What I Did On My Summer Vacation
Not much and quite a lot. May be it could be the sort of summer that all Boomers can look forward too. All in all it was a very nice summer, a summer of re-connections. You should have at least one.
My wife, who is an elementary school teacher, decided to take the summer off. She didn’t teach or take any summer school classes this year. Her dad passed away in spring after a long decline which had placed many additional burdens on her and her family. It was really a time for all of them to rejuvenate themselves.
We ended up taking a number of short and long trips. They were the sort of trips where we just spent time re-connecting with long time friends and family. None of them amounted to anything special, but together they drew a nice circle around our lives.
The first one was a week on the beach in Belize with a couple we knew from the old neighborhood when all our kids were little. It was very laid back with no cell phones or e-mail.
The second was a four day weekend with my sister-in-law and her husband in Bloomington, Indiana. Again nothing special unless you consider that my wife and her sister got to spend to quality time together after their father died. Again, not much, but a lot.
There were three weekend trips with friends from college. Just a few beers, some burgers and each other’s company. Now, there are Monday night salsa lessons.
In August we went back to Boston with my mother-in-law to visit with her family. I had not seen most of those people in 30 years, but it was like yesterday. Most of the time we shepherded around four octogenarians and ate really great food. If you get to the North End in Boston go to Mike’s Bakery and eat something. It is to die.
Finally, we had my mother-in-law up from Chicago for Labor Day weekend and went to our annual Marriage Encounter picnic. There are four couples in our Marriage Encounter group. We’ve been together for 26 years. These days we meet every other month and go out to dinner. It was as if my mother-in-law had attended all the meetings, God forbid.
Hope a summer like this past one is in your future. If not, you need to make it happen.