Back from the chaos of vacation

We're back with more family news. I've been on vacation for almost all of August, driving to Minnesota and back, renovating a room or two at home, and getting Helen back to college. Along the way, I was able to visit with many family: Ed and Ann Lufkin took all four of us out to lunch when we stopped by Northfield to see Carleton and St. Olaf (for Peter -- he's a senior this year). Apparently Ed knew he wanted to do medicine at an early age, for he says his major at Carleton was a basic pre-med program. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I went to college, and Peter is not too clear on his future, either. I've always been in awe of such focused folks. It took me years to puzzle out my calling. I remember at one point, when I was almost 30 and still not settled in a career, I shared my embarrassment with Aunt Anne (High). She told me Lufkins were all late bloomers, so welcome to the club. She may have been exaggerating, but she cheered me up.

After about 4 days visiting with Bill's family (his parents live in Woodbury, and his two sisters are in Corcoran and Hugo), we stayed with my sister Anne and her husband John Haley and their menagerie on East River Road, where we are always comfortable and happy. We enjoyed their new veranda out front, with a great view of the whole population of Mpls driving, biking, running or walking by at all hours of the day and night. Their cooking is worth a detour all by itself.

During that time, we were able to spend a day with Mimi and Tom Scanlan in St. Anthony Park, where there was general devastation due to a storm about a week earlier. A straight line storm tore through and took a lot of trees out. Tom and Mimi had recently thinned their trees, and none of the remaining ones went down, luckily. But the neighborhood was hard hit. Mimi is still an avid walker, and they both bird and like to travel.

More tomorrow. Ed has sent me a drawing of the Lufkin family chapel in the old country, which I will scan in and post. That's all for now. Please let me know any family news you want in this space.