This past weekend my family converged at the old cabin on Lake Michigan. Mom rented it for the week in order to spend some time together and finally spread Don’s ashes. The trip was eventful to say the least. Kathryn got things kicked off by getting some sort of stomach bug the first night we were there. She was up most of the night clutching her stomach and slept until nearly dinner time the following day.

Monday evening we walked down the beach to a secluded spot in order to spread Don’s ashes. After we said a few words and shed a few tears dad spread the ashes along the beach, from the massive dune Don used to climb to the shore of the lake he used to swim in. Dad waded into the water to put some of the ashes into Lake Michigan, but he didn’t notice mom’s dog Saki wading in after him. As Don’s ashes blew out of the urn, they were carried by the waves straight toward Saki who, ever the optimist, was happily drinking from the lake. That’s right, my mom’s dog drank my uncle.

After our little ceremony an old family friend treated us to a short memorial squeezebox concert featuring amazing grace and a handful of old Irish tunes. From there, we honored Don by heading to a nearby casino and gambling for an hour. Don must have been watching over us because I can most of us actually doubled our money. After that, we headed back to the beach for the last bit of the memorial, celebrating Don’s life by shooting roman candles and bottle rockets out over Lake Michigan. All in all, I think it was actually a quite fitting tribute to my Uncle Don.

Much of the trip was spent visiting old memories, and I think we all had fun. Despite being slightly chilly and overcast most of the time, a few of us still managed to get a little sunburned. Though dad rightly speculates that it could just have easily been windburn.

This morning I came back to work with a few new projects on my desk. So it’s back to the grindstone for me.