11/16/07 This will be our last night at Park Sierra, as we have decided to join the RoVing Rods for Thanksgiving down at Mittrey Lake near Yuma, AZ. We have had a nice time here at the park, mainly because there are such nice people here and also the weather has been great too. Some chores we always put off have been done, such as washing and waxing the car and RV, we have had some medical tests, and done a bit of reorganizing. Tomorrow we leave for San Diego, where we will get to meet Darran's new girlfriend and (hooray) return about 6 boxes worth of stuff to him, which we have been storing in our shed for years! Then, after a visit with friends Kathy and Sally, we will be off to Yuma. Hopefully, we will be able to reconnect with other friends down there as well. The plan is that we will start to do some travel research and decide on a place to go for our next international trip, and start making definite arrangements.
Today we had a very enjoyable Happy Hour here at the park and were delighted that so many great people showed up and stayed quite a while to talk. The last time we sponsored one we had to bail out at the last minute because of Tarra's illness. She is doing quite well, having finished her course of antibiotics at home.
At the end of this report, there is a picture of a red shouldered hawk which sat on a branch right in front of Ken & Carolyn's rig and didn't seem the least upset by the fact that 4 of us (and a dog) were within 10 feet! Today while we were packing the RV, an adolescent deer with small horns went running right down the path near our rig. It is great to have a lot in a place where there are still such animals roaming around.
Please contact us if you will be in the Yuma area so we can try to get together.

11/5/07 Happily, we can now report that Elaine's daughter, Tarra, is doing much better. She spent 9 days in the hospital, and will be on IV antibiotics for about another 10 days. The lab tests finally revealed that she had bacterial spinal meningitis, an e. coli infection, and a staph infection. The doctor said that if she hadn't gone in for help and waited another 24 hours, the infection would have gone into her brain and she would have had about a 5% chance of survival. They are still treating 3 other people for the same thing in the same hospital and none of them are responding nearly as well to the drugs as Tarra did. So we are feeling very lucky right now that we still have her!
We are also very glad that we have finished fixing up our rental house in Roseville and have turned it over to the new tenants. The outside was badly in need of painting, which we did, and after 4 days of painting eaves, we both have stiff necks!! The old tenants did a great job of cleanup, so all we had to do was paint the walls on the inside and touch up the trim. Now we hope the new tenants stay in there for a LONG time.
The last few days we have enjoyed some social times with old friends and family in the area, and that has been a treat. Since my brain was fuzzy from breathing paint fumes, I never thought of taking pictures, so there are none following this report. But we did have a delicious Italian dinner with Jan & Bill Vecchio on Friday, followed by a nice lunch out on Saturday with Roberta & Odette, old friends from Cool. Saturday evening we shared drinks and food with Carol & Ron Leonard, the SKP couple whose land we were parked on during our stay in Sacramento. Then we enjoyed a fabulous Asian meal on Sunday with high school friend Lois Cissell and her brother, Richard. Lois had recently been in the hospital with a slight stroke, so we were very happy to see that she is doing so well, with hardly any residual effects. Today we met my youngest brother, Jerry, and his wife, Diann at Chili's in Roseville, and had another delicious lunch. They are both looking fabulous and enjoying their retirement immensely. So you can see that if we did manage to work off a few ounces or pounds with all the hard work on the rental, we put it back on and more with all these food events!!
Currently we are driving back to Fremont, for another quick visit with Tarra. Then we have to return to Park Sierra because I have jury duty on Thursday and we have bone density tests on Friday. Our car is also in need of some repairs and we have to take care of that before heading south. Our plans are often made in jello, and are subject to change at any time, but it is looking like we will head south to Arizona for a while until we get a chance to do some travel research and make some definite plans for international destinations.

