Summer Travels

But if in your thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons, and let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.

-Kahlil Gibran

In my imagination summer is always this warm, lazy space of time stretching languidly into a distant future.

In my reality, this summer has been incredibly busy, scheduled and finite. Lots packed into each day and lots to do at any given time.

The latest burst of traveling and activity was spurred by my nieces visit. Mary Alice's daughters, Little Red and the Middle Child came out to visit and we ended up spending some time with them up in Northern California where they were both born. My mother joined the adventure

and we all spent a wonderful bit of time visiting old friends and swimming in the clear, cool river; a welcome respite to the heat that welcomed our arrival.

One of the highlights of the trip was Babou's experience feeding a very tame deer at Mary Alice's mother-in-law's home! Although the deer loved to fed,

they did not take well to being petted! Babou, a devout animal lover, was overjoyed.

Even Loco O, our overly friendly and energetic Golden, had a wonderful time and found ways to keep the long ride home interesting!

And so did Babou.

And now we are home, my Old Man is off on another job and we will go visit him soon. But, in the meantime, I will enjoy returning to a normal routine. The beauty of travel, I have always believed, is not so much experiencing something new as much as re-experiencing the old as new again.