Thanksgiving - a day of opposites

Our Thanksgiving Day was not only a day of thanks, it was also a day of total opposites. For almost 30 years, we hosted giant Thanksgiving dinners for family and friends.

After dinner we spent hours cleaning up the kitchen and playing board games. Now, with Samantha, Jake and George happily settled in Silicon Valley, our Thanksgiving Day celebrations consist of small gatherings where somebody else does the dishes, we are the youngest participants and .... believe it or not, I am the tallest.

In recent years, our Thanksgiving afternoons have been consumed with quiet naps. This year, we joined friends at their comfortable home for an afternoon of wholesome family fun and youthful vitality.  We were not even close to being the youngest nor was I even close to being the tallest. There was nothing quiet or nap-like about it. I helped build fun stuff ...

while Helen engaged in a lively (and very serious) game of spoons.

Speaking of opposites ... 1,500 miles away, Samantha, Jake and George spent Thanksgiving Day having a picnic on the beach with Beth. George played in the sand and waded into the Pacific Ocean.

Despite the wide range of Thanksgiving opposites ... the one common similarity is that we are all very thankful for our freedom, our family and our friends.

Happy Thanksgiving 2014

World's Fair and FaceTime with George

In the summer of 1965, our family, including Grandma Katy, packed into our brand new 1965 Buick Electra 225 convertible and ... after Dad served his 2 weeks of active duty at Fort Sheridan, Illinois ... drove to New York to attend the 1964-1965 World's Fair. 

The five of us, along with 51,607,302 other visitors, gazed at the expositions with awe and wonder. The FUTURAMA exposition took us on ride to the City of Tomorrow. We stared in disbelief at the idea of floating around in air cars,

were introduced to the computer modem and watched Abraham Lincoln come alive thanks to the wonders of Audio-Animatronics.

However, the most intriguing to me was Bell Telephone's new fangled concept known as the Picturephone.

Predictions were that Picturephones would be a common household appliance in the near future. There was only one catch ... they were very, very expensive. A 3 minute Picturephone call between New York and Chicago cost $27 ... the equivalent of $206 today. 

Well, a mere 50 years later, the Picturephone is finally an affordable reality. Known to us as FaceTime

it offers grandparents in Kansas the opportunity to see, and visually interact with, their grandson in California. We love FaceTime with George.

While technology marches on, some things never change. I still love, and occasionally drive, the now almost 50 year old 1965 Buick Electra 225 convertible.

Halloween Weekend - Samantha, Jake, George, Philipp and Nica

Halloween weekend brought George to town for his very first Potwin Halloween. Samantha and Jake dressed him as a golfer ... complete with Scottish Tam, argyle sweater and knickers.  

Although George was the coolest of Trick or Treaters, over 1,500 others visited us as well. Granny and Granddad helped Samantha and Jake hand out the treats.

Philipp, now living and working in Boulder, arrived late Halloween night with Nica ... a very special and beautiful addition to Philipp's life.

We spent the weekend hanging out with young people, playing in the leaves with George

and introducing George to Bobo's apple pie.

Mega thanks to Philipp for letting us meet Nica. Thanks also to Jake and Samantha for sharing themselves ... and George ... with us.

Halloween was scary fun.

Oklahoma

Earlier this year, a golfing buddy of mine attended a charity auction where ... after a glass of wine or two ... he bought a weekend gambling and golfing package at the Indigo Sky Casino located in NE Oklahoma. Not wanting to stick him with the entire bill, late last month several of us decided to pitch in and help. Gambling isn't my deal but WOW, the golfing experience was fantastic. The Shangri-La Golf Course alone was worth the trip.

(A hole with a fire hydrant next to the green. Really?)

(A finishing hole with a double waterfall and double greens. Very cool.)

The weather was perfect, the camaraderie was great and the trip was a blast. 

Interestingly, the trip home included a strange and unexpected adventure. Our GPS took us through Picher, Oklahoma, an abandoned mining town that is contaminated due (in part) to the toxic metal tailings (chat) that are heaped all over town. Chat is the byproduct of zinc and lead mining.

There are also giant sink holes caused by the mining.

It all makes for a very eerie panorama.

Click here for a short (albeit overly dramatized) video about the Most Toxic Town in America. 

From rolling green fairways to mountains of toxic chat, my trip to Oklahoma was one of amazing extremes.

Alaska

Late last month we joined Samantha, Jake and George in Vancouver to embark on a 7-day Alaskan Cruise. Jake reserved the Penthouse of the Celebrity Millennium.

It was pretty fancy.


From Vancouver we went through the Inside Passage to Ketchikan, then to Hoonah (Icy Strait Point), then to Juneau (with a side trip to the Mendenhall Glacier), then to Skagway, then to a boat-side viewing of the Hubbard Glacier and then to Seward. From Seward we took a magnificent 4 hour train ride to Anchorage to catch our flight home.

As always, George ran the show. He cheerfully dressed for dinner

but insisted on checking his messages during appetizers.

He soaked up the hot tub

and loved his family time in the pool.

He rode the swing in Skagway

but skipped riding the World's Largest Ziprider in Icy Strait Point.

George was bored by the massive and thunderous Hubbard Glacier ... 

carefully explored the wonders of the The Alaskan Sea Life Center in Seward ...

but chose to sleep through most of the scenic train ride from Seward to Anchorage.

A giant Alaska-sized "thank you" to Samantha, Jake and George for allowing us to join them on this amazing northwest adventure.

Cool shoes, George.

George turns 1

A couple of days ago George turned one year old. Unfortunately, we were not able to be with him. Fortunately, we received some fun George action photos.

While George apparently gets this birthday present thing, I'm not sure he gets this birthday cake thing.

Happy Birthday to sweet George.

Tony and Jamie visit

While in college, Samantha made friends with Tony

when they worked together on FLiCKS ... the Sunday night movie shown at Stanford's Memorial Auditorium. They have been good buds ever since. In fact, Tony has become a de facto member of our family. We get together with Tony whenever we can. Raft trip in Colorado. Golf & baseball trip in Omaha. Basketball game in Boulder. Multiple 4th of July celebrations in Topeka. And oh yes ... Samantha's and Jake's wedding.

I can't even count all the times we've gotten together with Tony. Whatever the number ... it is not enough. So, this weekend was special when Tony came from Denver to visit and brought Jamie, who carries the official title of "girlfriend." 

Jamie is so cool. Besides being beautiful and charming, she is fun and interesting. Besides that, she is an engineer ... just like Tony. Beside that ... she loves to play golf. Score!

It was great fun to hang out with Jamie and Tony.

Good job, Tony. You just hit the perfect Trifecta.

Dan goes to Scotland

I recently returned from Scotland where I joined some friends for a 6 day golfing vacation. Generally regarded as the home of golf, Scotland is rich in links-style golf courses. We stayed in a cottage overlooking the Firth of Forth on the North Sea

in the small village of Pittenweem in the Kingdom of Fife.

From there, we traveled to several (7 total) scenic golf courses ... like the Castle Course in the lowlands 

and Pitlochry in the Scottish Highlands.

We also went to the Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen Golf Club.  Best of all, we were able to play the historic and world famous courses of Carnoustie

and The Old Course at St Andrews ... the Home of Golf.


I spent a fair amount of time doing this ...

and this ...

but felt lucky to be able to do it. 

Mega thanks to my friends for being such good travel companions and to the wonderful people of Scotland for being such gracious hosts. 

Cheers.