My very distant cousin, Cornelia Thorspecken and her daughter Nini Thorspecken. They are related through my great, great great grandfather, Dr Augustus Thorspecken who sailed to America back in 1854. One of his brothers stayed in Germany and that is who Cornelia and Nini are descendants of. Besides visiting theme parks, Terry and I wanted to suggest a few outings that would give them a taste of real Florida. I joined my cousins on a boat tour of the Winter Park chain of lakes.
Our pontoon boat captain was quite a character. He wore bright yellow suspenders that looked like tape measures. He had stayed in Germany for quite a while after the war and he quizzed my cousins to see if Germany was still the same. His on going monologue was well rehearsed but, I wasn’t that interested in which basketball star owned which lake front mansion. Passing between lakes the boat would glide under small bridges and we all had to duck our heads down.
We met Terry on Park Avenue and strolled along, window shopping. Nini recognized a perfume from the Provence region of France. She wanted to go to a Taco Bell for lunch so her tastes were varied and we were glad to comply. My entire family had rented out a four bedroom timeshare north of Disney and only a short ride from our house, so every night we went there for diner and wine. It was a fun filled week long family reunion.
On another excursion, Terry and I took our German cousins to a wildlife preserve north of Wekiva Springs. On the hike we spotted plenty of birds and I was happy that I got to point out several alligators in the water right off the trail. Cornelia said that she was glad to get a chance to experience Florida the way it was a hundred years ago.