April is definitely Babij Birthday Month. That’s not to diminish or denigrate the significance of family birthdays in other months like May or December, but there are a lot of Ares and Taurus relatives in our extended family – including cousin Lorna Miller, nieces Erin Osgood and Katarina Babij, nephew Gavin Babij and brothers John and James. So what better excuse or motivation can we have than birthdays to schedule a family celebration in the Spring on or after Easter?
As usual the inspiration for this family gathering as well as others came from Brother David. Just after the Holidays last year he had hinted at meeting up with family in Florida much as we had done in 2023 as well as 2022 in Memphis with both David and husband Brian Spight typically performing as masterful hosts, only this time travel might involve not only by air, but also motoring South quite a distance from Tampa along Florida’s Atlantic coast to Pompano Beach where nieces Kim Long and Krys Leszczynski and their families often spend their Easter holidays.
The primary focus would be on arranging a gathering for all who could make it in Land O’Lakes – home base for Brother Paul, wife Pat, and their extended family including sons Bryan, Todd, Jonathan and daughter Andrea and their families.
Land O’ Lakes has a familiar ring to it. Plus the above aerial shot of Pasco County does show a number of lakes in this section of Florida – North of Tampa. According to one source, the municipality was originally named “Land O’ Lakes during a meeting of the “Denham-Drexel Civic Association” in June of 1949 during which a local Real Estate agent quipped that the location had “about 2,000 people and about 2,000 lakes.”
But additional sources claim otherwise. According to The Historic Places of Pasco County, “the town took the name Land O’ Lakes from a popular brand of butter”. In the past, the parent company evidently supplied its product for the town’s then annual flapjack festival.
Hmm. I do seem to recall buttering my flapjacks and toast with it back in the day. Yummy!
Travel Plans.
Anyway, having a family reunion during the Easter Holiday season is a no-brainer for me as well as for brothers John, David and Paul and his family whom would serve as hosts. However we three travelers would opt for different itineraries: me via United Airlines to Tampa and return to SFO [More on that later]; David round-tripping by air via Orlando and renting a car for the Pompano Beach sojourn; and John traveling via AMTRAK – 36 hours each way from Toledo to Tampa and return.
David had arrived in Orlando on Monday the 6th, rented a car and drove to Pompano Beach for a few days visit with Krys and Kim and their families then subsequently motored west to Tampa on Wednesday the 8th, picked me up at the airport and we proceeded to Paul and Pat’s house in Pasco County. We were both starving and were considering to go out to grab a bite but Pat was way ahead of us having made some delicious chicken and potatoes to fill our bellies.
Lutz – Heritage Harbor – April 9th.
One of the many highlights of this reunion was an afternoon visit to Andrea’s home in Lutz where Pat, Paul, David and I got to spend some precious moments with Andrea getting to “know” her children Jordan, Carli Joyce, and Ryleigh James Evans. Here’s a short clip.
Tampa Union Station – April 10th.
John would not be arriving until noonish Friday the 10th, so we made plans for the three of us – Paul, Dave and I – to pick him up then. That meant we had to squeeze the three of us as well as he and his luggage into Paul’s car somehow on the trip back from Tampa’s Union Station – which was undergoing a major renovation so accessing the terminal location might involve some some creative navigation, like negotiating through Pasco County traffic.
Thankfully Todd joined us near the station and directed us to nearby field where we could park.
The Big Beautiful Babij Birthday Bash – April 11th.
Family gatherings are always joyous, inspirational, and energizing occasions where generations meet and share old stories, bask in the present, relishing each other’s company while creating fresh narratives that will forge a family’s future. What’s the classic meme about Life?
“Life is about the journey, not the destination.”
![Grandpa Ivan [John] Babiy](https://www.ruthenians.net/kArpatia/wp-content/uploads/media-from-ftp/2021/12/Grandpa-Cropped-restore.jpeg)
We’ll never know the details of Granpa Ivan’s journey from the Old Country, then a province of the Austria-Hungary Empire known locally as Galicia [Uk. Галичина] – a latinized form for the slavic place name “Halychyna” – although there were “казки” [tales] of a Ukrainian “underground railroad” of sorts that may have played a role during parts of his trek from Tampa to NYC.
You can find out more in our previous posts on our journeys to The Old Country. See the links below.
For this “B5” re-union the theme was of course “Birthdays” – coincidentally five of them by my count to be precise: four in April: John on the 11th, Gavin’s on the 24th, Katarina’s, plus mine on the 5th; and one in May – Ryleigh James on May 5th. The venue was at Grandparents Patricia and Paul’s abode featuring copious quantities of cupcakes, ice cream, and pizza plus 20+ extended family members all ready to party. There was even a Whiffle Ball game in the park across the street later, after which Brother John was awarded the Game Ball – signed by all of the players. Interested?
After the birthday celebrations and gift-giving we gathered in P.J. and Pat’s backyard for this clan photo – thankfully taken by a next-door neighbor so all of us could say “cheese” together.
ZooTampa at Lowry Park – April 12th.
What’s a visit to the Tampa area without a trip to its world famous zoo?
Lowry Park had been created in 1925, named after a controversial local politician named Sumter de Leon Lowry Sr. who was known according to the Wiki, “for his vocal support of segregation and his active membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans.”
Skipping forward eight decades the Wiki reports that In 2009, Lowry Park Zoo was voted the #1 Family Friendly Zoo in the US by Parents Magazine. In 2018 the Zoo was re-branded “ZooTampa at Lowry Park” as part of a large renovation and expansion project. Nearly 1 million people visit the 63-acre zoo a year to see its more than 1,300 animals.
So. noonish on Sunday the 12th of April, clan members led by Grandparents Paul and Pat, assembled in the zoo’s parking lot for a quick tour. Along for the show were Andrea with daughters Carli Joyce and Ryleigh James, Todd and partner Diana Gonzalez with their baby boy Balthazar – the newest member of the family, Brother John and I – the geezer of the group.
Jupiter and Me.
For me there will always be two additional motivations for celebrating birthdays including those on Easter.
First I was born in Detroit on Easter Sunday at 3:30 AM April 5 1942. Since then, my birthday has fallen on Easter Sunday only 3 more times; 1953, 2015, and this year 2026. Plus if I live long enough it is scheduled to land again on April 5th in 2037 and 2028 – but only a maximum of four times each century. Go figure.
Second, there is an added significance to my birthdate, April 5th. No it has nothing to do with Astrology or Ancestral legend, although I did have my chart read by an Indian astrologer a lifetime ago, during which he claimed that Saturn was causing chaos in my Life adding:
If it were not for the great God Guru (Jupiter), you would not be with us today”
No. It is not the probability or even possibility of a Fate that the Universe or gods might have delivered me from – though I am a very lucky man to have been born into this family – a fact borne out by this and every family gathering that I’ve been fortunate to participate in. My second motivation – one that both challenges and stimulates me every day is that April 5th is also my AA birthday. and this year – my 84th – is also (reverse the numbers) my 48th year clean and sober – one year, one day, and one heartbeat at a time. Touch wood.
Well it’s time to say “Прощавай” – “Goodbye” – at least for now and publish the credits to this joyous gathering. We’d also like to thank our hosts Brother Paul and Patricia plus Andrea and Brandon for their hospitality, love and for putting us up for the long weekend including the long discourses on sports – especially golf – since the Masters was held the same weekend as the Birthday Bash.
We’d also like to give a special shoutout to Cousin Anne Chavez, setting aside some time for a few hours of intimate, engaging and emotional discussion about her Mother Estelle’s long life and passing plus our family history. We had hoped to spend more time with her and husband Jessie but we’ll be back!
Love to all!
P.S. If you’d like copies of these video clips, let me know. I can Blip them to your email address.
The Friendly Skies of United
Oh, I almost forgot – or better yet attempted to mis-remember my seemingly unfriendly and unsympathetic history with United Airlines, staring with an excursion to Bologna some years back during which United had lost my camera bag somewhere between SFO and Rome, the contents of which upon retrieval later were found to be damaged, and as documented in our post “iTaly By iPhone” United refused to pay for their repair.
And back in 2024 prior to boarding a flight back home to attend a memorial services for our dear Sister Anita, United changed the departure gate three times forcing this codger to leg it back and forth between several of the lengthy concourses in Terminal 3.
Well, it was deja vu all over again this year [2026] when upon arriving early due to concerns about possible extended wait lines because TSA staffing, I discovered that the original boarding pass I downloaded that had gate E3 Terminal 3 listed had been changed to gate B3 Terminal 1.
So off I went trekking to Terminal 1 proceeding through security once I arrived. Next, tucked behind a restaurant, I found Gate B3 populated with about 20 vacant seats – way too few to service a flight with 300 passengers – sporting a sign displaying an arrival notice for a flight to Portland departing at 11:00 – nothing else. So I checked the United app on my phone again which displayed a departure gate of F21 – Terminal 3.
So, it was back to Terminal 1 footslogging briskly.
Once I got back to Gate F21, I was joined by a number of other passengers including 4 people toting 3 animal carriers populated with meowing cats..
I sat there for about an hour until boarding started then checked my phone once again for any updates to my boarding pass and discovered that my seat which I had reserved and paid for had been changed from 25A to 20 B. I immediately rushed up to the counter and confronted the receptionist as to why. She said the seat had been re-assigned to a family who needed that seat to be together. I was livid, and wanted to know why since I had paid for the seat. She had no answer but re-assigned me to seat 27A and allowed me to check in early.
So I boarded the flight, made my way to my new seat to find that it and all seats in that section of row 27 were occupied by 3 of the “cat people”. Then things got very confusing and contentious. We did some unofficial verbal negotiations which then moved me a row behind to seat 28A.
A few minutes later the official 28A seat resident arrived to claim her seat throwing our joint seating agreement into disarray. More verbal deal-making ensued after some heated exchanges and I was able to claim my “new” 27A seat and moved once more.
After several minutes of getting comfortable, another passenger came up accompanied by a flight attendant wanting to know why I was in his seat. I showed the attendant my new boarding pass, he verified it and the third seat claimant was re-directed to his new seat of 20B.
The rest of the flight was anti-climactic save for a fellow passenger seated next to me who was experiencing an allergic reaction to the cat in the carry-on located under the seat next to him. Lots of sneezing and nose-blowing punctuated by a meow or two. Result? United’s skies may be friendly and so are its flight crews as well as its passengers – but its corporate polices need a crash course in congeniality. But DGMS.
A quick note about the photos in this blog and others on this site: to view an expanded Lightbox view of a particular photo, just click on it and it will fill your screen. To close, click the small “x” located in its upper right-hand corner. Enjoy.
For an alternative POV of our 2019 tour of Ukraine check out Brother David’s day by day account titled “The Phenomenal Babij Brother Ukraine Trip“. You will be as amazed as we were so don’t miss it.
Be sure to view our most recent blog from our 2021 trips to Ukraine titled “The Old Country – Blue Over Gold” – documenting meetings with extended relatives and a lengthy discussion about the ongoing war with Russia and don’t forget 2019’s “The Old Country — Between The Forceps And The Stone” in which we expound upon our innate mortality, the pandemic of fake news, alternative realities, and “unknown unknowns” – [our spin on Donald Rumsfeld’s paranoia about “things we don’t know we don’t know”], then present even more ancestral links to actual living relatives that we’ve found.
And remember, you can read the complete saga of our 2017 trip to Ukraine published earlier in our blogs “The Old Country — Ternopil Oblast“, “The Old Country — Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast“, “The Old Country — Lviv Oblast”, plus more from our travels in 2018 found at “The Old Country — Salt of The Earth” and The Old Country – In Nomine Patris [AKA “Father Knows Best”]. Just follow the appropriate links.
Add to that travelogues documenting our tours of Galicia: “The Old Country – Galicia “; “The Old Country – Echoes In Time“; plus “The Old Country – A Slideshow” – a visual tour of the sites and sounds of the ancestral villages and historical places we’ve visited in our trips to Ukraine.
P.S. In case you missed it be sure to catch both of our videos on the Pysanky MasterClasses we took from Master Folk Artist Halyna Syrotyuk. You’ll want some pysanky as gifts too!
Of course, don’t forget to share these links with your friends and family.
And if all of this doesn’t whet your whistle for a visit to our ancestral homeland, check out Diana Borysenko‘s website DianaTours-WesternUkraine.com for links to all of the tours, masterclasses, activities, and ancestral heritage services she provides.
Plus you can keep abreast of the ongoing battle for Free Ukraine here and keep watching Diana’s Diary – Ukrainians At War updated periodically via her posts on social media .
These posts are journeys from the Present into the Past, opening portals opaque with age or forgotten or long closed and hidden by Time’s passage. We make our own history and in the end, history is about the journey not the destination.
Слава Україні — Слава Героям.
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