10/24/07 Again I have been negligent in updating this blog and I apologize. As usual, life has been very busy. Thanks for your patience.
We are currently at our lot at Park Sierra near Coarsegold, CA. Luckily, this is not anywhere near the fires in Southern California. Although, several weeks ago there was a fire here which came within just a few yards of some of the RV's in this park. It was fortunate that there were several other fires burning in the area so some fire fighting equipment and personnel were in the area and they put our fire out in short order. It was also a darn good thing that the volunteers in our park keep all the grass and brush cut back so that there was not a lot of fuel on the ground to enable the fire to sweep through the park.
Elaine's son, Darran, lives in San Diego and has reported that where he lives, on the beach, there is no fire danger but the sand is getting covered with soot. He is a manager for UPS and he says the drivers are returning from their routes all covered in soot, as well. Apparently not too many businesses are functioning except UPS and the hospitals. He was taking care of the cats of some friends of his who are on vacation in Cancun and when he went over there to rescue the cats from the fire, the police wouldn't let him in because the area was being evacuated. He still doesn't know if their house is destroyed or not. Other friends of ours down there are in an area that hasn't been evacuated but they are ready to go if the alarm is raised. They have already taken in their daughter-in-law whose apartment building burned on one of the first days. I'm sure there will be many sad stories for a long time to come.
The main reason that we came here at this time was to have some checkups at Kaiser and we are done with those now. We will have to leave here on Saturday, to attend the memorial service in Madera for a good friend of ours, Ray Cooper. From there we will stop in Fremont for another quick visit with Elaine's daughter, Tarra. We visited her last week but she was pretty sick most of the time we were there. This was a really a shame as Saturday was her 32nd birthday. When she was still very ill on Monday, Elaine urged her to go to the doctor and when she did, he sent her to the hospital where she has been ever since. He thought she might have spinal meningitis but they haven't confirmed that, and they have yet to determine why she is so ill and in so much pain. Hopefully, she will be starting to recover soon.
On our way back here, from Oregon, we stopped in Sparks for a visit with my daughter, Laura, who had her 35th birthday while we were there. Of course, we also got to spend a bit of time with my granddaughters, Paige (17) and Michaela (12). The next weekend, they had a swim meet in Roseville, so we got to see them again there. We were there checking out our rental house, which is due to become vacant at the end of this month. Happily, the tenants have kept it looking nice and agreed to show it to interested parties, so we have already agreed to re-rent it to another nice couple whom we have yet to meet. That will happen this coming Sunday when we are back up there to start painting the outside. Once the tenants have left and we get the inside cleaned and painted, we can turn over the keys to the new couple - by Nov. 4, we hope. Then we can start heading south for the winter.
In the Sacramento area we stayed on the property of some SKP friends of Jim and Diane FisherBaker, and they were there too, so it was a fun social time. Then, Bob and Nancy Colbert arrived, having driven all the way from Massachusetts in order to take a job in Pleasanton with John and Betsy Crawford managing a Christmas tree lot. They stayed with us for 2 nights in Sacramento and it was so great to be with them again after 2 years. They then traveled with us down to the Fremont area where we stayed at the Elks Club.
While we were in the Bay Area, we were able to visit John and Cathy Robnik, who are running a pumpkin patch in Saratoga. They have a petting zoo to take care of as well as selling LOTS of pumpkins, so they are putting in long days. It was a happy reunion with them, since we haven't seen them since last winter. The next day, Bob and Nancy, Elaine and I took BART to San Francisco so that we could have lunch with my son, Thomas, and his partner, Robert. They live in the Castro district and we found a very good Thai restaurant there. Then we all walked up a few blocks to the street that Laura and Gordon Bornkamp live on and there they were, with Diane and Jim FisherBaker, waiting to greet us on the corner. Laura and Gordon's house is old and unique and has a fabulous view over a lot of the city. Next time we go there we will no doubt take them up on their offer to stay overnight. This time, we spent the afternoon with all of them and then took the train back to Fremont. It was an absolutely beautiful day there and a fun time with old friends.
I am tacking on a few pictures so you can see what some of these people look like, in case you don't know them. Also, there have been a few questions about the last posting concerning the Nanaimo Bar recipe. The picture was of a double batch of bars. Also, custard powder is just the dry powder from a box of custard mix which you can purchase in the pudding and jello section of the supermarket. Bon appetit...

