Jiggity Jig
Yup. Home again, home again. As is often the case, when I get back from a vacation I feel as though I've been gone a month. In reality it was barely a week and a half but it did feel awfully good to get home, to our slightly grubby, messy, cat filled home. Thank you a million times over to Susan for taking care of the cats (and the dreadful catbox...you are a good woman Susan!).
Most important of all news....Leo had a FABULOUS WONDERFUL AMAZING time at Railcamp. Ernie and Owen and I jumped with excitement every time we got a text from him. Frankly, our vacation was so-so, but every minute and penny of it was worth it because Leo, well Leo found his people! Or as Owen said, he put a crack in his shell. My sweet brilliant beautiful boy was flying high with other train fanatics and it was ALL or even more than he (or I) could have hoped for.
I give you...a very happy sweet pea:
He has a ton more photos and video, some of which I will share with you later because, damn, that boy takes some nice photographs!
We dropped him off at the University of Delaware on Sunday afternoon (on the 5th) and I almost melted down leaving him. I kept nagging him, telling him things like "make sure you brush your hair and shower and talk to other people and, and, and" until he looked like he was either going to kill me or cry so we finally left. In my defense...I couldn't help myself. Not much of a defense but hey...When we got to the car I texted him that I missed him already and he replied succinctly, "Okay." Poor sweet pea!
Then the three of us took off for our vacation while Leo Railcamped. It was sort of the vacation of hindsight. I found myself saying over and over, "In hindsight, we should have...." or "In hindsight it would have been better to...." That being said it was fine. Make no mistake about it---I'm not complaining. I have a job that gives me paid vacation, I was out of town, and I got to hang out with the two blondes. Not one damn thing to complain about there.
After we dropped off Leo we took off for Wildwood, New Jersey. After much deliberation I had made a reservation at the Caribbean. This was one thing I didn't say "In hindsight" about, other than perhaps to say "In hindsight we should have stayed there longer." Delightful, delightful place. Classic 1950's place....great neon and design and I even managed to get Ernie and Owen in the pool. As I told Leo, I think they just did it because they felt sorry for me because I missed him so much. Owen is wonderful in the water. He really is like a little otter. In fact he kept popping up out of the water yelling, variously, "I am the OTTER", "I am the DRIFTWOOD", and "I am the LOTUS FLOWER" and the like. It was delightful.
We then headed off on way too long a walk for my knee to a restaurant I'd chosen after obsessing over Yelp and various menus. Why the hell do I even try? It was pretty bad overall. In fact, with a few exceptions, this was the vacation of so-so food. Oh well. Ernie and Owen wandered a bit on the boardwalk while I nursed my knee on a bench and watched people. Great people watching. We staggered home happy and tired. The Caribbean had music piped in of doo wop classics and other oldies...there was even a speaker in the room you could turn on. Ernie protested at first but he ended up liking it....
I'll leave you with that for now...and will write more later. It's good to be back...