Day eight: June 15, 2026 Rochester, Minnesota

So a nice day to sleep in. We follow the progress of Patti's sister, Peggy, and her daughter, son and daughter-in-law as they found their way back to Dallas and over to Miami. They had flights canceled yesterday. We’re glad everybody made it to their destination safely.

Dick and Patti were able to sleep in a bit and have a little nice time first thing in the morning with Patti’s mom and brother Perry.

Then it was time to drive 45 miles up the road to Cannon Falls, Minnesota. There we were meeting with dear friends, Dennis and Kathryn. We all knew each other when we all lived in the Twin Cities more than 35 years ago. But, then Patti and Dick moved to California and Dennis and Kathryn moved to Boston. We don’t get to see each other that often but we keep in touch via Zoom. It just so happened that they were also in Minnesota visiting family while at the same time Patti and Dick, too, were in Minnesota with family. We were able to drive to and meet at an authentic Mexican restaurant in Cannon Falls.

What a lovely time to eat good food and catch up on the happenings that we had all been having, including news of family. The food was great and wonderful company. Then we took a little walk through the neighborhood, including going in a tunnel underneath the freeway. Just enjoying the beautiful day and each other’s company. When you can do it, it is such a joy to be together with friends.

Heading South towards Rochester we stopped in Zambrota to see the only covered bridge in Minnesota. It had been restored and moved 1000 feet to a more central location next to a park in the center of town.  Lovely!

Then, back to Patti‘s mom‘s house. We took a little nap and then had one last visit from our niece Anna, who was headed back to Berkeley tomorrow morning, and Patti‘s sister Paula, who will be headed off to her cabin in Wisconsin sometime tomorrow. We had a great chance to hear a little bit more about Anna‘s plans following her graduation from her PhD program last month.

Paula and Anna had ridden a tandem bike yesterday for over 20 miles and today's ride was 36 miles. The bike trails in Minnesota are great versions of "rails to trails." This ride today was the most Paula had ever ridden. Anna is an amazing athlete and riding on a tandem with her means you move along really fast. It was fun to hear about their adventures. Paula had just purchased a new tandem bike rack which we admired when she still had it on the car when they visited.

Joan's yard is a haven for wildlife. There are always squirrels and birds visiting the feeders. Often there is a bunny munching on the grass. While Dick was watching a bunny, Joan was looking at a photo book of her mother. Patti and Dick had produced it many years ago.

Then Patti‘s brother Perry brought us a wonderful dinner of bratwurst, potato salad and Summer fruit.

After dinner we had time to work on the last of the photos to upload to the Google drive before watching a WNBA game. The evening ended with the last innings of a Twins victory in baseball. Joan is a serious sports fan and always knows what teams are playing.

We are now starting to put our attention towards our trip to Africa, which is only a few days away. It seemed so far out, but now here we are. We will be looking at our final packing list to see if we are missing anything before the final packing will begin,

Day seven: June 14, 2026 Rochester, Minnesota

So the day after the wedding would be kind of a kickback day. At Patti‘s mom‘s house we all slept till nine or 9:30 and then had a leisurely time. Patti sister Peggy‘s family had lots of chaos with their afternoon flight out of Minneapolis being canceled due to bad weather in Dallas. They ended up having to rebook on three different flights. But, after checking out of their hotel and having their flights booked, they then came over to Patti‘s mom‘s house and we hung out for a while. It was nice just to have a little more conversation. We will be seeing all of them in Maui for our niece Amanda‘s wedding in August. Nice to know we would see them in the not so distant future.

Then, Patti‘s brother Perry and his wife Jodi stopped by, along with the groom, Matt. They had finished cleaning up at the wedding venue and Matt had his car packed up and ready to head on home to Wisconsin. It was really fun to have a quick debrief from their perspective. They all felt the wedding went really spectacularly well. And we’re all very, very tired.

After that, Patti‘s other sister Paula and one of her daughters Maria came over and we had a little wedding recap time. Then Maria needed to head to Austin, Minnesota, where she’ll be at her summer internship at the Hormel meat company. She is studying accounting, one of the common family interests with two cousins already being accountants. Just nice to have a little visit with them. We’ll catch up with Paula in the next couple of days.

Patti’s mom Joan watched the Minnesota Twins and Patti and Dick worked on the nearly 400 photos from the wedding. The photos were all uploaded to a Google drive accessible to the whole family. The family has come to count on us at taking a bunch of good photos and we’re happy to do that. These are special special photos that we know are hard to replicate when people live scattered across the country.

Dinner was Joan, Patti and Dick quickly running over to Culver’s, local fast food place with a great combo meal that included an ice cream sundae. We’ve been eating so much the last couple of days there was no need for a huge meal. Then Jodie and Perry brought their dog over for one more walk in the park. The dog has been a great excuse to get out for another walk.

And so we made it through this beautiful wedding time. And we know the joy of being able to gather for a really happy occasion. Too often these days to gatherings are because we’ve lost a family member. What a blessing when we can celebrate for happy time.

