Sunsets, card games and friends

Each year, we take a trip to Boston to visit with our college friends from Cyndi’s dorm that was called Russian House, or RusskiDom. Every several years or so, we try to have a special gathering. Some years ago, we went skiing in New Hampshire. This year, we postponed the February trip for a special reunion in July, again held in New Hampshire.

This was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had. There were 25 of us, including our spouses, children and a sibling. We went hiking, took a canoe trip on a river, braved a canopy tour(zip lining), participated in a cupcake eating contest, watched an incriminating video of the first reunion from 1991, played cards every night, cooked all our own food, and cleaned up after ourselves. There was much laughter, no quarreling and no drama. There was even dance lessons in Flamenco, Argentinian Tango and Swing.

We took lots of pictures, some of which I will share here. The others will be closely guarded state secrets published on a secret database until the next reunion. Earlier, I posted an entry with some photos of our at the top of Cathedral Ledge. Here are some photos of our last night, before we tried to polish off 20 bottles of wine, whiskey, and tequila(I think the vodka disappeared fairly early in the vacation. I think.), and hence, are submitted to the public domain for safe consumption(RusskiDom’ers, all of these are available in full resolution upon request):

The ‘family photo’:



One of our original members, Tanya, daughter Naia, the newest edition to the clan, plus one more on the way, all posing after sunset on the amazing property where we stayed:


I took a dozen shots of the sunset, and I think this one is one of my favorites. This is the view from the balcony:


Cyndi and friends playing cards at ONE of the card tables:

Some of the kids, wait, I think ALL of the kids, playing cards with some of the grownups. Well, playing cards with some of the adults, anyway:



Can’t go wrong with smiles and dimples, can you? And that’s me drinking, um, orange juice:


And Aaron playing guitar in the parlor, singers and drinks abound. There was also a ukulele and a saxophone that night!