10/6/07 Thanks for your patience, blog readers - we are back with an update. Currently we are parked in front of Mike and Marilyn Harrison's house on Agency Lake, just north of Klamath Falls, OR. The past few days have been very pleasant here, due to the company - not the weather. It has been COLD. Luckily, we have an electrical hookup and can have our forced air heater on at night or it would be freezing in here. They have a lovely home and we have been enjoying good food and lots of great travel talk, since they are not only RV friends, but also world travelers too. They were on the last transAtlantic cruise with us in May.
You might be asking what we are doing here so early when we weren't scheduled to leave Winchester Bay until the 8th. Unexpectedly, we received a 30 day notice from our tenants in Roseville and we decided to head south right away to check the place out ASAP. This will help us learn what fix up will be needed at the end of the month, and also whether we can start listing it for re-rent while our tenants are still in it. That would help us get it rented again sooner because everyone who looks at it has to give their current landlord a 30 day notice too, and then we have a problem. Of course, we still wanted to see a few friends and family on our way south, thus the stop here. Tomorrow will find us on the road again, heading for Reno where we will have the instrument cluster on our RV replaced (yes, again!), and have a few days to visit my daughter and granddaughters, who live in Sparks. Then we will push on to Roseville for the rental assessment.
As we left Winchester Bay, and drove on highway 138 over the Cascades, the road ran along the upper Umpqua River and it was one of the prettiest drives we have ever taken. The trees are starting to change color, so there was red, yellow, gold and green foliage all along, with the river having some rapids and falls, and sheer cliffs and rocks periodically rising on the other side. As we neared the summit, the weather changed from mostly cloudy with occasion sunny periods, to all cloudy and rainy with occasion snow showers!! This hurried us along as we certainly didn't want to get trapped up there overnight. Mike and Marilyn weren't due back until the next day, so we stayed at the small casino near their place, called Kla-Mo-Ya. It has a large and flat parking area, perfect for RV's with the only bummer being 18 wheel trucks pull in there too and some of those idiots still leave their engines run all night. I can't understand why they do that, since fuel is so expensive these days.
Yesterday we explored their small town of Chiloquin, which took very little time, and then we hit a rummage sale. We also made a double batch of Nanaimo Bars, which are pictured below. I made them for one of the RoVing Rods potlucks and they were a big hit. So I am including the recipe at the end of this posting. It is a Canadian recipe which Mike and Marilyn love, and which Laraine, our manager at Lake Kachess, gave to us. It is quite a decadent treat, but well worth the extra calories, if you can prevent yourself from eating the entire batch!
Today Mike and Marilyn took us to a barn sale and a yard sale, and then we drove up to Crater Lake, which is only about 30 miles from their house. Being prepared for all the snow we encountered up there helped us enjoy the beautiful views across the lake. The snow still gathered on the tree branches was also quite scenic and made it feel like December instead of early October!! After a short hike around part of the lake, to take pictures, we made a dash for the cafeteria and a welcome cup of hot chocolate. Elaine and I hate cold weather and make sure that we are never in areas where snow might be present. Seeing Crater Lake in this condition was an unexpected treat, however. We didn't dally up there too long, and were happy to return to lower elevations and warmer temps.
Here is the recipe for Nanaimo Bars:
Bottom Layer
Butter or hard margarine 1/2 cup
granuated sugar 1/4 cup
cocoa 1/3 cup
Melt in top of double boiler or in heavy saucepan.
Beat a large egg and add to above, stirring to cook and thicken. Remove from heat.
Stir in the following:
graham cracker crumbs 1 and 3/4 cups
fine or medium coconut 3/4 cup
walnuts, finely chopped 1/2 cup
After stirring all of this together, press firmly into an ungreased 9x9 inch pan. Chill while you whip up the next layer.

Second Layer
butter or hard margarine (softened) 1/2 cup
milk 3 Tbsp
vanilla custard powder 2 Tbsp
powdered sugar 2 cups
Cream butter, milk, custard powder and powdered sugar together and beat until light. Spread evenly over bottom layer in pan. Chill.

Top Layer
Semisweet chocolate chips 1 or 1 and 1/3 cups
Butter or hard margarine 3 or 4 Tbsp
(The amounts are up to you but we like more chocolate on the top so we do the larger amounts)
Melt together over low heat. Cool slightly. When cool but still runny, spread over second layer. Chill in refrigerator.
Cut into small squares and enjoy!!

