Today is my first day back to real life. Bear’s back at work, Atti’s back at school, and I’m scrambling to get a blog post up before I have to rush off for an appointment. But actually, I’m so excited by it. This vacation was long and complicated and so tiring. Fun, but the kind where by the end you are craving order and routine even more than sleep.
We started our trip by having Bear’s parents come visit in order to watch Atti while we went to Sacramento for a work conference. It’s hard to pry them away from their schedule, so I spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks getting things prepared for them and trying to make the visit as comfortable as possible. Nice sheets and towels, roses and a decanter of water by the bed, muffins and brownies on the counter, homemade dinner of chicken fried steak with all the fixings before we headed out. I wanted to entice them into coming around more often.
Then Bear and I went off for a couple of days by ourselves. He spent the days at the kind of leadership conference where they spend a lot of time talking about ‘paradigm shifts’ and boxes you should think outside of, while I wandered around the city, treating myself to all my favorite things, and got in a little writing time.
My favorite part was having some great meals all by myself in some beautiful locations. It can be a real treat to not only go wherever you want to go without consideration for anybody else, but to also not have to interact when you get there. One of my meals was right on the river, and from my table I took this picture of this crazy drawbridge.
From Sacramento we drove down the coast for a couple of days at the beachhouse with Bear’s parents, and then drove further down the coast for a visit with a favorite cousin. I loved everything we did and everyone we saw, but by the end of it I wanted to go back to those quiet lunches in Sacramento where I didn’t have to say a word.
