ah HSH
a final wrap-up to the east coast trip! our flight left at 12:30 on saturday, so we headed out at 8 a.m., expecting not great traffic and a long bus ride to our terminal. turns out, the drive was ok (minus the rain – ugh driving in rain is the worst. except rain and dark), rental return was fast, and the bus to the terminal took no time at all. so we were 3 hours early for our flight. i was going to get coffee or breakfast or something, and all the eateries were closed til 11 a.m. bizarre, considering they all open up at 4 a.m. at MSP.
(the more i fly, the more i realize how awesome MSP is and it totally deserves its best airport designation.)
lori tried her hardest to get on our flight, but it was full, so she had to fly into detroit, then MSP, then bismarck. and they lost her luggage. what a way to end the trip for her!
trip takeaways:
- lori, doug, and i would do well on an itineraried trip. liz and jane would do well on a sit-at-home and do-nothing trip.
- i dispelled wisdom to lori about helping liz and jane get out of the house to do stuff. (aka: make the plans yourself, then tell them when it’s time to get ready to go. but casually.)
- looking at my ancestors’ grave markers in the albany cemetery, with dates in the mid to late 1800s, is NOTHING. i have no concept of old.
- always expect to spend more on food than you plan or want to.
- 4 days is too short. 7 days almost too long. would the sweet spot be 6 days? 5 days? maybe it’d be different if i were with nate?
- crab>lobster
the flight was a flight. i read. i snoozed. i enjoyed my silent seatmates. i was happy with the shorter-than-expected flight time. as we descended, i popped up the window to check out what was going on. (oh yeah – totally got a window seat.)
i checked out the good ol’ midwest just as we were crossing the big river, then caught a glimpse of the lakes, and as much as i like checking out new places, and as much as i like looking at big water, i sure do like coming home where i have a lot of little water.
saturday after the drive home, i took a nap, then that evening i sat on my patio with the cats strolling outside, my outdoor light game top notch and lit up, the green the GREEN, frogs croaking, my irises in full bloom, peonies about to bust, and little neon shoots starting to poke their way up through the black dirt in my garden, and lo and behold a faraway loon call. welcome home.
so, of course, it’s time for my coming-home quote from michael perry:
“…to this day my two favorite things in the world are solitude and motion. I’ve found them in the next county, in a semi crossing the Nevada state line, on a Hungarian train, and on a bus approaching the Guatamalan border. In times of trouble, motion is my morphine. But as much as I love to run, I love even more to come home. At every latitude, my compass swivels to point back here, to little old New Auburn. This place is my true north. A stray dog running, as it turns out, is just circling the rug.”