Know What I Did this Summer?

It’s good to be home again after our summer meanderings. No sooner had we returned from South Africa and England, than we were off on a road trip up to New Jersey to visit our family. There was just enough time to get the laundry done and for hubby to hurriedly tidy up the patio area which had become a bit weedy during the six weeks we were away. Several orchids were in bloom, which was a lovely welcoming sight.

Our son was taking the last week of the school holidays off work and as he had a business meeting in Virginia on the Thursday before, suggested that it would be nice if we travelled up earlier than we’d planned, picking him up on the way so that we could have him all to ourselves on the five hour drive home. We of course jumped at the opportunity and were soon on our merry way. It’s just over twelve hundred miles from door to door, so we made two overnight stopovers, the first in Port Wentworth GA, known as ‘Savannah’s Front Porch’ and the second night in Fredericksburg VA, very handy for meeting up with him in Middleburg the following lunchtime.

In St. Augustine we stopped to buy some novelties for the three grandchildren, a pretty shell-covered trinket box for each of the girls and a real alligator head for Max. He was over the moon with it, but his mom seemed less than enthusiastic to keep finding it on her kitchen top and absolutely banned it from the dining table. She should just thank her lucky stars that the big alligator wasn’t for sale.

On the second day, at South Of The Border, we made our usual stop for Quesadillas and Chimichangas at Pedro’s restaurant.

Our son and daughter-in-law had organised tickets to an afternoon matinee on Broadway to see Aladdin, which was a real highlight for us all.

The family are all taking tennis lessons, so of course we had to go to the first day of the US Tennis Open. It was a really hot day, with very little shade and hordes of people with the same idea, but once we’d managed to get in, we enjoyed watching a few opening games. Thankfully I’d had the forethought to put sunscreen on, but hubby who is very anti-cream, got his knees and arms rather burnt.

A visit to the Metropolitan Art Museum the following day, had us all marvelling at the wonderful exhibits displayed there.

My personal favourite was this exquisite 1923 Tiffany window, titled ‘Autumn Landscape’ made solely from leaded Favrile glass with no paint added.

After being there for a week, we decided to leave for home a couple of days early because of the Dorian hurricane forecast which at that time included Florida in its path and we did the journey in two days instead of three. The last day was quite grueling, especially for hubby who did all the driving, but we had this friendly-looking cloud creature to cheer us on our way.

It was, as always a relief to get home again, and even more of a relief when Dorian didn’t visit our area at all. I think we’ll just spend some time right here in our comfort zone before we go off on our travels again. It’s far more relaxing.

Wishing you all a splendid weekend.