Charles First Trip East-April 06

Until this event there was a family joke that Charles had never been east of Vernal Utah(that is almost to the eastern border). The fact that it was true made it even a better running gag. When we decided to move up here his first reaction was "I still won't go east of Vernal!!". He had been to most of the states in the west including Alaska(for our site visit last November). Well, to eliminate that problem I took Charles with me to Memphis where I attended a continuing education seminar at my optometry school. Now that I have benefits at work for education I can have some company.

We had the good fortune to stay with one of my best friend's while in Memphis. Tom and his wife Karen opened their home to us. Charles had the company of their kids...Rob and Sarah(twins Charles' age) and Dan...a couple of years younger.

There was so much of our family history that Charles had only heard about and never seen. Four years of living in a place makes it a significant part of your life. We ate at favorite places, visited our old neighborhood in Northaven, went across the Memphis Bridge to Arkansas, played golf(he got to play a couple of times with Tom and the boys), did off-road bike riding, ride a Segway, hit at the batting cages and driving range, and basically got to see most of the Memphis area. He also got to experience multiple plane changes in getting there and back...Sitka to Seattle...overnight at my brother's...to Chicago and to Memphis. This little commuter jet we were on from Chicago had one seat on side and 2 on the other. I could not stand up straight inside.

We had a good time and have made Charles a more complete traveler.