Family Photo Album Travel and Visitors 1997 Smaller Trips: See pictures and Stories Below Link Month Days Place Who Feb 5 Dave's Brother Visits us in Florida (Dave Vacation)   Mar 2 Springfield, MA: Dave Business Trip Dave Mar 7 Orlando - Miami - Spring Training Baseball   May 1 Nasa / Kennedy Space Center (School Trip) J & L May 7 Lyn's Parents Visit (Dave in New Jersey) J & L   June 9 Minneapolis - Mall of America   July 7 Detroit: Jesse to Lyn's Parents Jesse   July  4 San Jose / Monterey, CA D & L Aug Cleo Comes to Stay with Us: July - October Sept 6 Washington, DC #1   Oct 1 Atlanta: Stone Mountain Dave Oct 2 Dave to Detroit: Mom's Funeral Dave Nov 4 Seattle - Vancouver / USA vs Canada Soccer Match D & J Dec 1 We help to foil a car thief! This Trip and Visitor Page  Is Still Under Construction Feb 1997 Dave's Brother Visits Us in Florida All Following the December difficulties around his family's reunion celebration, Dave decided to invite his oldest brother down to Florida to enjoy the warm weather and a drive over to Lakeland to see the Tigers spring training. Jesse joined in many of the festivities. March 1997 Dave to Hartford / Springfield Dave Dave had a 3 day class in Hartford, and his return flight was delayed 6 hours. Instead of hanging around the airport, he jumped in the car and drove up to Springfield, MA to visit the Basketball Hall-of-Fame. March 1997 Orlando / Miami / Spring Training All   May 1997 Kennedy Space Center: School Trip Jesse / Lyn   May 1997 Lyn's Parents Visit for Mother's Day Jesse / Lyn   June 1997 Minneapolis: Mall of America / Baseball All   July 1997 Jesse to Detroit to See Grandma Jesse   July 1997 Monterey / Carmel Week-End Dave / Lyn   July-Oct 1997 Cleo lives with us: July-October All   Oct 1997 Atlanta: Stone Mountain Dave You have to be somewhere, and Dave was in Atlanta when he learned about his mom passing away (Read his note of grief). Class ended early, so he drove to see "Stone Mountain" on his way to the airport. Like Mt Rushmore, it is an oversized presentation on a natural formation. But Stone Mountain is a relief sculpture and shows the confederate generals Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis. Dave's mom's passing had only a small affect on our lives, as we ended up missing Halloween but getting Annual Passes to Disneyworld instead. We spent the better part of 1998 visiting the famous Orlando park. Oct 1997 Dave to Detroit: His Mom's Funeral Dave  Dave's Mom passed away just before Halloween (Read his note of grief). We ended up cancelling Halloween trick or treating for Jesse, and Dave eventually flew up and stayed for just under a week for the funeral and burial, then returned to Florida to fly to Seattle with Jesse to see the USA-Canada soccer match. Nov 1997 Thanksgiving with the Gladiators With annual passes to Disney World, we made many short trips to Orlando throughout the year. For Thanksgiving, we made a long week-end of it, and had our Thursday night holiday feast at the American Gladiators dinner show. The arena and meal were just like Arabian Nights or other horse rider dinner shows. But the show was right out of the "American Gladiators" TV show, with tennis ball guns and the challenge wall. To top it off, the performers mingled in the lobby as we left after the show, and posed for pictures. Dec 1997 We help to foil a car thief All On our way to the mall we stopped at our local 7-11 just as a man ran out shouting "she stole my car". Dave said "Jump in" and we followed the culprit about 5 miles down the street. Eventually, she was hemmed in by cars at a stop light so we pulled up alongside and the man jumped out, yanked open the door, and grabbed his keys from the ignition. The people at the store had alerted police and we easily waved down a sheriff coming the opposite way (looking for us). Of course, we had the camera with us so we took pictures of the car thief driving and then stepping out of the car, and the two "trophy shots" below. Jesse got to skip school to visit the District Attorney and he was asked to fill out the incident report (instead of Lyn). The in-action pictures caused everybody to actually chuckle at the "open and shut case". The Heros at the scene of the capture Evidence photo taken and provided to police However, on a sad note, the car thief was actually a rather mixed-up young woman, dissociated from life from either drugs or mental problems. We did not follow up on the case, beyond filing the report and providing the pictures, that is somebody else's job. (Click here to read what Jesse wrote about this experience for his Fall 2001 English Composition Class). Click to view a different holiday or year Original Web Upload July, 2001 Last Update: January 19, 2002