The Motherland.

During the last couple of years, my mother's cousin and I have been doing research into our family's history. Gerry found out that my great-grandpa Marson (nee Mardesich) emigrated with his mother and sister from Komiza, a town on the isle of Vis, in what is now the Dalmatian Islands of Croatia, when he was a young boy. I was invited to a conference in Slovakia this summer and thought it would be the perfect time for someone in our family to return to the motherland and check it out. I had no idea what to expect. Mom decided to make her first overseas trip with me. Here's what we found:



And that's just a view from our hotel room!

We wondered -- ignoring the 90-100F heat, the humidity, the absense of resources and good soil for planting any sort of farm but vineyards, the fact that the only industry at the time was fishing and winemaking -- why would anyone leave??