On July 28th, 2007, 25 family members from all four corners of the US (and beyond) gathered together in San Jose, California for the first massive family reunion we’ve had in decades. Why now? Well, my stunningly gorgeous and vivacious cousin Heather was finally tying the knot with her former-pro-bike-racing guy Zack, and the party gods had called us together for some serious celebrating.

First, allow me to introduce you to my family. As you are well aware, my brother has 4 enthusiastic, light-saber-wielding sons. My dad has 3 brothers, and each of them have kids. Closest to me in age are a) my cousin Steve, a fellow Professional Traveler and, in his free time, a Microsoft employee (hitched with smarty-pants girlfriend Kim, also a computer wiz). Steve regaled me with tales of life within Microsoft… employees working in their pajamas whenever it was too much effort to actually get dressed in the morning… where “dressing up” for an executive meeting means wearing socks (a generally scoffed-upon practice). Wow, Europe could learn something here. I mean, if Microsoft can conquer the world with that kind of fashion ethic, then dressing up has gotta be overrated (remember, Germany is a place where people spend a serious amount of time dressing up just to go to the mall.)

So back to my close-in-age cousins. B) my cousin Ryan. What can I say about Ryan. The last time I saw him, he was a very hyperactive 10 year old, constantly terrorizing our canary by sticking his hand in the cage and hollering “Here birdy! Here Birdy!” He now is a super-genius neurological radiologist (or something like that) who is called in to do the “hard cases” when it comes to his line of work. After well over a decade of study and residency (defined as 90+ hour work weeks), he is a man in dire need of a vacation.

My 2 youngest cousins (Adam, Brooke) jumped from being rugrats to full-fledged teenagers in the blink of an eye. Brooke leads the family with her funky sense of style (pink-and-white striped stockings with copper ballet slippers and a tweed beret… really, it works!), and Adam tools around in a shirt that says “Geek Club”. I was literally sitting next to them at the wedding for 10 minutes before I even recognized them as being my own flesh & blood. How time flies.

We also have family from the Deep South. Drawled introductions that sounded like “ahhhm Carol Robertson” kept Soenke on the edge of his chair, looking to me at times for translation into the Cali-lingo that has become his English-language reality. My southern relations are the kind of people that you want to sit out on your porch with for hours, sipping lemonade (or maybe some moonshine…do they still make that stuff?), shootin’ the breeze. They are genuinely happy, interesting, and interested folk, at home anywhere they set foot. It was a rare treat to spend time with our southern blood. They were full of entertaining stories about my grandfather, also a pilot, who used to fly into town in the family plane.. zipping low circles over the family homestead until someone came outside and noticed him up there so that he’d be assured of a timely pickup at the airport. He once landed in a rice field (thinking it was flat), which was in fact chock full of airplane-unfriendly ridges, causing his craft to bounce into a vertical position and require the field’s owner to later drag it out with a tractor. That was my grandfather for you.

Finally, my dad’s brothers and their wives (my uncles and aunts). All salt-of-the-earth people. My Aunt Linda (officially known as the sweetest lady on earth) was giving Soenke hugs within 2.5 minutes of making his acquaintance. My Uncle Kent - father of the bride - completely outdid John Travolta during the father-daughter dance at the wedding (where was my videocam when I needed it??). Uncle Rufus and Aunt Nancy… they retired, bought a motorhome, and now cruise the nation in search of adventure. My Uncle Tim and Aunt Heidi recently picked up and moved from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific coast, just like that. That’s sort of like moving from Mars to Venus, but they’re still alive to talk about it (I forgot to ask Heidi if she’d switched to tofu and Birkenstocks yet…).

And so, without further ado, I treat you to a pictoral dialogue of our reunion weekend:

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My cousin Heather and her lucky husband Zack:

My bro & his brood:

Me, my bro, and cousins Steven & Ryan:

My nephew Seth and the flower girl:

Our own little family:

A family field trip to the Redwoods:

Dad sports his finest field trip outfit:

Sophie likes big trees too:

We head out to the famous amusement park at Santa Cruz for some old fashioned fun:

I found myself some tacky new headgear:

Uncle Kent LOVES that carousel…

Steve’s girl Kim and I add some color to the wharf:

And here is the entire gang, in all our glory: