Vacation

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.
Galileo Galilei 


It's August. AUGUST. I've been lounging through the summer and loving every minute of it. And now comes the time of, "Oh my gosh, I've only got 2 weeks left--I'd better take a vacation!"  It happens every summer. I relax, I read, I soak in the pool, and then, just before school starts again, I feel like I have to get away in order to have REALLY been on vacation.
So I'm going to Vermont. And while I'm looking forward to the "getting away," this will be a bittersweet trip. It's probably the last time I'll go there. I'm helping my daughter move back to the Midwest, and I know she'll be very sad to go. And I'll be very sad for her to leave behind the family she's developed while there. So it will be a teary drive home.
Along the way, I'm hoping to stop at a vineyard or two in the Finger Lakes region of New York. I'm late to this whole wine thing---my friends have been drinking wine for years, but I didn't get into it at all until this past winter. I don't think I have much of a palate, but I know what I like. So I'm excited to visit and purchase some wines from that area on our way home. I'm also looking forward to one more maple ice cream cone. And maybe a delicious local meal at one of the very fine inns near her town.
But mostly, I'm looking forward to our long drive and the conversations, tears, and laughs we'll have. I don't ever have to go anywhere special to enjoy time with my girls. This will be a perfect vacation this year.