9/24/07 Well, the crabbing is still very SLOW here at Winchester Bay - darn it! The RoVing Rods Crabfest has officially started and there are lots of great people here. We are having fun social times with lots of good food, despite the lack of crab. There have been several potlucks already, with a Mexican potluck scheduled for tomorrow night, and a crab potluck for Thursday. I have a feeling there will be lots of non-crab dishes at that one! Saturday night there will be a steak dinner at the Eagles Club, with music and dancing afterwards. So, tons of fun, even without the presence of the desired crustaceans!
The weather has been beautifully sunny, but that also means frequent windy days. A few times the wind has been so bad that we closed our slide-out. That also means that we don't put our crab pots out on the river, where we probably would catch more crab, because we can't get out there to check them in our little boat. The people who have bigger boats can get their pots over to Half Moon Bay, nearest to the ocean, and they are catching the most crab.
Unfortunately, the thieves have been coming around some more and have stolen two of Ken & Janice Ryder's traps, and one of Jack Vincent's. John Primmer had some expensive knives stolen from his boat, and someone we don't know had their truck broken into overnight. We have also had several instances when our traps were emptied of crab by someone too. We can tell because they throw them back in the water with the side wide open. It would be nice if these kinds of people would just stay away from here.
Elaine and I have paid for a month here, and that is up on October 8. We will probably be heading to southern Oregon to visit a few friends on our way back to California. More details later. A few pictures from our experience here are below.

9/14/07

This update is from Winchester Bay, Oregon, where we are parked at Salmon Harbor Marina near the crabbing dock. There are about 8 rigs of RoVing Rods here so we have been having good social times with old friends. Unfortunately, the crabbing has been pretty slow, and the few crabs we have been catching are fairly soft, so they aren’t full of meat. The salmon fishing has also been dismal, although yesterday when we walked around the point, the fishermen there said that 8 chinooks had been caught. We saw one of them and it was HUGE. The weather has been changing a lot. The first day we were here it was so windy we could hardly have Happy Hour. The next day was so sunny, everyone was wearing tee shirts. Since then it has been mostly overcast, but fairly calm. Today was an absolutely beautiful day with sunshine and no wind – hooray!

Because of the slow crabbing, we took our time getting our inflatable boat set up and our crab traps out. We had 5 traps and we put them out 2 days ago. Yesterday we went out in the morning to check them and two of them had been stolen!! Boy, we were pissed!! The sad thing is that it seems that these incidents are becoming more common up here. Chuck has had his crab traps stripped several times, but at least they didn’t steal them. Cotton and Betty never leave their traps out unattended. They take their boat out and set their traps, then wait a while and pull them a few times, then bring them in. John and Vi bought a new trap yesterday and it cost $28. He already had a rope , bait box, and a buoy for it, so that would have added to the cost if he didn’t have them. You can see that when a trap is stolen, it costs about $40 to replace everything. This year a license costs $16.50, and there is the daily cost of bait, gas for the boat, etc. So crabbing can be a fairly expensive proposition. Of course, compared to the cost of buying crab, it isn’t. Plus it is fun.

Because we weren’t spending a lot of time crabbing when we first got here, we decided to can some tuna. We have to buy this because we can’t take our boat out on the ocean to catch it ourselves. Often they have to go out over 100 miles to get them. This year tuna costs $1.85 a pound for a whole fish, which means once it is filleted, you get about half waste and half fish, making it $3.70 a pound. We brine it and smoke it before canning it and it is delicious. We are also hoping to can some crab, as we have in past years, but if things don’t pick up on the crab catching, we won’t have enough to do this.

Pictures will be added to this blog in a few days.

9/8/07 Hello from Oregon. Yesterday we arrived in Salem to visit Elaine's niece, Suzanne, and her family, which includes her husband, Tom, Nathan age 3, and Erin age 8 months. They have relocated here from Arizona. We had a very nice dinner with them last night because we brought them some silver salmon fillets which we prepared on the BBQ. It was great to see their cute little house in the older, more stately part of Salem. The governor lives just 3 blocks from them, and Suzanne's Mom, Penny (Elaine's sister), might soon be living just one block from them too.
Below there are more pictures from our time with the RoVing Rods at Sekiu. The salmon runs were getting smaller and the boats were going to be pulled out by the owners, so we decided to leave and head for the next activity - crabbing. First we returned to the SKP park at Chimicum, where we again had an enjoyable social time with David, Ann, Laurie & Odel. Then we went to Tacoma where we got a new instrument cluster installed in our RV, which was covered by warranty, thank goodness. The LCD screen was so bad that Elaine couldn't even read it and couldn't tell what gear she was in, what the odometer reading was, etc. Now that it is installed, she has noticed that the tachometer readings are wacky. Perhaps another visit to a Chevy dealer will be in our future plans.
I have put some pictures below showing the process for obtaining canned smoked salmon, from the catching to the canning. It is a lot of work but well worth it. If we get an invitation for Happy Hour, or dinner, we are likely to bring some - hint, hint.

