Hello Boston!
As Asa wisely offered, we are in the appetizer of our trip. None of us quite believe this is real and that this traveling thing is here to stay.
We began what actually felt like a detox from the grind of leaving our house and to-do lists on Orcas Island, where we were able to hang with Chris’ mom, brother and sister-in-law. It truly felt like an in between space. Wasn’t this just a regular Orcas trip? S'mores, agate finding, cousin hangouts, lake swims. And yet, my vivid dreams. Wild, in-color dreams, that told a different story of processing. With specks of lifting fog.
We then returned to Vancouver to cross the final t’s and dot the final i’s. That included meeting our incredible house renters (strange to walk into your house filled with strangers who have moved your furniture around!) and conducting a final kids’ height measurement to chart how much they will grow on our trip! A final goodbye to my parents and Yoni + Robbie - our friends/neighbors/business partner who provided the sweetest grounding from which launch this trip.
We arrived in Boston after a day of travel and are currently staying with my high school friend, Mandie, and her awesome family. Old friends are truly the best. At this stage of my life, I find myself appreciating the depth and textures and histories of long-held friendships in a new way and appreciating their rarity. Even after a decade of absence.
Yesterday was our first real day of travels and we opted to walk around Boston. Despite living in Cambridge for two years, almost nothing felt familiar. We ate deliciously greasy pizza, followed the red brick freedom trail, and paved the trek with gelato and Italian ices. We launched into day one of family journal writing while watching the ducks in Boston Commons. It was fun and clumsy. Like we were getting our sea legs or land legs or whatever kinds of legs allow you a rhythm of being together and traveling. There was giddiness, there was exhaustion, there was whining, there was laughter, there was competition over who got the largest dessert.
And the reality is there are still the to-do’s. Trying to figure out this new online school system and finish up taxes. We are unsettled and still and on-the-move and that’s ok. It’s the appetizer of the story.