This week we had a lovely visit from Mary (Stewart Vallance) and Ed Franco. They made the trek over from beautiful Crystal Lake…about 1:45 according to Mary. Mary’s father ,Theodore Vallance was a great favorite of all the third, fourth and some of the fifth generation HH members. Grandmother’s little brother, Teddy, was on the faculty at Penn State among many other accomplishments. He and aunt Jean had three children, Beau, Harvard and Mary. All three still frequent the Crystal Lake cottage and visits back and forth used to be a yearly event. We are going to resurrect this tradition.

It was a rainy day in northern Michigan, ideal for visiting in front of the fire. We had a lovely lunch of lemon chicken soup, salad and brownies.   In addition, Mary brought along the 1904 love letter correspondence between Maude Perkins and Graddy Vallance, Grandmother and Teddy’s parents. She also gave a us few thumb drives with the letters digitized.

Overall, it was a great visit and we promised to make it happen again. Next time over on Crystal. Jeff, Sam and I flew over Crystal Lake on our way home, via MSP. It’s got the color of Torch. It’s also close to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park and several great new bike trails. We’ll make a day of it next year, sometime in July 🙂

It is interesting to note that since Teddy was so much younger than grandmother, Mary is a first cousin of the Twins and my first cousin once-removed, the same relationship between me and Felicia.