Day six: June 13, 2026 Rochester, Minnesota

So there’s something about an event that you’ve had on the calendar for nearly a year, and then the date finally arrives. The extended family spread around town slept in late, went for walks, downloaded photos and enjoyed ourselves. 

Patti’s sister, Paula, and her daughter and son and daughter-in-law, rode their tandem bikes across town to come and visit. Not every family has not just two tandem bikes, but they have three or four tandem bikes between in the city and at their lake cabin. All of them very much love riding bikes.

Once we reached mid afternoon and it was time to get dressed up and head out to the countryside, wedding venue, about 25 minutes from Patti‘s mom‘s house. We had all anxiously watched the weather forecast the last couple of weeks and it varied from 90°, to raining most of the day, to raining quite a bit in the night before, to what we got. It was a beautiful day in the upper 70s sunny with a little bit of wind. The outdoor wedding was in a beautiful location and we all gathered.

It was so fun to see people we hadn’t seen in a while, included Patti’s aunt and uncle Jim & Len. Patti’s mom, Joan, was especially glad to see her brother.

Everyone gathered and grabbed photos in this beautiful picture setting. It seems to be the current custom, we were asked to put away our phones during the ceremony and allow the professional photographers to do their job while we were present. We followed that rule.

The wedding itself was just lovely. It was personal and filled with special touches. We are especially enjoyed the unity ceremony, where they each brought a jar of water from their home communities and then poured them into a larger jar signaling a deeper life together. This next chapter after having been together for seven years would be very sweet.

Following the ceremony, there were more beautiful photos in all different kinds of configurations. And then we headed up into a beautiful outdoor patio for drinks and hors d’oeuvres. It was so nice to see people and have even more time to catch up.

Then we all went inside for a dinner. The food was good and the company was great

A highlight was when Patti‘s brother, Perry, father of the groom, gave a really touching and actually very funny speech. He did a beautiful job. And his words delighted the bride and groom.

Then Matt two best friends, and Sofie’s two best friends each also gave beautiful speeches. we were struck by the excellent quality of long-term friendship that each of them had. That seems to be a very good sign.

Following the dinner and speeches, Patti and Dick took her mom home, having spent four hours at this big event, which was a long time for her. When she got home, she put on her pajamas and watched the final NBA finals game. She cheered on New York in their win.

Dick and Patti did not stay with her, immediately driving back to the venue where we had a chance to do some dancing, watch the young people in their 20s do a lot of dancing  and singing all the words to songs we’ve never heard of. Or, words to songs that we had heard of and couldn’t believe that they actually knew those old songs.

The dancing was fun, and we grabbed a little more visiting time with various family members. We knew the next day people would scatter around the country, and so really wanted to soak in this opportunity to be together.

Both of us looked a little at photos when we got back at about 1130 and then promptly fell right asleep. It was a great day where we all affirmed Matt and Sofie making this new commitment to each other,

Day five: June 12, 2026 Rochester, Minnesota

It was delightful not to have to get up super early and head down the road. We were already in town for this family wedding festivities. We slept in a bit and then had a nice breakfast time with Patti’s mom.

Then, we got a load of laundry going, Dick downloaded photos and worked on the blog, while Patti went out to a friend's, Randy, parent’s garage sale. He was conducting the sale, and it was so good to spend some time with him.  Patti had known this family since she was 14 years old. It was great to visit with both of his parents and she even picked up a few cool items to add to our load when we’re driving across the country. 

We had an early lunch and then the additional family members began to arrive. It was so nice to see everybody. Family had gathered from California and Texas. And, we were able to have enough time to go on a lovely walk in Quarry Hill Park, the 2000 acre Park across from the house that we all grew up in. We stopped to sit on the bench that honors "Mr. C," Patti's father Harold Christensen. He was an elementary school Physical Education teacher. The kids could remember "Mr.C." better than "Mr. Christensen." Nephew Drew appreciated being able to show his wife Toni around the area because she’d never been to Rochester, even Minnesota, before.   They all had wonderful memories of being that this woods as young people, and we all enjoy a good walk whenever we can do it.  Even better when it includes a large part of the family.

The afternoon flew by with lots of chatting and photos and catching up. The Dallas family had arrived late last night, and Paula’s kids flew in from California yesterday. So nice to be together.

At 6 o’clock we gathered for the rehearsal dinner with over 50 out-of-town guests gathering together at the hotel where many people were staying. For many of us, this was the first we got to meet Sofie, the Bride.  She is delightful. The food was great, and it was lots of fun just visiting and meeting people and catching up. These cousins rarely get a chance to see each other, and it was very fun seeing how much fun they had together. There were also a number of new partners who were there, amazing watching these young people grow up to such fine competent adults.  The whole day was filled with grabbing meaningful conversations with so many family members.  

Patti took her duties as an aunt photographer, and took over 250 pictures yesterday.  It is fun to be able to share some of them with the wedding couple on a wedding photo website.  

Eventually, it was time for Dick and Patti to head back to Patti’s mom’s. Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day with the wedding.  Hooray for family