It's been a busy, fun, introspective visit

It's now nearly Friday morning West Coast time and I finally can say I've met all my siblings. I met Tracy on Wednesday, when we met at The Block at Orange, a mall, and had dinner and some fun at Dave & Buster's.

Elyse and Nolan are really nice young people and it sounds like they've had a lot going on of late. I'm happy to have them for a niece and nephew.

In fact, tomorrow, Friday, they, their mom and I are going to Magic Mountain for the day. I think Catherine is going to stick around the hotel and rest after this whirlwind visit that involved several sub-trips since we arrived in California.

One such sub-trip was on Thursday, when Amy, Dan, Catherine and I traveled to Catalina island for a twofold visit. First thing we did was to rent a small motorboat and travel offshore from the island resting about 22 miles from Long Beach. There, Dan laid our brother Andy's ashes to rest in the sea not far from where their mother's remains were put to sea several years ago. A few of Andy's and Dan's choice baseball cards also were interred in the sea for Andy to enjoy.

There also are several photos of our visit below, so feel free to check them out.

Though I'd never met Andy, and never experienced the demons he encountered daily, the loss remains with me. Amy and Dan each had tears in their eyes as the ashes met the Pacific. Amy had a good point the other day when she explained that those are just ashes, but Andy's spirit will never be too far away. He's up there looking down on us to this day.

We made it back to shore in one piece -- of course, since I was at the helm -- and spend the next couple of hours meandering about Avalon, the small town on Catalina, which is a mountainous island protected from us humans except for about 10 percent of the land mass that makes up the residential and commercial areas.

We had lunch overlooking the marina and some of the sealife.

And, I believe, we all got to know one another more. Though sad in many ways, I think the time spent together made us more of a family and I'm glad we've had as much time as we have to do this.

And I'm sure my time with Tracy and her kids will be spent as well.

After all, we all have nearly five decades to catch up on.