Sep 3, 20226 min read

North American summer extravaganza 2022

This summer we spent 5 weeks back in North America visiting many of our favorite places and people. Overall it was a terrific adventure but there were some challenges - my mom was in very ill health and ended up spending some time in the hospital; we had my dad’s memorial and spread his ashes.

Generally speaking there were some surprising things about returning to the U.S…so many people, so much traffic, so much time in cars! Things I used to take for granted, but now see with a new eye. Also I’m not sure if we just adjusted to lower prices in Ireland or there was that much inflation while we were gone, but food and goods (lotion, sunscreen, etc.) seemed to cost almost double what we expected, nationwide.

We started with a ridiculously bad flight via Lisbon on a Portuguese airline (TAP); reminding us why it was one-third the price of Aer Lingus. The flight attendants were truly the rudest people we’ve ever met (let alone rudest flight attendants). David overheard one asking another gentleman IN FIRST CLASS, “Perhaps you have never been on a flight before?” in response to the innocent question, “What is on the dinner menu?”

Anyway, after a delayed arrival and delayed baggage arrival and 37-hour hike to the car rental facility at JFK (I might be slightly exaggerating that last number) we headed to Jen and Chris’ place in Connecticut. David and Sally spent the weekend there with them, enjoying family, east coast weather, and their pool. I headed to upstate New York (Bernhard’s Bay) to meet up with Molly/Kelli/Robin/Rebecca and their families for our annual “Best Friend Weekend.” The place was called “Vanderkamp” and used to be a Christian camp of sorts but now is privately owned and the new owners are local guys fixing up one house on the property at a time. It was gorgeous and on a small lake (big pond?) near Lake Ontario. Because it’s newly renovated we had the spot to ourselves. We spent most of each day lounging around in various water craft (kayaks, canoes, tubes) on the almost bathtub-warm lake, catching up on each other’s lives. One afternoon we went for what should have been an easy hike but the 99.9% humidity, mosquitoes, and poor trail markings made it slightly more interesting, especially when we realized we had circled back on ourselves and didn’t have cell signal when we heard a thunder storm approaching. All in all, though, a delightful weekend.

On my way back to CT I stopped in Amherst for what has become my annual lunch/walk with Mike D. We chat about the state of the world, the state of our lives, and the old days. Sally attended a couple days of camp at Ambler Farm where her Farmer volunteers full-time. She had loads of fun playing with animals, making crafts, and picking fruits and veg.

Our 5 days white-water rafting in Idaho are covered in a separate blog post.

Next stop was a couple of days in the old neighborhood, San Carlos. David went to work at Meta headquarters during the day while Sally and I tried to see as many old friends as possible. We caught up with her former piano teacher, Miss Mary, her former teacher/after-school program director, Miss Syndie, old neighbors like Miss Bridget and Mr. Buddy (formerly next door) and Paul from down the street. We visited favorite old spots like a hike to the top of Eaton Park hill, lunch at Town in town. We hung out with friends of Sally’s who moms are my friends (Stella/Marie, Kealani/Genevieve). We visited work-related friends like breakfast hosted by Hildy and Tanja with Hutch and Andy (and Sally got a chance to ride!), the folks at Steinbeck Equine-Menlo, Alex for a coffee and Tim for a post-surgical chat. Finally, we had a nice evening old-fashioned “Neighborhood Happy Hour” at the Ross’s house on Bromley…During COVID our group of neighbors on Roland had weekly (or more often?) Happy hours and really enjoyed getting to know one-another. Post-COVID life has gotten busy so they don’t keep these up as much any more, but our visit seemed like a good excuse (in attendance: The Ross Family, Trish and Jeff Wagner and dog Sunny, Susan and Andreas, Cheryl and Craig, Diane and Mike).

The following part of the trip was to pick up my mom and head up to our house in Truckee. We hosted a variety of friends while there, including Sarah Reuss and Ed Florack the first weekend, then The Ross and Wagner families the second weekend, a special afternoon visit from Angela and Gabe and Wes, and a hike with Kristin. My brother and his family were at their place and we all got to spend a lot of time together. In general, we spent loads of time on Donner lake (swimming, sailing, SUPing, tubing), floated down the Truckee River, lots of time at the pool, checked out gorgeous Speedboat Beach at Lake Tahoe, and lots of hiking. It was wonderful, as always, to be there, and bittersweet as we signed the paperwork for sale. We also were treated to a long visit by a mama bear and her two cubs. Last but not least, we had another Roland neighbor night when Susan and Andreas joined us!

My mom was with us to celebrate her 80th birthday, and she left partway through our time there. Unfortunately, she felt really terrible while with us so it wasn’t much of a vacation for her. When she left my brother took her to the hospital, where she spent the next 5 days. My brother and I tag-teamed helping her during this time and her transition home.

Eventually, Sally, David, and I all ended up in Chester, Nova Scotia. We enjoyed our time there very much but it was also a bit sad - it’s the first time I had been to Nova Scotia since my dad died in Sept. 2020, and it’s just a province filled with memories of him and my parents together. It was also sad that my mom was not fit to travel. Fitting, though, of course, that we had my dad’s memorial there and spread his ashes. Additional family arrived on Friday (Uncle Sam and Aunt Kayda, Uncle David) and Saturday was a gorgeous day on which we remembered my dad and his incredible life. I’ve not planned a memorial previously but it went as well as I could have possibly imagined and I feel was a fitting tribute. (Link to his obit here - https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/obituaries/trond-grenager-75717/)

On Sunday we all went sailing on my dad’s boat (good job, Teg and thanks, Sam and Kayda) and celebrated my brother’s birthday with a delicious dinner in town and fire pit time at Teg and Heather’s. On Monday the uncles/aunt headed out and Teg, Heather, Jasper, Reed, Arlo, Sally, and I drove over to Pope’s Harbor, the original town we spent summers in when I was growing up. There, we met up with the family who recently bought that old farmhouse, Janet and John Abriel. They own a very large fishery in Tangier, the next town over. My mom had set up with them to take us out on their boat and spread my dad’s ashes in the site he had chosen, specifically the far side of a gorgeous, isolated beach called SandyCove, which he and my mom (and I!) Loved sailing/motoring to years ago. The Abriels embodied everything my dad loved about Nova Scotia - kind, generous, hard-working. They showed us all around and listened to our remembrances of life with my dad along this coastline. They laughed a little at us (and at themselves) when we all leapt into the water to go swimming as they said it was too cold to swim! Finally, they were very respectful of course when we spread my dad’s ashes and took time to remember him and the magical day (with my mom on the phone and seals in attendance, none the less!). Last but not least, they gave us a tour of the fishery (my brother was like a kid in a candy store!), which we all enjoyed immensely and my dad would have adored. I feel so grateful that they approached my mom about buying the old farmhouse, as they just want to slowly update it and keep it essentially looking in its old style, yet make it livable. I cannot imagine a better family for this task.

The remaining time on the South Shore was spent on the water (sailing, kayaking, swimming, exploring islands, seeing porpoises!), poking around Chester and Lunenberg, lots of lovely time with my brother’s family (and of course singing!), and enjoying some quiet time. The airbnb was delightful and made up for feeling a bit sad about no longer having a family-owned home in which to stay.