We spent the last couple days of vacation meeting up with some of Alaina’s friends and people she loves but seldom gets to spend time with. We also managed to squeeze in a little more time at the beach.
Then we went to a different location and spent some more time on the beach with the family. This location required a walk along the marsh and through the woods, and opened-up to a short beach with some rocky areas for exploring. Unfortunately, Ayla was all beached out at the time. She sat on a towel with Nana, and wasn't going anywhere near that soft sand.
Then Ayla needed a bolus, so I walked to the car to get a bottle of food from the cooler. My foot was seriously aching.
Then Ayla need to potty, so I picked her up and carried her for another trip to the car. My foot was exploding.
We all sat around in the sand for a little while, trying to catch-up while we could. Then we decided to go get ice cream at Lago’s in Rye, NH.
Getting ice cream out east means getting big portions of hard scoop ice cream, ordered at a walk-up window, and standing around socializing. Being from the midwest, where soft-serve is king, it took me a year or two to really enjoy hard scoop. I still don’t understand the sizing. You order a “kiddie” and you get a half-gallon. If you order a medium, they ask you to bring your wheelbarrow around to the door. The portions are ridiculous.
Back at Nana and Gumpy’s house, we all took a walk along the beach, snapped a few photos, and continued down to the carousel.
The next day we packed our things, cleaned the Air BnB, and met-up for breakfast with Nana and some more of Alaina's friends.
We started driving back through Massachusetts, toward New York, and eventually to Scranton, PA. We stayed in another hotel, and got an early start the next day.
As we drove back, pushing past Indianapolis to get home early, I started to think back about the trip and wonder if I’d done enough. Had I done enough to create and imprint some great memories for Ayla? Enough to have given Alaina a break from the norm and a little recharge back home with her family and friends? Enough to show them both how much I love them?
Gosh I hope so.
I’d like to say that I took deep breaths all the way home. That Anxiety jumped out of the passenger side door somewhere in Ohio, and that I was relieved of the anxious feeling in my core, but as you probably suspect, that isn’t the case.
There was a moment though, on the way home, when Ayla and Alaina were reading, and some music was playing, and I was overcome with a sense of calm. Like we'd accomplished this feat. We made the trip, we were going home, we had a great time, Ayla didn’t get sick, we didn’t rush to any hospitals. Everything, in that moment, felt really, really good. Comforting. Calm.
Then, a moment of serendipity. I kid you not, “Father and Daughter, by Paul Simon, started playing on the radio.
Chorus:
I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you always know
As long as one and one is two
Ooh ooh
There could never be a father
Love his daughter more than I love you
And that’s it, that was our trip last summer.
Thanks for reading!
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We couldn’t go on a vacation this year (2019). Mostly because of time and finances, but I hope to make vacations, even small ones, a bigger part of our plan going forward. I need more vacations. I need more time where I am with my girls, but away from “normal” life. I need to get away from the noise in my head, and from the noise of our city, neighborhood, house, nurses, and everyday life. I want to create memories with Alaina and Ayla. I’ll keep doing my best to make our 1000 square feet interesting, but I hope there are trips and adventures and experiences piling up. When time and money and work and germs stop getting in the way, we’ll be off to enjoy them! Away on the next trip. Gone for the summer. Out in the world doing something. With any luck, and a lot of effort, there will be a post titled “Another Trip Last Summer” and another, and another, and another.
