (not a fun sight, esp. since our hosts are big Jets fans – even CoCo (their puppy) has her own Jets kerchief).

Our next visit with family occurred the following weekend when we spent time with Ed’s niece and her husband, Laura & Tom McMahon, at their home in Foxboro outside Boston.  The last time we had seen Laura she was single and living in Los Angeles so we had lots of catching up to do.  We did go into Boston for lunch on Saturday and to pick up fresh seafood for another Saturday night feast.  At this dinner, we were able to also enjoy the company of Ed’s cousin and his wife, Richard and Maria Louisa LoFrumento.

The following week we returned to touring and enjoying the sights.  On the weekend, however, we had a planned rendezvous with Ken & Cathy in the Pennsylvania Dutch country (the town was Intercourse, PA; can you believe?!).  Boy, what great fun!  We spent Saturday getting to observe a very different lifestyle (the Amish) and actually did some shopping from men selling their wares off the back of the horse-drawn carriages.  We also had a delicious dinner at one of the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants.  The next morning we took to the road again to do more touring and to allow Ken & Cathy some privacy to celebrate their 11^th wedding anniversary.

We next visited a good friend, Rena Guimenti, in New Philadelphia, Ohio.  We had a relaxing and delicious dinner with her and again did some catching-up.  We first met Rena when she was staying with our neighbor (her nephew), Mark Pozzi.

After leaving New Philadelphia, we headed to our former home, Chicago.  There we caught up with lots of friends.  We had lunch with our travel coordinators, Bill Browning and Yvonne Delabrue of Beale Travel.  We had a wonderful dinner with Ed & Janice Zulkey.  Ed’s still the General Counsel at Baker & McKenzie (and unfortunately had an early morning flight the day after our dinner).  We also had lunch with Barry & Toni Robinson.  Toni was gracious enough to join the rest of us in town (the Robinson’s live in the suburbs) and Barry was able to break away for work for a catch-up lunch.  We also had a great dinner with Cha Villa and Donna Muraski, two of our favorite Chicago ladies.  We met them at a favorite spot in Greek Town which is always a treat.

On Saturday, we went to the suburbs ourselves to spend the day & evening with Deborah & Steve Kraus (and Sophie, their beautiful cat).  We again had a seafood feast and did lots of catching-up with one another’s activities.

The last stop on our family/friends tour was to visit with Lindy’s sister and her husband, Karla and Mike Massey.  We did a Mexican food dinner (we needed a fix!).  We then went to Karla’s home and visited until it was time to leave.

All in all, it was great seeing everyone!  It’s sometimes all too easy not to find the time for friends or family.  However, it is important to do so and to keep in touch.  It was wonderful for us to spend quality time with people we really enjoy and care about!

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