After sliding back into town after a 13 hour drive on Thursday, we packed up both cars, both dogs and all of the kids on Friday and headed out of town for a week to just float in all the ways that we so need to just float. I brought a suitcase loaded with books to read and somehow no underwear. Priorities. I drew the short straw (ok, chose the short straw and John owes me) and ended up driving both dogs (the old one and the carsick one) as well as the two passengers who least like long car drives. I distracted the unhappy people by letting them DJ the ride (how else will I discover new music?) and wonder of wonders, little dog did not get carsick once. Big win. First time I’ve let him ride without a crate and I think that’s the ticket – who wants to be confined for 6+ hours. Not me. Look how happy/terrified they are:

Today was a strange start to all that floating – John rode a local hundred mile race (actually, he got off route of the poorly marked race so many times that he rode 113 miles, but 13 of them were accidental). Marg’s friend who is going to Korea with her came over to the house for the day and they had a zoom Korean lesson and then paddled out for an hour or so. The remaining people swam a bit and paddled a bit and then went off to meet the wayward father at his finish line. I left Margaret with him to drink a beer and sit for a bit while Lil and I went to get some sandwiches to bring back for dinner. We returned to a mortified Margaret who was still reeling over the fact that another rider asked her if she was John’s wife and I think the rider was equally mortified when she answered after a stunned silence, “No, he is my dad.” I told her she should have just looked at him and deadpanned, “yeah, he’s really rich.”

We ended the day with a sunset walk and then cuddled up on couches to watch that old cinematic masterpiece, Speed. Lily didn’t believe it was really Keanu Reeves, “the guy with the short hair? No mom, that is NOT him.” Yeah, Lily. I promise, it is. These are the days we’ll remember.