Visits

This weekend I’ll be in New York City visiting my youngest.  It’ll be a whirlwind visit, full of energy, full of love; for this is an engaging person, my youngest daughter.  I’m hoping mightily that the weather cools down out there.   It’s finally cooler here, and usually it takes about two days for our weather to drift east.  Our tentative plans include walking around Central Park and taking the river boat cruise around Manhattan Island right at sunset.   I’ll give you all the details next week…and perhaps even some photos.

 

Recent visits have been in the other direction:  houseguests here.  That’s so much fun, and I have to say I really like having the house a bit more bustly.  I rattle around here a bit sometimes.  I’ve never been one to look back with longing, but sometimes I do miss the days when all three girls were young and at home.  Overall, my philosophy is to enjoy it when I’ve got it and then move on to whatever is next.   I did enjoy those days and not wish them away as some of my friends did.   And there’s plenty of excitement in my life!

 

I’ll no sooner return from NYC than I’ll be off to LA to visit middle child and that lovely new grandbaby.  Lia will turn nine months old while I’m there, a date I particularly wanted to celebrate with her.  "Out as long as in day"  —  yup, 9 months on both sides of the womb.  My daughters think I’m nuts, but doesn’t that seem significant?

 

As many of you know, my eldest lives just around the corner with her family.  Our visits are easier and less intense, but an integral part of my life.  Since they have a pool…and since it’s been in the 90s around here…my visits are mostly of the floating in the water variety right now.  Heaven.

 

I remember visiting my grandparents when I was a child.  This involved a train ride.  Talk about heaven!!  For a child that is incredibly exciting.  Because the grands lived far away, however, I really didn’t know them well.   By a stroke of good luck, they moved to our little town when they were elderly, to be nearer my mother I think, and I did get to spend a lot of time with them then.  My grandmother, in fact, taught me to sew and to crochet. 

 

I’m busily scheduling other visits, too:   to my sister’s in late September, then up to see my mom and younger sister in October.  I used to drive to make my visits, but now it’s fly, fly, fly.  I wouldn’t mind the actual driving, but that construction makes it too frustrating.  (Hmm, whatever happened to the idea that we develop patience as we age????)

 

I hope you, too, have plans.   As Roy Rogers used to say, "Happy trails to you."