Vacation

Vacations are always a bit of a stressor no matter how much you're looking forward to it. We went to Ray's first, we got a late start because I was still trying to finish up paperwork from my job. We arrived and checked into our favorite hotel in that area. When we were there last it was closed after Hurricane Sandy - I was relieved it was reopened. We spent a few days with Ray, going out to dinner, to the museum and I finally got to meet Jackie, an old friend of Rays. We are facebook friends  but this was the first time I met her for real and she is as nice as I thought she would be. We left late morning for LI and of course got screwed up when we hit NYC due to David telling me we should follow the GPS which I did. It took me right through the Lincoln Tunnel and deposited me in the middle of the city, then decided to glitch about 50 times so we drove around in little tiny circles while trying to avoid jaywalkers, delivery men, etc... David was busy alternately telling me what to do and then announcing he was Not Talking To Me Anymore. Sigh. We finally made it out of the concrete jungle and made it to LI -  what a busy trip that was! I actually managed to see pretty much everyone. We went to the Italian festival on Saturday and I saw our former neighbor Dot that had lived across the creek from us when Adam was a baby. She and John had just gotten married too so we had a lot of fun yelling across the creek and visiting each other. David's sister Maryann was up from Florida, Andrea was up too and between David and I we saw all of the Bobs. There is Bob Sr., David's dad, then Big Bobby his nephew, little Bob who is son of Big Bobby and the littlest Bob who is the son of the son of Big Bobby. We had dinner at David's brother Kim and his wife Grace, the long house looks completely different, they've raised it 10 feet in the air and added a garage underneath. My mother had my cousin  Amy, her husband Jim and their two boys over for dinner - as usual I cant' believe how much the boys have grown. I saw Richard, Liz and met her boyfriend Bob (yes, another Bob..........). On Monday my mother and I went to see Grandma Hendrickson who's 96 this year and is very pleasantly confused. But she did remember me and my mother and we had fun talking about the old neighborhood. I did have to laugh because while the aide took her to the bathroom  Mom said she couldn't believe how clear she was today. We heard the aide ask Grandma who her visitors were and she replied "I have visitors?". After that we went to see Dad and Maryann, I didn't get to see Rhiannon because of course she goes to school - already in 6th grade, can you believe it? We had dinner at David's parents and then left for home around 8:30 am. I drove through NYC again and of course we got into yet another fight - we ALWAYS get lost at least once. I have no idea what it is about NYC as we've driven through many other cities with no issues, the second we hit the border it's like we put on our Moron Hats and go at it. David will not drive but enjoys giving useless advice which makes me (not so) secretly homicidal. We stopped at the Knitters Edge in Bethlehem which we always do, aside from my co-workers at Bayada that is the only thing I miss about the Poconos. Oh, and Wegman's, I miss Wegmans too. We arrived home around 6:30 to be greeted by our two flea ridden hounds which were previously discussed. And that my friends, was my vacation.