Wedding Photos

On Saturday July 29, 2006 Sue Jones and Tim Moran were married in rural Oakdale, CA.

(click on photos to see them full size.)

Welcome to the Family Dinner

On Thursday, July 27, 2006 Tim's family hosted a dinner for Sue's family at the El Rancherito restaurant in Riverbank, CA (near Modesto).

Rachel (back to camera) Pat Moran, Marg Thomas, Dennis Moran and Lee Moran. In foreground with backs to camera - Vince Thomas and Aaron Moran. In background at next table are Josh, Jay, Mary, Patty, Tawneé and Allison (hidden)

Dennis Moran taking my picture. Marg Thomas is on his right and Lee Moran on his left

On the right side of the picture is Patty (Sue's sister) with Cheyenne on her lap

The 3 little girls in the center of the picture are Jaidon, Lanni and Janeé

Aaron and Tim Moran and Sue Jones at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Oakdale, CA

Tim Moran, Sue Jones and Sue's grandson Dayton

Jaidon, Lanni and Janeé. In the background are Josh, Cheyenne, Patty and Allison

Pictures from Modesto

On July 25 Connie, Dave and Nora went to Modesto, CA for Connie's brother Tim's wedding on Saturday July 29. (Click on the pictures to see them full size.)

Here is Aaron with his broken leg elevated, per doctor's orders.

The Barretts and Thomases at breakfast at the hotel.

Rachel and Marg Thomas and Sue's daughter Allison and granddaughter Cheyenne, Connie and Nora Barrett and Vince Thomas in Tim's living room.

Tim Moran, Nora Barrett, Vince and Margaret Thomas and Aaron Moran in Tim's kitchen

More pictures of Mackinac Island

(Click on the picture to see it full screen) Another view of Ste. Anne's Church also showing the harbor, automatted navigation becon and the famous and historic Round Island Lighthouse in the far background. (Christopher Reeves rowed over to this lighthouse in the movie "Somewhere in Time"

Here is a picture we took from Mackinac Island of the Round Island Lighthouse.

Historical reenactors at Fort Mackinac playing soldier looking very much like they did the day Connie and Dave visited the fort.
Professional photo of the Grand Hotel

Dave standing in front of aStatue of Father Marquette in Marquette Park. We were waiting for Doc Crain to come and lead us on his History Hike.

(Click on the picture to see it full screen) Dining outdoors at a beautiful spot at the Hotel Iroquois.

(Click on the picture to see it full screen) Another angle of tne beautiful spot at the Hotel Iroquois.

>(Click on the picture to see it full screen) This is the front of the Hotel Murray where we stayed while on Mackinac Island

Connie and Dave on Mackinac Island, Michigan

Main Street on Mackinac Island.

Looking the other direction on Main Street

People taking a horse carriage tour.

Another style of carriage


Connie at the Stuart House Museum. Here is a part of the offical description of the museum:

John Jacob Astor organized the American Fur Company in 1809. To gain access to the great fur trade monopoly held by the British from posts in Montreal, Astor bought out everyone he could to establish himself as the most successful fur trader in the world. The Stuart House Museum was the social center for the fur traders and Astor in the early 1800's and now is restored to tell the story of America's first millionaire.

A professional photo of Ste. Anne's Catholic Church. Connie and Dave visited this beautiful and historic church, both the sanctuary and the musuem. From the Mackinac Island website:

The parish's earliest baptismal records go back to 1695. The first parishioners were Hurons encountered by Jesuit Father Jean De Brebeuf. The big Gothic Ste. Anne's in Detroit's Corktown by the Ambassador Bridge began as the very same parish when the French government moved fort and traders to the site where they founded Detroit.

Here on Mackinac, the parish now serves a huge variety of Catholics, from island workers to political luminaries. Michigan's liberal Senator Phil Hart ("the conscience of the Senate," for whom one of the Senate's main office buildings was named) is buried in Ste. Anne's Cemetery near Skull Cave behind the Grand Hotel's front golf course.

After Father Marquette discovered the soil by the mission was only six inches deep, unsuitable for gardening of any kind, his parish moved to St. Ignace. Then in 1700 it followed the combined mission, fort, and fur-trading outpost to the new French fort at Detroit as Cadillac founded the city as a potentially profitable real estate development for himself. This same peripatetic parish later moved back to Michilimackinac on the mainland, and then in 1780 to the island. By then the British controlled the fort, but Commander Patrick Sinclair needed the French traders to continue the fur business. He knew the French would follow their church, so he destroyed the old one at Michillimackinac.

The church interior was recently restored to its appearance from the time when wealthy summer residents remodeled it in the late 19th century. A three-generation painting in the apse shows the Blessed Virgin Mary, her mother Ste. Anne (the patron saint of mariners), and the baby Jesus, surrounded by oddly solid-looking clouds. Candles, a favorite with traditionalists, can be lit for a suggested donation of $1 and $3, depending on size.

In the lower level, a multi-room museum exhibit, "Images of Faith," tells the parish story, beginning with Jesuit "black robes" who professed poverty, chastity, and obedience as outlined in St. Thomas a Kempis's Imitation of Christ. It shows how Presbyterian and Catholic communities here often clashed over missionary efforts. The parish broadened with the arrival of Irish fishermen in the 1840s. Artifacts include a brandy bottle (a flash point of contention between Jesuits and French officials, who used brandy in trading with native peoples), a reliquary, home altars, medals, and a 1730 Psalter. Wisconsin history buffs will recognize another peripatetic frontier missionary, Father Samuel Mazzuchelli, venturing far from his home turf around Dubuque, Iowa, to evangelize on Mackinac in 1837.