second and third cousins

once i was back in fairbanks, it was time to find some distant relatives whom i'd never met.  my dad got me in touch with his second-cousin lance.  my dad's dad's mom was a sister to lance's dad's mom.  lance had done a lot of research on the genealogies of our families and had contacted my dad a few years before.  but my visit was the first time our families had met.   i showed up at the house and was immediately welcomed like family : )

i sat for a delicious dinner which included lance-caught copper river red salmon in an awesomely perfected homemade sauce!!  to say the least, i was fed very well during my two night stay.   here's me with lance, leola, and my third-cousins symcha and vanya!

a dog, two cats, and a bird were also part of the family.

looks so comfy!

i tagged along with lance and symcha to a hardware store and to get their regular supply of drinking water.

lance grows and sells raspberries.  he had a big order that day and he said i could keep the income from what i picked for him.  we worked for over an hour, i think, and collected about 7 pounds total.   $21 bucks for what i picked - thanks lance!  : )

i had a lovely visit.  leola was awesome in the kitchen!  i ate lots of garden raspberries, enjoyed alaskan blueberry jam, homemade honey, we played scrabble, shared lots stories about relatives, and lance washed my dalton-dirtied van at some point while i was inside the house! i was again shocked at how blue it was!

i'm glad i got to stay there.  after my visit, my distant relatives didn't seem so distant.  : )