Packing up, driving south

Full car

Our flight to Florence will be on Leap Year Day, February 29. We packed up our little station wagon on Friday morning, February 24, for the drive south to stay with Laura, Tom, and our three-year old grandson, Noah, in Virginia and to visit our new daughter-in-law, Jacqie, in Maryland. David is away on a business trip visiting India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. We can’t even imagine what the jet lag must be for his trips there and back!

The station wagon was full to the roof with our stuff and with things we were bringing south for our kids and for our grandchild. The andirons that you see in the back are for Laura and Tom; we weren’t planning for a fire inside the car.

Signs of spring

The drive was uneventful. In the past our drive south (or, before that, our flight from Syracuse to a larger city) has always seemed to coincide with challenging weather. Snow, wind, ice, the usual winter stuff. This year has been very different. Winter has barely made an appearance in central New York. Here’s a picture of the early spring flowers that were peeking out in our front yard as we left. We hope they were hardy enough to survive the snow and cold we read about (and heard about) that came Saturday, the day after we drove south.

Lesson proceeds; students pay attention

While we stayed in Arlington with Laura, Tom, and Noah, we get to see how busy their lives are, even on the weekends. Noah had two birthday parties, one Saturday (which we attended with a number of other parents and grandparents) and one Sunday. Noah also had a “Sports” class Saturday morning. The subject of that particular class was basketball. The two adult class leaders did a good job of giving the children a sense for the elements of the game, passing, dribbling, guarding, and shooting a basketball at a hoop whose height was adjusted to the ability of the three- or four-year old. As you can see from the photo, each student found a unique and personal way to pay close attention as the lesson was being offered.

The weather was beautiful until Wednesday when it turned foul and rained most of the day. We left Laura and Tom’s in mid-afternoon, took a car to Dulles Airport, and waited in various lines for our 5:40pm flight.

Thursday morning, March 1, update

Looking good Thursday morning in the Vienna airport. What do you know?!?! Free wireless internet.

The flight to Florence will be in a few hours. Cappuccino is not that far away now!