Tag Archive | family

Going Home Again

Jul12

Day 10 of our journey finds us on the family ranch in Bakersfield, Calif. This is the place where my mother grew up, and I spent many happy summers as a child. It’s right down the road from Pumpkin Center. It’s the boonies. But I love it. We are staying at the house of my aunt and uncle, whom we haven’t seen in more than 20 years. My kids have never met them. My aunt was my mom’s only sister.

We’re having a fun time catching up and chatting. My great aunt, known as Zizi, is here also. She lives on the same property in her own little house. She’s 94. We haven’t seen her since Morgan was a baby. Seeing this family was the impetus for this trip that has now morphed into this incredible journey. It’s possible to go home again. But “home” is definitely not the same. We’re grateful for this chance.

We are also grateful for the chance to stay with friends in Arizona and Southern California, visit the San Diego Zoo and show our kids what So. Cal beaches are like. We visited Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, and we saw more fancy sports cars in two days than we have in our entire experience in Florida. (At last count, I think it was 3 Lamborghinis, 3 Ferraris and at least a half dozen Porsches. The boys were highly impressed.) In Huntington Beach, we had breakfast with my friend Steve, with whom I went through grade school, junior high school and high school. We got to meet his wife and one of his kids. They took us to Ruby’s Diner on the pier. It was a fun time. This pelican was just standing around on the pier. It was odd behavior. Then we saw a woman throw him some fish. He’s not so dumb after all.

So, just as much fun for me as seeing the sites of the States has been seeing friends we very rarely, if ever, get to see. And there’s still more to come! The big wedding is in just 9 days, and we’ll be making our way up to Washington in about 5 more days. Meanwhile, we enjoy the company of my aunt, who reminds me so much of my mom, and my uncle, who now has a new audience in my kids for all his bad puns.

It feels a lot like home.

 

 

 

 

Thankful today for:

447. building relationships

448. the smell of pies in the oven

449. more than 2 nights in the same bed

450. the smoothness of the journey so far

451. being able to show my kids stuff that was important to me in the past

452. my kids being able to know their California relatives

453. a cooler day in a hot place

454. beautiful cotton plants growing in the fields outside the house

455. lots of fun things to look at in my aunt’s house

456. finding more statehood quarters that we need for our collection

457. rocking chairs

458. our tax refund

It’s Grand All Right

Jul8

Day 7 of the Incredible Journey finds us with good friends in Glendale, Ariz., where the sun rose this morning at 5:29 a.m. Nice. Yesterday was a full morning at the Grand Canyon, after staying the night on historic Route 66 in Williams, Ariz.

I loved the kids’ reactions upon first seeing the Canyon. Amazement. Awe. Excitement. First thing they wanted to do was hike way out on the tips of these rocks that were hanging out over the precipice. Yikes. It took everything I had in me to not keep saying, “Be careful!” I said it to myself. And I prayed. At one point, my entire family was out on one of those rocks. If they went over, I was hosed. The keys to the van were in David’s pocket. (For the record, I didn’t go down there the the first day because I was wearing flip flops. I got my share of hiking out onto precipices the next day, in decent shoes.)

We hiked the South Rim trail. At one point, it felt like we had the place all to ourselves. Most of the other visitors were in the other direction. It was wonderful. Sometimes, I just felt overwhelmed by the vastness and majesty of the place. There were some vistas that I didn’t even try to photograph; it just wouldn’t have done it justice. It is one of the 7 wonders of the world. I can see why.

Thankful today for:

435. swimming pool on hot days

436. the sun coming up

437. friends along the way

438. the U.S. highway system

439. firefighters (they put out a highway blaze that delayed our drive into Glendale by a half hour. Could have been a lot worse).

440. cool cacti

441. mountains

442. Gas Buddy

443. my job, even if it has to be done at an inconvenient time

444. anticipation

445. travel mercies

446. varied landscape

First stop, Texas

Jul4

After two days of driving, with an overnight stop in Hattiesburg, Miss., we made it to David’s aunt and uncle’s house in Justin, Texas. The cool thing about their place is that they live in a community of airplane pilots who all have hangers behind, in or as part of their houses. There’s an airstrip all around, and planes come and go throughout the day. It’s an aviation lover’s dream.

Morgan got to experience driving for the first time–in a golf cart. She loved it. The boys drove also, and ran around just loving the fact that they weren’t in a car for 10 hours.

Tonight, the boys went with their cousin back to his home about an hour away, and the rest of us enjoyed dinner and then sat outside in the dry air and breeze of a Texas summer night and watched fireworks exploding all around us for more than an hour. I didn’t even attempt to photograph them, as they never look as good as when you’re there. It was the perfect setting. We didn’t have to fight crowds, and we were far enough away not to be deafened by the booms, and we enjoyed a diversity of scenes from the comfort of our own chairs.

Tomorrow, we start making our way to the Grand Canyon, stopping overnight in Santa Rosa, N.M.

Happy birthday, America. We’re enjoying getting to know you a little bit better this month.

Thankful today for:

426. the freedom of our country

427. our founding fathers and their vision

428. family

429. the sites that await us in the next couple of days

430. that we have the ability to give our kids good gifts

431. watermelon

432. dry heat

433. other people’s fireworks

434. America