We met up with a bunch of family members for breakfast and coffee at the local bagel shop. It was a rare, clear day at the Oregon coast so I took a breezy two-hour walk in the hard packed sand at low tide. Bob got in a bit of surfing and he got to share the waves with his brother and sister in-law. Surfing is all inclusive with Bob’s family: father, brother, sister, sister’s husband, and brother’s wife, even the mom boogie boards. We worked some, and then met up with family again in the afternoon for dinner and conversations. Bob’s cousins and other relatives showed up today, some that I’d never met and whom Bob hadn’t seen in quite a while. It often seems that only weddings and funerals bring together the greater family. There was neither mournfulness nor solemnity to the gathering. Instead, everyone caught up on the happenings of each other’s lives and reminisced about their childhoods and the times they shared with Grandma Jackie.