Incredible Journey

I guess one of the best recent times was when me, my youngest, and my sister-in-law got my mom on an airplane for the first time in her life. On September 19 the four of us flew to Orlando when my oldest, grinning from ear to ear, picked us up for a long-overdue visit.

Mom will be 88 next month and had never flown before. Her adventure started when the Pilot himself, pushed her wheelchair to the plane's doorway. Chatting the whole time he assured Mom he'd take good care of her on her special flight. During announcements he welcomed everyone and then told them about a very special passenger on her first flight. Mom was thrilled as everyone applauded! At the end of the flight an attendant handed her a Certificate commemorating her first flight, signed by the entire crew including her new friend, the Pilot.

Our visit was awesome, of course. We toured the Daytona Speedway (something that probably would have never been on our radar in normal circumstances). We all enjoyed it immensely. My daughter's in-laws so graciously had us for supper and breakfast... great food inspired by their Italian roots. My son-in-law had everyone over for his own culinary feast on the second night, with course after course. (How do people eat this much food in one sitting)? It was all wonderful though!

When we flew back home Mom was an old pro, cool as a cucumber as the plane gently lifted. After all that good food I was sure the weight limit might exceed, LoL!

Shortly after our return it was time to celebrate and remember Mom and Dad's 67th anniversary (you can't tell me that, as close as they had always been, that his passing in March has stopped this special event. (We know that Death is just another form of life, after-all). So, me and my oldest (who flew in for the occasion), my sister-in-law, and another great friend all piled into the car and headed to the Outer Banks for a day of food and shopping. On the way we visited Morse Farm, sampling the wares offered and drinking little cups of cider in a variety of flavors. So good!

Mom has always been an avid shopper and even though limited by a wheelchair, she managed to shop away the day, even buying herself a lovely anniversary gift or two. As we pretended to head home we stopped off to visit a home town neighbor, Robin, at his incredible cottage. So nice that he had an elevator to aid Mom getting to the 3rd floor. All we could say was WOW! He's always loved decorating for holidays and the blend of Halloween and Christmas was evident in his 'ghost tree.' Loved it all, Robin! His place should be in Southern Living! It's that beautiful! Finally tired, full, and happy we ended our journey with a quick stop at Frog Island for some incredible chowder. It was a beautiful day enjoyed by all!

Yes, I got roses!

So four days after that it was Hubster's birthday and our own anniversary. What did we do? Why we packed up and headed south again back to the Outer Banks! During our trip down we had breakfast at Southland before stopped by the Weeping Radish Brewery and Pub. We'd just had breakfast so didn't eat there, but we looked around promising ourselves we'd be back another time... it's really not that far a drive.

We also stopped by my cousin, Hunter's granite and marble company. He took some time off and showed us his new home and we got to visit a while. Then he took us to another cousin's new home and we visited with Jeryl and Diane for a bit, enjoying the water views from their back deck. It was awesome to see family again like that. People should try to keep in touch more than they do, do you think? It's too easy to lose each other in this day and age.

We finally reached OBX and although Hubster and I didn't do any shopping we did go back to the same restaurant that the girls and I had taken Mom... the food was indeed that good at Kill Devil Grill. We filled up until there was no more room. Then we drove around on the old road looking at how things have built up, how the storms have taken out some places, and enjoyed just meandering for a while.

So it's been a good few weeks.