Or so the t-shirt my daughter says she's going to get me says. It wasn't really a vacation, although I've pretty much burned up my vacation leave for the year. It was moving daughter and granddaughter to St. Claire Shores, MI, so the family could finally be together for good.
Lesson No. 1: I hate moving. My next move will involve hiring people to do it for me. I'll take the cats and my few serious valuables and hope for the best. Or torch the place. The inside of houses are larger than the outside. You keep packing and packing and still the amount doesn't diminish. You keep lugging things out to the U-Haul and the pile that needs to go out never seems to get smaller. And as you haul out stuff that hasn't been moved in years you are faced with the fact that you are supposed to leave a place "broom clean" and the amount of dust and pet hair hiding in places in no way constitutes "broom clean". And we were packing while juggling a 6 week old baby and while friends came by to say good-bye.
That was Wednesday the week before last. That night daughter and Amelia, plus dog and cat, spent the night with me while hubby finished up. Which as always took longer than expected. Dwight finally got to my place to pick up the animals, and we left right behind him. He drove straight through, we stayed on the east side of Pittsburgh for the night. Finally rolled into St. Claire Shores Good Friday evening. I usually attend all the services during Holy Week, but, sadly, not this year. Not my first choice, but it was what it was.
Lesson No. 2: I hate long drives. Amelia was a good traveler, sleeping most of the time except to announce that she had a dirty butt or was hungry. But every nerve in my neck and lower back ended up pinched from the hours behind the wheel and I was hobbling from it. Good thing Detroit has an airport.
Saturday began the merging of two households. That's still going on. Also cleaning - hubby has been commuting back and forth for 2 years now and house needed a good go over. But it's a lovely big house, renovated 2 years ago, situated in a beautiful, clean neighborhood on a circulating canal on Lake St. Claire. A big difference from the gritty, trash-strewn neighborhood on the edge of Baltimore that my daughter had been living in. No gunshots at night from the drug dealing across the streets - what a concept!
The view looking east toward the lake from the back yard:
They've left behind their friends and families, but I know for sure that there are folks involved in some of the things they enjoy in the Detroit area and I hope that after they get settled in they can start getting involved, too.
They both love shooting. Dwight has a few trophies from competition days, and a dive suit hanging in the closet:
We did take a couple days for sightseeing - I must say the Henry Ford Museum is incredible, and I can see many returns to it in the future. One afternoon is not nearly enough.
Fortunately, Amelia is a good little tourist:
Glad the move all went well. By the way, I just noticed that you're not on my blogroll. Sorry for the oversight. You're on there now.
ReplyDeleteThat happens to me - read someone regularly and then realize I'm getting there at by rabbit trail not blog roll.
DeleteSuch things are always stressful & exhausting. Sounds like yours went reasonably well, though, and for that I'm glad.
ReplyDeleteAll went well, particularly considering a 7 week old was involved.
DeleteDrat. That's a missed opportunity to have met you and your family up here.
ReplyDeleteI figure you were busy with the move though, so some other time when you come up we can meet and I can take you to the range and introduce you to Detroit-style pizza if you haven't had some already.
I thought about you, but we were so frazzled that I figured it wasn't a good time.
DeleteI was introduced to Detroit's extra-ordinary Middle Eastern food, but I didn't realize that Detroit has it's on style pizza.