Sunday: Coda
Wow.

It’s hard to believe that the trip is almost over. On the other hand, we’ve packed quite a bit into the past 4½ days. The time with family and friends has been wonderful, to say the least. I was commenting to SaraRules earlier that I can remember (as recently as… five or so years ago) when family gatherings would make my teeth itch. My mother and I have very similar personalities and we don’t always see eye-to-eye when one of us gets an idea in our head and the other is not in a mood to reconsider our position. (Hmm… wonder where I get that from?) There haven’t really been any loggerheads of that sort his weekend. It’s not necessarily that either of us was on “best behavior;” I think that it’s closer to the truth to say that we’ve both grown and come to accept (some) of our differences… as well as our similarities.

This evening, my uncle took the family out for dinner to celebrate SaraRules and my engagement. We had dinner at Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar. Holy. Cow. Well, maybe not “holy,” but it was VERY “tasty.” The food, the wine, the dessert and the service were exemplary. Our waiters, Jacques and Robert, were very attentive and helpful. And, in a often-too-rare find, they were both willing to offer their opinions, with respect to their thoughts about items on the menu, as opposed to just giving the company line. I had:

  • Sweet Chile Calamari
  • Fleming’s Salad
  • Steak Diane
  • Garlic roasted mashed potatoes and their signature Fleming’s potatoes
  • Chocolate Lava Cake
  • and a few glasses of Robert Sinskey Merlot Los Carneros, 2004

As I said above: It was exemplary.

After dinner, SaraRules and I stopped in to see the parents of a friend (whom I haven’t seen/talked with in some time). They had just gotten in from spending the holiday with their family. Literally. As in they had only been home a few minutes before we got there. We stayed and talked with them for a half-hour or so. They are doing well and it was very good to see them.

From there, we headed north to visit , MarknTyme and their sons. Everyone was doing well, although their youngest (a year old), woke up from a nap shortly after we arrived… and was not in the best of moods for a little bit. He soon warmed up and was bounding about the house. (Maybe it had something to do with the cookies…) The older son was also doing well, playing with many of his Christmas gifts. We told stories about things we did years ago and I was also able to catch up on the goings-on of a few mutual friends.

We headed home; our things weren’t going to pack themselves. Unfortunately. I recalled a way home through Eden – the road that we were on used to have a connection to a road that led through Eden to home. Yeah… they’ve apparently changed a few things in the past (more years than I care to admit) since I’ve taken it. We wound up at the Virginia state line. A quick turnaround and an exit onto a different road put us back on the path home. No yellow bricks, however.

We got home and discovered that, with a modicum of judicious packing, we were able to get everything into our suitcases. God help the skycaps/baggage handlers.

All-in-all, this has been both a pleasant and fun trip home. Definitely just what the doctor ordered for a great change of pace from the day-to-day grind of the past few months.

Namaste.