8/26/07

Hello Again Blog Readers,

Happily, this report is being posted from Sekiu, WA, out on the Olympic Peninsula, where the RoVing Rods are having their annual salmon fishing event. We were able to join them on Friday afternoon. On the way here, we had our RV recall work done in Tacoma, and spent the night at the Escapees park in Chimicum. Some RV friends of ours, Ann Howells and David Brown, rent a lot nearby in Port Hadlock and we had a delightful Happy Hour and wine tasting there with them. Laurie Brown and Odel King were also there and we had an enjoyable time on a sunny and glorious day, made even more awesome by the views over the water. David and Ann rent a house near Capetown, South Africa every winter, and we were happy to get some travel information from them in the hope that we can still travel there this coming winter.

Friday we drove from Chimicum to Sekiu and joined the RoVing Rods at Olsen’s Resort and RV Park. It was great to see everyone again and hear that they had been catching quite a few salmon. Elaine went out the next morning with Doc and Ron and they caught 7 salmon. We brined them after they were filleted, and smoked them and canned them today. Unfortunately, today when they went out fishing, it was pretty rough on the water, with big swells, and they only caught 2 fish. Hopefully, things will pick up tomorrow. We have been having delicious potluck meals and Happy Hours too.

We are finding that we have a great appreciation for our freedom, now that we have quit our job. The job requirements weren’t that bad, and the people we worked with were very nice, but the hard part was just that we had to stay there all the time. Generally the campers were pretty nice, and the campground itself was very beautiful, with tall trees and a large, beautiful lake. Too bad the weather wasn’t better this summer. It was hardly ever warm enough to wear shorts or even think about going out on the lake. We only got out kayaking a few times, and even though we eventually got our inflatable boat set up, we never did get it out on the lake because of the cold and rainy weather.

I am going to put a few pictures below that I haven’t been able to post until now because of the lousy air card signal we had before. Now we have a good one; same with our cell phone. So call if you want to and this time you will actually reach us.

8/16/07

Sorry it has been so long since we have updated this blog. The word busy wouldn’t even begin to describe what life has been like here. The frustrating part is that we are working about twice as many hours as we are getting paid for. When we took this job we thought that we would have some time to go fishing, kayaking, etc. on the lake here during our own time. That has NOT been happening! Also, the weather has been fairly cool and overcast quite a bit of the time, and when we do have a nice day, the place is crammed with campers and day use people.

The good part is that we have been having lots of visits with family and good friends. Pat & Linda Jenkins arrived on August 3 and Mike and Marilyn Harrison came the next day. Joe and Carla Calwell arrived soon after and we were glad to have them considering that they were having axle problems with their 5^th wheel and left it to be repaired in Boise. They were willing to stay in a tent just to be here with all of us! Luckily, the camp hosts have the use of an A-frame cabin in the area so they were able to sleep there. We all enjoyed the lake one day and spent another day exploring Roslyn, Salmon la Sac, and eating at the Mexican place in Cle Elum. Everyone tried our inflatable kayaks on one of the only sunny days we had. There were lots of happy hours and group meals and everyone had a wonderful time.

Another great visit was from my brother Jerry, and his wife Diann. They flew to Seattle and rented a car and drove out here on Tuesday. We convinced them to stay in our new RV while we tried out the A-frame bedroom. Carla and Joe, we don’t know how you ever managed in that bed!! There was a dinner for all the camp hosts while they were here and we were glad that they could join us.

There has been a lot of wacko things going on here, as usual. A few weeks ago, someone used an acetylene torch to cut into the cast iron deposit boxes for the camper’s pay envelopes. When Elaine went to get into the box and found the lock cut off, the box was still hot! So she called on the radio and Marvin immediately checked the boat launch box and that had been hit by the robbers too. But all the other camp loop boxes were still intact. Our pay box is not located near our rig or any of the campsites which might be why they hit ours and not the others. The dumb part is that they did this on a Wednesday, probably our slowest day and the day the boxes would have the least money.

