Sojourner - Traveling with the “Canman”

  Hell hath arrived in Texas!  It was time to beat the heat and visit family in San Diego.  It had been 16 months since I last visited to help support my daughter-in-law while my son (my "baby boy") was deployed in the Pacific as a Navy pilot only one month after adopting two teenagers from Mexico.  What a change in that time!  The kids spoke great English.  But what was most amazing was the lesson they gave me in living in the now with gusto!  School - acing it!  Surfing in the cool Pacific - Let's do it ALL Day.  Tennis - Bring it on.    And I got the relive my days playing guitar with my son while he fiddled away.  Now with a grandson who plays guitar and a granddaughter who rapidly learning the piano.  Fantastico!  Does it take coming from challenging circumstances to learn to live fully?  It doesn't have to. But to make that choice is inspiring. 

Aunt Lil 2022 At the conclusion of the family reunion, I headed up the northern California coast to Mendocino.  My aunt Lil (my dad's sister) passed on while I was in Italy just 4 days shy of her 96th birthday!   Gilda Lillian Drinkwater was a grand lady, way ahead of her time, and a role model for me throughout my youth.  She and her husband (my Uncle Homer) had several hundred acres they had purchased for peanuts in the 1940s.  I had spent much time there many summers and wanted to pay my respects to someone who for which I have great respect.  Aunt Lil's obituary is here Aunt Lil on her porch overlooking  the Laguna Ranch in 2019 Upon arriving, I booked a room in the iconic Mendocino Hotel on the Main street.  The Mendocino Hotel was established in 1878, during the Victorian era. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mendocino was a thriving logging town. The hotel, in its prime location overlooking the Pacific Ocean, became a hub for...

It's been 20 years since I last attended the Canclini/Reginelli/Paoli reunion.  Now in its 40th anniversary, it is still going strong at the same Odd Fellows redwood park in beautiful northern California, near Guerneville.  I had just returned from Italy but was quite happy to leave the hot purgatory of Texas.  Arriving in Santa Rosa, I jumped into a car and drove toward the Pacific coast and the familiar sights of giant redwoods and cool breezes along the placid Russian River.  My youth swirled around me.  I understand why most of my clan never leave.  It's a throwback to an idyllic time, with a small-town feel that moves at a slower pace surrounded by lush beauty.  I traded stories with distant cousins and met many of the younger generations.   Odd Fellows Park The Russian River 60 miles downstream from where I grew up A Reginelli distant cousin La Fagmilia The surnames keep expanding but the attachment to roots remains.  There is some...

Want a wonderful opportunity!  I met my oldest son at the Milan airport and took him to Lake Como, where his great-grandparents immigrated from back in the 1920s.  It was a poignant experience, as we visited many of the same places I had taken my father 8 years ago before he passed. In fact, the picture above was taken right when I posed with my father. We visited Bellagio on day one and then made our way up to the lake's northern tip.   We visited the Canclini wine sellers and cemetery.   We hiked up into the mountains above Colico, for a breathtaking view. We also discovered a little church that had a fresco painted around 1490.  According to the documents, this version was done 30 years before Leonardo da Vinci painted his "Last Supper" in Milan.            Then it was on to Lago Maggiore, where I had stayed while I worked.  It was a wonderful "homecoming" seeing old friends and work colleagues and visiting so...