Family Spread Out

 If you have read my blog already you know that my sister Barb lives in Quebec while my brother Jack lives in Virginia, my mother and I here in the great fantastic amazing Pacific Northwest in a small town called Gig Harbor about thirty-five miles south and west of Seattle, Washington. Did you like this long sentence.

Anyway I have cousins spread all over the world as well. My Nightingale first cousins are pretty close though. Most of them live in Washington State. Actually all did until this last week when my cousin Jennifer who lived pretty much all her life in Seattle until now moved to the Oregon coast. She and her husband decided to retire there. Actually he is going to retire while she continues to work out of their new house. It will be nice to go visit them after they settle down. It has been a few years since I have been on the Oregon coast. If you have never been there I recommend it very much for a vacation. I will tell you more when I go for my visit.

Jennifer’s oldest sister Lorna is retired with her husband living east of Seattle. They have lived over there for many years. It is a very nice suburb of Seattle to live in. They are not too far away from Microsoft.

Then there is her other sister Bronwen who lives in Lakewood, Washington. Mother and I see her more often because Lakewood is pretty close to Gig Harbor. It is south of Tacoma and near the joint base of McChord/Ft. Lewis.  It is about a twenty minute drive from Gig Harbor. To get there we would go through University Place where the U.S. Golf Open was played last June. In fact we had a visit from Bronwen on Christmas Eve; always a great time seeing her. Jennifer, Lorna, and Bronwen have three much younger siblings to who live in the Seattle area as well.

Also, on the Nightingale side of the family I have a couple cousins Peggy who lives on Whidbey Island which is about an hour and half drive north of Seattle. It is a beautiful place to visit and you can get there by ferry well as by car. Her brother Jimmy lives in Bellingham which is less than a half hour drive to British Columbia and the Canadian Border. We used to go up there a lot when we were kids; another wonderful area to visit. Peggy and Jimmy had a brother Peter who died a little more than five years ago. His widow Cindy and her daughter along with their family live a little south of Bellingham. One of my Grandfather Nightingale’s sisters settled in the Bellingham area after coming to U.S.A. from England about one hundred years ago. So I have a lot of second cousins living up in that area as well. Last fourth of July we had a Nightingale family reunion near Bellingham where a lot of second cousins live. Also, some came from Arizona, California, and Colorado as well.

My grandfather Nightingale had another sister who ended up going to Perth, Australia. I told you I had family all over the world. I recently sent an email to three second cousins who I met quite a few years ago when they came for a visit. So I hope to keep in good contact with them. Also, my grandfather had two brothers who moved to Durbin, South Africa. We had a visit when I was a teenager from one of them along with family. It has been many years and we have lost touch of them. I am sure they still are in the Durbin area.

On my mother’s side of the family I have three cousins living in British Columbia all being siblings. Rob the oldest lives in eastern British Columbia and works in real estate. He is trying to retire as soon as he can. He has two sons Anthony, and Michael. Anthony lives I would say about an hour west of Rob while Michael does some traveling so he can be anywhere in Canada. I will tell you more about him at another time he has quite the story.

Rob has two younger sisters Susan and Christy. They both have husbands name David. Susan and her husband own a ranch that has more than two thousand acres. So you can see they keep pretty busy and they have some of their grandchildren around a lot as well. Though the grandchildren are young Susan and David are teaching them the life of being a rancher. Their two oldest sons are in construction of framing new homes. The youngest son Robin lives with his wife and two children in Alberta near Calgary.

Christy and her husband live less than an hour drive from Susan. They are both retired school teachers and they spend some of the year in Arizona too.  Like Susan they have three sons as well. All three of them live in Edmonton, Alberta which is a where my mother grew up and went to college. I look forward to visiting Edmonton someday however I don’t think it will be in the winter time since it gets really cold. The last time I was in Edmonton I was thirteen months old so obviously don’t remember. Recently Christy and David’s youngest son Brock had a daughter so they will be spending more time in Edmonton now.

Now you see why I say my family is spread around the world. Also, I have second cousins in Nova Scotia, Canada and in France. I am sure some living in England too. So if I can find the time and money you may see me writing from these places down the road. So to you all happy travels.