September 13, 2003
The van Kinsbergen's in Seattle have expanded since my last update a year ago. Here are three generations of them. Left to right: Grandson Tanner ( I forgive him the Giant's cap!), Daughter Susan, "the Patriarch", Daughter-In-Law Dana, and Son Jon. Susan and Tanner just completed a 6 month tour of the West in a Ford F-250 pickup and 5th wheel trailer! Susan drove, Tanner did his home schooling, and a great experience was had by both. Amazing Odyssey! They now have moved to a beautiful Seattle suburb where Susan has a great job in the Dental Lab business again and Tanner has started in a new school. Tanner has already been to 4 Mariners Baseball and 2 Seahawk Football games. Jon is dominating computer technology at Mutual of Enumclaw Insurance!
Audrey is still leading a local Condo Bible Study. By the way, Audrey took this picture but through the magic of Adobe Photoshop, she miraculously appeared in it anyway ! Need I say anything about the boys?
Summer activities included the Blue Angels again, and a visit by a Stern Wheeler along with 4 Cruise ships per week now. There were no cruise ships 5 years ago and next year their will be even more. This growth is a side effect of 9/11 as there is an increased interest in USA based vacations.
We also had an anti Bush rally in front of our condo here in the Peoples Republic of Seattle!
We took a long weekend trip to Oysterville (don't ask) where I took the above Mercedes "publicity pic" on the beach and the following panorama:
And finally, for those of you who are not familiar with "the
Admiral". "The van Kinsbergens" are related to a
famous Dutch Admiral. He headed up the Dutch Navy in the 1780s and fought in the Napoleonic wars. When the Dutch lost they then fought on Napoleon's side against the English. He is the only one to
ever successfully invade London from the Thames. For awhile he had done freelance
work as an officer in the Russian Navy in the Black sea against the Turks and prior to that the Danish Navy.
There are streets named after him in several places in the Netherlands. Most notably near the Admiral's Canal in Amsterdam, but also in the Hague and Elburg. He was buried with honors in the Nieuwe Kirk (Dutch equivalent of Westminster Abbey) under a large monument in the center of Amsterdam. His picture is in the
Reich's Museum in Amsterdam. There was a destroyer with his name in the second world war and the cold war. It was very successful in WWII.
I visited his home in Elburg which is now a restaurant. When I showed them my business card, they went nuts!
The owner introduced me to all his guests and really fawned over a descendant of
the Admiral.
The street in Amsterdam is about 3 blocks long. Following is a picture of his
grave site in the Nieuwe Kirk. Although a little pale, I am sure you can
see the family resemblance.
