Family Vacation

When I was a child, every summer we would take a trip to Virginia to visit our grandparents there.   It was a wonderful time, playing with cousins, gathering eggs, fresh veggies from the garden, playing out in the "wash house" that Granny had stocked with toys and games, sleepovers with my cousin, Sara, who lived just down the road...

Now we've come full circle, so as adults we look forward to more family vacations.  Most of our family lives away from here so it is a perfect opportunity to travel.

We took advantage of that a few weeks ago and planned a road trip - visiting all of the grandchildren plus a stopover to see my parents.  

Our retirement "rule" is that we won't drive more than 6-7 hours a day.  Hey - we're retired - we don't have to kill ourselves to get somewhere.   So we drove just past Atlanta the first day - stopping in Cartersville for the night.   The next morning we just had a short day to get to Nashville to visit Dan, Tanya and family.

 

We arrived just after lunch to a warm welcome.  We hadn't seen their home since last August when they moved in so it was fun to see all the changes they had made.  We spent three days playing with the kids, enjoying meals together, hearing stories about their school and new friends.   Nashville is a great town and they are making the best of all the opportunities there.   We spent lots of time outside and had really good weather.   Tanya and I got some time away on Saturday and the guys spent time with the kids. It was perfect!

From Nashville we headed to Huntington to visit with my parents.   We got their computer system up and running (prior system crashed) so they are back in business with email, etc.   Mom and I worked at the hospital gift shop one morning and some of my friends from the College stopped by to visit me there.   We ate at Stewart's Hot Dogs, Jim's Spaghetti House, and Tutor's Biscuits (pretty much my must-have food when I go home).    Lots of time spent on the porch just chatting.    Always good to check in with my parents and see how they are doing.

Final leg of our journey was to Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania to visit Michelle, Brian, Joel and Adam.   Joel had just finished kindergarten a couple of days earlier so the boys were home and ready to spend some time with Nana and PaPa.   Bloomsburg is a very small town, but they have quite a few kid-friendly activities so we made the best of our time there.   We went to a playground, bounce house place, Joel's baseball game, and an amusement park - plus family dinners at their house in the evening.  The boys are growing up so fast!   Michelle and I even had a spa day while PaPa babysat.

Two more days "on the road" and we were back at home in Florida.  It was a perfect vacation that we will have to make into an annual visit.    Now I need time to rest my body from playing soccer and showing off my gymnastic skills with the grandchildren.   Maybe "Nana" should stick with baking.....