Discovery District

Day fifteen. The bed had no sheets, just a fitted covering and a scratchy blanket...the blanket probably a welcome nighttime commodity in winter. It was July...
So no real sleep, again... hot, humid, uncomfortable bed...James. We dragged ourselves out of bed and began the tedious chore of packing one final time; we go home today.
Vacations are a mixture of emotions, experiences, challenges, and rewards. Traveling with a large family and small children carries its own special category of all those things. Today, at this moment, I was happy to be headed home.
We washed one last load of clothes, herded the scatterings of clothes, toys, and shoes into our bags again and extinguished any signs of our stay in this apartment. Barb and Kevin were the first to depart, we said our goodbyes and hugs all around and watched them drive off to the airport; leaving us, Forest, Heleen, and Mies.
We had a few hours to kill and had to be out of the house soon so we all went to a park nearby to let the kids play. James had a close call here; he’s become interested in trying to stalk then capture birds lately. If he sees a bird in the near vicinity he will start his predatory advance until the bird flies away, followed by him chasing it as far as he can. He went after a bird at this park that is pretty close to several roads...he spotted his target, and off he went. The bird, either very wise or very stupid, sought refuge in the street. James was going for it, Heather of course wasn’t far behind and in a few long strides scooped James up just as his little feet were about to cross off the sidewalk. Toddlers.... no sleep for the wicked.
After the near brush of toddler frogger...(that’s a game where you are a frog and you try to cross a busy street)...(clever), we grabbed some nearby pizza because nobody was tired of pizza, then said our goodbyes to the Netherlands contingent of our group.
We returned our trusty rental car at the airport and proceeded to do the airport shuffle in Halifax, Toronto, then finally Atlanta; finishing the already long day of travel with a 3 hour drive to our home. We arrived at 2am eastern standard time...about 3am our body time. But we were home, our home, our bed...sheets on the bed too...our pillows, our dogs happy to see us.
Travel these days is so damn frustrating, the lines, the security, the price gauging...(talking airports here), it’s a challenge no doubt, similar in ways to running a marathon. It’s exciting at first, followed by the thrill of your exertion; pushing yourself because you know you got this...then comes the what the fuck have I done? and WHY?? But then comes the reward of getting to your destination, the excitement of a new country, and of all the things your about to see and do. And when you come home you get that afterglow of having done something pretty awesome, of having seen things and tasted things, and shared things with people who you love and who love you. An accumulation of combined experiences that somehow become tempered into one strong memory, and the planning for the next adventure begins.Read more