A few days ago, Jim, the camp host at Crystal Springs, our loop that is located about 6 miles from here, across the freeway, had a problem with some campers. When he tried to get them to pay the amount that they were supposed to, they ganged up on him and then they called Donna and Ken, our area managers. They are the ones that have been causing problems here the whole summer. Donna knows these campers from past years and decided to take their side. She called Jim and started yelling at him, so he said that he was paying for that phone and didn’t have to listen to her yelling at him on it at ten o’clock at night, and he hung up on her. She called up Laraine and told her to go over and fire him and have him out of there by noon the next day. Of course, all of us that are left here are upset by this whole deal and Elaine has been really pushing for us to just quit. She says we don’t owe any loyalty to an outfit that supports managers like this. So next week we are going to quit. We have friends coming on Tuesday and Wednesday and on Thursday we are out of here. After having an appointment at the Chevy place in Tacoma on Thursday, we will drive up to Seiku to join the RoVing Rods for the annual salmon fishing event. So we are busy packing and getting organized to make our escape.

Sunday there will be a big farewell dinner for all the camp hosts here. It will be sad to leave all our new good friends. I am feeling guilty for leaving all of them to handle everything during the last few weeks of the season.

We have some pictures of our visitors but I don’t know whether our air car will allow me to post them at this time. If not, I will do it when I have a stronger signal.

7/24/07

Hello again Blog Readers:

Now that we have escaped from the campground for two days and are visiting our friends Kathy & Sally in Coeur d’Alene, ID, we have the use of their wireless internet and I can update this blog at record speed. Hooray! The main problem we have had lately is that the air card we got from Verizon only 50 days ago has already gone bad and after we jumped through all their hoops, they sent us another one. Of course, they don’t deliver to a campground so we had to wait until our days off to pick it up at the Radio Shack in Cle Elum. That meant we had no internet or e-mail access for a week. Now I have to see if the new one works.

Luckily, there is no big news to report of the same nature as the tree disaster of the last blog update. Yesterday, the loggers started to harvest the fallen trees in the campground and they were also going to take out about 15 of the ones that were still standing that seemed questionable. Our area managers want to reopen Thetis Loop, but those of us that work there think it is too dangerous. We will have to see what happens next.

Mostly what has been happening since our last update is that we have been working harder and longer because the warmer weather caused us to have a lot more campers, and we have been having visitors, with many more expected during August.

Jeanne and Rodger, 2 of our neighbors from Park Sierra, were visiting us this past weekend, and will return next weekend, along with Rodger’s son Marty and his daughter. It was great to see them and Marty brought out a great meal for all of us on Saturday.

In the more stories from Lake Kachess category, we have several incidents from this past weekend. On Sunday we walked over to one of our loops, Mineral Creek, only to find that one of the barricades used to close off Thetis Loop had been moved across this loop instead. The other barricade was totally missing and has yet to be found. So Thetis, which is supposed to be closed because of the danger of falling trees, was totally open! All done by some prankster in the middle of the night. The other incident was that this is the first weekend that we have been getting “stiffed” by people with regard to firewood sales. We keep bundles of firewood in front of our rig and there is a pay box where they are supposed to insert $6 for each bundle they take. Someone took 3 bundles and paid nothing, and the next guy took 1 bundle and paid $2. So much for the honesty of campers. A story on the good side of campers is that one of our older couples who is camping with us for several weeks, drove home to North Bend for the day and brought us back a container of raspberries from their garden. That was really nice. Of course, it happened during the time when we are having ripe huckleberries and blueberries all over the campground, so we possibly weren’t as appreciative as we would have been another time. We had huckleberry cobbler for dessert three times over the weekend, and we have brought enough here with us to Idaho to do it again for Kathy and Sally. Yummy!

One problem has been that Elaine has severely pull the rhomboid muscle in her back on the left side and has been in a lot of pain from it. We even drove to Redmond to the urgent care to find out what was causing it, and that was their diagnosis. So we haven't been kayaking or fishing and she has been taking pain killers and icing it. Hopefully, she will be better soon. The biggest problem is that we are getting older, and it is a bummer when these things happen as a result.

There are some pictures below that I have been unable to blog at other times.

1. Mary and Elaine in camp host uniforms
2. Mary and Elaine at Cooper Lake
3. Chipmunk eating like our campers!
4. Mary, Marsha, step-brother Richard, & his wife Carol
5. Mary & Marsha – the twins, on her recent visit with us.
   
6. Elaine & Frank – one of the other hosts.