"Yooper Picnic"

March 6, 2015

Where are we and where have we been will be summarized in the next few postings but for now the answer is we are in Mohave Valley, Arizona at the Moon River RV Resort.

Yesterday afternoon we drove over to Lake Havasu City, Arizona to attend the "2015 Lake Havasu Yooper Picnic". Held at the Rotary Park.  (For those of you who may not know what a "Yooper" is we are in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.  Definition: A native resident of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan--used as a nickname.)

It was a great day, the sky was blue, and the temperature was perfect for a picnic. The location, right on Lake Havasu, was beautiful.

Alice and Tom Vermullen

Alice is the one who set this picnic up and she did a wonderful job. This is the first one we were able to attend but I heard from several others it is always a great time. Thank you, Alice for a wonderful party!

Jill and Rick LaChance

Jill is the one who let us know about the picnic. So thank you for getting us to the party. Jill, Alice, and I all graduated from Holy Name High School in Escanaba together and it always nice seeing them. Actually Jill and I go back to first grade at St. Thomas and no I am not going to mention how many years ago that is.

Debbie and Jim Baker

Jim is another one of our classmates from Holy Name High School. It was a nice surprise to see them there.

Jay Gannon in the black t-shirt and Rick in white

Jay also graduated from Holy Name High School with us. It was nice to see him also. It seems like otherwise we only run into each other every 5 years at class reunions.

More of the people from our area of the UP we ran into today.

Alice and Pat Stammer
What a nice surprise to run into them here.
It had been way to long since we had seen them.

Lynn and Gary Bisson
Lynn and I spent some time together on a bowling team
a "few" years ago.

Karen and Fran Ettenhoffer
We met them when Tom and Fran were rival canoe racers.
Karen and I, along with several other wives, spent more then our
share of time standing on river banks freezing in our UP spring.



Cheryl and Floyd Eade

Tom and Floyd worked together and were both on

the Union board together.





Sharon and Carey Prey
They are from Escanaba also, it was nice seeing the two of them.
Tom and Carey both worked at the paper mill.





Tom talking with Al Hansen and on the right his lovely wife Sheila.
Sheila was the Aide when our daughter was in Pre-School and Kindergarten
she nicely disconnected her from me more then once.

Tom standing between to lovely ladies, Mary on the left and Carol on the right.
They all graduated the same year from High School
 and no ladies I am not publishing the year.

More "Yoopers" enjoying the sun and a great day visiting.

It was a great day re-connecting with people and enjoying the sunshine in Arizona. I think, as a group, we all agreed it was nice to be out of the snow and the below zero temperatures our family and friends are experiencing back in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We talked with people from across the UP some now living out in the West, some spending the entire winter out here, and others only visiting for a week or two. Everyone with the same goal to be some place warm but with special ties to a place we call  home, The UP.

 

“Where we love is home. Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”

                                                                                                      ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.