Home Trip Summer 06

Nita and the boys where in Pennsylvania at my mother’s house from 15 June and I joined them there on 14 July. It was a great time to be with family and friends.

The boys said the vacation was over when I arrived because I kicked everybody into high gear to get things done and to see people/things. Once again we all gained weight by being in America. For the boys I blame it on my mother who buys too many potato chips for them, for me it was all those delicious cheeseburgers on the grill!

We started with “The Lebo Bash” at our friend’s house, Laurie and Jeff in Newberry, PA. They had live bands that are under Jeff’s record label, American Fallout. The next week was filled with doctors’ visits and work around my mom’s house. It was interesting when I returned to Bangladesh; my staff asked me why my hands were all beat up. I proudly stated, “I worked with my hands doing manual labor!” City Slickers are not use to working with their hands.

We went to the beach for two days in Ocean City, Maryland. My sister, Julie and family were down for the week so we had a great time with them. Elliot, Evan, Charles and I battled the waves by body surfing and Olivia, Chase, and Chad stayed closer to the shoreline, while CJ played in the sand.

We spent time with my cousin, Doug’s family in Berwick and then went to Knoebels Amusement Park for Ginny’s graduation party. Chad was happy at Knoebels because he was tall enough, just, to ride the great coasters there! Ginny graduated from Penn State University and plans to work in Washington, D.C. this fall. If you remember, Ginny visited us in Bangladesh in 03, went to China in 04, Spain in High School and Hungary in 06. She gets around and I suspect she with be back overseas soon.

Spent a day at the dentist- no cavities for all six. We spent two days in Manassas, Virginia with friends, Duane and Lori from Bangladesh. They have two boys and we went to Six Flags with them. Charles, Chase, and I rode on the Superman coaster- now that is a coaster. It was great catching up with Duane and Lori while they are on home leave.

We took in some films while in the states- “Cars” we saw with my sister, Maureen. It was CJ first movie at a movie theater- he liked it; plus we went to the drive-in an saw “Pirates of the Caribbean II” and “Nacho Libra.” We were invited to picnics at a number of friends’ and relatives houses and grilled in the back yard as much as possible. The back yard is so nice and peaceful compared to our apartments in Dhaka.

We spent two days visiting New York City. We went down to “Ground Zero,” walked around “Battery Park,” and took the Staten Island Ferry. We enjoyed our time in New York but it was one of the hottest days this summer. We had our own private tour guide a friend of Nita and mine, Sue. Thank you Sue!

We finished our time with going to the dirt track races with uncle Jim, Shipman family picnic for my sister, Maureen’s birthday, and being with Mom.

Once again, Pastor Tim and his Ford Excursion did a great job of picking us up and dropping us off at the Airport. Thank you Pastor Tim!

In addition, the whole trip was made possible by our home church, Mt. Zion Lutheran Church. They paid for all our airfares from Bangladesh to USA and back. That’s no small matter when you have six family members. Thank you Mt. Zion!

We left the USA on 9 August and flew to London. I will tell you about our England experiences in the next blog.