Contemplations of a dad, husband, son-in-law & history teacher

August 12, 2014

After our RV trip seven years ago, I asked myself the question, “Would I do it again?”  The answer was, “In a heartbeat!”  Nothing has changed after this trip.  I love traveling, and I love that my kids get to see different places and meet different people.  I will admit that this trip was a little more challenging in some ways than past trips.  On the RV trip, we had our motorhome with us almost the entire time, and when we went to Europe, we had the car that we leased once we got there.  Transportation on this trip was a big variable, and I did have to stay on my toes and think ahead about making connections on buses, trains, ferries, etc. in order to get from point A to point B.  It added a little stress, I admit, but I also enjoy fitting all of the puzzle pieces together especially with all of the moving parts.  On this trip, I kept expecting something along the way to not go right – a late train, a missed ferry, the rental agency to be out of cars, something, but other than the first flight out of Denver being late off the bat, everything else worked out as well or better than I could have expected. 

This trip was very special mostly because of all the connections to Grandma Kit.  I have already mentioned some things like even the Disney part was a fulfillment of her last Christmas present to the kids, and the Isle of Palms in South Carolina is where she and her husband Bob used to take their family.  Of course, the DC part of the trip centered on her interment, and Nantucket is where she grew up.  We were able to meet several of her nieces and nephews that some of us hadn’t met and others of us had not seen in more than twenty years. 

Becky also pointed out something that I hadn’t even thought about when making the plans.  I decided to drive to Denver and fly out of there simply because it is a major airline hub, and we were able to get much cheaper fares starting there than we could have in California.  It also gave us the opportunity to visit friends and family in Utah and Colorado.  I had totally forgotten until Becky pointed it out that even though her family lived in Virginia at the time, her dad had been on a work trip in Denver when he passed away.  So when we took Kit’s ashes to Denver and then flew from there, in a way she was starting her trip to Arlington at the same place where her husband Bob had thirty years earlier. 

The final thing that I have loved about these trips as well as other family vacations is how close they have made our family.  We have two teenagers who truly still enjoy spending time with their family.  I can remember when our kids were little and we went to a beach house one summer.  One of the nights at the beach house, I planned a skit night where we did things like lip-syncing with dance moves and costumes to Weird Al’s Amish Paradise.  My sister-in-law Dee mocked the idea, but a year or two later when she saw how much the kids loved it, she was totally on board with nutty ideas like that.  That’s how I feel about our crazy trips.  They seem over-the-top at first, but I believe that things like this have really brought our family closer. 

Of course, as a teacher I have the time but not always the means to pull off trips like this on a regular basis.  As travel is one of the things I really love, I truly have been blessed to find ways to see other places and visit loved ones as economically as possible, and I will continue to look for these opportunities. My next thought for a random trip is maybe three or four years from now getting a group of people together and renting a castle in Scotland for a week before heading over to visit friends in Switzerland and France. Who’s in?

Homeward bound

August 10, 2014

28 days, 16 states (I think) and the District of Columbia, about 4,500 miles by car, 3,500 by plane, and guesstimating another 500 more by bus, train, ferry, broomsticks, enchanted benches, etc., and we are home! 

The day started with us going to church in Centerville, Utah, and I just have to share something about that.  One of the youth speakers in the main meeting was a teenage girl with Downs Syndrome.  A little older girl (I’m guessing her sister) went up with her – she had her talk written out and needed some help with some of the longer words.  It was one of the sweetest things I have ever seen, and I think I may have even gotten something in my eye right about that time.  I’m really glad we had that experience. 

After church, we had a few minutes to visit a little more with Travis and Alicia, and they even packed us lunches and snacks for the road.  We have been very blessed with many kind and generous friends and family that have made this trip possible.  I have to admit that the fatigue of the trip must be getting to me because I forgot to get any pictures with Travis & Alicia or their family.  I also forgot to get pictures with my Aunt Lisa last night, and while I have pictures of my kids with Marie and Adam’s kids, I need a picture of them too.  I will throw in a few old pictures or steal some from Facebook pages just to round out the blog.

Then we said our goodbyes and hit the road.  As we would hope for, nothing exciting on the drive home, and we pulled in a little after 8 pm local time.  Aunt Dee met us there, and our two old dogs ran faster than I have ever seen them move when they saw Becky coming up the walkway.  A huge thank you to our friends Will and Beth and their girls Zella and Parker who took care of our house and dogs while we were gone.  Hooray, we made it!  Final thoughts on the trip in the next (and last) post.

Aunt Lisa

Yes, she is a Jazz fan.

Travis & Alicia from a few years ago.

Their kids as well

Becky & Marie

Marie & Adam to Becky's left (right of the picture)

Friends, family and relaxing

August 9, 2014

This morning we puttered around Adam and Marie’s house for a while visiting while the kiddos played – they have five kids ranging in age from 9 years to 4 months.  Katie had a ball, and even Alex and Zac were good with their kids.  For lunch, we all went to a pizza buffet with a zillion kinds of pasta and pizza (including dessert pizzas), and then we went to the Provo Rec Center.  I was expecting something much smaller, but it’s a huge complex with indoor and outdoor pools, several water slides, water play structures for kids of various ages, rock climbing walls over the water, etc.  The kids had a blast.  I have to admit that I took the time to just relax and help hold baby Trevor. 

We even ran into one of Becky and Marie’s old friends – Justin, who was one of the kids in the family who first introduced Becky and Marie to the Mormon Church more than 20 years ago – small world.  We went back to Adam and Marie’s house for dinner and ice cream, and then we said our goodbyes.  It would have been fun to visit with them longer, but we are all ready to get home, and we still had a couple more visits to make. 

We drove next to my Aunt Lisa’s house; she is my mom’s youngest half-sister, and I hadn’t seen her since she came out to California for my mom’s funeral 10 years ago.  It was good catching up with her, and we promised to keep in touch better.  From there, we drove a little north of Salt Lake to our friends Travis and Alicia’s house.  We were able to catch up with them for a while before hitting the hay.  Our plan was originally to go to church with them in the morning and then hang out for the day before heading home on Monday.  However, they didn’t seem offended when we mentioned the possibility of heading home after church tomorrow. I think they could tell we’ve been on the road a long time.  It will be nice to sleep in our own beds soon. 

Alex on the wall

Katie and Katie

Emma

Emma and Alex

Zac & Isaac

Kevin

Katie on the wall

Are we there yet?

August 8, 2014

Done with our longest driving day of the trip.  We started in Colorado Springs this morning and made it into Eagle Mountain, Utah at about 9:40 tonight.  We stopped in Denver to visit Grandma Peggy, the grandmother of our good friend Michelle.  She’s an amazing, energetic great-grandmother that I met on a previous trip to Denver.  Grandma Peggy made such an impression on me that I wanted my family to meet her.  She was great, and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to visit with her for a bit. 

We hit some slow traffic around Denver because of a few accidents and a little further down the road because of road construction.  When we were in Nantucket, Becky's cousin Peter told us that when he was a kid, he used to complain, "Are we still in Connecticut?" when driving from New York to Massachusetts. Try Wyoming - and we still have Nevada to come.  I can nod off for a minute while driving and be through Connecticut before waking up.  We reached our friends Adam and Marie’s house a little later than we had planned, but their kids were still awake and ready to wrestle when we got here.  They have a four-month-old, Trevor, who we hadn’t met yet (he wasn’t up for wrestling though) so we got to hold the baby, and we all stayed up visiting for a while.  We’re not home yet, but it’s nice to at least be in familiar territory.