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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Traffic Jams

We are home from our holiday and a lot of intense traffic. The first day my boys complained and moaned all day about road trips and traffic while I tried to relax and enjoy the scenery. The second day we hit a major traffic jam between Golden and Banff, sitting on the highway for half an hour at a standstill at one point. There was a bottle neck of traffic due to miles and miles of construction work. We missed our dinner reservation and were pretty exhausted upon arrival. We had fun in Banff with the family, but it took the two days of holiday just to unwind and settle in before we had to hit the road again. The way back to Naramata was smoother going, and by today (the last day of our vacation) I was finally feeling that holiday glow. Then we got stuck in traffic from Surrey to Vancouver and I lost that glow.

We listened to Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean, the "official sequel", which is a bit plodding, but very clever. I was thinking about how mothers are portrayed in this book as extreme saints on the one hand, to harpies on the other. There is no middle ground here. The whole acceptance of growing old requires a more balanced view of motherhood. We also listened to our old favorite, Midnight for Charlie Bone by Jenny Nimmo.

The trip today began with the couple in the motel room next door to us verbally tearing each other to shreds and when I returned home a couple in the house behind ours was having such a rip-roaring argument I considered calling the police. They seemed to run out of steam after half an hour, but it was fascinating the way they kept repeating the same things over and over and over even though they knew it was driving the other person crazy. Is this love or is this hate? Uhhh, hate. Pure hatred. Welcome home.

I dub this the vacation of very good sweets and very good iced tea. We found several places that made excellent home made iced tea and this kept my morale high. Photos and tasting notes to follow.

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