{we're in the peach cabin on the left!}
I have less than a week left of my summer vacation, and although I'm so excited to see you, the thought of heading back to reality just doesn't sound as appealing as looking out my window at the kids running in the sand, sailboats anchored by the wharf, and the sun just about to peak out of the Bay Area morning fog. I'd say we've been relaxing, but in all honesty, we've been fighting ear infections and awful colds most of the week and just this morning are we all nearly 100 percent ready to enjoy vacation.
Capitola has been our traditional family reunion destination since my own maternal Grandmother was a little girl. No one got a full head count, but I think we neared 100 people at our Sunday dinner {where my Uncle John made the most delicious lasagna and meatloaf for the masses}. I created a simple recreation of my great-grandfather's entry in his family journal for the entire family to read. Family is so important to all of us, and this is such a special week for all of us to reconnect with each other, relax, laugh and create more memories for our own children. Just last night I wished I had my video camera as my "Gram" and her sister-in-law "Auntie Char" sat down over a glass of wine and talked about family memories. It's those moments in time that I hope to keep in my memory for my own children. My mother has been very adamant about trying to keep those lines of communication open for all of us, so that we remember more than our family's "name," but their character, as well.
{Gram and Auntie yesterday, in front of her cabin}
{The 5th Generation to visit Capitola: my Adler and cousin Zola!}
I hope you are inspired by my Great-Grandfather's writing {below}:
“The necessity for such a work as this did not impress me forcibly until I was about to turn my steps eastward to commence my legal education when I began to inquire concerning those of us who remained in New England and the family life there. It was not until that moment that the appalling ingornace of all of us concerning our own flesh and blood, living and dead, was brought home to me, and on the spur of the moment I resolved that sometime in the not so distant future I would complete such a record as I have now begun.My resolution was firmly strengthened by the acquisition of knowledge of family affairs during my years spent in New England, and the careful preservation of this book, purchased in Virginia City, in the summer of 1911 for the purpose of writing what shall come here after, is the evidence of the steadfast character of my primary idea.
Though the raison d’ etre of this history lies in the absence of another, its design is not alone to satisfy that want, but as well, if possible, to instill in he or she who reads a pardonable pride in the family traditions and the family name,
and to nurture those attributes which are so essential to the well being and progress of every family unity, knowledge of self, and a permissible conceit in ones ancestry strong enough to
prevent the creation of so-called ”family skeletons.”
If the contents of this book shall inculcate in some of us a full realization of the familiar truism
that blood is thicker than water; if some of us shall be induced thereby to be better men and women through the knowledge of the upright and admirable men and women who have gone before us; if we can thus come to learn and appreciate the infinite worth of an honored and untarnished name and vital force springing from sentiments of family pride and reverence;
this effort of mine will have had a generous reward.”
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