His VA Benefits will only cover $600 of the $2,400 funeral in Sedona, so we are taking up a collection, as his estate will definitely not be able to afford it.  I can’t stand to think that this man would not be able to be buried with dignity and would rather forego taking a trip to his memorial next weekend to be able to contribute more to his funeral expenses.

In addition to the visits, we kept in touch regularly with Skype and emails especially in recent years.  It warmed my heart, and my mother’s, that he was a part of the father that I had lost when I was 22.  He loved and looked up to my dad so much.  It bonded us emotionally to realize how prematurely we had lost my father at the age of fifty.  Life just doesn’t seem fair.  I know Dad was very proud of how musical Uncle Danny was, and that they were both thrilled to have been stationed in Italy at the same time, and spent time together there.  My Mom (who is from Italy) was extremely touched that Dan was around in chat on Skype and yahoo with her.

Dan was really the last person who could fill in some of the blanks about my father even though my grandmother didn’t raise them together.  Dan always gave me as much information as he could, toward that end.  Even though I was the one who gave my little sister, Sabina, away at her wedding years ago, as my father was already dead for so many years, Dan was there in attendance at her wedding, which was wonderful to know, as he was the only piece of my father that could have been present at that time.

I will definitely miss having Uncle Danny to reach out to at a moment’s notice.  I have many good memories, including surprising him with a call on Thanksgiving Day one year, just because I wanted him to know that he was thought of often, especially during the holiday season.  Not only with my genealogical interests, but with the ongoing family challenges we have had, he helped me grasp a sense of an extended family that was trying to cling together to stay in touch, despite many years of being out of the loop with each other.

There are so many tentacles of our family that I’ve tried to piece together, as people in our family know.  I hope going forward we will continue to become closer, despite his absence.  I know that I will personally miss having that gentle man and close relative on my father’s side to connect with, who was always looking to spread around kindness and good karma.

Click here for his memorial page on Hug Angel, Inc.

I saw my Aunt Sharren.  She’s the sweetest thing, but she wouldn’t let me take her picture!  We stayed overnight at her place and did some major catching up through breakfast the next day.  I hadn’t seen her since I was probably about five years old!  Fortunately we chat regularly online.  Our two little dogs got along surprisingly well.

The road trip back was the slow one, and it included lots of beaches, redwoods, gorges, sand dunes and lighthouses.  Besides spending several days in Seattle, we made stops in Portland, Astoria, Canon Beach, Florence, Port Orford, Eureka, Orick, Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Guerneville and countless other unmarked places on Highways 101 and 1, mostly.

I split up the galleries to consist of one with people and dogs and one that consists of views and vistas.

[Show as slideshow]

[Show as slideshow]

Unfortunately it looks like the video part of my expensive Nikon 5100 is going south, as did my photography portion of the camera several months ago. I’ll see if there is a way to increase the contrast and decrease the flushed areas of sand and sky that seem to blur a lot of the details in some of the videos.